URGH. I'm currently trying to work on my Visual Communication folio for my end of year assessment, and it involves sketching models in about 40 different positions. Only problem? I'm hopeless at drawing people in proportion without actually looking at them. I have to draw all the positions from my mind too. Does anyone have any good tips? Perhaps a tutorial online somewhere?
http://www.dueysdrawings.com/drawing_tutorials.html http://www.gfxartist.com/features/tutorials (good for drawing anatomy) http://www.drawingcoach.com/ (more cartoonish than realistic, but...) I hope I helped at least a little.
I actually have to disagree on this front (as civilly as possible). Taken from self-experience, starting an art career in manga/anime style makes it nearly impossible to break away from it. Most friends I know, and myself struggled for YEARS to break away from it into other forms of art, but the influence is still present in a lot of what I do and I truly feel it holds me back from achieving many of the effects I wish to portray. Not to say it is the sole reason though. Or that it is a bad form of art, I just don't recommend it to those just learning the human body. Mind you, manga/anime style is blast to draw and certainly takes skill but the sad fact is that it receives little credence in the art community as it stands now. Simply disregarded as cartooning. But it really does make it hard to branch out because the practices that you'll often develop in the process of learning the style will carry over later and it'll show (ie: larger eyes, flatter faces etc.) My recommendation? Study art nudes. For serious. There really is no better way to get a grasp of the human anatomy. The basic rules of thumb are this though (as far as proportion): Human body ranges from 7-9 "head lengths" tall (a head length being from top peak of head to chin), with the eyes almost directly half-way on the head itself. But it seems to me that your assignment is looking more for the body forms, a basic grasp of anatomy. The unfortunate thing is that you really simply have to have a great idea of human anatomy and how every part relates to the other. An easy way to do this is to study people constantly. How they stand, their mannerisms, etc. A simple tip is to make broad quick, inexact strokes as opposed to what my art teacher calls pencil masturbating (or small little exact strokes), as you'll find the lack of precise decisive strokes can cover up minor proportional or anatomical mistakes. Also mind you that this is all just my personal opinion. You'll find that such opinions will differ from source to source. Wow, don't even know if any of that is what you were asking, but this is kind of a subject I get excited about sometimes (now to run off in embarrassment of my nerdiness...) (and edited for clarity)
http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/ Maybe do a couple of these as warm-up and then when you get a feel for it try some on your own?
Hi, I'd recommend Duey's link also, or to get feedback from your drawings you could always draw online via http://www.sketchplanet.com
