This week I’m closing out the set of low angle poses from the Love Life Drawing reference library. It’s been fascinating to work with these, and I think I can see real improvements in my drawing from the beginning to the end. My contour shading continues to improve, although I’m still not doing a lot to define multiple value regions within it. Carole’s face and hands look pretty odd, above, but the shading is pretty solid. I particularly am happy with the transition from breast to rib cage here. That sort of soft angle transition is tough.
Non-contour shading. It has multiple value regions, but I wouldn’t call them especially successful. Where boundary lines on value regions works for a single value, I don’t think it’s as successful when there are multiple, such as on her thigh or torso.I’m happy with the volumes here, but less happy with the shading, especially on the torso. You can see I’m still working at the lower contrast value set, and that part is working pretty well. I think the levels are convincing, but my instincts around simplifying the regions still needs work.Mark here not from the low angle set but July’s Pose of the Month. I think the contour shading looks pretty neat here, although it again looks a little like Spider-Man. I’m let down a bit by the torso again, though. I have a line representing the bottom of his rib cage, but the contour lines don’t feel right around it. They should describe the indentation where the skin pulls back some from his protruded ribs, and they just don’t. Reviewing that in my head, I got a flashback to the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain book, where the author spoke of an artist picturing the subject clearly enough that they’re basically “tracing” the form as it exists in their head. Once in a while I get an strong vision like that, but it’s still rare and hard to pull up. It’s a muscle I need to keep developing.
