I'm currently doing lesson 4. But I'm have a question regarding drawing legs. I'm having trouble drawing the insect legs using my whole arm. The forms are so skinny and short that I have trouble drawing them in a swift motion and I tend to mess them up. Should I keep pushing forward using my whole arm until I get better? Would it be okay to use my wrist?
I don't actually know if we're allowed to do this but what helped me was drawing the sausage in segments. So instead of drawing the whole sausage in one motion I'd draw 2 curved lines of equal spacing and then cap the ends. Making them separate lines made it much easier to control.
If you want you can check my lesson 4 submission to see the difference. In my main submission I drew them in one motion but then in my revisions I mainly used this method.
Couple of things.
Are you trying to draw the insect too small? Perhaps drawing it bigger would help.
The drawing action you should be aiming for as confident and smooth. It doesn't need to be super quick.
It is also possible that you just need to focus a bit more practice on drawing from the shoulder separately. It all takes time.
You should try to avoid drawing from the wrist because you won't develop and improve your from the shoulder drawing. It's not easy but it is worth it.
This recommendation is really just for those of you who've reached lesson 6 and onwards.
I haven't found the actual brand you buy to matter much, so you may want to shop around. This one is a "master" template, which will give you a broad range of ellipse degrees and sizes (this one ranges between 0.25 inches and 1.5 inches), and is a good place to start. You may end up finding that this range limits the kinds of ellipses you draw, forcing you to work within those bounds, but it may still be worth it as full sets of ellipse guides can run you quite a bit more, simply due to the sizes and degrees that need to be covered.
No matter which brand of ellipse guide you decide to pick up, make sure they have little markings for the minor axes.
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