Transcription
Hi, my name is Charles Hu. This is our first drawing session. I will be showing you guys how to sketch figures. It is very important that you guys follow along and practice. Repetition, practice is very, very important.
I will be also showing you guys using a variety of different material, which will be exactly what I use for my daily sketches, so hopefully you guys will enjoy it. So in this section I’m going to use a fountain pen, and the fountain pen I have is by Faber-Castell, which I like their brand. And then I use their other supplies like the charcoal, pastel also. These can be pretty pricey. This one that I have cost about $60. You can have, just use, I’ve been using this—you know, before I got the Faber-Castell, it’s just the preppy pen. I got this one at a Japanese market. These are just $4, and they are really inexpensive. The reason why I picked this one up is because this is, it was a little bit then and felt that it probably isn’t going to show on the camera well. So this one has a medium tip, which it says on the tip. It has M on it. It’s a medium tip. This is what I’m going to be using today for these quick sketches. And the ink that I use is the Pelican ink, so basically this is what I use.
Okay, I am going to start on the left drawing first. Then in these one-minute drawing I’m mainly just going to look for major gestures and shapes. So you see this fountain pen works pretty well, and I can get pretty direct. So then I’m going to work on the one on the right too. So again, I’m going to find the most—I basically think almost as a comic book artist, what’s the simplest and most characteristic shape I can come up with? Without really copying the drawing. Because in this one-minute poses it’s not really about copying it.
Okay, so next pose. Find the gesture. Find the flow. That’s what these one-minutes are about. Try to find the flow. Move your arm. Then if you can’t get to all, that’s fine. Then I sometimes I, you know, like you see here I overlapped the poses. That's fine to me also.
Okay, didn’t get too far with the last pose. I’m going to do it a little quicker this time. So maybe I’ll draw a little smaller. This is exactly how I draw on locations too.
Okay, so I’m going to do the right side pose. Going through this egg shape of the head using the sternocleidomastoid muscle to find the connection of the head to the body. I’m going to keep this arm fairly straight because she looks like she is supported by that arm. Drawing through. Feeling through.
Next pose, I’m probably just going to draw it right here. Then, like I said, I don’t mind if it overlaps. Finding her shoulder right next to her face. Come down to the elbow and feel her hand supporting on top of her thigh. Post to the right. How the neck connects to the shoulder and flows down to the spine.
The next pose—so I’m going to just draw. I need you to think of the face as a diamond shape, as you can see. You know, just draw the facial mask right before you follow her ear. Find the connection with the head. Draw through, find the belly, find the crotch. Make a little mark. It’s showing me where the end of the torso, and I also can complete center line. Again, a pose like this I can easily use that shoulder to find where the, since it overlaps the chin I can use that to find where the end of the face is. I’m going to keep this arm a little more square because she looks like she is supporting with this arm. Rib cage. Waist, hip, trying to—sometimes I use the sacrum to help me to get a sense of where the hip begins. You can think of a box right here if you want. You can get a sense of that hip. The leg connects up to the hip. I used the hamstring to find it.
The next pose. I think I’m just going to start with the back of the neck. Since it looks like it’s kind of stretching I can just start with that. So like when I sketch on my own, you know, sometimes I start everywhere. Sometimes I start with the hand. The trick is you just have to always compare what’s next to it. For example, like the shoulders right next to the face. Then again, not the head to the flow of the neck. In this case, I’m just going to get a sense of the collarbones. Back to the rib cage. Drawing through. Belly, thigh.
Okay, right side. Again, I’m only trying to find the most interesting shapes the relationship of shapes. For example, if I’m looking at the hair on the top to me it looks like a fire. So you can see how that’s shaped. Flow down to the bandana, and then the ears are below that. See, everything has that, that little arrow comes out like a flame comes up, and it stretches down. It’s stopped by the compression of the shoulders. Then it pulls down and then flows right into the spine down to the sacrum. Turning out the hips. Drawing through.
It’s not all the time that gestures are quick. Sometimes you can see here if it’s supporting I might slow it down. I might keep it, you know, my line or the shapes, I might keep it firm cause I want to show there are tensions. Sometimes I just kind of shade it right in. It’s always good to get a sense of the rib cage and how the waist flows in to the hips. See it comes out, coming into the next gestures.
Every time when you draw the end always compare the end to somewhere else. I love to compare diagonally. So it almost looks like you’re looking at these corners on the silhouette to pluck, almost like plotting the point. So now I’m going to draw the foot. So where am I going to put that foot. I’m going to put it diagonally from the hip. That’s going to be the most interesting place to put it because it’s a triangle. Right? It’s a triangle over all. I think I’m probably going to put this one down here. Things just feel like she’s on the lower ground. And I’m going to start with the head. You can see I kind of build up each shape, compare each relationship. Keep your arm moving because if you do that, like I said, you’re naturally going to get a sense of that flow. Even though sometimes you might not see it in your reference, but that flow of the hand still allows you to give a nice life to your drawings, a nice fluidity to your drawings. That’s why these are one minute or two minutes in this case. That’s what we are looking for. Corners, right, compare. Sense of that rib cage, waist. The hip breaks to the back of the hip finding the corner of the hip bones. It comes back up forward and into the thigh. I can afford to make the thigh a little bit thinner than the reference because I can show it kind of goes away from us a little more, or I can shade it and set it back away from us too.
Left pose. I’m going to see if I can try and draw and shade at the same time just to see what result we have. Again, always think about the rhythms. It’s straight... versus curve, drawing through, find the iliac crest. Finding the pubic area. Placement of the foot is very important. Give a sense of the floor planes and the perspective. You have to be aware of which foot is in the back and which foot is in the front so you can again get the sense of the environment. Again, if you set things away, shade it down. When I shade also kind of just follow with the gesture to flow, just keep that energy going. See how the gesture flows this way and just, you know, curve my direction this way.
Right pose, and I think I have to draw a little smaller because I only have a little bit of small space. But it’s good to vary the sizes. Shoulder goes up. Back goes down. Rib cage, how is the rib cage coming out from the front of the neck. Feel the gravity takes over the rib cage. Gravity takes over. The breast falls down toward the cavity. You can see the shadows that kind of do that too. Everything falls toward gravity. They are parts fighting against gravity. Like, for example, this hip—going to push this up. Again, I can look at this negative space and bring this thigh out.
Okay, so I’m going to feel the flow. Look at the hair. You can really get a sense of how it kind of flows down this way and sits on the ground. This kind of gets a little bit abstract with the hair shapes. So I’m going to come back to get some sense of reality with that ear right here. Then it looks like the neck coming right here, and you can compare that neck to the shoulder on the side that kind of presses right against the ground. Then it kicks out the shoulder blade. Compare the shoulder blade to the outer side of that shoulder blade. She has that little triangle tattoo right there, which I like. I can use that. A little bit right below that is the 7th vertebra which is the beginning of the neck, and that’s going to throw me to take me right to that. I’m going to the spine. Drawing through. Get a sense of the rib cage. Now my other arm is right here. Then I have a hand coming out. I’m going to do just an impression of the hand because I don’t have the time to draw every detail of the fingers. I’m going to, again, cut the angle of the hip, bring the thigh forward. Keep the lower thigh. I’m going to keep it a little bit thinner. Just push that into the distance. Drawing through. You can see me draw through. You get that overlap. That’s why we need special for these kind of foreshortening poses. We need to know where the shoulder section, the rib cage, the waist, and the thigh.
Okay, see the next pose is going to be five minutes. I’m going to use, again, still Faber-Castell. It’s a black color. It’s non-oil based. There is oil based. This is a chalk base. The reason is I kind of like the feel of the chalk grinding onto the paper. I like the feel of the vibrations. This is what I’m going to be using for these five-minute drawing. Also, notice that you can’t put these in the pencil sharpener. Although you probably could use. I hand carves cause I need to have enough of a side so I can do more of the flat, wider strokes. Let’s just get started.
I’m going to look at how much the rib cage distance. I’m going to draw and make sure I draw through. I’m going to make a little mark to just tell me where the arm pit is. Drawing through. It looks like, compared to the elbow, it looks like the stomach sits a little bit higher. Knee is about right here. If you screw up, make it too long. Again, look for the diagonal relationship to place your end. Make the part closer to you a little bit bigger than you think. Again, those are drawing through. The other good thing about drawing through besides just getting a sense of the tone and volume, you also get a sense of perspective. See how it goes back in perspective. So I know when I place that breast, the breast has to sit over on this kind of cylindrical shape like this. I look at the nipple. The nipple also needs to sit within that perspective too. In that case, even though we’re looking at a smaller details, the smaller details still have to reinforce the big idea. Swing, swing, swing. And it goes back. It’s going to be, what I find most exciting things to draw figure or any organic object they’re going to have this kind of continuous rhythm in it. It’s so beautiful. I think that’s really beautiful and really exciting. So are the shadows. You see how the shadow will flow. It’s going to be like a wave clashing onto the next part and rise back up. Rise back up, falls down then comes back down again. The harmony is painting too, it’s finding that common relationship. Cast shadows. Again, sometimes the cast shadow on the ground can also be interesting. You can get a sense of, you know, if there is kind of floor. And for composition purposes also.
Another five minutes. This one I’m going to draw right here. You probably want to start with the head, especially for such a difficult head view. I can’t help but to see that long stretch of the back. Like I said, if you have more experience you can kind of compare each section. It’s still not going to be easy. I sketch addictively actually every day. Like I said earlier, I try to train myself. I wish I could start with a different area and still keep my game going. Watch on. Still need to know not just where the hand is. It's where the hand connects into the arm, and how the arm connects into that shoulder blade. Drawing through. Feel what’s in the back. In this case, the hip is in the back of the rib cage. Side of the hip and the bottom of the hip. Even if you’re going to do a round shape still give a little sense of where that plane is. When you shade—the shortcut of shading is just think of geometric shapes. Obviously, I’m thinking of boxes. Keep your shadow shape exciting too. The shadow shape also flows to the next shape. See how this is going to come in here. You can’t just stop there. You have to flow to the next shadow shape. In this case, here is the top of my back and here’s the front of my arm. I mean I’m looking at a tube. What will happen with those shadows? It’s going to help me describe the top of this to the front plane. In this case it looks like the whole arm is in the shadows. I’m just going to pain this whole thing in the shade and shade this whole thing. This might be a little bit sketchy, a little bit messy because I’m not quite, a little bit abstract and not quite filled in. I’ve not quite filled in the structures. Some people might just leave it. For me, I might just come back in just a little. It doesn’t have to be a—it can just suggest a little. Again, these cast shadows on the ground are still trying to tie into your figure. These swing forward, look, come back in here. Add the little shadows on the neck. Boom, now they’ll connect. This shadow is probably going to connect onto my face.
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