Drawing the Human Figure

Art Terms• Figure Drawing- A drawing of the human form

in any of its various shapes and postures using any of the drawing media.

• Proportion- A principle of art that describes the size, location or amount of one element to another (or to the whole) in a work

Hammer Daumier

• French caricaturist, painter, and sculptor

• Known for his cartoons and drawings of 19th-century French politics and society.

• Used gesture techniques to create his drawings.

• His paintings helped introduce techniques of Impressionism into modern art.

Materials:

• Charcoal/Pencil• Paper• Eraser• Person able to model

The model

• Select a model• Comfortable pose• Give breaks

Helpful Hinters…

• Study your subject, watch the overall movement

• Step back and look• Move around the drawing

Human Body Proportions

• The adult human body is about 8 heads high.

• A child is about 5 heads high

• A baby is about 4 head high.

Beginning of Drawing

• Lines of interest and order of placement– Spine– Hips– Legs– Shoulders– Arms– Neck/head

Drawing the Body (without details)

• After line drawing, start with the actual body parts

• Don’t get too detailed yet• Using gesture drawing, draw the big areas– Start with the chest cavity– Then draw the legs and arms– Now draw the neck and head– Next box in areas for hands and feet

Drawing the Body con’t.

• Work your way to the little areas• Move around• Don’t stay in one area too long• Once this stage is complete, step back and

look

Stepping back to LOOK

• Hints when looking…– Look at the drawing as a whole– Are proportions the same?– Look at negative areas (spaces in between legs or

arms)– If it doesn’t look right and you can’t figure it out,

ask someone else to have a look.

Drawing the head

• Start with a circle for the back of the head

• Use an oval for the front of the face

• Connect the two together

When finished…

• Step back, look at it and ask these questions…– Does it look the same?– Is it shaded the same?– How does the face look?– Are the negative areas the same?– If all of these are good, then great! You’ve

completed the assignment. If not, try to make the necessary changes.

Starting Details

• Begin looking at shaded regions• Start shading areas that are light and work

your way to the darker areas.• Try to shade alike regions at the same time.