The female form: Reference shots

Patrick J Jones explores the pitfalls to avoid when referencing photos, and how to draw your anatomy compositions with style.

Patrick J Jones explores the pitfalls to avoid when referencing photos, and how to draw your anatomy compositions with style

Welcome to the first of eight workshops on drawing the figure. In these articles I’ll recreate the atmosphere of my life demos and offer you a first-class seat to watch over my shoulder as I explain my personal process as we explore the beauty of line and form found in the anatomy of the human figure.

Since we’ll be working from photos, the focus of this first workshop will be on guiding you through the minefield of problems and solutions associated with photoreference to better set you up for the following tutorials over the coming months. The camera’s eye can be deceptive and we must be suspicious of every photo we work from.

Although knowledge of figure proportions should be learned, bear in mind that they are only a guide. Trying to shoehorn every figure to fit an eight-head-high ideal is the recipe for an uninspiring drawing. Learn your basic figure proportions so that they’re stored in your subconscious, should you need them.

To achieve style we need to work with gesture, the spirit of the pose, the fluid nature in line. If we take gesture too far, though, our drawing will look wobbly. To counter that we need to also work with a solid structure, but too much structure can make for a stiff drawing, and therein lies the great balancing act of figurative art that we will explore together throughout these eight workshops. Let’s get started…

1 A photographic problem is identified

Here is my life model Katy perfectly lit and beautifully posed. We could wish for nothing more… until we take a closer look. I took this photo with a 50mm Prime Lens – the closest lens to the human eye – yet the cyclops eye of the camera is poor at judging depth compared to our human binocular vision. Look how small the foot is compared to the head, for instance.

2 The simple touch

Let’s start with our attention level set to high. Using a small, two-finger wide piece of charcoal I draw the basic proportions, aware of lens distortion. I see that the far leg is so foreshortened, it looks amputated. This is a major fix. I also bring the thigh forward.

3 From simple to sophisticated

By starting my figure with basic shapes it’s now much easier to draw more sophisticated lines on top. Here, I’ve drawn the face using small shapes inside a big shape. This is two of my disciplines in action at once: big to small; and simple to sophisticated. Note the gestural grip in action. Drawing with our gestural hand enables us to use the rhythm of our arm rather than our stiff wrist to make our marks. It gives us the freedom to draw long fluid lines on the paper.

4 Pushing the curves of the subject

I’m constantly analysing the photo reference. On closer inspection what appears to be a foot is actually the ankle twisting. I decide to draw the classic shape of a foot to make the drawing more clear. I’m improving what I observe in the photo in terms of artistic mark-making. Note how many times I exaggerate the curves to make the drawing more lively.

5 Draw what you feel

At this stage I step back from the art to check the drawing has solid structure. I lay in broad tones with my charcoal. Remember, our goal here is to interpret the reference. If we gauge success on how close we copy we’ll end up with a stiff drawing that looks like a distorted photo.

6 Completing the journeyman stage

Up until now I’ve juggled gesture with structure. It’s an okay drawing, but nothing stylish. This is the journeyman stage, from which we can stamp our own style. Using tissue I blend tone into form, this also fades the drawing and gives me a second chance to draw better on top.

7 The second time around

Here I’m making small structural adjustments and adding more tonal gestures. This second time around goes quickly – just a matter of minutes, which is a small investment for an hour-long drawing. From this point onward my quest is to further explore style in the drawing.

8 If it looks wrong, it is wrong!

I use shadows to push the gesture, but omit the shadow of the xiphoid process (the small bone under the pointed arch of the ribcage). It looks odd here. Even though it’s correct, it violates one of my art laws: “If it looks wrong, it’s wrong, even if it’s right!”