action girl

This isn't for any assignment, I'm just really trying harder to work on the female body, dynamic poses as well as making it look good.


any thoughts?

the upper body looks great, but the legs are awkward, not sure if there is tension on her legs or if she's floating/falling... making sure a character feels well grounded is important when it comes to dramatic poses like this.

A couple of things i noticed right away are this: You're torso looks far to pinched. To be skinny is one thing but when you bend in the back like that, no matter what the belly will poke out of the other end a bit. the other thing was she seems to be falling but her toes are bent in a direction that indicates they are taking wieght though not nearly enough to support her. I reccomend using her right knee to help support her extra wieght. also thumbs, they are very curvy and really don't have any straight pose. They are at their most curvy when the hand is outstretch like you have it here.
I drew some notes... you may have trouble translating my handwriting tho...

[img:d744]https://aislc.forumotion.com/[/img]

I'm going to respectfully disagree with some of JohnHowes' statements, but he does have a point on a couple of things, though I recommend a different approach.



The thumb of the left (her left) hand I think is fine, since, more often than not, thumbs bend downward. The problem is that it's pointing downward AND back in yours, but all it needs is perspective, not an entirely different pose. I feel like the pose would be kept much stronger the way it is, rather than putting it upward.

As for her right hand, it's just some silhouette nitpicking I drew on there. The thumb was fine, but I feel like if it's downward it shows off a better silhouette and communicates better.

THE HIPS! Here's a big one, but an easy fix. Straight line in front. That way it follows the rule of curves and straights, and looks anatomically correct without restructuring her.

THE FEET! COMPLETE DISAGREE with making them bend forward. When people sit forward on their knees like that, it is incredibly unnatural and uncomfortable to bend them forward. The alternative is to bend them back, as I've sketched in. The right (her right) knee I sketched in is just me exploring a bit, not sure if that would help it look better or not, but I feel like something's off about the position of the original knee that I can't put my finger on.

"But Sam, what's that blue/green stuff you drew on her face?" Something felt off to me about the mouth, and I think it was the teeth and the eyebrows (in red). I drew her skull underneath the skin to give an idea of where her teeth should be. It wasn't far off to begin with, but tiny subtleties can really change a face since it's what we always look at. Awesome job on the angle of the eyes, but her eyebrows seem to betray everything else in her pose since she seems concerned about something, so I crooked them upward.

Hope any of this helped.

SamCombs wrote:I'm going to respectfully disagree with some of JohnHowes' statements, but he does have a point on a couple of things, though I recommend a different approach.

Hey I love it when people disagree with me. It means that i might learn something from them. However i cannot see your picture and i'm afraid jonbaldi might not either. would you mind reposting it? I'd really like to see your approach to the feet especially.

Yeah I figured you wouldn't mind. It's what art students do. Make a giant pile of conflicting feedback, then the artist picks and chooses what he uses. If everyone had the same opinion, we wouldn't learn anything.

How about this?

Much better i can really see what you meant about the feet now. Thats alot better solution than what i thought up. especially brining that knee up to match the other knee. its more like she fell in that position in despair or something now.

Well it goes to show that the pose you work from it's always gonna translate correctly in drawing. (thought the reference pose was a 3D model) But I will take into heart these advice, because I'm trying to push through to my next level in drawing. Looking back at this, I see how super skinny she looks at the hips. Let me apply these and I'll come back with a more refined drawing.