At 4/12/24 12:07 AM, Thetageist wrote:
At 4/11/24 11:10 PM, Template88 wrote:
At 4/10/24 10:08 PM, Thetageist wrote:
I forgot about this thread.
Tried to make a puppet-like pose for a character, wonked up the proportions but otherwise it’s not bad! I tried to use 3D shapes this time instead of just the skeleton of lines. Maybe that’ll make things easier.
so, gesture lines are meant to (surprise) define the gesture of the figure, while what you've drawn, the armature is used to solidify the figures geometry in space, things like foreshortening, light and shadow, perspective. you can and should use both. (loomis's armature is a combination of both) one of the issues youre having is that your geometry has no depth, and is symbolic in some places.
you have to fully follow through and realize your geometry if you want to improve to the next level. thats one of the things the draw a box exercises are for, but being able to imagine and draw primitive shapes in any arrangement is more or less the same sort of study you need to do, it doesnt strictly have to be about boxes, they're just the simplest geometry to fully realize in your mind and on paper.
How do I give them depth? I thought I did that, I did draw the ends of the cylinders and the like. I also used references for the pose so I got the foreshortening from that.
(Either way I’m probably going to wait until I’m less busy to get super serious about art improvement, so you may just be giving me advice for the future.)
well, the short answer is that you have to "follow through" or see through and create the full geometry of everything you draw. At first on paper, and then later in your mind. When you're drawing something in order to give it depth and volume you have to actually understand the actual real geometry of the thing you're drawing in space, at least in a simple sense (or in a very complex sense if you are going for realism) these simple shapes are called primitives, every complex shape is made out of a combination of primitive shapes, thats the real reason for those simplistic seeming geometric drawing exercises, like drawing cubes and spheres.
![iu_1188222_2341174.jpg]()
You have to mentally act as a bridge between this harsh geometric figure, and this willowy gestural figure and combine them both together to get a solid final drawing. Loomis's manniquin kind of splits the difference between a hard armature made out of cubes and cylinders and a fully gestural stick figure and to me is more efficient to draw than either, for setting up a figure drawing.
![iu_1188223_2341174.webp]()
but yeah its up to you how far you want to go and when. since you were experimenting I thought I'd explain the actual function behind both approaches. You're still stuck in symbolic drawing, in order to not do that anymore you have to mentally imagine _everything_ as a 3d shape and use that information to define the form on the paper.
You think you did, but you didnt.
