Deborah’s 100 Days of People and Perspective Drawing

[Debbie H]

I learned so much during my first challenge (figure and head drawing) that I’ve decided to continue developing those skills for this second one (anatomy, figures, portraits, hands and feet), but also to work on perspective, fundamentals and potentially composition. That’s a lot to cover in 100 days, so I’ll see how far I get.

Day 1: Graphite, 35 x 15cm (13 x 6”). This drawing was the last I posted for my first challenge, but @erikdennes gave me some super helpful feedback, particularly on the torso and head, so I’ve spent quite a bit of time reworking it and decided to post it again to begin this challenge. Thank you Erik 🙂.

[Debbie H]

Day 2: Picking up my perspective study again.

[Joshua Jacobo]

Love the perspective work! I look forward to following this thread.

[Bryan Mccabe]

Really nice work so far Deborah 🙂

[Debbie H]

Thank you Joshua and Bryan 🙂.

Day 3: More perspective work to create a castle battlement. I really enjoy working the perspective puzzles out. I’m working in Procreate and decided to have some fun with colour once all of the perspective work was done.

[Christopher]

Hi Deborah,

your perspective diagrams look good. I really like day 2 which I already did some time ago and compared to yours my was a mess 😅

Have you looked into the “new” perspective course from Sheldon Borenstein yet? What I miss in Erik Olson’s course is the application practise but from what I have seen from Sheldon’s course preview it seems to lean more towards that direction.

I’ll definitely take a look soon 😁

I thought that could be of interest for you since you also said that the technical lessons from Erik are difficult to practise if you dont have the drawing skills to do finished illustrations yet. 👋

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Christopher.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Christopher.

[erikdennes]

Hey Deborah,

Glad you are starting a new challenge!!  I’m also glad I could be helpful on your last drawing.  For perspective, a great reference book to have is Scott Robertson’s “How to Draw” book.  It goes great as a companion to Erik Olson’s lessons.  I can’t recommend this book enough for perspective type drawing.   Sometimes the way Erik presents the lessons, it somehow seems unclear at times.  The Robertson book presents things very clearly which you can then practice with the Erik Olson lessons.  It is also good for when you need a reference book to look up quickly how to do something specific like mirroring, or finding a measuring point, etc.  It is excellent, and there is a whole library of videos that Scott has made to go with the book.  You should check it out.

[Debbie H]

Thanks Christopher. I haven’t looked at Sheldon’s course – I haven’t had trouble following Erik so far and am enjoying his teaching, but I will have a look at Sheldon’s too. I have to be a little careful of how many courses I’m following – quite a few 😆!

Thank you Erik – it’s good to be back. I’ve looked at that book on Amazon before and considered buying it but it’s hard to know without recommendation or being able to flip though it. I’ll look at getting it.

Day 4: Studying the pelvis. I couldn’t clean up my paper because I wanted to keep my notes and labels, so forgive my grubby page.

[Debbie H]

Day 5: Studying the rib cage. This one’s taking me a lot longer than I thought it would. Because the cast includes the intercostal muscles as well as the ribs, it’s very nuanced. Rendering really helps me to engage with and understand the 3D form.

[Debbie H]

Day 6: Ribcage complete. I could go further with this, but it’s taught me what I need to know for now.

[Debbie H]

Day 7: I spent my drawing time today trying to understand how the pelvis and ribcage sit in the figure. I made my lines darker where these bones make corners in the contours. I’ve really only drawn the pelvis where it makes these corners. I drew from the images of Amy because these features are relatively easy to see on her. I’d love feedback to help me do this better. On the other hand, I probably just need to do more homework … Thanks 🙂.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Debbie H.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Debbie H.

[Bryan Mccabe]

Nice work Deborah. It looks like the studying of perspective is paying off. 🙂

[Debbie H]

Thanks Bryan 🙂. The different drawing skill ‘pillars’ I’m learning do contribute to each other. The thing I’m finding the most helpful here is the symmetry of the body and understanding which forms stay rigid and which bend. Hopefully no more ‘spaghetti people’ 😆! Knowing where to find the corners in the form is really helping me.

Day 8: More ribcage and pelvis ‘thinkings’ today. I am slow at this, but I feel like it’s beginning to make a little sense.

[Christopher]

Hi Deborah,

as usual I really like your anatomical studies.

As for your figures I find liking parts of it like the way you indicate the corners of the pelvis. But something about the way you try to describe the bony landmarks of the rib cage seems a bit to flat or round looking to me.

Normally I would suggest imagining a box to get more structure but you already did that. Maybe it’s something about the order you approach it?

About being slow: I find the careful style of approaching it to be one of your strengths. Your work in general is on a pretty consistent level because of that I think. 👋

[Debbie H]

Thanks Christopher for your encouragement and feedback. I’m happiest working carefully, so I’m glad if the result is worthwhile. The difficulty with putting the pelvis or ribcage into a box is that both forms are very organic and only touch the planes of the box very occasionally. Thus it’s difficult to make the forms read as relating to the box. Does that make sense? I’m not sure how to make it read in a more rounded form. I’ll think it over and keep learning 🙂.

Day 9: I was really pushed for time today, so am posting the beginnings of a simple one point perspective room scene from Erik Olson’s lesson 4.

[Author]

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