Stick figures with volume

Lesson 6 in the Love Life Drawing beginner course adds the rib cages and a simple pelvis volume to the stick figures of lesson 4. As before, the exercise asks you to draw a freehand stick figure (these are in brown) near a reference picture, then “trace” another directly on the reference (in green). When you overlap them, you get a sense of how near or far you are from getting it right. The above set, my first for the week, is pretty far off! The rib cages are often too short, frequently out of alignment. Once again I am straightening the spines to make a stiffer figure.

Set two, much better results. A little bit of additional stiffness (especially that guy in the bottom right), but overall solid.

This third set, with the model Jade who has given me such a challenge in the past, is again pretty solid. However, I ’m often making her torso a little longer than it should be and shortening the legs. I tried to bear that in mind for the last set.

This set I am quite happy about. In the places where I’ve deviated from the reference, it generally makes the figure more dynamic and curvy. This was a much less dynamic set of poses than the previous shoots; it could use a little bump, to be honest!

At the end, I felt much better about the size and shape of the rib cages placed on a simplified skeleton. I’m doing mostly okay for the pelvis, although I find the landmarks for that tougher to locate. But the relationship between the pelvis and ribs in the torso is solidifying for me nicely.

Incidentally, yesterday I got anxious and decided to blow out the backlog of posts on the website. There’s nothing in the pipe now. You get what I make as I make it.