Furiana's SB

[Marlee.]

Hi furiana! You know, I had the same problem with ellipses ( i think everyone does) when drawing from life. Mine really stunk. They still do, but a little less because I've been working on drawing them in perspective, with a ruler/t-square, and horizon line etc.. If youve done studies like that before great, but either way, I think they can only help, whether you draw ten or a thousand (I just drew about six hundred cubes in the past few hours, honestly). It may seem like progress is slow, but seriously ,it helps understanding. Just get out your straightedge and go at it! I love the Perspective 101 thread in these forums, too. If you haven't seen it before look it up; it is a godsend. Would like to see these kind of perspective studies when you get back! Have a fun trip

[ErikHolfelder]

Marlee is right. Eventually it will be a piece of cake though, you will just start to get a feel for things. Don't forget to use mirrors, flip the paper, step back. It'll make you see skewed shapes more easily. Also, make sure your eyes are as perpendicular as possible to the paper, as in you're looking straight over the whole paper.

Keep it up!!

[furiana]

Thanks, you two! I thought I already knew how to draw this type of thing, but I guess everyone has to re-learn the basics sometimes. I'll be keeping your tips in mind!


Alright, then. In honor of our reaching page 2, the first thing I'll upload is a perspective study!


This is the last thing I'll post before I go. I was trying to make a value sheet, but as you can see, the lighter values get washed out.

[loper42]

Great study on textures. I think it looks really legit and like you really learned quite allot from it. Keep up the great work and enthusiasm. Good job!

[Dr. Quinn]

Nice start Furiana. I think you should defanitly do some studies of the bones before you continue with the muscles. Because the bones support all the weight of the body, and the muscles assist by holding/moving them.
I've found the best way for me to draw a character start to finish and consitantly is to start with a simplified bone character. Thinking about the position, what place it came from, where it is going and where it is. Then add the muscles afterwards. It is easy to place them as long as your bones are in proportion. This also gives the muscles more reason for their placement and will help make your stydies look more like a body then a map.

Also I reckon you could try shading some of your muscle stydies as well. Shading gives the image form and weight and if there are mistakes in the proportions they will start to not fit with the image. It can be hard to see these differences when looking at only line.

I'm not the most experianced at critism nor anatomy but I know these are two very important steps that I took to get better at drawing and constructing a human figure. So hope I decribed them well enough and it helps your approach.

[furiana]

I saw your posts a couple days ago, loper42 and Dr. Quinn. Thanks for the encouragement and advice, as always! I've been giving it some thought these past few days. More about that later, though.

A big update should be coming later tonight, I hope! I didn't want to bring my fixative with me (it's in an aerosol container), so the graphite and charcoal drawings smudged pretty badly. It's going to take time to clean up. However, I do have a stack of drawings to scan and post.


In other news, I'm still digesting everyone's advice (both from my sketchbook and from an earlier critique thread). I have more areas to improve than I can keep up with, especially in light of all the good advice I've gotten recently. I can't give them all the in-depth treatment that I was hoping for, not all at once. So now I'm trying to figure out how to divide up my energy...

[furiana]

Alright. I'm taking far too long to cleanup these images, so I'm posting the more-or-less rough scans instead.

I promised that the first thing I uploaded would be a perspective study, so I hope that these count. It's a really mixed bag! First are the cubes, then the ellipses.

EDIT: I had a lot of trouble with the attachment manager for a while there, but it's working now.

[furiana]

And here's the life drawings. I stuck to objects at first, but later I included environments and (moving) people.

I also did studies of waves and of humans walking, but those are mostly made up of notes.

[krysjez]

looks like you put lots of work into the perspective studies. Your observation drawings are getting better too. I like the round table especially.

[furiana]

Thanks, krysjez! I was working a lot on perspective because I have a hard time with it, even when I'm working from life. I also need to improve my motor skills.

---
I'll be starting bone studies tomorrow. You guys are right: I need the practice. Here's my thoughts; let me know if you think I'm on the wrong track!

I'll focus on the biggest areas that confuse me when I draw. (I'll probably pick up the rest while working on muscle attachments!)

What certain pieces look like (their basic, 3d forms)
1) Skull
2) Pelvis

How certain pieces fit together
1) How does the skull fit onto the neck bones?
2) How does the shoulder girdle work?
3) How do the legs attach to the pelvis? What does their placement look like? (I need to revise this part of my simplified skeleton.)

Where certain bony landmarks are located
1) hip bones on figure?
2) In fact, bony parts of hips/pelvis/upper leg joint in general
3) scapula

[furiana]

I'm not going to spend too much time on eggs today; I'm just test-running a method for drawing eggs from life. I'll count it as today's drawing from life and do some bone drawings later tonight.

(In this thread, people suggested three different techniques for adding accurate midlines to real-life physical eggs. All three of them work!)

[gamersgene]

nice sketchbook! I really like the muscle recognition exercise, think i might cop that. =D
as for that mystery muscle i dont think thats part of the tricep group, looks like the brachialis or brachioradialis (god what a mouthful)

[Marlee.]

I know you're back, whereeess my updattteeee

EDIT: WHOAHH theres a second page, nowonder i was like wtf where did she go. Shit. I'm so dumb. hahaha

[Marlee.]

Okay, sorry. Ha. Well, the cube and ellipse studies look great. Aren't they helpful? And I really like the tonal drawing of the stool - it looks like you've got the perspective down really well and it looks like you spent time on it. I'd like to see more like that!
With the first rock, I don't really feel a lot of form in it, because its all the same value even though the hatchings are in different directions. I don't know if this is what you were going for, but if you're having troubles with values in enviros, try doing them in ballpoint pen and building up the values with your hatchings, it really helps to force you to think about your lightest lights and darkest darks. Also it helps to put the most extreme values in first, and then work on the midrange stuff.
I did that egg thing, too, once! It really helped me with thinking in terms of 3D when I drew the skull. I should do it again, but man was it a pain in the bum to blow out an egg. took me like an hour, and the shell was super fragile after. I don't know if that's what you did though haha.

Man! Can't believe I checked this SB like every day and didn't realize where all the drawings were going. Ha, oh well. post more

[furiana]

gamersgene: Thank you!

Aw, man, I thought I had that muscle figured out. I wish I remembered which photograph I used as the reference! The muscle-identifying thing is insanely useful, though. I still get the road-map look/Poser-doll look, but drawing muscles from reference doesn't confuse me as much anymore. Plus, it's given my drawings from imagination a nice little boost. I don't know if any teachers have people learn muscles this way, but I'd recommend it.


Marlee, LMAO! XD I wondered why you hadn't even said "Can't comment, way too busy drawing cubes, keep it up! " or something. I can't believe you've been checking this thread and totally missing the updates. XD

The boxes and ellipses are disgustingly helpful. The ellipses aren't as hard as I thought; it's just that I kept messing up the directions for the major and minor axes. The more I tried to make the ellipse elliptical, the wonkier the axes got. At least now I know what to watch for!

For the egg study thing, I glued threads onto a hardboiled egg. You know what works too? Rubber bands! I kid you not, they're pretty accurate as each rubber band only goes around the egg once. Use one rubber band for each midline. Then, when you're done, eat the egg!


---
And now: the skull! (Also, I'm re-uploading the egg thing so that it's here in my sketchbook as well.)

[furiana]

Today was a mediocre drawing day. :/ I spent all morning and afternoon on a figure that just doesn't quite work. The observation drawing turned out mediocre (I was trying a couple ideas and they didn't work), and I couldn't find a well-lit skull reference. Plus I don't like the proportions that I've been using to construct these skulls, but I don't trust the measurements that I've been getting from photographs. Meh.

[ErikHolfelder]

Good stuff, furiana!

I'm super busy right now, so I can't really give any tips, but wanted to pop in and see what's up. Looks like you've done a bunch of really awesome exercises.

Keep it up!!! Draw draw draw.

I'll stop by later and give a proper response!

[confusedbat]

Great idea with the egg, I think the form really shows in your drawing. I also think you have good line control/control of the pencil. Are you working from any book in particular to do your anatomy studies? I am using loomis, bridgman, and perard, but im really finding loomis to be the most helpful. loomis even has a little diagram of where certain bones show up on the skin! make sure you check out the e book thread here on CA. keep it up!

[furiana]

eekolite: Hey, "keep it up!" is enough!

You know, I should make a graphic that I can post whenever I want to say "I'm here, and I'm watching. You're doing great! You're improving! Go go go! Keep it up! "


confusedbat: I'm glad the form shows, and I'm glad the line control looks good! Both have been problems for me for a while. I'm not using any particular book for anatomy yet, although I've been drawing (lol) bits and pieces from here and there. I might have to look at those ebooks, though... I wonder if they have the Loomis diagram you mentioned? That would be so useful. Then again, it would help me even more to compare a skeleton to a figure and figure it out for myself... Then Loomis' cheat sheet will make more sense and feel more solid to me.

--
To tell you the truth, I'm kindof curious to see what I come up with on my own. I'm the type who likes to re-invent the wheel, so... why not? The results depend a lot on the reference material I have, though, especially for proportions and lighting! Man, I wish I could draw a skull from life.

FWIW, these are the basic shapes that I've been using to draw the head. (Below are the head studies that I did from photographs, and the conclusions I reached. Basically: From the front, top, and back, I could simplify the head as an oval. Even when the head rotated or tilted slightly, an oval still basically worked. From the side, I could simplify it to the bump-in-the-back shape. And when the head had rotated enough that it was no longer an oval, but the bump in the back wasn't really visible, then an egg shape worked nicely.)

I don't like it, though, because none of the shapes work in 3d. I can't rotate them in my mind, and the results always look flat. So now I want to find a solid form that will give me the basic shape and planes of the skull. Then I'll learn the planes and shapes in more detail...


--
THESE ARE OLD DRAWINGS FROM 2009. (I need to review this stuff; it was really useful!) Today's artwork will come later.

[Marlee.]

Phew, you're on fire furiana don't stop working hard, i know these bone and form investigations will pay off for you. For detailed anatomical references, i would REALLY recommend Stephen Peck's Atlas of Anatomy for the Artist. Its a great supplement to Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy, or his Complete guide to Lifedrawing. I went through most of the basic stuff in these books before moving on to Vilppu's drawing manual, which is where i started all the cube/ellipse stuff, as its more focused on form/construction than specific anatomy (however, it helps to know the basics a little before grappling w/Vilppu). As for loomis , I must admit, i never really found him helpful for anything besides his head construction and his human proportion studies.

Whoo! keep going.

[loper42]

Wow. Great work. Your really getting into depth of the work. Great lines. Very inspiring stuff.

Keep it up.

[furiana]

Marlee: I saw those books before - they look really good! Unfortunately, can't afford to buy anything atm, so I'm going with what's available for free online. I actually quite like the Loomis book Head and Hands book, much more than I did the first couple times I saw it. Maybe that's because his way of doing the head looks like a better version of what I came up with this afternoon. :p I agree, though: I don't think he'll be useful for detailed anatomy studies. Now where did I save that Bridgman book?

Thanks again for the encouragement, loper42! And here I always thought that lines were a weak spot of mine.

Okay, I'm not going to upload the gestures or the boxes. I will upload a couple pages of heads, the ones where I tested out methods of construction. I also have a blind contour drawing of my hand for today's observational drawing, and a drawing of a skull for today's bone study.

[loper42]

Good work. I think its good to see how your really focusing on getting down the basics. One thing I highly suggest and something that has really helped me is drawing from life or photos. Although, as always life is better. It'll help you re-size what you see and just teach you to draw in a more precise. So far, its helped me quite a lot with learning to see.

Good luck and great work!

[Diarum]

are those egg shapes i see there?

[furiana]

Heh. You know it, those are eggs, and those aren't all of them either!

loper42, thanks for the reminder. It would help to sketch a bunch of skulls from observation now...


FYI, I hurt one of my hands. I can type one-handed and I can draw, but I probably won't be chatty for a few days.

[Dr. Quinn]

Nice to see some Skull stydies Furiana! something I've found I've been doing lately is getting the distances between the eyes down to the sides of the mouth different making the face all wonky. I notice your've done the same thing. Pay close attention to shapes and always be rechecking and comparing distances when you do these stydies, your head should hurt when you've finished them because you were concertrating so hard.

Hope this pic explains what I'm trying to say a bit better.

[furiana]

That's good advice. In fact, I should probably be doing that during my life drawings, too.

[confusedbat]

Furiana, here is a linkk to some loomis books. Check out figure drawing for all its worth. Pages 50 and 51 has the landmarks annotated. Of course, the landmarks spring from the stuff underneath, so knowing that might help too!

The block method you attempted to use to build the skull reminds me of a post by Rad Sechrist. Cartoony but still informative.

Hope your hand feels better!

[ErikHolfelder]

Good stuff furiana, your elipses are looking better, less lopsided things in general!

:C Hope your hand gets better soon,
Keep going!!!

[furiana]

Thanks everyone! I'll respond in more detail later.

The skull reference is from: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/398410. All else was drawn from life.