Hello everyone, I've been using this site for a little while now to practice gesture, but never really thought about sharing my work for critique. My drawings have never satisfied me, so I thought some external advice would be necessary. Regarding specific concerns, I feel the way I portray volume and masses is really bad.
I'll provide a google drive link to the drawings from the last session I had. Sorry if the paper is see-through, I use old office paper to practice on.
Great job, KhasDrake, nice range on your drawing skills. I love the 10 minute drawing, but I love the 30-second ones so much.
However, I've got one tiny advance: I completely adore the cartooniness and expressiveness of the 30-second warm-ups, why don't you please do 52 more minutes of 30-second figure studies????
Why? Because, it'll make your body sketches more easier in looks and appearance, while at the same time, make your sketches fuller of vitality, spirit and energy.
Hope you'll find this completely and absolutely useful and practical.
I like it!!! I like your proportions a lot. Your poses seem a little stiff, so just loosen up your hand and don't be afraid to make wide/slim strokes. I struggle with the same frustrations and I think it's very easy to only see our mistakes. Your poses are very clean and precise. Just keep drawing:)
I must say, your 30 seconds poses are impressive. I can read them really easily and there is a great sense of movement in your depiction! Your 10 minute poses is my second favourite, as you've really managed to capture volume. You're definitely getting there... I hope you can be satisfied in future sessions, as I don't think you lack understanding, but rather, practice. Maybe use more harsh lines and soft lines together for different volumes as this can be more striking and look accurate in a representation? Anyways, great work and thank you for sharing with us. Keep up the good work x
You say your drawings have never satisfied you. I would like to say that most, if not all artists have had the same problem. The difference between the ones that have attained some level of success or notoriety is that they CONTINUED TO WORK ON THEIR CRAFT until they were satisfied. So, with that, let me commend you on not only making the attempts to improve but also seeking advice on how to grow further.
Now, what I did notice with shapes and volume may be a control issue. You want to check out Peter Han on YouTube. He has some great videos for starting artists learning to control their instruments better. What he recommends is practicing drawing simple shapes like circles, lines, cubes etc. You continue working on this site and coming back every day and just complete 30 minute sessions and you WILL SEE GROWTH.
Hey Khas drake, one thing to think about is what your end goal is with the site, is it an overall understanding of the human body, just to get quicer gestures down, or to really understand the muscles and the body completely, if it's just for gestures or a general understanding, you might want to try loosening up your 30 second and one minute drawings. It can feel safe to syay with the construction method but in 30 seconds there isn't really much time to get past the basic layout and you don't get as much out of it as in the 5 minute+ ones. maybe try startign the sessions without any construction, or jsut a gesture line and then pick a part of the body, I like shoulders a lot because it leads into the arm, the head and the torso to give you good proportional sense for the rest but really its whatever in that specific pose you think can guide you, and it leads to bringing a lot more life into your quick poses which eventually helps you with the longer ones too and can keep things from getting too stiff.
As for working on volume and making thigns feel more substantial, understanding the 3d forms that make up the body is important for whatever your end goal is and some great teacehrs are moderndayjames and krenz for that, james has a lot of stuff on youtube, particularly this one for human forms
I like how you simplify the poses into simple shapes, but the lines are a bit stiff. You are using very basic lines and shapes, like the full ellipse for the calf in the 10m drawing.
To carry your lines forward and to draw with more flaw I suggest taking a look at Richard Powell's gesture drawing. study and imitate his drawings to discover the more lines and movements you can use to make your drawings more dynamic (and pleasing/satisfactory to your eye):
Have to tell you that most, if not all artists, will most likely be unsatisfied with their drawings. Everyone is constantly improving - if you don't find issue with your work, you might stagnate. Try looking at older drawings to see how you have improved to feel better about where you are.
It might benefit you to try and speed up your drawing process - the 1 minutes are somewhat bare. If it interests you, practice without the "line of action" spine and balls for joints so you can spend more time focusing on the overall shape.
I will say that in your 10 min drawing, the hands/feet/head are very lacking in detail. The shading attempt looks interesting though.
If you have concerns about drawing 3d shapes, I recommend drawabox. Never before did I realize that I can't even draw a flipping cube before trying to use that site. It will help with construction of 3d forms.
By the way, I like your attention to muscle groups/shapes in the drawings.
Beedledee
3 years ago.
