Recently I've been working on breaking some bad habits that drawing "in park " caricatures have given me. There's a lot of helpful habits you can learn by drawing caricatures, but just as many bad ones if your not careful. One of them is
structure, another is
porportion, and another is
laziness . There's more I'm sure. So now that I'm not drawing caricatures everyday a lot of these problems are arising in my other artwork. I find myself trying to avoid drawing certain things because I know I'll have a hard time drawing it (which fits with the 3 bad habits listed above). So among other things I'm taking life drawing classes to combat those evil doers in my degrated eye. I have'nt taken a life drawing class in about 4 years so needless to say I was a lil rusty when I started 2 weeks ago. These first 3 drawings are from the first week. The first 2 are 10 minute drawings and the 3rd is a 20 minute drawing.
After the first week I knew I had to do more than just practice 3 hours a week in class . So I dusted off Glen Vilppu's book and got to work. Glen Vilppu was an old school disney animator (worked on Bambi) who now teaches figure drawing. His approach is very clear and simply broken down. You can get a book for yourself
here . I practiced drawing shapes and anatomy for about a half hour a night. These next 3 pictures are from the second week after the practice. Two 10 minuntes,and a 20 min sketch. I felt a difference in this session, I was laying down shapes and lines more confidently . I think they're better than the first week . The model never had he face turned my way, maybe I smelled... I think I still have a ways to go, and I'll document my progress here.
