Need feedback on anatomy drawing
8mo
John Nahashon
Hello Prokoverse...
Kindly, I would like a critique of this figure drawing
Paper size: A3 (it's what I can afford at the moment)
Medium: Graphite HB <-> 4B
Please forgive and bear with me with the quality of the photo because I don't have access to a nicer camera.
I recently finished working on this figure drawing. It is the first anatomical figure drawing I have ever done. For what it is worth, by anatomical I mean drawing a figure while paying attention to anatomy and such.
I finished going through Stan Prokopenko's Anatomy course (the free YouTube version) earlier this year, and this figure is the first one I have done to apply the knowledge I acquired from the course. I want to become a good illustrator. My focus with this figure was on anatomy, rendering, and composition.
I would appreciate any critiques on those areas (anatomy, rendering, composition). If you feel you have something to say, kindly, pick any topic among those three that you feel most comfortable with, or even critique all three areas if you are willing.
Any feedback focusing on any or all of those three areas is highly appreciated.
Thank you in advance for sparing me some of your valuable time
8mo
Hey John,
The drawing looks pretty good and it looks like you learned your anatomy enough to make it convincing. So, I'm going to focus on your rendering which gives the anatomy nice form, but doesn't do the same for the overall figure.
The problem I am seeing is that you are not comparing values to other areas in the figure. Also, you have to think about how the light is affecting the larger shapes of the body, like the torso shape, arm shape, leg shape, etc.
One way you can do this better is to squint at the reference. When you do that everything becomes either shadow or light. Once you establish this division, then you can start modeling the smaller forms.
Example: The light spot on the inside of the right triceps, you have it as the same value as the background. Is it? No, not even close. This is what I mean about comparing values to other values in the reference.
I did a quick and sloppy sketch to show you what I mean, I hope it helps :)
John Nahashon
8mo
Hey Steve,
Thank you for taking the time to critique my drawing. Your feedback is constructive
Please forgive my late response to your critique. I originally posted this request for help on Wednesday on my Profile, but no response from anyone for the entire day. Then I thought I would try the Community section, which I did on Thursday. And the day ended with still, no response. In a way, I had given up. I don't recall how often I checked for a response on Friday. I guess your response came on Friday, but unfortunately, we had a major blackout (no electricity) from Friday to Saturday night in my area here in Nairobi, Kenya. And Sunday I didn't go online. Even today, Monday, I logged on to Proko to see whether I had done something wrong in terms of how I posted the help request, but to my delight, I saw a notification indicating that Steve Lenze created a New Post on my Post. Finally!
You hit the nail on the head when you noticed that I didn't consider how the light affects the larger body shapes. I don't remember thinking about that while doing the rendering. And that is something I must pay attention to in my future artwork, starting with the enhancements I'll be doing to this figure drawing with your suggestions in mind.
And I appreciate that you also illustrated it for me visually to make the point crystal clear.
Unfortunately, my camera is poor. I'm using a mobile phone camera, and evidently, it is not a good one. There's a lot of clipping going on with the image and it is not accurately presenting the drawing in terms of values. Still, your observations are insightful and very helpful.
This feedback means so much to me because I believe figure drawing is the area that is holding me back from unleashing the worlds that can't wait to erupt from within me.
Again, thank you for sparing me some of your valuable time
Now I must set up my workspace and improve this drawing
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