My project in Dynamic Figure Drawing course
by J. Smay @jsmay
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Greetings!
After months of working mostly from life, the lockdown was implemented and so I returned to using photographs. It didn't take long before I felt myself adrift in the doldrums of that mechanical process. Your lectures have reinvigorated me- I haven't even considered a reference photo since watching your lectures and I feel fantastically inspired.
In one of the episodes, you mentioned the benefits of drawing several poses on the same page so I opted to draw three figures, same model, using 2B & HB graphite on smooth drawing paper, all between 3-4 hours from life. My focus was on the gross features of the figure which is why smaller details, like the head and feet, are not included. I can see the proportions are off in figure 3 at the right- the pose was probably too difficult for this assignment - but I wanted to push myself a little on perspective.
Thank you so much for the course! I feel like I crossed some major hurdles by applying your techniques to my practice and as I mentioned above, I feel inspired by life drawing again. I hope there is an opportunity to take a real life course with you some day in the future, and I look forward to receiving your feedback on my drawing.
Best,
J. Smay
(Teachers choice on which figure to critique)
3 comments
shane_wolf
Teacher PlusHello hello,
First of all thank you so very much for having taken and completed my course! I am very happy to hear that it revived your interest in figure drawing from the live model. I am indeed hoping that access to models is now much better for everyone everywhere, or at least having that option available as opposed to only online sessions (I've never done one of those, and don't think I ever will : )
Good job on your drawings! I like that you have multiple poses together. One of the challenges of doing that with the same model is making sure that it is indeed the same model in each drawing, and you have done that nicely. Sometimes when I will see people do this kind of drawing there are too many proportional problems from pose to pose that it is hard to see that it was supposed to be the same model. So good job!
It looks like you're working a bit larger, too, which for me is always a bonus. The bigger the better! And thank you for all the photos; it's nice to see details to get a closer analysis of your technique.
I’ll aim my critique mostly at the first figure (back view) but much of what I will write will apply in principle to all of them.
Proportionally they are all looking good. Even though the middle figure is drawn at a slightly smaller scale (which is totally fine) her proportions are maintained.
Your value range also looks good in the 3 poses, but is particularly more successful in the first pose. I’ll get to those specifics in a minute, but notice how her forms are just a bit stronger in the first pose as opposed to the other 2. You are indeed going through the full value range from the light of the paper to the dark 2B accents, so that is good.
Ok, why are her forms stronger in the first one? It is because you hung on to the bedbug lines in some of the shadow shapes, most notably on the left butt cheek, the sacral triangle, and the breast.
Sometimes shadow edges (bedbug lines) are indeed so diffused that the “light-shadow barrier” is completely blurred. But most of the time, the bedbug line is indeed visible to a greater or lesser degree. If we look at your 3rd pose for example there are practically no shadow edges visible, which is why she does not “pop” from the page. Simply fading from dark to light does not create form. It creates tone, but not specific form. Form needs light AND shadow working together in whatever way each specific form calls for.
This is why her butt in particular works very well in the 1st pose. It would be even better if you hung on to the shadow edge on the right buttock wherever it happened to be as well. The bedbug line on the left cheek also has a bit of variety to it, which is always the case (there is a section of it on the left that gets softer than the other parts). The KIND of action happening at every single bedbug line on every single form in the figure is what contributes to the success of your forms. Sometimes they are sharp, sometimes very soft and diffused. Sometimes they are smooth, sometimes very jazzy and bumpy. Sometimes very dark, sometimes a bit less contrasted. And they rarely ever stay the same; they are constantly varied!
Her back would also gain a lot of form if you were able to hang on to some shadow edges.
Now let’s talk a bit about reflected lights (the lightest parts of the shadows where light is being bounced into the shadow shape from some other form close by). Another reason the butt works well is that there aren’t any exaggerated reflected lights. On the 2nd drawing, the reflected lights on her breasts are too light.
Remember the “light-shadow” barrier from the 4th value scale? Where we said 100% of the shadows happen below that line, and 100% lights are above it? The most common error regarding this is those darn reflected lights. If you would darken those reflected lights such that they’re still visible but not quite that light, you will immediately see the breasts get stronger in form. The same is true for her belly.
I didn’t cover any specific hatching techniques in my course, but I see that you’re mostly using contour hatching (where your lines follow the forms to create the modelling). I find this to be the strongest visual technique to describe form, and a great mental exercise for form analysis, too.
One last thing: modelling in the lights. Perhaps because you didn’t have a 2H pencil it appears that your lights are not treated very much and are relatively empty (and HB is still fine to do all of that so long as you are very delicate with it). I can indeed see a bit of modelling in the lights, but it is all much too delicate. Remember the “fall of light” whereby the lights are only pure paper at the lightest light of the figure (closest to the light source). ALL the rest is getting darker and darker. For example all of her abdomen in the 2nd drawing should be darker, the thigh would indeed get lighter as it is coming forward, but then from the knee down it would get much darker.
One more last thing : ) You are also nice and attentive to her contour; I can see that you’re paying attention to what’s happening at her edges. Feel free to experiment with maybe softening the edge of a part that is behind another: for example her left thigh behind her right thigh in the first drawing, or any parts of the second drawing that go "behind" the other 2 poses... This is not a rule of course, but something that can add even more depth to your work.
Ok that's it! I hope this information helps you out not only on this drawing but also for your own, personal work as well.
Congratulations on finishing the course!!
jsmay
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and detailed critique. I did not expect so much information in your response- I really appreciate it! I have taken notes and started preparing for my next round of life drawings, which I expect to be much improved by applying your feedback.
On the topic of "online" figure drawing- I agree with you 100%. I tried it twice during quarantine and I feel the experiences were only detrimental to my drawing skills and therefore, my self esteem. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough information in the video format!
Anyhow, thank you again!
shane_wolf
Teacher Plus@jsmayart My pleasure. I'm a bit slow getting around to the critiques, but I figure if the students went through 6+ hours of video, did the exercises, and also a final project, they can at least get a proper critique in return! : )
I'm glad you found it useful!
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