Hands, Feet, and the Human Face, plus a foray into animal drawing

Hey all! Sorry it's been a while since my last post. I kept meaning to put up my new stuff, but I always was working on a new project and never got around to it. Oh well, better late than never! I've got a lot of stuff to show you, so I'd better get started!

Skeletal and Muscular system of the Foot - Like the title implies, I explored the skeletal and muscular system of the foot in this drawing. The muscle sketch is kinda hard to interpret, but I think the skeleton turned out well.

Skeletal and Muscular system of the Hand - This one turned out much better , in my opinion. I attempted some rudimentary shading with the skeleton, but I hadn't practiced it in a while and the result wasn't quite what I hoped. Ah well.

Human hand, part 1 - This is the first in a series of 3 drawings of the hand in various action poses. Knowing the difficulty I've had with hands in the past, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy hands were for me after studying the anatomy of the skeleton and muscles. 

Human hand, part 2 - This one is my personal favorite of these drawings. I had a lot of fun drawing these two hand signs.

Human hand, part 3 - This drawing is the only one that I used another person's hand as a model.

Human foot, part 1 - My first foot drawing, I struggled somewhat with the shape of the toes and the foot. 

Human foot, part 2 - Still struggling somewhat with the shape, but beginning to grasp the subtleties of shading. Didn't show a pronounced arch, which could be part of the problem.

Human foot, part 3 - A more complex angle, still not quite perfect, though.

Human foot, part 4 - I started to become more comfortable with the shape of the foot and experimented with the shading to make it more realistic. I think it turned out well.

Human foot, part 5 - The best of the lot, in my opinion. I  put my focus on making the shading as realistic as possible, and I think I succeeded.

One-minute sequential drawing - This series of drawing was an attempt to show a series of movements using sketches that were drawing in 1 minute. Tough, but I think it turned out well.

5-minute sequential drawings - This series of drawings were to have the same purpose as the one-minute drawings, just with more time to get the figures drawn. While it's nowhere near perfect, the drawings show a much better sense of proportion than the early drawings do.

Human Skull front view - After studying the hands and feet, it was time to study the head. Because the face has a myriad of muscles, we were not required to do a musculature, but we were required to draw a front and side view of the skull. The front of the skull was the first that I had drawn, and I worked hard to incorporate the subtleties of shading that I had learned by drawing the feet. I originally drew the skull too short, so that the top was closer to the eyes, but I fixed it for the final portfolio.

Human Skull side view - After hearing from the other students and professor about the inaccuracy in my first skull, I tried something a little different for the second. I drew a box on the paper that I used to measure where the eyes would be in relation to the top and bottom of the skull. This technique helped immensely, and I feel that this view of the skull was my most successful drawing of the course as a result.

Portrait - Using a picture of one of my friends, I drew this portrait. While it's not entirely accurate, overall I feel that the drawing looks pretty good. I particularly like the hands, for some reason.

Expression sequences - After drawing portraits, the next step was to begin understanding the transitions between expressions. This was my first attempt, but while the expressions looked good, the faces changed with each drawing. 

Expression sequence, take 2 - I have always had trouble keeping the face consistent, so I decided to try  a different approach. I drew 5 boxes of equal size, then drew guidelines to show where the eyes, nose, and mouth would be. The result is a series of drawing that looks more consistent than the first attempt. I still have a lot of work to do, though.

Animal drawing, front - Now that we had learned about drawing humans, it was time to experiment with other creatures. Our final drawing project required us to draw a front and side view of an animal. I chose my dog, which was no easy feat considering the fact that he does not like to stay still. This drawing wasn't quite to the level I would have liked, but it showed many of the main features of my dog, so it was good enough for me.

Animal drawing, side - Drawing Max from the side was frustrating, because it took me several tries to get his shape right. Once I got it, though, I had no problem in adding shading and getting some muscle definition. For the final drawing, I feel that it does a good job of ending on a high note.

And that's a wrap! I don't have another class until the 10th of January, but I intend to draw some more over the break, so please check back! Thanks for reading, and I hope you've liked what you've seen!

Until next time.