After completing my Fox Tales contest post earlier this evening, I decided that it was time to practice sketching the male figure. It’s not my favorite but I know that the only way I can get better is with practice. I’m hoping that around this time next year, I’ll be sketching full bodies. Maybe I’ll be even be drawing action poses! Wouldn’t that be something?
It’s not often that I draw men and I don’t sketch them for several reason. The first being that it’s extremely difficult! If the female form were a soft current in a stream then the male form would be roots and vines along a rough path. I applaud anyone who has been able to master the male figure because I don’t always have the patience to sketch in all the details. Plus, the men I draw are often mistaken as female. In the end, I’ve settled on the idea that most of my characters have an androgynous look and in real life- it’s the look I’m most fascinated with.
The first half of my sketching was completed at 
My sketches are drawn on the Procreate App for iPad Pro. I’m also using the Apple Pencil....which is awesome and I’d cry if I ever lost it. The lines were drawn with the Hemp tool located under Organic. I also raised the size of the brush so I could loosely sketch without working about my lines faltering.
Next I went in with the Round Brush, located in Painting and began to color in the sketch. I did go in with the liquify tool to adjust the size and shape of the neck/arms.
I was more confident with my next sketch and I felt like I was learning more with each new line.
I did struggle to get the right shapes when I began this sketch. I might have to take a day to sketch fingers again before I get too rusty.
I also noticed that with this sketch and the first one, shading had to be done carefully to bring out the right shapes in the muscles.
This final sketch was a little intimidating but I managed to get the right shapes and perspective down.
There were a lot of muscles shown on the reference that I used for this study so I did what I could to map out the areas where they stood out.
It is a little difficult to identify all the smaller details in the shaded skin because of those markers but I found them helpful so I left them as is. I still have a long way to go and these studies will be great to look back on.