Tasp's Sketchbook

#1

I’m attempting to learn more about figure drawing. I spend the majority of my drawing time doodling from my own mind. Recently though I’ve been attempting to teach myself how to figure draw with the help of a friend here’s what I’ve got so far. I’m trying to get better so critiques are welcome!l I’ve been checking out a few threads here on the forums that are useful and using reference from both life and photos as well as occasional museum visits. If there are any suggestions on books I’m open to them though my budget isn’t the biggest right now. I have Anatomy for the Artist by Jeno Barcsay and Figure Drawing by Robert Barrett. Thanks for your time!

#2

Some gestures to start things off, all of these were less than a minute, a couple were even 30 seconds

#3

And realizing my images are HUGE so after this first batch of posts they will be of a more appropriate size. Also does anyone know how to post thumbnails in a grid?


1minute


1minute with redraw from a friend on the left


5minutes


5minutes


5minutes


10minutes

#4

These are the longest ones I have so far


10minutes


10minutes


10minutes


10minutes


10minutes


20minutes


20minutes


20minutes


30minutes with redraw help

#5

Some work from today-


5minutes


5minutes

These next ones I didn’t really time sketches from incomplete sculptures-

I also went to a life drawing session today, I will have pictures of the work up a little later.

#6

A few more from today, mostly from a Life Drawing session-

#7


Sketch done using the method Doctor Bone shows in his thread The Book of Bones


More gesture, trying to not outline so much

#8

#9

New sketch, it has some proportion issues. the legs seem too short

#10

So I’m attempting my first in depth sketch, it’s sort of freaking me out a little. This is Houdon, Jean Antoine, bust of napolean. It might be hard to see but there are very very faint blocking lines for the rest of the head. Paying attention to all these details in order to make a faithful representation is a lot to keep track of. This is what I have so far, I’m going to take a break and revisit this later today. I think the sketches I’ve been doing for the dojo have helped me get this far and I’m sure part of this is just my own mind getting in the way.

#11

A little more work and I think I’m going to set this down. I’m pretty happy with what I’ve accomplished despite being able to see problems with it. The eyes are out of whack, that’s something I will need to pay closer attention to the next time. Any comments, or critique/advice would be most welcome.

#12

I have the same trouble keeping the proportions correct. I have found adding extra guide lines early to block in the overall shapes helps to keep things in proportion. Then slowly adding detail. I think the drawing is very good. :slight_smile:

#13

Thanks James, I appreciate the comment!

I’m off to a Life Drawing Session, I’ll be posting it up when I get back.

#14

:slight_smile: Hey…ANDREW…:slight_smile:

If you like creating figures from your own imagination, then the book you need the most to do it corectly, is DYNAMIC FIGURE DRAWING by Burne Hogarth…You can get it cheap on the internet…used…Well worth it…guarenteed…:slight_smile:
Between that book and your life drawing ect…you should be all set…Just takes alot of daily practice and alot of keen observation, and of course the will to do both…:slight_smile:
By the way, THANKS for the visit in my thread…much appreceated…:slight_smile:
Keep posting…:thumbsup:
TAKE CARE
Glenn

#15

Thanks for the input Glenn! I checked out some of Burne Hogarth’s work and it’s amazing, I’m definitely going to pick up his book thank you so much for the recommendation!

Here is some work from Life Drawing Class, I’m still having issues with a few things, namely keeping a figure fully enclosed on a page- and working in the details on the longer poses. I’m still new at this though so at this point I’m mostly focusing on quantity. I’ll focus on quality after I get a little more experience under my belt.

Starting with some Gestures

And longer poses

Didn’t have time to do the head on this one

And my favorite from today

#16

HEY Andrew…Here is a link to a great thread that might be useful to you in your life studies. Alot can be learned from her…She does fantastic figure drawings and studies, and explanes alot of her process in her thread as she goes along in it.
The pictures are x…ed out on the first page of her thread, but the rest of the pages show her works.
Drop her a line in her thread when you are done checking it out, and she might do the same in return…:slight_smile:
Her name is Esmeralda…/…AZTEC FIREFLOWER.
ENJOY…:slight_smile:
Link is right below

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=200&t=543472&highlight=aztec+fireflower

#17

WOW Glenn,
Thank you for pointing me in that direction. I went through those drawings today and am going to go through them again and try to learn all I can!

#18

So Picked up Burne Hogarth’s “Dynamic Figure Drawing” at Glenn’s suggestion (thanks again!) I also got Andrew Loomis’ “Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth”. These have been helpful and a LOT to try to absorb. I have yet to finish either, Mr. Hogarth’s book is amazing but I feel it might be beyond my reach for the moment. Instead I’m going to try and start using what I’ve seen and learned from Loomis’ book and looking at some other artists in the forum to work on my gesture drawings. These are a few I did today. Some of them are ok, some are bad, and one of them is great! A friend of mine has told me “just keep drawing, it doesn’t matter, most if it might not turn out at first but some of it will be awesome” The more I do it the more this seems to be the case. Enough talking here’s some drawings.

These two were from Loomis’ book. The rest of them are from reference I found on the web.

#19

Quickies from this morning using the references on the 15minute sketchathon thread. I’m going to try to do some longer work later today. Learning how to do gestures correctly is going to take some time I think but I feel like I am slowly figuring it out through trial and error. Reading Loomis’ book is helping, but I also think he’s spot on by saying that at the end of it all you have to teach yourself how it works.

#20

Some practice from today

The bottom is a copy from “Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth” - Loomis

Another copy from Loomis’ Book

Applying his mannikin idea to reference images

Slightly Longer drawing from a high perspective with massive torsion, I had problems with this one but it was challenging and I had fun

From Imagination with no reference