Figure construction class

Most of the entries in this blog to this point share an origin with the "Intro to Comic Art" class I took from Comics Experience.  During my extended downtime from blog posting I took another class from Comics Experience.  This one happened to be the "Intro to Figure Drawing and Construction".  As with the "Comic Art" class this was also taught by Robert Atkins.


I've been fortunate enough to get quite a bit of excellent feedback and critiques of my work from many industry professionals in the last couple of years.  One thing that kept (and keeps) coming up was the fact that my figure drawing was not up to snuff.  Everyone had different specifics but the message was loud and clear; I need to refocus on this aspect of my work.  It's not that I didn't know that I needed to work on it but I'm now under the pretty clear impression that the quality of my characters aren't matching the quality of my environments and backgrounds.  Not that I don't have some work there too but the figure construction has to be a major focus for me.  That much was very apparent.

The process introduced in this class has pretty much altered my approach from the ground up.  Not that there isn't some similarities here and there but I'm doing my best to keep the lessons in mind as I work on my characters.  I kind of wish I hadn't let my blogging responsibilities get away from me for so long.  So far I've posting the "nuts and bolts" of the process and would have liked to posted some of the sketches and whatnot from the classes.  At this point it would be difficult to go back and post it but maybe I'll get a wild hair and do it at some point.

Anyway, for our final assignment we were to draw a one page story provided by the writers in the group.  I picked a Ka-Zar story.  We started out with a series of thumbnail sketches and put together a final page based on the feedback we received.  Below you'll find both my four thumbnails, a breakdown and the final image.