Drawing from the life model, imposing the basic shapes of ovals and curves, is an abstraction, but it helps the brain convert the complexities and nuances of the body, into understandable relationships of proportion and structure. With such simple shapes the contours have something to follow creating their own interesting forms.
Drawing the life model while imposing boxes onto the rounded forms you see, is harder than it looks, it takes a real effort of will, to reconcile directions and curvature.
The body is one unit, to get a sense of how it feels all together, consider it as a flow of strings from head to toe, you will begin to feel it as a rythmic whole, and you can put in accents to emphasise the rhythms.
The figure is also a mass, using these continuous loops is a fun way to make 3d form, you can feel a bit out of control without a contour, but you can throw this on after, and get a sense of how they work together.
With the looping mass as a guide, you can also explore how contours are broken up, and begin to move into the mass of the figure.
Broken contours can become extended, as if they are following the long lines of muscles and bones, that wrap themselves around the figure like rope.
The figure can also be seen as a design of angles, once you are familiar with the basic forms of the body, you begin to see other interesting shapes, and alternate patterns.
Keeping the direction of hatching lines simple, you can get a feel for how tones affect a simple contour drawing, and create a figure and background relationship.
Light and dark can also create shadow paths, sweeping up the whole length of the figure.
When you draw a life pose it's stationary, but it can be given a sense of movement, by following the interconnected lines and shapes, when it works its magical, and you wonder how it happened.
New mediums like markers can be fun to use, a combination of materials adds variety and interest, sometimes not knowing how to use them, makes for more interesting results.
Introducing pure colour, can bring in a whole lot of new relationships and interesting shapes, that expand on the underlying structures.
