Followed along a Life Drawing class by Royal Academy of Arts: https://www.youtube.com/live/RHbFyW279ME?feature=shared I found that it’s better to find the general lines of motion first, rather than finding the gesture of the torso, separate limbs etc. Very happy with my 25min figure in the last pic :)

My longest figure drawing ever, it took 10 hours. Still can’t believe I actually did it. Some mistake lines couldn’t be erased completely, so they do show up in some areas. Though I tried to spot my mistakes and correct them in the layin stages, I didn’t notice a glaring mistake in the position of the hips until the rendering stage. I would love to be able to spot more mistakes earlier on, perhaps it gets better with practice. Any critiques would be much appreciated! Thank you Stan for making such a wonderful course, I will definitely miss hearing that catchy intro.

Rendering was very relaxing. I tried to identify what the shadows were instead of just observing values.

Having myopia is helpful at this stage because I don’t have to squint much to see the general shadow shapes. I don’t have charcoal powder, so I shaded with graphite pencils and used a kneaded eraser to sculpt some of the lighter areas.

1st time attempting shadow mapping. Pleasantly surprised by how it turned out.

5 hours of drawing so far. Unsure of some of the anatomy, especially the placement of the greater trochanter.

Size is approx 16.5” x 11.7”. I used the height of the head to make a grid, so I can find accurate horizontal and vertical measurements.

These were really fun, and my shoulder is sore now. For anyone who is new to the overhand grip, please don’t give up like I did years ago. It will feel strange at first, but you’ll be more adjusted after some practice. Your drawings will benefit from having cleaner lines that just flow.

I put a lot of effort into drawing these eggs. I even enjoyed doing them, compared to years ago when I wasn’t willing to spend sufficient time on them. I also watched Dorian Iten’s video on how to shade an egg.

Some unbalanced poses and I also turned 2 balanced Mallory poses into action poses.

Back view examples and 1st image is mannequins from imagination, which still has issues in the arms and connection of legs to hips, but I enjoyed the process.

@Jesper Axelsson I saw your comment for another student and decided to take on your simple mannequin challenge. What do you think? I really enjoyed doing these because I didn’t have to worry about more complex forms like muscles. I think these look more accurate than the ones I did with muscles, since I don’t fully understand anatomy. I haven’t tried mannequinizing from imagination yet, but I will definitely try after I finish the back view examples.

Today’s gestures from GesDrawParty with charcoal. Drawing bigger definitely helped me make more mistakes, which benefits learning.

Some of my gestures and poses from my usual practice [from old (white BG) to newer ones (grey BG)]... I tend to add light/shadow to practice a bit about that too and learn the basis forms and shapes of muscles and body. Some times I get carried away if I like particularly some reference and spend more time on those :)

Having trouble with this kicking gesture. Maybe because it’s more advanced and the body is twisting in a way that’s hard to capture with gesture?

I could not for the life of me figure out the robo bean for this one and resorted to covering up the top box with muscles. I can see in Stan’s version, the right leg looks much more natural and balanced.

Looking for critics/tips! I sometimes have issues finding the correct overlap, especially when the body seems relatively flat/the two 'balls' seem like they are stacked right on top of each other. I understand that the closer ball (to the viewer) should have precedence/be on top, but would appreciate any tips/other ways to look at it. I am also brand new to charcoal and the methods of the pencil... am I always supposed to hover my hand across the paper and try to never place it down at all? I find it difficult to get smooth lines if I don't have a slight point of contact. Hovering the pencil at a level plane is tough! I'm sure this just comes with practice but am wondering if I have the correct idea. Is a minimal point of contact okay (the nail/tip of my middle finger for example), or should I strive to hover at all times and just improve with practice? Thanks to anyone who responds :)

I've been intensely going over all the structure material. My biggest obvious flaw is poor draftsmanship (I'm a scribbling sketch artist) but how are the poses and dynamism as a whole? Critique requested.

This was so hard, I spent 30 mins just figuring out the robo bean before I could even start mannequinizing. I definitely overcomplicated the legs by adding muscles, which messed up the perspective in certain areas. And the knees…I redrew them a bunch of times and they were still off in the end.

I did the assignment examples on my own first and then followed along with Stan. I’m also unsure whether to indicate a top/bottom plane on some poses, but I found that overlaying Stan’s drawing over the reference first and then overlaying my drawing helped me understand where I misjudged the perspective of the forms.