Loosen Up!

[Tomato]

Artist gods Fellah, Mike and Infinit have all told me to loosen my sketching and to try draw quickly, loosly and just let the pencil flow. I've tried on a coupleof quick pics and here they are. Any crits are welcome

[StealthNachos]

I have a crit I want to make, but I really need to see more before I can say it. Keep posting these practice sketches.

[JAG.]

here's a tip: time yourself. or better yet, limit yourself. try this:

get a sheet of paper and a PENCIL.. sketch 5 figures [any way you want] BUT, spend no more than 11 secinds on each. when times up, STOP IMMEDIATELY and go and start drawing the next one. you'll know what 'loose' means - JAG

[Sepulverture]

To draw loose you have to understand rhythm in the body. I don't remember which one, but one of Loomis' books gives a definition of rhythm in (drawing) as being a combination of curved and straight lines. If you know your anatomy or can work from a good reference, then you can start to see the rhythm by ( for example) following the edge of a leg, seeing how the muscles curve and interact with each other, creating smooth muscles transitions from one muscle group to the other. remember one thing about drawing people and it will help you quite a bit once you get used to the idea. The human body makes almost no use of straight lines in drawing. Straight lines create rigidity, which kills rhythm, and ends up making your picture look stiff. I still have problems with having my figures look a bit stiff, but that's one thing I've learned from reading and experimenting. I'd also recommend what Jag said, doing ten, or eleven second studies of different poses using minimal lines, it should help you.

[AdamDillabo]

jag how big would you do those 10 second gestures, like 3 inches tall?

[bestow]

hmm it seems that you DID do it quicker, but the tiny sketch up in the top left corner gives away that you planned it, often for fun i just draw with no plan whatsoever, having just a topic in mind, it works sometimes just to familiarize yourself into making shapes comfortably and i think it is a good exercise, anatomy and all that stuff is nice to study, once you are comfortable with shapes and connecting them, often without a stick figure guide. Hope this helps, or maybe my methods are just crazy and nubbish!

[dogfood]

It's hard to loosen up when you go over each line 10 to 15 times.

To help yourself really loosen up, lay down one line about where you want it. Don't agnonize over it, just lay it down. If it isn't exactly where you want it, get over it. Move on to the next line.

If you continue to allow yourself to worry over each and every line until it's half an inch thick and furry as a beaver, you're cheating yourself.

Stop cheating yourself.

[JAG.]

jag how big would you do those 10 second gestures, like 3 inches tall?

no particular size man.. just depends on what you're trying to accomplish and how many you'd like to do to fill up a page.

when i do this, its usually cuz i have an idea in mind.. but i dont know HOW i want to execute that idea just yet. so i sketch quickly, and maybe something will catch my eye and i'll head in that direction. Sometimes its 30 or 40 thumbnail sketches for the general pose, sometimes its 5 or 6 large sketches to get details and lighting and viewpoints.

the important thing to keep in mind is that this exercise is to help the ideas come out of your head and VERY quickly so they dont get lost in there.. once the IDEA is out, you take your time developing it..

this is also just good to loosen your hand and style, helps break the habit of obsessing over lines and mental pictures that hardly ever come out exactly as they are in mind - JAG

[Tomato]

StealthNachos - Lol, ok i'll do some more and lets see if you can find the reason for your crit ^^

JAG - Ok dude, i'll try that and see what happens. I'm such a freak when it comes to sketching quickly though. I just wanna draw a brilliant picture first time around lol.

Sepulverture - Thanks for the ideas dude, i'll work on that

adam278 - I was wondering that myself

bestow - Ok, so throw the little stickman planning out the window for now and just drawn when my mind can see, as fast as I can. Right, i'll try that ^^

dogfood - Yeah i have a habbit of going over my lines several times and make them impossible to rub out. I remember back in college where we had to do life drawing, but the subject was deliberately moving around the room. We had to draw him in several poses he made as he moved around and i remember using very quick, loose lines to do this. I'll try incorporating that into my work.

JAG - Ok awesome. I'll see what i can come up with and post some stuff later

[JAG.]

.. I just wanna draw a brilliant picture first time around lol...

if you could do that.. you wouldnt be here talkin to us would ya? - JAG

[Tomato]

if you could do that.. you wouldnt be here talkin to us would ya? - JAG

maybe so, but even if i could draw brilliantly first time around, i'd definately be posting my work here and helping you guys I man can dream huh? I'm currently working on some real fast figures with no definate detail, just figures lol. I'll post some shortly

[Tomato]

Y'know it might just be me, but doing these really quick, un-reconigable skecthes feels likea complete waste of time. How am i supposed to be getting better by doing these little squiggles? Am i not seeing the point behind this...?

Anyway, i did these quiet litterally about 5 seconds ago.

[JAG.]

dont worry about seeing the point right now.. you'll see it when it happens. already your lines dont look as rigid as before, but this reavels a few things you aren't focusing on when you draw. like anatomy and proportion [that everyone struggles with] these sketches look more natural, very loose. but they are obviously crappy, you're not supposed to get anything out of these other than a general idea of what might be in yuor head.

in your drawings, you see the image mentally, and try to translate it to the papre as accurately as possible, but as you can see it looks very unnatural and stiff. you focus too much on the end product without even having an appropriate base. this is an option that helps you over time.. not over night.

if you dont wanna do it, then dont. stop and try something else. just do what ever you have to, to understand the concepts you've neglected, if you want to improve. - JAG

[Tomato]

i'll do what it takes to improve my drawings. I understand what you mean now by drawing roughly and loosely. I did get angry earlier because i thought these sketches looked rubbish, but after reading your comment JAG, i finally understand. I'll still practise my anatomy and i'll do some more of these speed sketches still. Lets see what happens in the future huh? Thanks man

[Elwell]

Letting the pencil flow means LETTING THE PENCIL FLOW.
Hold it further back and with a looser grip than you normally do, and draw with a lighter touch.
Look for rhythms and relationships between the body parts. In my drawover, note the curve that flows from the front of the face, down the trunk, and into the extended leg.
Big shapes and long lines first.
Draw from the inside out.
Don't be afraid of construction lines.
Don't be afraid of exaggeration and caricature.
Look for C and S curves, along with straight lines and angles.
Look for relationships between:
The head and ribcage.
The pelvis and ribcage.
The arms and trunk.
The legs and trunk.
The two arms.
The two legs.
Each arm and its opposite leg.

[Sepulverture]

Wow Elwell, those are some good pointers. They are going down in my list of things I need to suck less at...

[artmonk]

This simply looks like you haven't drawn enough. All the talk about hold the pencil here or center line there. You simply haven't put the hours in that allows you to loosen up.

Take your sketchbook everywhere you go and make that your hobby of drawing everything you see. That will loosen u up. 3 or 4 pages aint gonna do it.

[Tomato]

Ok thanks guys. I've been too busy at work to take my sketch book and just scribble away. Its true i haven't spent many hours trying to loosen up, and i know it will help with my pictures. I just gotta stop working and stop sleeping so i can do it. I talk too much...

Gonna stop talking and do more drawing!

Elwell, thanks man ^^ those pointers helped. i'll post some more stuff soon ^^