Art Club: Draftsmen at Arms!

[Harriet]

 

 

To arms, draftsmen!

It’s time to join the army, nerds, because we’re studying arms, including all the anatomy from the shoulder to the fingers, and all the things that go upon the arms, including sleeves, gauntlets, gloves, bracers, bracelets, rings, and things the hands hold high.

You can focus on anything you want: line quality, anatomy, consistency, having fun, rendering, or just dipping your toes (into fingers). You can draw or paint a whole figure, or just the arm, or only the hand. If there’s an arm, there’s no harm.

 

If you like, you can start by setting a goal for yourself like drawing a certain number of pictures, or with a certain frequency, or trying a new technique. You might say what you’d like to work on and improve in your own work.

As well as sharing your pictures, if you find an awesome tutorial on anatomy or accessories, share that, too! Just your favourites, though, otherwise the thread will be as bulky as the biceps of a gym bro who skips legs for extra curls. 

[Harriet]

 

I already shared these hand studies. They're old, but it's nice to decorate the art hall before getting started. I think my focus for the new paintings will be fabric--I'm interested in how it falls and creases around the arms. And I'd like to do a mix of studies and trying to draw an arm from imagination. It's the imagination I struggle with, so I need to at least try. 

 

 

 

[Jarric]

When I saw you mention this thread in the general chat (thank you for the tag by the way) I had all of 7 minutes left of my lunch break and my pocket sketch book. So here's my hand (literally, I held the sketchbook down with my left hand whilst I drew it).

 

 

It's not good, but it was a good way to spend 7 minutes.

[Sea-to-sky]

 

sadly i lost the artists name when i saved these to my tablet. They’re part of a series on anatomy i stumbled across and cannot find again. If anyone recognises them it would be great to know who drew them 

[Mad Hatter]

Reporting for duty! But because I'm a rebel I will focus on animal arms. ? (It just feels weird to me to start with arms/cloth when I don't have a basic grasp of human anatomy anymore, or even the head.) I'll be picking a random animal from my jar and hope it has arms.

[Harriet]

19 hours ago, Jarric said:

When I saw you mention this thread in the general chat (thank you for the tag by the way) I had all of 7 minutes left of my lunch break and my pocket sketch book. So here's my hand (literally, I held the sketchbook down with my left hand whilst I drew it).

 

It's not good, but it was a good way to spend 7 minutes.

 

Hey, a seven minute quick sketch from life is great practice! And you've blessed the thread with our first fresh picture! 

 

I think you might benefit from starting with a big gestural sketch or blocky shapes, and only then going for the details. I think it makes the most difference with complex but familiar objects like the hand. My sketches are definitely better when I start with gesture or big shapes. 

 

58 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Reporting for duty! But because I'm a rebel I will focus on animal arms. ? (It just feels weird to me to start with arms/cloth when I don't have a basic grasp of human anatomy anymore, or even the head.) I'll be picking a random animal from my jar and hope it has arms.

 

Arms are arms! But what do you mean "anymore"? It sounds like you had human anatomy in your grasp, and then lost it. It slipped out of your hands, and possibly dropped into the sea, and was then dragged under by arms of a different kind--a monstrous cephalopod from the deep. That's what it sounds like. Anyway, animal arms have to connect to the shoulder in some sort of way, so it would be awesome to explore that.

 

19 hours ago, Sea-to-sky said:

sadly i lost the artists name when i saved these to my tablet. They’re part of a series on anatomy i stumbled across and cannot find again. If anyone recognises them it would be great to know who drew them 

 

Maybe someone here knows how to do a reverse image search? The pics are very cool but it's hard to understand what we're meant to do without written instructions. 

[Mad Hatter]

On 6/29/2024 at 5:27 PM, Harriet said:

Arms are arms! But what do you mean "anymore"? It sounds like you had human anatomy in your grasp, and then lost it. It slipped out of your hands, and possibly dropped into the sea, and was then dragged under by arms of a different kind--a monstrous cephalopod from the deep. That's what it sounds like. Anyway, animal arms have to connect to the shoulder in some sort of way, so it would be awesome to explore that.

Ok, "in my grasp" is a wild overstatement, but I used to know like a tiny bit. But then the knowledge was indeed dragged into the depths of my brain, to be lost forever in the memory dump. ?

 

[Harriet]

39 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Ok, "in my grasp" is a wild overstatement, but I used to know like a tiny bit. But then the knowledge was indeed dragged into the depths of my brain, to be lost forever in the memory dump. ?

 

Oh, I understand perfectly. I did some anatomy classes and forgot about 90% of it. I'm sure it still exists somewhere and just needs to be refreshed. Probably I will only need to redo the class seven or eight times to remember most of it. 

[Mad Hatter]

11 minutes ago, Harriet said:

Probably I will only need to redo the class seven or eight times to remember most of it. 

Sounds about right. Then there's the class after that! Learning anatomy can easily be a life long endeavor.

[Everstorm]

Everstorm reporting in!  I think I will use this challenge to practice freedrawing and sketching, probably mostly hands because I find it difficult to align so many joints in a way that looks natural.   Should be good practice!

[Harriet]

2 hours ago, Everstorm said:

Everstorm reporting in!  I think I will use this challenge to practice freedrawing and sketching, probably mostly hands because I find it difficult to align so many joints in a way that looks natural.   Should be good practice!

 

Good to see you here! What is free drawing?

[Everstorm]

13 minutes ago, Harriet said:

 

Good to see you here! What is free drawing?

 

 For me, drawing without gridlines or projecting/tracing.  Taking the training wheels off and practicing accurate size, proportion, placement, etc

[Harriet]

16 minutes ago, Everstorm said:

For me, drawing without gridlines or projecting/tracing.  Taking the training wheels off and practicing accurate size, proportion, placement, etc

 

Ah, gotcha. Good luck ? If you want some guidance that still looks natural, you could start with a gestural sketch. Very, very useful for figure drawing. 

[Jarric]

On 6/29/2024 at 4:27 PM, Harriet said:

I think you might benefit from starting with a big gestural sketch or blocky shapes, and only then going for the details. I think it makes the most difference with complex but familiar objects like the hand. My sketches are definitely better when I start with gesture or big shapes. 

 

This is a very good point. I do a load of construction on drawings when it's something I've learned to draw with construction, and then totally forget to do the same on anything else!

[Harriet]

I picked out a bunch of nude and clothed pictures with arms or sleeves for reference and did a figure study today. It's a bit fluffy in some areas. That's something that happens when I start with a line drawing and paint on a layer under it. In addition, the fingers were a bit weird and are difficult to read. And obviously I didn't spend much time on the legs and feet lol. I could sharpen it up, but that would take a lot more time and I think doing more, quicker studies is probably more valuable than spending multiple days on one piece. So I want to share even if it's imperfect.

 

[Salinger]

Sensational @Harriet

[Ranger Hal]

[Harriet]

11 hours ago, Salinger said:

Sensational @Harriet

Thanks, darling. 

 

8 hours ago, Ranger Hal said:

 

Good start, very recognisable and handy! I think like Jarric you might find some use for gesture sketches. Here's Prokopenko explaining it. I find starting with gesture helps avoid stiffness and improves my line quality. I started with gesture for both the figure study I posted above, and for today's sketch, which I will post below.

[Harriet]

I tried to invent a figure from imagination today. I wanted to have both arms up and carrying something, to draw from yesterday's study. I didn’t bother trying to light/shade/render it from imagination as that’s another step and skill entirely. So it’s not really a painting but rather a line drawing that I threw some colour on to make it pretty. I just want to say, inventing a figure without reference is very difficult, arghhhhhhh.

 

[Salinger]

Unreal again @Harriet

 

What a talent ?

[Sea-to-sky]

1 hour ago, Harriet said:

I just want to say, inventing a figure without reference is very difficult, arghhhhhhh.

It has really nice movement to it. Position feels really natural and the musculature looks well proportioned. If you hadnt told me you dint have a reference image i wouldn't have been able to tell

[Everstorm]

Really impressive, @Harriet!

[Everstorm]

Ok, I broke out my sketchbook today to do some quick hand/arm sketches because that's what I had spoons for.  I had read somewhere that a great way to capture movement for magic casters is to examine photos of orchestra conductors, so that's what I played with.  I definitely am not quite capturing the intensity of the pose, but I did finally work out the odd hand positions after much experimenting.

 

[Harriet]

23 hours ago, Salinger said:

Unreal again @Harriet

 

What a talent ?

 

Thank you darling ❤️ 

 

22 hours ago, Sea-to-sky said:

It has really nice movement to it. Position feels really natural and the musculature looks well proportioned. If you hadnt told me you dint have a reference image i wouldn't have been able to tell

 

Oh that is kind of you ❤️ 

 

19 hours ago, Everstorm said:

Really impressive, @Harriet!

 

Thanks, Ever ❤️ 

 

18 hours ago, Everstorm said:

Ok, I broke out my sketchbook today to do some quick hand/arm sketches because that's what I had spoons for.  I had read somewhere that a great way to capture movement for magic casters is to examine photos of orchestra conductors, so that's what I played with. 

 

That's an amazing suggestion!!! I love it. 

 

18 hours ago, Everstorm said:

I definitely am not quite capturing the intensity of the pose, but I did finally work out the odd hand positions after much experimenting.

 

He's definitely got some drama with the wide splayed arms and turned head! 

 

I hope it's okay if I share a bit of what I learned from a figure class I did. It has really helped me and I think it will help everyone here so I hope it's okay to use your figure as an example. So, I think it will really enhance your pose if you start with a gestural sketch. Then conceptualise the torso as two masses (an egg and a block), and the legs likewise as two masses each. Understanding the blocky pieces lets us create a solid, balanced looking pose and prevents tube limbs. Or tube torso for that matter. It also shows us where the body is going to fold and where it will stretch, which are basically cheats to making a body look bodylike. 

 

Here is an example of how I would use gesture and blocks to start a figure piece like this. This is actually how I start all my figures, whether from reference or imagination. (Er, but without colouring in the masses blue. I do use red and blue lines for gesture and blocking, though.) Anyway, it's a really different process from starting with contour AKA outline, and leads to much better outcomes in my experience. Gesture is a few sweeping, dramatic lines with a focus on line quality rather than accuracy. Line quality means one or two big confident strokes, not small, indecisive, and hairy strokes. For the blocking in of parts, it's good to watch a professional explain the shape of the ribs and hips. You need some very basic perspective to show what direction the oval and the block are tilted, but nothing advanced. If you can draw boxes you can do this. I learned this from prokopenko. He has lots of shorter free videos on YouTube under the name proko.  Of course loads of other things need to come together like understanding proportions of the body and stuff, but I think gesture and blocks are such an important place to start.
 

Spoiler

 

 

[Harriet]

 

Worked on this study from reference photo-picked for the voluminous sleeve. Tried to get the fabric texture and folds. Fabric is tricky, but I’m making progress.