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In this highly-anticipated series, master draftsman Glenn Vilppu shares with you his approach to figure drawing. Each lesson will cover a new stage in Glenn’s process, including: Gesture, Spherical Forms, Box Forms, Cylindrical Forms, Basic Procedure, Modeling Tone, Direct Lighting, and Atmosphere. In this first lesson of the series, Glenn covers the basic foundation of figure drawing: capturing the gesture. Glenn begins with a comprehensive lecture, followed by analyses of gesture in Old Master works. Glenn will then illustrate these concepts in several demonstrations, using a variety of different tools. Next, you will get a chance to apply what you’ve learned in a timed figure drawing assignment. The lesson will conclude with Glenn’s approach to the assignment, allowing you to compare your work with his.
Materials
- CarbOthello Pencil – Burnt Sienna
- Maruzen Art Lead Holder with Charcoal Lead
- Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencil – Sanguine and Black
- Pentel Water Brush
- Winsor & Newton Watercolor (in Homemade Altoids Tin Palette)
- Namiki Falcon Fountain Pen
- Noodler Konrad Brush Pen
- Blending Stump
- Sandpaper Block
I’ve never used a water brush. Is Glenn just adding a drop or two of ink to the water in the brush? To get those light tones on the paper?
I think so. That’s how a lot of artists use it, diluting the ink to create different tones.
Ten second and 2 minute poses from lesson one. This course is difficult but I love this method of drawing.
You’ve got the right idea! And I can see you’re improving.
1. Watch your proportions, especially your widths.
2. Your ellipses should follow through all the way around even if you only mark on the nearside. Don’t draw them as little “c”s
There seems to be this beginner friendly figure drawing class from Glenn Vilppu and an other one where he wears a blue shirt. They seem to be pretty similiar but one contains more content. I probably just start following the one with more content or is there one to start with?
One is an older version but since he’s such a living master of figure drawing we decided to include more and just double up on the examples. The material is the same, and we recommend you watch it all and follow along to help you understand it.
My results are so bad it’s painful. If anyone has advice, I’d love to hear it. These are 3 10-second poses (2 of them were over before I made a mark) and 6 2-minute poses. My plan is to watch the demo again (4th time) and try again. I’m concerned that drawing figures poorly over and over and over again will actually be detrimental instead of beneficial.
These aren’t “bad,” you’re just new to a very difficult technique. Biggest issue is to maintain proportion as you try to get the lines to flow. If the proportion gets too off, you’ll get lost. Just keep going for now.
Are all of these materials necessary? And are the exact brands necessary? What are the most important pieces?
No. With Glenn’s approach you can do it using any materials really. I would say that smooth paper is better because in this case we want to see the lines not hide them as is more the case with rougher paper.
You can also work digitally.
I’d like to say that his teachings, which i’m watching for the n-esimal time, are very similar to the way a post-grad course on mathematics looks like.
Jeffrey Shepherd
they aren’t bad, but you might be looking at the exercises the wrong way. If you try to emulate another’s gestures, most likely you won’t be able. You cannot know for certain what are the calculations Vilppu’s is doing. At most you could emulate his the general starting flow of the figure since it’s pretty much the general part of the composition. Much like copying another’s music: you can always get most of important notes the same way everyone does, but the process of fine tuning the composition until you make yours and the reference alike is an unimaginably complex problem which everyone tackles in a different way. You’re not learning to draw a stick doll, or whatever, you’re composing the reference image on your mind with the help of the paper as so not to blow your brainware (hahaha) with trying to calculate it all at once. A lot like a math problem, what matters is that you solve it, with the help of the paper, which in turns becomes proof that you managed to solve it, but the focus must be solving it and that the math on the paper is understandable and without muddy unneeded simple calculations.
Hey everyone just started this course and am on the part with the 10sec and 2min drawings, 10sec I straight out gave up because it amounted to nothing. Not even time to make one line I am clearly not ready.
2min one is attached and it’s horrendous and my honest question is : is there any point in doing this course for me now ? It seems like I am totally out of my depth and wasting my time – I should be doing an easier course or something more basic. Do you have any recommendations ? Thanks a lot
Hi Luke, Glenn Vilppu is one of the best draftsman on earth, so trying to compete with him is going to be very difficult. I think the time recommendations are for people that already have a grasp on the concepts. if you are learning these concepts for the first time it may be beneficial to work more slowly. But only as slow as is necessary. you dont want to start rendering, and you want to keep you arm motions fluid. Glenn is thinking about a lot while doing gestures, so it important to keep that in mind. You should work through this course several times as your skills progress. Once you learn about forms and anatomy, you should come back to this lesson and apply what you’ve learned. keep going through the whole thing.
Yes I think its a good idea to start here. While it is very frustrating at first, the concepts will catch up to you with time. I struggled with the same thing. I had a really good teacher that dumped almost more information than I could grasp, but I kept thinking about it as I drew over the next year, and bit by bit the pieces came together. This way of learning is difficult, but its how Glenn and his teacher before him did it.
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