Jasons sketches

Okey! So I'm at the beginning of another year and it's time to get more committed to improving my drawing. I'm taking advantage of this wonderful site and it's figure drawing page to practice my anatomy. I've just finished reading Michael Hamptons "Figure Drawing, Design and Invention", and it has given me a lot to think about regarding my approach to figure drawing. I'm wanting to loosen up, so I'm focusing on an hours worth of 5 minute gesture drawing. I'm trying to focus more on long, single, sinuous strokes to capture the rhythm of the figure, rather than get bogged down in detail and mechanics. Here are some of my first drawings. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Some more anatomy practice. I took a one hour class and enjoyed the process very much. To the left are two 10 minute studies, to the right is a 25 minute study. Any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated.

More Anatomy practice. This is a 25 minute pose.

Figure studies. At the risk of sounding whiny, I am very unhappy with how my drawing is going these days. It seems to me I was a much better artist 10 years ago. Very disappointing.

Hi Jason!

Your sketches are looking great, I think the decision to focus on longer strokes was a good one.

As for your issue with feeling like you were better 10 years ago, I have some theories on that.

We easily romanticize our past, and as we improve we change; your drawings likely look different today than they did back then because you've grown and are a different person now. It's easy to consider your old work better because we tend to have stronger emotions attached to the past. You also probably had a different mindset that allowed you to draw in a different way than you do now. That doesn't make it better, necessarily, just different.

Thanks for the comments Sanne. It helped to put things into perspective.

I think your sketches are very well done, Jason. I agree with Sanne about romanticizing the past. Artists grow and change.