Chapters 3 and 4 of Vilppu's drawing manual applied to my life drawing

[looney]

Chapter 3 of Vilppu's drawing manual teaches drawing the human figure as a group of boxes. I did this both slowly, and in detail during figure drawing sessions, and quickly drawing in parks and coffee shops. I found this exercise very useful because it forced me to conceptualize the subject in three dimensions in perspective. Of course, humans are not square. In order to render the figure, I had to use shapes beside boxes. However I still kept these shapes geometrical, with clearly defined edges. This really helped my understanding of using planes to describe form. I feel my drawings are more structurally sound, and better conceptualized in three dimensions as a result of the time I spent on these exercises even when I am not drawing boxes.



http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--v4RlhcTvk.../s1600/sq2.jpg






Critique is always appreciated.

[looney]

In this last chapter I drew figures out of boxes. In the chapter before that, I drew figures out of rounded shapes. In this chapter I combine the box and the sphere. The box representing the pelvis and the sphere representing the rib cage. I did this with drawings of people in the park. Unfortunately the studio where I do longer studies has been closed. So, I was not able to do any longer studies. To bring home the concept I decided to do a very short animation. In order to make the animation work, I really needed to understand the concept in three dimensions. All studies done on sketch paper with ball point pen. Animation done in Toon Boom Studio.

[Marine_Blue]

Hey, nice sketches. I am also self taught and this is a useful way of breaking down the figure into a manageable way. Bridgman does a similar thing in his book on anatomy.

Keep it up.

[looney]

Thanks Marine.

I've been studying Bridgeman's Constructive Anatomy too. So far I love it. I love the way he defines masses using simple and powerful lines. I've approached studying the two books (Bridgeman and Vilppu) in completely opposite ways. I copy the drawings directly from the Bridgeman books. I haven't copied a single drawing from Vilppu but apply the technique to drawing from life. So far I feel they complement each other vary well.