Figure sketchwork -- first post

[The Morningstar]

Hey, everyone. My name's Gabe and I've been lurking this place for a while. The talent here is both amazing and intimidating, but mostly I find it to be a place that inspires me to work at getting better all the time. Anyway, I recently purchased a sketchbook that serves as a figure drawing journal and I thought I'd share the first sketches. I'll be adding more to this when I get a chance to scan more. C&C very welcome.

These were done with graphite & a white conte pencil.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/TheMorningstar/hands.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/TheMorningstar/gesturesketches.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/TheMorningstar/alex.jpg

[S51]

These are some great sketches, especially the one with the hands. I really only have two suggestions. Both for the hands and the human figures, a combination of looking at anatomy textbooks and working from life (I don't know if those poses were from life or not) will give you a really balanced understanding of anatomy and allow you to draw in a much deeper way. My only other suggestion is to avoid using the white pencil too much. When you become too focused on highlights at too early a stage, you lose touch with the real structure of the things you're drawing. I speak from experience, I've drawn portraits that had beautifully rendered highlights but on eye half a centimeter higher than the other. These are just things to keep in mind as you work, the main thing is to keep it up.

[The Morningstar]

Thanks for your suggestions, S51. Since I didn't say so before, all of the drawings (except for the one that's sideways in the second image) are from life.

I've been working from Bridgeman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life. I find it to be an extremely useful tool as it is an extremely comprehensive book.

[The Morningstar]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/TheMorningstar/oldwoman.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/TheMorningstar/femalesitting.jpg

And this one I worked on a bit more ...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v434/TheMorningstar/alex2.jpg