@nothanks
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Dionizio Lopes
Hello everyone , these are my structure pratice drawings , any critique would be very appreciated ,@Jesper Axelsson i would also appreciated your feedback
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@nothanks
I think you did a fantastic job turning everything into boxes, I really like the bee. My only criticism is to watch the proportions/poses. They're pretty far off from the photographs in some. For example, if you look at the kitten photograph its paws are nearly touching, but in your drawing there is a very large gap between.
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@willyjohn
Here is my work for the Extreme Angles assignment. I decided to "box" some of the heads to make perspective a little bit easier. Please let me know how I can improve!
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@nothanks
Good job taking on this difficult assignment, the human head in perspective is one of the most difficult things to draw, in my opinion. Line quality - I would suggest keeping all of your lines a bit lighter, you don't need to press down so hard or make such thick marks on the page. It looks a bit sloppy. You can use your eraser to clean up lines that get away from you (too thick; not quite in the right spot; etc.). Try not to have 'sketchy' or 'feathery' finished lines either (e.g., the top of #3's head). Whether or not your linework is exactly 'correct' anatomically, having a cleaner drawing will make it much more pleasing to the eye. Proportions - #1 and #5 have necks that are too thin, whereas #2-4 are too thick. Perhaps try practicing visual measuring techniques that you can use to double check your work. You can also size up the reference image and put your sketch over the top of your computer screen. Unless you're using incredibly thick paper, you should be able to see the enough of the original through your drawing to gauge how accurate it is. Perspective - I think you're also struggling with foreshortening. While you are getting the angles and shapes fairly accurate, all of the faces appear to have a weird, stretched out feeling to them. Our brains have a natural tendency to 'flatten' poses out, whether perspective or gesture drawing. This means that we have an innate tendency to try and draw anything in a normal or neutral pose, hence the subconscious stretching of faces when we try to draw at extreme angles (trying to make them closer to a size our brain knows is 'normal'). One thing you can do to combat this, and to practice exaggeration, is to intentionally exaggerate the foreshortening much more than is realistic. For example, if a pose is from below so someone's feet look larger than their head, you'd exaggerate by giving them GIANT feet and a head the size of a speck. It can be good practice just to get you seeing and thinking about foreshortening better. I hope this helps! Keep practicing and you'll get better every day :)
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Yuu
Asked for help
As someone with ADHD, for a lifetime I don't understand what persistence is. But I find that I can really find peace in drawing things and so far I’m ‘persisting’. Hope that I can keep going this time!!🥲
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@nothanks
Yo I have ADHD too, so when I'm serious about something I put an alarm on my phone and write notes (such as to-do lists) so I don't forget what I was doing even if I keep getting distracted. A low carb diet (e.g., limit sugary foods like candy and soda) and regular exercise really help keep the head clear as well :)
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@nothanks
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Margaret Langston
Same as before. I did the assignments using only the e-book as reference. Then, I watched the examples, and again, and again.
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@nothanks
Repetition is the key to success (with drawing, anyway). I usually have to do the assignments more than once too. Sometimes I go ahead and then come back to old assignments because I get too frustrated by being stuck on the same one for a long time. Trying it by yourself; then looking at the video or reference for the answers, following along or tracing, etc, to make a correct version; and then trying it again by yourself to test what you remember is generally a recommended approach to learning how to do imaginative drawing (because you're trying to memorize things). Same goes for drawing chickens, motorcycles, or vases too.
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@fischei
Hey there community, first time I post something I have painted. I would really appreciate feedback regarding the four eyes below. I practiced to get the proportions right lately but struggle on shading shadows etc. I felt also very exhausted when I finished one of these (one to two hours). Any tips on this?
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@nothanks
I feel exhausted and struggle to sit through a few hour drawing session as well. Take a break, get up and do some chores, make a snack, go for a walk, do some yoga, etc. It's also like any other form of endurance: your body will get stronger and used to it over time (even though you think it's just your brain and arm, how can it be that hard? It really is the same as a strength building routine - I say this as someone who works out and draws/paints haha). If you're using a regular writing pencil, there is a limit to how dark those go. You can come in and emphasize the darkest regions with a ballpoint pen or marker (ballpoint pen is going to give you more ability for shading than a black marker which is going to only give you a flat black tone). I noticed that the eyes seem too wide open, and maybe a bit big, in all of these. I think that is our brain's natural tendency to 'normalize' or 'iconize' things. E.g., our brains subconsciously like to think of an eye as an icon of an eye, so when you draw one you may think about what you're drawing more than observing the actual abstract shapes. Try not to think of an eye (or any body part) as that body part, instead focus on the abstract shapes and angles that they form. I resized & traced over the photograph to give you a comparison.
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@younchen
My home work , I spent more than 2 min on each draw .. Finding flow still hard for me orz...
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@nothanks
I had the same problem when I started learning gesture too (taking 2-5 minutes on a simple 'stick figure'), but it's worth it to take your time, and I think it paid off. It looks like you captured the gesture nicely in these. As you practice more it will become second nature because your eye will learn to spot the gesture instantly, so you'll get faster. I think it's important to take your time and understand what you're looking for when you start out. The timer can be a distraction and cause too much anxiety for someone who's new to the concept. I was stuck in a rut where I couldn't learn it until I took the timer off completely and just focused on finding gesture and learning what it is!! I do see some proportional issues, but the gesture looks good to me (you can exaggerate the poses more if you'd like). The first one has legs that look too long for her torso, and some of the others the heads are too big, but proportions aren't the primary goal in gesture sketching, and as you study anatomy and draw more you'll get that stuff down. I like to compare the size of different body parts such as seeing if the thigh is as long as the torso or one and a half heads fitting in a rib-cage (or whatever it may be).
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Tavonna Nira Strømsengbakken
My second attempt after watching video. I did figure out some of the muscles before they were drawn for me this time, so I am learning. The lines are crude, as I am working in Paint until I get Photoshop.
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@nothanks
I think it's perfectly fine to use paint for something like this! Before you dive in to photoshop, which is really pricey, have you considered free software such as Krita, FireAlpaca, Paint.NET, or GIMP? Krita is the best all-around, in my opinion, and Paint.NET is the most lightweight and simple. GIMP can be kind of technical and confusing, so I don't like to use it. FireAlpaca is pretty fun and easy to use, but didn't have as many features as Krita the last time I used it. Clip Studio Paint and PaintToolSAI are my favorite paid photoshop alternatives, each is around $50 USD if I recall correctly. I use SAI the most out of all these programs. Autodesk also offers some free drawing programs I use frequently. There's a Sketchbook app and full pc version.
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david ball
1) Cafe Sketches (In Green) 2) Figure Drawing 3) Figure Drawing + Design /Shadow Shapes 4) Depressed Shapes (2 images)
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@nothanks
Awesome practice! I think your figures and shapes just look a little stiff. Maybe try introducing more angles, or exaggerating what angles, swoops, and swirls you are already using/seeing. I think the cafe sketches look the best (most expressive and lively) out of the bunch.
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Lucero Guillen
Well, I made some sketches. I think i catched the idea of gesture in general, maybe someone would like to give some feedback?
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@nothanks
Great start! My advice is try to draw much lighter next time (e.g. don't press as hard when you draw), these are supposed to be quick and loose. Also don't use so many lines to get a contour down - sometimes it's good practice to limit yourself to 5-10 lines per sketch. Keep practicing and you will see tremendous improvement, especially if you have time to practice every day :) PS: I recommend placing the artwork on the floor or a desk/table during midday. I use the edges of my phone's camera window and the edges of my paper to line it up so it is not crooked (or as little as possible), and daytime sunlight is the best lighting you can get for taking a photo of your artwork. As long as the light source (eg window) is in front of you (you're facing it) your shadow shouldn't obscure your work either. This will make it much clearer and improve how it looks.
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@nothanks
If you haven't heard of it, I really like the website ctrl+paint. There's a ton of free tutorials as well as extended lessons you can buy. https://www.ctrlpaint.com/
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Taylor Bankson
OK. I have had a very hard time with gesture. My gut feeling is these are better than my last post. I know they are not finished and I would appreciate some pointers. This exercise has really done a number on my self esteem and desire to draw. I'd like to move on to something else and come back to this later, if I'm reasonably ready to do so.
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@nothanks
I think it's fine to move on to something else when you feel frustrated, and maybe you can try it again in a week or two. That's what we do in my welding class if we're stuck on a particular angle or joint. I probably red-did the lessons on gesture 4 or 5 times before I understood it enough to even figure out what a gesture line is, haha! I've also done art lessons and studies from other sources (drawabox.com and ctrl+paint come to mind). I need a break from human anatomy from time to time too, so I might work on animals, or digital painting, etc. It's totally okay to skip around! After a break, you might find when you come back to it, something you were missing before just 'clicks.' Don't know why, but this can often be the case. You may also find that as you move on, new information you learn will help you improve your gestures. For example, learning human anatomy makes it easier for me to understand the figure and find the gesture lines faster than before.
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@elvinzoriapa
Hi!!! I've just finished the assignment examples videos! I feel that something is not there with my robo beans. Is it the proportions? Is it that I loose the gesture in some way? Thank you in advance for the feedback
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@nothanks
Robo beans are difficult for me too, but I think as you try to place structure (such as a box) onto something, the common mistake is that it flattens out the drawing. Try exaggerating the poses more, and twisting the boxes themselves. Stay really loose with the lines, they don't have to be all straight edges and proper boxes. I think they look good though! Just keep in mind to watch your proportions too, there's a couple I spotted where the rib cage and hips are almost the same size, but I don't get the impression of it being forshortened.
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Victor Valverde Perez
Beans are kind of fun, Gets difficult with twisting + tilting First set is Marcia as ref second is Chanon
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@nothanks
Beans looking good. As you progress, this is a nice way to warm up before studies :)
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Marco Sordi
2022/2/10. Good morning everybody. Here’s my 30 minutes warming up exercise for today. Thanks and have a good day.
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@nothanks
Looks like you've already noticed the torso is too long (or the lower half of the body may be what's too short). You can try holding up your drawing to your PC screen and zooming in/out on the reference image to check proportional issues. If you're gentle & don't have a soft monitor, you can also trace over the original work to make notes/comparisons (if you know how to use digital software, you can also do this via layering). Otherwise, great job finding cross contour lines and trying to figure out basic shapes to describe the body with. I think the arms could use a little more work (like how you've cross contoured the legs and simplified them into cylinders, but the arms sort of start as boxes, and then fade into contour lines - try to add a shape where the two parts connect or show with cross contour how the arm changes from boxy to cylindrical). I like following along with proko's videos and copying the shapes he uses as a good starting point - maybe re-watch some of the manniquinization demos or even check out the comments and user submissions to see what others are doing.
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Taylor Bankson
Hey y'all. Struggling significantly with gestures. These were 45 second gestures from this movement: https://www.bodiesinmotion.photo/motions/1813/fullscreen?index=0 Some I ran out of time, one I took a second stab at I would deeply appreciate some guidance on what I'm not seeing or doing. It feels like as soon as I start drawing with the timer, I have no idea what I'm doing again
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@nothanks
The gestures look pretty fluid to me, and you're doing great keeping the number of lines down. I think you should spend a little more time working on proportions. There's some of these that are way off - a lot of waistlines look too wide and legs too short. Heads are a circle directly connected to the body with no indication of the neck, and the few necks I do see are thick and kind of weird looking. My advice: turn off the timer until you get a hang of it. I could never do gesture until I turned off the timer (or turned it way up), even these simple stick figures, I got too anxious and did not take the time I needed for my eye to actually SEE the gesture, so I'd just end up with ugly scribbles all over my page and feeling frustrated. I do stick figures at 60-90 seconds now, and regular gesture drawings around 5 minutes (I used to spend 2 minutes on the simple figures, so you will be able to go faster as you practice).
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@visperod
I'm too newbie and I have perspective problems, I've been trying all day to make the bottom part look symmetrical and I also want fire to come out of both the wheels above and the flamethrowers below, will someone have a tip for me? . . I desperately accept feedback
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@nothanks
I struggle with perspective too - I've seen artists use 3D modeling programs like blender to create simplified versions of their scenes and designs in order to get the perspective accurate. For drawing practice, you can study basic shapes (cones, cubes, cylinders, spheres, pills, etc.) at all different angles until your body/brain gets a "feel" for it. Everything else in the world can usually be broken down into those simple shapes.
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@nothanks
Starting with a boxy foundation for the hands would help you define the plains a little better. It looks like your hand shapes and fingers taper off a lot more than a real hand. You can do trace-overs after finishing a study to find your errors, this is what I usually do when I'm struggling to see what's 'off' just by looking. Proko's hand lessons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJjMiXlq9ns&list=PLtG4P3lq8RHExM4hzeEW2TRZTB88wKKYf As for cleaner linework, you can sketch in a light colored pencil (such as blue or bright orange), and draw over it with regular pencil or charcoal using fewer and smoother lines (part of this will just come with practice as your dexterity improves). Likewise, you can just do your underdrawing lighter in pencil or erase most of it before your final pencil rendering. Drawabox.com lessons to improve line quality: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/2 For more expressive hands, think about regular gesture drawing - if you see a finger pointing in a certain way, exaggerate it!
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Camellito
Asked for help
Thanks to @paper for the tips. Here are some sketches.
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@nothanks
The hair looks a little flat, the textures look great, but I think some of the larger volumes are missing (e.g., layering texture). Perhaps drawing the heads larger would provide you more room to include details, layers, texture, etc. I notice when my drawings get too small, just physically, it gets difficult to work in certain details. But they look really nice to me overall, I haven't personally gotten to the hair lesson(s) yet.
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@nothanks
Very cute! I think you could work on your stability while inking - the lines meander a bit and are scratchy in areas, but this will just come with lots of practice as your muscle control and dexterity improve. You could also try using a ruler on any straight lines and use a template for circles. I don't like to do that when I'm sketching, but for a clean and finished linework it's a good idea :)
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