Will Westons online drawing class

[ArtofAleksey]

Hi y’all

I started doing Will Weston’s online classes A few people here have asked me to share what I’m learning. So here it is!

He has 3 classes on the drawing america website

2 of them are anatomy
1 is a composition class

So far i just started one of the anatomy classes.

I’ll post my photos but my photos are essentially messy notes but ill share what I’ve learned so far.

Number 1 was how to hold a pencil differently. I was messing around with different ways he shows and already have an improvement in how I make lines and shapes.

The 8 head figure and how to actually use it when drawing figures. He breaks down the general measurements and is constantly saying everyone has variations and the 8 head figure isnt a rule, it’s a starting off point to take the guessing away so when you’re drawing the decisions youre making are “this is longer this is shorter” in relation to the figure You’re seeing. My torso drawing skills have already improved drastically. As well as figuring out how long to make the neck! Man i struggled with that for so long..

He says he does a lot of 5 minute poses because a lot of his students worry too much about finishing the drawing when they should be focusing in seeing and practicing the measurements.

I also noticed I dont do a good job of drawing from my shoulder so I’m trying to nail a few things down simultaneously with this course.

Something he said that really helped me understand how to approach learning was you get better by starting over constantly. So I did the 8 head figure maybe 30 times now and can now do it from memory (whether it looks good is a different story)

Im experimenting with the Progresso woodless pencils which feel really nice and are really cheap. They are very “sketchy” which im not used to, i try to sharpen them to keep the lines neater and im trying to draw softly but it seems like im still getting used to the new grip.

Ive rewatched the first 3 of his videos maybe 10 times and am starting to get the hang of it.

Here are some messy photos!

[ArtofAleksey]

I managed to get to here from memory

[Heather Boyd]

@Aleksey Proko said in the Gesture Class to add knowledge of anatomy slowly. So this week I think I will learn a bit about hip and torso anatomy to aid me. Yours are looking good especially from memory.

[ArtofAleksey]

@Heather-Boyd thanks! I tried to apply this method to a sitting person and it didn’t look as great as I had hoped but it definitely looked better than my old figure drawings

[ArtofAleksey]

Heres more messy notes and poses from memory!
I learned how to do hips better and found a nice pencil/grip balance.

[ArtofAleksey]

Also if people have questions i will try my best to answer them.

[Heather Boyd]

@Aleksey two parts I struggle with that I’d like to solve is:

1. How hips connect to legs
2. How to properly show bearing weight leg

[ArtofAleksey]

@Heather-Boyd oh good questions! I think i can show you (maybe) once I get home tonight from work ill try to do a litttle demo thing and post it on here.

[ArtofAleksey]

@Heather-Boyd
Hope this mess is helpful.

Top goes over the hip area first
Bottom attached legs

[Heather Boyd]

@Aleksey thanks I’ll take a look tomorrow.

[ArtofAleksey]

Who knew the back was so tough to draw! Getting there

[ArtofAleksey]

The Leg! Ugh this was real tough to get.

[braden H]

@Aleksey said in Will Westons online drawing class:

The Leg! Ugh this was real tough to get.

Dude, technical anatomy is always tough to get . I think I've gotten through the first 2-3 pages of each of Hogarth's anatomy books before giving up.

This is lookin' real awesome, though!

[ArtofAleksey]

@Braden-Hallett yeah the anatomy is tough but what i am getting better at is the construction and the proportions, i dont guess anymore on like, where the neck connects or how long the torso should be and how thick the thighs are. Especially on female characters.

One thing ive REALLY improved at is the drawing through objects and using my shoulder to create the construction lines. Im starting to understand why people do sketches on paper first instead of digital. That anxiety is mostly gone entirely.

[ArtofAleksey]

Alright i finished the first set of video lessons. Now im using a photo reference book to learn how to construct different parts of the body. Thanks y’all for following my post! Im gonna do the composition class next week probably after i practice simplifying anatomy a bit.

[chrisaakins]

@Aleksey I have always drawn traditionally first and I almost cannot understand how people sketch digitally. The freedom of movement you get by using a pencil on paper is so much better than a pen on a tablet. But you can't beat all the things you can do digitally like undo and erase and layering. I was relieved to find out that many artists still draw first and then scan in their drawings to finish them digitally.

Your sketching and anatomy is looking really nice. Reminds me of DaVinci's style with the hands.

[ArtofAleksey]

@chrisaakins i think it’s because of that fear around making a mistake that you cant “fix” and digital art reinforced that fear for me more to the point where I had a tough time even with thumbnails traditionally. And I think that really impacted my art later on in the developmental stages and further in the refined stages.

[chrisaakins]

@Aleksey I get that a lot from my high school students. They get paralyzed by the prospect of messing up. I try to teach them to embrace the mistakes and go with whatever happens. I do that by doing a lot of messy mixed media assignments that force them to loosen up. Also, I let them know if they just can't live with the flaw then just start over.

It's a hard lesson to learn. For me, it was the frustration that I could not draw realism perfectly that paralyzed me into not drawing for fifteen years. I walked away from art feeling like a failure. It wasn't until as an adult an art teacher told me that if she wanted a perfect likeness of an object, she'd just take a photo. I realized then that all the mess-ups and flaws are what make art unique and give it that character that now photographers are trying to replicate with Photoshop. Funny, huh?

[ArtofAleksey]

@chrisaakins yeah totally. Will Weston makes you do line exercises and warm ups in a sketchbook before you draw anything you wanna keep, as you’re constructing it.

And the way he holds the pencil makes it really fun to do i feel extra fancy. Once i do the exercises ill post them on here.

[burvantill]

@Aleksey I have discovered this same phenomenon just this week. Undo is my kryptonite. I was sketching my inktober digitally and doing so much digitally made it hard to sketch on paper. I had no confidence. I just told my husband today that I DO NOT want an iPad Pro for Xmas. Lol..... yet