The VG Resource

Has anybody mentioned the fact that she literally has two left feet?
Like. Literally.
nvm Vipershark did right away.

Here we go;

First of all, always start with thead. If you don't your proportions will be off and you will always have a mediocre picture. You don't need to even to do a detailed head, it's a figure drawing so the head is not anyone's main point of interest. Quite frankly when doing anat. studies I just use a block for the head.

Next. The shoulders should be one headwith away on both sides of the head, that will allow for proper placement.

The arms...... I don't know what to say, their awkward. Whose gonna stand that way? It doesn't make much sense to me. If your doing an anat study, or something similar pick a more belivable pose, not something you'd use to express an emotion or something as you would use in a comic panel.

Torso and pelvis. Well I didn't mesausre you figure in heads considering you don't have a head for me to go by. But it should be 3 and a half healds to the crotch. That's half way on the figure.
You blocked your torso well enough but your pelvis(I share this problem aswell) is a mess. You're not giving it enough of an exagerated push to give the figure live, y'know breath some energy into this woman!

As for the legs. Well my good man your balance leg is fine as it is. But the other leg, well it's way to close and draws away alot of possible energy, and movement in this figure. Actually with it you made her a board of wood really. I'd suggest actually implementing a dominant diagnoal(a dominant line of movement). Place theh leg on that and it should allow you to create a nice dominant aerobesc which you can run all the way up through the body and out the head. It can convey motion very nicely if done right.

Misc; neck is missing key features like sternocleanmastoid(spelling here is probabbly wrong.) Muscles aren't really right, you lack an endogastric pivot/depression. Not really things you should worry about until you get the boxing down method right, than start to study anat. more depth. Oh knee caps are to low I belive aswell.(could be prevent by supplying a head which height you could use to measure into the whole.)

Misc Pt.2; Don't shade/ lay in values yet. focus on blocking the masses as blocks, than converting them to a blocked line sketch. Once you learn anat. better, and can properly plot the figure in proportion and such as well as the musclature of it. After that move on to shading/laying in value.

Visiual aid(includes blocked masses, a dominant vertical and diagnoal aswell as a dominant areobesc. Sorry if it's sloppy it was done in MSpaint. Feel free to hit me up if you don't know what those terms mean, I'm learning not many people do. Also if you need an explination of somethings on the visual aid just ask, I understand it's a bit hard to read.)

I really, really hope this helps you, even if it's only in the slightest of ways. Can't wait to see what you post next.

Quick Edit: Always make sure you have the body masses balanced out, and exagerrated in direction a tad to breath more life into it. Also two left feet, just noticed(as did others) not really a big deal, just try not to do it. It's really petty though in my opinion. Also if you do insist on shading please try not to have such dynamic lights and darks, they're kind of ugly, and ruin what is a decent picture. Also the mid points on the nipples will always match up if yuo draw a horizontal line from them to make the pit of the neck, and the space where the belly button(what is that thing's scientific name anyway?) should be.

Again hope this helps you, not trying to sound like an elitist because by no means am I in anyway shape or form.

clicks thread
looks around
no zeemort tits
no fret tit

leaves thread

I like how Zeemort hasn't posted in the thread yet.

I took a couple days out because a dude at work is lending me AWESOME MOVIES and AWESOME BOOKS n'shit

I went into a cold sweat when I read this title, fyi.

General stuff for drawing bodies:
I personally start with the neck and head, then draw a line of action and plot in the angle of the shoulders and hips, basically.
This way you can still use the head as a measure of proportion, but it won't seem too stiff.

I think you should work on gestures every now and then, as well as more involved realistic stuff.
Avoid posemaniacs actually, and browse nude stock images on Deviantart, if you can't attend lifedrawing classes. Really try and focus on the line of action and on getting the "feel" of the pose rather than being stuck on detail.
Then apply gestural sketching to things you actually want to finish, to give them more life.

When going for more detailed work, once you've got a gesture down, evaluate it in comparison to the photo / model. Look for shapes and landmarks. For example, see if you can find horizontal or vertical lines between parts of the body. Say, if someone's sitting down with their arm raised, their elbow might line up horizontally with their nipple. And their hand might line up vertically with their ankle. Looking for "hints" for positioning like that will increase your accuracy a lot.

When you're detailing, go slow, and really pay attention to shapes on the body. If you draw the shape for the arm and the torso, look really closely and make sure your angles match the model. If you get it wrong, do it again. At first you'll probably find yourself redrawing things a lot, and it'll probably take you three hours to do with a more experienced artist can do within thirty minutes, but that is okay. Speed will come with practice.
This is something I am trying to learn, because I keep trying to rush things when I am Not Experienced Enough.

I personally studied (VERY BRIEFLY, I admit) what's called the Reilly method, where you describe the core of the body in six lines, and use it to build forms on.
Here's a pretty light primer on it: http://mos.futurenet.com/pdf/computerart...bodies.pdf
I think some of Andrew Loomis' books go into the Reilly method; it's not the greatest method for accuracy, but it's brilliant for gesture and rhythm, which is what your drawing lacks most, for me. You'll improve your accuracy in anatomy by just practicing a buttload as I explained above, and familiarising yourself with the shapes the body is made of.

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I feel I should clarify:

It is REALLY IMPORTANT to do both abstract gestural approaches (like the Reilly method) as well as more functional approaches, looking at form.
I didn't mean to imply that abstract approaches are going to make you awesome at convincing drawing - you need both to be able to draw convincingly.

damn epistaxis where do you get all this sexy stuff