The OFFICIAL Nude Figure Life Drawing Thread

[SprayNation]

Figure drawings from the last month. By the way, great work everyone! Some really beautiful work on this page!
These range from 30 min. to 2 hour poses.

[martin777]

Spraynation> Great rendering and impeccable lines
deadkitty > nice sensitivity in those lines
Amazing Action Ape > dynamic shapes and good construction lines. I need to work on that kind of stuff.

Here's more charcoals

[Deselect]

Martin, those are some really fantastic broad curves and gestures!

[martin777]

Thanks Deselect! I'm having great fun with that way of drawing. I'd say it's half observation and half invention as i don't really draw what i see, especially when it come to lighting.

[derinderinderinderin]

10min poses

[martin777]

[the_allejo05]

some reposts..need to go back to life drawing damn..most of this are done very quickly..there is also bad lighting hard for me to see the anatomy..these people dont know anything about life drawing ..

[nickmarshallvfx]

If anyone can give me a bit of help with this question it would be really appreaciated!

Q. I have been looking through all the figure drawings on this thread, and one thing really came across to me. I noticed that there are a lot of really good drawings that look very realistic, but the linework on them looks completely random! There isn't a straight line on the drawings anywhere, and sometimes there are large parts of the anatomy that are just left out, but my mind seems to fill them in, and they look totally convincing to me!

I just want to know how you get such a free hand, and how do you know when it is not necessary to draw everything in? I tend to go over my linework over and over as Im figure drawing, and even though I am very attentive to detail, my linework is...well...crap.

I cant seem to train myself to draw so freely, and I think its really making the quality of my work suffer, and it takes me so much longer! I was looking at a gnomon workshop dvd by J P Targete, and as I was watching a sample vid, his linework was everywhere and so quick and wavey, yet every line seemed as though it was just perfectly placed!

Im sorry if this is a stupid question, or difficult to answer, but if anyone can just give me a hand, or point me in the right direction I would really, really appreciate it! I have never had any training in life drawing, so it may be as simple as 'check out this dvd, book etc', but I will await your response eagerly!

Thanks for your time.

Nick

[dorian]

hmm, did you try drawing with your whole arm, making long sweeping lines?
try not to move your wrist too much but move your arm, mainly using your shoulder. this goes for the bigger lines. the smaller the details you draw, the more you might be using the wrist, the bigger and more general the lines, the more you might be using the whole arm.

also what makes lines look like they where "just perfectly placed" is good old knowledge that gives guys like targete the confidence to do just this: place them perfectly. he knows what he's drawing.

maybe post two examples, one of yours that you think shows your problem, and one of somebody else that you admire, or one of yours that you think works quite well.

[nickmarshallvfx]

Thanks for the advice so far Dorian.

I do try and make long sweeping lines, but I make about 10 in the same place until im completely happy with its placement (or the line is so thick that it has to be right in some place!)

Here is a recent quick sketch I did that I think illustrates my problem. This one is in ballpoint pen, but my problem is as bad or worse with pencil:



You can see how heavy my linework is, especially around the outline of the figure. Maybe I just need to be more confident with my first lines rather than keep going over, but I just don't know.

Here is an example of some linework from Targete that I mentioned that I really admire. Just look how free the linework is on those wings in the top left:



And if you take a look at the trailer for Marko Djurdjevic's Character Ideation dvd, about 2/3 of the way through there is some sketches shown of lots of figures in gas masks, and the line work there is incredible too! By the way, I have that dvd on order so it may help me, but it won't be here for another 3 months

Any help would be much appreciated!!

Nick

[=delizm]

very wonderful...

[nickmarshallvfx]

I just wanted to reiterate, in case there is any confusion: The second image in my post above is NOT my work, it is by the artist J.P. Targete, and the image is taken from his new gnomon workshop dvd (http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/jta01.html)

The first sketch in my post above IS my work however, so feel free to crit that.

Thanks, and looking forward to responses.

Nick

[Phil Moss]

after a year of more 'polished' life drawing, ive taken to just taking my sketchbook with me and filling page after page - i still know i've got a long way to go but i'll give you a show anyway, any critique is more than welcome:

1st 2 were done in sequence with a few others, didnt take too long - 20mins for both maybe?
Attachment 72334

Attachment 72335

another quick one which i added a bit of colour to later on
Attachment 72336

thanks,
Phil

[Conteart]

Little late but.... better late than never

Thanks for the compliment Aztc!
This page is in my portfolio actually...in the life drawing section.
I have 3 more pages that are each longer studies than the last and I'll put those up later on.

[the_allejo05]

couple of recent pictures..this drawings are from a while ago..
its actually a statue but is still a figure
construction of the head is bad..specially the eyes..done with conte..

[annesharlie]

Hi
I'm new to this forum - delighted to see some wonderful life drawing work posted here. These are a few of my images.

[IMG]i120photobucket.com/albumso179/annesharlie/IMG_0074.jpg[/IMG]

[annesharlie]

[/IMG]

[annesharlie]

I think I've got it figured out now.

[nickmarshallvfx]

You have very nice linework Annesharlie. Nice drawings!

Nick

[kmscottmoore]

Howdy!
I haven't been around here in a loooong time. (I was at the "Austin Sweatbox of Death")
Here are a couple of recent long ones (5-ish hours); Conté Crayon:



Good stuff, annesharlie!!

I just want to know how you get such a free hand, and how do you know when it is not necessary to draw everything in? I tend to go over my linework over and over as Im figure drawing, and even though I am very attentive to detail, my linework is...well...crap.

I think that you are making too many lines. Here are two tricks to try:

1. Float your pencil. In other words, instead of making a lot of searching lines, hover the point above the paper until you have the "feel" of the line.Then, only make 1 mark.

2. Instead of multiple searching lines, draw one big fat line with the side of the lead (easier to do if you hold the pencil underhanded); you need a real pencil for this, it doesn't work with a mechanical one. Keep the fat line as soft and light as possible. Then, draw your final, confident line with the point. (again, only one!)

[dorian]

no drawings to post, but wanted to throw in my thoughts for you scott:
pretty ok, I like the red, too!

what came to my mind:
first one:

• hand is too big
• nose looks like it's going "into the face" too much
• thigh looks very long
• you lost the threedimensionality (big form modelling) by focusing too much on the details. Details are over-rendered, the underlying big forms (basic shapes, cubes, cylinders, etc.) have been lost. this results in a unconvincingly flat-looking drawing. - Shows especially in the hair at the side of her head, the stomach and the back
• overall she's too dark. unless she was a quite dark-skinned lady Maybe try to keep your lights lighter and use more delicate modeling in the lights. Right now there's bright light (white of paper) at strange spots (thigh & breast). The rest is rather dark halftone or shadow. You completely ignored at least a third of the available spectrum!

second one:

• might be a matter of taste, but I totally don't like the sketchy line stuff.. not very much sense of structure and understanding
• the contour of the breast closer to us (line between breasts) seems to end too high up
• reflected light on arm is played up too much for my taste, takes away from the round feeling of the arm
• nice play of lineweight at thigh!
• it would help the head a lot if there was some continous movement of tone (light -> dark) from left -> right and top -> bottom. as it is now, the lower cheek jumps out at the viewer even though the value for the shadow at the cheekbone might be correct. adding more tone as the cheek goes from mouth towards the ear would help a lot I think

so, your main problem are values I guess. then some minor proportion things.
I think you could work on lineweight and shape design as well.

Hope this helps! If you disagree in any point, let me know, I'd be happy to learn what you think!
Oh and for 5 hours, they're really pretty good! post more!

[kmscottmoore]

Cool! I was afraid you wouldn't like it.

[nickmarshallvfx]

kmscottmoore - Thanks for the advice, I will definitely give that a try and let you know how it works out. I love the way you used the conte crayon in your sketches too, it looks really cool, so ill have to try that at some point.

Nick

[blacky]

Martin- really dig your way of drawing with those convex versa concave broad swooshy strokes

annesharkie- great drawings, specially like hands and feet

great works in here in general lately

[Enrique Echavarria]

i'm new to the forum.
i have some pastel stuff to offer.
I'm a newbie, but by all means, feel free to tear me apart.

i made this with nupastels, and hour or so.

[nancila]

new here- let me know what ya think and how to improve, thanks!

[stalsby]

Here are a few ones I did back in life drawing.

[nancila]

did this at school- dont like how her face turned out

[SophieT]

New in this forum!

[JoeEffect]

pld: pld: good work!!!!i like it.I'm new in this website,can you help me with all this?