Forum posts by Joshua

Thanks Kim, I'll have a crack at it now.

Here's today's attempt.

I did a few more longer drawings today.

Here's today's attempt.

I did three five-minute exercises, as well as a 10 minute exercise today (I did fewer 30-second and 1-minute exercises to make room on the page).

The last hand was viewed at a slight angle, with the thumb closest to the viewer, and the pinky furthest. You can see I rubbed out the ring finger and the pinky and redraw them smaller, and I shortened the width of the hand; but instead of creating the effect I was hoping for, this only resulted in a more distorted hand. The last 5-minute hand was also at an angle, and it similarly turned out looking distorted. You can see this on my pages from previous days as well - my drawings of hands at an angle turn out much more distorted than of hands viewed straight on.

If I were to use the portrait drawing tool, would I follow similar steps to the figure drawing? What durations should I practise, and what should I aim to get down in each?

Here's today's attempt.

I think from now on I'm going to try to fit in another 5-minute exercise or two if I have the time.

Edit: I can see the link when I edit the post, but when viewed in the forum neither the text nor the link can be seen (the rest of the line is blank after "Here's"). Here's the url in text:
http://joshuamatulin.deviantart.com/art/Figures-Day-326-Learning-to-Draw-648811200

Thanks Jeremy.

Here's today's attempt. I feel like there's a noticeable drop in quality today - the only hand I'm happy with is the one in the bottom-right.

I've been learning to draw since January this year. I've been keeping a log of exactly how long I've spent ddrawing, and I've also been uploading every page to get feedback and to keep a record. Most of my time so far has been spent practising drawn shapes, landscapes, and learning perspective. I hadn't done any figure drawing before coming to this site, unless you count these images from right after when I started:
One
Two
Three - This one also has an early attempt at a hand

I've been going to a drawing Meetup every Monday, which has several tutorial books you can borrow for the night. I few weeks ago I borrowed an anatomy book and started on the first section, which was about how to draw a hand. Someone in the comments recommended this website to me.

Thanks Sanne, it's very encouraging to compare my drawings now and those I drew two weeks ago; although I'm still a long way from being satisfied with how a lot of them are still turning out.

Here's today's page.

Thanks Sanne. I'll stick to how I've been doing it so far.

Here's today's attempt.

Thanks Kim! Here's today's attempt.

Thanks Kim, and thanks Sanne for the very detailed explanation. To answer your question Sanne: no, drawing gestures this way isn't second nature to me yet. In the timed sessions, I still need to spend 5-10 seconds trying to figure out where I'm going to draw the line of action, the rib cage, and the pelvis.

Here's another attempt.
The person in the bottom-right was meant to be running towards the camera, with the camera positioned right in front of the left (the viewer's right) shoulder, with the body angled to the side, and their left knee angled forwards in front of the body, and the right leg behind the body. I didn't successfully capture this motion in my drawing though.

I also watched the first two videos of that series. I noticed that the steps to figure drawing given by Proko are different to the ones I've been doing so far, so I did another page trying to draw that way. I'm not happy with the results - these figures didn't turn out as well as the other page I drew today; but that just might be because I haven't been practising this method - I think the results are still better than my first attempt at figure drawing at the top of the page.

I just noticed the link in my post on the 26th leads back to this site. This is what I meant to link to.

Looking at my earlier attempts, I think I am doing better now. I don't think it's because I'm any more skilled than I was before, but rather that now I'm trying to focus on the things you and Sanne told me to (separate the rib cage and the pelvis, draw the line of action as a C instead of an S, pay attention to the proportions of the head, legs and rib cage etc.). I don't think the difference between my earlier and later attempts is as big as with my drawings of hands.

I'd like to attempt longer drawings to attempt to get some more detail down, although I'm not sure what exactly I should spend the extra time doing to make them better. My longest figure drawings so far have been 5 minute ones. If I tried some ten minute exercises, should I spend twice as long trying to get the proportions and angles more accurate, or should I start off like I would with the five minute exercises, and then spend the extra five minutes adding something else?

I also got a private message yesterday on Deviantart recommending this series to me, which I'll check out before my next attempt.

Thanks Kim! I tried again today, and tried to focus on drawing the palm as a squarish shape, although I didn't account for it properly when the hand was at an angle.

Here's another go at it.

Thanks Kim! I had another go today.

A lot of the fingers were spread further apart than they should be, especially with the second 2-minute drawing. I'll try to keep that in mind next time.