The thing I love the most about this site is that when I feel like I can't draw something and feel like giving up or skipping a lesson entirely, I look at the comments of the people who actually tried and it makes me want to keep going. This lesson of mannequin is very intimidating to me so I need to keep reviewing the assignments more times till I get it right.

Since I learned Mannequinization of the figure, I feel like it is easy to set shadows.

First half for now; the rest will come later.

Here are my mannequinization studies. When I'm drawing structure, I like to break the parts down to the simplest forms I can, which are boxes and cylinders. Whenever I get stuck on a drawing, I remind myself that it's just objects occupying space, and if I can understand how objects are occupying space, I can work my way through it. For instance, when looking at a rib cage, I'm asking myself which part is closest to me. Am I looking up at it or looking down at it? What is the pelvis's orientation compared to the rib cage? Again when looking at cylinder representing the upper leg, I ask myself which end is closest to me--which is the part I'll see the top of. This way of thinking helps me solve all kinds of problems, and also helps me draw from imagination. Practicing gesture and anatomy also help--I want as many tools in my toolbox as I can get--but stripping the mannequin down to its purest form is an approach I continue to find useful. One bad habit I have, which you can see in the first two drawings, but I consciously worked on though out the rest of the exercise, is that I can go in really sketchy. After the first two drawings, I tried to ghost in the line a couple times before I set it down to keep everything clean and reduce the number of strokes I used. I'm making progress on that front, but still a long ways to go. Stan's lines are always so pretty, and give us all something to shoot for.

following the examples

From drawing along with Stan, first picture is before watching example vids. Started doing digital halfway through as well since I want to get used to that too, still beginner at that. Drawings are oldest to newest.

Imagination and inpiration from Marshall and Stan on the sitting ones.

the left one is my attempt and the right one is a draw along with Proko. I Instantly realise my tendency to make the pose very stiff and did not exaggerate it. But at least the proportion isnt too far off... i hope.

This exercise took some time to get used to but I loved how hard it was. I decided that would try myself first without looking at the demo, then follow along while drawing over my own version for poses that felt extra difficult. I tend to overthink, but finally, on the last one, I managed to relax and only show the essentials.

This was definitely a challenge, especially incorporating all the anatomy. I initially followed along with Stan, but now am starting to do my own from reference. Still a bit off with measurement and have a ton to learn about anatomy, but I'm excited to keep going!

For the most part I'll do my own from the reference, then watch how Stan's process works. I think overall my proportions in the torso are wrong, amongst some anatomy issues.

I wrapped the last of the references, did a little cross referencing after I finished but overall really liked my progression. Still have issues with the chest for both genders. I will say, and maybe it comes across, that I was really feeling example 11, outside of maybe the leg that is bent backwards, and the ribcage simplicity, I feel like I mostly nailed it.

feels like gesture but with extra steps. I'm following along and i really appreciate how similar it is to gesture. seems like its just adding more plane changes and anatomy.

Did the initial 4 references without following. The biggest things I'm noticing is that: a. I'm still having trouble understanding how the shoulders should be, for example looking at example 6, I'm now just seeing that because her arms are at pushed back, that would mean that her shoulders would align to the the direction of her bicep. b. Line quality speaks to a lack of confidence in drawing the shape, and that I'm likely using my lines to search out the shape, meaning I think I'll have to better plan before putting my drawing implementation down. c. The robo bean really helped me understand how things could come together. How angles would work at the middle, how arching or leaning could change the angle of the midsection,.

Another day, another set of mannequins. Hope everyone’s working hard!