Unsure what to work on

Here are 3 30 min classes from the past 3 days. I feel like I need to work on my perspective for limbs a bit, but I'm also stuck because Im not sure what I'm doing wrong as when I start drawing the actual outline of the body it feels weird. I also don't really know what I'm supposed to do after I finish drawing out the skeleton and joints. Any help is appreciated.

Link to work

I have no idea where to go from here

I've got an idea, Dragphan, here's what I've got for you to work on, this image.

This is my warm-up for my animals, which is what you can get yourself having fun learning how to draw just like when we were kids. What do you think of this?

Hope this has been useful.

Polyvios Animations

• Polyvios Animations edited this post on May 18, 2022 1:19am. Reason: Image to show

Hello! :) well, your skeleton sketches are pretty good, you are able to catch the model pose very well and that's a solid step to a good sketch. Now, for the rest of the body "what goes wrong" is that you need to work on your anatomy and observation skills. You're drawing the outline like you're tying up the dots and not like you would actually drawing a human body. For anatomy it's usefull to separate the body in different shapes. So you can analyze each part of the body carefully. Keep an eye on proportions, your skeleton sketches will help you with this. Also, maybe for now, you can make them faceless and focus on bodies only.

Hope it helped!

I used to have the same frustration! It can be very difficult going from one step to another since everyone has a specific method or two that work for them. While I can't speak for others, I know that the tear drop method works best for me- istead of starting immediately with the outlines of your subjects, you can use the anchor posts that line-of-action's tutorials mention and get a feel for where the limbs are by drawing elongated tear drops, the fat end anchored. The thin ends would be at joints, like wrists and ankles. From there the proportions for where muscles and the rest of your figure's details will seem less daunting! It can also help to do a few skeleton studies, but that can be a little much to jump right into. No matter what, keep trying new approaches. There is no one right way to learn art!

Great job with starting out mapping with the action line and blocking in the head, torso, and waist that's already half of the work! I'd recommend the loomis method of figure drawing you can find videos everywhere and theres a book explaining how to add on after this building block layer you've already been practicing. Just make sure your proportions are right such as arm and leg lengths and torso and waist sizes which makes it a lot easier to build upon when things are already proportioned correctly. It won't look perfect when you start it will look disfigured but the more you work on it you'll subconsciously be able to build upon it easier, faster, and more accuratelty so dont stress out about it. goodluck!

I would suggest making the legs longer. They look very small in proportion. I also recommend practicing drawing simple lines, both straight and curved ones. Once you feel confident in your lines you can use them in your classes and the bodies will looks less stiff. Once you have that down I suggest starting on the basic shapes of the body and those shapes in perspective

Start putting volume on your figures. Ribcage, pelvis... For getting better with the torso it may helps to think about the belly as a ball connecting the pelvis and the ribcage. It also helps with understanding the flexibility of the torso.
Another good thing is to start with the proportions of the body, at least with the torso. Try to get a feeling where the nipples (one head below the chin at a 1:8 Head to whole body ratio), the slimmest point (two heads) and the hip joint (three heads) are.

Hi @Dragphan,

I would said your mannequin are okay but thats not the first issue I see first hand when I look at your work. The issue is more on the understanding side of learning to draw what I means is:

Everything you put on the paper when you sketch are landmark, I should even specify it are just visual landmark thats all perspective anatomy etc are useless first and foremost drawing is learning to draw from observation and learn to see the world as it is and not as we think it is. So when you put your mark on the paper and form this mannekin remember they are just visual landmark to help you to draw the subject they aren't really limbs torso hips etc

Anatomy, Perspective etc are meant in a more designing perspective and is a stage you learn when you have already learned to see and simplify the visual reality on paper with lines shapes shades colors texture.

You feel weird when putting the outline of the subject because you don't have enough visual landmark and you try to focus on your knowledge when you need to focus on your sense your eye which is what need to be develop

So I would advise you first step draw lightly your mannequin to help you have a point to start from a visual landmark then synthetise the subject in an abstract way. This means simplify what you see with only straight lines from a saillant point to another and try to use the smallest amount of lines possible. After that you can complexifiy it by adding more line but if at this stage the sketch has issue you can correct them before working on the simplification of the shadow which retake the same logic.

Hope it helps you

Hi dear, your are doing great, but to take it to the next level try drawing ove the ¨skeleton¨ the shapes of the parts as geometric forms first; like cylinders, triangles, rectangulars, etc.

so u can get a better understanding of the form first.

Kinda like this

https://doctorlib.info/anatomy/classic-human-anatomy-motion/10.html

• Kim edited this post on May 25, 2022 5:36pm. Reason: mod edit: Just fixing the link so it's clickable