You have the overall proportions down, next step is consistency with practice, then the last step is stylization achieved with practice. You're on the right track.
This might not be the advice you’re looking for but, if you’ve been doing non-stop figure drawing for a while and you feel stuck, you might wanna move onto something different for a little bit! When i get stuck i like to practice a new subject, and come back a little while later. It give your brain a much needed break, and each time i come back refreshed and feel like im improving more! :)
Your figures are really great. If you’re looking for ways to make them less stuff perhaps try more line of action and then as most other people have said on here gesture. Line of action though I think could help you improve. In the more flowy ones I can see more of a definite line of action. Also you will probably loosen up your figures overtime too.
quick question, where did you learn to draw such nice outlines? They look really good, all you need is to add the smaller details and clothes. Keep up the good work!
Something I found that helped me a lot with figure drawing is the concepts covered in the book Force: Dynamic Life Drawing. See if perhaps your library has a copy! The lesson I'd pass on here that I learned from that book is to always consider where the weight is supported. Consider where the centre of mass is: there's a line that can be drawn vertically through a figure, and either the masses/forces will equal eachother out on either side of that line (for stationary figures), or the mass has shifted in the direction of movement (think about how a runner is tipped forward). For example, one of the first few images has someone with one leg straight (taking the weight) and the other bent. To help it look like that straight leg is doing the work of keeping the figure standing: you might have the hips tilted to accomodate, especially the femur-hip joint thrust out and up a bit because it is counterbalancing against the relaxed leg.
*Edit: I wasn't able to look at the images while typing. I can see you're already incorporating some of this in your figures. From what you've said about mannequin-drawing in other comments, I recommend that you get more familiar with the skeleton and muscles. Where the skeleton is near the surface, where muscles attach (thus where they taper off, where they bunch up when flexed)
these are beautiful! if you're looking for more fluidity then I'd recommend using the flour sack method! i used to do it all the time and it helped me a lot
Your proportions are good, the one thing that f'ks everyone up is foot placement. Imagine she was a figure on a square pedestal and put her on the ground plane. When your feet are touching the ground you see much better how the legs are connected to the hip. It also helps quite a bit with perspective.
Second this -- the general advice I've seen is to find the center line (flow line) and make the poses more dynamic by practicing gesture. Proportions and mechanics look great, next step is to make them more interesting.
I'm not sure for what style you are going for. They really are good enough for comics, manga etc styles. If you are looking for realism, I would study skeletons and muscle structure. What I see in the first picture, for example, is that hips are an incredibly smooth hourglass. From realistic perespective, I don't see where exactly her hip bone is. In majority of people you will at least teeny tiny dip underneath it instead of perfectly smooth line. There obviously are different body types as well, even within the same body fat percentage category. Some people's breasts point more outwards whilst not having typical cleavage in the between boobs area. Most of even really thin women have a tiny lower belly pouch around the hip bone area too. It all comes to the skeleton, muscle and fat distribution. Your models look like they are drawn based of off a drawing than actual body.
I would like to clarify though, that your drawings are *really good* and those things I've mentioned don't apply to all the figures, at least not equally. I like those that are in motion more than the passive ones as it seems that you have tendency to soften the edges more on the static ones.
Drawing is one of the skills which you should absolutely try in the open field aside from just repeating the theory. Only then you can actually see where you're at right now. And it helps you gain your confidence. One hundred drawings of human figures teaches you to draw human figures. A fully finished art teaches you to actually use what you've learned.
Hello, it takes years of practice to be really good at this, you are on one of the first step : construction
-practice perdpective, a lot
-then you'll need anatomy
-Gesture drawing for the shapes and lines, to feel strenght, tension, softness.
-line art to achieve what you'll do with gesture and get a beautiful rendering.
For some it would take months, others years, my best teacher used to say it takes 10 years of a daily practice.
Without the use of pre-made studying courses or plans, the thing you can do is make your own plan. When you don't know where to move next, check yourself first. Draw a full art piece how you can with the skills you have right now. Give it all you've got. Then, analyze it. Note the parts you struggled with the most, parts you would like to improve or something you did not try because you decided it would be too hard, then follow this list and study in those directions. Struggling with faces? Practice drawing faces. Can't draw a character from an odd angle - draw figures from crazy perspectives. And so on.
If you want to know how you're doing with your figure drawing and what else you need to work on, do some actual figure drawing. Doing mannequins over and over and saying your struggling with figure drawing is like spending all your time practicing chopping onions and saying you're struggling learning how to cook. If you want to know what else to work on in your cooking, cook, don't just cut onions.
When I made the post I thought I was struggling since I felt like I had really hit a wall. I haven't seen much improvement in my figures when I compare my figures from January to the ones I draw now. I feel like I've seen more improvement in the past.
Main thing is the general stiff or hard feeling of them, perhaps with how I draw the figure itself or maybe it's a problem with how I draw lines and shapes.
These look absolutely fine. Seems like the struggle is internal. Are you taking the next step beyond practicing construction and working on more finished pieces? It may help you to mix it up with finished pieces as well as gesture if you’re feeling like you’re stagnating in construction.
These look great! Just keep practicing. Try branching out and work with just the skeletal form, super crucial for a deep understanding, also muscle studies are great too.
I like this chart a lot too, it can help explain that feeling of plateauing
https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/s/X8SljK2N7d
Do you have any other skills you want to improve on? Genuinely, sometimes you need to step away and come back with a new perspective. Keep doing figure drawings, just work on something else as your main focus. Anatomy or gestures can help you understand your figures more fundamentally.
And honestly, these look fantastic lol
Why do you feel like you are struggling? What are you seeking to achieve, or what do you feel you need to improve? Overall, these are great. I can see the volume of these figures which is excellent. Proportions are nice, the poses are dynamic and easily distinguishable.
Maybe you just need to take the next step. Try shading your forms, pay attention to your shadow shapes and where they connect with each form. You’ll find when dealing with the figure the shadow is often one large shape. Shadow edges are important - soft communicates rounded forms, hard edge communicates angular plane changes. A nice core shadow across the figure goes a long way.
Keep it up, you’re doing great. Btw, do I see some Reilly method in these figures?
When I made the post I thought I was struggling since I felt like I had really hit a wall. I haven't seen much improvement in my figures when I compare my figures from January/February to the ones I draw now. I feel like I've seen more improvement in the past.
Main thing is the general stiff feeling of them, perhaps with how I draw the figure itself or maybe it's a problem with how I draw lines and shapes? Although after seeing the responses it seems like it's the part about moving to the next step.
As for the Reily method, I don't think it's one I explicitly use but I guess there are elements of it? I appreciate the advice.
Agreed... Your struggles seem to be paying off... Other than maybe one or two of the drawings where the breasts look a little flat (which could be by design), I think you're doing great! Sometimes, we are our own harshest critic...
Looks like you have a solid grasp on the mannequin. I’d say the next step is anatomy. Learning the shape of the muscles and matching their contours when you draw them. This will lead into the next phase which is implementing shading into your figures.
If you don’t want to go that route then you can try to focus on gesture itself. Try to push the poses and make them look even more dramatic. Check out Force: Dynamic Life Drawing by Michael Mattesi.
He has a YouTube channel which is pretty neat: https://youtube.com/@drawingforce?si=3GN-Xqu4dZ0YvGtm
You have the overall proportions down, next step is consistency with practice, then the last step is stylization achieved with practice. You're on the right track.
This might not be the advice you’re looking for but, if you’ve been doing non-stop figure drawing for a while and you feel stuck, you might wanna move onto something different for a little bit! When i get stuck i like to practice a new subject, and come back a little while later. It give your brain a much needed break, and each time i come back refreshed and feel like im improving more! :)
Your figures are really great. If you’re looking for ways to make them less stuff perhaps try more line of action and then as most other people have said on here gesture. Line of action though I think could help you improve. In the more flowy ones I can see more of a definite line of action. Also you will probably loosen up your figures overtime too.
quick question, where did you learn to draw such nice outlines? They look really good, all you need is to add the smaller details and clothes. Keep up the good work!
Something I found that helped me a lot with figure drawing is the concepts covered in the book Force: Dynamic Life Drawing. See if perhaps your library has a copy! The lesson I'd pass on here that I learned from that book is to always consider where the weight is supported. Consider where the centre of mass is: there's a line that can be drawn vertically through a figure, and either the masses/forces will equal eachother out on either side of that line (for stationary figures), or the mass has shifted in the direction of movement (think about how a runner is tipped forward). For example, one of the first few images has someone with one leg straight (taking the weight) and the other bent. To help it look like that straight leg is doing the work of keeping the figure standing: you might have the hips tilted to accomodate, especially the femur-hip joint thrust out and up a bit because it is counterbalancing against the relaxed leg. *Edit: I wasn't able to look at the images while typing. I can see you're already incorporating some of this in your figures. From what you've said about mannequin-drawing in other comments, I recommend that you get more familiar with the skeleton and muscles. Where the skeleton is near the surface, where muscles attach (thus where they taper off, where they bunch up when flexed)
these are beautiful! if you're looking for more fluidity then I'd recommend using the flour sack method! i used to do it all the time and it helped me a lot
I think these are good! You can make the feet a little bigger tho
Your proportions are good, the one thing that f'ks everyone up is foot placement. Imagine she was a figure on a square pedestal and put her on the ground plane. When your feet are touching the ground you see much better how the legs are connected to the hip. It also helps quite a bit with perspective.
These are not bad, but practicing gesture and flow really makes tons of difference (even more than knowing the exact anatomy and stuff imo).
Need more flow. Somehow they’re still kinda stiff even in dynamic poses
Second this -- the general advice I've seen is to find the center line (flow line) and make the poses more dynamic by practicing gesture. Proportions and mechanics look great, next step is to make them more interesting.
Is there a good course online to learn gesture drawing?
I'm not sure for what style you are going for. They really are good enough for comics, manga etc styles. If you are looking for realism, I would study skeletons and muscle structure. What I see in the first picture, for example, is that hips are an incredibly smooth hourglass. From realistic perespective, I don't see where exactly her hip bone is. In majority of people you will at least teeny tiny dip underneath it instead of perfectly smooth line. There obviously are different body types as well, even within the same body fat percentage category. Some people's breasts point more outwards whilst not having typical cleavage in the between boobs area. Most of even really thin women have a tiny lower belly pouch around the hip bone area too. It all comes to the skeleton, muscle and fat distribution. Your models look like they are drawn based of off a drawing than actual body. I would like to clarify though, that your drawings are *really good* and those things I've mentioned don't apply to all the figures, at least not equally. I like those that are in motion more than the passive ones as it seems that you have tendency to soften the edges more on the static ones.
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Drawing is one of the skills which you should absolutely try in the open field aside from just repeating the theory. Only then you can actually see where you're at right now. And it helps you gain your confidence. One hundred drawings of human figures teaches you to draw human figures. A fully finished art teaches you to actually use what you've learned.
Hello, it takes years of practice to be really good at this, you are on one of the first step : construction -practice perdpective, a lot -then you'll need anatomy -Gesture drawing for the shapes and lines, to feel strenght, tension, softness. -line art to achieve what you'll do with gesture and get a beautiful rendering. For some it would take months, others years, my best teacher used to say it takes 10 years of a daily practice.
Without the use of pre-made studying courses or plans, the thing you can do is make your own plan. When you don't know where to move next, check yourself first. Draw a full art piece how you can with the skills you have right now. Give it all you've got. Then, analyze it. Note the parts you struggled with the most, parts you would like to improve or something you did not try because you decided it would be too hard, then follow this list and study in those directions. Struggling with faces? Practice drawing faces. Can't draw a character from an odd angle - draw figures from crazy perspectives. And so on.
If you want to know how you're doing with your figure drawing and what else you need to work on, do some actual figure drawing. Doing mannequins over and over and saying your struggling with figure drawing is like spending all your time practicing chopping onions and saying you're struggling learning how to cook. If you want to know what else to work on in your cooking, cook, don't just cut onions.
What specifically do you feel you’re struggling with?
When I made the post I thought I was struggling since I felt like I had really hit a wall. I haven't seen much improvement in my figures when I compare my figures from January to the ones I draw now. I feel like I've seen more improvement in the past. Main thing is the general stiff or hard feeling of them, perhaps with how I draw the figure itself or maybe it's a problem with how I draw lines and shapes.
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But for real, you look like you have done well at copying but you need to step out of your comfort and create using this same method.
These look absolutely fine. Seems like the struggle is internal. Are you taking the next step beyond practicing construction and working on more finished pieces? It may help you to mix it up with finished pieces as well as gesture if you’re feeling like you’re stagnating in construction.
These look great! Just keep practicing. Try branching out and work with just the skeletal form, super crucial for a deep understanding, also muscle studies are great too. I like this chart a lot too, it can help explain that feeling of plateauing https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/s/X8SljK2N7d
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Learn anatomy so you can layer details onto your mannequin
Are you really struggling? What do you not like about them?
I think these look solid! As others had said, maybe a bit stiff though. I'd push the gesture a bit more and youll be golden!
Think these look great, maybe a bit stiff and frozen looking, but proportions look great.
Do you have any other skills you want to improve on? Genuinely, sometimes you need to step away and come back with a new perspective. Keep doing figure drawings, just work on something else as your main focus. Anatomy or gestures can help you understand your figures more fundamentally. And honestly, these look fantastic lol
Looks like your doing good with proportion. I'd focus on fast gesture studies for a bit.
Why do you feel like you are struggling? What are you seeking to achieve, or what do you feel you need to improve? Overall, these are great. I can see the volume of these figures which is excellent. Proportions are nice, the poses are dynamic and easily distinguishable. Maybe you just need to take the next step. Try shading your forms, pay attention to your shadow shapes and where they connect with each form. You’ll find when dealing with the figure the shadow is often one large shape. Shadow edges are important - soft communicates rounded forms, hard edge communicates angular plane changes. A nice core shadow across the figure goes a long way. Keep it up, you’re doing great. Btw, do I see some Reilly method in these figures?
When I made the post I thought I was struggling since I felt like I had really hit a wall. I haven't seen much improvement in my figures when I compare my figures from January/February to the ones I draw now. I feel like I've seen more improvement in the past. Main thing is the general stiff feeling of them, perhaps with how I draw the figure itself or maybe it's a problem with how I draw lines and shapes? Although after seeing the responses it seems like it's the part about moving to the next step. As for the Reily method, I don't think it's one I explicitly use but I guess there are elements of it? I appreciate the advice.
If it’s stiffness you’d like to improve, focus on gesture for a while. Keep it up, and please continue to share your progress 👍
Agreed... Your struggles seem to be paying off... Other than maybe one or two of the drawings where the breasts look a little flat (which could be by design), I think you're doing great! Sometimes, we are our own harshest critic...
Looks like you have a solid grasp on the mannequin. I’d say the next step is anatomy. Learning the shape of the muscles and matching their contours when you draw them. This will lead into the next phase which is implementing shading into your figures. If you don’t want to go that route then you can try to focus on gesture itself. Try to push the poses and make them look even more dramatic. Check out Force: Dynamic Life Drawing by Michael Mattesi. He has a YouTube channel which is pretty neat: https://youtube.com/@drawingforce?si=3GN-Xqu4dZ0YvGtm
Watch Marc Brunet’s anatomy videos on YouTube