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Focused Practice: An Exercise for Real Improvement

in 33 days

Posted onSeptember 3, 2012

Simply sitting down and banging out a few gesture drawings every day is a great way to stay in drawing shape,

but it will rarely propel you to a new level of artistic achievement. If your goal is to simply get better, your

progress is likely to be slow and demoralizing.

Studies show that people who get to be top in their field, from artists to computer programmers to Olympians,

nearly all engage in focusedpractice on a regular basis. This means that every time they practice, they have a

goal in mind. They dont say to themselves Be a better gymnast, they think instead, Add an inch to my long

jump. Thats a concrete goal that can be worked toward, and whether or not they are making progress is

obvious.

Practice that has a clearly defined goal helps your brain to notice the specific information that you need to help

you get to that goal. Without it, your brain will quickly be overwhelmed by the sheer number of possibilities tolearn about in any situation. It also helps you stay engaged, motivated and feeling accomplished by giving you a

yardstick to measure your progress.

Homework To Assign Yourself

Step 1: Identify what youdlike to be better at, and be specific.

I want to be a better artist is far too vague. Pick a specific goal such as I want to draw better faces.

Step 2: Try to break this goal down into smaller goals. List them. Notice if one might interfere with the

other goals if it isnttamed first. Choose the most foundational goal.

My goal to improve my faces has a number of smaller problems Id like to address:

1. The accurate placement of features in a face regardless of angle2. More lifelike, engaging, beautiful eyes that people fall in love with3. Easily changing the expression of a face while remaining recognizable as the same person.

Clearly, #1 will be important for accomplishing both 2 and 3, so I will start with 1.

Step 3: Commit to practicing that aspect of drawing 100 times. Each practice should take a minimum of 5

minutes.

If you set aside 15 minutes of practice time every day, you can get through 3 five minute drawings. At that rate,

it will take only 33 and a half days to complete this project.

Keep your brain engaged in thinking about what you want to improve the entire time. Use reference images and

really study (while drawing! Keep that pencil moving!) the body part or anatomy youre focusing on.

You will see dramatic improvement in your area of choice.

Step 4: Start again with a new goal!

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Gesture basics #1: Line of actionWhether from life or from imagination, the first mark made in most figure drawings is the line of action. You can

think of the line of action as an imaginary line that runs down the spine. The more curve you put into that line,

the more attitude, force and/or movement the image will communicate to your viewers.

When drawing from life, begin by finding the line of action and noting it down. If you wish, you may even

exaggerate the curve of the line to make the pose feel less stiff. You should be able to identify and record a posesline of action in the first 2 seconds of your drawing.

Here are some possible lines of action. Note that they are curves, but they are not S shaped or squiggles.

Some artists make two lines of actionone for the body, and one for the arms. Either way, it is an essential tool

for starting your image with an overall assessment of the pose and direction you wish to communicate, before

getting bogged down in other details.

Once you have established the line of action, it becomes easier to compose dynamic, expressive poses by

hanging the torso and hips along this line.

Gesture basics #2: Head, ribcage and pelvisOnce you have established theline of action (See Gesture basics #1)you are ready to place the three major ovals

of the body: The head, ribcage and pelvis. Noting their locations should take you 5 to 10 seconds.

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When viewed from the outside, its harder to see the underlying skeletal structure, and beginners are often tricked

into thinking of the human trunk as being one shape like so:

But in fact, keeping the rib cage and the pelvis separate is critical to accurately recording a pose and allows for a

much broader and more convincing range of expression. The rib cage and pelvis can each bend, flex and twist

independently of one another, allowing for interesting twists like this:

This image has tilt lines on it, that clearly establish the angle of both torso and pelvis. You may wish to note these

down as part of your process of recording the underlying positions of the three ovals. Personally, I find that if I

am trying to create a pose with a great deal of energy or tension, clearly defining the angles of the body isessential.

As you can see, whats going on internally influences what we can see externally in a number of ways, both overt

and subtle. Most people dont consciously know what theyre seeing, but humans are closely attuned to other

humans and will be able to detect that something is wrong in an image that doesnt pay attention to the details

of underlying anatomy, even if they cant put their finger on what.

When a body leans, one side contracts and shortens, while the other side stretches and lengthens. We may see

folding of the skin on the shortened side. A notch where the rib cage protrudes may become visible on the

stretched side. What else can you observe about these underlying structures as a body bends and twists?

As you practice your gesture drawing, spend 5-10 seconds noting down the location and angles of the head,

ribcage and pelvis. Hang them on the line of action, but keep in mind that they can each twist and bend along

that center axis.

Gesture basics #3: JointsThe most mobile bones of the body attach to one another in a series of ball and socket joints, around which

they can pivot and rotate. These joints are often deep inside the body, and not visible to the naked eye. For

example, consider the thigh connecting to the hip.

A small protrusion of bone known as the Femoral head joins the femur to the hip socket. This socket is so

ensconsed in muscle and fatty tissue that it cant be easily seen. And yet for most, once its mentioned, its easy

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to picture where that connection must be. Stand up. Walk around. Stand on one foot and lift and twist your free

leg. Its easy to see that your leg is joined to your hip at a single connection point, from which all the positions

your leg can take originate.

This is true of all the mobilebones in your body. The range of motion allowed by each ones individual socket

might differ, but the concept remains the same.

When youve completed the line of action and the three ovals representing the head, rib cage and pelvis, try to

quickly note down the major pivot points of the body. These are:

Shoulder Elbow Wrist Hip socket Knees Ankles

Now connect the dots, and youve recorded the basic underlying anatomy required for a useful gesture study.

From here, you can begin to work up the musculature of the body.

Mastering the basics of the skeletal underpinnings of the body will make all of your drawing faster, easier, and

more convincing, whether from life or from your imagination. It is a crucial part of beginning to master

perspective. Even if you intend to work in a cartoony style, knowing the rules will allow you to break them in

effective, planned ways, rather than leaving you at the mercy of accident.