Ram’s 100 Day Challenge: Gesture and Structure | Figure Drawing

[Shravan]

Hi all, my name is Ram Pranav. I’m an aspiring 3D character artist for video game industry. I’ve started drawing about a month ago and focused on the fundamentals – observing objects, simplifying complex objects and study perspective. In this time frame, most of my practice sessions (2-3 hours a day) were spent on drawing basic shapes (boxes, spheres and cylinders). I feel I am comfortable drawing them now and so want to apply it in other aspects like figure drawing.

My drawings are not good at this phase of learning and want to improve it consistently. I welcome suggestions, criticism so that I can learn from you all, experts.

I am focusing on at most two parts of a body, when I feel (or you kind people suggest) that I am comfortable drawing them at any angles, I will move onto other parts of the body.

My end goal by the 100th day mark is to be comfortable in drawing the figure through gesture and structures.

Day 1: Head and Torso

It took me 3 hours to draw 2 A3 size sheets of head/torso figures. Is 3 hours way too long to do this. Most of my drawings are of the same reference. Sometimes I draw the models too skinny or bulge them up way too much. I am not focusing on proportion yet, but I feel I must start focusing on it now to make my drawings better. My profile head drawings need way more improvement. Please suggest on what I can do to improve.

 

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[Raven Kushner]

Welcome, Ram!

Thanks for sharing your work. I, personally, don’t think 3 hours is too much. I think it’s great! But I also think that each artist should be guided by his/her intuition. When we are quiet and still with ourselves, and think about our art, we often know what we should be focused on, and for how long. However, we often let books, people’s opinions, fears, etc. direct our behavior.

I think if you have 3 hours to spare, and you have the energy and focus to do it, then you should follow your instincts. Some days you might not have that much time, some days you’ll have more. I will often spend 5-8 hours on weekends, and 2 or 3 hours during the week. Right now, I need to practice 8 hours a day, but I don’t have that. So, I do what I can.

You sound very open minded and also hard-working. So, if you continue with the classes and practice, I’m sure you will see the results you’re looking for. 🙂

[Shravan]

Hi Raven,

Thank you for the reply! I try to give my best on what I’m drawing. I love to draw, and I forget time passing by so quickly.

I think I did not make myself clear on the “3 hours” part. What I meant was, was 3 hours too much to spend time on 2 A3 sheets which roughly consisted of around 15 head/torso drawings? Because I’m not sure if I should focus on quality or quantity at this phase of learning.

On a final note, I have the luxury of focusing on my goals 8+ hours a day and I am willing to give my complete focus on it.

Again, thank you! 🙂

[Shravan]

Day 2: Head and Torso

My page 1 is me trying to understand how I can improve my torso drawing but was very unsuccessful in it. After page 1, I listened to Head and Torso lecture by Steve Huston (thank you master) many times until I grasped where I was making the mistake.

I thought I was drawing simple shapes, but in reality was drawing contours.

My page 2 seemed a lot better comparatively. I drew basic shapes lightly and added up the contours.

To improve: I am struggling to draw the male body. My head drawing is trash, will focus on it once I am comfortable with torso drawing.

 

 

[Shravan]

Day 3: Figure drawing

I tried my hand on figure drawing and the results were… Umm… Pretty bad. I realised I need to know the basics of how different parts of the body connect to each other before moving on to the whole figure. So I will watch the remaining lectures and try to build up figure on the new knowledge.

 

 

[Shravan]

Day 4

[Shravan]

Day 5:

[Marcolino Estuardo]

Hi Ram,

What makes you say that these set of drawings are “pretty bad”? If the problem is about how the parts connect, then that may be an issue on ‘gesture’. Remember, gesture is how forms flow into each other and the relationship between them. Avoid drawing the contours and get a ‘feel’ for how those forms are moving overall through the figure. Like it is said, ‘get the total’.

[Shravan]

Day 6:

[Shravan]

Hi Marcolino,

Thanks for your valuable comment, all my drawings were made on top of gestures and structure, I did the contours to see if I get the feel of it. You’re right, when I was drawing today… I realised my gestures were not upto mark. I need to work on gestures more.

The drawings seem lifeless and static (I think due to wrong gesture ). Couple of the drawings on the final page was me trying to practice gesture and structure. Thank you again for your feedback.

 

[Marcolino Estuardo]

No problem man. Keep looking/studying/watching/reading your learning resources. Hang outside. Watch how people carry themselves. Then draw more and more.

[Shravan]

Thank you for advice Marcolino, today I had tried to practice drawing on gesture.

Out of all the drawings, I feel I had a bit of connection with the final drawing (directly above this paragraph). Can you suggest me what would you have done to make it more fluid?

[Shravan]

Day 8:

I drew gesture and structure drawing of the same figure on a page. I do not know how to make something look like it’s coming out or going back. I will practice and focus harder.

[Shravan]

Day 8: Update

So, I tried to connect gesture and structure and feel the flow as Marcolino suggested. Thank you man.

Also I practiced on the “pencil test” technique taught by Steve Huston. I will upload the final sheet of my practice.

[Marcolino Estuardo]

Hey Ram! Great that you’re taking in the words and applying it best you can. I assume you’re studying Steve’s book? I did a quick and rough re-draw of your sketch above. To make it more fluid, simplify your shapes/forms more. Since you’re starting out, it is best to ignore every bump of anatomy. Get the BIG picture down first. The WHOLE, the TOTAL. Track the long-axis lines for each part. The arms, from elbow to elbow, can be a long relationship line that frames the head. In your pencil test page, keep within those clean, loose, light marks. That’s good what you got there! Compare that page to your previous ones. See how well they read? On the topic of depth (coming in/out), grab any cylindrical object in your house, wrap rubber bands around it, and move it around. Observe how the bands move in perspective. It’s about pushing/curving your lines further. Cheers.

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