Figure drawing is a fun and good way to get better at drawing humans.

Some free resources:

https://quickposes.com/en/gestures/timed
https://www.quickposes.com/en
http://reference.sketchdaily.net/en
https://quickposes.com/en/gestures/random
https://www.characterdesigns.com/non-nude-photo-index
https://www.lovelifedrawing.com/tutorials/
https://app.posemy.art/
https://line-of-action.com/practice-tools/hands-feet-practice
https://www.rkgk.org/

Might as well check the archives and active /ic/ threads for references:

https://warosu.org/ic/thread/7019067#p7019080
https://warosu.org/ic/thread/2015637
https://warosu.org/ic/thread/6864584
https://warosu.org/ic/thread/2023233
https://4chanarchives.com/board/ic/thread/2015637

Previous thread >>7605029

wip

Drawing men is hard for me

>>7637426

>>7637818
>>7638015
perspective, pose, expression, anatomy, lighting, value, proportion -- you're trying to do a lot without having the experience and knowledge underpinning the effort. i'd focus on one, maybe two of those things at a time, at least for a while.

todays figure

>>7637176
looks chinese, love the colors

>>7637359
I'm having a hard time understanding what is happening with the legs, nice work.

3 minute poses of a pair in cosplay was a struggle.

>>7638347

is it just me, or are the proportions of the arms on this figure drawing from Boucher fucked? I feel like he's turning her into a spider monkey.

>>7637176

>>7638361
yes, a bit long

>>7638396
Fixed the hair.

>>7637125 (OP)
figure drawing quicksketch

>>7638361
seems like the same leangth as the legs lul

>>7638338
>>I'm having a hard time understanding what is happening with the legs, nice work.

yea, the ref wasn't kinda strange to read

>>7638784
Great work. Who's the titcow?

hands are hard

>>7639288
awesome work anon, I really like how you did the pecs.

>>7639745
excuse the poor ms paint diagram, but it should illustrate my point well enough: I don't know what's going on with some of the fingers in the one drawing, but you're making them way more three dimensional than they actually are. I'm assuming you were trying to be fairly faithful, but if you were taking liberties than I guess it doesn't matter as much.

Every time I do gesture it feels like I've forgotten everything I know about gesture

>>7639782
>excuse the poor ms paint diagram
That’s the point of the board, any critique must be welcome, without snide remarks.

>but you're making them way more three dimensional than they actually are. I'm assuming you were trying to be fairly faithful
my goal was a gestural one I wanted to make it feel like a really deep massage. This was the end result after studying Glen Keane’s Tarzan hands. I liked how dragging and weighted the position looked when the intermediate phalange led instead of the proximal one, so I gave it a try.

>I don't know what's going on with some of the fingers in the one drawing
yeah thats just my lack of proficiency/milage, I think if I add a basic value statement, it would read much better.

here the complete session >>7639699

Thanks for taking your time!

>>7639791
great job, I feel that you are not that comfortable around the neck area or how the head and shoulders fit together.

did 2 minute poses exercise

>>7639878
nice, why only 2 minutes

>>7639881
trying to capture the movement and body as quickly as possible so I decided to start at two minutes and make my time a bit shorter the next time.

>>7639884
>as quickly as possible
why this part? is it a faster way to learn? what are you aiming for?

>>7639822
Is this the full ref you used to study or is there more?

>>7639896
Doing fast gesture drawings is how you learn to caprure the essence of the movement, weight and balances/counterbalances of the pose without getting distracted by other things like shadow, shapes, or parts of anatomy you enjoy drawing.

>>7639947
Which books or teachers teach the method? Where can i learn more about going fast

>>7639971
Its called doing 60x 1min poses, everyday, for a few months. Im 100% serious.

>>7639971
Literally any gesture teacher. Pick one. It's a basic exercise in gesture drawing.

>>7638784
figure drawing quicksketch
>>7639228
>Great work. Who's the titcow?
thank you, i dont know the model, just some random JAV actress in my folder

>>7640731
nice curves

>>7640706
>Literally any gesture teacher
I mean, not Hampton or Huston. Have you seen how slow and clean their "gestures" are?

>>7637125 (OP)
I see you too were looking at the reference pack thread.
This pose was giving me a lot of trouble last night, will try again later and post my new attempt.

>>7639822
>>7639782
>>7639745
Not the other anon:
- you need to be more careful to define forms as rounded. the way you're using line is creating hard corners, which Keane manages to avoid. Look very carefully at the relationships of his lines, how do they show plane changes without making hard corners all over?
- the problem with the hand in the lower left is not the lack of a value statement, it's that you have too many lines and not enough clarity on their relationships. Leaving all the lines from the undersketch is probably the biggest contributor to this problem, if you had done it on a different layer it would look better.
- the massaging hands are almost there, but you're drawing too quickly. you need to slow down and make sure you indicate the various 'sides' of forms and how they wedge and interlock. You're doing it well in some places (middle finger of left hand), but in others you just have flat rectangles (ring finger of left hand). You've got this issue all over the place, the problems with your work are like 20% errors in perspective (looks a lil slidy in some spots) and 80% just not having establishing enough information.

looks like you're on track though, definitely getting across the gap to thinking in form instead of shape.

Some figs
should i focus more in anatomy ?

>>7641738
that or proportion would help

>>7641738
You still have a lot of room to improve on your basic proportions and forms before you start “focusing” on anything.
Looks like you have the same bad habit I do where your legs tend to melt into formless “balloon” legs. For the legs you really just gotta stick to the ref as closely as you possibly can and show every little detail until you’re comfortably able to delineate all the forms. Also perspective/placement on the feet.

some more hands

>>7641619
thanks, I will keep your observations in my next session

>>7641738
working on proportions has a better ROI than anatomy

>>7639898
no there are many model sheets, they are on google and pinterest, what is harder to get are the tarzan echorché which are incredible, there are like 3 or 4 on the internet the rest are locked in the disney's vault

>>7639822
>I feel that you are not that comfortable around the neck area or how the head and shoulders fit together.

Absolutely correct

>>7640731
You do some of my favorite gestures and I am actively trying to assimilate your methods, resistance is futile

>want to gesture draw
>told to ignore contours
>end up making glorified stick figures
how do you fix this?

All right, im joining you guys

quick figures session

>>7640731
figure drawing quicksketch
>>7640850
>nice curves
thank you
>>7642698
>You do some of my favorite gestures and I am actively trying to assimilate your methods, resistance is futile
glad you enjoy

>>7642876
gestures are really hard imo. takes a lot of practice and ideally your gestures are built on a foundation of form, perspective, and anatomy. see how even the more abstract gesture on the right in pic related builds on aspects of the other drawings? you can still get successful gesture drawings done simply by relying on observation and practice, but its a lot easier if you understand how forms flow and interlock. so if you're mostly on stage 1, maybe practice stage 2, a bit of 3 and 4, see if that helps.

and if you just want to jump into it, look carefully at some reference and try to trace a path along the forms, over and around the muscles, fat pads, wrinkles, and bones. go slow, avoid straight lines, and dont be afraid to leave gaps in the silhouette.

A ten-minute sketch from line-of-action.

>>7643084
Im in love with these!

more quick figures
>>7644091
thanks

trying to get more comfortable with pen, wonky proportions be damned

>>7644019
looks good
>>7637808
really really nice, love the shadows on the face

>>7644457
another pen

>>7644019
try a softer pencil, see how you like it. it'll let you vary your stroke characteristics more easily.

>>7644457
>>7644465
i do a lot of work in pen. you would benefit from studying light and shadow and implementing consistency in your pen stroke.

>>7646920

>>7643093
more drawings
>>7646920
love those arms and the connections
>>7644379
love those twisting torso

>>7648824
armor adds thickness, so for her ankles to be that skinny with armor on, they'd have to be toothpicks without it.

1 min warmups

How would you do a quick gesture of this? I'm trying to solidify the idea of "capturing the energy" of a pose and I think I'm improving at that but I just can't imagine it here without just drawing the body parts.

>>7651011
post your attempt

>>7647661
Do you study FORCE ?

>>7651011
>How would you do a quick gesture of this?
Don't stress over the time, as you practice, you'll become quicker. I try to keep in mind the teachings from Gesture Drawing for Animation: list emotions, do the pose yourself, think about the camera, and exaggerate the pose. This gives me a clear idea of where I want to go and reduces the guessing work.

How is it

vilppu's "spherical forms" for figure drawing are being really hard to understand for me

>>7646321
Here's another sketch with your suggestion in mind. I'm not sure if it's changed much. I must say, it feels more solid.

>>7644457
Thanks.

>>7647661
moredrawings
>>7653721
love the vascularity
>>7652555
super cute face
>>7652521
more bottom right grins
>>7651574
no force, im using all techniques taught by Steve Huston

>>7653818
From his book?

>>7653833
his new master academy courses.

Art Anatomy for Beginners, Constructive Head Drawing, Constructive Figure Drawing. Then using his youtube/patreon videos supplementary to the courses

never read his book

>>7653838
I rather books so I'll just wing it

Is there any particular book or video series you would recommend for drawing figures? I did loomies a while back but im at a loss right now.

struggling to understand vilppu's "spherical" gesture drawing

>>7655350
you're talking about the bean method? your drawing doesn't look bad though

>>7655362
i'm only at the spherical forms part of his NMA course right now and i haven't seen him talk about "bean method" but i get what you mean... i'm still just struggling to do the gesture as a whole and build these forms like he does with how he kinda "brackets" them. i'm not good at explaining it
soon as it comes to having to do it timed it just kinda falls apart

>>7655509
brackets? explain further pls

Are Hampton’s courses useful? I’m especially interested in yhe figure construction one. Did anyone buy it? What did you think of it?

whenever I feel bad about my figures I look back at my first serious attempt at gesture drawing I've saved (top) and at least appreciate the progress I've made

>>7637125 (OP)
gm sirs. First time doing a figure with direct lighting (I follow Vilppu, so this is lesson 11 direct light). I know it's not that good but I'm not sure what exactly the problem is. I tried to not over render (because I know it's a common problem and also just because I like to keep it light) but it didn't turn out well, not sure why. Any feedback? (the drawing looks more grainy on camera, don't know why)

here's the reference

>>7653721
They are very impressive, but what is your end goal with these? Are you going to draw comic book men? Bodybuilder portraits? Etc

>>7657150
desu I think I already figured out the main problem, I kept everything too light (including model tone). This makes it so that the shape still looks quite flat + I have no room to render properly, everything is in the same small value range more or less
(the shading on her back is deliberately accented, I liked the pattern that was present there)
feedback still appreciated

>>7657165
dude am I going insane or are there word filters that add "désu" to your post?

>>7657165
>I think I already figured out the main problem, I kept everything too light
light/dark contrast matters, for sure, but in terms of form and structure, in some sense uniform values are more important. it looks like you're working on vellum (?), which is fine, but the texture is going to show up more if you're using a duller pencil/utensil: you want a fine point so that you can get in the grooves and make the shapes whole (yours are spotty). the more little white dots from the paper there are, the less uniform your shadow shapes (or even light halftones, for that matter) are going to look.

>>7657186
wow thanks, I would've never thought of that. It's some random spare paper I had, smooth grain, no idea what exactly it is it doesn't even say on the cover

>>7657210
imo the paper doesn't really matter too much if you're doing shorter studies, and really even for longer studies acid-free, smooth, 120-160 gsm paper (which isn't hard to find) will do just fine in most cases. as far as getting your pencil to a fine point, if you aren't familiar with how traditional artists tend to do that, I'd recommend vidrel (otherwise you can ignore this):
>https://youtu.be/4kx3f_Oc8Z0?si=d0U-8gOUrTFjG3wU

>>7637125 (OP)
Here are some legs I did today. Feel free to give me feedback, I could always use the help.

>>7653838
>>7653818
Whats your preffered gesture timer? I cant seem to get anything decent if its not atleast 2 minutes. Your gestures are beautiful anon.

>>7638348
Team rocket?

how do i stop myself from drawing so many unnecessary contour lines when trying to build out forms on figures

>>7657400
thank you, im glad you enjoy them

I do 1 min - 7 min timers but prioritize fun over everything else, if you are enjoying a pose and the timer runs out, reset and let it double up or more, a 1 min pose could turn 2 min or more, a 7 min post could turn 14 min or more, imo, just use the timer to move on if you find the pose uninteresting or too difficult in the moment, otherwise, spend as much as you want on whatever you enjoy.

>>7659734
I'm liking your work more and more. Do you have a place where have all of your doodles? I wonder what I'm missing.

>>7647029

wassup peoples of the drawy world

>>7647029
>>7659909
berry good waow

>>7660270
used to find drawing annoying since i'm mainly a painter, but now i luv it

>>7659734
If you don't mind answering, what brush do you use (assuming you use CSP)?
I'm trying to find a good sharp pencil type brush that has tilt support

Drew this from imagination
How is it

>>7660513
torso looks a bit short and the pose is too stiff but I like it, nice details

>>7660520
Thanks for the critique

where do you fellers get good refs from? I know all the images in the OPs link by heart now, and the poses weren't even that good

>>7661215
what makes a good reference to you? a reference is what you make of it.

>>7661219
>a reference is what you make of it.

NTA but a good reference is one that emphasizes and simplifies form so you can get a solid grasp of what you're trying to draw, bonus points for a simplified light source as well. You can learn from anything but fighting an uphill battle trying to see through jpg artifacts of an over exposed picture can be a waste of time and brain power.
>>7661215
Looks good, you may want to be wary of how you draw the necks though, they seem a bit thick compared to the face.

>>7661608
here's your reference and your challenge
>>7659909

60 sec figure practice

>>7661706
thats fast af

>>7657151
Title of this pack?

>>7661846
https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/DBL7k/1000-art-female-reference-pictures-with-props
don't buy it, it's available in course busters (or your favorite pirate group)