Gil draws

[Zhil]

For something completely different: Gil draws. I've decided my drawing skills suck major balls at the moment (out of practice in a bad way). So, I started by checking just how bad they were by drawing a male body from memory. The result was... less than pleasing.

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Next, I studied up on my anatomy (thank you Andrew Loomis and Burne Hogarth). I decided to start slow and go from life, with this as a result (meh):

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I've got a long way to go, but I'll try to regularly post stuff here. I know there's a few people here with drawing skills, feel free to give me tips, pointers, etc. I can sure use them :)

Excuse the bad image quality, I'm taking pictures with my phone.

[Ethinolicbob]

I've decided my drawing skills suck major balls

I call liar!
If you suck 'major balls' I cannot fathom what it is that I would suck

[Zhil]

I call liar!

Thanks for the compliment, I guess, but I don't think any art teacher would agree with you :p

[Ethinolicbob]

Submit something of mine beside yours and then your art will be gold.
However I have never had an art teacher...

[Gargantuan_Penguin]

I call liar!

Thanks for the compliment, I guess, but I don't think any art teacher would agree with you :p

it is true that no art teacher would agree that you are "good". Loads of potential, and untrained skill yes, not masterful though.

I am having a hard time placing what is off about the second one though. hmm.... my only suggestion is to make sure you have the skeleton really solid before moving on to the muscles. it just looks a little off.

[PatrickSJ]

I am having a hard time placing what is off about the second one though. hmm.... my only suggestion is to make sure you have the skeleton really solid before moving on to the muscles. it just looks a little off.

The problem is the that pelvis is off and the angle of the arms is incorrect. Looking at the image, one shoulder is down while the other is up and the pectoral muscles support that, but pelvis and curvature of the torso do not. Try posing yourself in the mirror and you will notice that the raised leg comes up more and the planes of the hip and shoulder should both be angled. The hip is too horizontal.

Also, the perspective on the hand is off. It is very large compared to the arm.

[Zhil]

More drawing time :)

Last step was from reference, so I thought I'd do half-half this time. I looked at a reference thoroughly, studied aspects of it, compared to anatomy books and then went to the drawing pad to recreate what I studied, without looking. This is the result:

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Next step was step one all over again. A complete drawing from memory, no references. Again, lots of screwy anatomy, but I feel like my contours and line work are improving. I also feel like proportions are way better this time. I'm actually pretty happy with the progress made so far, but the road is still long.

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The problem is...

He's drawn from picture reference, I overlayed the picture afterwards and it's almost an exact 1:1, which I was proud of :). So yeah, it's impossible that any proportions are off like you say. Maybe my fubar rendering skills are throwing you off.

[Joeyjoebob]

That face. Its going to give me nightmares. But you're anatomy is definitely getting better.

[PatrickSJ]

He's drawn from picture reference, I overlayed the picture afterwards and it's almost an exact 1:1, which I was proud of :). So yeah, it's impossible that any proportions are off like you say. Maybe my fubar rendering skills are throwing you off.

Odd. Could you post the reference picture?

[Catox]

The result was... less than pleasing.

This kind of objectivity really is the most important skill you need to progress. Like Gargantuan_Penguin said, your drawings show that there is potential within your fingers. The rest is a matter of perseverance, wich looks like you have a fair amount of.

I say good luck to you ^___^

The problem is...

He's drawn from picture reference, I overlayed the picture afterwards and it's almost an exact 1:1, which I was proud of :). So yeah, it's impossible that any proportions are off like you say. Maybe my fubar rendering skills are throwing you off.

I'm not a big adept of this style so I didn't look at it much to analyse it but... I'm sure of one thing : a "little" difference in the strokes of two drawings can make a "huge" difference on how the feel like. Even to the extent of how the feel right or wrong.

[Zhil]

I'm not a big adept of this style so I didn't look at it much to analyse it but... I'm sure of one thing : a "little" difference in the strokes of two drawings can make a "huge" difference on how the feel like. Even to the extent of how the feel right or wrong.

Yeah, I suspect the borky shading is throwing everyone off. Besides, drawing from reference is bad, as it's too easy to focus on little details, get lost in heaps of shading, etc. I'm just not ready for that stuff yet, so I'm not supposed to draw like that.

Next is some studying again. I'm going to do some exercises on poses, study the legs and arms further (I got lost doing the legs in the old guy drawing).