My Figure Drawings -- Then And Now

.      "Keep drawing everyday, and you'll improve eventually"-- is the common advice.  There's some value to that, but that's not enough.  Rather, draw everyday but with understanding, focus and fundamentals training.  It's the best way to level up one's drawing skills, in my humble opinion.   Otherwise, one is bound to just repeat some bad drawing habits.  And never learn some new ways of drawing. Especially in drawing the figure.  Which was true in my case.

        Being a traditional animator before, I had been drawing everyday for years, but my figure drawings looked  a bit cartoony, loose and  unfinished.  At the time, I thought my drawings were ok -- not great but not bad either. They look terrible to me now.  I've only myself to blame for my laziness and complacency that my drawing skills stagnated.   I didn't do any personal drawings outside of work that time, and so my drawing style was limited to what the house-style was at work.  And so for years, my drawings stayed the same. I didn't even know how to add some tonal shadings properly.  Shameful.

        Eventually, I realized that figure drawing practice is essential in developing an artist's drawing and observational skills.  There's also the design aspect to it that I didn't know of.    Actually, there's a lot I didn't know.  I just knew that I needed to learn how to do it well.

       So for these past few weeks, that's exactly what I did -- signed up for a figure drawing class and learned some new ways of drawing the figure.   It was so different from how I used to draw, that it was counter-intuitive at first.  But eventually, I learned to adapt this new method of careful, and deliberate drawing of the figure. It's not quick sketching, but a long pose study of the figure. Very similar to how a painter would start a figure painting. 

       Almost dramatically, my drawings just got better during the class.  Looking at the drawing comparisons below, and seeing the big improvement jumps, it is really gratifying and encouraging.  Yet there's still more to learn.  And I'm sure in a few years time, when I do another comparisons, these 2019 drawings would look terrible to me by then.

    

      

Figure Drawing Practice 013

        This was my final assignment submission for the online figure drawing class I was taking.  The step-by step method of drawing a long pose figure gave me some tools on how to approach it.  It's a slow and methodical process, unlike the way I used to approach figure drawing before. I used to draw the figure loosely in a gestural way, following the Vilppu method. The drawings looked unfinished.  Now, they looked more finished.

Figure Drawing Practice 012

         Thia was my assignment for last week. I've learned that the key  to achieving a realistic or naturalistic look isn't the details, but a good shape design.  So even with a limited value range, and a simplified shapes, rendering this wasn't as daunting as I used to think it would be.  My instructor said, as long as there's a clear separation of the lights from the darks, and focus on drawing the head well,  the whole figure would still work well.  He said this works. Yey!

Figure Drawing Practice 011

      I really didn't know what I don't know prior to taking a figure drawing class.  I didn't understand anything about value grouping, limiting the value range, shape designing, and the different edges. All these components, I now realized, would be building blocks I would need when I eventually transition to  painting in color.    But for now, learning to understand values, shape design, and edges, together with a good lay-in and a good rendering, are enough to keep me busy for months.

    Here's one of my assignment submissions. There was a few more finishing notes I got from my art instructor, that I need to consider in my future work. But I'm quite pleased with what I've done here.


Model Reference from Croquis Cafe.

Figure Drawing Practice 010

     My instructor told me this is a good lay-in.   Now my problem is how to finish this well....  I'll just leave this as it is.....

Figure Drawing Practice 009

       Another essential lesson I'm learning from the online figure drawing class I'm taking is Value Grouping.  Instead of filling in all the tiny details. I simplify the shapes and group the values with a very limited value range. Even without those details, it still looks realistic. It's not the details that makes it look real. it's a well-designed shapes.  

       Here's one of the assignments I did for the class.  Model Reference from Croquis Cafe.

Figure Drawing Practice 008

      Another breakdown of my drawing process, from gesture lay-in, up  to the finish render.  Drawing a good lay-in took a bit of time. Making sure that the gesture was clear; the shape design was simple and the proportions correct. Then fitting in the details was like completing a puzzle.  Finishing the whole thing took me approximately  a day.  Learning these steps makes drawing the figure easier to handle.

Figure Drawing Practice 007

      For years,  I've always struggled on how to get my drawings to look like those in how-to-draw art books. At the time, I thought that learning to just construct the figure well was all it takes to make a good figure drawing.  Now I realized it's just one of the many elements that makes a good drawing.  Aside from basic anatomy and proportion, gesture and shape design are also important. Plus years of drawing and developing a good observational skills. 

      The learning and practice had been an on-going journey. And before I knew it, I just got better. My drawings is starting to look like those in how-to-draw art books. There's no secret to it. Just learning the fundamentals and then put those into practice every time.
  
     And so,  here's the breakdown of my figure drawing process I've been learning lately - the gesture lay-in,  form construction of the torso, modification of the figure using half-tones, adding facial details and dark patterns, and the final render.  Having a step-by-step drawing process is always a good practice while learning. It's an efficient and logical way of  making sure the foundation is laid out well before proceeding to the next step.
     
     Over time, with frequent practice, I can surely do away with many steps  and go straight to finishing and render, just like the artists I admire.    Till then, I still need to do these steps .


Photo reference used  from Art Models.

   

  

Figure Drawing Practice 006

        It's been a while since my last post because I've been busy learning some figure drawing, and how to do a good lay-in.  These are some of the lay-in poses I've done for the online figure drawing class I've been taking..

        These are lay-in drawings where the focus were on the gesture, form, and proportion of the poses. It's the first and most important  step in the figure drawing process, and I spent a lot time at this stage of the process, because if I didn't get it right at this stage, any rendering done on top would only make it look like polished turd.  But if initial lay-in is done well, then I'd halfway done,  and rendering would be easier.

        The poses are from photo references taken from Croquis Cafe.

 

Figure Drawing Practice 005

      One of the new art ideas I learned from the figure drawing class I've taken recently is this - a drawing with good shapes results in a good drawing. Conversely, a drawing with bad shapes results in a bad drawing.  Even if  one can draw anatomy, but without good shape design, the drawing usually ends up a bad drawing.

     

    Here's the breakdown of my drawing process: First, the simple shape of the gesture using a basic construction as the lay-in.  Second, using the Reilly method on the head and adding some anatomical marking on the body as a guide.  Third, drawing and defining the shadow shapes while being mindful of the anatomy.  Then finally, adding in the whites for the lit areas and continue the rendering to the finish.

Reference photo of the model is from Croquis Cafe Phot Archive. (www.croquis.com)

Figure Drawing Practice 004

      Knowledge of some anatomy is always valuable. But even if one has a very limited knowledge of it, one can still draw a good figure drawing. The key to a good drawing is drawing good shapes.

      Here's the steps I've taken in creating this drawing.  Firstly,  I established the overall shape and proportion of the figure, with the use of the Reilly head construction and some muscular anatomy markings.   Secondly, delineating and darkening of the shadow shapes, while being mindful of the anatomy underneath.  Then adding the whites in areas that are lit. For the final look, I decided to thicken the outline for a bit of design. 

     Here's the final look.

Model reference photo by Hong Ly
(characterdesign.com)

Figure Drawing Practice 003

Here's another figure drawing,using photo reference from Croquis Cafe.. 

Figure Drawing Practice 002

Here's another figure drawing focusing on the back muscles.   Learning artistic anatomy has been an ongoing effort and it really helps in recognizing all those muscle shapes and bumps that can be quite confusing especially in the shoulder blade area.  The challenge with this drawing was deciding how much muscle anatomy should I show and still maintain the feminine quality of the model.   There's not really any way of  learning how to judge this except to just keep practicing and let my artistic taste evolve to what's pleasing to the eye. 

Figure Drawing Practice

     One of the fundamental skills I should have learned by now, considering I was once a traditional animator, is figure drawing. But due to various reasons, I haven't done much of it.  As a former traditional animator, the emphasis of  our figure drawing exercises had been in capturing the gesture quickly, and pushing the pose for a quick read.  And so most of my figure sketches were sketchy, loose and unfinished.

      And so, for this year, I decided to focus on figure drawing and learn  how to finish it.   For this effort, I signed up and just recently completed  a figure drawing crash course and will further my learning in another course for a long pose figure drawing  The method is very similar to the previous head drawing course I've taken, by learning how to do the basic figure construction using shapes.

      And so, while waiting for that course to start, I did this figure drawing  and will compare this later to what I'll be learning in that upcoming course.  So here's my first post for 2019.

      Using a photo reference from Croquis Cafe, I drew this in Clip Studio Paint, using a Wacom Cintiq 13HD pen display tablet