need some advice

[odax]

Hello everybody, i 'm a second year art student and i need to know some tips and advice to master proportions in life drawings of human figure ,because i really have hard time when trying to get the right proportions of the model in pose ; whatever i do i have always something wrong with the figure, so i'll be really gratefull to you if someone can give me a hand. thank you

[gerken]

One of the simplest line relationships that I start out with usually has the biggest impact on my sketches and studies.

Right off the bat, I usually draw a random box on my paper, basically to mar up the clean sheet. I'll admit sometimes being slightly intimidated by a brand new sheet of paper, and this helps me ease my apprehension.

The "line" relationship, or axis I referred to above is the line that delineates the two shoulders in relationship to the line that delineates both sides of the hips. Even in a slightly posed figure, these lines often times will be severely contra-positioned. Actually, more often than not, the most subtle poses result in the most distinguishable shoulder and hip axis lines.

These lines are the first lines I draw every time. This also helps "place" or "frame" my figure on the page, ensuring that I have enough paper to draw what I am focusing on in that sketch.

My disclaimer: I will say that I am new on this forum, and have been finding it difficult in getting commentary on posted work. I have tried the "Sketchbooks" section, but the reality is that most of the posters there update their pages multiple times a day, and more than likely your thread will not stay "current." I also tried this section (the "Fine Art" section), and actually received zero responses here. I don't want to waste bandwidth, so I'm going to try other websites, but the "Work In Progress/Critique" section here might be the spot, so I'd try that if I were you. I private messaged a few of the more tenured members, hoping to get insight as to other useful forums, and have only received one response back.

I took one of my sketch pages below and highlighted the areas that I touched upon in this post.

The green lines are the faint, screwy, mess-up-the-page lines that get my blood flowing, and the bold red lines are the very first lines I draw when I start building my figures. I hope this helps you out in some way. It's really best to see this first-hand, but I feel like I explained it well enough.

Best,
Dustin

[Kelly Krantz]

Good example of some key lines for life drawing... i'de assume your instructor should be helping you out with some advice as well... also think about the shift in body weight in a figure, you should be able to draw a line from the top of the spine to the foot or feet supporting the weight of the figure. Then add the tilt of the shoulders and the sway of the hips. Next work on the shapes of the rib cage and the hips. I feel like the best habit to learn is drawing the figure from the center out leaving the limbs and head for last.:oneye: < good luck