JW Learning

Beginner Figure Drawing Fundamentals  - Construction of the Body Parts

Hi Laura!  Thanks for posting, I'll take a closer look at your project after the easter weekend.  Appreciate your patience.

no worries my apologies my phone uploading has them facing all crazy directions. the arrows i drew are to remember which way i was holding the paper. 

Hi Laura, I'll have time tomorrow finally to look over your work.  Apologies for the delay. 

Hello again, apologies, I will be delayed until tomorrow.  Appreciate your patience. 

Hello again Laura,  thank you for your patience, apologies for the long delay. Ok, so good start overall here. The structure of your parts are actually pretty good. I'm liking the hands in particular, really good start with all of these, good proportions, nice gestures. form is pretty good also. I think this is the strongest areas of the sketches, so keep that going, good work.  For your figures, again nice start.  I would recommend doing a little more work on the foundational shapes and forms before the more detailed work.  the structures in your figures are not too bad, but could benefit a little more work done on the more basic shapes and forms.  Draw simple but recognisable forms first for your foundation. The proportions look a little short and stocky also, so just do a double check on that going forward.  Feet probably need a little more work done to them, general structure and overlapping looks good, but the proportions are also a little short and stocky too.  Maybe also be careful with the number of sharper corners. too many straight lines and sharp corners starts to make the feel look too mechanical.  Finally with your shading, if you're looking to do hatching as your shading try to work on making the strokes more equidistant from each other. Take your time as you do it also, the worst thing to do with hatching is to draw your line work in too quickly. Work on spacing and accuracy first, speed will come with time.  Overall, really good starter here, so keep this going.  Let me know if you have any questions about this class! :)

Perfect, thank you ! Cylinders for legs and arms work really well for me and feel natural. Looking back I can see the short stockiness in some pieces, especially  the feet. I think the shapes I struggle with the most are the cylinders for necks (how they attach as well) and what 3D shapes to put down for feet. They get super blocky as I get hung up on the outline of feet rather than the shape.

Cylinders are probably the most versatile of the the basic shapes. They have almost as much structure as a box, and the ability to be rounded and curved like the ball.  If you get stuck with something like the neck, morph the cylinder into something more like a coca-cola bottle shape, a cylinder that flares out at one end. We don't just want to learn about basic shapes, but also how to morph them to our needs. When you come to a tricky area off the body to construct, first think about what is the most simplified shaped that represents that area. Is it a box, ball or cylinder? Once you've figure that out ask yourself what do I need to do is to make that shape look even more like the area you're drawing.  Do you need to make it longer on one side more than the other? Do you need to make it rounder at the top and more cornered at the bottom? Do you need to combine shapes together? Get into the habit of asking these type of structural questions. The more you analyse and observe, the better your skills start to become. There is no true answer as to what the right shape and form to use. It just comes down to practice and your personal choices. In an artistic context, the human figure is just a machine made of corners and curves as opposed to nuts and bolts, so you're just the engineer in control of designing it however you want.  So, don't worry about looking for the right shapes, work on finding the shapes and forms that work for you. 

<img srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/1d86a64e.jpeg 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/1d86a64e.jpeg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" src="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/1d86a64e.jpeg" loading="lazy" alt="hands, feet, torso - image 1 - student project"><img srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/ab31fa66.jpeg 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/ab31fa66.jpeg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" src="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/ab31fa66.jpeg" loading="lazy" alt="hands, feet, torso - image 2 - student project"><img srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/d2b3eba5.jpeg 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/d2b3eba5.jpeg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" src="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/d2b3eba5.jpeg" loading="lazy" alt="hands, feet, torso - image 3 - student project"><img srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/46e7c500.jpeg 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/46e7c500.jpeg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" src="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/46e7c500.jpeg" loading="lazy" alt="hands, feet, torso - image 4 - student project"><img srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/56c37d42.jpeg 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/56c37d42.jpeg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" src="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/56c37d42.jpeg" loading="lazy" alt="hands, feet, torso - image 5 - student project">created these from the project files in class<img srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/fedfa1f1.jpeg 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/fedfa1f1.jpeg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" src="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/6210e4a9a6da1b0808d0f6d264a74dce/fedfa1f1.jpeg" loading="lazy" alt="hands, feet, torso - image 6 - student project">

hands, feet, torso

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