5 minute pose / Second day ever of live figure drawing

Hi guys, thanks for checking out my post :) I'm just starting out with live figure drawing, and I would be very grateful if you'd take the time out of your busy schedules to offer me a critique. I used a soft pastel on 18" x 24" newsprint for this drawing, it was drawn an an easel in class; I was not able to capture all of the pose (especially the lower limbs at the bottom right of the page.. actually, I forgot what's going on there, it looks ambiguous and I can't make it out, I'm sorry for that!) Also, I think the head and foot looks too big.

https://imgur.com/a/S7Des9N

Please feel free to offer anything and everything that you think could help me improve, there are no hard feelings here, I'm very grateful :)

Hey!

I really like your drawing, and most of all I like understatement and mystery? in your work.

The head may seem big due to the strong volume of the hair, but about the foot, its size conveys the perspective of the drawing (I think this is not a problem) good job with the volume, keep it up!

Overall this is good. You may find that including more reference lines to anchor the body's dimensions may allow you to be be more relaxed when you start to lend shape to the form.

For example, the base of the spine is not in view in the image, but adding a reference line for the spine from top to bottom will make the proportions of the other parts more clear on a quick sketch.

I would definitely recommend studying the Loomis Method for both head and figure.

Hi Nayomi, thanks so much for your kind and encouraging words!! Understatement and mystery, I love that, thank you for the compliment! 😊 Your expertise about volume and perspective are so helpful to me. You’ve helped remind me of how important volume is in figure drawing; I’ll keep it at the forefront of my mind as I keep drawing! Thanks again!

Hi Cheneam, I really appreciate your eloquently worded expertise, the way you describe such a great way to anchor the body is already helping me understand and visualize how to make future figure drawings more successful! I’m sure with the spine reference line (it’s so useful to know I should draw it from top to bottom), it will feel much more natural to ‘landmark’ the proportions correctly, and it’s great to know when to concentrate with precision and when in the process to start to relax / shape the forms. 😊

I’ve got a lot of educational videos downloaded for future reference, and what do you know, I searched it up and there’s a Loomis Method demo already downloaded on my computer! That’s so cool, and it’s a huge help for me that you pointed in the direction of a specific method to study, that will strengthen my weaknesses. I see that Andrew Loomis is a prolific author on top of being an artist, so it’s a no brainer that I’m going to purchase books of his now. Thanks so, so much again for your insight and for helping me understand / giving me specific techniques!!