Drawing Study

I wanted to share in this blog about some of the work I am doing these days. One of my goals as an artist is to be able to draw the human from my imagination with the competance of my favorite illustrators. Last spring, I came across an excellent resource,Learn to Draw the Human Figure,I have been using that for some time now and am quite pleased with my improvement. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning to draw the human figure. It consists of a series of short instructional videos that are easy to follow and help you develop the understanding needed to draw the figure from your mind. I usually spend the first part of my daily drawing work with a couple of these videos. I have worked through about half of the 178 videos in his system. I am drawing everyday these days and I have a series of exercises I work through, sort of like my own drawing exercise circuit. This daily attention to drawing has not only meant that I am actively engaged in meeting my goals, but also realizing many of the side benefits attendant with pursuing my passion. I can say that I feel a greater sense of purpose and the energizing effect of this reverberates throughout the rest of my endeavors. It puts the the proverbial spring in my stride. Furthermore, this energy helps me sail through any upset or stress that comes my way.
Another of the resources I am using these days is a series of art reference books by the great illustrator Burne Hogarth. The picture I added to this blog is my rendition of one of the illustrations from Burne's Dynamic Anatomy. He has 6 books out and they are all wonderful. You can find them easily on the internet or used at your favorite used bookseller such as Powells or Amazon. Burne's art revolutionized comic book art in the 40's with his work on Tarzan and generations of artists afterwards have been influenced by his style. One of the ways to improve your drawing is through studying and recreating the works of other artists who you admire. Part of my study these days has been through drawing Hogarth's anatomy illustrations. The one I have posted here is a more finished version than I usually do. I used pastels on pastel board for this one.