So we are going to be looking at values, or the light and dark in the pose and shading, this week. But before that, I wanted to address something we didn’t cover last week. A lot of what we looked at worked great when you could see the torso clearly, especially upright poses.
What about poses like this, when you might not see the usual angles and curves created by the ribcage in relation to the pelvis. Or when the weight is all over the place because the model is lying down. The things we have talked about during week one – the lines to look for in the torso and so on – are there to help, they are not really rules. So if they aren’t useful, there’s no point in using them.
The general principle remains though – look for the interesting and important big shape, curve, or pattern. So on this pose, you might notice this straight line down the middle.
So here Mayko is demonstrating two different approaches she might use if she had a short time to draw this pose.
These poses are figures viewed from angles we’re less used to, so when you don’t have much time, it can be overwhelming to try to figure out what you’re looking at.
In this example, she is focused on geometric shapes that stand out to her in this pose. This is a nice place to start, because she isn’t worried about understanding everything she’s seeing in the figure from this angle that she’s not used to. Instead she’s focused on more abstract shapes. Once that is in place, she has a sort of framework to make sense of things and build up the figure in.
In this example, using the same pose, she takes a different approach. This time she’s looking at the curves of the figure like the rolling hills of a landscape. She looks for the flow of the curves and lines. Again, with the short time, at first she’s thinking less about the pose as a human figure and seeing it in terms of these abstract flowing lines. Once she’s built up a light layer of lines this way, she can start to build the figure on top.
So, when you’re drawing figures and the pose is confusing you for some reason, look for a different way to see it. Look for abstract patterns, shapes and flowing lines that can help you get started with the drawing. I hope that helps guys – enjoy your practice and I’ll see you in the next post!
