Figure Drawing (NSFW) (Formerly Figuary 21)

danx

Figuary is done now that February is over but this thread lives on. Post your figure drawing journey here and learn from other people as you learn any/all aspects of the figure.

I left the Figuary OP in here in spoilers for now and moved the resources to the top now the Figuary videos on Croquis Cafe are no longer.


Practice Resources

Free Poses Videos
Draw This!
New Master's Academy(nsfw)
VandartGallery(nsfw)
Watts Atelier Figure Drawing demos.

Quick Pose Apps/Sites
QuickPoses
Line of Action site - Figure Drawing, Hands and Feet, Faces. Also has Animals and buildings/environments

Photo sets (paid)
Grafit Studio(nsfw)
Howard Lyon Art
https://bodiesinmotion.photo/(nsfw)
Proko Store

Head References
ReferenceAngle - Cool site that allows you to pick a head angle then pull up a bunch of references for you to draw. Didgeridoo also found one for animals too and it's too good not to share.


Figuary 2021

What is it?

A month where people do figure drawing! It started as a self improvement event held by Love Life Drawing and Croquis Cafe in February to get people to practice figure drawing. You can post any figure drawings you did in February in here.

If you're not confident or hesitant to post your work know Figuary is *not* about comparing yourself to other people. It's about what you get out of it.


What do we do?

Draw some figures! That's it? Pretty much. LLD and CC will provide some structure for those who want to practice but you don't have to follow that if you don't want to. What you get out of it is up to you. Engage with it as much or as little as you want to. Share or don't. If you don't like the structure change it. If have something you want to practice then do that. It's all good.


Structure you say?

Every Tuesday and Thursday in February Kenzo from Love Life Drawing will post a tutorial to help improve some aspect of your figure drawing. Croquis Cafe will post (NSFW) videos with different poses on Vimeo every day during February for practicing your figure drawing skills.

Access to Croquis Cafe's figuary drawing videos are free for the month of February. Details to access Croquis Cafe are available at https://www.lovelifedrawing.com/figuary2021/

Figuary 2021 youtube playlist. First vid is in the spoilers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC-14eGj_hM&list=PLXkHosWORUv6KUyBjq6-1V5RMPNhJ6ds8

Do I have to know figure drawing to participate?

Nope. If you've never drawn the figure, or haven't drawn much it's fine. Artists of all levels participate. It's about what you get out of it. It's not about comparing yourself to others so don't do that as tempting as it may be.


Can we share our stuff?

Sure! You can also share your frustrations or thoughts about how it's going if you like. If you find a good resource that might be helpful you can share that too. Just be mindful of forum rules and don't link to dodgy stuff.


Do we have to?

No! If you don't want to share you don't have to.


60 second poses are terrifying OMG!

Yeah I just had this exact experience. The Croquis cafe videos so far have had 60 second, 2 min and 5 min poses but we can do whatever we want. e.g. pause the video or use other references.

Kenzo has some very chill advice from past Figuaries for people like me who are new to figure drawing and/or are feart of short poses. Linked them both below. Before watching them I was flustered and confused when thinking about what to include or leave out. Or what lines to make. Or panicking about not having enough time to draw all the limbs. There were some omissions that caused me some panic that persisted between poses. These vids helped by giving me an idea of what someone with my experience would get out of them and how to approach it and slow down a bit.

How to do 1 minute poses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCteJ6mDCFU


Just 12 lines for short poses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHTMshZe00g

What is Love Life Drawing?

It's a youtube channel run by the very chill Kenzo and his mum Mayko. They focus on life drawing tutorials in a fairly relaxed laid back way. In the past they did figuary as more of a hints and tips everyday but this year has less videos to give people more breathing room.


What is Croquis Cafe?

It's a resource for artists that shares (NSFW) videos of models in various poses for people to use as references in life drawing. They used to be a free resource but the bandwidth use was a bit too high for their host Vimeo so they've taken it private. You can access the figuary videos for free by following the instructions here. Outside of figuary there's now a yearly fee.

Peas

Thanks for starting the thread, pretty excited to have an event in here which I could participate! I started yesterday after sawing your post on the chat thread. Btw should the posts be spoilered? I will spoiler mine just in case first.

Day 1

Day 2

Just finished Day 2, not really digging my attempt today lol

edit:
Changed the days, I think I got them right now

danx

These were supposed to be 1 minute poses but I hadn't done those in a while and didn't do much of it before so it was a bit panicky and went over time. Couldn't leave the missing bits out and then just kept scribbling.

Today I watched the vids linked in the OP about quick drawing then came back to give yesterdays (Feb 1) poses another shot. I think they turned out better and where done in time. Going slower with more deliberate slower lines definitely helped.

Thinking about what I want to get out of figuary I think for the next week or so focus on construction of the figure starting with the torso. Go a bit slower really focussing on figuring out the forms and correcting my mistakes. Going to keep doing the 1 and 2 minute poses but I really want to improve my forms so that'll be the focus.

danx

Peas wrote: »

Thanks for starting the thread, pretty excited to have an event in here which I could participate! I started yesterday after sawing your post on the chat thread. Btw should the posts be spoilered? I will spoiler mine just in case first.

Don't think we need to spoiler them. I just do that out of habit when posting multiple images. Other threads don't have it so it's up to the poster.

Peas wrote: »

Just finished Day 1, not really digging my attempt today lol

Some of the Day 1 poses felt a bit more involved than Day 0. I got frustrated with them and went to play Factorio to relax a bit before coming back to them. What are arms? My enemy apparently.

danx

Today I tried to figure out where the ribcage and pelvis were in the poses. It took a long time for a couple of the poses and the last one the pelvis is weird.

Peas

Day 3:


Switched to using a 4b lead so the lines would be darker hopefully

I think I noticed how bad I am at grasping proportions quickly and accurately, hopefully I would get better at it by doing these everyday

danx

Went through the live stream from Wednesday today. Got some good drawings from it. Went over the same pose a few times trying to correct mistakes.





The one in the spoiler felt good until I decided to darken up the lines when I released one of the edges was darker than the rest. Instead of just darkening them up with the side of the pencil I basically outlined it like the pencil was a pen. It looked better before. Now I hate it. Lesson learned.

Mostly happy with my progress so far except for the arms on that one. Arms.

Peas

Day 4:


I realized that I missed the lesson on rendering, will check that out later. I noticed how easily I am thrown off when an additional element like the cloth is introduced

danx

Today is a block in exercise to help get the figure proportioned correctly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yddrbf2ZQQ

Missed yesterday. Getting back into it now.

ChicoBlue

Hello Figuary Thread!

I usually do some quick sketches every day to start off using the Quick Poses App that I got years ago. 20 sketches at 30 seconds, 16 at 45 seconds, 8 at 1 minute, 5 at 2 minutes, 2 at 5 minutes. I delete the layer immediately after they're done. Sometimes I'll do longer sessions and I'll occasionally do some longer studies on the weekends.

Some good extra sources for timed video models are:
Draw This!

New Master's Academy(nsfw)

VandartGallery(nsfw)

Also, Watts Atelier has some figure drawing demos.

If you're looking to build an image library there are some good premium image sets here:
Grafit Studio(nsfw)

Howard Lyon Art

https://bodiesinmotion.photo/(nsfw)


Oh, and here are some 2 minute sketchings from today.

danx

Thanks! Those resources look great. I added them to the OP.

danx

Did some stuff today.

First from following along with the video.

Second is same technique applied to the a pose from day 5. Todays vid was really helpful. I'm going to do more of this for the next few days.

Peas

No figure drawings yet but i just bought a bigger sketchpad for this

gavindel

Doing plenty of life drawing with Watts, so I probably won't bite off on this, but keep up the work everyone!

danx

Did this last night. I was hoping to do more than one or two but they take 90 mins to 2 hours each at the moment. They are getting a wee bit faster though with practice each time though.

danx

Today is using curves to build the figure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSwDwrN0VfU

I've been looking forward to this one even though the weather is doing it's best to sap my enthusiasm over the past few days. There's like 10 inches of snow so far and it's freezing.

danx

Still working my way through this. I spent a day or two doing the curve exercise. That was really hard. It did teach me a bit about placement especially on the live stream where they talked about putting in lines to help you figure relationships between parts of the body. I'm going back to the block in for a bit and practising construction.

I skipped one day and my drawing anxiety went to 11. It's been difficult to get back to doing it seriously every day.

ChicoBlue

Some weekend studies:

2 minutes and some 2ish hour studies.

Peas

*jaw drops*
Man I hope I will be as good as half of what you can do in my lifetime, thanks for the inspiration as usual

Day 5:



I know I say the videos were beautiful but I really like the entire setup of this one, I feel that I can learn a lot if I study them in earnest

Gonna try to do double sessions daily to catch up
Sorry for abandoning you to hold the fort danx!

danx

From the past week:



Did a day 1 pose over again a few times fixing things I noticed each time. Hands are actually pretty big huh.

Peas

Day 6:



Felt pretty off today for some reason, was really disappointed by my attempt at the 5 min one especially. Gonna try to squeeze in another session

Peas

Day 7:




Gonna try to curb my tendency to do scribbly wobbly lines

Peas

Double session today, wonder if I could do more later
Day 8:



Trying to curb my lines failed miserably , couldn't even finish a gesture

Day 9:




I wasn't expecting 15 seconds gestures at the beginning lol

Also I noticed that horizontal or lying down figures throws me super off, I guess I don't really seek poses like that so I am really unused to it

Endless_Serpents

Good work my dude!

Peas

Thanks mate, you should give it a shot too, I saw you did pretty well without using any references so who knows how powerful you would become with more training

Day 10

Day 12

Day 13

Spoilered for pic spam.

Accidentally missed day 11 so I will make up for it tomorrow. Current thoughts are these do get a bit taxing back to back lol, but in a good way. Still not great at lying poses but it's just been a day so I won't be too down on myself. Still need more practice as usual capturing proportion quickly, main culprit of not being able to finish a gesture in time as well as messing up the drawing with multiple strokes

Endless_Serpents

Yeah, I’ll start in a tick. Are you just using photos or?

Peas

https://www.lovelifedrawing.com/figuary2021/

Been using the amazing videos from this event, they are up to day 20 already so just pick one and jump in if you like

There could be more challenging videos in the later days though so the poses from Day 1~3 would be a good place to start too

Edit: oh and also pls don't feel pressured to do anything which you don't feel like doing, just start anytime as you desire

Endless_Serpents

I don’t feel pressure. I am like lofi hip hop beats on a beach at sunset in the shape of many snakes.

danx

Missed some early vids so went back. Day 6. Long horizontal poses throw me off a lot.

Peas

Same lol

Day 11:

Day 14:

Day 15:

Not much to say today, same problems as usual lol
Just have to keep doing it while trying to be more aware and better I suppose

Peas

Day 16:



Did one before I go out

I am not sure if I have formed a habit of drawing yet, always feel like I am just going to give up like my previous attempts

On a side note I have been bringing out a smaller sketchbook with me when I go out but I just don't have the courage to bust it out and draw stuff like people straight away
What's a good thing to draw outside aside from people?

Edit:

Day 17:

Day 18:

Day 19:

I am not sure if I am getting anything much out of the 15 seconds session in Day 19 at the beginning, it's just too fast for me to barely react and draw lol

Peas

Day 20:

Day 21:

Day 22:

Peas

Day 23:

Day 24:

Day 25:

Sorry for double posting, the pic uploading broke when I tried to upload too many on my phone i think

These were done over the course of 2 days. I feel like I get less tiring when I do multiple sessions now, even wanted to do more when i got into the momentum but maybe it's just that i feel better these couple of days or something

I think I should be able to catch up by tomorrow. Current thoughts is I am happy to have finally followed through on an event such as this

Peas

Day 26:

Day 27:

Day 28:

Final one is supposed to be same pose but 3 different lighting

And done! Very satisfying to have accomplished this but hopefully I would be able to do this on my own regularly from now onwards.

Final thoughts are even though I didn't improve much in the end, I feel like I have gained more insight regarding my weaknesses and lack of knowledge, hopefully I would be able to conquer those in time. Will be interesting to come back after a couple of months and start from the beginning again and see if there are any improvements at all

Danx do you have any plans for this thread after the event? I wonder if turning this into a more general figure/gesture drawing thread would have more participation.

I really want to thank you again for introducing me to this, it was really fun

danx

Figuary was fun. I missed some days so not happy with that but am happy the sketchbook I started on day 3 is half filled. I stopped doing the daily videos for a week. Went through Loomis book material on the figure instead. My memory is garbage at the best of times but I've been making heavy use of techniques from Make It Stick to get the Loomis proportions and the process for drawing it in my brain. Forcing my self to remember as much as I can before reviewing to see how much is retained then repeating the process again later in day really works.

I agree with Peas in that I don't think I got better at drawing but did learn what needs work. It takes me a long time to position stuff. It took hours in the beginning so it'd be like 1 or 2 poses a day. That got a bit better as time went on but definitely needs more work. Also learnt that I don't ask questions about the pose or my drawing as much as I should and that using my brain actually helps. That got better too. It also helped a lot to pick one or two thing and just work on those. That was the intention originally but somewhere along the line I forgot and had to refocus on the original plan.

danx

Peas wrote: »

Danx do you have any plans for this thread after the event? I wonder if turning this into a more general figure/gesture drawing thread would have more participation.

I really want to thank you again for introducing me to this, it was really fun

Thank you for posting. It was fun and motivating to see your stuff!

I hoped to keep the thread as a general figure drawing thread and move the resources in the OP around a bit now that access to the free Figuary stuff on Croquis Cafe is likely going away. I bought a membership so can't tell if it's gone already.

That reminds me. I'll put a link to the head thing that Didgeridoo posted in the chat thread. Heads, hands and other body parts are part of figure drawing so those drawings can also go in here if people want. I didn't mention it in the OP but that was an oversight.


edit: Edited the OP and added a few sites like line of action, reference angle. I'll probably edit it more when it's not like 20C degrees and 4am. It's so hot it's making me cranky.

Peas

Yea the figuary stuff is gone
I think i would get a membership too, it's hard to go back to anything similar since the vids are so well produced

$3 bucks a month seems affordable for it's quality

Didgeridoo

Gesture drawing attempts for today! Based on the paid Proko figure drawing class plus extra Youtube vids of models for practice. Next up is.... THE BEAN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0660Fuih7qo&list=RDCMUClM2LuQ1q5WEc23462tQzBg&index=11

Bubster Wolf

Gestures are looking good!
Look forward to the Bean, it's a game changer.

Didgeridoo

Anyone toiling in the figure practice mines with me? Been stumbling along as best I can through Proko's course, albeit slowly due to work being a pain in the rear.

Didgeridoo

More figure drawing practice. Lol, people are hard to draw