Figure Drawing Dump - Looking for advice/help

[RogerAdams]

Hello,

This is a collection of life drawings I've done in the past 2 months. They mostly range from 1 minute to 30 minutes but nothing over an hour. I would like to go more than an hour but I would have to hire my own models for that.

I feel I've been hitting a wall and I'm not really getting any better. I need a lot of work on my proportions and I've never been happy with my 1 minutes. If anyone has any advice on short poses or proportions or anything really, I would appreciate it.

Thanks for your time.

Roger

These are all on an 18x24 pad of newsprint using conte, charcoal pencil and/or vine charcoal.

1 minute

242455

242456

242457

242458

5 minutes

242459

242460

242462

10 minutes

242461

242465

242466

242467

242468

242469

30 minutes to 1 hours

242470

242471

242472

242474

misc from photo ref

242473

[tobi]

Hi, Roger,

some nice pieces here, there is a lot of energy in them, and a readyness go go into large, fluent gestures. Great job for just 10 minutes! Maybe too large gestures from time to time, you oftentimes lose the proportions, as you have said. If you want to fight that, maybe here is something that helps:

All your studies seem to evolve from an outline with a lot of power, and you start shading after you have layed down the lines (at least that's what it looks like) to describe the body even further.

But if you want to achieve more realism, you should pay more attention to the 3-dimensional characteristics of your models. Shading isn't something that can be applied later on*, its part of the whole process of finding the right proportions and volumina. The line is just an easy tool for us drawers to describe something coming out of a 3-dimensional world, and to lay it down on 2-dimensional paper. But in real life, there are no outlines. There are only bodies of various shapes, even a road sign is 3-dimensional. Some of these bodies sum up, to form a finger, an hand, an arm…

I drew a lot of comics when I was a kid, to earn my first money, so the importance of line seemed to be the big deal. But when my interest in realistic drawings awoke in my early twenties, it took me years to find out that the secret is not in the line, but in the complete understanding of any object as a body in space. The more you know about objects in space, the better your knowledge on what lines to apply to get the best effect will become.
So, its first about the body, and second or maybe third about the line (there are planes, too…).


What possible practical advice can I give? Try to seperate your model into a few simple blocks, into cones, into cylinders. Pick up a good book on anatomy, and try to learn everything you can get on size relations. Stick to that issue: Size relations and simple 3-dimensional shapes, repeat, until you get your general proportions right, even when you're asleep. IT#ll look ugly at first, not very appealing, but remeber: You're not working on certain personal features yet – you're just trying to learn the proportions. That'll be your base you'll need to rely on.

Then go on and do another seperation of these rough shapes. And another one. Try to find opportunities to spend more time on a single dawing than just 10 minutes! You'll never get beyond a certain point, if you have so little time!
Okay, lets say that you've found a solution for that. Lets say that you habe someone with more time on his or her hands. You'll discover a lot of details, of tiny bumps on the surface. Maybe its better to get really close to a single feature like a foot or an arm, when you have a lack of time, or when you want to find out more about the details – and always concentrate on the volumina, instead of the line.

Always try to find out what causes that bump or edge or soft plaines. Is it fat, is it a vein, is it a bone that can be seen through the skin? Work on your theoretical knowledge about anatomy, muscles and bones from books. It's worth doing longer studies at home from anatomy books, plus drawing figures out of your mind and correcting them with the help of the books. Then go back to life drawing class, and try to rediscover what you have seen in the books on your model's features…



At least that was my way. I know that there must be better ways – or ways that simply better fit your personal way of learning, but maybe you can use some of these hints.


And, just a suggestion, if you want to have a pose for longer than 1h for free: Ask you drawing colleagues for help. I bet some of them want to do longer studies, too. Draw portraits of each other, or draw each other while drawing.


* Of course, great artists can work that way, because the have the routine and the skill to work any way they want without getting lost: Just perfect outlines, and maybe shading afterwards. Or they can work the other way round. The can distortr proportions without making them look wrong, they can do ANYTHING. But if one is still learning, fighting his way through all the basic problems, one should avoid that strategy until the knowledge and routine is given that empowers him to go any path desired…

[RogerAdams]

Wow Tobias! Thank you for the in depth reply. I really appreciate it. You're right - that is how I usually work (start with line construction then shade the forms). I'm going to give your reply a few more read overs to make sure I understand everything but I think it will really help a lot. Thanks again!

roger

[stephen]

well i wont go into a detailed critique, but the most obvious thing that stands out is your heads are almost always too small. I'm not sure of your process, but if your starting the drawing with the head first, try to switch that up and draw the body first and stick the head ontop.
You might hear people saying draw your largest, most obvious shapes first, well it goes with everything. draw the mass of the body and then you'll have better judgement on how large your head should be


my 2cents

[RogerAdams]

Thanks Stephen, I've always started with the head - like always. I will definitely give your advice a try. Thank you!

[Brittons]

Hi Roger,

I would suggest just taking it to the next level and working on finished studies. I'm not sure where you live, but there must be some sort of group that poses models for 3 hour blocks or more. Craigslist is a good place to get something like that going or find other people who do it. Maybe start a group of artists that are looking to improve their figure drawing and work that way and split the cost of a model.

[RogerAdams]

Thanks Brittons, I think you're right. Right now the museum class is paying the models practically nothing ($12.50/hour). So, I'll see if any of them want to pose for me privately. I'm excited now to think what I'll do with the extra time. :)