studies vs drawing approach

[Virg]

ill edit this post since i think it wasnt clear... and well , sounded stupid. and irrevelant.

In a couple of words, I was asking if , when studying anatomy , i should stick to my trusted and comfortable method of sketching and drawing and just reproduce the pictures in the books to memorize bones and muscles, or if i would benefit more from doing them using the specific construction method recommended by the author to learn more abotu construction at the same time ?. Sometimes i dont know if my process of drawing will allow me to improve as much as the techniques / process shown in those books ? I know that in the end the goal is always the same, doign something that looks good, however I just wanted the opinion of people because i never really recopied stuff from book and i started it recently to try improve my anatomy knowledge.

thanks !!

[meltface]

what you're comfortable with may not always help you with learning. sketch methods especially. "Construction" is the key word I think when copying drawings, ie. creating a basic framework to go underneath the drawing, even if its very light or partially in your head.

you have to make sure you're accurate as possible when copying drawings, and this might mean you'll have to deviate from the methods that created the original.

example:
a bridgeman sketch might have lots of flowing lines, but if your copies are inaccurate, fall back onto straight line/point construction methods...check the horizontals, verticals, angles, make sure everything lines up first..then go in with those fun lines over your basic framework, and you'll see that the copy is more accurate and the information you learn is more correct.

this all eventually bleeds over into having more accurate life drawings etc....

hope that helps

[Virg]

ah ! thanks meltface..

you have to make sure you're accurate as possible when copying drawings, and this might mean you'll have to deviate from the methods that created the original.


thats exactly what i meant.. lets say bridgeman or hogarth, they use a lot of parallele guidelines or axis and boxes primitive shapes and build the ''real'' body lines over that.. the way i draw stuff is more with spherical shapes and blobs more spherical than boxy with straigh angles, and i then build over that.. so i guess that as long as my method helps me create a strong basis and etablish a correct perspective, the important thing next is to learn the anatomy well to know which lines to put over that to create a sense of form with interlacing contour.

guess i must not forget my good old methods when learning other stuff

[Farvus]

I would say use construction method recommended by the author. When at the beginning for example it is mentioned that you can start your figure from box, use if for every single figure shown on next pages instead of copying final results. This way you can switch into different thinking mode when it comes to building form and actually learn something from that.

Human body is mix of spherical shapes and box like shapes. You will need to learn both and find good balance. After tons of studies with different methods it all affects your drawing style and you can create pretty realistic human form without much constructing.

By the way. I believe there can be something like spherical box shapes. These are blobs but you intuitively see where are it's corners :D.

[Virg]

i agree about the spherical box shapes. The boxes in those books looks always so perfectly cubical with perfect corners, I personnaly tend to loose sight of measurement and loose the momentum sometimes because i try to make the construction so perfect, I find it so much easier to build a perfect box from a boxy-blob rather than the opposite.

As always thanks a lot Favrus , your experience and opinion are always helpful , thanks for taking time to answer my question.. This is why this community is great, because of people like you hehe.Anyway, lets hit something else here, if anybody wants to share their experience.
Any of you guys also use like '' markers;; when recopying stuff or when drawing from memory ? Lets say a small dot to mark articulations, or part of the contour of the knees or top of heads to nail the measurement of the figures before creating the shapes or contour of legs, arms etc..