[jabber]

so, i've been working on correcting my anatomy issues, especially with the female body. these images all i've been trying to accomplish is a feeling of mass. no details really, just wieght, depth and well...mass. i feel that im improving as i continue but would like another set of eyes on these to tell me whats looking good, what needs improvement.

image 01
image 02
image 03
image 04

like i said, little to no detail on these. im sorta getting frustrated cause i have this habbit of making these cartoony looking, which is not what i want. C&C away! thanks.

[Herr.O]

Hi! nice drawings, great pencil shadeing

image1, upper body looks ok. But I think you should add some more detail to the throat/neck area. If you stand in her position the throat should point out more / more curvature I think. Maybe raise the head a bit..

image2. not mush to say.. what I can see it looks OK

image3, the left girl seems to have a big behind the right girls head seem a bit long/out-streched.

image4, I like this one the most! maybe the shoulders on the left girl could be refined. But the whole arm is not really finished soo I can't complain really Finish the arms and stomach!

[ March 14, 2002: Message edited by: Herr.O ]

[Fafnir]

dood, where do you go to school..if you are in school?
I live in calgary too.
this is weird.

[Basement bound]

Hey Jabber, grab some newspaper(paper, not the acutally newspaper) and do some gusture sketches of the same images. I think you need to loosen up when drawing anatomy. Details are not as important as having the proportions correct/how the parts fit together/look in postions. This should help you. The qicker the better.

JA

[jabber]

thanks for the replies.


Herr.O: thanks for the suggestions, but i think im not going further with these. Just studying mass.

Fafnir: actually, im not in school anymore. im trying to get a job in the gaming industry, but if nothing turns up by the end of the year, Im going to apply to ACAD.

Basement bound: thanks, i know what you mean, i've been working on gestures and contours as well. gotta loosen up and relax and get the flow goin! i spent way to much time on these. im trying to get them down, usually in less the 5 min.

thanks

[arkoh]

quote:

---

Originally posted by jabber:
... all i've been trying to accomplish is a feeling of mass. no details really, just wieght, depth and well...mass.

---

Well... I have a bit of difficulties following you there! I dont sense the mass you're talking about, to be honest!! On the contrary, I see you're focussing to much on the outline of the shape, and NOT the mass! Especially image 01, shows what I am talking about, but the rest of them bassically says the same!

A good advice I can give you, that I personally have been swearing to for years now, is to divide the drawing into several different layers... (that is on paper NOT PS or PAINTER!) Its more the way to build up the structure of the body - the way to kind of feel your way towards the goal of proper proportions, character and depth in your drawing - with the pencil and in your head I'm talking about! Try to build up your drawing on paper somehow similar to that of a painting in layers in PS, only here with the change of different hardness of pencils, the pressure on the line, the direction of the line and the like, changing between the different "layers"/"ways of epression" every once in a while!

ex. try to see the lines and directions running through the body at first... draw them with a very hard pencil, very faint (line of the upper torso, the line of the arms, line of the shoulders, line of the head/neck etc!) Then draw the shapes of the bodys different elements as simple shapes around these lines, still with a very faint line (cylinders, balls, boxes etc) Then try to connect these different elements with some larger geometrical shapes, STILL with a faint line (triangle for the left shoulder - right shoulder - navel etc). Then slowly build the body and the drawing as a hole up this way, adding more and more pressure on the lines using softer and softer types of pencils drawing over your roiginal faint lines, covering them this way (dont be affraid of using several lines to shape only one, that is... loosen up a bit!). Start to use shadows as crosshatching at an early stage, to help you feel the depth of the body (which I can see your all ready doing!).

With this method you'll see that you start to look at the subject/the object/the model/the house/the landscape (this method can offcourse be used in a broader sense), in a different way... more with the mass and depth in mind then the way you're approaching it now!

btw your shading is working pretty well, but save it for a later stage in the progress!

Hope this is of any help or inspiration... there's as many different ways to approach a drawing as there are people trying to do this (NONE is the ulimate answer!), but at least it may be able to provoke you into looking at the art of drawing real life in a different way!

Keep sketching!

[arkoh]

wooooooow that was some "f**#��%*" novel I wrote there...

Sorry about that... I seem to have been inspired by the project!

[dogfood]

When I'm working on getting back into shape in regards to correcct anatomy (when I haven't drawn for a while, such as now) I find it very helpful to toss out the whole figure, hands and feet included. It just seems so much easier to look at the whole (this is assuming you're not drawing from reference, a whole other subject) and see how everything relates. It's also a way to exercise the 'interesting pose' muscles. I also feel that I'm cheating myself when I leave out the hands (and feet to a lesser degree). They can be difficult to get right, but carry an enormous amount of emotion. I feel like I'm copping out, somehow. I agree with Arkoh's points, as well (usually the easiest critique: "Emil Johnson's right about Howard Johnson being right").
A quick note on each:
1) Head's too small(with associated neck), extremely long upper left arm, pretty long rib cage.
2)not really enough there
3)left: odd bosom size, relation, placement (too close together, left higher, flatter than right) right: pretty good
4) left: seems to be from reference, not bad. right: small head, also that boob is staring at me! (it's creepy, it just follows you)

[jabber]

arkoh: thank you for your suggestions. I agree, these images are not showing a building of mass. I feel that im almost skipping a step when i did these. and i sorta see what you mean. it sounds like a contour drawing(?). i think i just spent way to much time on each of these, and i was worried about making a "mess" of the drawings. which i dont think i should worry about. what i try to do, is a gesture sketch, (very light), a contour drawing on top of the gesture, and then a filling of mass. but i seem to get carried away i think, and it shows. thanks for your suggestions and critique very helpfull.

dogfood: i think your right, i should do the ENTIRE body, including the hands and feet. im not sure why i didnt do them with these, probably just ignored them for some reason. all of these are drawn from a reference photo, but i felt i got the porportions incorrect, and now i know i did. good eye!

so, i think i failed with this little experiment, but i hope i know what to look out for. close but no cigar. anyways, i'll continue and post something soon hopefully showing some progress

cheers everyone.

[dogfood]

quote

Quote:

so, i think i failed with this little experiment, but i hope i know what to look out for. close but no cigar. anyways, i'll continue and post something soon hopefully showing some progress

It's only a failure if you learn nothing, grasshopper.

If doctors can keep practicing, so can artists.