Month: April 2025

This card is from SVS Figure Drawing for Illustrators.

This lesson is going over basic lines and shapes that will be important to figure drawing. This class is less about creating photo-realistic figures for portraiture and more about making believable figures for illustration. I actually had the hardest time with the simple lines which Lee wanted to be shaped with a wider and thinner shape. It’s something I’ll need to practice with more. The shapes and lines are getting easier over time and I’m getting better at getting the line I want. These are new exercises, moving away from approximating perspective and more toward an estimated, believable shape. I’m excited for this class.

Next time I will try to find some calligraphy practice sheets to see if I can get better, more expressive lines. My lines still tend to be very similar and static. I want to bring more life and variety into them.

Photoshop using Huion tablet.

I spent about 60 minutes doing several exercises and then completed this image.

This card is from SVS Figure Drawing Fundamentals.

This lesson is about a taking the steps of line of action, gesture, proportion, and finally construction to create the final drawing. The emphasis is just on doing the best you can with what you can do and understand so far, then doing lots of practice. This whole class is very difficult for me, it’s so unfamiliar. But, I feel like I have better understanding of gesture drawing and have something to work with for practice. I really had trouble with using measurements to do a full gesture, especially a seated pose. I tried doing a drawing yesterday and it was so bad, I just left it alone for the day. Then today I tried again without trying to do measuring and it was better. I feel like I got better proportions without it. I’ll have to keep trying. I think with more practice it will make more sense. Right now, measuring just makes thing too over complicated.

Next time I will do more practice with measurements on standing poses and see if I can bring more of that to this. If I work with different model, maybe it will force me to measure more!

Graphite pencil on letter size copy paper.

I did 30 minutes practice and then 60 minutes to complete this image.

This card is from SVS Figure Drawing Fundamentals.

This lesson is about the ‘ideal’ 8-head figure mannequin proportions and how to use that to work with the human figure. I have flipped through a box mannequin book (from Tom Fox) that I have been using to help me have an idea of how to draw a figure. This is a more organic approach. I struggle with both, but with practice, I’m starting to see things better and I think it will help. The artists I tend to like use a more cartoony style, but I think it’s still good to learn this since it will help me make my characters less stiff. My whole style is very stiff right now, so anything to loosen it up will help. My ideal mannequins keep turning out very tall and narrow looking. But I feel like I did well with the gesture drawings.

Next time I will try to work on the width of the ideal mannequin better. I may need to review the videos again just to get more help with that.

Graphite pencil on letter size copy paper.

I did 15 minutes practice and then 45 minutes to complete this image.

This card is from SVS Figure Drawing Fundamentals.

This lesson is about adding more our line of action sketches and drawing more tubes and spheres to make the drawing more detailed. It’s still a quick sketch. There were not a lot of instructions on this one, so I’m not sure if doing things right or well, but I’m giving it a try. These were the best of the bunch. Again, I’ll keep going with the class and see how it goes. .

Next time I will try this in Photoshop just so I can practice there.

graphite pencil on letter size copy paper.

I did 40 minutes practice and then 15 minutes to complete this image.

This card is from SVS Figure Drawing Fundamentals.

This lesson is about Line of Action, and it’s a little different from how I have heard it described before. This is following the ribcage and pelvis more than the head and flow of the pose. I’m not sure I have a good grasp of it yet, I’ll continue with the class to see how it’s used and if I’m on the right track. It’s harder when someone is standing straight, I don’t have a good feel for how the Line of Action works for that. But when the pose has more angles, it makes more sense. We’ll continue with the next section and see how it goes.

Next time I will try running through all the poses several times just to see if I get a better feel of it. also, maybe use copy paper since it makes a bit of a mess in the sketchbook. Also should try in Photoshop.

Charcoal pencil and 9×12 sketchbook paper.

I did 30 minutes practice watching class and then 30 minutes to complete 3 pages of poses.