Sketch Practice

[Tymotzues]

beautiful work
I think the fingers look a little long? and the perspective of the ear is a little rotated - but these could be stylistic things?

[fiercerobot]

Not stylistic so much as me being a beginner at figure drawing. Thanks for your reply and critique. I'll definitely work on it. I think the one hand under the other is oversized as well. This book has some great subjects to draw and is really helping with drawing figures in space.

[Greenham]

Fantastic piece. Looks like there might be some subtle anatomy errors, but my human anatomical knowledge is not so good as to provide any helpful suggestions or insights.

[fiercerobot]

Thanks for the reply. With so many great artists on this forum, its encouraging to get any feedback.

[IanKazimer]

Is this from a Burne Hogarth book?
Those books are great reference; I still use 'em too.

My only concern with this piece is that it's quite flat. You've got really nice linework happening, and it's easy to see what muscles go where, but only because they're outlined.
Try to take into account volume of the muscles and how shadows will interact with them.
Think back to those early drawing days when we had to draw cylinders and spheres and shade them properly; try to apply theories of basic shapes and light and shadow.

If this is from Hogarth's book, pay attention to his renderwork and try a few pieces that copy that.

[fiercerobot]

Yep, as I stated in my post, this sketch is a drawing from "Dynamic Figure Drawing" by Burne Hogarth. I agree, it is a terrific book. I'm loving it and it is helping. I totally see what you are saying and will work on my volumetric shading more.

Unfortunately i can't look back on those old days of drawing class. I never had any. All my drawing direction has come from personal experience and effort. This is the first book on drawing i've ever picked up. I did have a "beginning drawing" class at college this year but it was a joke.

Thanks for your crit! I will take your advice and apply it to my next sketch.

[IanKazimer]

Sorry fiercerobot! That comment was presumptuous of me.

Be sure to post what you do next!

[fiercerobot]

No worries mate. The internet is hardly a place of clear communication.
As I stated before, I appreciate all crits and comments. Have a happy wednesday.

[MisterBarrettara]

This is a really nice work you have here! After reading your post I thought I might suggest something, not regarding this work, but regarding just drawing in general. You mentioned that you feel you're working slowly, and there really is nothing wrong with that, but if you want to work faster with your drawings, the key is practice, practice, practice!!
When you work on something like this for 2 hours (and there's nothing wrong with that!! Only good things can come from putting a lot of time and care into a drawing!), I wouldn't say it qualifies as a "sketch" anymore, it's a full-fledged drawing. Personally, before I'm doing a full-out drawing, I draw a bunch of sketches to start getting the feel for the figure/object/place that I'm drawing, and I give each one about 1-2minutes of work. I think you'll find that if you do some small preparatory sketches that are very quick, energetic, and gestural, it will help you to loosen up your line-work, and even put more energy into drawings. In every drawing class that I've been in, the very first thing the instructor has done has been to impose a time limit on drawings, and that's the explanation I've gotten from all of them for it.

Also, I may be able to address the different pencil bit: All of my favourite artists are comic book artists, and they make frequent use of Blue pencils they call 'copy' pencils. They usually make a rough outline of a character in blue pencil, and then go over it in a hard grey/black pencil. The reason for this is that when the image is scanned, or "copied", they can eliminate the rough work that's in blue, while keeping the cleaned-up lines that they put on top.

[fiercerobot]

Thanks very much for a terrific and very helpful response. I'm also very interested in doing more illustrative work and trying some digital painting etc... Sounds like the blue pencil technique is very helpful after scanning in images so I'll give that a try. I also really appreciate the info from drawing classes regarding the time limits. As i mentioned i'm in the middle of a Graphic Design degree program but it's a bit lite on drawing and illustration and I don't have a lot of previous, class experience. I do think overworking my sketches might be a bit of an issue for me and I do feel my drawings are a bit tight. Another tip i've read was to purposely hold the pencil differentely from how you hold it when you write. It's supposed to help you loosen up a bit as well. I'll try that too.
Thanks again!

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