FIGURE DRAWING | Note #7

✿ Hi friends!! And happy Spring time! ✿

I used to think of figure drawing practice more as an anatomy practice. Basically, when studying anatomy, you just draw bones and muscles and try to grasp the connections between the two. You may also want to go a step further and look for shortcuts and ways to simplify the complex anatomical structure. But that’s it.

When doing figure drawing you take a step further and put that body in motion. That’s when pose gets involved. To capture the spontaneity of a pose, it’s better to have quick drawing sessions, such as 1 or 2 minutes long. This way you don’t think about anatomy first, but only about movement.

If you master both well, you can basically draw anything. But it’s a long process. And not so much fun. So after hearing from many artists and studying different styles, I came to this conclusion: in illustration you can do anything, the ultimate goal is communication. Have I said this before? (oh yes, many times :D)

I spent the last month exploring different ways of drawing people. I had just one simple rule: no pencil, no planning, and limited tools. I searched online for “people on the street,” got a pen (preferably blue or orange) and started drawing.

You may want to enhance a specific aspect of what you see. Like here I was trying to enhance the texture of the clothes. So I thought using a dry neocolor crayon would work great. And eventually it does, if you just scribble and aren’t too picky with your marks :D

Here instead I used a blue colored pencil (not erasable - just throw that eraser away!) and followed the contour lines of the figure. Almost without taking the pencil off the paper. I think it has so much personality even though you can spot lots of imperfections!

And that’s when I got the courage to film one of these drawing sessions for my YouTube channel. A real-time video where you can draw along with me (50 min long!). It was both exciting and scary! Cuz’ I knew I couldn’t start over (this was my last double spread in my sketchbook - there will be a tour soon :)). But I learned so much!!

First, bad proportions don’t necessarily mean bad drawing. It means what you want it to mean. Second, don’t be too precious about your drawings. If you can’t erase, you’ll be forced to keep going. Eventually you can start over and repeat until you’re happy. This means more practice!

Let me know what your figure drawing practice look like. Do you do it consistently? Do you prefer drawing from life or from photos? Do you experiment with different tools and marks?

See you in April! ♥

-Madalina