Head and hands
Posted: September 5, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized 10 CommentsMarc Holmes draws people really well and this sketch is based on something I learned from him this summer. It was during a practice lesson for the “Drawing people in action” workshop that he gave in Barcelona and it came in really handy today. The exercise we did together was to draw the head and the hands first because they usually express the gesture of the person, and after that add in the connectors, like arms, torsos, etc. This seated boy wasn’t exactly a “person in motion” in that he was mostly seated and looking at his phone, but neither was he posing for me. His gesture was quite ordinary until he placed his hand on his shoulder and I was able to quickly add it in.
Great advice! As I have noticed with all your recent pencil drawings, the dark areas are so important to bring the drawing to life. I have always liked sketches like this with a detailed area and the rest left loose.
Glad you like it Alison. I used to try to fill in the whole page but I think this way is more interesting too. And those values, even in a pencil drawing, are so important. So true about the darks bringing anything to life.
Thanks, Shari, for sharing your tip on drawing people. You know how obsessed I am with capturing folks doing whatever they do. I think a good combination of gesture and contour can work well when trying to catch those who are not posing such as the young guy you caught here. Beautiful and expressive.
Thanks Lee. I know you love drawing people and you would have loved this lesson with Marc.
Really Interesting !
Thanks!
That’s such a good tip, I never thought of it that way but that is really interesting, I’d like to try it outxx
Good luck Joanna!
Very nice drawing
Thanks Mike.