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nellAllen
Posts:3
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vikingwife
Posts:882
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| 10/23/2007 7:13 AM |
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I found it very helpful to take a life drawing class. If that is not a possiblity where you are.....maybe a local book shop would have some books on the subject. Hopefully someone else here will have some suggestions on specific books to look for. If not.....check out wetcanvas.com. They have a life drawing forum there.....surely some of the regulars to that forum would have some good advice. 
Jess |
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nellAllen
Posts:3
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| 10/23/2007 12:35 PM |
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thanks jess!=)..really appreciate ur reply |
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Rosie
Posts:300
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| 10/23/2007 3:52 PM |
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nellAllen,
What I do when I have a problem area is to do a study, fill the page or pages with drawing of the trouble areas...use your own feet your own hands the right, if right handed takes time, cause you hand to keep putting your pencil down.
Calalogs and magazines for children and hands of different ages, sex and races...don't draw what you know draw what you see... You may not see all of the nail bed or all of the knuckles...don't completely out line anything the lights coming from somewhere...try those couple little tips, it may help...practice, practice, practice, good things take time, step away study mistakes, hold the drawing upside down or look at it in a mirror, you can spot your mistakes easily.
Rosie |
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Use the pointy end............ |
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Fisher4
Posts:49
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| 10/25/2007 1:16 AM |
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Nell, are you working from life or photos?
If your studying anatomy, using photos can help make the process somewhat easier. Take several digital pictures of your subject or have a friend take pictures of you. Use a mirror and/or the timer on the camera if you don't have someone to assist you in taking the pictures. Then print out photos on a copy machine or use the copier to enlarge a photo to 8 x 10. Grid your enlargement and your drawing surface then draw the outline of what you see in each square. Your grid squares on your drawing surface should be larger than the grid on your enlargement...just be sure you have the equal number of squares regardless of size.
Another approach is to turn the photo upside down and draw what you see. This will disassociate the objective nature of the image in your mind and will simplify the image into abstract patterns, which is easier to draw. Girding and turning the photo upside will provide even better results.
The approach to drawing anatomy from life studies can vary as there are individuals. Taking a figure drawing class is the best place to start, if that not possible here are a few tips. Keep a sketchbook, do gesture drawings...meaning capture as much of the whole figure in varying degrees of time. First 30 seconds, then 60 seconds, back to 30 seconds, then 1 minute, two mintues, back to 1 minute. Keep increasing your gesture study times until your ready to spend at least 30 minutes drawing the figure. When you first are starting out don't worry about the capturing the details. The idea is to just capture the position and energy of the figure. I often do gesture studies with charcoal sticks before diving into a detail study of the figure.
Another approach is to focus on the smallest of digits...thumb nail, then whole thumb, then the wrist, wrist to the forearm, forearm to the shoulder, and so on. These are individual studies done over time. Think in terms of zooming into the smallest area then zooming out until you eventually are able to include the whole figure. Get comfortable with drawing each part of the body in increments; move on to include the next section of the body only when you are confident. You can take your time 30 minutes or more, or use the gesture approach.
Doing quick gesture sketches in public areas while traveling can greatly enhance your skills. I don’t worry about getting things right in the gestures drawings they are building blocks for when I want to do a detailed drawing. Hope this helps. |
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Fisher |
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Alfredo Gomez Jr.
Posts:15
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| 10/25/2007 9:03 PM |
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| I would definitely suggest buying some good quality anatomy books. You can start with "Anatomy for the Artist," by Jeno Barcsay, a very thorough book filled with the skeletal & muscular system of the human body in a variety of poses (also one of the standard books most art schools recommend to students in figure classes). Another book would be "Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters," by Robert Beverly Hale (the famous Anatomy instructor from the Art Students League in New York City) & Terence Coyle. Both of these books would be a great introduction to the Anatomy of the Human Form...& you could always go back to them as a reference to compare or contrast (depending on your intentions) your own interpretations of the human figure to the books or Masters of the past. Copying old master drawings would also help a great deal. Hope this helped! -Alfredo Gomez Jr. www.Alfredogomezjr.com |
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usha
Posts:1
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| 11/07/2007 1:35 AM |
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| i would concentrate on the eyes. eyes are what tells us apart. usha |
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usha hooda |
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bggordon
Posts:220
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| 12/20/2007 7:00 PM |
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| Nell, Along with the advise you've already received, for hands and feet, they are usually troublesome, the key is practice whether it's from life or books. I've just finished a course called Drawing & Anatomies for the art institute of Pittsburgh. One of our assignments were hands and feet in motion. There are lots of methods but it seemed the keys were accuracy of proportion and perspective and the line work itself. You've got to stay at it as suggested. Our text was Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist. This book was very helpful. It can found on Amazon.com. Good luck. |
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jdean
Posts:27
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| 12/23/2007 3:32 PM |
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Hello nellAllen,
Whenever I get into trouble - my subject starts looking awkward or the portrait starts looking like a different someone - I know I've lost track of one simple maxim: "Draw what you see, not what you think it should look like." (Rosie put this in a slightly different way, but I think we're on the same page.)
You've received a lot of really good advice here, perhaps the best being, practice, practice, practice! The more we do, it seems, the more confident and the better we become.
Two more things that've served me well… Whenever we draw or paint from real life, (no matter if it's an apple or a human figure), eye-to-hand coordination becomes important. That's what helps us get our drawing to resemble what it is we're drawing!
To improve eye-to-hand coordination, I learned a very simple yet effective exercise that was called, "outline drawing." (Other people might know it as something else.)
Briefly, grab a pencil and a stack of cheap paper, (copy paper or newsprint), maybe 25 to 50 sheets. (You can use both sides but only one drawing each side.) Then pick an object in the room to draw, positioning your drawing board and paper just out of range of your peripheral vision. (You don't want to be able to see your drawing as you do it.) Somewhere along the outside edge of the object, pick a starting point. Then, from your starting point, draw only the outside edge of the object as you follow it with your eyes. Continue the line until you end back at your starting point. Just three rules for this exercise: 1) don't look at your work as you draw; 2) don't pick-up your pencil once you start until after you finish; and, 3) do a lot of these drawings of the same object in one session. What you'll find in each drawing is that the ends of the single line you've drawn will rarely, if ever, connect, and your drawing may not even be recognizable! but even if it's not immediately apparent, you've improved your eye-to-hand coordination and powers of observation.
Coincidently, I just wrote someone about this same thing and have posted a picture that shows what I mean. You can get it at this address: http://www.jeffreyjeromedean.com/blog/supdocs/outlinedrawing.jpg
The second thing I'd like to mention… Regardless of what you draw from, always position your drawing board/paper and your subject so that the only thing you have to move is your eyes as you look back and forth from your subject and your drawing. Moving your head even just a little bit in any direction will change your original perspective on the object/subject causing the shapes, outlines, and lines that "make up" the subject to change. And that'll make accuracy in your final rendering more difficult.
I hope this helps, and as always, I wish you the best in your art.
Cheers!
www.JeffreyJeromeDean.com |
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MSHa
Posts:12
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| 12/30/2007 12:49 AM |
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| Lots of practice. Take off your shoe and draw your foot, your wife's foot, your daughter's foot, your dad's foot. Draw your own hand. Put a mirror in front of your hand for different angles. Start simple, get the old, (cheap, $10.00) book by Jack Hamm, ""Drawing The Head And Figure. |
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jds_truck
Posts:4
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| 02/05/2008 6:49 PM |
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| would deffinetly recomend a human anatomy of the figure course taking one as we speak and it 1 day a week 11 class . big thing is knowing how to porportion properly ie how many heads long is the person and how many heads wide. also important thing with faces is get piece is right area eyes are probably most important. deffinetly recomend griding the paper that way u are able to get basic ideas of where stuff should go. then eventually move on to free handing |
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357Lady
Posts:94
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| 02/05/2008 10:38 PM |
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There is an online human anatomy program that is free, just for artists. It's
called Pose Maniac. You have several different choices to choose from. Such
as negative space, 30 sec drawings, or you can choose a pose & practice drawing it
for as long as you would like. Very good source for the study of the human body
in different positions & how to draw it.
357Lady |
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Ativa
Posts:30
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| 02/25/2008 6:37 PM |
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| some probley have said just draw the section you have problems with over and over again intill you get it right do not get furisted it is great when you can draw everything around and start to see things in a whole new way. |
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baja318
Posts:51
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| 03/02/2008 8:02 PM |
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It's very important to understand general proportions of the human body. There are general measurements that apply to every human body - ways of comparison. For example the human head, if the head is level, a straight line should be drawn from the corners of the eyes to the tops of the ears... if looking at the face straight-on the bottom of the nose is located halfway between the bottom of the chin to the top of the head...etc.... These are very general rules but things you should know when drawing people, so that you can check yourself.
Also, it's important to let go of what you "think" you are looking at, we all have ideas of what we think an eye SHOULD look like, you have to let that go. Draw what you SEE, not what you THINK you see, let go of all preconceptions.
Break features down into generic shapes. There are structures of bone and muscle underneath skin that form structures, take this into account. An eyelid is a flap of skin that lays over a sphere, noses can usually be broken down into triangle,s etc...I'm no expert, just a college student, but these are things that I keep in mind when I work. Alot of artists have problems with drawing people because they can't let go of what they think they're looking at. Alot of work I see of my fellow students include problems such as eyes that are too big, eyes that are located too high on the head blah, blah, blah...if you want to draw something believable you have to MEASURE MEASURE MEASURE. That is probably the most important point I want to make. And once you get past all the horrendous measuring you can be confident that you have an ACCURATE piece and you can move onto the fun stuff like shading/adding color.
Sorry this response is so long, just want to help if I can! |
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