Torso Studies

Side Torso + Conan Sketches

Some Bridgman studies, trying to figure out how the side muscles connect, I also looked at a Hogarth drawing to clarify a bit. To be continued! :D

Below sketches are from a few evenings ago, I wanted to try and use some ink and a brush while sketching from Conan The Barbarian (the original movie).

Front Torso Studies + Heads

Wanted to experiment by squinting my eyes and drawing the blacks of the face only:

 Some Conan The Barbarian sketches..It's gotta be said...THE MUSIC IN THAT FILM...that good!

Loomis Head Construction as by Proko

This is some stuff from a couple of days ago that I was too lazy to scan. But I found some cool instructional videos by Proko going over Loomis' head construction and actually explaining it in a really clear and condensed way.

My studies are pretty pointless to look at, just go and see the original video on Proko's channel! Also do yourself a favor and download the Loomis books for free! Just google it..it's totally legit.

I also did a page of faces from one of my all time favorite movies...ALIEN! But I was half asleep by that point.

ANATOMY: Torso Front View Studies

Did some studies from Bridgman in preparation for next week's anatomy course.

I then applied the same information to 2 figures from photo reference:

Then did 2 more using Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy book to fill in the anatomy. Just keep in mind that this is probably all wrong, so just in case...ALWAYS STUDY the MASTERS. And not some random dudes' studies on the internet!

In a muscled model it would've definitely been easier to find the muscles, here I was really just guessing. I did already pick up a few nice tricks though that I'll keep in mind when doing my figures from imagination. ... I tell you... studying the figure is A LIFE LONG MISSION :)

Gestures

Busy times ahead, so probably won't have time to update much in the next 2 weeks apart from my weekly life drawing. Anyway below a mixed bag of some digital studies with scraps from my sketchbook below.

Life Drawing Sol Art Dublin

So instead of starting with the first drawing and work my way up to the last drawing of the night, I decided to post my favorite drawing first.  So now that I have your interest, let's dig into this nights' life drawing session.

So as always we started off with a couple of 1 minute gestures (grey tone added in Photoshop for clarity):

That one on the left below was actually the first one, you can tell by the messy lines around the arm/front torso.

We then started with the 1 pose broken up into 3 sessions of 30 minutes. The model we had is incredibly fit so she takes on the challenge of a standing pose! Standing poses are just so much nicer than a lying figure. The 3 drawings below were done after I finished my first long pose, just experimenting a bit with line and an inkwash:

Below are the 3 long pose drawings I did ( 25-30 minutes ) on an A3 pad with color pencils:

The effect of the cheap green color pencil with brown on top is quite funky! :)

Foodhall + Figure Sketches

I have a little sketchbook I take out now whenever we go have lunch in the foodhall, it forces me to draw small. So I don't get caught up into detail and instead just investigate how people sit. eat, etc...

Started off with some 30 seconds, pen on paper. Not caring about a nice drawing but trying to get a  convincing balance of weight and thinking about the pelvis/torso relation. Some turned out ok...but it's kinda hard admittedly!

Then filled a page (A4) with some 1 min poses:

I then opted to draw a dancing sequence, looking at how the shape of the leg changes and what muscles we can see. One thing I really do too often when I draw from imagination is to draw too many lines, and draw all the muscles. I really want to simplify this and just "suggest" muscles by contours and overlapping lines. I used a color pencil to draw the muscles I could see, but none of them really deserved a black line, except for some lines on the knee.

And because I am not a sexist pig, here is a longer male study :)  Funny enough this type of drawing is starting to look like Loomis, even though I did this unintentionally I also ignored the perspetive line I drew around his waist...I was just really interested in how the stomach area is different from the female form.

2 minute gestures...and sort of..a "how to"

So below is a 2 minute gesture drawn in Photoshop based on photo ref from pixelovely.

It's easily my favorite drawing this evening and only really happened towards the end of the session. One of the main reasons I keep a blog for my figure drawing is to reflect back on my drawings. I think it's very important to look at your work and pick out what you like and dislike, and find ways to keep drawing exciting for yourself.

So anyway let's turn back the clock a little bit, I started off with 1 minute poses. As you can see I started using tone, defining muscles...a little too much to squeeze into 1 minute. I could just force myself to simplify my drawings, but when you're eager to draw a certain way I think you should just go for it. So I decided to switch it up to 2 minutes after these.

2 fundamental mistakes I ...pretty much always make...came up in the 1 minute ones:

1)- I draw too large...and force the figure into frame or start scrolling up and down in Photoshop to move up and down the figure. This obviously is not a very good idea, because you either don't draw feet for example because they are off frame. Or..in some cases you're drawing blind just looking at the legs without seeing the relation to the rest of the body.

solution: Very easy, just draw a very quick gesture (30 sec) that encases the entire figure. If it's too big you can change it on the fly...that initial gesture should be drawn light or with a light color pencil if you are working traditionally.

2) Getting stuck into detail WAY too early. See the notes on the image below.

Anyway, moving on I went for 2 minute poses working on 2 layers. On the first layer I draw a very quick gesture with a big brush on low opacity. I then switch to the next layer and refine the gesture with a thinner brush...it's important to note though that I don't zoom in. Keep the entire figure on screen, or if you are drawing on paper..draw small!

I put the 2 together below so you can see the quick 30-45 second gesture with the refined drawing next to it. Keep in mind this is all done in 2 minutes..which..if you're not used to it, is not much time! If you are new to this, I suggest first practicing to draw those loose gestures first before you can go in with the second phase.

These were all fairly stiff though, it wasn;t until drawing 3 on the page below that I started to get into some flow... I guess we're officially warmed up and ready to dig into some creative work!

Dr Sketchy's Little Red Riding Hood Dublin

So this is my second time to Dr. Sketchy's and I feel I had a pretty good session. This is definitely the place to bring in some color pencils and go to town when there are longer poses.


Started off with some 1 minutes:

Not so much a fan of the ones below

2 minute pose:

The 3 pages below are all a bit messy, if I was being selective with what I post I would've definitely left those out.

10 minute pose below, I'm really happy with how I used the media here. It's not something I usually draw, but I can't say I don't like it.

The last one was a 40 minute pose, I worked 30 minutes on this drawing on an A4 pad. Really loved what I was starting to accomplish with the mixing of 3 colored pencils. Soft orange (bad quality color pencil), saturated orange (color pencil that left a lot of lead on the page) and another brownish watercolor pencil. I really just happened to have those with me, and it kinda worked for the shading on those legs for example.

I just wish I stepped back to see the body proportions were a bit all over the place. but it was fun to draw and that's all that matters!