Hey everyone, my name's Andrew and I had a long thought about breaching through my comfort zone, so to speak. I am usually really shy, eventhough I'm 24. Sad I know. I'm somewhat beginner at drawing, only recently decided to learn drawing fundamentals. I was drawing since early childhood but for some reasons didn't pursue that career and/or hobby path. It was about two months ago that I decided to learn drawing fundamentals. Wasn't easy and I felt confusion of what exactly do I even start with.

I've found an old scanner in my basement which surprisingly works well enough, and decided that I start showing my drawings to other people around the globe.

Recently scanned in my older drawings, which were done roughly speaking 2 or 3 years ago. And I want to show them. And ofcourse I will be updating this thread as them drawings come.

http://imgur.com/a/rOWVk These are the same drawings from before, only difference is they are a bit more polished. Cropped and combined in one image some drawings which didn't fit at all.

http://imgur.com/a/XzHfh New album, which will be my main album into which I will be posting new drawings that I come up with. They may be terrible but with time they should be improving. Hopefully.

Nice meeting you all, and any advice welcome. I want to improve!

Edit: Tried to arrange some drawings into one, and created a new album.

P.S. - Drawings are way too huge, can't seem to list them as thumbnails, etc. Some advice about this would be great.

As an update - I've spent about an hour to scan in drawings, or rather random doodles. I've added them in the "ongoing" album.

Good majority of them are practice from artfundamentals subreddit. With a shading/value slight practice in between, and other stuff. Most recent ones are head studies from Loomis book. I have a feeling I'm having null progress.

Yesterday and today I've tried to draw gestures and quickposes from references. And I've uploaded them to imgur gallery. Maybe I should resize the images so they would fit in a forum. Oh well. http://imgur.com/a/XzHfh

I got the temptation to post it into conceptart's forum, but it doesn't look any good for that I guess.

You are off to a great start, I would love to see you develop further. Keep posting and welcome to the forums ^^

You are off to a great start, I would love to see you develop further. Keep posting and welcome to the forums ^^

Thank you! I do want to improve It's just I'm selftaught, and learning.. There's a well or rather an ocean of resources on the net, and I'm getting confused over what to study even. Anyway seems I've found what I love to draw for now, a figure. Leaving details for the later, only had an experience to draw cartoon and anime characters leisurely years ago.

I'm having a blast right now, off to drawing figures. Ciao!

Can I just say that the happiness that emanates from every one of your words when talking about drawing is adorable? It's just so nice to see it bring so much fun to people...

Anyway, you have a ton of stuff in your practice folder (I mean the new one), which is good. Really good. I love the drawing you have of a whale with the spine showing, it's just really cool. And the studies on perspective and 3d are great ( I should be doing some of those too!). Overall, nice work, keep it up!

Can I just say that the happiness that emanates from every one of your words when talking about drawing is adorable? It's just so nice to see it bring so much fun to people...

Anyway, you have a ton of stuff in your practice folder (I mean the new one), which is good. Really good. I love the drawing you have of a whale with the spine showing, it's just really cool. And the studies on perspective and 3d are great ( I should be doing some of those too!). Overall, nice work, keep it up!

Thank you. I haven't felt that hype before because there was no one to talk about it nor could I show these drawings. In fact I avoided figure drawing like a plague. Seemed way too advanced, and yet by simplifiying - it can be drawn. The full-figures takes 10 mins to draw. Each. Not bothering with facial features for now. Sketched in 8 more figures. Nudes though. They aren't that much of nsfw I guess. Beats me how do I shade them correctly.
Proportions are off by a bit and doesn't seem that I completely understand gesture. Mainly when to use those different curves c,s, straight, zig-zags

I wonder maybe I should post it in some subreddit, or even the conceptart forum. The latter I fear to even dare. I'll scan the 8 new figures probably tomorrow.

I've updated my gallery with 8 more nude female figures from sketchdaily blog. http://imgur.com/a/XzHfh I'll think about resizing drawings so they may be put directly here. 1000x1000 px maximum resolution of an image it seems.

You are doing an excellent job! You're very varied in your studies, and that will pay off very quickly, assuming you take your time and not rush through each fundamental. In regards to your figures you seem to be losing the gesture when you flesh it out.

I suggest you take a look at the steps from this website. It shows a pretty good way to go about gestures and figures: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-1197.html

Keep up the excellent work!~ ^~^

You are doing an excellent job! You're very varied in your studies, and that will pay off very quickly, assuming you take your time and not rush through each fundamental. In regards to your figures you seem to be losing the gesture when you flesh it out.

I suggest you take a look at the steps from this website. It shows a pretty good way to go about gestures and figures: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/thread-1197.html

Keep up the excellent work!~ ^~^

Thanks for the tips, haven't thought about gesture much. That link you've provided is a fine read, will have to note it down.

Updated a gallery with a new figure drawing. By following the crimson dagger tips on gesture(or rather figure), which was provided by Exilious

http://imgur.com/wgzOvmg
I can notice the proportions are slightly off, and it wasn't quite easy to draw even if there were guidelines to reference from. Anyway I will continue to draw. Probably gesture is what I should focus on for a few weeks.
Thinking with a bone structure/placement in mind seems a tad harder for me, as I'm still trying to get rid of contour drawing habits which spans since childhood.

It's nice to see how dedicated you are. What an immense amount of drawings you got there uploaded

Great variety and some of that perspective stuff is really nice, seems like you're really understanding the concepts.

As a tip:

Watch out that you don't follow the gesture lines too much when you are actually making a final rendered version. After you've done gestures, make a box shaped character inside it and slowly work your way out. This way you make sure perspective and proportions are alright. I try to work myself more in "layers" when I draw: so when I would draw ... say a a figure... I would first lay gesture, then the boxes and geometric shapes, then rough fields where I want to put the eyes/ears/nose/etc. and then sharpen out each part. I wouldn't bother going straight from an empty face to drawing a feature in full render because then I won't only be worrying my brain with the look of that feature, but also with it's placement..
Just like with building a house you don't add the toilet before you have planted the cabels... if you catch my drift xd

It's nice to see how dedicated you are. What an immense amount of drawings you got there uploaded

Great variety and some of that perspective stuff is really nice, seems like you're really understanding the concepts.

As a tip:

Watch out that you don't follow the gesture lines too much when you are actually making a final rendered version. After you've done gestures, make a box shaped character inside it and slowly work your way out. This way you make sure perspective and proportions are alright. I try to work myself more in "layers" when I draw: so when I would draw ... say a a figure... I would first lay gesture, then the boxes and geometric shapes, then rough fields where I want to put the eyes/ears/nose/etc. and then sharpen out each part. I wouldn't bother going straight from an empty face to drawing a feature in full render because then I won't only be worrying my brain with the look of that feature, but also with it's placement..
Just like with building a house you don't add the toilet before you have planted the cabels... if you catch my drift xd

The variety is there only because I had a hard time to decide which fundamental should I try to study 1st. Still do actually. I haven't read any beginner oriented books e.g. keys to drawing or drawing on right side of the brain, there's barely anything I know about measuring, or negative space, or whatever observational fundamental there is. I can manage to differentiate value on a grayscale, not spot on but from what tools I have (4H-8B derwent/faber castell pencils) I can see the tone difference. The issue starts to show up when I have to use one over the other, so I don't mess up anything. Although I'm not bothering with finished artwork yet. There won't be anything fancy to show for a long time me thinks.

I don't seem to get the part where you're talking about box shaped character inside gesture. Actually I haven't really drawn any box shaped figure yet. I dislike drawing boxes especially when it needs to be tilted in some different angle than the ones I know of

Ugh, tried to draw gestures today from photo references and they are bad. I believe I won't have anything else to show today except that figure from crimson daggers... ;/

Gesture drawings aren't supposed to look awesome =/ the only purpose they serve is for you to show an intention, action, gesture that people can instantly see from the figure. Nothing more. Ofcourse keeping proportions correct etc. ^^

Gesture drawings aren't supposed to look awesome =/ the only purpose they serve is for you to show an intention, action, gesture that people can instantly see from the figure. Nothing more. Ofcourse keeping proportions correct etc. ^^

Keeping proportions correct during gesture seems a bit tough, as gesture is more or less abstract. And then comes the question how to develop gesture into fleshed out figure, so far I can not do so. Watched heaps of videos about gesture, I'm thinking I learned quite a bit so far. Haven't tried to draw new gestures yet though. I'll get to them tomorrow morning.

Updated my main gallery with some eye drawings, don't know why, just felt like it to draw some eyes. They may be bad, as I didn't bother to use different value pencils than HB. http://imgur.com/ejzM2XW

PS.. I'm sorry that none of my sketch fits directly in forum, probably by the start of a new year I'll start resizing them

So, I did try today to draw gesture from reference photos. Drew four pages, I know it's too few but no matter how much I get to draw them I won't magically understand gesture.. And it looks like I don't. I start with the head, then try to visualize curvature/bending of a spine and after that I have no idea how do I place legs/arms especially when figure placement is complex. I did scan those four pages in, so if anyone interested - you can look at them. And, please, if possible I'd like to hear advice on gesture(I've looked all around deviantart, proko videos, vilppu demo,hampton, and even loomis so far. And sad as it may be I can't draw gesture correctly, it turns out way too bad and it feels like I make no progress because of it. As it is now I can't figure it out. I did try all those 'C, S, I' curves and yet my interpretation of a figure looks like crap compared to everyone else.

http://imgur.com/AuWyIIr
http://imgur.com/t8AhQqB
http://imgur.com/vyX7kH5
http://imgur.com/2KGCrOp

Artsy people out here, help.

Tried to do quick sketches of gesture again today, and seems like they came out a little bit better than yesterday.

Here they are - http://imgur.com/a/XzHfh

For now, I'm not interested in resizing images so they fit in forum.

Haven't really had time to update this thread, although I have not abandoned drawing. The last couple of days I tried to get the hang of 30 second gestures..and I'm failing miserably, plus only less than tens came out somewhat okay. Did a couple studies of -rough- bone structure, but I'll show it when I get to have access to my own scanner..

Updated my imgur gallery with what I was scribbling over these three days, of rather pseudo-activity. Most of gestures are 30 second from reference sites, and then there's slight construction studies. http://imgur.com/a/XzHfh

Good that you're working hard. What I notice however is that you draw gestures from contours. Gestures are not contour lines. Gesture lines are basically lines that take the viewer from point A to B. By moving these lines (CSI curves) in a proportional way you can make them suggest characters or animals or w/e object. Like Proko said: gestures are in everything. So more practical that means that when you see a person posing on a picture, look closely where your eye is being led to. Then translate that knowledge to the lines that best capture that movement (CSI) and in what direction and draw them. So it is possible that when you draw the torso the pose leads you across the torso from up right to downleft, so draw that line there (opposed to drawing a contour line around the torso, defining the body parts comes later)! In your current drawings you suggest that your eye is being led by the contours of the body, but in reality it could be the shadows, the muscles that move in a way or simply how you "feel" when you see the pose. Only pay rough attention to proportions etc. You can see this knowledge on some of Glenn Villpu's gesture drawing demo's online too. He uses only those curly lines to show stuff. I highly recommend watching his videos and get the book figure drawing from michael hampton. One tip Vilppu gives for example is that gesture drawing is beginning to live a life of it's own in art communities while originally the old masters from renaissance or earlier they didnt think in those terms. They only drew rough sketches with these CSI curves to show the composition of a drawing, how the characters would have to move in that regard and where the eye would lead them to. Some of those curves would be drawn, other's would be imagined. That's why Vilppu explains that you can best learn gesture drawing not by drawing from model but from imagination. Since it's more about the composition, the action and where the artist wants you to look at and how he/she wants your eye to move trough the canvass than making some abstract version of a person without a thought about composition.

.. Perhaps I am a bit fague about this =/ but it's difficult to explain it or even understand it myself, this is my take on it so far though... =/. More falls into place when you really listen to VIllpu and draw with him. Took me like 2 times watching his 2 hour lecture on NMA before I started to get a grasp of it and probably another 2-3 times before I actually really UNDERSTAND it fully. If not more ... xD

Good luck!

Thank you for trying to explain to me gesture Artentgusiast I know that my gestures aren't even following the said pattern of using three curved lines at most. What they come out as more often are scribbles... Although some artists use another type of gesture (i.e. Kimon Nicolaides)

I'm still confused about gesture and I know that it will be like that for a good while. Some latest gestures were drawn upside down, don't remember which ones though. Foreshortened gestures are harder to draw without bothering about contour for now.

What you said about gesture from imagination isn't something I've done as the ones I'm drawing from references come out bad.

Also I don't really know how to manage 30 second gesture, usually I'm out of time before I finish it(some gestures are unfinished)

Also, I think I got kinda bad understanding of 3D space in drawing. For example it takes quite long time to figure out how to tilt a simple box to my liking (like a falling box or even floating one)

Anyway, i'll keep on drawing and hopefully with time I will improve. So far I got no drawing to be proud of.

It may sound corny but I think you should be proud of every of your drawings, even the really sucky ones. I am not saying I am proud of those always, but I think you should. Every bad drawing gets you closer to the right one. That having said...

In my own experience I have basically come across two ways of me on how I progress. The first is basically simply drawing things and getting better at techniques by drawing them more often. The second is by reaching these "tipping points" in which I just "have had it" with myself and the way I draw stuff and I am basically "ready" to really put the time to look how others do it more than just very faguely. That second way of progressing is almost like a stairway. You really stick to something, dont really want to change but you draw alot just to fool yourself and others and then at some point you get so frustrated you just rewatch old stuff and get this "aha!" moment and tip over to the next level of the stairway. Basically opening yourself up to it. I sometimes try to actively speed up that process, get myself angry so I start to get a stair up earlier. Currently for example I am displeased by my gesture drawings, mostly about the many lines I use rather than a minimum set of lines so I am studying book from Hampton and some other stuff to see what is absolutely necessary to show in gesture (head, shoulders, spine, etc.) and how can I use minimum amount of lines to get that going. Like 1-2 gesture CSI curves per feature.

A text update of sorts,
Okay so during these three days of new 2016 year I was deep in thought about my approach to learning and it seems like I'm missing on a lot of foundation of drawing if I'm jumping straight to gesture/figure drawing, and I decided for, better or worse that I head back to basics...

I've got bad understanding of drawing basics, in my opinion that is, so I'll be revisiting those before I jump in figure drawing. Gesture does not seem like 'basic' to me sadly. My pencil control is rather poor, will focus on /r/ArtFundamentals exercises for it to improve. Then my perspective knowledge is lacking, I have issues drawing regular boxes that follow perspective rules without putting VPs on paper also I can't seem to rotate/tilt it well enough, and those lessons might help with that. Once I have good foundation of it I'll start posting what I'm 'achieving'. Before then it may seem like I've abandoned drawing

And probably the sketches won't be updated for a good while. See you at a later time

A text update of sorts,
Okay so during these three days of new 2016 year I was deep in thought about my approach to learning and it seems like I'm missing on a lot of foundation of drawing if I'm jumping straight to gesture/figure drawing, and I decided for, better or worse that I head back to basics...

I've got bad understanding of drawing basics, in my opinion that is, so I'll be revisiting those before I jump in figure drawing. Gesture does not seem like 'basic' to me sadly. My pencil control is rather poor, will focus on /r/ArtFundamentals exercises for it to improve. Then my perspective knowledge is lacking, I have issues drawing regular boxes that follow perspective rules without putting VPs on paper also I can't seem to rotate/tilt it well enough, and those lessons might help with that. Once I have good foundation of it I'll start posting what I'm 'achieving'. Before then it may seem like I've abandoned drawing

And probably the sketches won't be updated for a good while. See you at a later time

It's a good thing to try exercises! I do them each day whenever I can, try different pressure with my pencil, basically learning to control it better. Draw circles, squares, triangles, 3d figures every day for at least 5-10 minutes. Make more organic closed shapes (like "blobs") and draw over them and add and retract pressure for darker and ligher areas. I do all this using the overhandgrip. It really is step 1 cause it is such vital thing to learn and you will have to use it so many times. Learning to draw without using overhand grip is like learning to eat your food with only a knife. I am sure you can find a way to make that work, but it is a severe handicap... xD