Love of Drawing

This past weekend I picked up Complete Life Drawing Course by Diana Constance at the library. I'm not all that far into it, but I've had a good evening of drawing from exercises in it. These images are some contour portraits and straight-line-only drawings I did based on her exercises.


Here's what I've picked up so far:

Balancing the Figure (a set of steps to follow)

• use a balance point - essentially figuring out where the weight of the person is. On a front view, this is usually at the base of the neck and hangs down from there as a plumb line. On a side view, mark your point at the middle of the ear, extend down.
• mark the weight bearing foot - (feet, or arms, etc)
• place the body - the head, then curve of spine from neck to hips, simple space for rib cage, weight-bearing leg (nb. hip will be raised), other leg, then shoulders and arms (nb. shoulder on weight-bearing side will be dropped.)

Contour Drawings - a useful way to improve your observation skills

Drawings made with only straight lines - these come out a little strange, as the body is made of curves, but there is something intriguing about this exercise nonetheless. Normally, when I draw my mind is always thinking of flat planes constantly tilting to create an edge, I think this exercise allowed me to flesh that out, and so I enjoyed it.