Category: Love Life Drawing
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Study group – shape design 1
This month the Love Life Drawing study group focus is on shapes. Simplifying shapes into CSI curves. Making them feel organic. Some guidelines included making them asymmetric in form and using more obtuse than acute angles. The first exercise was in the three parts. Part one asked us to just make a bunch of shapes…
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Study group – Figure 5 ways 4
Concluding the Love Life Drawing study group’s “Figure 5 ways” month, we have a series of figure drawings that attempt to synthesize all the lessons. I built these figures in phases, using simple forms, gesture, values, and anatomy to piece together a final rendering. Marek drove a fair amount of this month, and he brought…
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Study group – Figure 5 ways 3
Marek, critiquing my effort from the first week suggested my value study would be improved by focusing on the light shapes instead of the shadow shapes. To achieve that, I started with a darker background and just draw light blobs and tried to scrub them into the right shapes. I did that once before to…
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Study group – figure 5 ways 2
Our multi-discipline figure drawing month continues. Last week we did a survey of all 5 approaches to figure drawing — simple forms, gesture, anatomy, values, full figure drawing. This week we’re focusing just on the first two of those, with some review instructional materials examining those skills in detail. Simple forms drawing breaks anatomical elements…
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Study group – figure 5 ways 1
It’s a new month and a new topic for the Love Life Drawing study group. The new topic: drawing the figure with five different approaches. We have practiced each of these, so this acts as a review, a kind of synthesis, and a way of highlighting if any of the stages needs more work. We…
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Study group – head and neck 4
This week’s study group exercise instructions went in two very different directions. We could either do last week’s rendered heads again, including lessons learned, or if we wanted to elaborate and abstract things, Kenzo included links to some challenging videos about 2d shape design and composition theory. I watched those and thought “this seems like…
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Study group – head and neck 3
This week we continue our study of head and neck anatomy by adding in shadow shapes guided by our simplified head shape model. I’m using different references this time around, to keep things fresh. There are a couple celebrities and one Aftyn reference. This was a fun exercise! However, I found it hard to stay…
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Study group – head and neck 2
My feedback on last week’s head drawings was humbling. My proportions were bad, my Loomis shapes were off. Advice basically came down to the idea that I’m not really ready to freehand sketch from reference for this stuff, and I should be doing a tracing stage in between. I’ve done that before. Draw your ideal…
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Study group – head and neck 1
This month, my figure drawing class tackles that great beast: the head. The stated goal here is to push forward our figure drawing — not portraiture. This anatomy unit is not targeting likeness. It is about making a form that is recognizable as a head, and giving it some directionality. Where is the subject looking?…
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Study group – weight and balance 4
Another large set of figures for this week’s Love Life Drawing study group as we continue with week 4 of the weight and balance unit. This week we turn our attention to figures more at rest than the dynamic one of the last few weeks. I apologize I am once again unable to share the…
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Study group – weight and balance 3
The Love Life Drawing weight and balance month went a little astray from the topic this week, I think, by focusing on capturing actions and gestural curves. Maybe next week will bring it back together. I’m pretty happy with these figures, though. They don’t have quite the flow of gestural masters, but I think each…
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Study group – weight and balance 2
This week the Love Life Drawing study group returns to the figure studies from last week, adding in a sense of “draw the verb” energy to the drawings. Does that sound vague to you? It felt that way to me! The instructions suggest we’re bringing together gesture, anatomy, and form with a big dose of…
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Study group – weight and balance 1
The Love Life Drawing study group this month is tackling questions of representing weight and balance. Kenzo posted a video some time ago talking about how to find the line of gravity on a figure, and that’s the starting point for the week’s exercises. In the drawings above, the left column of figures are drawn…
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Study group – hips & glutes 4
This week we extend our learning of hips & glutes anatomy to anchor some figure drawings. I’m generally pretty happy with the results, even if the shading gives them all a kind of metallic look. I don’t fully have the swing of terminator lines yet, but they’re not terrible. What I’m happy with is my…
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Study group – hips & glutes 3
In the Love Life Drawing study group, we are now ready for the actual anatomy of hips and thighs, albeit a little bit simplified. I think these are some of the best bones I’ve drawn, and probably the best diagram overall. It’s fascinating to me the impact fat has on this area, and the way…
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Study group – hips and glutes 2
LLD study group hips and thighs month, part 2, looking at the front of the figure. This one got pretty concrete about the orientation of the pelvis, something I was pretty weak on before. It also started with those same tapered cylinders for the thighs (AKA conic sections), but then he gave a slightly more…
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Study group – hips and glutes 1
New month, new challenge in the Love Life Drawing study group: hips, thighs, and glutes. This is an anatomy topic, but rather than getting into the technical aspects of the bones and muscles, we’re starting with basic, simplified forms. The drawings are anchored around the the little triangle formed by the hip bones and butt…
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Study group – imagination 3
Look, they’re not all going to be winners, all right? There’s a reason I don’t do a lot of drawing from imagination. They’re terrible! There are some bits and pieces in here that show promise, I’ll admit. But I have a long way to go before I’m at my long-term goal of drawing recognizable people…
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Study group – imagination 2
These are some rough figures for the Love Life Drawing study group imagination month’s second exercise. The first three are drawn from references, but pushed into broad exaggeration. The last figure is just winging it from a very simple gestural stick figure. The line and shade work is pretty sloppy — I was rushing —…
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Study group – imagination 1
This month, the Love Life Drawing study group goes after the one thing that brings everyone anxiety: drawing from imagination. In the first week’s exercise, we were to draw a figure from reference, then hide both the drawing and reference and draw it again from memory. Ideally we were to pay attention to how the…
