2nd day

On your 25 minute piece, I think you've done a great job of showing the right arm going away from the viewer - it almost looks like you drew a box for the arm, using perspective to more accurately shrink down the perceived size of the elbow as it goes away.

The left upper arm isn't quite as successful, but I wonder if actually trying to draw it as a cuboid, and then filling out the shape with the arm would help? If you're familiar with videogames, maybe try drawing the bounding-box for especially challenging foreshortening problems.

Of course, the upper arm is a truncated cone - wide at the top, narrowing at the elbow - but the perspective makes it look bigger in the foreground where the elbow is. But if you draw it as a cuboid/box, you can decide that the elbow is 2/3rds or 1/2 the size of the end of the box at one end, and the shoulder is the full size of the cuboid at the other end.

Also want to say that I love your 10 minute pose - it shows a great understanding and representation of the mass, and the angle of the pose. The line along the ground for the leg direction is really successful.

Hey Bob,

Beautiful 'construction work.' You’ve really nailed your mannequins.

You asked for ways to improve, and I have a couple of suggestions. Since you also requested feedback on improving the 'flow' in your drawings in another post, I’ll address that here as well.

Foreshortening:
Your depiction of the models' masses in 3D space looks really good. It’s clear you’ve put a lot of work into this, and it shows beautifully. I would suggest using natural cross-contour lines, but you’re already doing that. For inspiration, looking at masters always helps. For your line-based style, Möbius and Kim Jung Gi come to mind—check out how they make foreshortening work.

As for the left arm of the model on the right (which I don’t think is bad at all), there are a few factors that make it look a little off if you stare at it too long. The lower limb appears slightly too long for the direction the elbow’s cross-contour suggests. Additionally, the way you’ve drawn the brachioradialis along with the long head of the triceps throws off the larger shapes of the arm, making it look overextended. I had a go at it, and while it’s not perfect, it might help you better understand the pose. https://imgur.com/a/cFwPObb

That said, just keep practicing—you’re doing really well and are probably much closer to your goal than you think.

Use of Time in figure drawing:
This depends on where you want to take your art. If you're aiming for a more 'finished' look, start incorporating shadows. Redraw the pose with an emphasis on specific parts, using techniques like lost edges. If you’re aiming for more dynamic poses, redraw the same post trying to exaggerate it further and further to enhance power and flow, and see how far you can push it. If your focus is on construction and drawing from memory, rotate the model in your head and redraw the pose from different angles. Find an “art parent” (an artist whose figure drawings you admire) and imitate the aspects of their style that you love.

Dynamic Flow:
In my opinion, your strong focus on construction (which, again, has really paid off) has led to a very literal approach: laying down the line of action and then 'assembling' the limbs with primitives. While your individual limbs show beautifully flowing lines, the point you may be missing is that these 'force' lines don’t stop at the joints—they often run through the entire body. You’re already doing this to an extent, but you could take it even further.

I did an overdraw of your work to illustrate this. https://imgur.com/a/asQ6eyF For example, on the front of the left leg of the right model, you placed three corners where you could have drawn one smooth S-curve that flows from the right elbow down to the toes. You can still add shapes like the knee, but let it be an edgy corner that sticks out from a smooth underlying line. Look into "Force Drawing" by Mike Mattesi, who explains this concept better than I ever could. Also, avoid parallel lines (almost) at all costs, and ensure that every shape has a clear, asymmetrical direction.

Wall of text :D

I hope this helps! Keep up the awesome work and happy drawing!

Good job EpicBob!

You may try to use more geometric forms to assist you in those foreshortening, practicing and applying some boxes and cylinders can be very helpful.

About the time, 25 minutes is a good amount of time to reach a good rendering giving more volume to the figure for example.