Back to the drawing board

the last time i picked up a sketch pad was two years ago, right before i moved to singapore. even back then, i wasn't too happy about the way i was drawing.

i used to be capable of copious amounts of concentration when i was a kid, something that changed as i grew older. if it wasn't finished in ten or fifteen minutes, i would drop it. the thought of spending hours working at a drawing or painting appealed to me less and less. ironically, even though i was spending much less time actually drawing, i started believing that the reason i didn't do it as often was that i just didn't have as much free time as i used to.

i started toying with the idea of drawing again after seeing fashionation's post on outfit drawings vs outfit photos. although i love clothes and dressing up, i never got into the whole posting-what-you-wear daily phenomenon sweeping the blogosphere. but the idea of drawing myself in my outfits seemed fantastic! mainly because it could be a way of drawing regularly again, like i did one semester when i had to keep a visual journal for an art elective. and... i can make myself thinner!

my first attempt at style journaling was an affair that can be summed up in four words: cute outfit, terrible drawing. and so while browsing one friday night at kinokuniya, i decided to get serious about overhauling my drawing skills and bought this.

i finally got to crack this book open on saturday (after stuffing my face with salpicao). i must have spent an hour to two hours just sketching.

my first attempt at figures. you can see that the very first one, on the right, has the same figure flaws as i do: short legs, saddlebags and knock knees :P using the eight-head rule of proportion, i quickly got the hang of it after a few repetitions, although my figures still tend to have overbroad shoulders and too-long thighs.

after a few tries, i was confident enough to draw a figure without the guide lines. i think it turned out pretty well!

moving on to profiles, however, presented a bigger challenge. i don't think i've ever drawn a profile in my life. thus the many, many disastrous attempts. such as the presence of the joker.

this is one of the better (and quicker) profiles i produced, thanks to the neat trick marlon taught me about drawing guide lines for profiles. he draws much more realistically than i do, by the way.

EFFORT! and that's just the face! after i nail these profiles, it's on to the back view (which honestly seems SO much easier) and three-quarters... and poses upon poses.

only then can i start having fun with the clothes. baby steps, baby steps...