huge download! Figure drawing tutorial updated with PDF

[E.M.GIST]

You can now download a PDF here (http://www.erikgist.com/ErikGist_WattsAtelierFigureTutorial.pdf)
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[Main Loop]

they dont show up

[rodrigo!]

lol @ the snowman,
and an excellent tutorial!

[glikster]

I have a question regarding your technique...
I know of other techniques that I have been studying that claim to begin with the ribcage mass, or others who claim to start with the pelvic mass.

The reasons given were that the head is one of the least structurally important parts of the figure (as Hogarth illustrates) and that the model's head very often moves from the beginning of the pose.

Do you have a particular reason for beginning with the head?

Hope this comes off sounding the way I mean it, genuinely curious and wanting to learn.

[timpaatkins]

Thanks E, keep em comin! (Im a greedy dude)

[E.M.GIST]

rodrigo!-Thanks

glikster-No, there is no reason for starting with the head other than it is fairly consistent, as it is not affected by a persons build(if you workout your head doesn't get bigger, physically). I personally don't like starting with any of the masses. I look for the relationship between those masses (the gesture). My starting point however is marking the top, bottom and middle of my pose. Then I find what sits on the middle point, the crotch for instance. The main focus for me in the first sitting of a pose is getting the gesture and rough placement of landmarks (pit of the neck, tips of shoulders, crotch, etc.) once this is solid then I start to develope my masses based on this gesture. The reason for this is, proportional masses are easy to adjust just trim a little here add alittle there, but if the gesture is not correct that is when you end up having to remove whole areas of your drawing. I hope that helps.

Tim-Next up masses and structure.

[glikster]

glikster-No, there is no reason for starting with the head other than it is fairly consistent, as it is not affected by a persons build(if you workout your head doesn't get bigger, physically). I personally don't like starting with any of the masses. I look for the relationship between those masses (the gesture). My staring point however is marking the top, bottom and middle of my pose. Then I find what sits on the middle point, the crotch for instance. The main focus for me in the first sitting of a pose is getting the gesture and rough placement of landmarks (pit of the neck, tips of shoulders, crotch, etc.) once this is solid then I start to develope my masses based on this gesture. The reason for this is, proportional masses are easy to adjust just trim a little here add alittle there, but if the gesture is not correct that is when you end up having to remove whole areas of your drawing. I hope that helps.

Tim-Next up masses and structure.

Extraordinarily informative and helpful! Thank you!

:teeth:

[A.Cerasoli]

Thanks! I just saved the pics to my desktop and I'am looking forward to reading your tutorial.

[sve]

Thank you so much for this tutorial and making it in such a easy to understand manner. I love your explanation about the two opposites: when something is tense , the opposite side of the object will be relaxed. The examples of he bean bag and snow man are great and very comprehensible.
So thank you very much, hope to learn more from you.
Sveta

[E.M.GIST]

glikster-glad it helped

A.Cerasoli-I hope you enjoy it.

sve-Glad you liked it.


I hope to have an update tomorrow. Actually it is a redo that I have been working on.

[quietadrian]

yessss, keep posting these so I can print them all out and never have to attend class again! muahhaha

[Dizon]

ahhh professional help! So valuable.

Thanks Mr. Gist. What an unusual name. :)

[dorian]

very nice of you to share these, thank you so much!

I just noticed that I'm reading this very differently now that I started art school and actually am drawing from the model every day. our approach at angel is similar, I'll quickly point out the differences for you erik and those interested:

-we also start with marking top-bottom-middle
-we draw a plumbline with these marks (top-bottom-middle) and choose a reasonable position of the plumbline on the model, actually using a plumb weight on a string (as opposed to using the pencil, both methods work well I guess. it seems we can decide pretty well if something is horizontal or vertical)
-once the plumbline is set, we then draw a little thumbnail sketch of our idea of the gesture to decide about questions like "am I going to use a c-curve on the leg, or will a s-curve be more powerful/accurate?" about 5 cm in height, not worrying about proportion too much but doing it as accurate as possible in a reasonable amount of time (5-10 minutes)
-the thumbnail sketch done, we start on the actual drawing. not with the head as you do, but with establishing the height of shoulders and hips.
-next is finding the width of shoulders, hips and head, and blocking in the feet
-then we proceed as you do, using as few and as long lines as possible, to keep it as simple and as powerful as possible while still being accurate

the next step would be "articulation" instead of "structure", which means defining the shapes a bit more, but still staying more "2D". there is no stage where we consciously switch to "3D-Thinking" as far as I know. We just learn to copy what we see, the shapes, the tones. But I will definitely try to draw contour lines once we pass the gestures-only stage!

hope that's of interest to anybody..! :bashful:

btw. we also never draw from imagination, just pure copying. I'm doing it on my own as much as possible, though.


a question: I'm having trouble with getting small sizes right. like the height and width of the head.. I couldn't possibly start with the head, it would be too wrong. we measure stuff with a knitting needle, but I find it rather inacurate. half a centimeter difference makes a head look a LOT bigger/smaller.
do you have any tips on getting stuff like this right?
practise eyeballing? :)


thanks again for putting together the tut!

[HunterKiller_]

Great stuff. I can't wait to see the rest!

[E.M.GIST]

Updated at the top

[sve]

Thank you so much for posting more chapter from your book, I like the way you give this complex knowledge, your tendency to show examples and similar built thinks in life. Especially I liked the chapter with you suggesting connecting dots in drawing simplifies shapes, it's very good explanation.
And the chapter about a head construction is very needed one for me, all this clues where the main features are placed according to each other are great.
Thank you so much, very noble gesture from you.
Sveta

[briggsy@ashtons]

Good point about the mentolabial sulcus, EM. But what is analyzation? It sounds like it could be painful.:x

I thought dorian made a very thought-provoking contribution on the difference between the purely visual approach to drawing of the Angel school (and its numerous clones) and the classical, constructional approach that you are summarizing here. The debate goes back at least to Caravaggio vs. the Carracci, and has already come up a few times in my short time here. The visual approach prepares the student specifically for tonal painting from real subjects that are immobile and indefinitely available, and can be extended to more ephemeral or mobile subjects only by the use of photographs. To draw or paint the latter subjects from life, to draw with any sort of gestural directness, and of course to get down anything that exists only in the memory or imagination - for these things we need the classical kind of training, of which you are obviously an enthusiastic and thoughtful exponent.

[Elwell]

Great stuff Erik. Thanks for posting these.

[E.M.GIST]

adrian-Then my plan has worked.muahhaha!!!!
Dorian-That is some really good insite you have there. And to answer your question, just lots of model time and careful measurement will help you to train your eye better. Also being around people with better eyes than yourself. One thing I do is I relate the head to as many different things as you can, not just measuring head heights.

Hunterkiller-Thanks, now you don't have to.

sve- no problem

briggsy@ashtons-lol, I know its not a word, but I can't think of another that fits.

Elwell-Thankyou and your welcome, but I am not sure how much good they are going to do you, figure drawing is clearly not a weak point for you.

[Elwell]

Elwell-Thankyou and your welcome, but I am not sure how much good they are going to do you, figure drawing is clearly not a weak point for you.
Yeah, but I teach too, and am always on the lookout for good stuff to steal ;).

[E.M.GIST]

Elwell-Great!!! Have at it then.

[Dizon]

hehe actually, "analyzation" is a word.

[briggsy@ashtons]

Meaning getting too anal about one's drawings?

[Elwell]

The visual approach prepares the student specifically for tonal painting from real subjects that are immobile and indefinitely available, and can be extended to more ephemeral or mobile subjects only by the use of photographs.
Ironically, the people who are the most dogmatic about this approach also tend to be equally dogmatic about not using photos.

[briggsy@ashtons]

Probably just as well, since (I would argue) you need the depth of understanding of the classical approach in order to be able to work from photos convincingly. I'm quite certain that Loomis, for example, worked from photos to a huge extent, but he was able to do so because he knew how to draw.

[E.M.GIST]

I updated with the definitive version, with the final drawing. You may have to hit refresh.
and drumroll please...

"Analyzation: the act of analyzing, or separating into constituent parts"
or atleast thats what the dictionary says.

[briggsy@ashtons]

Very good, patdzon and E.M. A "rare and probably seldom-needed synonym of analysis" (http://www.bartleby.com/68/72/372.html) has found a use in life.

Now, mental ...labia ...sulkas ...

[E.M.GIST]

Sorry, that should have been mental labial sulcus. Its fixed now.

[briggsy@ashtons]

Can happen to anyone EM. I was trying to draw your attention to that one more discreetly in my first post. Hope I haven't come across as a carping critic.

[E.M.GIST]

I have seen it spelled three ways "mental labial sulcus" "mentolabial sulcus" and "labio-mental sulcus" does it matter which is used or does anyone no the "most" correct.

[Zaknafain]

Thanks for posting this. It was an interesting read.

[Judy Warner]

I found this extraordinarily helpful and thank you for your help. Very clearly written and illustrated. Are you working on a book--if so, I'll buy! Judy

[the_allejo05]

thanks..nice advice..and sound approach..

[cam]

yep id buy this as a book.
ive been unable to find something so straight-forward and simply explained.
i guess the next step is to check out the authors and artists you've recommended

[HunterKiller_]

Excellent. Thanks much. :)

[take²]

thx a lot for ur tut.

[Josef Sy]

Thanks for posting this tutorial, E.M.Gist. Is the book out already?

[E.M.GIST]

Thanks for the renewed interest in this thread. As far as the book goes it will probably be a while, it is something Jeff Watts (http://www.jeffreyrwatts.com/) and I are working on in our spare time, which is not ample. We want to do it right so it will probably be a couple years. You all will be the first to know when it is nearing completion

[mentler]

Very well done <> excellent information and sources

[1337]

Great information. Time well spent.

[Onir]

whoa I didn't realize there were all these images; I saved a few a while ago but never got from structure on... thanks! I often look back at the ones I did save because they are always nice to look over. great to have some more now hehe

[Banshax]

Not sure if its ok to post here, since its gone quiet for a while now.
Then again, I really apreciated all the info provided here. Thanks!
the thing about shape and connecting dots proved very usefull
already.

[tensai]

can someone not stickify this thing!!??

[baccaman21]

Hi... I'm a noob here.

To E.M.

Just found your tutorial online via the society of figurative artist forum... very nice tute i must say - some really good pieces of advice, I love your writing style - reminds me scott mccloud (as in "understanding/making comics" [but I'm sure you know that already]) but i have a question to ask you....

I totally understand the general process you're refering to but I would like you to clarify one point for me...

In chapter 1, second to last paragraph, you refer to;

"...you should find the triangular or pyramid shape of the pose..." - fair enough... I think I do this anyway when I do life studies, but wanting you to clrify this point further... I don't see any obvious signs of it in your illustrations...

I love your work btw - I'm a big fan. (without wanting to sound too sycophantic)

Thanks in advance.

Pete :)

[Rebeccak]

Fantastic material, thanks!!

[supermonchi]

Hi Erik,
Thank you so much for this very well presented and informative article, very useful for figure drawing beginners like myself.
Thanks, much appreciated!

[E.M.GIST]

I finally put together a PDF of this tutorial, and you can downloads it here (http://www.erikgist.com/ErikGist_WattsAtelierFigureTutorial.pdf)

[panchosimpson]

hell yeah! thanks erik!

[Judy Warner]

Many many thanks. I wish I could be in a class, but this is the next best thing. Judy

[FlameDragon]

Very useful!!

[amit3d]

This pdf is my superimportent stuff. Thanks.

[jt4470]

Ah, I remember reading this tutorial a while back. I can't believe I nearly forgot a bout it when looking for how to break down forms. Thank you very much for making it and hope you make more! hehe.

[TASmith]

Why isn't this in the tutorials forum? CA needs to have certain threads like this one exist in both forums at once, if possible.

[JustinBeckett]

Fantastic! Thank you!

[teena_mom]

waw , thanks E.M :) :)

[Elwell]

Why isn't this in the tutorials forum? CA needs to have certain threads like this one exist in both forums at once, if possible.

Agreed. I've copied an edited version of the thread to the tutorials forum here (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=135935), with a link back to this one for questions and discussion.