Is there anything in particular on/in the body that you love drawing? I'm a model for a figure drawing class and I notice that some of them always draw my hands or feet, but that's all they will do. Do you have. Favorite part?
I’m actually really impressed you’ve noticed a high amount of people only doing hands and feet. Those are typically considered some of the more challenging things to draw, so I think that means the students in your class are really trying hard to master them, which is really impressive. A good pair of feet can ground the whole drawing! (seriously, bad feet and all of the sudden your character is weirdly floating or about to fall over). As far as me…I try my best to always get the entire figure in, every time. Even if it is a 30 second pose, because I really want to practice balance in my figures. Not ‘balance’, as in composition, but literally balanced–does the character look like they are comfortable? Do they look natural? Does their pose make sense with where they hold their weight/center of gravity?
BUT I do have a pattern–I always start with the shoulders and draw the bulk of the body (torso/pelvis/legs/arms) first. Then, I draw the hands, feet, and head. Most of my figures are headless until the very end, which is counterintuitive for a lot of people. I think, for me, it is about building a strong foundation to encourage the hard parts (which in my case are the head, feet, and hands) to live up to their potential…if that makes any sense!
And with that, I think this is a good place to put my favorites from last week’s figure drawing (I draw with colored lead)–a 20 and 30 minute pose.