I recently found a website specifically designed to replicate a life drawing class <http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/> ; the image below shows the page of the site which allows you to pick the gender of your model and if you want them to be clothed or not. Then it asks if you'd like it to be set up to replicate a real class (starting with quick poses, easing you into longer poses at the end), or if you want to take your time with each drawing.
Obviously this isn't the same as attending a real-life class, but it's still a decent alternative to allow me to practice drawing random poses.
 |
| The Life Drawing Website |
After testing it out, I can safely say this is a reliable website; I tried the 'class mode' setting to last for 30 minutes - 10 poses in 30 seconds each, 4 poses lasting for 1 minute each, 2 poses for 5 minutes and 43 seconds and 1 pose for 11 minutes. Since I haven't practiced drawing for a while, this proved to be a good set up, since the 30 second poses warm you up to the next stages.
It felt a little easier to replicate the right positions once I got used to drawing again, here's my results:
The first 10 poses only lasted for 30 seconds; I'm not completely happy with them, on some the limbs are too wide or too thin in proportion to the rest of the body, but I think on most of them the line of action is at least slightly obvious.
I had a minute each to draw the next 4 poses; I tried to think about the line of action first and then work around that, which I think worked for some of them, but I have a habit of drawing a rough shape for the head first. This gives me an idea of where the rest of the body is going to sit, but unfortunately it stops me from focusing on the proportions as much. However this was only my first day in a while and I still mapped out the rough shapes I saw.
I ended up doing 4 poses for 5 minutes and 45 seconds because whilst in the process, there is an option to skip a pose, so once I had done a rough sketch of each I skipped them instead of waiting for the full 5 minutes. I am most pleased with the drawing on the bottom right of this page, because I got the line of action in place and correctly lined the feet with the rest of her body, since she is on the floor - at first I made the legs too long and the feet went off the edge of the page but I had time to correct this - it helped me to realise that the proportions in my drawings are very important. The drawing on the left didn't turn out as well, since one leg is supposed to be bent forwards while she leans on the other.
The last two 5 minute poses didn't turn out as well as I had hoped; poses with lying down and perspective are the most challenging for me, so I need to practice them a lot more. The bottom right was particularly difficult to draw, but looking back the perspective doesn't look too bad.
The final 11 minute pose proved to be difficult to draw, the cloth covering half of her body made working out the proportions confusing. However I think I got the body shape right, an improvement I would make is her right arm, I should have tried harder to make the forearm and hand smaller in size.
This has proven to be a good experience in establishing what I need to improve in my drawing skills; working on perspective and loosening up my drawings will be my priorities - for quick sketches I need to focus on the line of action rather than making the figure look particularly realistic. I have decided to try and do a 30 minute regularly throughout the project, to try and gradually improve my drawing and get used to doing it often, ready for when I animate my final piece.
No comments:
Post a Comment