Detailed life drawing

This is drawing took about 2 hours in total.
Light was coming mostly from above and slightly infront of the person which makes for the shadows on the wall behind him. This also left the bottom of both the legs very dark.
There isn't much apparent muscular torsion mostly due to the fact that the model is in a relaxed position, but at least the shapes of the muscles are visible (mostly in the arms).
The model is in a balanced position, allmost as if he's sinking into the blanket and pillow behind him. Having both the elbows and the knees widely spread also keeps him from rolling aside. His weight is moved far back, probably even behind the bottom, keeping him stuck to the pillow.
I believe I have suceeded in recreating the models curves and shapes exept for the head. Another thing I don't like is the shading of the shirt - being plain black made it really hard to distinguish any dents and curves.
What I like however, is the shading on the legs and arms and especially the shading on the shorts and the dents that had formed on them.

Detailed still life drawing

There wasn't much thought in composition during the setup of the scene for this drawing - I wanted to have a transparent object in front of a more complex object so that there are more interesting reflections and refractions and I wanted to have a smooth sphere-like object so that there are some smooth gradients in the drawing.
What I don't like about this drawing is the way the grass imitation on the middle object turned out. What I like however, is everything about the dog (both shape and shading). The gradient on the ball seems to work well also.
It's nice that quite a lot of refraction is going on in the bottom part of the first object and that there are some interesting environment reflections on the right side of the third object. Also, at tho top of the perfume there is  a line with some refraction showing the dog from the object behind.

Detailed landscape drawing

This drawing took around 5 and a half - 6 hours in total. I had to adjust the brightness and contrast on this one only because of the details on the ground.
The composition was based upon the rule of thirds - keeping the close and the far edge of the barn on the 1/3 lines and another thing I was looking for was diagonal lines - to show more perspective(2-point perspective again, as the barn wasn't high enough to give a realistic and visible result in 3-point perspective) and make the overall look more dramatic.
The drawing shows several depth levels with the thin tree and the closer edge of the barn, the small wall on the further part of the barn and then, the trees behind the barn and the net next to the barn.
What I like about the drawing is the level of detail in the walls and the rocks that they are build of. Another thing I am happy with is the way the ground and the roof give a hint about their texture without being too detailed.
I decided that I shouldn't add shadows and shading at all, because it would have made harder to see all the little marks I payed attention to.

Week 12 - Weight and balance

These are my sketches for the topic of "balance and weight". The top-right one shows the weight of the body centered between the legs of the person. Also, it may be faint, but the leg going back is also bent in the knee, moving the weight away from the heel and to the toes. The hands aid in keeping the balance by moving the center of weight slightly forward.
The drawing on the bottom right also shows the model in a balanced position, using his leg to support himself from falling on his back and using his arms to keep from tipping on his front.
The top middle drawing shows the model in a slightly unbalanced position. Keeping the feet close to each other and supporting himself on only the feet and his behind, the model is left with balancing his weight over a thin line between the behind and the feet. Having the knees wide separated spreads the weight over a wider area across the line of balance. In addition, the model does not have any support behind him. Having the torso straight up keeps the weight very close to the back, so there's the chance of tipping on his back.

Week11 - Musculature

This drawing was made while looking at about 7-8 reference photos of both live people and statues/sculptures. I used the statues references to get an idea of the volume and the 3D position of the parts of the body and the visible muscles and also for choosing the direction of the light. Life-photos came in handy because the shades of the muscles were ...real, so most of the shading around the belly, the neck and right under the neck were based on them.
I decided to have the arms pointing fairly upwards, bended in the elbows, so that the muscles there are more visible. Plus it slightly enhances the twisting of the muscles coming from under the shoulder and going through the bottom part of the arm, towards the inner side of the elbow.
Muscular torsion should also be apparent in the stomach muscles, coming from the top under the shoulders and going closer to the centre of the body downwards.
The drawing is based upon a female character because after doing a male one, I decided that in a female one, I can focus more on the flow of the muscles, and not their shape, like I tended to do on the male ones.
The initial plan was to make the shoulder line slightly rotated so that the left character shoulder is further away and so that the right arm comes closer. In general, I think I have achieved my desired effect, except for the right arm where more foreshortening may have been needed and the shade under the right shoulder.

Week 10 - Directed study on moving figures

Each of the sketches was done for about 10 seconds, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. I would usually start from the head going down the body. What i focused on was getting the beginning of the arms in the right place (I didn't have time to think about the shoulders), get them in the correct angle and proportion according to the head. The next most important thing in my mind was getting the curve of the back or the curve of the front correct (usually only one of them and the one that shows more curvature). Next would be the legs. In some cases the person would have already moved behind something by this time so half of the legs were mostly based on memory from a single (and last) peak.
I tried getting more diversity between the sketches by aiming at more interesting movements like people running(2nd from right, bottom), bending downwards, walking with their hands in their pockets or by holding something that locks their arms not to swing as usual.
What I don't like is the way the feet turned up. Usually I would spend no more than 2 seconds on them, so they're with a wrong perspective (2nd from right on the top for example). Plus, sometimes, I had to draw the entire legs by a very faint memory and then they didn't turn up to look good also(2nd from left, bottom)

Week 9 - Life drawing (proportion practice, not from life)

These are the drawings I did for proportional practice. Each character took different time, all were done with charcoal.
Most of the drawings were according to the "Idealistic" type of human body so width was slightly more than 2 head units for the males and about 2 units for the females. Shoulders start about 1/3 unit below the chin. Widest part of the body is 1 unit below the chin, that's where the shoulders have just ended and the arms start. The elbows come 1 unit lower, where the navel also is. That's also the thinnest part of the body. 1 head unit lower is where the mid-point of the body is supposed to be, the crotch reaching to about 1/3 lower than that(same with the bottom of the butt). At this point the body is almost as wide as it is on the shoulders level because of the hips, this is also where the wrists start. Top part of the legs continues until about 1 and 2/3 units lower, getting to a slightly thinner position than the waist. Then the knees start, taking around 1/3 of a unit. The legs continue by getting slightly wider around 1/2 unit lower and than getting as thin as the neck where the heels are, which is about 1/3 above the ground.
When drawing from the sides, the parts going furthest front are the chest/breasts, going slightly ahead of the face. The back of the body first bends outwards at the level of the chest, than inwards at the level of the waist, than backwards again for the but. After all, the furthest back-point is where the bottom part of the legs get wider, about 1/2 a unit below the knees. Front of the lower-legs ends up around the middle line of the character or even behind it.
In overal, the female body shows to have more fluid lines when compared to the male body. This is mostly visible in the top part of the arms, the waist and the entire legs.