MJ Nixon
MJ Nixon
Cambodia
Steve Lenze
Hey MJ, I agree with @Simon L about the background, and the overly soft brush work. I would add a few specific things that I noticed. The drawing has some proportion issues, some of which it looks like you fixed in the painting stage. I did a quick sketch over your drawing, without the reference, but just what I think looks correct. You'll see I made the leg longer, defined the lower leg, and added mass to the head and thinned out the neck. Also, the chest you drew doesn't relate to the rest of the torso, in other words, it looks disconnected to the rest of the body. The rendering problem I noticed has to do with how you draw the core shadow. When you make it the sharp of an edge, it really flattens out the form. I did a quick painting of the arm to show you how adding transitions in and out of the core shadow helps turn the form in a more convincing way. I hope this helps :)
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Thank you for your detailed reply. I really appreciate it. I’m definitely going to try out some of your suggestions on this painting and try to be aware of my bad habits moving forwards.
Reply
Simon L
Hi, nice work! I'm not competent enough in anatomy to feedback on that, I can however give some thoughts about the digital drawing. The main issue for me is that the texture in the background is in focus, whereas the character isn't. Also, be careful when using a textured brush over parts that are blended, now there's sort of islands of sharpness in the drawing (where the textured brush has been used). Don't blend/smudge everything, that's when you get that "digital" feel to it, instead, commit to values and planes and blend in the transitions. PS I blurred the background, see how the eye is drawn to the character and not to the right side of the picture :)
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Thanks so much for the feedback! This is something I didn’t notice or consider but I’m glad you pointed it out. I will make some changes to this painting and keep that in mind moving forward.
Reply
MJ Nixon
I went through most of the drawing fundamentals course quite some time ago but never got around to finishing the last assignment. Recently, I went through the whole course again and finished this time. This last drawing was quite an effort for me but I’m happy to have finished. I think I will try to work through a few more drawings like this last one before moving on to more content or another course, as I can see a lot of room for improvement. I specifically feel that I should study hands more and want to be more careful with my initial drawing and shadow mapping next time to allow for a smoother transition once I begin shading. I would like to hear some feedback of suggestions to keep in mind when I do more drawings such as this one. Thanks so much for your consideration!
@megreet
Hi all, This is my first post here so i want to express my gratitude for this amazing site that gave me the charge and the hope to improve my drawings.  I started the figure drawing foundamental course few month ago and despite of my slow progress i feel that something is going better from the first attempts, so i want to share some of my works on gestures. At the moment i'm trying to solve many problems (Messy lines, Proportion, Foreshortening, Twisting) so i hope in your critics and suggestions.
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Hello, I want to say good work so far! Keep the ball rolling and you are sure to reap the rewards. When I look at your work, one thing for you to consider is really trying to keep your lines simple and try not to focus on the contours as much. I think if you simplify a bit more, things will continue to improve. Once again, great job! Look forward to seeing more from you in the future.
Reply
MJ Nixon
Hey Christopher! Nice work on completing some gesture drawings. One suggestion I might make is to use a darker pencil next time or maybe scan your images in. As they are, it is a bit difficult to see the drawings, in my opinion. Another suggestion I might make is to simplify your lines. Try to confidently use as few lines as necessary to describe the figure and resist the temptation to go back in over the lines over and over again. A confident line that is a little bit off usually looks better than many scratchy lines. Hope this helps!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Lots of useful replies here already but thought I'd throw in my two cents. When I start to hit a rut, it usually helps me to think about why I want to be better at art and drawing in the first place. What is your goal with your art? I usually find that by meditating on why I want to be an artist combined with setting small goals - for example, do a portrait sketch every day this week or sketch for 15min every morning after a hot beverage - I start to feel motivated again and get back into the routine of things.
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Unfortunately for me, I'm a Mac user. However, this seems like it would be super useful for gesture drawing sessions and any short timed work. Thanks for your efforts to explain how to set this up!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
I don't have Stan's portrait course but do have a bit of experience drawing portraits. If realistic portraits are what you are going for, a good way to tell if you are on track is to overlay your drawing onto the reference image in photoshop or similar software and reduce the opacity of your drawing (if done traditionally.) You will be able to see areas where your proportions or shapes are different from the reference image and make changes accordingly. I know for me, drawing portraits was very challenging and tricky at first. Not to say I'm a master now, but what helped me to improve the most after learning the basic methods of drawing the face was to practice a lot. And by a lot, I mean I've drawn around 3500 faces. I know it's said often, but drawing more will help you train your eye to observe the shapes and structures of the face, eye, mouth, ect until it almost becomes intuitive. Hope this helps!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Similar to what was already mentioned, working through the course a week at a time is overall a decent plan. Of course, if you feel like you are struggling to apply the concepts in a lesson, maybe slow down and take a few extra days on it. Doing gestures often, or even every day is a good way to warm up and improve. Here's a link to a video Stan talks about how to use his courses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFB7deiL-3s&list=PLVeITADsnvo783qR_sIreWZOIhPwjhJdb&index=4&ab_channel=Draftsmen Hope this helps!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Overall, it looks to me as you understand the idea behind 30sec gestures. I would say the best way to improve from here would be to do a whole lot of them, as in hundreds or thousands. This will help you build up your mileage and lead to improvements.
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Maybe similar to some the other recommendations here, but what I think would improve this drawing overall is working on your values. Almost everything is kinda in a midtone range which makes nothing really stand out as a focal point. I would suggest trying to go way darker with your shadows so that the whites of the page really stand out by contrast. Overall, good job and keep going!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Another suggestion, take it or leave it. However, you could maybe consider using the color picker and an air brush to smooth out your gradients a bit if you would like it to appear a bit less abrupt. Just a thought. keep up the good work! Learning digital can be a lot to handle if it's your first time.
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
What are things about your job that you find cumbersome or annoying? How do you overcome these challenges? What percentage of your time would you say you must spend on tasks that aren't really want you want to be doing but you feel are necessary to the job?
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Hi @Matthew Medeiros , Nice job working on this piece. Portraits are by no means easy to successfully pull off. One thing I would recommend is overlaying your drawing over the photo in photoshop or other similar software to check your proportions. I have done so in the image attached below. You can see by the areas circled in red there are some proportional issues with your lay in. I would recommend redrawing these areas before continuing with the piece. Hope this helps!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Hi @steven clarke , Great drawings you have here! I really like the one with the birds. My thoughts would be that the head size in the first and fourth drawing looks a bit undersized. Maybe try to catch those proportional issues before going into detail. Another thing that may just be a personal preference thing, but I feel like keeping the backkgound color so dark with very thin line work makes it quite difficult to see the drawings themself. Maybe try lightening up your background colors a bit before posting so that the drawings are easier to read immediately.
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Hi @Richard Barkman , I really like this drawing. Overall, I think it's really interesting to look at. The two things that jump out to me - 1) I find left arm (the raised one) to be a little distracting. I feel like it draws a lot of attention away from the focal point of her chest and legs. Like the previous post mentioned, maybe you could experiment with taking it out. 2) Her hair seems a bit stiff and the shapes seems a little repedative. Maybe try to loosen it up and experiment with some different shapes or sizes. Regardless if you change anything or not, it's still a really great piece that you should feel proud of!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
There's a great reddit post that Proko mentioned a while ago in one of his Draftsmen podcast. It breaks down how you could self study to learn most of the fundamentals. I'll shoot you a link to it here. Hopefully, it will give you some ideas about what courses andd lessons are best to learn first. https://www.reddit.com/r/learnart/comments/dapk62/from_the_guy_who_made_the_most_comprehensive_list/
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Hello @vishal singh , I would like to say that your rendering in this drawing looks pretty good to me. Good job! The thing that is jumping out to me is similar to what these other folks are saying. The proportions seem a bit off. The forehead area seems quite large and the mouth, nose, and eyes are somewhat squished. If you check out Loomis face proportions, it seems like the proportions of this face are somewhat "baby" or "childlike." Usually small children or babies have larger foreheads and craniums with smaller facial features. However, if you compare these proportions to older people, you will see that usually older individuals have larger noses and ears. If you would like to make this portrait look somewhat realistic maybe try to adjust the proportions. Hope this helps a bit. Thanks!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Hi @Tobias Degnebolig , Mannequization is no easy task but it looks llike you are putting in some good effort here. Two things I am noticing in your work 1) It seems like in some of your drawings you are using a lot of contour lines. I would maye recommend trying to reduce the amount of contour lines you use and instead using one or two really good ones that define the form you are trying to indicate. 2) Some of your lines seem to be worked over and over in an attempt to get the correct shape. Instead of drawing so many repeating lines, instead consider erasing out lines that aren't correct and trying to confidently put down the correct line a second time. Hope this helps a bit!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
MJ Nixon
Hi Sagnik, Nice job on your drawing today. I think working on the loomis method will help you greatly with your future drawings. My recommendation would be to focus more on output of heads with focus on proportions than on shading and rendering at this point. Usually rendering a drawing takes a significantly larger amount of time compared to the amount of time laying down the inital sketch. Maybe try doing 5 or 10 loomis heads focusing on the line drawing and proportions and then if there's one in that group that you really like, redraw it and try rendering it out. Just some thoughts. Keep up the good work!
Write reply...
Drop images here to attach them to the message
Help!
Browse the FAQs or our more detailed Documentation. If you still need help or to contact us for any reason, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!
Your name
Email
Message