Val - Art school journey

[valentin.delapre]

Hi there,

I've been drawing (more like doodling with pencil and paper) for almost a year and I was not really happy with my sketches, finally took that leap of faith that was taking drawing lessons !

I'm creating this to have a starting point to see my progress and maybe get some feedback on what i'm doing wrong or right !

Don't hesitate to criticize constructively , I take every piece of advice !

Thanks for reading me and pardon my (maybe) poor english

[valentin.delapre]

Here's my day 1 of term 1

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Pen control

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1rst "nude" study

[mau.wamp]

Hello Valentin! Welcome to the forum!
Great to hear that you are motivated to improve with us!
Regarding your first exercise: what helps me a lot when drawing straight lines is to rotate the canvas in photoshop to get an angle where you are most comfortable! Drawing straight down is tough so maybe give it a try and see if you can straighten out these lines.
Also: I dont know how fast you did those, but maybe try to do them a little faster and with more confidence (dont focus on the line hitting the end point, focus on a straight confident stroke).

If you want more info on those very basic exercises and techniques, you can visit drawabox.com. They have very good explanations and exercises to practise lines, ellipses, circles and boxes (as the name might indicate )

I wish you the best on your journey to becoming a better artist.
Cheers,
Mau

[valentin.delapre]

Hey Mau,

Thanks for the tips, I'll post my progress around day 7, hoping it will be smoother and look more confident!

I'm gonna do the rest of the term in the week and will post it too, so don't hesitate to come back to this post and give me your impression, would love to hear it!

Thanks again!

[valentin.delapre]

Hey Mau,
Hope you're doing great and that you see this !
I've been doing this one in 10 mins today (half the time I put into it the previous days) and I think I improved thanks to your tips of going faster and not caring so much about it the end point perfectly!

So thanks a lot, again

[mau.wamp]

Yeah thats what I am talking about!
Good job, i can definitely see some improvement!
Just keep at it, you are on the right track👍

[valentin.delapre]

Thanks for the support dude, it's really pushing me to keep pushing myself

[valentin.delapre]

Here are my nude and proportions studies so far !

Did this one in 90secs, posted my first attempt on discord and someone suggested I increase the time to get more time to think about actual pose and general flow of the scene !

And here is the proportion assignment from memory, did I nail this one ? My newbie eyes tell me that I did but I'd love some feedback

More to be posted later this week

[Julia_J]

Nice gestures! Your proportions are off though, especially below the hips. Sometimes it could help to lay your drawing above a correct one when you can't detect what went wrong.

[valentin.delapre]

Thanks !
All I can see off are the ankles and the calves, is that it ? Or are the legs not large enough overall ?
My eyes are definitely not trained enough ahah !
Thanks for the tips though !

[Julia_J]

Just a few things that caught my eye:
The hands are too small (they should be able to cover your face)
Her hips are quite narrow and the shoulders quite broad (for the "standard" figure of course! )
All extremities are getting really slim at the end and therefore their feet are tiny.

And observation itself is a skill that needs training... like a loooooot

[valentin.delapre]

Ok so the hands should be 2/3 of a head size, shoulders about 3/4 and so should the hips ?
Thanks again for the tips !

[Julia_J]

This is the Loomis Figure, does this help?

[valentin.delapre]

Alright I think it does, took me quite a while actually, couldn't figure out some scribbles but I finally figured this out !
Thanks for that resource, I'm gonna use it until I get it right from memory !