1. Conan portrait study after Thomas Giorello. 2. Three women portrait studies after Dave Malan. 3. Portrait studies after Giovanni Battista Piazetta "A Young Woman Buying a Pink from a Young Man". 4. Three men portrait studies after Dave Malan. Sketchbook Sakura A5 (1,2) HB Mechanical pencil. Sketchbook WHS A4 (3,4) HB Mechanical pencil.

Another session.. one thing i realized is that i dont push the gestures enough.

240413. A few more studies after gesture lessons with refs. found on Proko. WHS sketchbook (plain paper size A4: 210x297mm). Mechanical pencil HB.. I have attached also ref. model photograps. My sketches are not limited to just a few lines as when trying to find a "right" line i was just "ghosting" it and did usually a few repetitions or corrections which you can see on the paper/picture.. Also I was not trying to perfectly sketch proportions and gestures and lines do not have a quality of sketching in computer. Cannot say it better than Lin. Thank you ver much Michael for sharing what you know.

Head progress over the last 7 months :D Now tackling figures!

240413. Gesture lessons4-5 studies. WHS sketchbook (plain paper size A4: 210x297mm). Mechanical pencil HB..

240411. Gesture lessons1-3 notes and studies. WHS sketchbook (plain paper size A4: 210x297mm). Mechanical pencil HB..

240408. Lesson studies. References: 2 from Josh Hunter Black and 2 from Angel Ganev. WHS Sketchbook, plain paper A4 size 210x297mm, HB mechanical graphite pencil.

240406. A few lesson studies. WHS Sketchbook, plain paper A4 size 210x297mm, HB mechanical graphite pencil.

240404. Another few lesson studies. WHS Sketchbook, plain paper A4 size 210x297mm, HB mechanical pencil.

A few lesson studies. 240401. WHS Sketchbook, plain paper A4 size 210x297mm, HB mechanical pencil.

Hello everybody! I'm an illustrator from Austria, working for years without profound anatomy-skills. I did a lot of life drawing years back during my studies, but never really learned the theory. So I thought it's about time to change this, and I'm happy the course started today. I liked the first lesson and wanted to share my first results with you. Usually, I draw on paper, but decided to do this in Photoshop to improve my digital skills, too. Lots of other things to improve - feedback is very welcome :-)

Sketches related to this and previous two lessons. VHS (plain paper) Sketchbook , A4 size: 210x298mm, HB mechanical pencil. I have also drawn here a top model view with a bit of shading lines. On the second paper I have overdrawn some previous small sketches..

I drew vertical line with the ruler, divided it (7.5 heads) and followed Stan's instructions. Was not hurrying and tried to find right position of arms, hands, legs, feet and other features in relation to the figure height and width and overall figure shape and then added a bit of lines describing shadows. I have corrected position of left model hand and the right model arm, both positioned ca0.5cm too high. The final result as on the attached pictures. Just wanted to exercise and see where I am as for today.. (WHS sketchbook, A4 size, HB mechanical pencil).

Hi @desmond68 :) This is a good exercise to get familiar with applying the anatomy on a real pose, and I think you captured a lot of the anatomy groups nicely with rendering as well. I would still recommend trying to start with the gesture, as this helps catch proportion deviations compared to the reference, giving you a chance to assess your drawing early on. When it comes to the arm, it may appear shorter than in the original due to the comparison to the legs, which did become longer. I added a quick drawover to show this visually. Also, don't forget to add the squash and stretch as muscles are pulled and squished together. You'll see this on the thighs against the calves, and also on the external oblique as the torso bends sideways. When working from skeleton to added muscle on top, there can be a tendency to draw the muscles with less mass and closer to the skeleton structure, so it's just something to keep an eye out for. Hope this helps!

I think in order to increase the chance of critique, you need to mark your post as "Help Request".  I am not an artist myself, but if I look at your drawing as an example of art, I like it very much.  If I look at it as an attempt to study proportions, I think it would be very helpful if you could position your drawing over a photograph and see from that perspective where you are happy or where you would like to work more. If you scan your drawing or take a photograph, then you can make it transparent in the computer and that will help with comparison with a photograph. I struggled with this pose and after a few attempts came up with the one below. I would love to see a critique of your workart from a professional artist, so I am marking this as a "Help Request". Draw regularly @desmond68!

5 steps are very helpful, thanks. Continuing practice, practice and practice. Below just one sketchbook page based on above video.