Poses / anatomy critique please! :)

Hello! I've been using this site for a while, but have always been a bit embarrassed to ask for critique as I've never felt my drawings were really "good enough".I've been drawing for almost a year now but I started without any basis or knowledge so now I'm trying to go back to the beginning and learn how to do it properly so I can improve.

I have a bad habit of stopping the timer on gesture drawings cause the countdown stresses me out, but I'd I took around 3-5 minutes on these - more or less.

I'd appreciate pointers on how to improve, as I feel the quality of my drawings fluctuates more than I'd like- some of these seem alright to me, but some of them I hate. Thanks! :)

https://imgur.com/a/wKvC0TR

Hi Loiss! Your figures look great, but I noticed there’s very minimal guide lines, did you jump mostly into the muscles rather than the skeleton? I think that if you focused more on the guides and lines of action then your outlines would look more confident. Try bigger single strokes rather than smaller sketchy strokes for a cleaner more confident result!

Hello and good morning, Loiss, and sorry to wake you up, but nicest works on your range of motion, silhouettes and your perception of proportions and angles. Way to go, and keep carrying on your practice.

But.....I can tell you several things wrong about these figures linked there. First, the lines all seem too hairiest, itchiest, and scratchiest a sight. Second, the boldest silhouette could use a bit more expression, and finally, the angles don't seem to be more powerful enough. How would you like to be more fierce and even more ruthless with your sketches by doing 30 minutes of 2 minute pose sketches? (All flipped horizontally, followed by vertical)

Because if you can do this practice session of those attitude sketches, you can and shall be able to tap into the right side of your brain. Also, if you work with a faster time limit,(if it doesn't bother you) you should force yourself to think fastest on your feet and to draw and feel your most boldest, confident and powerful. But that's not all, to help you add more sparks of life into your understanding and control of the human gestures and anatomy, so that you could and should render imagined and memories poses.

But that's not all! For furthest details, on how to cope with even more tighter deadlines, here are some 5 following links:

Links 1,

2,

3,

4…………,…..

& 5.

These advice links are not just for art, cartooning, and animation, they are for just about anything.

And as for the art books, please be sure to look into the Frank Netter anatomy book, which you would find in the anatomy section, the Bridgman Figure Drawing compilation book, Drawing on the Artist Within by Betty Edwards, and the 2 PDFs of Walt Stanchfield's two books here,…. and here! So please take my suggestions with a really tinier, smaller grain of salt. Hope they can help you constantly improve and innovate with your drawing talent, work ethic, and understanding of movement, as much as they have others. Good night, and keep practicing in the morning..

The timer is good for 2 things:

1 - By not having all the time in the world (and it's humanely impossible to 'recreate' 100% perfectly the reference), you must focus on the important things, and since it’s gesture drawing, you need to capture the essence: the movement, pose or action – Easier said than done, right?

But 2 - depending on the time limit, it forces you to re-adjust the way you draw or think, like when drawing a leg, and arm, a finger or curved person, sometimes you’ll need to make a single (straight or curved) line as fast as possible. That’s just one technique, if you can say it.

With practice, comes the experience to be less and less fatigued since you’re constantly drawing the same ‘ideas’, y’now?

Now about your drawings:

I really liked 1, 6 and 7 (from left to right, top to bottom). But I noticed 2 things with your sketches:

a) The sketches have a part of the limb ‘missing’ or out of the page. It could mean either the time ran out, or you’re not familiar with said missing limb, or it could also mean your spacial sense is not very keen. Try to visualize your sketch inside its space before drawing. Furthermore, This’ll help when drawing characters inside environments. (if done digitally, layers are magic ^-^)

b) In contrast to the above, it seems every sketch you made is inside a square dividing the page equally. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it seems a ‘cage’ and you shouldn’t worry about how the page will look. However, as a way to help get loosen up with this is to make bigger and smaller drawings.

A way to help with this is the following:

-Set 30 gestures for you to sketch in a single page or 30 gestures in 2 pages.

-Remember that everytime you make a big character, it’ll use a lot of space. But that’s okay. The important thing is you’re practicing and filling you sketchbook with lots of things. Always stop and go to the next page when you feel there’s no more room.

Feel free to reply to my commentary!

Kudos, friend! :3

Hi Loiss, I like the way you capture gestures and the analytic approach to body contruction. My drawing is about the same level, so my critique will not help to improve too much. May be next time you try to place your figures in a way on the sheet, so they don't miss feet or hands. I believe you have a lot potential.

Hi Loiss! I think your figures are beautiful and have a lot of potential, especially the last one with the twist in her body, you've captured that really well. And congratulations on asking for feedback, it can be scary, but you're done it now and I hope you get alot out of it! I would say that the timer is your friend. When I first started my heart would go crazy knowing I only had 30 seconds, but now that I'm use to it, it doesn't even factor in for me anymore. I think you should challenge yourself and stick to the timer, it doesn't matter if you don't complete the pose, I still don't alot of the time haha but I feel I've learnt something because I spent the time studying the pose visually and doing the mental backflips to understand the rythm of the pose in my head. Have you tried class mode? I find it super helpful because you get short poses to wake your brain & hand up. Best of luck with your work & I'll look forward to seeing more of your work in the future 😀

Hey Loiss,

it does take courage to post your own work! There is no such thing as "good enough" or "too bad", really. Plus there are many approaches to drawing!

Anyway, the timer, as Akirazin mentioned, is a good thing. It keeps you in the flow. It is a good skill to be able to produce a 30-second sketch, just as it is to produce a 2-hour drawing.

As for the anatomy, I think you are on the right path! Try observing it in real life, or in a mirror. Studying anatomy in motion is very helpful. Look at, for example, how your arm bends at the elbow and which muscles and bones show at which point. as you watch this, imagine which lines would convey this on paper.

If using a photo reference, it is best to learn to recognize anatomical innacuracies yourself. Try comparing your drawing to the reference. Also look at negative space. It is not all that beneficial if someone tells you this, because it doesn't help you grow your observational skills.

Keep doing the great work!

Best regards