Another 2 weeks, another meetup!

As I mentioned in my last entry, this meetup's focus was still on anatomy/poses, but I decided to focus more on the exercise workshop portions to get people really drawing and working with the basics of anatomy/posing.
I'm always a huge fan of the ball-and-stick method, where you start with the BONES of the character before moving onto the flashy stuff like hair/clothing/flesh (read: bosoms). Ha ha.

Probably my favorite part of the meetup, and also the most challenging, was using samples of manga artwork found online, and having to look beyond the details to construct the bones of the pose. It's a great way to think about the foundation that creates a pose and to not be distracted by exterior things!
Well, there were some tricky poses to try and understand, especially when it came to heavily clothed characters or hidden body parts. Realizing that everyone else shared the same doubts as me was reassuring and it was fun trying to figure out where a knee was supposed to be placed, or a mysterious crooked shoulder belonged.

One of the members, had some great insight on the significance of poses. Really seeing the character in his or her entirety (personality, mission, etc) and then understanding why that pose would work for them in that instance. It was a step beyond the meetup's focus, but it's that kind of input that I like to hear! It makes the whole gathering feel much more alive and warm--artists sharing the same interest and fascination with a subject.

Based off of the meetup's focus, I've come up with another homework assignment to get in done in time for the next one!
Draw the same character in 3 poses along a string of activity. Ie: dancing, fighting, jumping, etc.

Can't wait to see what people come up with!