Ram’s 100 Day Challenge: Gesture and Structure | Figure Drawing

[Nick Hausman]

Hi Ram,

I think you are doing some good work on your practice. One thing you might want to consider is starting with other topics instead of figure drawing. It is very helpful to have a strong foundation before diving into something more complicated like the figure. A good course to start with is the Beginners Guide to Drawing. You can still practice figure drawings. It’s just very helpful to be learning composition, perspective, shading, light and value, and other basics early on as they will all help a lot with figures and everything else you want to draw.

[Shravan]

Hi Marcolino,

At the moment, I am taking Steve’s beginner figure drawing course though I plan to get his book by the end of November. I have stopped focusing on contours and will solely focus on gesture and structure (It is funny that I named the title as “Gesture and Structure” but ended up drawing bad contours). Thanks for your advice on perspective, I owe you a lot for your help man. I will practice harder. My future drawings will be based solely on Gesture and Structure.

Hi Nick,

I had watched the course series on Beginners Guide to Drawing and loved it. I practiced solely on Foundations for around a month. It got monotonous, so I decided to incorporate practicing figure drawing as well. I spend around 2-4 sheets of practicing fundamentals a day. As for perspective: I got the “Perspective Made Easy” book by Ernest Norling, but I am yet to start reading it. Would you recommend me to spend more conscious time on practicing fundamentals or should I continue with what I am currently doing?

[Nick Hausman]

Hi Ram,

I am also a beginner, so I don’t have any authoritative advice to give you. I did happen to see a suggested course track being developed by NMA that Joshua Jacobo posted on the Discord server. Here it is:

The Curriculum (Based on one year of learning. If the same number is listed more than once with different letters, then you choose which course you are more interested in)

Term 1- Setup, Drawing Basics, and Inspiration

1. A Beginner’s Guide to Drawing

This course is a perfect introduction to the skills and concepts that you will need for a successful art career. You will learn materials, setup, mark making, shape, form, construction, measuring and observation, value design, rendering, and basic composition.

2A. Introduction to Materials for Artists

This course is all about experimenting with materials. You will draw the same scene using a variety of media to learn how different effects can be achieved.

Note: You don’t need to do every material in this course. You can pick 2 or 3 and do those.

2B. Photoshop for Beginners

For digital artists we recommend this course as a strong starting point. All graphic software owes a debt to photoshop and mastering it will allow you to learn new software quickly.

Note: If you don’t have access to Photoshop follow along in your software of choice and try to do the assignments using your software’s equivalents.

3A. Fundamentals of Observational Drawing

This course is perfect for artists who are looking to do realism or who want to understand traditional drawing to apply it to more designed styles. You will learn a traditional drawing approach taught in Russia for over one hundred and fifty years that combines construction (building up drawings by using 3D forms) and observation.

3B. Stress-Free Sketching for Beginners

This course is great for animators, comic or anime artists, or artists who wish to develop a loose and confident sketching style. Less price and more free-flowing than Fundamentals of Observational Drawing, this course is about life, motion, and feeling and is also rooted in the art of the Renaissance.

3D: Introduction to the Sight-Size Method

If you’re interested in the sight-size atelier method, an optical drawing method that yields realistic tonal drawings, this course is the perfect place to learn it! With this method you carefully set up your home studio so that your reference and your drawing paper are aligned on a level with each other for increased accuracy.

4. Finding Your Voice as an Artist

This course is all about how to grow as an artist. You will learn ways to think about your own artistic journey and how you have control of your voice or style and how you can study the work of others to improve your own.

Term 2 – Perspective and Composition

1A. Perspective Crash Course

This course is an intense but beginner-friendly overview of traditional one and two point perspective drawing. Perspective is essential to your development as an artist and will help you create more convincing illusions with your work.

2A. Stress-Free Perspective Sketching

An alternative approach to plotted perspective is “sketch perspective.” This loose approach is often used by animators and sketch artists to get a feeling of perspective without having to do a full perspective underdrawing.

3A. Elements of Traditional Composition

This course goes over the elements of traditional composition used by artists from ancient until contemporary times. There is an emphasis on movement, and contrast of elements.

3B. Composition for Visual Artists

This course covers composition with an emphasis on contemporary approaches. This is a great course for artists who want to move into narrative arts, animation, illustration and other commercial art application.

Term 3 – Accuracy and Rendering

1A. Plaster Cast Drawing: The Russian Approach

Drawing the plaster cast is a traditional drawing exercise that goes back hundreds of years. This course will help you see form, and judge proportions more accurately while allowing you time to develop your drawings to a full value range.

This course builds on the first term course: Fundamentals of Observational Drawing

2A. Drapery: The Russian Approach

Whether or not you intend to draw drapery or costumes in your work, learning how to draw drapery is a great way to understand form, gesture, and drawing technique. This course has several assignments that you can do alongside the instructor.

This course builds on the first term course: Fundamentals of Observational Drawing

1B. How to Draw the Charles Bargue Plates (Sight-Size)

The Charles Bargue plates are a 19th century set of drawings to copy to improve your accuracy and give you a strategy for simplifying rendering in your drawings. This course provides you these plates and gives you a strategy for doing these careful studies.

Note: for an overview of the sight size set up see this this course from the first term: Introduction to the Sight-Size Method

2B. Sight-size Plaster Cast Drawing

This alternate plaster cast approach to the Russian version stresses optical accuracy and simplifies the value relationships more than modeling the planes and turns of the form. The result is a more illusionary and subtle effect. Follow along with the instructor for the first demonstration then do additional ones on your own

[Shravan]

Hi Nick,

Wow! Thank you so much for the list of courses. I did not know NMA had a discord server. If possible, can you please send me an invite link?

Since I had already started the 100-day challenge I will continue to work on my Gestures and Structures but limit my drawings to two sheets per day (I hope I am not breaking the rules). I will spend the majority of my time in the above courses. Thank you so much, Nick!

[Shravan]

Day 9:

Following Marcolino’s advice, sorry the drawings are too light.

EDIT: redraw of the same figure a bit darker.

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Shravan.
• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Shravan.

[Shravan]

Day 10:

Trying to feel the gesture. #3 came out good.

[Marcolino Estuardo]

Hi Ram. Much better! Focus in on those long, light, fluid lines. But! Watch your proportions and shapes. Observe constantly. Keep going.

[Shravan]

Hi Marcolino, Thank you! Yes I noticed my proportions are way out of form… Sometimes I use the middle-line of the body as a reference to draw the gesture. Is my approach correct?

[Shravan]

Day 11:

I had to rush up today due to some work, did a quick 10 min drawing.

[Marcolino Estuardo]

Hi Ram, you’re getting there. Not sure what you mean by the ‘middle-line’. If visible, yes, I thrown down a thrust line of the whole figure and construct from there. Don’t concern yourself too much with ‘proportion’ while doing these quick sketches. Proportion should be a separate study on its own. Everything helps the other.

Your shapes are clearer. But pay attention to how the cross-contour GOES AROUND the form. They’re a bit too straight (bottom row, left torso/hips). Grab a cylindrical object, place rubber bands around it, and view it from varying angles. Notice how the band changes. Practice drawing ellipses as a warm-up next time. Regarding those arms, follow the movement and try to make it as simple as possible. Don’t get too sloppy with the connection/growth. 😉

[Shravan]

Hi Marcolino,

I am not sure of the anatomical term for the ‘middle-line’, I guess it is called vertebral column?

Regarding the cross-contours, I tried the cylindrical object with rubber bands technique. The ones on the eye level look a bit straight but wrapped in the corner (which was what I tried for the cross-contours on the hips). As for the legs, I had screwed it up.

I will be more conscious when doing the arms. Thank you so much man.

[Shravan]

Day 12:

Today, I saw that if I elongate a side of a cylindrical shape (rib cage), it breaks the image. So I tried not to elongate the sides. My results seem much better.

[Marcolino Estuardo]

Hi Ram. A review of this page.

Good: Look at how those arms are connected and coming out of the shoulder line (leftmost). More of that! You always want a strong connection of each structure as you move down the body. Also look at how simplified they are. Very good! Cross-contours in these could have helped the viewer show them which direction they are going.

Same for legs. Their shapes are clear and the gesture reads as they go off into one direction.

Bad: Compare these arms to your good ones. The connection off the shoulder line is not there (left and middle). Curious as to what your thought process was there. Right one is more of a proportional issue. That head is a bit too extreme and uneasy. Remember: Everything structure works together as they move into each other. Keep going Sir.

[Shravan]

Hi Marcolino,

What good things have I done in life to get reviews like this? Thank you so much!

My thought process usually goes like this:

1. Gesture for head and then it’s structure.
2. The neck and shoulder line.
3. The ribs, I feel (try to) how the gesture flows and draw the long axis line. I then see if the body is leaning forward or backward and draw accordingly.
4. The waist and hips, I regard this as the smallest structure (and gesture line, usually this is covered with the main torso gesture). I draw small eggs if required, usually I just draw the gesture and Structure of the hips and ignore the waists structure.
5. I draw the legs from the hips as a tapered tube.
6. I draw the hands at the last, because oftentimes I am stuck on where to exactly place the gesture and structure.

I warmed up with elipses and still-life objects (surprisingly it is better than a month ago when I first started drawing). Then I took some break, saw couple of course lesson videos and began my figure drawing.

For today’s session, I have focused on hands a bit more. Thank you so much for spending time to review my work. It means a lot man.

 

[Shravan]

Day 13:

I drew a lot today, but I felt I wanted to posted this. Arms and legs are proportionally wrong, but I just focused on gesture, shapes and cross contours. Thank you Marcolino!

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