hey all,
I started the structure of man video lessons by Riven Phoenix recently (http://the-structure-of-man.blogspot.com/), and wanted to document my progress here if you don’t mind.
I don’t have a scanner, a problem I plan to fix very soon. In the meantime, my camera isn’t too bad. Here’s the results of lessons 8-11:
Thanks! 
Hello adien,
Of course we don’t mind. I look forward to following your progress here and hearing your thoughts about the videos and how they are helping you.
Cheers,
-Rebeccak
Rebecca! your work is inspiring! So is the work you put into these forums and teaching.
Thanks Roja, I'm pretty happy with them so far. They're a huge leap forward for me, and I'm happiest that I can doodle them from my head! If nothing else, Riven has given me that already. :)
Here's the studies from lessons 12-14. I watched them yesterday, and understood what he was saying, but it's amazing how much more understanding comes when you actually draw what he's teaching. I've done a lot of studies without really understanding what I'm drawing, it feels sorta like Riven is providing the foundation for all that information I've stored from other studies. :)
We'll see if that continues to be the case as I go along. In the page below, the little tiny head in the bottom brings together what he's taught so far. It's a quick sketch using a couple basic shapes, without mapping out all the points of the skull. That's how he ends the lesson, and I see why he went to such lengths before moving to those basic shapes.
I've never been able to draw heads small. I always needed to draw them big where I had lots of room to make mistakes and fudge things into place. These are all drawn in a moleskine book each page roughly 5x8 inches. :)
[img]http://members.shaw.ca/ohms123/tsom-head-studies3.jpg[/img]adien,
I like your faces - they’ve got real character, I bet they’d really be cool with a bit of expression. Are these all drawn from memory or are you using references for them?
I saw you used DOTRSOTB in your post to my sketchbook, how long have you been drawing for? Is it all self-taught or have you taken any classes? Looking forward to seeing your progress through this video!
Abby
Hey, those lessons ar pretty usefull, m? I though of giving them a go, but never done that. I see your studies here and think that it might have been a mistake not to look them through. What can you say?
hey guys, haven’t had much time to draw in the past couple weeks, and didn’t want to post any partial page or post without an image.
Deco, these are all drawn with the formula for the basic shape as taught in structure of man (formula is memorized now), then I go from there and just use my imagination. I used to draw a bit when I was in high school, but wasn’t very good at it. I picked up the Betty Edwards book about 4 years ago now (I was 26), and was definitely worse than you are now when I was going through it. I’ve been drawing sporadically ever since. Sometimes I go months without drawing 
. I’d like to go to school full time for illustration just to keep me drawing everyday. If you draw every day, you can go a really long ways in a surprisingly short time.
I took 1 anatomy class that was mostly life drawing, but work got in the way and I couldn’t finish it. I only made it to about 3 of the classes.
hey razz, I’ve done so many studies of the human form, the head is by far my weakest area (ooooh the hours of frustration there). I can normally draw the human form fairly well from reference, but after all this time I still can’t draw it from my mind (barring happy accidents). I’m hoping that these videos fill in the blanks that I need to make that leap. It seems to be working so far with the head. If you’re in the same boat, you might want to check them out.
ok, so here’s a couple pages. that front view face really sucks. 
Riven doesn’t teach face muscles and features until much later (after he finishes the full skeleton), so I’m still in frustration land on the features from the front.
The second image is basically a map for myself of the front view skull. I found myself forgetting the odd placement, and my small drawings were too small, so I drew a big one with a ruler so I didn’t have to keep going back to the videos for reference. I also have a few more 3/4 view skulls done, but not a full page yet. 
Don
hey guys,
I know I haven’t posted in awhile. Shame on me. I don’t really get much time to draw. anyway, the first page here is some studies from the stucture of man videos, I think I’m starting to get the hang of the 3d form, (which I did after those 2 crappy skulls). I actually spent hours and hours on the basic shape in 3d space, erasing over and over, because I had a lot of trouble bisecting a circle properly, and further trouble getting the rest of the shape in perspective. Riven doesn’t show any tricks for bisecting a circle. he just eyes it out, and expects you to be able to do the same. My only complaint so far in the video series.
The second page are studies of the brow as the videos taught it, starting off with a very loose creation (that he doesn’t tell you is supposed to be a brow), and refining it until you have the bottom drawing. That was great.
The figure on the right side of the brow studies was supposed to be a quick refresher on the side view of the skull, followed by a quick front view, but I got carried away and drew a body. it’s completely unreferenced. I was having my usual proportion issues at first, but went back and looked over the proportion map Riven has you draw in the first few videos, and that straightened everything out. I’m sure there are tons of anatomy problems with it I don’t see, and I know, he’s missing his hands/talons.
Yeah I was also dissapointed that he didn’t do any real formulas for the 3/4 views…cause those are the hardest! But I think what he does is show you the way to create your own formulas from observation. Not sure how far you got in the videos…but he only gives formulas in depth for the couple head views, then as he goes on with the other bones they get a lot simpler…with the muscles there are no formulas.
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