Reddit reviews How to Draw the Human Figure: An Anatomical Approach
We found 4 Reddit comments about How to Draw the Human Figure: An Anatomical Approach. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Matches anatomical information with surface forms and shows how anatomical knowledge can be used for selective emphasis as well as for realism in art, using drawings by masters and the author to clarify points made in the text
you have a lot of potential but you need a lot of work on your fundamentals like proportions, how shadows are cast, and contour. the fundamentals are your building blocks for any form of art. i'm guessing your a young artist and over time your skills will slowly improve and you will figure things out but i recommend formal art classes or reading a few books like;
how to draw the human figure an anatomical approach:
http://www.amazon.com/Gordon-Louise-Figure-PenguinHandbooks/dp/0140464778
Exploring The Basics of Drawing:
http://www.textbooks.com/BooksDescription.php?BKN=652343&SBC=HII&network=GoogleShopping&tracking_id=9781401815738U&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=9781401815738U&utm_source=googleshopping&kenshu=3d418da2-0ea4-7069-1335-000064a7d4c8&adtype=pla&kw={keyword}&gclid=CNuws4y4m7gCFRCe4Aod5gMAYw
after you get through the grind of drawing still life and shapes you can carry these skills over to comics and animation. drawing is just collecting a set of skills and knowledge and applying them to the problem of "how do i make this look good?"
hope this helps, good luck.
Source: drop out art student.
Looks pretty good!
In the future, I'd suggest that you try to think structurally, building up basic forms before you try to solidify your contours. A professor I had in school used to repeat to us, "Earn your edges." What that means is that you should understand the forms that are in your image, and then define your contours based on those. What's a sphere? A cube? A cylinder? A combination of any of those? A distortion of those? Where is the cheekbone? The eye sockets? What can you break the shape of the bridge of the nose down to?
Obviously, you're not really going to know any of that just by default! That's when you bring in reference as you need it! Whenever you attempt to draw something, look references up for it. If you're drawing an ocelot, try looking at photos of them from various angles. See if you can discern what forms make up their heads. If you're not squeamish, you might even consider finding pictures of their skulls to really understand the underlying structure. Draw them as close to the references as you can! Start your sketch lightly and decide "This is a cube. I can take this cube and remove chunks to make the head shape. Here's a wedge shape. It fits here." After you've got this lightly drawn in, move on to darker pencils and start refining your edges. You can use those forms you defined to start deciding where light will go and how it'll behave on your drawing!
If you haven't already, I suggest you pick up copies of George Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy and Louise Gordon's How to Draw The Human Figure: An Anatomical Approach. Both of these books are chock full of information about breaking things down into simpler shapes and understanding what goes on under the skin of a figure, which is very applicable to anthro art!
Most art schools (not high ones, but like... your avg art schools) are happy with this:
10 realistic sketches - like figure drawings, perspective drawings, properly shaded fruit etc
10 expressive pieces - anything you want. Get creative. Expressive colorful pieces, cartoony shit, whatever.
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If you don't know how to draw well or make anything, then you better get to work starting now. If 20 pieces of art in a portfolio is stressful to you, you're in for a rude awakening at art school.
I recommend getting a figure drawing book on amazon. Get "How to Draw the Human Figure: An Anatomical Approach" by Louise Gordon. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140464778/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) It is like $6 and is the best investment you'll ever make.
So do that, get familiar with figure drawing, and learn gesture drawing as well. Build on the fundamentals! That shit is important.
If all of this sounds daunting to you and you prefer art as a hobby, go with a more stable career like Information Techology or go to a trade school for something like electrician work - shit's good money, and you can support your lifestyle and make art on the side (that's what I did, and I sure am glad I did it.)
For drawing faces, I highly suggest you learn to draw the human skull. I know it seems creepy, but I found it's the best foundation to which you start laying on the details of the face. When I first heard about the method, I drew a lot of skulls. I started laying the facial features we would normally see (eyeballs, nose, lips) and found that the face was structured quite well. Personally, I found the human skull provided better landmarks than the standard drawing faces tutorial.
I also have a life-size (plastic, please stop looking at me like that D:) skull to help me with certain details and figuring out other landmarks. I prefer to have a physical example of it, but that may be a remnant of the drawing courses I was made to take as part of my major. If you find pictures (even digital 3D models) aren't that helpful, then look to buy a skull. They usually sell them for medical (dental) students (I got mine at University of Toronto's bookstore, I think it was about 40 dollars).
Check out How to Draw the Human Figure. It does go beyond just faces, but they have drawings showing how the muscles lay on the skull and how the face looks once the skin is put onto it. It helped me a lot.
From that point on, I suggest you start making observations on how your muscles behave in different facial expressions. However, there is this nice large flowchart showing the different expressions (and grouped).
I hope that helped :)