The OFFICIAL Nude Figure Life Drawing Thread

[Catofglass]

yay figure drawing! it makes me so happy.
some ink and washes from last term. i know some proportions are wonky, but i didn't do any pencil beforehand, or at least if i did, i don't remember...

[galen]

Catofglass, those ink wash figures are fantastic!
Nice work.

[phiq]

Catofglass; beautiful tones sir!

[deepbluehue]

Those are nice drawings, Catofglass. I especially like the first and third drawing.

[Ramon Hurtado]

Hey everyone! good work in here! Here are some of mine....the far away leg on the first one is screwed up though :/

[Cory Hinman]

Great sense of volume, Pancho, also good straight vs curved rhythms to your contours. Thanks for posting!

[Jamesy]

I've been going to life sessions for a few months now on Saturdays. Maybe I'll start posting those here. These are from yesterday's session and they're enhanced with auto levels since the originals seemed to be too light for the scanner to pick up.

I have a hard time placing some of the shadows since all the lights are usually on in the studio (it would be nice if the lights were off since that particular studio does have some nice natural lighting during the day). I know there's of bunch of other stuff to work out in my pieces, but I guess I should only have one lame excuse per week.

[LeafWorthy]

Hello, this is my first figure drawing post here. My name is Kevin Okulolo and I'm an art student. Animation is my focus. I run the figure drawing club at my school every Friday so I hope to update this somewhere close to weekly once the next quarter begins.
Here's some stuff I did in the past couple of sessions to test out some brush pen combos (and a little pencil to jump out of a rut):

[GodOfWar]

Finding a place to do life drawings around my parts was so difficult :/
This is the second time I've actually drawn a nude figure from life. The first time it was only 15 min. poses, and this is a 2 hours or so pose.

[Cupelli]

The ones on the left are just photos I found and duplicated. I really need to take a figure drawing class.

D: The butt

[Noah Bradley]

The double-portrait of the girl was done last semester, and the one of the guy was done a couple weeks ago. Graphite and conte, respectively. Both about 4~ hours.

[bazgha]

every body loves it
dog portrait

[hmanafi]

this is my very first drawing from a real figure (but from ref).it takes about 45 minutes and i know it's too long for a drawing like this.I've done this with an HB pencil.
now,i need your help.i need your critiques,advices and anything that can help me to get better at drawing from figures.
and should i change my drawing medium?for example,changing the pencil type,etc.
i need your critiques. THANK YOU VERY MUCH CA

[Gwenevere]

i need your critiques,advices and anything that can help me to get better at drawing from figures.
and should i change my drawing medium?for example,changing the pencil type,etc.
i need your critiques. THANK YOU VERY MUCH CA

Of course, the best way to get better at drawing from life is to just keep doing it, but that's a given...

One tip I might give for starters is to try focusing on capturing the whole figure first, even if that means starting with less-detailed gestural drawings mostly - you want to really get used to capturing the overall pose and proportions before getting bogged down in rendering fiddly muscles and things.

Regarding medium, you may be hampering yourself a little by using a fairly hard pencil. I love pencils for figure drawing myself, they're less messy than charcoal - but I find it easier to work with soft pencils (my favorites being Eberhard Faber "Ebony" pencils.) Leadless pencils and graphite sticks of various sizes are also great, because you can lay in a range of tone very quickly... With a hard pencil, you're going to end up spending a lot of time putzing around with hatching and whatnot, when you should be focusing on capturing as much of the figure as you can as quickly as you can...

[Gwenevere]

I'm really new so I keep studying anatomy like every single person on here suggests (which is good advice!). However, I find myself drawing and worrying a whole lot about musculature that many people do not possess in such a defined way. Is it bad if i ease up a bit on the muscle men and do some normal nudes?

Of course it isn't "bad", good lord! In fact, if at all possible, you should get out there and draw as many different types of people as you can from life - the more variety, the better understanding you'll have overall.

Also, if I was you, I wouldn't obsess overmuch about studying anatomy from books. It helps for gaining an initial basic understanding of structure, yes, but it's FAR more useful to draw from life on a regular basis. After a lot of life drawing, understanding of the figure becomes almost instinctive. Heck, just going out and drawing people on the street, in the park, on the beach, or wherever is useful...

[Dangerousllama]

mr.joe- the paper is strathmore 500 series paper and i like the pottery green color. as for pencils i use a few: black faber castell pit pastel pencils, "gioconda" sepia dark, and for highlights i use an off-white (or white) carbothello pencil. (the white can be a bit too cool depending on the dark pencil you use and the color of the paper)


here is a short figure drawing tutorial with the focus being more on the thought process rather than technique or anatomy:
figure drawing is not about making marks on the paper or copying what you see... it is about analyzing what you see and drawing the idea of what is there (a solid, real person in space). it is a process of decision making and problem solving. after practicing breaking the figure down into bigger, simpler ideas and then gradually breaking it down into smaller, more complex ideas, you can use the same process to draw anything else you see. you should approach drawing a tree or a car the same way you would approach drawing the figure. think simple to complex

also, anatomy should not be studied in isolation of the model. and it should also not be copied as a flat diagram. consider the form of the muscles and bones. think in volumes rather than contour. again, it is not a matter of putting marks on the paper. it is a matter of analyzing and thinking . think through the form. think around the form. think over and under the form. study the muscles as volumes as they appear on the figure. reference your book while drawing and try to decide what muscle that bump is or that valley.



i know that was brief and i could go on and on about figure drawing and stuff all day long... but perhaps some other time. here is a 15 minute pose

[FlameDragon]

Excellent Leaf!!

GodofWar, nice!

[SakariSingh]

These are from my life drawing for Animation class. We were encouraged to draw structurally and try to represent it as a 3D form on paper through cross contour lines (I used the lines of the muscle structure). These range from 3 minutes to 3 hours.

[Cory Hinman]

Good work, in the third one I really like the contrast between the gentle swelling of the abdomen and the boxlike pelvic girdle. I also like the following two multi-fig pages and the last one. Thanks for posting!

[Blackpig]

wow really looks like Egon Schiele's work love the contour Sakari!

[Stormwolf]

Guys, there's some absolutely solid work here. Won't be able to reply to everything individually but - Well done! Those quickie sketches are the best for loosening up. I think they're extremely important to the process of life drawing!

[SprayNation]

Here's some recent figures from the last couple of weeks. Great work showing up on the boards guys .

All poses are under 45 minutes. Threw in some 2 minute gestures as well.

[ThomasK]

SprayNation: Beautyful pieces! I love this gesture drawings

Here are a few of mine from yesterday's session, 10 and 5 minutes:

[Joert]

I went to Paris for about a week and drew as much as I could. Here are the best results harvested from the Louvre. Alls I have to do now is pay off my credit card and schedule another trip. If anybody has been to Paris as an American, the Subway system is quite difficult to navigate if you're not paying attention to things.

Anybody else go to Paris?

[Serpian]

LeafWorthy, Silvar, Spraynation, very good work!

These are from my first two nude figure sessions! They're SO much fun!

[7ravi7]

hi guys.... awsome stuff ... guess all u people r from fine arts background.....

did you posted your work

[josephrey]

Main Loop, your gestures are amazing.




i just started taking a class again after a few years to try and loosen up a bit. it feels good, but i sure be rusty. tone is something that's just mind-boggling to me (like banked shots in billiards), and more time needs to be devoted to it.

[Cameronator]

Haven't posted in a while. Here's one to get me going again.

[mjsz]

[Destinatus]

Leafworthy: I recognize those poses anywhere, Steve right? You're from Sacramento aren't you?

You guys are all great! Sorry for the large sizes.