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Umm.....yeah,,

Flowers10
Im worried about people looking at your references and getting hung up on making the gradients of the light and shadow perfect and pretty and having them actually fail at understanding the shapes they create.

So it seems some people are confused about what they need to do to improve, that is ok I'll try to make it even more simple to figure out.

New artists have issues understanding how to make shapes look real. What you draw might look real to you because you made it but you don't understand how things actually look. To make things look real do your drawings need to have depth. What depth means more or less is making something look like its 3-d, that it isn't all flat like in parappa the rappa or south park.

1. To do this you must first be able to draw simple shapes in 3-d, from every angle you can imagine. If you cant, you cant go to the next step.
2.Step two is to be able to combine those shapes, and bend them WITHOUT THEM LOSING THEIR CONSISTENCY IN SHAPE if you cant, you cant go to the next step.
3.Step three starts getting complicated because you need to apply the rules of the human body to combine the shapes in a way that look like the way a human is formed. Humans are formed in a very specific way and have proportions and joints and funny little limbs. It helps if you think of it like you are drawing a robot. If you cant do this you cant go to the next step.
4.Being able to see shapes in 3-d without having to draw in the cones and squares and cylinders that you used to have to do to draw it right with depth, you can apply anatomy and all sorts of neat things like light and shadow to make your drawings look really good, and have the forms underneath make sense! BUT sometimes artists need to do this anyways to get what they are drawing perfect in perspective and stuff, so the things you learned before stay with you and you use them for as long as you draw!

Shout out to Bizarro Joe, Rogue Soul and Master Merol for the great examples.

I'm never going to get that good :(
Better try drawing the cup ._.

At 5/13/12 05:35 PM, BeckyRawr wrote: I'm never going to get that good :(
Better try drawing the cup ._.

No, like i said in my previous post you should try drawing simple shapes and follow the steps until you can draw a humanoid shape out of them. The cup workout was more combining the cylinder simple shape with a gradient to make it look real and then failing miserably at it to show people how much they suck and cant understand something that is insanely more simple than a human being so they would take me a little more seriously about what I am saying about simple shapes first, fancy stuff later.

I've been practicing anatomy quite a bit lately, been posting them in my art thread. I can never seem to get the right though :(

At 5/13/12 06:12 PM, BeckyRawr wrote: I've been practicing anatomy quite a bit lately, been posting them in my art thread. I can never seem to get the right though :(

What i am suggesting you draw is not anatomy at all. Simple shapes. I have never once asked anyone to apply anatomy in this thread.

Took the opportunity to work on lighting and shadow too, but I've now come to realize it goes against the point of the exercise to draw a three dimensional character in a two dimensional pose. Gonna practice more, try more complex poses.

At 5/13/12 07:00 PM, Chessplay wrote: Took the opportunity to work on lighting and shadow too, but I've now come to realize it goes against the point of the exercise to draw a three dimensional character in a two dimensional pose. Gonna practice more, try more complex poses.

As well, instead of drawing the arms and legs with stick figure appendages try making them cylinders, you should make them transparent so you can understand the dimensions better. Good luck.

At 5/13/12 07:05 PM, Template88 wrote: As well, instead of drawing the arms and legs with stick figure appendages try making them cylinders, you should make them transparent so you can understand the dimensions better. Good luck.

I tried giving it a quick go with transparent shapes to create depth and used a reference picture. I was upset with the result and reproduced the picture quickly. I found it a lot easier to produce the depth in drawing the picture completely than with just using basic shapes. I'm having a tougher time with the basics.

I tried giving it a quick go with transparent shapes to create depth and used a reference picture. I was upset with the result and reproduced the picture quickly. I found it a lot easier to produce the depth in drawing the picture completely than with just using basic shapes. I'm having a tougher time with the basics.

Thats the point, you think you are having it "easier" with the developed figure but you are drawing it wrong because you dont understand it in its basic form. Instead of making composite shapes make them by themselves until you can draw them from all angles. If you could draw them from all angles and combine them you wouldn't have trouble laying them over something else to get the basic form. Keep at it~

Oh hey! Wow I love this thread, may I butt in?
I tried drawing them traditionally,but as my scanner doesnt work I guess I have to resort to digital drawing (which I dont like for excercises like this ughh)
models were http://gyazo.com/d2decb286c32760d1be773f3dec95b9c and http://gyazo.com/3b6a4ae92fabafb68e0908c75f99c1b6 (warning,full nudity) from ArtsyPoses.
Please point out if I have any imperfections! Anyways, I am loving the thread already c:

At 5/13/12 08:53 PM, Template88 wrote:

Thats the point, you think you are having it "easier" with the developed figure but you are drawing it wrong because you dont understand it in its basic form. Instead of making composite shapes make them by themselves until you can draw them from all angles. If you could draw them from all angles and combine them you wouldn't have trouble laying them over something else to get the basic form. Keep at it~

Well I kept at it, and came up with this, took a reference picture and tried to produce it from multiple angles. I think I'm understanding what you're saying better.