Figure Drawing Fundamentals Assignment 2 Line of Action part 1

blackhound rise

assignment 2 of Figure drawing - Line of action part 1.

Female pose 1 of the assignment. did 8 attempts. will upload the rest as the week goes. quite a fun exercise but i need to slow down a bit. some of my line work got "tired", rushed and messy part way through. apologies for the split upside down pics. feedback much appreciated. it will help me practice better. thanks

blackhound rise

Geoffrey Mégardon

I think that you are doing well with simplifying the body and thinking in terms of lines but it is hard to give feedback without seeing the reference photos.

If that can help, here some questions, I ask myself while working on gesture drawing:

what is the person doing (what is the action)
is the person balanced or out of balance?
where is the head looking, where is the torso facing, where the hips facing
what's the angle between shoulder and hips
what's the line connecting the feets
what is the line of action running through the spine
what is the line of action running through each legs

Your gesture drawing basically needs to report what you have observed. As if you were writting notes, but with lines.

Robyn Hepburn

@blackhound-rise I love the loose lines you've used to show the basic form of the person. I agree with @Geoffrey-Mégardon about the line of action and where the feet go. I see the feet haven't made it onto the page, which immediately loses the figure's balance. I tend to first draw 2 lines were the feet go then a mark for the hips, shoulders and top of head (or from the top down), so I know the full figure will fit on the page and that the basic proportions are there.
I also love to switch it up, if you want some alternative options: instead of the outlines of the figure, I get a lot of watery paint on my brush and blob the silhouette on the page (thinking about shape rather than outline). Or get a thick piece of charcoal or something similar so that I get to make thick shapes and thin lines where necessary. (They might actually go into all this in the course - I haven't done that one - so I'm sorry if I'm saying what you already know!)
Anyway, great work! Keep going and enjoying. It's amazing how useful it is to practice drawing the human form; it's never wasted.

blackhound rise

@Geoffrey-Mégardon thank you Geoffrey. much appreciated. I have saved your notes to my file. i was not sure to upload the reference photos as they are semi-nude references provided by instructor Michael Parker. i'll upload shortly and if i should not upload them in future i'm sure i will be told.

blackhound rise

@Robyn-Hepburn Thank you Robyn. great tips on marking out where feet should go. i'm new to this course so will find out other stuff as i move along. i was also thinking of changing up my set up and use full A3 card paper to draw the gesture/line of action rather than split it into panels for two pics. i've saved your advice for my notes. thank you very much

Robyn Hepburn

@blackhound-rise @Geoffrey-Mégardon I'm not sure it's important to provide reference photos since you're not trying to get a proper likeness of the person. But we can definitely tell that is a human you're drawing!