Veritas' Adventures Extraordinaire [Art & Design] [NSFW]

Veritas

Hey fine folks of the AC.

I don't think I've ever posted my own art thread. Although really I never had a reason to or much to contribute into it.

Also I realized a few months ago that I really don't know how to draw - in that even though I draw everyday, and I don't go anywhere without a sketchbook - it's really just doodles and ideas and I'm just copying the same methods that have worked in the past but I'm not really understanding forms. I really haven't improved any or challenged myself any since high school.

Anyways, long story short I've been attending life drawing sessions in St. Pete every other weekend and trying to do some more traditional work outside of all the digital crap I do to start improving without letting my drawing skills stagnate and decline for as long as I have let them.

...So you know, don't go easy on me just cause you all love me.


Figure Drawings:

First Session:

20 min:



2 hour:



Second Session:

1 hour 20 min:



20 min:



Third Session:

2 hour:



Sorry for the cutoff bits, they were a bit too large for the scanner.

Anyways please be brutal. Thanks.

Pennyfreqs

I can see you're improvement, even in just 3 days. However, a problem that is recurring and you should fix now instead of later is proportions.

For example in your 2 hour 1st session picture, the (our) right side upper arm is waaaayyyyy too small. Just an example.

A really useful technique, which you've probably seen people do, is using your pencil/other drawing device as a relative measurement tool.

A good tutorial is here http://www.picturedraw.co.uk/Pencil%20measuring%20technique.htm

Apply that to the whole human body, and in fact anything you draw from life, and you'll see your proportions line up very quickly. It's a useful tool, especially for foreshortening.

Veritas

Thanks Pennyfreqs

Yeah I really should try that. Thus far, I pretty much just draw everything in relation to the rest of the drawing so I find it pretty easy to screw up proportions and will go over it a few times until it looks right.

Obviously the problem with that is I make the assumption that the other parts are also correct so its all somewhat close but not really exact.

My biggest obstacle I guess is that, and also drawing what I really see, and not just drawing similar symbols to what is there - specifically with faces.

Obviously you can't tell here, without seeing the models, but the faces are only just similar to the models, not as true to life as they ought to be since I find it too easy to fall into making the typical facial symbols for eyes and the nose etc.

crawdaddio

Another way of checking proportions, in addition to the measuring sticks, is to pay close attention to angles (not just of the lines that are there, like arms, but also of the ones that aren't, like the imaginary line going from the shoulder to the head), and to look at the shapes formed by negative space.

Veritas

I've been using the negative spaces method a bit, and in the last one I was using the angles and imaginary lines to align the head and knees with the torso. Although I'm still getting the hang of it. Each session it's getting easier to get the basic figure laid out too.