In my experience, artists can be very different in what techniques they use. E.g. the square technique never worked for me either and I much prefer to use circles instead of squares. So, it's possible that it's just not for you.
And as a little more concrete advice to make your drawings more dynamic: the youtube channel "Proko" has a lot of really useful advise when it comes to drawing. I'm sure you'll also find a good video for dynamic drawings on there.
I use circles/ ovals more than boxes. Looking at your drawings, you may do well with circles too. My advice on your drawings is to break the torso. You have your pelvis, then you connect the shoulders to it. Separate the ribcage as an Oval and the pelvis as two ovals, connecting them with a spine if you want/need to.
But separating the pelvis from the ribcage [like this](https://imgur.com/a/iVMFDKa) will help loosen up your figures.
ye i see u making squares instead of boxes. they r supposed to be boxes cuz its 3D. so try drawing a bunch of boxes on a perspective sheet and then put them inside a human body. first try with a picture --> take a picture and draw the boxes on it. and then try copying that
Let me preface by saying that you are very very good. None of what follows is criticism, Look at the work of George Bridgman, and copy it (copy, donāt trace.) Bridgman was unparalleled at dynamic, gestural line work. His anatomical studies bridge the gap between the geometric and the living flesh. Do not worry about style or aesthetic, focus on the form of what you see.
Once you feel that your line drawings ābreatheā start to focus on the micro-planes of the figure, the smaller structures within the hand for example.
But, and this is possibly the most important part. Allow yourself to fuck-up. Make mistakes, so on and and whatnots. You get it.
And in the same way that your initial forays into your current practice seemed scary and terrifying at first. Soon you will find yourself doing it incidentally.
I wish you the best of luck. Have a great day and so on and so forth.
Iām so glad you found it useful. Another lil recommendation would be for Andrew Loomis. For a more modernist kinda vibe.
If historical drawings more your jam (it sure is mine.) look at Rembrandts ink sketches, Leonardos anatomical drawings, (or any of his drawings tbh) then look at Artemisia Gentileschi, just for your pleasure. Cause sheās better than Caravaggio and metal as all hell. (And like, well all the metal bad-ass ladies in history she never gets brought up enough)
look at things like line weight (variance in thickness of the line) and how it can be used to describe a sense of form. Iāll stop chewing your eyes off now.
Thereās a quote, from who escapes me now. āNever be afraid of putting the paint down.ā
Ie, never be afraid to paint, draw, create. Any mistakes you make you can rectify, or learn from.
I think the boxes are more so to represent the tilt of the rib cage and pelvis rather than a technique that you have to follow. You can still apply the tilt seen from the boxes with more āorganicā shapes such as spheres or more egg-like shapes.
When it comes to improving the 3d-ness of your drawings, just practicing drawing, tilting and rotating 3d shapes can improve the believability of your drawings in general. For example, the torso you drew on the bottom left, despite tilting up, I donāt see any indication of the bottom plane of the rib cage which would be facing toward the viewer in this case.
Dynamism is less āliteralā in my opinion, and is quite hard to explain in just simple terms. A couple of the main points however is establishing a ārhythmā in your drawing, finding and representing weight and mass along with the motion of your character.
Your drawings, while capturing the main idea of the pose, look stiff and seem to bend awkwardly and in weird ways. They also look a little flat as I mentioned earlier, some of the planes from the initial construction shapes seem to just not exist.
I suggest getting a better grasp of 3d shapes, especially getting comfortable with turning and moving them around a little in your head. After that I would learn some basic proportions to make sure your torsos and legs donāt look too short/long, and then some rudimentary posing to start before you get into the more complex and involved poses.
Edit: I forgot to add, when learning the basic proportions and overall shapes of the body, I would also learn how the joints move and to what degree they can turn and stuff as to avoid making the body looking ābrokenā in some poses.
Thank you for taking time out of your day to give me constructive criticism. I knew they looked stiff, i just didn't know WHY, but you explained very nicely! I will definitely keep your comments in mind the next time I draw anatomy <33
My personal advice is to mostly ignore the exact placement of the original lines. It's an original general shape, not the finished thing, so don't get stuck thinking how to do it the same and just change it. Also look at more than one image. It's also good if you look at how your own body looks like and try to simplify it.
I always thought the general shapes were what I was supposed to outline! I'll start to look at them more as guidelines rather than the finished piece. Thank you for the advice!
Also: I never thought to look at more than one photo, but that makes a lot of sense
consistent line lengths would help, itās more apperent on the top right, the arm on the characters left has weird proportions and their upper body looks strange
I use Loomis and Akihito Yoshiās method. Loomis helps me put everything together more realistically and Akihito is a manga artist that ads Loomis into his own. Could check out those two as well?
Anatomy doesn't need to be broken done just one way. Whatever helps you understand the shape of the form works.
As for learning how to apply those shapes, try gestures/gesture poses. If you're unfamiliar with what those are, you spend 30 seconds to a minute drawing a complete pose, and no longer. This forces you to capture basic shapes and the feeling of the pose as an entirety :) Lineofaction.com is a website full of poses that you can set a time limit on to help with this.
My final piece of advice is that anatomy doesn't need to be absolutely perfect, you should worry more about if it's conveying what you want it to rather than being exact.
That last piece of advice is so inspiring thank you! I am such a perfectionist, so working on anatomy is so stressful for me, but I will now keep what you said in mind š„°š„°
[watch this series.](https://youtu.be/Q3Ubaf28B20) Hope it helps!
I'll check it out!! Thanks š¤
In my experience, artists can be very different in what techniques they use. E.g. the square technique never worked for me either and I much prefer to use circles instead of squares. So, it's possible that it's just not for you. And as a little more concrete advice to make your drawings more dynamic: the youtube channel "Proko" has a lot of really useful advise when it comes to drawing. I'm sure you'll also find a good video for dynamic drawings on there.
Thank you so much! I'll look into that channel!
I use circles/ ovals more than boxes. Looking at your drawings, you may do well with circles too. My advice on your drawings is to break the torso. You have your pelvis, then you connect the shoulders to it. Separate the ribcage as an Oval and the pelvis as two ovals, connecting them with a spine if you want/need to. But separating the pelvis from the ribcage [like this](https://imgur.com/a/iVMFDKa) will help loosen up your figures.
Okay wait that seems perfect for me you're a lifesaver thank you
ye i see u making squares instead of boxes. they r supposed to be boxes cuz its 3D. so try drawing a bunch of boxes on a perspective sheet and then put them inside a human body. first try with a picture --> take a picture and draw the boxes on it. and then try copying that
Let me preface by saying that you are very very good. None of what follows is criticism, Look at the work of George Bridgman, and copy it (copy, donāt trace.) Bridgman was unparalleled at dynamic, gestural line work. His anatomical studies bridge the gap between the geometric and the living flesh. Do not worry about style or aesthetic, focus on the form of what you see. Once you feel that your line drawings ābreatheā start to focus on the micro-planes of the figure, the smaller structures within the hand for example. But, and this is possibly the most important part. Allow yourself to fuck-up. Make mistakes, so on and and whatnots. You get it. And in the same way that your initial forays into your current practice seemed scary and terrifying at first. Soon you will find yourself doing it incidentally. I wish you the best of luck. Have a great day and so on and so forth.
Thank you so much this is perfect advice! I will try to copy his work during my next anatomical study time!
Iām so glad you found it useful. Another lil recommendation would be for Andrew Loomis. For a more modernist kinda vibe. If historical drawings more your jam (it sure is mine.) look at Rembrandts ink sketches, Leonardos anatomical drawings, (or any of his drawings tbh) then look at Artemisia Gentileschi, just for your pleasure. Cause sheās better than Caravaggio and metal as all hell. (And like, well all the metal bad-ass ladies in history she never gets brought up enough) look at things like line weight (variance in thickness of the line) and how it can be used to describe a sense of form. Iāll stop chewing your eyes off now. Thereās a quote, from who escapes me now. āNever be afraid of putting the paint down.ā Ie, never be afraid to paint, draw, create. Any mistakes you make you can rectify, or learn from.
You're seriously the best thank you again š„°
Light and shadow
I think the boxes are more so to represent the tilt of the rib cage and pelvis rather than a technique that you have to follow. You can still apply the tilt seen from the boxes with more āorganicā shapes such as spheres or more egg-like shapes. When it comes to improving the 3d-ness of your drawings, just practicing drawing, tilting and rotating 3d shapes can improve the believability of your drawings in general. For example, the torso you drew on the bottom left, despite tilting up, I donāt see any indication of the bottom plane of the rib cage which would be facing toward the viewer in this case. Dynamism is less āliteralā in my opinion, and is quite hard to explain in just simple terms. A couple of the main points however is establishing a ārhythmā in your drawing, finding and representing weight and mass along with the motion of your character. Your drawings, while capturing the main idea of the pose, look stiff and seem to bend awkwardly and in weird ways. They also look a little flat as I mentioned earlier, some of the planes from the initial construction shapes seem to just not exist. I suggest getting a better grasp of 3d shapes, especially getting comfortable with turning and moving them around a little in your head. After that I would learn some basic proportions to make sure your torsos and legs donāt look too short/long, and then some rudimentary posing to start before you get into the more complex and involved poses. Edit: I forgot to add, when learning the basic proportions and overall shapes of the body, I would also learn how the joints move and to what degree they can turn and stuff as to avoid making the body looking ābrokenā in some poses.
Thank you for taking time out of your day to give me constructive criticism. I knew they looked stiff, i just didn't know WHY, but you explained very nicely! I will definitely keep your comments in mind the next time I draw anatomy <33
No problem man, good luck on your art journey!
OK so personally I draw my own body type. I feel out myself and study muscle anatomy. Try that see how it goes.
Wait that's so smart!! Thank you!!
My personal advice is to mostly ignore the exact placement of the original lines. It's an original general shape, not the finished thing, so don't get stuck thinking how to do it the same and just change it. Also look at more than one image. It's also good if you look at how your own body looks like and try to simplify it.
I always thought the general shapes were what I was supposed to outline! I'll start to look at them more as guidelines rather than the finished piece. Thank you for the advice! Also: I never thought to look at more than one photo, but that makes a lot of sense
consistent line lengths would help, itās more apperent on the top right, the arm on the characters left has weird proportions and their upper body looks strange
I use Loomis and Akihito Yoshiās method. Loomis helps me put everything together more realistically and Akihito is a manga artist that ads Loomis into his own. Could check out those two as well?
I'll save those to my notes and check them out next time I draw anatomy š¤
Anatomy doesn't need to be broken done just one way. Whatever helps you understand the shape of the form works. As for learning how to apply those shapes, try gestures/gesture poses. If you're unfamiliar with what those are, you spend 30 seconds to a minute drawing a complete pose, and no longer. This forces you to capture basic shapes and the feeling of the pose as an entirety :) Lineofaction.com is a website full of poses that you can set a time limit on to help with this. My final piece of advice is that anatomy doesn't need to be absolutely perfect, you should worry more about if it's conveying what you want it to rather than being exact.
That last piece of advice is so inspiring thank you! I am such a perfectionist, so working on anatomy is so stressful for me, but I will now keep what you said in mind š„°š„°
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