Vanguard

Hello again!

There was a recent wave of artist friends of mine purchasing Figma figures in an effort to improve their drawing skills on poses, etc. I saw the bandwagon rolling by and leapt aboard with reckless abandon. I popped onto Ebay and bought two figures. A male and a female.

I got both at a decent price and the shipping from China was quoted at two months, but to my surprise, it took just over two weeks. Sadly, the toe section of the ladies left foot has gone missing, but suspecting these figures aren’t ‘legit’, I let that slide. To be honest, it doesn’t really affect and poses I’d be making. The figures are relatively robust, but I’d advise against too much rough housing.

I’d literally taken a commission the day before the figures turned up, so thought it’s be a good opportunity to put them through their paces. I set the figure up in a variety of poses and put it to the person who commissioned the picture to decide on the one to use. They chose the following:

Once that was decided, I drew from the photo as reference. The following is an image with the red lines dropped to black and darkened.

and then went onto inks.

Scanned and 3D element dropped in.

Final version.

Summing up:

Overall, I found drawing using the model handy. While I won’t be using it for absolutely every panel/page/pin-up I do, it certainly has it’s benefits. One didn’t foresee is the being able to use it for light/shadow reference. The muscular sculpt on the model really pays off here. It’s definitely something I will use in future.

My only complaint/warning is that if one were to use this all of the time, there’s a risk that poses/actions will start to look too static and not fluid.

If you’re looking to invest in an artistic tool, you can’t go too wrong with these. The full scale/’proper’ figures will set you back a fair old sum though, so you’ll have to consider if it’s worth investing in.

Any questions on how I got on with this, please ask below and I’ll endeavour to answer 🙂

Dan