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@alearningartist
•
4yr
Andrew,
Here's are my 3 completed armatures. The 1st one was created in galvanized steel by mistake. Fortunately, I also had a roll of 18 gauge aluminum so I created the 2nd and 3rd in aluminum. The difference of working with with aluminum compared to galvanized steel was "night and day"! It's actually easier than I expected. I'm still making a few minor mistakes but it's definitely getting much, much better with each one I make. Thanks again for your video that explains it so well and made it so easy to understand. Cheers.
@alearningartist
•
4yr
Hi Andrew,
First of all your video on how to make an armature was PERFECT!!! I had a few few obstacles because I didn't have the correct materials. Unfortunately I bought the wrong wire before I watched your video. The wire I bought was 16 gauge "galvanized steel". As you can imagine, the tough steel was much more challenging to work with than had I had soft 14 gauge aluminium wire. The steel was so tough and inflexible that at one point it actually broke as I was twisting it. That's why the neck is so thick.... It didn't matter. I just kept going because I still needed to use the exercise to practice. Besides, it was a great experience and I learned a lot from my mistakes...
As I was working, I was also having fun and enjoying time and laughing with my family, So I got distracted after doing the right side of the armature and ended up going up the spine before go to the left leg as you instructed us in your video. So I had to unwind the tough galvanized steel wire from the spine and completely go back down the left leg. It was actually pretty funny. Despite the challenges of the materials and my mistakes, I'm actually really happy and really impressed that I was able to succeed at creating my first armature despite the challenge of working with gauge galvanized steel wire.
Your video was AWESOME! Breaking down the inches into units made it all very simple and easy to understand. Thanks again for making such a great video and making it so easy understandable. I just ordered the correct 14 gauge aluminum which will arrive in a few days. Once it arrives, I'm sure it will be so much easier to work with and I will be cranking these out with much more ease, proficiency, and speed. Anyway, for documentation, here's a few pictures of my first exercise with the armature sitting down and standing. Thanks again. Cheers!
•
4yr
Hey that’s awesome to hear! I’m glad you had fun with the assignment! (That’s what will help you improve and be consistent is not taking it too seriously and just learning from each new project.) yeah the steel wire is much more difficult to use for sure! Great job, keep it up! And I look forward to see your next armature with the aluminum wire!
Moonfey
•
4yr
Asked for help
Hi everyone! :D
This is my first time submitting an assignment. I have done the lesson itself before though, but then life got in the way and time flew away. With the new Proko 2:0 and all this great community it seemed like a great time to start this again and do it more properly. :)
The smaller more stick figury gestures I drew while I watched a ballet video on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE5LDPx3XUg That was relaxing and enjoyable and I just paused at interesting poses, and drew those gestures. The people in the video are rather small and I think that helped me to not focus to much on all the detail of the bodies.
The refrence pictures for the longer gesture drawing, are from Adorkastock: https://www.deviantart.com/adorkastock A couple of the refrence photos are of more than one person and they were more challenging to do. Does it matter if there are more then one prerson in the photo then doing gesture drawings though?
I’ve watched Proko's video on how to hold and control your pencil. So I try to use my shoulder and the over hand grip, but since I’m still not used to it, the lines don’t always appear there I want them to yet. Sometimes I also got a bit nervous knowing that I was going to submit this for other people to see and that unfortunately made my arm tense then I was drawing to. Maybe I just need to continue practice and it will work itself out on it own! :D
I think I might have become overwhelmed with everything to keep in mind (the story of the pose, drawing with the shoulders, ghosting the lines and then finding the actual gesture!) and ended up defaulting to drawing the contours sometimes.
Even if I at times got stuck in my own head, I still had a lot of fun! I really want to learn and get better, so any feedback or critique would be very much appreciated! :D
Such a cool idea with balet poses! I will do the same with tennis matches. Thank you for the inspiration!!!
About drawing from shoulder / warmups before gestures - I would recommend familiarising yourself with https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/2/video
I got a lot of out drawabox early lessons and I gladly incorporate some of the exercises in my warmups. Even a page full of circles / straight lines / ribbons before I get down to gesture helps to get loose :)
Thanks for posting, I like your simpler gestures. I think there is definitely some motion in them.
I would say try to focus on finding a primary line of action and building off that. I usually think about a line from the head down to the foot (generally following the spine) for a standing figure. You have some nice rhythms in your lines, but they are a bit disjointed as if you are trying to assemble the pieces rather than see the whole. One think you could try that I like to do is try to do gesture drawing with just a single line or two which can help you capture that whole body rhythm without getting lost in the details. Hope that makes some sense and helps a bit.
So, one thing about the shoulder drawing: it's best use is for if you are drawing medium/large. I'm not sure how big you are drawing, but the pencil texture shows a lot in your pictures, so that makes me think your gestures are small. If your gestures are only a couple inches big then drawing with your shoulder is going to be extremely difficult. Your shoulder by nature doesn't have the fine control that your wrist does, hence why don't write words/sign our names with our shoulders. Try to make your gestures bigger, that way using your shoulder is effective. I would say at least 6ish inches, but drawing even larger is better.
I would say 2, 9 and 10 have the most gesture feel to them. Just keep going with it; the more you do the better they will get.
#7 😆
I’d provide you with feedback but I have no idea what I’m doing. Your submissions are better that my attempts
Account deleted
Hi, these look good :) and I don't really have much to say about the boxes and cylinders except that the far elipse of the first cylinder should be wider along the center line. For the kangaroo, I agree wholly with @Serena Marenco - try to find the gesture first and then start breaking the photo down into simple forms. Also, instead of looking solely at your chosen photo, I recommend that you use references other than your main photo of how the anatomy of your animal looks and photos of the animal from other angles.
From this, try to create almost like a mannequin, or robot that can move and bend. This will help you figure out and understand what's actually there in your main photo, so you can represent it without being side-tracked or tricked by the details. Also you will get a lot more out of your studies that way since you'll learn a bunch more about your chosen animal. :)
Hello Persona, when drawing the structure, I recommend that you start with the gesture anyway, otherwise you risk drawing shapes that do not appear connected to each other but simply overlapping.
Rather than trying to represent the surface, I recommend that you try to imagine the structure of the bones underneath the muscles, so that it is easier to understand, for example, where to insert the limbs.
For the shoulders, for example, using a box would have made your life easier. :)
Bonnie Gable
•
4yr
Asked for help
Hello! This is my first time posting. I’ve worked in gesture a lot before but I’ve decided to crack down and work through this course spending 7 days on each concept, even the ones I’m familiar with.
I used #25 Jin: Friday Evening Figure Drawing on YouTube for these poses. That’s my go-to for gesture practice.
I struggle a lot with exaggeration and getting away from what’s “Correct” and going to what feel good. I understand the concepts of gesture but I feel my execution is still lacking. Any critiques you can offer is appreciated!
Looks good to me. Maybe in number 7 the back line (booty and right leg) could be more fluid.
Hi, spending 7 days on each section is a great idea. i have been doing something similar. These drawings look really good already. I think the way you are doing the chest is confusing the pose. I would just leave it out for now. There are some places you are using 2 curves where 1 would work. On #17 the right leg is great, the left one doesnt need the double curve, its breaking the motion. I would focus on flow and dont get too caught up in making sure you see the knee or elbow breaks. Overall youre looking good. Pretty nice proportions as well. Only the heads seem small and maybe like an after thought. You can use the head to follow through the main flow line. the back or side of the head can arc with that line. Nice work!
