One thing to consider for when you start drawing again is something my figure-drawing professor told my class at the beginning of the semester. She said to throw the number of heads guideline out of your arsenal of techniques. The only use for that guideline is if, and only if, the figure is standing at eye level, facing you straight on, and are standing stiff as a board (and only if the figure has "perfect" proportions). At any other time foreshortening comes into play and will look strange if you try to fight the change in size/proportion it causes.
That being said there is a way to use the heads to your advantage. Drawing from imagination doesn't follow the same rules as drawing from life, but when drawing from life rather than assuming the person is 7 heads tall, you have to measure their head and then find out how many heads tall they are. Then you could find at what point does their pelvis begin, or how many heads long their arms are. Drawing from imagination, I don't think anyone will mind if your figures are perfectly proportional because they aren't trying to capture a likeness.
This is why when drawing from imagination we assign a head count to our figures, but when drawing from life, the figure must give us their head count.
There are some good things happening here, but the composition itself has created some challenges for you. The figure is off balance. This can be used to your advantage in a figure that's moving or about to run, but for a figure that's supposed to be standing still, it becomes a problem.
You want the figure to appear in 2 point perspective and you've placed a horizon line in the center of the figure. There's nothing wrong with the horizon line. But you should know that the horizon line references the height of the person looking at her. It's your eye level. Some photographers will kneel down to make the photo more dramatic and help center the person in the frame.
Here you can see the difference between a photo taken by a photographer and a photo taken by an amateur who is the same height as the woman.
The horizon line can work to your advantage in the middle here. This means that the shoulders and the hips will appear to be converging or diverging.
The best way to handle this would be to fit the figure inside a large box and then put that box into perspective. Then you can draw the details of the figure inside of the box, and you can create a gravity line in the midpoint of the box in order to balance the figure properly. Once you have that box, drawing the figure inside should feel easy and intuitive.
The gravity doesn't actually have to be in the middle. There just needs to be something to hold the figure up. Sometimes people will lean and shift their weight onto one leg when they've been standing for a long time. When this happens you'll likely see one foot line up with the head vertically.
Topic: Kohaku's Improvement Gallery. C and C ENCOURAGED!! (Read 7099 times)
