Cross posted from LJ.

Some of you may already know of the excellent Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. (And if you don't, you should at the very least get a copy from the library to glance through.)

Well here's a great site I found via . Called Pose Maniacs, it uses a technique from that book.

Basically, it'll hit you with 30 second poses, which you can practice drawing and help unlock the "Right Brain Thinking."

My first attempt is in scraps...



While it says you should try this exercise for 10 minutes per day, it just keeps going! I thought my head would explode.

Anyway, I'm thinking I may attempt to do this as regularly as I can, recording the results as I go along to see if it does improve my figure drawing.

EDIT OOOOH OOOOOH! There's also a handy (geddit) drawing hands tool. It was a bit unfathomable at first (being all in Japanese) but basically you can choose a hand pose by selecting from the list on the right, and then you have options to magnify, rotate and mirror that hand pose to get proper forshortening. (There's also a torso and foot pose.) This is incredibly useful, especially as hands are a difficulty for me. W00t!

Finally, of possible interest to the asoiaf fan artists who read my journal here, I've been collecting Historical Reference, (somewhat haphazardly,) but last Sunday I was at Tatton Park and managed to get some snaps of *cough* battle scenes. (Also some older snaps of the Living History Fair* stalls - UK re-enactors take historical authencity very seriously!)

I've put them up on flickr here, on an open licence. They're not amazing, but you may find them useful, particulary to get a feel of what your basic, common footsoldier would have worn.



Feel free to download any you like to use as reference, though any direct copies of photos I'd appreciate some cred back to my photography - mostly because I might use the same ref myself! (And it would be embarrassing if we post up the same pics!)

If anyone else has photos worth sharing, then let me know, a pot of shared ref will help us all create better art.

Ta!

* I should be attending the next Living History Fair, possibly as a "model" in historical garb. So if any of you are UK based, maybe I'll see you there?

SideNote: I use a lot of British slang and obscure colloqualisms in my comments and journal, for no reason other than I love that sort of thing. You may find it helpful to consult this on occasion.