How do you come up with a figure (action) and draw it out well?

[iamparkerwu]

I told my figure drawing teacher that I wanted to be an animator/storyboard artist(what is it exactly anyways? hahaa I'm such a loser). And she said that it's easy to draw a figure well if it's directly from a model, but it takes something to come up with a figure/action and draw it well.

And I am totally in that situation right now. So what can I do to get improved on this (or get started?!)? Any advice? Thanks A LOT.

In the drawing below, I'm trying to come up with and draw a standing-up female, but I just don;t feel right with the whole body anatomy and proportion.

http://bp1.blogger.com/_NFeMlHWD-qc/SIft_FdMrzI/AAAAAAAAAms/dsV-3uGsWF0/s400/IMG_2145.JPG

[thesinfulsaint]

Find an anatomy book; I highly recommend Glenn Vilppu and George Bridgeman books. Use that book to learn muscle and bone structure. Keep going to lifedrawing classes. Buy a cheap sketchbook, a pen, and sit in a public place to do very quick gesture drawings and cafe sketches. If you can't do that, find a DVD, flip to a scene with a lot of movement, and do little 1-2 minute sketches from the paused frames. Eventually, you'll start to build an understanding for how the human figure is built and how it moves.

When you're working on a drawing from your imagination, sometimes it helps to do a miniature gesture before delving into the larger drawing. Not only will you have a greater understanding of where your drawing is headed, but you'll be able to make the pose even stronger in the final piece.

Good luck!! :)

[iamparkerwu]

thank u so much thesinfulsaint. so those books that u recommended are just for drawing figures from models but not for creating my own characters?

oh yeah, and i do draw random people in the park a lot. that helps too. so how long did it take u to be good at creating figures from ur imagination?

[thesinfulsaint]

so how long did it take u to be good at creating figures from ur imagination?
I don't think I'm quite there yet. :)

And yes, the books I mentioned are only about anatomy and drawing methods. They won't teach you anything about character design. If you want to learn more about that, for starters, I recommend visiting http://characterdesign.blogspot.com .

[iamparkerwu]

Thank you soooo much thesinfulsaint!! that is the best blog ever for me.

[panchosimpson]

Thesinfulsaint is giving you good advice here. My two cents: drawing is drawing, learning to execute figures will ultimately help when designing your own characters. Vilppu and Bridgman teach figure drawing using simple forms and thorough knowledge of anatomy. When I was in class with Vilppu, it didn't matter for him whether the model was posing or not, the procedure was the same.

Basically what you need to draw the figure successfully from imagination is a solid conception of the skeleton, knowledge of muscle origins/insertions, and an understanding of simple forms/planes, so you know how to simplify and understand volume in space. It's not easy but it sure as hell can be learned.

-R

[fredcheng1987]

I told my figure drawing teacher that I wanted to be an animator/storyboard artist(what is it exactly anyways? hahaa I'm such a loser). And she said that it's easy to draw a figure well if it's directly from a model, but it takes something to come up with a figure/action and draw it well.

And I am totally in that situation right now. So what can I do to get improved on this (or get started?!)? Any advice? Thanks A LOT.

In the drawing below, I'm trying to come up with and draw a standing-up female, but I just don;t feel right with the whole body anatomy and proportion.

http://bp1.blogger.com/_NFeMlHWD-qc/SIft_FdMrzI/AAAAAAAAAms/dsV-3uGsWF0/s400/IMG_2145.JPG

are you close to pasadena area? take k chen 's 2 figure drawing class
one is more to tones n lightning stuff and another is more to anatomy n propotion , gonna help you a lot
he teach a character design class too, but i think before taking that , you need to be in certain level of knowing how to do figure drawing,need to somehow manage to draw figure ok , or it will be realli hard to bring out the concept in early stages