A lot of my sketching practice is based on reference pictures. Let’s say I’m practicing drawing figures. Then I go onto pinterest look for pictures with interesting poses - and then simplify them and try to draw the pose. I try to do this in a few minutes so that I can practice many of them. However there are challenges - looking for unique poses to draw, finding the tougher angles which are harder to draw, and also finding poses in clothing where the anatomy is clear, and more…

And so I recently tried drawing not from picture reference but from 3D models, which can be rotated and twisted in many ways to get the angle and perspective that one wants.

For e.g. I really enjoyed practicing my head proportions using this free simplified 3D model of the skull - 3D Model of skull at SketchFab. You can install the sketchfab app on your phone, or use it on the website. You can zoom, pan, rotate etc. and draw the view of your choice!

Here’s what it looks like…

Hope you give sketchfab a try and discover 3D models you like!

Have fun arting,

Abhishek (art noob)