LEARN TO DRAW WHAT YOU SEE

Being able to truly see the human figure is an art in itself. Here are just some of the techniques you can use to look objectively at the human form…

4 First-hand experience

Feeling your own body is immensely useful in understanding the different kinds of structure under the flesh as well as the three-dimensionality of the limbs and torso. As you feel your own body, keep an eye out for those parts that come closest to the surface of the skin. These become the markers, the things that you look for. It’s often advantageous to look at them as pairs and try to see how they relate to each other: two elbows, two knees and so on. This will help you relate the parts of the body to the whole.

6 Hips and gait

The ilium, or pelvis, will also show through the surface of the skin as horizontal prominences called the iliac crests. From the back they create two dimple-like forms at the base of the inverted triangle caused by the sacrum. The proportions of the pelvis vary according to the sexes, with the female’s being wider and somewhat more tilted backwards than a male’s.

Whether looking at the front or the rear of the model, the direction of the spine or the sternum tells you a lot about the attitude of the body and its sense of balance. When weight is shifted, the hips elevate on the side of the weight-bearing leg, making a key angle to look out for. The shoulders usually drop in the opposite direction, counter-balancing the figure.

Because we all possess a body, we think we know what it looks like. And so when we draw it, we bring to bear that prior knowledge. The result is we draw that, rather than the exactitude of the arm or leg which is in front of us.

There are a number of different approaches to help you overcome this problem, and most of them focus on the same idea: shape drawing rather than object drawing. You need to divorce yourself from

1 Blind drawing

Imagine an ant crawling across the figure and your eye is following its journey with your hand slowly tracing the path, travelling at the same speed. Draw across the creases and folds of underlying muscle, shadows and internal structures, then avert your attention away from the object being drawn. the idea that you’re drawing a figure as much as possible, and instead really concentrate on the shape it makes. Spend longer looking at your figure and much less time looking at your paper. Draw the figure like a jigsaw, working from the centre outward until you find its edges, and if you’re going to focus on the outline, draw the space that the figure makes with their surrounding, rather than the figure itself. Small shapes connected together will find the big shapes and will generally improve your proportions.

By combining all of these techniques, you’ll feel confident enough to be able to tackle any figure, regardless of age, build or gender. However, bear in mind that children are one of the most difficult things that you can draw, largely because of their subtlety, and it’s often what you leave out rather than what you put into the drawing that makes it work.

Think about the nature of the form you’re drawing…

AVIEW YOUR FIGURE THROUGH YOUR APERTURE

Cut a square aperture cut out of card. Mark the middle and the quarter points on the frame nearest the aperture. Hold this up to the model and try to get it to touch as many of the outer edges as you can. Where does the figure touch the sides?

BSEE WHERE THE FIGURE TOUCHES THE EDGES

When drawing the square on your paper, use the marks on the card to see where the model touched the sides. Use the divisions in the viewfinder to help with this. Draw the straightest lines you can between the touch points, and try to get a sense of where these lines dissect the square.

4 Muscle movements

A muscle is something that contracts or relaxes, and it will shorten when pulling the bones in, towards itself, like when you bend your arm. On the other side of the limb there will usually be another muscle, which will have the opposite job – contracting to straighten the body part that has been bent. For the most part, the muscle operates the section below it. As muscles flex, their form changes and they overlap each other.

Their thicknesses and lengths vary. Men are generally more angular, and muscles tends to be more pronounced. Women have layers of subcutaneous fat, which cover some of the muscles, making the structure more rounded and curvaceous. As the body ages, the posture and the skin changes leading to a drooping of form and posture as well as a loosening and wrinkling of flesh.

However, all of us share the same anatomy with the same underlying muscles and skeleton. It’s just the proportions of the skeleton and the distribution of fat, as well as skin colouration, body modification and colouration, that differ.

For the most part, the muscle operates the section below it