Erich,
I think that last set does look a bit looser! One exercise you might consider trying is to mimic each of the poses you have drawn in that last set in another set of 2 minute drawings, where you just use loose lines, and not boxes / cylinders.
Just a suggestion ~ I think it might help you to capture the essence / flow of the subject.
Good to see your posts! 
Cheers,
~Rk
thx, have to try that. i believe, that these constructs will become more loose automatically with the amount of practice, because right know i have to think a lot about perspective etc, and with time, this thinking should decrease a lot (but theyāre no gesture drawings anyway, i thinkā¦)
Erich,
Yep, I see what you mean. One exercise that I found useful in school was to take Master Drawings, and trace on top of them (either digitally or traditionally) the box / cylinder simplified constructs such as you are using here. I think itās always a good idea to mix up studies from imagination with studies from the Masters. I think often there is premature emphasis placed on drawing from the imagination ~ while I think ultimately it is the goal, itās impossible to draw what you do not know ~ so I think it is best to do as many studies from the masters as possible.
Just a thought. 
Cheers,
~Rebecca
@Rebecca
this sounds like a good idea. iāll definetly have to try that. iām feeling just a bit better doing such constructs right now, than trying loose linesā¦donāt know why.
hereās another oneā¦think iāll try one more detailed now with this construction thing as basis.
Hey, Erich,
I like the torso and legs a lot! Do you think that he might need more of a waist, though? Just a thought.
Cheers,
~Rk
thx, see what you mean. the belt hides the wasteline, bad position. i worked a little bit more in the groin area, but ok. there are some areas that could be better, but iām glad that this guy looks more dynamic and has more life than the other tries
Erich,
With drawing, yeah, itās really hard to correct anything. But any of your drawings are GREAT bases for digital paintings, where you can obviously tweak ad infinitum. I may be wrong here, but I think youāre consciously working traditionally to refine your perceptions ~ which I think is great, given that you know how to paint digitally as well. I rather wish that more people would start out traditionally as you are, precisely because you donāt have Ctrl + Z, and it forces you to think about things more. I guess what Iām trying to say is that it may be a longer and tougher route to do things traditionally at first as you are, but that there is likely to be a bigger payoff at the end when you start to work on your pieces digitally.
Just my two cents (Iām basically agreeing with your approach).
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
@Rebecca
yes i agree with your point of view. pencil is a different medium, but one that traines my skills best, i think. i donāt want to draw on the wacom, because i think my hand-eye-coordination is better with pencil on paperā¦and i enjoy the time working not in front of the monitor
next, no ref
Erich,
Nice! It seems your drawings are getting more confident and substantive.
If I may make one recommendation, it would be to throw into the mix of original / from imagination character designs the occasional pencil Master Copy or two. I think itās great youāre really working your imagination, but I think doing an occasional Master Copy will help you to reach your goals much faster.
Only a suggestion.
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
By the way, my friend Hong Ly has updated his site, and itās awesome:
You should definitely check it out:
http://www.characterdesigns.com/
Cheers,
~Rk
yeah, great stuff on his page. do you think i shall make some master studies for special problem areas, or do you think it would be generally good?
I have the āAnatomy Lessons from the great mastersā, so i could work on every part of the body
yeah, great stuff on his page. do you think i shall make some master studies for special problem areas, or do you think it would be generally good?
Generally good.
I have the āAnatomy Lessons from the great mastersā, so i could work on every part of the body
That would be sweet! I have done tons of copies from that book. It is a really useful resource. The other good resource which I highly recommend is the Master Draughtsman Series of paperback books ~ these are REALLY cheap, slim volumes containing just the drawings of Master Artists, and they are great because they are printed on heavy paper, and are light, which makes them easy to copy from, as A.) they are not so expensive that you will worry about ruining them or breaking the spine and B.) they are not heavy, and you can hold them in one hand while drawing in the other (if you want).
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
Erich,
Fantastic to see these! I think your analyzing of these drawings and others will tremendously help you to improve your own work.
When going after detail, donāt forget the basics. For example:
[left]Itās often best to find the major axes first and to figure out how the various aspects of the body fall off of these axes. Note the big compression on the modelās rightās side, and the stretch on his left. There are very clear dynamics which are setting up the tension and balance in this pose. The challenge is to recognize and represent them SIMPLY at first, and then to build more detail which supports the larger idea as you go. Itās not a matter of finding the large idea first, and then forgetting about it as you do details ~ rather, itās about having every small detail support the large idea, and not creating details that do not. Sort of like body sentences supporting a topic sentence in a paragraph. You want to support your thesis. The thesis of this pose is contrappasto / shifts of weight. Every detail should support that thesis.
Or, in short, the essence of the pose can be expressed in a small number of opposing curves which strongly demonstrate the action of the pose.
Hope this makes sense.
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
[/left]
thx for the review, Rebecca. will change that soon.
While iām copying a drawing, iām not sure that i think about what iām doing like i should, so iām more concerned that i match the reference than thinking about anatomy (i think Alex mentionned that problem during the workshop). Do you think it trains my skills in a more subsconcious way, or that iāll have to change the way iām copying the drawings?
Erich,
Thatās a cool question, and one Iāve given some thought to regarding my own work. Frankly, half the time I donāt think I understand Anatomy at all ~ I would never call myself an Anatomist, Iām a figurative artist. I know Anatomy inasmuch as it pertains to drawing and painting the human form. When I draw, I am thinking subconsciously about the Anatomy, but more consciously about how forms, lines, shapes, and tones interact to create believable and, to my mind, interesting form. I donāt think about tendons and their names, I donāt think about bones and their positions, except at a subconscious level. The reason I wanted you guys to focus so heavily on the admittedly sometimes boring Anatomical Plates in the Workshop was to get that knowledge engrained in your subconscious so that you guys could eventually learn to DRAW.
The interplay of conscious and subconscious thinking about drawing is fascinating, and you can alternately manipulate it, and let it manipulate you.
I hope this makes some kind of sense. I am sure it is different for every person ~ that is just how it is for me. And it changes, lots of times, depending on the day and my mood. To me, drawing is just like thought, and as such, just as liquid and dynamic.
Does that sound strange?
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
