Two pictures

[Superstes]

New here at CA. Just thought I'd throw out some charcoal works I've done in the past couple months.
Dragon-Thing
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa117/Zhephyr/Set30000-resize.jpg
Orc. Who knows if thats what he really is.
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa117/Zhephyr/P1000054-edit-resize.jpg

[Sinaz]

Life-drawing.

I don't want to analyze and critique your work so much because it's all going to point towards getting a better understanding of form, volume, shading, structure, etc. that is going to come from drawing from life.

If you want to learn how to draw dragons, go to the zoo and study critter anatomy. Learn to see through the skin and muscle and figure out how the bones work (helps to study some animal anatomy books as well). Figure out what animals feel like a "dragon" to you (and not necessarily lizards-- some Chinese dragons are decidedly lion-esque.) I mean, even a serpent has more nuance and elegant muscle and bone structure than simple garden hose.

With people, well, they're all around you... start drawing them. Again, find their skeleton through gestural sketches, build up volume, define shadow shapes, and then texture. Learn to see and anticipate how a body supports itself, it's exchange and distribution of weight to the major bony landmarks.

At the moment, you are drawing in symbols. You know that nostrils are like holes, so you draw two round dots on the paper. You know that ears are affixed to the side of the head, so you draw something like it there. You know eyes are sort of oval shaped, so you draw ovals with circles nested inside them...

But human anatomy... drawing in general... is not about converting your imagination into hieroglyphics. It's about depicting the forms that you see through an understanding of their construction and nature. Through training, practice, and especially life drawing, you will be able to model a figure with weight, volume, and structure on the page complete to rendering without relying on symbols. But it starts with real practical exercise in life-drawing.

Symbols vs. form:

[Leftyy]

Sinaz gave you the best possible critique there is. So, follow what s/he says.

[Sinaz]

Sinaz gave you the best possible critique there is. So, follow what s/he says.

I have boy parts. ;)

[Leftyy]

I have boy parts. ;)

Heh, okay, well that mystery is settled then.

I hope you don't think I wrote "she". I wrote "s/he" (the short form of "he/she").

[Elwell]

Superstes, I moved this to the section that will give you the kind of feedback you need. I also changed the thread title, because people are likely to just skip over something called "double post."

[Jason Rainville]

I must say though it's refreshing to see a beginner (no offense of course) so comfortable with putting all sorts of tone in their art. Start a sketchbook, and get crackin at some life studies which will help you out. :)