Our Daily Life Drawing Sessions are free timed reference videos that allow artists to practice
figure drawing from images of life models. We’ve taken this popular resource and put
a new twist on them: Demonstrations from your New Masters Academy instructors.
In this installment, instructor Charles Hu draws along with you, working from
Daily Life Drawing Sessions one through five.
Charles works with a brush pen, fountain pen, and
pastel pencil, sharing his thoughts on these poses and demonstrating the
fundamentals of gesture and structure.
To maximize your learning experience, we encourage you to work from the drawing sessions yourself
first so that you can compare your drawing decisions with those of Charles.

Hi, my name is Charles Hu. This is our first drawing
sessions, and I will be showing you guys how to sketch
figures. It is very important that you guys follow along and practice. Repetition and practice are very, very important.
I will be also showing you guys using a variety of different material, which will be exactly what I use for
my daily sketches, so hopefully you guys will enjoy it.
So in this section I’m going to use a fountain pen, and the fountain pen I have is by Faber-Castell, which I like
brand. And then I use their other supplies like the charcoal, pastel also. These can be pretty pricey.
This one that I have cost about $60. You can have, just use, I’ve been using this—you know, before I got the
Faber-Castell, it’s just the preppy pen. I got this one at a Japanese market. These are just $4, and they are really
inexpensive. The reason why I picked this one up is because this is, it was a little bit thin and felt that it
probably isn’t going to show on the camera well. So this one has a medium tip, which it says on the tip.
It has M on it. It’s a medium tip. This is what I’m going to be using today for these quick sketches.
And the ink that I use is the Pelican ink, so basically this is what I use.
Okay, I am going to start on the left drawing first.
Then in these one-minute drawing I’m mainly just going to look for major gestures and shapes.
So you see this fountain pen works pretty well, and I can get pretty direct.
So then I’m going to work on the one on the right too.
So again, I’m going to find the most—I basically think almost as a comic book artist, what’s the simplest and
most characteristic shape I can come up with?
Without--not really copying the drawing. Because in
these one-minute poses it’s not really about copying it.
Okay, so next pose.
Find the gesture. Find the flow.
That’s what these one-minutes are about. Try to find the flow. Move your arm.
Then if you can’t get to all, that’s fine.
Then I sometimes I, you know, like you see here I overlapped the poses. That’s fine to me also.
Okay, didn’t get too far with the last pose. I’m going to do it a little quicker this time.
So maybe I’ll draw a little smaller. This is exactly how I draw on locations too.
Okay, so I’m going to do the right side pose.
Going through this egg shape of the head
using the sternocleidomastoid muscle to find the connection of the head to the body.
I’m going to keep this arm fairly straight because she looks like she is supported by that arm.
Drawing through.
Feeling through.
Next pose, I’m probably just going to draw it right here. Then, like I said, I don’t mind if it overlaps.
Finding her shoulder right next to her face. Come down to the elbow and feel her hand
supporting on top of her thigh.
Post to the right.
How the neck connects to the shoulder and flows down to the spine.
The next pose—
so I’m going to just draw. I need you to think of the face as a diamond shape, as you can see.
You know, just draw the facial mask right before you follow her ear.
Find the connection with the head.
Draw through, find the belly, find the crotch. Make a little mark.
It’s showing me where the end of the torso, and I also can complete center line.
Again, a pose like this I can easily use that shoulder
to find where the, since it overlaps the chin I can use that to find where the end of the face is.
I’m going to keep this arm a little more square because she looks like she is supporting with this arm.
Rib cage.
Waist, hip, drawing through—
sometimes I use the sacrum to help me to get a sense of where the hip begins.
You can think of a box right here if you want.
You can get a sense of that hip. The leg connects up to the hip.
I used the hamstring to find it.
The next pose.
I think I’m just going to start with the back of the neck. Since it looks like it’s kind of stretching I can just start
with that. So like when I sketch on my own, you know, sometimes I start everywhere.
Sometimes I start with the hand.
The trick is you just have to always compare...
what's next to it.
For example, like the shoulders right next to the face.
Then again, not the head to the flow of the neck.
In this case, I’m just going to get a sense of the collarbones. Back to the rib cage.
Drawing through.
Belly, thigh.
Okay, right side. Again, I’m only trying to find the most interesting shapes and the relationship of shapes.
For example, if I’m looking at the hair on the top to me it looks like a fire.
So you can see how that’s shaped.
Flow down to the bandana, and then the ears are below that. See, everything has that, that little arrow
comes out like a flame comes up, and it stretches down. It’s stopped by the compression of the shoulders.
Then it pulls down and then flows right into the spine down to the sacrum. Turning out the hips.
Drawing through. It’s not all the time that gestures are quick. Sometimes you can see here if it’s supporting
I might slow it down. I might keep it, you know, my line or the shapes, I might keep it firm
cause I want to show there are tensions.
Sometimes I just kind of shade it right in. It’s always good to get a sense of the rib cage and how the waist
flows into the hips. See it comes out, coming into the next gestures.
Every time when you draw the end always compare the end to somewhere else. I love to compare diagonally.
So it almost looks like you’re looking at these corners on the silhouette to pluck, almost like plotting the point.
So now I’m going to draw the foot. So where am I going to put that foot.
I’m going to put it diagonally from the hip.
That’s going to be the most interesting place to put it because it’s a triangle. Right? It’s a triangle overall.
I think I’m probably going to put this one down here. Things just feel like she’s on the lower ground.
And I’m going to start with the head.
You can see I kind of build up each shape, compare each relationship.
Keep your arm moving because if you do that, like I said, you’re naturally going to get a sense of that flow.
Even though sometimes you might not see it in your reference, but that flow of the hand still allows you
to give a nice life to your drawings, a nice fluidity to your drawings.
That’s why these are one minute or two minutes in this case. That’s what we are looking for.
Corners, right, compare.
Sense of that rib cage, waist.
The hip breaks to the back of the hip finding the corner of the hip bones.
It comes back up forward and into the thigh.
I can afford to make the thigh a little bit thinner than the reference because I can show it
kind of goes away from us a little more,
or I can shade it and set it back away from us too.

Left pose. I’m going to see if I can try and draw and shade at the same time.
Just to see what result we have. Again, always think about the rhythms.
It’s straight...
versus curve,
drawing through, find the iliac crest.
Finding the pubic area.
Placement of the foot is very important. Give a sense of
the floor planes and the perspective. You have to be aware of which foot is in the back
and which foot is in the front so you can again get the sense of the environment. Again,
if you set things away, shade it down.
When I shade also kind of just follow with the
gesture to flow, just keep that energy going.
See how the gesture flows this way and just,
you know, curve my direction this way.
Right pose, and I think I have to draw a little smaller because I only have a little bit of
small space. But it’s good to vary the sizes.
Shoulder goes up. Back goes down. Rib cage,
how is the rib cage coming out from the front of the neck. Feel the gravity takes over the
rib cage. Gravity takes over. The breast falls down toward the gravity.
You can see the shadows that kind of do that too.
Everything falls toward gravity. They are parts fighting against
gravity. Like, for example, this hip—going to push this up. Again, I can look at this
negative space and bring this thigh out.
Okay, so I’m going to feel the flow. Look at the hair. You can really get a sense of
how it kind of flows down this way and sits on the ground.
This kind of gets a little bit abstract with the hair shapes.
So I’m going to come back to get some sense of reality
with that ear right here. Then it looks like the neck coming right here, and you can compare
that neck to the shoulder on the side that kind of presses right against the ground.
Then it kicks out the shoulder blade. Compare the shoulder blade to the outer side of that
shoulder blade. She has that little triangle tattoo right there, which I like. I can use
that. A little bit right below that is the 7th vertebra which is the beginning of the
neck, and that’s going to throw me to take me right to that. I’m going to the spine.
Drawing through. Get a sense of the rib cage. Now my other arm is right here.
Then I have a hand coming out.
I’m going to do just an impression of the hand because I don’t
have the time to draw every detail of the fingers.
I’m going to, again, cut the angle
of the hip, bring the thigh forward.
Keep the lower thigh. I’m going to keep it a
little bit thinner. Just push that into the distance. Drawing through. You can see me
draw through. You get that overlap. That’s why we need special for these kind of foreshortening
poses. We need to know where the shoulder section, the rib cage, the waist, and the thigh.
Okay, see the next pose is going to be five minutes. I’m going to use, again, still
Faber-Castell. It’s a black color. It’s non-oil based. There is oil based. This is
a chalk base. The reason is I kind of like the feel of the chalk grinding onto the paper.
I like the feel of the vibrations. This is what I’m going to be using for these five-minute
drawing. Also, notice that you can’t put these in the pencil sharpener. Although you
probably could use. I hand carves cause I need to have enough of a side so I can do
more of the flat, wider strokes. Let’s just get started.
I’m going to look at how much the rib cage distance. I’m going to draw and make sure
I draw through. I’m going to make a little mark to just tell me where the armpit is.
Drawing through.
It looks like, compared to the elbow, it looks like the
stomach sits a little bit higher.
Knee is about right here.
If you screw up, make it too long. Again,
look for the diagonal relationship to place your end. Make the part closer to you a little
bit bigger than you think.
Again, those are drawing through.
The other good thing about drawing through besides just getting a sense of the tone and
volume, you also get a sense of perspective. See how it goes back in perspective. So I
know when I place that breast, the breast has to sit over on this
kind of cylindrical shape like this.
I look at the nipple. The nipple also needs to sit within that perspective
too. In that case, even though we’re looking at a smaller details, the smaller details
still have to reinforce the big idea.
Swing, swing, swing. And it
goes back. It’s going to be, what I find most exciting things to draw figure or any
organic object they’re going to have this kind of continuous rhythm in it. It’s so
beautiful. I think that’s really beautiful and really exciting.
So are the shadows. You see how the shadow will flow. It’s going to be like a wave clashing
onto the next part and rise back up.
Rise back up, falls down then comes back down again. The harmony is
something that, besides drawing and painting too, it’s finding that common relationship.
Cast shadows.
Again, sometimes the cast shadow on the ground can also be interesting. You
can get a sense of, you know, if there is kind of floor.
And for composition purposes also.
Another five minutes. This one I’m going to draw right here.
You probably want to start with the head, especially for such a difficult head view. I can’t help but to see that
long stretch of the back. Like I said, if you have more experience you can kind of compare
each section. It’s still not going to be easy.
I sketch addictively actually every day.
Like I said earlier, I try to train myself. I wisy. h I could start with a different area
and still keep my game going.
Watch on. Still need to know not just where the hand is. It’s
where the hand connects into the arm, and how the arm connects into that shoulder blade.
Drawing through. Feel what’s in the back. In this case, the hip is in the back of the
rib cage. Side of the hip and the bottom of the hip. Even if you’re going to do a round
shape still give a little sense of where that plane is. When you shade—the shortcut of
shading is just think of geometric shapes. Obviously, I’m thinking of boxes. Keep your
shadow shape exciting too. The shadow shape also flows to the next shape. See how this
is going to come in here. You can’t just stop there. You have to flow to the next shadow
shape. In this case, here is the top of my back and here’s the front of my arm. I mean
I’m looking at a tube. What will happen with those shadows? It’s going to help me
describe the top of this to the front plane. In this case it looks like the whole arm is
in the shadows. I’m just going to pain this whole thing in the shade and shade this whole
thing. This might be a little bit sketchy, a little bit messy because I’m not quite,
a little bit abstract and not quite filled in. I’ve not quite filled in the structures.
Some people might just leave it. For me, I might just come back in just a little. It
doesn’t have to be a—it can just suggest a little.
Again, these cast shadows on the ground are still trying to tie into your figure. These
swing forward, look, come back in here. Add the little shadows on the neck. Boom, now
they’ll connect. This shadow is probably going to connect onto my face.

Transcription not available.

Feel the compression from the back of the head.
He’s sprinting, or he is dancing. I don’t know.
Push it little more.
I still have the rib cage, right, and then the oblique. Below the oblique is the thigh or the hip.
You have to keep those parts clear. You don’t want to mush them.
I think my charcoals are kind of dying. I need to resharpen my charcoal pretty soon.
I’m going to try another pen I also use in my sketchbook.
It’s a brush pen. You can see it’s by Pentel.
It’s called a Pentel Pocket brush pen.
It allows you to—you know, thin to thick like that.
When you use these permanent mediums you have to be extra—how do I say it?
I guess more focused and a little more careful of what
you do because you can’t really make mistakes with these. That’s why for longer poses
I can afford to use this medium.
Let’s try to see how they turn out.
Again, painting and drawing at the same time.
So just making light and dark marks.
You can get aggressive to it. You can paint it.
Okay, so I didn’t get too far the last drawing, so let’s try this again.
I’m almost doing contour drawings.
I think it’s good that you can go both.
You know, in certain situations you might need just for contour.
When I sketch on locations I pretty much do contour drawings.
But my thinking process is in some way still the same, still thinking about.
You looking at shape more cause you’re not going to draw through in terms of showing those guidelines.
That would not look good.
But those still in the back of my head in terms of looking for diagonal relationships.
Follow through.
So you think about again, it’s a box. The biceps from a more masculine guy,
it’s easier to see the, almost like a brick.
I’ll get these on the page.
If I have a little extra time I can start to slow down a little bit and maybe refining some
or cleaning up the page a little bit.
Refining also means cleaning up; cleaning up your shapes, cleaning up your edges.
Does the shadow feel unified or does it all just drop into shadows?
It’s a struggle to see shadows.
Okay, one of the ideas you could do is still thinking of more of straight lines.
Have your hand movement a little more straight.
That sometimes makes it a little bit easier.
Once you can get a little more advanced you can start doing more organic shapes and curve the line a little bit.
But if you’re not, you know, you’re just start learning these new mediums or the subject, keep everything
a little bit straight so you don’t get your drawing all over the place.
Diagonal relationships. Even though I’m looking at the armpit I’m actually comparing it to the chin.
So maybe just make it a little darker accent, dark accent, see how he ties it up. Point, point.
Bang, another point.
I’m going to put my hands right here. Putting some darker accent. Connect the dots.
So if you want to make sure people see these dots or these darker accents and keep something somewhere
else around it lighter so they don’t contradict.
I always find the nipple and also the relationship of the nipple to the belly button,
because again, it’s that triangle.
Again, looking back to those points: Point, point, point, point, which is his toe.
So I’m not—even though I’m almost looking at as drawing a contour, I’m still looking at the big,
the major relationships because you kind of have to.
Otherwise, you don’t get a sense of the whole,
and it’s hard for you to figure out how you’re going to design the drawings.
People are going to read the silhouette first. That’s how our eye sees it. We see silhouette first.
You want to make sure the silhouette has to be interesting.
Even that little bump of where the elbow bumps into the knee, that little opening is very important.
The negative space is very important. If at some point, you know, you can paint that dark negative space
to bring out the torso. I think I’m probably not going to do that because I want to paint this cast shadow in here.
See how the complete whole rib cage, the pinch into the belly. You’re going to have the little opening of the light
show the top of the stomach. That dark shadow right here works nicely to bring out my hand.

The paper I’m using is a bleed-proof marker paper, which has a nice smooth surface. It
works well with fountain pen or inks. Then with charcoal it works pretty good too. It
has the smooth texture and I can glide the charcoal really well. It might be a little
bit easy to smear, but you know, it’s still a good surface to work on. Again, the quick
sketch, just one minute. It’s very, very short. I tend to like to use my favorite medium,
fountain pen, so let’s just get started with it.
I’m going to be looking for mainly gesture rhythms.
How the shape flows to the next shape. I’m just going to use that pinch.
Use that shoulder to stop that chin and look for diagonal relationships. Look for where
is the next end right here. That’s her knee.
Diagonal relationship is going to be where
the top of my head stops. Stretch, pinch, stretch.
Okay, pose number two.
Finding how the neck flows into the shoulder.
I’m going to keep this arm pretty straight because I feel like she’s supporting with that arm. I tend to
like to make a little mark on the elbow just to show where that joins and the lower arm begins.
Eyebrow to the ear.
See the neck flow down to the spine.
Get a sense of the rib cage.
Stretch, pinch. Flow this leg right out.
Next drawing.
I’m somewhat kind of
a little bit sloppy because it’s a sketch. It’s one minute. I’m not trying to do
a perfect drawing. I’m just trying to feel the gestures. Hopefully everything flows well.
Proportionally, like I say, it’s somewhat stylized proportion or stylized shapes.
As long as I get the lean right.
The next pose.
I’ve slowed down with this fountain pen otherwise the ink won’t come out.
Again, look at these, I call them anchor points.
Okay, so two minutes. I come right down to that chin because I wanted to know how much that space I will
need to get right and then feel the stretch of that neck. Bring it back.
The ear is about right here.
Little poof up lips. Again, look diagonally. You can see where the bun of the hair sits kind
of subtle right here. You can see the shoulder pushes up.
Sends up that rib cage.
Then this pinch pose, this side, the pinch side is going to get really short. So that means
I know that this has to be stretched.
That means my hip ends here lower, and I’m going to
bring the waist and connect to my hip. We can draw through it. We can draw through and
just do that. See how the spine—the interesting part of a spine. Link that right to the gluteal split.
See how you get that S-curve. Then complete these egg shapes.
Sitting pose. I might put it right here. Down here.
Again, I’m just thinking of boxes, front and the side.
Now I can see these lines might be a little sloppy, but sometimes I
just keep it a little bit sloppy, but in a way kind of in control. At least my big design
has to be in control, and the relationship has to be in control. I didn’t want to see
what things would come up from my hand to be a little bit less careful, but that’s
when I sometimes would surprise myself, like whoa, I didn’t know I can design a breast
in that shape or the lines in that, you know, does that line feel, has nice energy to it.
If not, at least next time I’ll be a little more careful.
Okay, so next.
The bun kind of dropping down. The pinch of the deltoid.
Look at this negative space.
Notice I like to kind of close my wrist.
I’m still, even though I’m drawing contour
I’m still visualizing the rib cage. Stretch versus pinch.
See the hip. The thigh goes in front.
See where I’m going to place the foot. Where’s the most dynamic place, the
most interesting places to put that foot. You don’t have to copy exactly.
Okay, right pose. This is an interesting. It almost looks like those Egyptian sculpture had this design.
I’m trying to capture that accent, the kind of richness.
There is an S-curve there to help give it more, give a sense of organic feel to your drawings.
Okay, so I’m going to switch up
the medium. I’m going to use my Faber-Castell. They’re pastel pencils. I like these kind
of Venetian colors. I sometimes throw these different colors onto my pose to give a little
bit of variety. Let’s see how it will turn out.
Drawing though. These type of charcoal—not this type of charcoal. When I start using
charcoal I tend to draw through more. Still finding that gestures and the flow, how parts flow together.
How everything ties in.
So it’s actually just twisting like this.
See that overlap can help to show
the shoulder blade and seeing behind the rib cage. Swing this way and comes back in.
Okay, so next set. I’ll try to see if I can still fit these two drawings on this page.
That’s why I need to draw a little bit smaller.
I’m trying to fit—it’s not because I’m
trying to save the paper. I just want to see how it will look.
See how I keep it really fluid?
Drawing through.
Use that dark shadow to pop the breast.
Drawing through and getting
a sense that the rib cage is still in there. I tend to start a little more graphic as you
can see, and then I’ll come back in and develop my three-dimensional structures.

The next pose, let’s try and put it right here.
If I draw small sometimes I turn and I’ll hold it like this.
Again, it’s that rib cage. Feel the pinch. You can do that little zigzag.
The pelvis. Feels a little more boxy.
I can just kind of combine the two knees into one shape. I can come back and split it up later.
I’ll probably want to make it a little more clear.
It was a little bit light at first because that where the
shoulder meets the deltoid. It’s an important connection. Besides the connection it also
shows where the top of the shoulder girdle to meet the back of the shoulder girdle.
Give it a little contrast.
Okay, five minutes.
Always compare to the next shape, and make sure the shapes are going to—
try to design the most interesting shape and kind of organic shape too. See how that
little bone in the back is kind of flows down to the end of the hair like this. The front
of this part of the hair and see it flows back into that one. Everything has that commonality to it.
This arm is raised up. That means there are tensions on that shoulder. So maybe I’ll
slow down my charcoal speed a little bit. Always look at the corners.
In that case it’s the elbow.
Maybe the knee is down here. That’s the next point.
Feel the volume of that rib cage pulling this way, pulling out this way.
Rib cage, waist. Don’t just bump the rib cage into the hip. You’re going to miss
that flow. We’re going to, you know, make sure you have that waist kind of take us into
the hip. You also need to know the hip is in front of the thigh. So we’re going to
place the thigh in front. You can design the—like I said I like to vary and mix up my design.
Keep it straight because she’s sitting pressed against a stool. Then I’m going to curve
it up so we’ll keep that nice flow. I might keep on thinking of my knee as the box so
I might straighten that up a little bit. Again, look how that knee compared to this knee.
Drawing through. Get that pinch from the shoulder blade. I notice the shoulder blade created
that pinch from that shoulder blade. I notice the shoulder blade creates that pinch. The
shoulder blade is going to be a more sharper turn, so that’s why the shadow is a little
bit firmer and darker.
This is the part I don’t like. I don’t get the opening of
the armpit, so I’m going to come back and open this up. I might need to bring the shoulder
out a little bit. So now I’ve got that flow.
Again, anchor some part. Everything kind of feels a little smooshed.
Putting some darker accents.
Okay, next five minutes.
Going to draw a little bit smaller.
See how interesting that shape is.
I want to make sure my arm is attached to the rib cage, so I’m going to use the
armpit to kind of attach to it. Then the breast is going to drop towards gravity.
So my hip is somewhere right here. It’s stretched down and pushing forward.
I rarely like to line things up. Even if it does I would not do so. I would extend
that foot out a little bit more than that hip.
Again, just compare where the foot sits.
I want to use a shadow to show where the front of the shoulder girdle.
See here, once I know that’s an egg I can
basically paint my shadows base of an egg.
This little stomach will poof out so it splits up a little bit. Here, I don’t think it’s going to get much
light with everything kind of covering it, so I can afford to make that section very dark,
which creates some, again, little contrast there.
I like to—even though the leg is straight I like to still keep a slight S-curve. Not
too much, though, because she’s supported by that leg.
I can use a cast shadow to connect them.
Okay, so last five minutes. Again, look at the overall. Even though I start at the head.
Again, look at the head and her hands and this foot down here.
Top of the head, front of the head.
I’m comparing the head—I can, you know, I’ll just come off on that
little bit of the waist area into the hip. Come back out right here. Look at that negative
space. I need to bring the leg up a little bit because I’ll be running off the end
a little bit, running out of page.
Again, just sketch so I’ll see how it is going to turn out. If I’m doing more refined
drawings, like I’m doing for like gallery
pieces or something, I need to spend weeks
on it. I will be very slowed down a lot more than these, and I’ll make sure I compare
them even more carefully.
I’m looking down at her hand right here. Compare that to that knee.
Finding that beautiful curve. See the wrist, the full forearm curve up,
the hand curves down.
The spine, the shoulder blades in the black. Drawing through. Get a sense
of that rib cage. I think there—here’s the breast. It’s kind of squashed.
See when you draw through that tells you that’s the end of the rib cage, and that’s telling
me that’s where also is my forearm. Okay, I’m going to look at this space right here
to decide where I’m going to put forearm. And also what’s the best shape for the stomach.
Even today if somehow my hand ends up in the wrong place I’ll still be okay because I
want to make sure that shape needs to be right.
Originally I started my arms here, and I’ll have to bring it in.
Okay, so I’m going to shade this.
It looks like the light source is coming from her right.
Top of the shoulder. Back of the arm.

So in other sections I’m going to use my pastel pencil by Faber-Castell. I like to
use the dry kind. They also come with an oil. I don’t use the oil. I use this kind of
dry pastel. The paper I’m using is marker paper that has a nice smooth surface.
Later I might switch out my medium to something more water-based. So this paper kind of works
well with that. So let’s just start with drawing. So, these are one minute drawings.
So again, with this pastel charcoal I can kind of draw through and
really get a sense of that flow.
See the rib cage and oblique.
The pose on the right.
Feeling how the hair flows into the spinal cord. Get that pinch on the trapezius.
Got the rib cage right here.
Compare that foot to the other foot. Let’s
see, maybe I’ll draw this one a little smaller. I kind of just like that long stretch of the
neck to the arm. Give that squareness feel to it.
See how the neck flows right into the rib cage. On the reference it might be straight.
It’s okay, I can curve it. Especially in this one minute.
I want to see how far I can push my design.
I think I’m going to draw down here so I can see the arm curved toward the right.
Got the hair flowing right into his chin.
Feel that color, that tension.
Again, with the charcoal you can just kind of get crazy and draw through like this.
Okay, one minute.
So it comes down this way. Feel the rib cage.
Somewhere right here is a pinch in the rib cage. It’s going to flow right to this leg.
I’m going to just kind of bring this line out like this.
Okay, next pose.
Hair flow to the spine.
See how that box of the back to the front.
Big V shape for the male torso and back to the box kind of hip, oblique.
Okay, so last two drawings didn’t get too far. Let’s see if I can get a little bit further with this one.
That also means I might need to talk a little bit less.
It’s kind of tricky to multitask.
Rib cage. Pinch of the stomach. The leg comes out.
Drawing through the hip.
Flowing through the calf muscles.
Chisel a little bit.
So, another one minute.
Trapezius pinching into the deltoid, bicep,
and see how that fits into the forearm.
Keep the head flat.
Okay, two minutes.
See a little of the bottom of his jaw. The neck swings out.
Look at this negative space. The bicep. Look at corners.
Shoulder line. Look at this triangle relationship
from the head to the shoulder. Neck, pit of the neck. The rib cage. Feel the bulging of
the ribcage around the surface of the rib cage. Here is the pinch.
Here’s the oblique.
Here’s the box idea of the pelvis, and the leg comes out right here.
You can also look at this negative space.
You can group both knees first, and then we can split.
The nipples stretch towards the upper chest. This side is squashed a little bit so you’re going
to come off on the egg of the rib cage.
Serratus anterior muscles.
Next pose. I’m looking at the back of the head. I can just use a sphere.
The hair shape looks like a teardrop
on the back of the head, which is great because that little tail at the end will give me nice
flow to my neck, and I’m just going to flow down to my spine. This eye is going to be stretched.
This side is going to be pinched, going to get shorter, and is going to run into the deltoid.
I still want to make sure everything flows to everything else. Again,
a triangle relationship; head to the shoulder.
Okay, another two minutes. He’s looking down. I’m going to start, just going to
think of a box on his head. It’s like the top and the front.
Looking at the top of the ear. The ear is going to get squashed.
Still get a sense of where the front of his neck is, his collarbones, trapezius.
Get a sense of where that ribcage is. Once we do we know that the belly sits about right here.
You can see right below the belly. The leg swings out.
Always look for corners. To me I call them anchor points.
Corner, corner. That could be a corner. Corner.
Another two minutes.
This head you can see, his head is going to flow right down to the spine.
This arm actually pushing back.
Into the hip. Sits about right here.
See how the hip flows to the leg, how everything connects.

Make sure when you draw the back your trapezius has to overlap the back of the neck.
Don't just come off on the side.
V-shaped torso.
Pinches right here.
Right side pose. He’s scratching his head.
Stretch out the neck.
See how the shoulder blade relates into the arm.
Shoulder blade is a triangle shapes. Below that you’ve got the latissimus dorsi
muscle that comes in right here. See a little pinch indication right there. Here’s a spine
coming back here. Flows right into the hip.
Sitting down, keep it flat.
Biceps pinch into the forearms.
Okay, so last two-minute pose. I’m going to still use the same medium,
just in different colors. This is more like kind of reddish color. I just want to switch up a little bit.
Still feel that rib cage in there. So once I know where the end of
the rib cage is, I know how much space I have left for the little bit of a stomach.
Then my leg comes right below that.
I’m going to push the intensity a little bit harder so it will be able to show through the black.
This also is good to study anatomy. Having a good sense of anatomy is great because
I can come up with a shortcut to describe the deltoid or the trapezius.
Sorry, not the trapezius, the triceps.
Also the way to do the kneecap.
Okay, this the first five-minute.
Again, we’re going to just have a little more time, so
I can have a little more time for the head.
Again, always look. I think of eyes as a camera lens.
You’re going to zoom out most of the time to look at the major relationship like this.
Or even like this.
How you move the arm.
Again, look for the diagonal relationships
like I talked about previously, so everything kind of just flows out like this.
That's how I’m going to base all my design.
See it flows this way, comes back over here, comes back down here.
See how the pinch swings over here. Look at the shadows. See how the shadows
is going to show that egg of a rib cage. They’re going to pinch back because the oblique comes
back and flows right into the front of the arm, the thigh.
Okay, last five minutes.
See the eyebrow to the ear.
Chin to come off on the legs, leg flows from the chin.
This hollow section shows where the trapezius and the collarbone right here.
This arm looks like it’s supporting, so I’m going to keep it kind of firm.
Give a little tension right there.
So I'm like, you know, paintings and drawings and finding intensities I can put darker marks. I can
paint first and draw my contour. I mix it up. I try different things.
Just see what surprises me.
So I paint and I draw.
Intensity for the patella. Intensity maybe for the tendon.
Create that little negative space right there.
Bring that out. There is the bicep. Little
split to connect into the forearm. The cast shadow takes off on the knee shadow.
It's going to flow right into the next shapes, my other legs. I’m going to make the hair
darker, the top and the side. I’m going to paint the side darker first.
Then I’m just going to give a tan. You still get dark, but you also get a turn.
You can paint something next to it darker to bring out, like for example, the nose.

Okay, another drawing section. I’m going to start off with my fountain pen. This is
by Faber-Castell. And it is Ambition series. I use a medium tip. As you can see there is
a medium. You can use fine. It will be just fine. I’ve just got a medium because it
works—it shows on a camera better. So this is what I’m going to be using for these
quick minute or two-minute drawings. Then the paper I’m using is a bleed-proof marker
paper. Nice and smooth. It actually works well with the ink pigments or water, you know
like the brush pen I also use works pretty well. For charcoal it’s fine too, although
it smears a little bit easily.
So let’s just get started with this. So the left pose I’m going to start with.
I'm going to find the most interesting shape and relationships. See how I draw through. Right
pose. I love to use the neck muscles. They’re called the sternocleidomastoid muscles, to
connect my head to my torso.
Next pose, left side pose.
See how that shoulder pushes way up.
Compare her chin to this elbow.
This next stretch stretches way low. Compare that shoulder
line, that elbow to that elbow. I just smeared my ink. Pelvis expands out.
Female pelvis looks like a skirt shape.
Okay, right side pose. Like I said, my line quality is a little sloppy. That the last
one is a little sloppy. But, like I said, I don’t mind the sketchiness because I’m
trying to find the flow. Plus, these are just one minute. You’re not trying to do a perfect
drawing. I’m trying to see what is the best way I can design and I can, you know, the
best way I can bring the essence of the pose out.
I connect the front of the stomach to
the back of the legs. I connect the front of the stomach to the back of the legs. That’s
what I’ll be looking for, you know, straight versus curve. How does the body flow into
the rest of the features.
You know, so when people often ask, so what are these one-minute poses. I think, again,
it’s design. It’s a gesture, the rhythms.
Imagine if I’m drawing on location, you
know, what problem I will be running into it.
What happens when people leave the chair
if you’re trying to draw them.
So I have to basically make a very decisive decisions,
what I should put down and what I should leave out.
Left pose.
Follow through. Rib cage, waist, the hip. Following through the hip.
If I have extra time I can clean up some of the shapes.
Right side pose.
Okay, this is my last one-minute pose.
Feel the hair around the cranium.
Okay, two minutes. I’m going to put it down here.
I’m looking at the top of the torso. I kind of tend to like to draw the collarbones. I
feel like I’m drawing on top of that cylinder.
Still drawing through especially with this
kind of more difficult pose with the torso kind of covered almost by the other parts.
Drawing through. Get a sense of that pinch. Boom, the leg takes off.
Okay, another two minutes.
Just finding the character. What type of nose? What type of poofed-up lips?
It’s different than the next model or the model we drew previously.
See the pinch of the neck by the collarbone.
So another two minutes.
Cranium, the back top of the cranium is higher, so I’m going
to bring this up and then think of a box that turns down at her hands right here.
Compare that to this end of the neck.
Sometimes this fountain pen slows down a little bit. Otherwise,
it just glides and doesn’t make any mark.
Sometimes it ends up with a tilted tip and
that won’t work well. You have to make sure that the front is facing the top.
Okay, so I’m going to put one right here.
Hopefully I can fit it in the space.
Okay, so most of the face got covered by the arm. You can see how they curve. Not straight,
curves. Then we sit flat on the floor. Then I just kind of know if there so much pressure
on the arm that resting on the floor it’s going to push out that shoulder blade.
The shoulder blades, see you can get a sense of a box right here. I’m going to make sure
I line that shoulder blade slightly lower.
I’m going to turn the hip this way because I’m running off the page.
Turns in a little bit. So I’m just going to leave the hip
there and this foot right here. Another foot right here.

Okay, my last two minutes are reclining poses. Perfect. I think I’ll try to see if I can fit here.
Try to, try to hold your pencil farther back on the tip or hold your pencil
closer to the tip just to see what’s going to come out. When you hold it more away you’re
less in control. Just see how it comes out. It might come out something interesting lines.
Again, like I said, these quick sketches and drawing from locations, you know, I tend to
be a little more sketchy.
When I shade I just kind of follow the gestures.
It’s a little bit trickier to see the shadows.
I’m just going to be thinking about the egg shapes
versus tube shape versus sphere shapes. If it’s hard to see the shadow on the actual
reference just start thinking about those shapes. That will help you to analyze it.
Okay, five minutes. I’m going to switch to my pastel charcoals, my Faber-Castell.
This one I’m going to use. Usually for a longer pose I tend to use charcoal a little
more because I can, you know, easier to render and cover the ground quicker.
So we’ll have flow right to the eyebrow. You can see right here, and then the nose kind of kicks out.
But see, everything flowed this way so the way I’m designing everything is going to
follow this in the spiral kind of design. I will tend to also flow my arm that way too.
A lot of information is covered, so I have to be a little more careful. For example,
I already know the shoulder might be a little too narrow. But that’s okay. I can come
back and redraw that. So here is the hand.
See how this upper arm flows to the…
Drawing through, get a sense of where that rib cage is hidden in there.
Compression of the breast. See the rib cage. This is the side plane of my rib cage. The hip kicks out.
Think of the knee as an ellipse, and our ellipse will be the base of the bottom of the thigh.
Again, like I mentioned before, always look at the overall layout of the pose. It’s
a triangle shape. It is the triangle coming out this way. Coming out this way.
So you want to make sure that is where the focal point is. So in that sense, if you know where
the focal point is you can design all your smaller elements, like you know gear toward that.
All this part is in shadow, but I already kind of did my core shadow at the early stage.
You get a sense of where the top of the shoulder girdle, top of the deltoid. There is an egg
shape of the deltoid. You have a tricep and go down the lower arm. All this just also
dropped down to the shadow like this. We have a leg, but the leg is a tube so you can see.
You almost have three planes here. I’m only going to define the two idea, the light and
the darks. So I’m going to find this corner looks like it’s from the reference to put
where my beginning of the shadow, which is the core shadow.
One of the most important things about shadow is how they relate.
How does each shadow flow to the next shadows?
Next pose.
Head, flow to the spine. It can flow this way, or get a sense of that rib cage.
Or it can come off on the back, get a sense of where the back of the head or to
the back of the neck, and then toward the spine. When you draw a pose that’s leaning.
Watch out. Don’t look at the round rib cage because sometimes the curves are going to
screw up the angle. Always look for the alignment.
Here is my pelvis, front to the side. Here’s
the pinch of the belly button right here. So it brings that down so about where the crotch is.
Some areas you want to try to avoid corners. Like I had a corner earlier. I need
to kind of almost trim it so it flows much smoother and better.
My rib cage. My stomach
also is where the iliac crest is. One on this side. One on that side.
My other thigh comes below that.
When I get to smaller detail I tend to start holding it almost like a pencil,
but not from the tip, still from the side.
Push the hair a little bit darker. See that
little highlight right there. It kind of feels brighter.
So you have to, right below the armpit she is twisting a little bit. You get that latissimus
dorsi muscle that goes around behind the rib cage.
I can see the break of the box of the
rib cage front and to the side so you can see the shadow kind of stops right here. They
can go out, and they come back and it probably comes down right here. You see that almost
looks like a water hose. They’re going to push up the shadows and sits where the front
of the stomach is.
Okay, last five minutes.
Again, I’m looking at the top of the collarbone. I want to get a sense of
the shoulder girdle. I’m going to use the collarbone which is right here. Here’s the
trapezius, and you see another collarbone right here.
Get a sense of that ellipse. Where
is my rib cage? Somewhere right in here.
The hip is behind the torso. Here’s the round rib.
Find out where that pinch is. Compare distance.
How’s the overall design look? Did we get that flow? And I think this pose has that
nice flow, and I want to emphasize that.
Don’t want a corner. Let’s round it off. Flow
better, flow quicker. What’s in the back? What’s in the front? How does the foot flow
to this foot or this calf muscle?
She supported by this foot, or she is supporting by those
hands because she is leaning against the back wall.
How you want to show it. So on this foot maybe I’ll give a little more intensity. If it’s on the back hand maybe I’ll give
the back hand a little bit of intensity. Maybe both.
If you have extra time, if I have extra time I’ll ask myself is my point getting across?
There is some sketchiness, messiness in it. Like I said for sketch it’s fine. Sometimes
it shows that energy. But do I get the message across? Am I able to get a sense of what this
pose is doing? And then some of the information, important information, if it’s clear.