Figure Drawing: Spring Edition

Finding the subtle balance between gesture and structure

Happy Spring everyone! I hope you all are doing well, and I am so grateful to see you here.

Lately, I’ve been enjoying the beautiful flowers that are in bloom all over the Bay Area, California. In the South Bay, we have these insanely large roses that bloom in all colors during the spring. Here’s just one that I passed recently.

Self-taken reference from all the giant roses blooming here in the South Bay.

It’s funny to reflect on how I’ve spent most of my life in mathematics and computer science, understanding and learning about artificial intelligence, but I am only at the beginning of understanding humans. As part of my journey to better understand the human figure, I’ve been taking an online New Master’s Academy course on figure construction. They have some great, free figure references as well, which are what I used for the practice below. I avoid using too much sensitive imagery to avoid getting banned (which I guess is a thing on most platforms, even in the context of fine art).

New Master’s Academy figure reference. Graphite. 2024. Practicing the female figure while maintaining some gesture lines.

New Master’s Academy figure reference. Graphite. 2024. Practicing the male figure and perspective.

I’m still early on in the process, but I'm learning every day about what makes us human.