Figure Drawing 101: Wacky Secrets of Proportion

Most of us have probably heard about the whole right brain, left brain thing. You know: the left brain is the coldly analytical, number-crunching, science-and-math whiz, and the right brain is your spacey, boho flower child, full of creativity, emotion, and bright colors; good with language, drama and art. And when most of us conjure up a visual for the term 'artist', this flower child, or maybe an angst-ridden, black-garbed nihilist, pops up. Not to say these stereotypes aren't out there walking the art community (I legit roomed with one in art school), but what do you do if you'd really like to learn to draw, but you are, oh, a rocket scientist, or an accountant? Are you slap out of luck?

Why no, of course not. One of the most famous artists in history, Leonardo da Vinci, was very much in touch with his left brain, designing extremely advanced technological gizmos, like tanks, and even a helicopter! Leonardo was no slouch in the art department, obviously, but one of the strengths of his draftsmanship (drawing skill) was his rather scientific observation of his subjects, most specifically the human figure.

See, Leonardo figured out that human beings, while varying greatly in size, shape, appearance and character, still adhere to some very standard rues of proportion, and he left us a famous drawing, "Vitruvian Man", to illustrate clearly what he'd hit upon. Take a look at Vitruvian Man: an adult male figure is shown standing with arms extended in different positions, and with legs similarly shown in different positions. He is shown inside two basic geometric shapes, a circle and a square, and his major joints are indicated with bisecting lines. This illustration depicts what I like to call "wacky secrets of proportion", which your formula-following left brain will appreciate, as you can apply these mathematical principles to all of your drawings of people.

Why did Leonardo draw Vitruvian Man inside a circle? This one is pretty easy; as you may note from the different arm and leg positions shown in the drawing, the rotation of our limbs describe a perfect arc (I call this the "Snow Angel Principle"). This is interesting, but might not help so much with the drawing, so let's move along to the next question: Why did Leonardo draw our friend inside a square? Well, now, here's an interesting fact: Notice that Vitruvian Man's head and feet touch the top and bottom of the square, and that his fingertips touch each side. Remember, a square is an equilateral shape: all sides measure the same. That means, kids, that the distance from fingertip to fingertip is the same as from head to foot. Yeah, that's right: your wingspan is the same as your height, you big square, you!

There are other equal proportions on the human body, as well. Look at the major joints of the arm-shoulder, elbow, wrist. The elbow falls exactly between the shoulder and the wrist, which means that the upper arm is the same length as the lower arm (don't count the hand). Same thing goes for your lower limbs: with the knee at the exact midpoint, the upper and lower legs (don't count the feet) are the same length. Wacky, huh? Another interesting fact is that when your arms are hanging loosely at your sides, your elbows hit exactly at your natural waist. Many people draw the elbows too high. Furthermore, you can check the proportion of the head to the rest of body using the knowledge that the average adult is 7 ½ heads tall (including the head itself). Children, whose heads are proportionately larger, are fewer heads tall, varying with age. If you think your drawing of a child looks too old to be your subject, check to make sure you didn't make the head too small in proportion to the body.

One more thing about body proportions: Hands and feet are bigger than you think. Your hand can pretty much cover your entire face, and your feet have to hold your whole body up, so you'd better be happy about your big ol' gunboats, because they're keeping you from doing a face-plant. Here's a wacky secret of proportion that might win you some bar bets: Your foot is the same length as your arm from wrist to elbow (and hence, from elbow to shoulder, but it's a lot easier to check against your lower arm). Seriously! Go ahead and check for yourself; I'll wait.

See?

And wacky secrets of proportion aren't just for the body; there are plenty of things going on in your face and head, too! For example, on a person who is looking forward with his head straight up and down, you can divide the face evenly with a vertical midline and a horizontal midline; a plus sign, more or less, except the head is taller than it is wide, of course. The typical (unbroken) nose will run right down the vertical midline, which will evenly bisect eyes, brows, nose, mouth and chin. The eyes will sit right on, not above, the horizontal midline. That's right: your eyes are exactly halfway up your head. It's a very typical mistake to draw the eyes too far up. Don't forget, you need a lot of skull space to hold your big ol' brain! For kids, the cranium (brain case) is even bigger in proportion to the face (their eyes are bigger, too).

For adults, the eyes are exactly one eye-width apart, the pupils when looking straight ahead generally line up right over the corners of the mouth, the inner corners of the eyes tend to be right above the nostrils, and even your ears get a wacky rule: They are the exact length, from tip to lobe, as your nose, from brow to tip.

So, left-brainers, never fear; even though you should try to tap into your right hemisphere when you cozy up to your drawing board (to do this, try stimulating other senses besides the visual: burn a nice-smelling candle, sip some fragrant tea, listen to some music you like), you can still rest knowing that even a complicated subject like the human body still has to fit a set of guidelines that's actually pretty easy to learn. So go ahead, you doctors, lawyers, and IRS agents! You, too, can have art in your lives! Get to sketchin'!

Here is another article you may enjoy on figure drawing:  http://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2015/03/i-have-been-professional-portrait.html

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Figure Drawing 101: Is the Human Figure Really Harder to Draw?

I have been a professional portrait artist for over 20 years (click here for samples of portraits and other artwork), and I have been teaching art, including portraiture, for a while, too. Most of my incoming students echo a belief that I have heard stated many times over the years: "People are the hardest thing to draw."

Well, yes and no. I personally think trees are awfully hard to draw, what with all those parts sticking out every which way, but if your tree rendering is not spot-on, people might not even notice, whereas they will instinctively know that something is not quite right with a problematic rendering of a person, since we are so intimately acquainted with, well, ourselves. Portraits are even more challenging, as they not only have to look like a convincing human being, but like the specific person you are drawing.

On the other hand, we do have that head start of being so acquainted with the human figure. We see it in the mirror, and we see it around us in all its various shapes and sizes. Part of the drawing process is getting to know your subject, and with figure drawing, it's a subject we understand, as compared with, say, technical drawing. Which would you rather draw, a girl in a pink dress, or an exploded view of a toaster? Frankly, I consider anything I have to use a ruler for a challenge.

And yet, it is this seeming familiarity with the subject that can be our undoing: We may be so sure that we know what a person looks like that we have a kind of "person template" in our heads. For those of us who haven't had much training or experience, this might be a very stylized or simplified version of a person: round head, block torso, two rectangle arms, two longer rectangle legs, some sort of attempt at hands and feet. Even people who are trained artists may stick to some form of stylization. Think of ancient Egyptian art: With very few exceptions, Egyptian art followed strict rules when it came to representing people. Paintings and reliefs always showed the human figure with the head in profile, although the eyes appeared as they would from the front. Shoulders and chests faced front, but hips and legs were turned to the side. Try standing that way. Okay, now try walking that way. Uh-huh, I thought so. It's not as easy as the song makes it sound.

But that was thousands of years ago, you say. Yup. Now look at the manga (that's Japanese comic book art) and anime (same thing, animated) style of today. You have to draw everything just so, right? There are plenty of books that will teach you the rules of the style: Those large, swimming eyes; tiny mouths; nearly nonexistent noses; standard bodies. You can tell the characters apart by hairstyles and clothing, but not much else, and it's often hard even to tell gender if you don't already know the characters. And as with the ancient Egyptians, it's hard to distinguish one artist from another by their work.

If you are trying to render the human figure in a realistic style, you will have to overcome your preconception of what a person is supposed to look like. Look at drawings of people that you have done from your imagination. Do they all look like they could be the same person? I'm betting the person looks a lot like you, or at the very least is the same race and gender; maybe the same age. To counteract this, you need to stretch your boundaries: draw people of other races and ethnic backgrounds, different ages and genders. You don't have to hunt down all of these folks on some kind of weird human scavenger hunt and make them pose for you; just get some magazines that have a lot of good pictures of people (National Geographic springs immediately to mind; photography magazines will have some nice shots, as well). Draw from these photos or from live models if you can; the most important part is to use reference, not your imagination.

If you give yourself a wide assortment of people to draw, you will start to become more familiar with racial and ethnic traits, the difference in the facial and body proportions of children at different ages, and the effect of gravity on the features of the elderly. It's fascinating to see the immense range of possible faces nature makes from just two eyes, a nose and mouth, especially when you factor in differing bone structure and face shape.

So, does that mean that people are harder to draw? Actually, I would say no. We have those mental templates of everything-from cats to bicycles to hot air balloons-and we have to get past them. You might think you could draw any of those things on demand, but once you start your picture, you may find there are many questions you can't answer-do a cat's front legs bend forward or backward? Do they have whiskers anywhere other than just on their muzzles? What do the gears on a bicycle really look like? Are the spokes set in any particular pattern? What does the ballast on a hot air balloon look like?

If you get a good, clear reference photo, or if you can get an actual object or person to draw from life ("from life" just means that the thing is there in front of you, whether it's animate or inanimate, hence "still life"), you are forced to observe these details in order to include them in your drawing. To render them accurately, you must note the actual shape, size and color (or tone, if working in black and white) of various components or parts of your subject, and also the shapes, sizes and colors/tones of various components relative to one another. Don't go with what you think a bowl of oranges looks like: draw what you see; you may be surprised at all the variation from orange to orange, as well as within the bowl, the tablecloth, and whatever else you have in the setup.

You have to use this same method of analysis on a human sitter as well as on a bowl of fruit, so technically, it's really just as easy to draw people as to draw anything else accurately. Feel better now?

My original work "In the Flow", charcoal on pastel paper

Here is another article you may enjoy about figure drawing:  http://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2015/03/figure-drawing-101-wacky-secrets-of.html

For regular shenanigans, please follow my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

The Unusual Compositions of Edgar Degas Show the Growing Influence of Photography in 19th-Century Painting

Although a camera that could produce permanent images was invented as early as 1790 by Thomas Wedgwood, it wasn't until the 1800s that photography became more widespread as technology advanced to make it more accessible. There was not yet a camera in every home, as there would be by the snapshot-crazy 1960s and 70s, but by the late 19th century, people who were not necessarily photographers could at least start to dabble.

The French artist Edgar Degas, who exhibited with the Impressionists but did not consider himself one, was enamored of photography and frequently used a camera to record his subjects for later reference. This can be easily seen by observing the composition of many of paintings. Many artists still used the more formal, traditionally posed compositions for their paintings, but the work of Degas shows a more immediate, casual glimpse at his subjects, as they are captured at a moment in their normal lives.

Degas was famous for his paintings of ballet dancers, many of which he produced owing both to an interest in the subject and because the subject sold well. Considering that the stage settings and costumes could certainly have been easily used as props for attractively staged compositions, Degas chose instead to go behind the scenes, giving us a look at the more raw, unfinished, and ultimately more lively rehearsal scenes. As can be seen in this pastel from 1874, The Rehearsal Onstage, the uneven bunching of subjects, active poses, abrupt cropping, and even the unexpected intrusion into the foreground of the neck of an instrument,  gives this work an immediate, informal feel, like a candid snapshot.

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Image from Wikimedia Commons en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edgar_Germain_Hilaire_Degas_009.jpg