Getting Warmed Up - Part 1 - Figures

The Human Figure In Motion by Edward Muybridge is one of my very favourite reference books for the human figure. One of the things I like best about this book is that the pictures are small so if you are going to draw from them you are pretty well forced to deal with the basics like proportion and gesture. There is no room for fancy pencil work here. The pages above were done with a simple gel pen directly on to the paper with no fiddling around or worry about pretty picture making. The idea here is to loosen up and think about the basics of drawing. I like to try and see how long I can leave the pen on the paper before I have to pick it up to start a new line - it's a part of the exercise  :)