Da Human body (The difficulty of drawing breast)

Hi again,

As it was a working day today I only had a few hours of drawing time after work. Today I tried my hands at something that I always before tried to avoid...Drawing the human body. I don't know if it is the face, the hands,the feet or something else that I manage to screw up and the supposed human ends up looking like a retarded gorilla or rat.

So the basics is to get the proportions right. The head is the key. Depending on the sources the length of an average human is 6-8 times the head. Supose that the length is 7 times the head, then the breakdown is:

-upper torso = 2 heads
-lower body/Hip = 1 head
-legs = 3 heads
-ankle and feet = 1 head
-Arms = 3,5 heads(the hand should end at the top of the thigh)

After looking at some videos where very serious dudes explains how to draw female bodies and breast I tried it myself. One pro tip to drawing women was to draw for the upper torso a bigger downward triangle and for the lower part a smaller triangle pointing up. My first problem was to draw women slim enough. My first drafts looked like men with boobs. After trimming away about 50% of arm width and shoulder size I got down to something resembling a woman.

I also played with hip and shoulder positions. The hip and shoulder on the same side usually moves in opposite directions e.g. left hip goes down then the left shoulder goes up. I marked the movement with some arrows in one of the pictures.

Here are my results for today. Better than I expected (regarding my trauma drawing humans) but there is much to work on, hands, feet, faces, arm length when not pointing directly downwards etc.

First Days (aka Damn cylinders are hard to draw!!)

So my goal is to learn draw some cool looking fantasy art with barbarians, knights, hot ladies in metal underwear etc. I searched the net for some good sites and found this:

http://www.stormthecastle.com/fantasyartschool/index.htm

The Fantasy Art school. I think it's kinda nice it starts from the basics, so I have been following the lessons in my practice. I am also checking out more detailed guides as I go (like perspective drawing etc.)

I have now for a day or so practiced the basics, like how to use the pencil, draw stright lines and some perspective drawing too. I could not guess that cylinders and ellipses are so hard to draw in perspective!

After some dissapointing hours with cylinders I tried out to draw some cool stuff like maces, shields and helmets. I am kinda pleased with what I accomplished. I added some pictures from my sketch book for you to see.







I had never heard of a tortillion before but after making one (a guide) and trying it out with the mace I was astonished how a simple tool like that made all the difference when shading stuff. Must say I have had a pleasent weekend learning to draw, even if most of the time it has been cylinders and straight lines :)

My Tools:
- two 2 B pencils
- Couple of HB pencils
- A sketch book
- A4 copy paper
- A self-made tortillion (the thingy you smear with)
- A set of inking pens

First steps on a long road

Hello!

This is my first post so I will go on and explain a bit why i decided to keep a blog. So the name of the Blog is Art from Zero to Hero, why so? Well this blog will be all about me learnig how to draw stuff! In my mind I start from almost zero, in the ten or so last years I have made some odd doodles but nothing really that I have put my mind into. In high school I took some Art courses but after that my skills have been in a steady decline.

Why now? Well for the ten or so last years I have been punishing myself for not continuing my drawing hobby. A short while back I was in London and while walking in art museums the flame must have been ignited inside me. In bookstores I looked at Fantasy Art drawing guides and I felt the urge to prove myself I could also draw like that.

So here I am at the start of my journey, I welcome you to follow my way from Art Zero to Hero!