Colour-coded Block in Drill
(from Lesson 1 of the Form, Gesture, Anatomy Course online book)
Below is the first in a series of videos I am currently producing demonstrating and explaining drills to train the key aspects of figure drawing.
This is so that they begin to flow naturally and we can focus on higher level sensibilities.
Extracted from Lesson 1 of the Form, Gesture, Anatomy Course online book :
While two dimensional accuracy is certainly not the only, nor the ultimate aim of drawing, it is integral to developing visual sensitivity, discipline and focus. Emphasis and exaggeration are more successful by those who are intentionally and purposefully deviating from what they are literally seeing rather than it happening accidentally.
We begin with a basic tool box of comparative drawing techniques (as opposed to sight size) for developing an accurate drawing, and more importantly an accurate eye, followed by approaches to drawing the figure that utilise this toolbox and develop this way of seeing.
Once again : ACCURACY IS NOT THE POINT OF DRAWING but is important to develop and work to maintain if you wish to draw freely.
OR if you already have an account, see the video in the context of lesson 1
For students who are quite experienced and have already developed a fairly accurate eye, I encourage you to take these activities seriously nonetheless. Your extra skill, as well as having the experience of how costly unintentional inaccuracy (ie. sloppiness) can be, can make these activities even more powerful - a chance to focus on this aspect of drawing. Because you have habits of the way you draw, by having a very specific process to follow, you can reset your habitual way of drawing to some extent.
This activity I find surprisingly helpful though it is simple on the surface.
Note that the purpose is to see and notate relationships between parts of the figure, not to merely replicate it. Make your drawing "about" these abstract relationships.