Now that you have a pretty decent understanding of gestures and are getting the hand of human anatomy. I'd say, this is the best time to implement a lesson plan and get your art fundamentals grounded too.
To implement a lesson plan, I would suggest the following order.
1. Perspective (<a href="http://shattered-earth.deviantart.com/art/The-Basics-Point-Perspective-266473656">ref</a>) learn one point and multi-point perspective.
2. Human anatomy. (front view and profile view)
Skeleton breakdown
Skull, Rib, Pelvis, Hands, Legs
Muscle Structure - that cover the above.
3. Human Gestures 30 second (<a href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbaz8czLfn1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">line stroke</a>) (also <a href="https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-1-line-of-action/">here</a>, <a href="https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-2-torso-and-hips/">here</a>)
4. Human Gesture 1 min (with <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BNH_aiXZ854/TeE3tylP8HI/AAAAAAAAAKM/6H_Wsx-XXkE/s1600/ManikinAndSkeleton.jpg">primitive shapes</a>)
5. Human Gestures 2min (<a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbvuv83aYD1rhd4lho5_1280.jpg">with shapes</a>)
6. Human Gestures 10min
This lesson plan will help you in the following:-
<strong>1. Perspective</strong> -this is the most basic lesson for art. Perspective gives depth to a square and makes it a cube, a circle - a sphere. Since we have two eyes, we see things in perspective. This helps judge distance of the subject from the viewer. Perspective is applied in still, life and background art.
<strong>2. Human anatomy</strong> - lets look at human anatomy like playing with a toy robot. There are different parts that constitute to make the robot. Learn these different parts and how they are connected to each other. (not the best analogy, El bow :P)
Back to humans. To know how to draw a head, you have to understand how the head is constructed. learning the muscle breakdown will teach you an overview of what muscles are present there, which muscle overlaps what and how the all combine to create expressions.
Apply the same principle to the rest of the body.
<strong>3 to 6. Human Gesture</strong>- Now that you know how to draw a toy robot. Let's pose the toy and draw it.
Always start with a 30 second pose. This helps warm up your drawings. Draw for a few minutes, before moving up to the 1 min, 2min and 10min.
Conclusion:
Try and set a realistic goal for each plan. Time does not matter, but the number of pieces to be made does. Work on these goals at any pace you want, as long as you don't stop.
<strong>Restating your lesson plan </strong>
1. Better Proportions
2. Better connections between limbs and torso
3. Better anatomical details
4. Learn to draw from imagination instead of references
The above lesson plan covers all that you need in the right order of being a better artist.
<em>This lesson plans does leave out a few things like types of mediums to use, or rendering style or presentation, all of which could make your art unique. </em>
My three pointers for you.
1. Ignore <em>render style</em> for the moment. The plan is to improve your anatomy skills. Once you have hit your goals, then move on a new lesson plan to work on rendering skills or play with different mediums (digital, oils, pens, mixed media, etc)
2. Do this lesson plan for <em>you and only you</em>. If' you are uncomfortable showing it to anyone, don't. If you do make it public and work better under the pressure of your peers asking how much you have done, that's fine too. But make it a point to document your progress, archiving it online or offline.
I strongly say this because time and again, it's necessary to go back to your first drawings and see how far you have progressed. This self evaluation will keep you motivated.
3. Ignore <em>presentation</em>. Work on your goals. If you want to post your stuff here, do it. No ones judging, as this is a practice forum, not the critique forum.
Now with respect to <em>#4. Learn to draw from imagination instead of references.</em>
Drawing from imagination is bloody tough, but you only get better with practice.
My art always turns out pretty ugly the first time. I erase or delete so many times till I get it the way I like. I used to see artists draw live and shietz, these people were soo skilled! It was very intimidating to see some one soo skilled just make something out of thing air. It was only later that I realized that these artists use <a href="&feature=plcp">techniques</a> and practice drawing similar pieces, a ton of times before doing it live/publishing it.
@A_A, that's pretty sweet! Congrats
It's always good to see a fellow student staying motivated and accomplishing a big goal like this. I feel so much more motivated to keep drawing and hit that century.
@sylvester_hansen. Love the new art, keep it rolling. It's always a treat to see what you post here.
The technique you had mentioned gave my art so much more depth. Since I hadn't scoped render styles for this 100 drawings, I'm going to save that technique for a little later.
my progress: I'm feeling a lot more confident with gesture drawing (<a href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbm0dfk8lR1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">23</a>, <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbm3k1JlDi1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">24</a>, <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbmbmfRt3g1rgzhqno1_r1_1280.jpg">25</a>, <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbo40n8dEP1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">26</a>). Moved over to a chapter on head and body construction (<a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbpur74LQk1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">a</a>,<a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbpvmbYRD81rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">b</a>,<a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbpyzlEq451rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">c</a>,<a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbroxa3ysS1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">d</a>)
@sylvester_hansen good point. I had to keep checking my first post to see if I'm straying away from what I intended to learn through this exercise.
Adding goals to my signature. Should help.
Here're some updates
For my warmups, I decided to sway a bit from learning and document the approach I follow. <a href="http://elbowgreasedraw.tumblr.com/tagged/tutorial">http://elbowgreasedraw.tumblr.com/tagged/tutorial</a> (please ignore the grammar in the posts)
Welcome Nijna, join the club. Just updating this list -
Adding a bunch of new art that I had drawn over the last few days.
<a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb1y40URpV1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">13</a>, <a href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb36tc7Rkq1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">14</a>, <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb38glN9qz1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">15</a>, <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb3qkd59rm1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">16</a>, <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb5gfinReZ1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">17</a>, <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb5husRL361rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">18</a>
I have been following your blog and I have to say I really like those gestures you have drawn. I think 6/100 is pretty good. None of my art too matches the reference images. It's all looking good.
I have been reading up on this <a href="http://goo.gl/rhMhL">book</a> since the last 10 days and geez, I am finally understanding the breakdown of structure. Maybe you would find it useful too ;)
@Vyse That blending tutorial is pretty insightful. I think I might use that sometime down the line.
This is my two pieces for today <a href="http://elbowgreasedraw.tumblr.com/post/32446394574">One</a> and<a href="http://elbowgreasedraw.tumblr.com/image/32446400214"> two</a>
I have been slowly moving away from gesture and concentrating more on facial structure/features. .
I agree, Kim G. sometimes that happens to me too. Even with the speed bumps, I had decided to keep my rough art all digital since I find it a little easier to archive. This helps searching a lot more easier IMHO.
I have been chugging though Michael Hampton's book, and just moved on to a chapter that covered breaking up the body into geometrical segments with contours. This Chapter covers a bit on how each part of the anatomy is made up. So here are my three pieces, with the last one based on contours.
Hi Mikoko, looking forward to seeing your art on insects. Sounds interesting!
Nice work with the Backgrounds and Facial expressions, Sylvester and Kim. If any of you got time, can you talk about your process of how you go about drawing (tools, techniques) ?
I used to do most of my art using pencil/paper, but recently I switched over to Photoshop and doing all my art digitally.I had some major hiccups initially drawing digital, but I guess I'm over that learning curve.
Sweeet!, the crew is getting bigger. <em>Welcome OwenG</em>
Here are my <a href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_makzru04zb1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">second</a>, <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mal09lN1BV1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">third</a>, <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mamzbqjRdL1rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">fourth</a> and <a href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mamzbzVQ501rgzhqno1_1280.jpg">fifth</a> pieces. I started off with the 30second roughs, and moved on to the 10min poses so I could have time to drop in some shading and lighting.
First off the bat, I love this site, excited about the new features this site has to offer.
I really want to be a better artist. To learn how to draw humans/ animal/ environments. I have been practicing off Michael Hampton's book on Figure Drawing [Design and Invention] and always refer this awesome site to do all the exercises. I have been maintaining a blog http://elbowgreasedraw.tumblr.com/ so I can keep track of my progress.
Coming across your forum today and reading this post has motivated me to take the challenge of the 100 project and be more involved here rather than do it all by myself. Thus Count me in.
Here are my goals
step 1: I want to get better at anatomy, secondarily I want to work on my gesture drawing.
step 2: I want to be able to draw
faces
hands
feet
step 3: I will commit to drawing one drawing per day for 100 days and post it here. I hope to get faster and better as the days go by.
.
Thanks for the links Sylvester. Shall definitely bookmark <strong>lovecastle.org</strong>
