Forum posts by Kim

I'm unaware of one! We're actually smack-dab in the middle of working on producing a hands & feet practice tool, thanks to the very generous support of this community. :) I've been documenting our progress as we go! Here's the most recent update:

https://line-of-action.com/forums-repaired-and-progress-on-hands-feet-tool/

We're also already at work on the next tool after hands & feet, which will be for environments. My expectation is that after that, we will begin raising money for a faces/expressions tool.

On the other hand, now that I think about it, I've seen a number of artists jump straight into the stick figure stage while gesture drawing. To me this is a little crazy, but it definitely works for some!

On youtube there are even some boggling people who start at just drawing the fully formed human -- I am impressed by these videos, but also find them disheartening as they tend to rank highly when a student does a search for gesture drawing. I think it creates the wrong impression and sets a too-intimidating bar. I also wonder if those artists have not just trained themselves to see "outlines" very accurately, and wonder how solidly their foundations are rooted in underlying anatomy. What would happen if they had no model, for example? I really don't know.

To summarize my follow-up rant: Artists work very differently. You will probably need to experiment to see what works best for you!

My best advice is to work large, so you can fit a skeleton and eventual flesh inside/on top of the original gesture and still see the details.

For me and many artists I have observed, the method seems to be rapidly capturing the energy, direction and "gist" of the pose using the free-form gesture scribbles of our choosing, then at a slightly more sane pace, overlaying our chosen structural representation on top of it.

This helps to ensure the skeleton takes the pose and the energy, but still gives you the chance to put limbs back into sockets. It's like a second draft that takes into account real anatomy, without completely writing out the energy and expression that was captured in the first draft.

The third draft would then be changing that series of sticks and joints into a fully fleshed human, with the gesture and the skeleton slowly being erased but still informing the final, outer layer.

Holy cow, this is news to me. Amazing. I'm going to order one and see how it works.

Thanks so much for sharing these! I have used some of the above tools, and they're great.

Characterdesigns.com is actually one of the places that donated photos to our tools. I am especially fond of them.

Why ashamed of this one? It seems quite atmospheric to me.

And I like the tumblr idea, guys. Maybe I'll get in on that action too.

Hi Comissar,

I have moved your post to its own topic, so that you can get your own feedback without disrupting someone else's feedback topic. :)

Those are good tips! And perhaps this will help you with distinct? <a title="definition of distinct" href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/distinct" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/distinct</a>

Awesome, it looks like everyone is sticking fast to their original study commitments. I'm so proud of you guys! Keep them coming! :D

Thank you for saying so! :)

FYI, I moved your comment to the "shop talk" forum, since that's more for general talking then the critique board.

Hey Vyse (and everyone!) I'm sorry for my silence. I've had to work evenings and weekends for the last two weeks and I've been so exhausted, napping every minute I'm not working has been top of my mind. Makes drawing hard!

I know  I said this awhile back, but back then it fell through and this time it looks like it's going to work: I'm in the process of hiring office assistance, so hopefully I'll be back to a normal person schedule soon. I definitely haven't forgotten you guys or my drawing goals and I can't wait to get back!

And hi there, Robbjosf! It's a pleasure to have you joining us. We're definitely not going to laugh at you. I myself am pretty darn rusty, and no one has been anything but encouraging. Constructive criticism and practice is the name of the game for improving! Keep at it and welcome to the 100 project!

Any attempt moves you closer! Good job, Sylvester!

That sounds like a very reasonable goal, and definitely something that you could focus on in here. :)

I just discovered that you had posted this topic a second time with the exact same image and request for help, so I've merged the two posts.

This is very bad behavior. You have not bothered to thank or acknowledge any of the people who gave you <strong>excellent</strong> advice in the first topic before starting another asking for advice on the very same image. It's not kosher to repeat topics anyway, but it's especially bad form to do so without thanking the people who took the time to give you the advice that you asked for. Furthermore you have begged for responses after only two hours. This is a forum, not a chat room, and a small one at that. It would be bad form to whine if you hadn't received a response within 24 hours, much less 2. Participating in forums requires patience.

Finally, you have now burst into another thread dedicated to a specific exercise and begged for critique from me. No one person is obligated to give you critique, and it is explicitly against the rules to derail topics.

You have been warned. Please take care with your future conduct.

I may well try that too, Manns. Thanks for your feedback!