More anatomy studies on quad muscles. Spent some time to make visual notes regarding the front triangular plane.
For whatever reason I’ve always learned decently while taking notes, even if I never refer to those notes again. This is as opposed to just listening/watching said lecture/course material.
The triangular plane is made up of two muscles on the legs that form a bit of a cave, where another muscle slots into. This is where the lower leg begins, and a bit up from this point is where the leg bends. That’s kind of the main focus of this whole section, just to explain those two points.
Topic for this month is believable mechanical design.
Here’s a copy/paste of the description
Believable mechanical design. Have a look at something – preferably organic – and understand how it functions, then go wild. Find out what would work as a mechanical substitute. What would be a cool addition? What would be an improvement? It doesn’t have to be a full robot design, maybe it’s just an arm, a rat, a tree. It doesn’t have to be futuristic, it can be a wooden prothesis. It doesn’t have to be functioning, but believable. Have a look at mechanical references as well. Engines, watches, marionettes, medical protheses (retro and scientific, both super interesting!). And it doesn’t stop at robotic designs, or vehicles, think about toys or designs that improve or make your day to day life easier.
I leveraged my old leg anatomy studies to try to come up with some kind of mechanical leg thing. Very meh about the end result. I love cool looking futuristic/sci fi/cyberpunk/steampunk robot designs, but it’s not something I ever really draw. Not surprising I had a hard time coming up with something that fit the topic + also looks cool.
That plus my nemesis of accurate geometric shapes come to haunt me here.
Started with some brainstorming, and looking at various references.Trying to turn the leg bones into something roboticFirst draft of the design from side view, and a 3/4ish concept view
Continuing foot bone assignments from last week’s study. Had a lot of trouble with perspective on that top left one. Still don’t think I really depicted it well. Lot of twisting going on, but overall I think I’ve gotten a decent grasp of the basics now.
Spent at least a couple hours today going through Proko’s foot bone video. Just the basics for now, next time will practice constructing basic forms from reference.
Struggled with my 20 minutes gesture warmup today, so spent the rest of my study time on longer gestures and quick reference studies.
On QuickPose, I did the warrior series. Was significantly harder to get a feel for the tension. They also threw a lot of double figure photos in there too.
Standard gesture practice after that. 2-5 minutes for the gestures, then attempted the reference study quickly. Then tried again by copying how Proko did the gesture and repeated.
More of the same old. Gesture warmup, review on basic forms, and did the next Proko leg assignment.
For assignments, Proko recommends doing it yourself first, then following along for the 2nd try, and then try it again after having done the guided study.
This time around, I felt I didn’t miss too much so I didn’t think I would learn as much doing the 3rd draw. However, as I was drawing it, I realized I was highlighting planes better with contrasting values, and using cross contours more. Remembering to do that helped me exaggerate and depict the anatomical forms a lot better, and the end result happened to be more aesthetically pleasing too (IMO).
This week’s study did some gesture practice. This is basically a warm up before I start doing leg reference studies to try to apply all the the butt-leg anatomy I practiced previously.
Haven’t done them in a while. Started with 5 minute gestures, took my time to really think about where the lines should be. Then did 60 second quick gestures, and then 30 minutes on a reference study of one of the 5 minute gestures I had the hardest time with.
That said, I still don’t really understand how to quickly depict the gesture of the last one. There’s a lot going on there. Subtle perspective in the limbs, the pose itself, tension and weight. I relied heavily on reference points and contours and am still far from the level where I can feel all those things more naturally.
Ugly Drawing Adventures 