U05 leg and foot

Brenda Hoddinott

U-05 ADVANCED: FACES & FIGURES Every artist who aspires to include people in his or her drawings needs to become proficient in drawing the various components of human anatomy. In this project you explore the basic shapes of a leg and foot and then add graduated shading with hatching and crosshatching to illustrate the three dimensional forms.

Skills incorporated into this lesson include: identifying accurate proportions, drawing with contour lines, planning shading strategies, adding graduated values with hatching and crosshatching, and applying foreshortening as a component of perspective.

This project is divided into two sections:

OUTLINING SHAPES: You visually identify the exterior shapes and forms of legs and feet, as defined by bones, fat, and muscles.

DEFINING THE FORMS OF THE LEG AND FOOT WITH SHADING: You identify where the highlights and the light and dark values are located, based on a dominant light source from the right. You use hatching and crosshatching to realistically illustrate the various forms.

Suggested supplies include 2H, HB, 2B, 4B and 6B pencils, vinyl and kneaded erasers, good quality drawing paper such as smooth hot-pressed watercolor paper.

7 PAGES - 12 ILLUSTRATIONS This project is recommended for artists, from age 12 to adult, with advanced drawing

skills, as well as home schooling, academic and recreational fine art educators.

Published by Hoddinott Fine Art Publishers, Halifax, NS, Canada, Revised 2006

Copyright to all articles, images, text, projects, lessons and exercises within this drawing class belong to Brenda Hoddinott and may not be reproduced or used for any commercial purposes whatsoever without the written permission of Brenda Hoddinott.

E-mail [email protected] Web site http://www.finearteducation.com or http://www.drawspace.com

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OUTLINING SHAPES You need to be able to visually identify the exterior shapes and forms of legs and feet, as defined by bones, fat, and muscles before you can draw them realistically.

Legs come in many shapes and sizes, from the short chubby legs of a tiny infant to the long, well-defined, muscular legs of an athletic adult.

Grab your drawing materials and follow along with me to draw a leg and foot. Thank you to my son, Ben, for allowing me to borrow one of his legs.

1) Lightly sketch the outline of the individual shapes of the leg and foot. Observe the basic shape of the entire subject and look for the shapes of its various parts. Visually measure proportions, how large or small some parts are as compared to others. The various parts of the leg include:

The upper leg is a large elongated oval-shape.

A circle encloses the shape of the knee.

A smaller long oval defines the shape of the lower leg.

The ankle is a very small oval shape.

A triangle marks the shape of the foot. Note that this triangle is lower on the right.

2) Lighten your sketch lines with your kneaded eraser, until they are very faint.



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3) Lightly sketch the outline of the shape of the leg. Use the rough sketch as a guideline.

Take note of the:

lengths of the lines

directions in which the various lines curve

relationships between the lines

proportions of the various parts to one another

At this point you can either leave the rough sketch lines visible, or you can carefully erase them.

When you draw a flower or a tree, if the proportions are off, it really doesn’t matter. Not so with a drawing of a leg and foot. If your proportions are wrong, your drawing just won’t look right no matter how wonderful your shading is.

Drawing from life is the best possible way to develop an understanding of anatomy. It’s important to become familiar with how individual parts of bodies connect to one another.

Once you know how to draw the basic shapes and proportions, you can easily transfer this information into drawing from photos or instructional drawings.



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Practice drawing legs and feet from real

life every chance you can. If your friends and family

begin running away when you approach them with your

drawing supplies, you can always draw your own legs

and feet. Take off your shoes and you find two

wonderful foot models. You can even set up your

drawing materials in front of a large mirror, and draw

your legs from various angles.

4) Lighten your lines again with your kneaded eraser and redraw your outline adding more detailed information.

5) Very lightly sketch the shapes inside the outline that identify some of the forms to be defined with shading.

6) Take your time and draw the details of the foot and ankle.

Logic dictates that a human foot is actually longer than it appears in this drawing. However, keep in mind that this foot is being viewed from an extreme frontal perspective.

You use a rule of perspective, called foreshortening to indicate the shape of a foot realistically when viewed from this angle.

Foreshortening is the process in which perspective creates the illusion that a figure is shorter when viewed from an extreme angle. The foreshortened qualities of parts of bodies, such as legs and arms, become more noticeable when viewed from an end.

Don’t worry if your drawings of hands and

feet look all wrong at first. Just do your best and in time,

you will get better! Feet (and hands) are the most

difficult parts of the human body to draw. Yes, even

harder than a face!



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DEFINING THE FORMS OF THE LEG AND FOOT WITH SHADING In this drawing, the dominant light source is from the right, so the shading on the left is darker. Before you begin, visually identify where the highlights and the light and dark values are located.

Remember there is no right or wrong way

to draw. I like outlining with detailed lines and then

adding shading, but what’s right for me may not be right

for you. Take time to experiment with different ways of

drawing, until you find the styles you are most

comfortable with.

7) Use hatching lines and 2H and HB pencils to shade the light and medium values of the leg and foot.

Take note of how progressions of graduated values from dark to light or from light to dark realistically illustrate the various forms.



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8) Use crosshatching and 2B and 4B pencils to build up the values to further accentuate the forms of the foot.

9) Use 2B and 4B pencils to build up the crosshatching values to emphasize the forms of the various sections of the leg. Crosshatching lines beautifully illustrate anatomical forms.

By emphasizing the more complicated components, which characterize movement, such as his knee, ankle and foot, they become important points of interest in this drawing.

I use a lot of contrast between light and dark values to help make the forms of the leg and foot stand out.

10) Use parallel horizontal hatching lines to indicate the cast shadow.



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Sign your name, put today’s date on the back, put a smile on your

face, and go find another exciting drawing project!

BRENDA HODDINOTT - BIOGRAPHY As a self-educated teacher, visual artist, portraitist, forensic artist, and illustrator, Brenda Hoddinott utilizes diverse art media including graphite, technical pen, colored pencil, chalk pastel, charcoal, conté crayon, and oil paints.

My philosophy on teaching art is to focus primarily on the enjoyment aspects while gently introducing the technical and academic. Hence, in creating a passion for the subject matter, the quest for knowledge also becomes enjoyable.

>Brenda Hoddinott<

Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Brenda grew up in the small town of Corner Brook. She developed strong technical competencies with a personal commitment to self directed learning, and the aid of assorted “Learn to Draw” books. During Brenda’s twenty-five year career as a self-educated civilian forensic artist, numerous criminal investigation departments have employed Brenda’s skills, including Royal Canadian Mounted Police and municipal police departments. In 1992, Brenda was honored with a commendation from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and in 1994, she was awarded a Certificate of Membership from “Forensic Artists International”.

Her home-based art career included graphic design, and teaching recreational drawing and painting classes. As supervisor of her community’s recreational art department, Brenda hired and trained teachers, and designed curriculum for several children’s art programs. In 1998, Brenda chose to end her eighteen-year career as an art educator in order to devote more time to writing, drawing, painting, and developing her websites.

Drawspace http://www.drawspace.com incorporates her unique style and innovative approach to curriculum development. This site offers downloadable and printable drawing classes for students of all abilities from the age of eight through adult. Students of all ages, levels and abilities have praised the simple step-by-step instructional approach. This site is respected as a resource for fine art educators, home schooling programs, and educational facilities throughout the world.

LEARN-TO-DRAW BOOKS BY BRENDA HODDINOTT Drawing for Dummies: Wiley Publishing, Inc., New, York, NY, this 336 page book is

available on various websites and in major bookstores internationally. Drawing for Dummies is now available in Dutch, Bulgarian, Spanish, French, and German.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Drawing People: Winner of the Alpha-Penguin Book of the Year Award 2004, Alpha - Pearson Education – Macmillan, Indianapolis, IN, this 360 page book is available on various websites and in major bookstores internationally.