Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Episode 12 - Figure Drawing Demo
I draw a couple of figures and explain the process...

10 comments:

Unknown said...

These are all really cool. However, I think it would improve the videos alot if you filmed the drawing first, and then went back and recorded the audio afterwards, so that you aren't distracted with drawing and have more freedom to explain what you're doing. Keep it up!

Médard said...

Great stuff, thanks!
Looking forward to episode 13. :)

Mark Chong said...

Dustin >> I'd thought about doing that, but when I draw without having to talk, I draw wayyyyy to fast for me to be able to properly explain my process during the "ADR". I'd probably have to slow down the drawing.

Maybe what I need to do is draw the subject once, without dialogue, move it to one side, and then do it again, slower, and with dialogue.

Unknown said...

These have been very helpful. Are these your own techniques or did you learn them from somewhere? Is there a book or anything with these or similar techniques? Looking forward to more, hope you continue to do these.

Christopher said...

I love your videos! When is the next one coming?

Unknown said...

When will we see more!?? I'm stoked by your videos. They're a lot of fun to watch too.

Keep 'um coming! One a week!!?? :-) I'd be a master in NO TIME!

Thanks for all these you've put out already.

-Chris

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Hey mark, just wondering, whilst i can see the effectiveness of drawing each part first, my concern is keeping proportion correct. I always start with the head namely because thats how i measure each section proptionally correct. Without drawing the head, things become disproptionate or missized. Can you provide any advice concerning this?

Oh and check out my website geocities.com/johnway_l for the complete disaster gallery! thanks!

Mark Chong said...

sushi_bar_2000 >> Good question! The system of using the head as a reference for proportion is just a basic guideline. Sometimes the head is obscured or completely out of frame, so to deal with that -- it's important to understand the relationship of size between all main masses of anatomy.

It'll help a lot when you can compare the length/girth of arms and legs to the body and torso -- and besides that, I rarely count heads when deciding on how big to make things -- because if you were to draw children, you'll find that the ratio of size between their head and their total height is much greater than that of an adult. Plus you may be designing characters that have exceptionally long arms or legs -- so measuring head-heights can be rather unreliable, especially if the proportions are idealized.

Also, proportions kind of go out the window once things are pointed towards the camera or if you view someone lying down towards you or you stand over a railing and try to draw people from above. After that, you wind up pretty much at the mercy of your sense of perspective -- or lack thereof!

When I decide on how large or small to make things, I gauge it against something else that I've already drawn on the page. Everything I add to the picture is compared against what's already there. That's because the exact size of things doesn't matter -- but the relationships of size and position and perspective between things are critical to making things appear "right".

You may find it useful to draw your character as a rough sketch from a straight-on or side perspective to determine how long or short things need to be. Then draw whatever pose you want while taking into account the perspective distortions necessary to make everything appear to be the right size. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Very good explanation! I really appreciate this one. I'm in the process of learning to draw figures, and I think this will really help! I never understood how anyone could "block in" a figure like that. Books just don't explain it well enough. I just tried drawing character this way and it turned out alright! That's far from what I can say for most of them.

Thanks!