Studies Critique Please

[TAF17]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post. I've been drawing for a long while, but it's really only been within the past few months that I've started to take anatomy and figure studies seriously. I've been studying out of my anatomy books by Goldfinger and Joseph Shephard. I've also been drawing from photo references and observation.

Sometimes I hit a few roadblocks. I guess I'm just looking for some help and direction. I'd very much appreciate critiques on some of my more recent studies and a sketch of one of my characters.

1. Skull/Head study
2. Torso/Shoulder study
3. Character study

Thanks!

[arenhaus]

You aren't thinking of the 3D form enough, and make a lot of lines which are pure guesses or treat the subject as flat, not round.

Practice sketching boxes, mugs, teapots and other everyday objects. Learn to build formal perspective, it helps a lot with awareness of form.

[TAF17]

Thank you very much for your critique, it was helpful. It makes sense and I'll try to practice more with shapes.

[Marlo]

I agree with Aren, the biggest thing that stands out in your studies are the lack of 3d form. Think of everything you draw in a tangible manner, use construction and building blocks.

[TAF17]

I'm uploading some more studies I've done with the past couple of weeks. I'm trying to get the hang of making my work not look so flat, but still having a lot of trouble. I know drawing shapes will help, so I am trying to practice that in my more recent work. I've been trying to practice drawing the skull a lot since it seems to be the most difficult for me so far. I've been trying to break it down to basic shapes in order for me to understand it more, but it still seems to come out a bit wonky, and flat. Any suggestions?

[Obstfelder]

Anatomy is the right place to start.

I think you should use more reference for the skulls. You can still construct them from imagination, but when you're done you can compare them to a real one and see what shapes are the wrong proportions. In your last drawings it seems to me that the face and the sphere of the skull are not the right proportions to each other. If you use your reference in an overlay mode in photoshop you can clearly see what is distorted.

Here is a comparison I did with a photo from the web (they are not rotated the same way in space but you can still use them for some basic comparisons). for example you can see that the skull you have drawn has the wrong positioning of the eye cavities and the zygomatic bone and arch leading backwards from the eye should be much thinner.

Aditionally you need to establish a better perspective. I would recommend that you draw a box for the skull instead of a sphere and put that in a two point perspective, then put in the sphere of the skull and the shapes of the face in relation to that box. This will make it easier to position the features of the face since you have some reference points already in perspective.

Good luck with the studies!

[TAF17]

I'm going to just keep updating this post as I go along with my studies to gain feedback.

Here is a life study of a key chain I did to warm up and then two figure studies.(reference used)

I think with these figure studies I got a little bit better with form, but of course still need work.

Any feedback is welcome. Thank you so much!

[Quigleyer]

I agree with you that there's a ways to go, but I think that the bottom right of the model drawings is definitely a step in that direction. Just keep at it, man.

When you're adding your tones in, try to be mindful of what's getting hit by the light and what's not. What's not is all shadow and should not contain the same tones as what's lit. I know that sounds really obvious, but just think about it while you're blocking in and keep it in the front of your brain.