Why am I I so bad ? It's getting sader.

Hey everyone my goal in drawing is to be able to draw human, animals and furries. So I started with forms and gesture drawing. And after that I could start with basic body construction. But as you can se my gesture are not as good or (may I say) correct as what it should have been. For the ressources I only use (to not oversaturated myself) Proko, Michael Hampton and Glenn Vilppu.

Here in the pics in my imgur https://imgur.com/a/JdxPoK7

Sorry If it's bad at point where you can't help me.

• Kluwelyn edited this post on January 7, 2024 10:36am.
• Kluwelyn edited this post on January 7, 2024 10:37am. Reason: The link to imgur didn't worked I think...
• Kluwelyn edited this post on January 7, 2024 10:38am.
• Kluwelyn edited this post on January 7, 2024 10:47am. Reason: Imgur link set

OK, after looking at your stuff, I don't think you are doing so badly. Ever heard of Dunning and Krueger? They found out, that the people, who are most confident about their skills are the people, who have no clue at all, because they don't know how bad they really are.

And the worst moment when acquiring a new skillset is, when you just got a tiny bit better. Because then you start to realize, how long the way ahead towards your goal really is. I think, that is where you are right now.

Your main task right now is to get through that bump in self esteem. So, here are some pointers from me, where you are probably a bit too critical to yourself right now. Yes, the 30 second shorties don't look like much. Thing is, that is not a bug, that is a feature. They aren't meant to look polished, they are just there to train you in structuring your work process, by looking at the gesture first. I have seen people on this page, who developed completing 1 minute poses into an art form in itself, but that is not what they are meant for. These are just about focusing your first thoughts for longer pieces.

I would personally recommend to ignore the limbs at this stage, and try to focus more on head, ribcage, hip as first lines, but you aren't off by a mile.

And if I scroll through your pieces, the pose before the last, the guy balancing on one hand, that is really a complicated pose to get right, and you almost nailed it, you just did not find a good solution for the head.

On the very last pose, to me it looks, like you got too impressed with her huge boots, drew her legs and feet too large, and then overcorrected and drew them much too small. Been there, done that.

One part of the learning process is to develop a deeper judgment of your own results than just "looks good" and "looks ugly". Try to understand, what went well with the drawing, and what went badly, so you can find and correct specific mistakes and come up with ideas what to focus on in your next drawing session.

Another, maybe even more important part of the learning process is to get used to constantly producing one draft after another. You aren't working at drawing the one professional looking piece, that will earn you your place in a gallery, you are mostly working at your own skills, and the drafts you produce are just the endless stream of wood chips, that fall from your work bench.

You have approximately 5000 really crappy and flawed pieces inside you, and the only way to get them out is to draw them all. Each crappy drawing that you successfully brought to paper is another one off the stack.

Keep them around, mark a day in two to three weeks in your calendar, draw every day until then, then take out those crappy pieces from now and compare them to your latest work then, to see where you made progress. Comparing yourself to yourself a few weeks ago is a fair comparison, comparing yourself to a professional craftsperson, who spend their last 10 years drawing 8 to 10 hours every day is just begging for punishment.

So, to quote a youtuber, who is more a martial than a graphical artist: "Get out there and train!"

• Aunt Herbert edited this post on January 7, 2024 11:30am.
• Aunt Herbert edited this post on January 7, 2024 11:49am.

Here If it still doesn't work : https://imgur.com/a/JdxPoK7

• Kluwelyn edited this post on January 7, 2024 10:48am.

It did work, I edited my post above.

Hello,

So first ty for this long answer. It's nice to have some support/ wholesomeness in the day.

I just didn't understand what you meant here "I would personally recommend to ignore the limbs at this stage, and try to focus more on head, ribcage, hip as first lines". Did you mean that I have to just draw the bean with the head without the hands and feets ?

I'll try to post on Line of action each month to archive.

Thank you again

it can always be frustrating and disheartening to not be at the level you think you should be at, and everyone struggles with that. but you're working at it and taking steps to improve, which you should take pride in! i wanted to highlight the eighth picture you posted in the imgur link- i really like the way you handled the torso and pelvis, the back looks great. the sitting pose on the second sheet also stands out to me as a really successful drawing with a great understanding of the pose.

the good thing about improving at art is that you don't even have to do studies every day to improve. if you get discouraged you can always take a day to relax and just focus on observing the people around you, look at art that inspires you, or draw something that makes you happy. when you come back the next day to practice you'll be able to use your observations or improved coordination on your next drawings. art is as much about observation as it is about actually putting something to paper, and skills like fine motor control carry over across different disciplines.

best of luck!!

"Did you mean that I have to just draw the bean with the head without the hands and feets ?"

Actually, kind of yes. Those 30 sec and 1 min shorties are there, so you can practice the first lines of your drafts a lot. And basically starting a pose with sketching in the bean is a good way to start. The bean doesn't only define the torso, it also tells you a lot about the limbs, because the placement of the hip defines where the joints are, that the thighs start from, and the ribcage, neck and head give good landmarks to find the shoulderline, that tells you where your upper arms can and should start from.

Getting that correct from the start is way more important than deciding whether that hand or that foot needs to be placed a few inches to the left or right. If the extremities are placed slightly differently, the pose will usually still look natural and convincing, if the torso is too stiff, or the major joints just aren't where they need to be, no amount of polishing will save that turd.

It's only a kind of yes, because the bean isn't the only technique to capture the main masses, but it is a good one, and the more practice you get with it, the better your results will look. Therefore, yes, try to focus your shorties as much as possible on designing the head and torso well, and take your time to fiddle around with the limbs in your longer drawings. If a single line, that shows the lengths of a thigh or an upper arm helps you place the torso better, draw it, but the focus has to be on the torso first and foremost.

BTW, that is also the secret of the much misunderstood line of action. Yes, it usually follows roughly at least one of the limbs, but it isn't meant to fully define them, therefor, it is only one single long curved line. It's purpose is to help you align the torso and head correctly. It is more often than not a few seconds well spent to draft it, especially on very dynamic poses, but if you just can't find it, and instead see a more convenient way to design the masses correctly, skip it. On some poses it just doesn't help a lot.

• Aunt Herbert edited this post on January 8, 2024 12:44pm.

Thank's again !

Hello and welcome to Line of Action, Kluwelyn. I'm Polyvios, and I'm doing finer, and how are you? Say, I must love how much of an effort you're pouring into your shorter sketches, and how much thought and time and thought you've suddenly applied to your longer drawings of the human figures. However, I've got two small issues: 1) I'm not getting enough of that expression and emotion in your lines of action and rhythm in your shorties. 2) When you've mapped out your relationships and spaces, you've seemed to have watered the spark of life in your attitudes down too much. Would you like to please go ahead with our interactive drawing tutorial here on our site?(If you completely haven't already)

The reason why you need to use our tutorial is, consequently, your forces, lines, forms, and shapes will and can be constantly improved and innovated. You'll soon get a head start in your warmups at first, and next, go for retaining them in your more sustained sketches. So, my hat's off to you.

• Polyvios Animations edited this post on January 11, 2024 2:37am. Reason: Change the grammar and font.