Shapes, expressions and books oh my!

Through my last few drawing sessions it became apparent why exactly so many people and books often emphasize on the importance of understanding the basic shapes of characters.  The basic idea is to give us some form of foundation to being able to create realistic 3d representations of the characters in our heads that would make putting them on paper all the more important.  I was silly to have never fully grasped this concept in my younger years, but alas, better late than never.  I do recall having one particular character structure that I really liked back in the day, so I dug through my old how to draw books and drug out the old figure.  I tell ya, it was like seeing an old friend again!

I drew a few of the poses presented in the book to remember his structure, then carried off to http://www.posemaniacs.com/randompose in an attempt to put him to good use.  I took the character structure and tried to figure out the basic shapes and patterns of the figures on posemaniacs website.  It was a bit strange thinking in this... new kind of thinking...  Thinking in shapes.  But I very much like it and will more than likely incorporate it into my future studies.  I was getting the hang of things a bit so there aren't as many of these as I would have liked, but alas, another time.

Afterwards, I told myself I would shift a bit of my focus to the headular regain and didn't want to fall back on this weeks focus.  A youtube channel I like that goes by the name of "ShooRaynerDrawing" recently just did his own little emotion thing so I thought I would pull those up and give them a try.  Having more of an anime/manga background (might go into this further in a later date) in drawing, this drawing style is almost completely foreign to me.  It provided a nice challenge.  Having vibrant facial features and expressions has always been something that I think is very important in conveying the feelings of characters.  A concept that my younger self was too afraid to fully dive into and explore.  Here's hoping older me has learned a thing or two!

Link to his video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4za5eEmkcCM

 

Lastly, I finally started reading the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards (which being ADD and Dyslexic adds a whole new challenge of its own!)  After hearing almost nothing but good things about this book from many people, I'm finally going to give it a try.  It's kind of silly because this was one of the last things I bought before giving up art for the longest time.  Almost as though I have come full circle with the will to improve!!  Huge HUGE thanks to all of my artsy friends.  Their enthusiasm towards art has really rubbed off on me and it's really helped me see things in a different light.