Critique to improve my figure drawing skills!

Hey people! I’d love to get some feedback regarding my drawing skills and also about how to get better at drawing from memory, here’s my blog page for my life drawing http://thomasbrussell55.tumblr.com/tagged/challenges I’d appreciate as much feed back and help as possible! The two pieces took 6 minutes each

Hello Thomas!

I merged the two posts for you, you accidentally left the first post blank. :) (I don't know why the log shows up twice!)

Looking at your practice drawings, they look pretty good to me. :) Very nice capture of motion and I love the feeling of the second drawing.

What stands out to me in the first drawing is her front raised leg. Her buttocks is not quite right, which makes the leg look weirdly attached to her hip. This makes the hips look out of proportion to the rest of the body, so I recommend paying attention to that. Her leg is also not shaped properly, so the lower leg attaches awkwardly to her ankle and her foot isn't shaped right either. If this is a problem area for you, I strongly recommend using out hands & feet tool and study feet an the way the lower legs are shaped. :) It will be hugely beneficial to you!

Another thing I noticed is that her breast (our left) looks off. This is probably because her shoulder and arm seem to grow from her breast, rather than the collarbone and rib cage.I hope that makes sense! Try going back to the image you drew this from and compare the images after a couple of days, you will probably see what I'm talking about.

The second image, I don't have too much to say about that. The proportions look good, though I have a feeling her rib cage is a bit too small. It's a bit hard to tell without the original picture handy.

Overall, I'm very impressed with your general drawing skills. I like the detail of shadows you put into it, the detail in the faces and the anatomy isn't bad at all.

I do recommend you give the generic 30 second gesture drawings a shot though. You mentioned you're feeling a bit rusty and are still getting into the groove of things and want to improve, and gesture drawings are both a great warmup and help you with your proportions. I'm not seeing any base figure sticks in these sketches (perhaps you erased them?) but they make great foundations. If your stick figures are good, you can build on them and the result will be images like these. The only difference is your proportions will improve and your understanding of how the limbs and torso and hips all fit together will be greater. :)

https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-1-line-of-action/

https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-2-torso-and-hips/

https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-3-joints/

Give these articles a read, see if it helps you out any? I don't know how much experience you already have with drawing this type of image, but a good foundation is half the work.

Let me know if any of this was helpful and if you have any questions. If you have any specific areas you need help with, we'll do our best to provide tips for that as well.

Your drawings are amazing, and your only 19! You have incredible skills. Keep up the good work.