Category Archives: How to Draw Figures

How to Draw Figures – technique # 5 – Stick Figures

Posted on April 2, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Stick figures, you cry! Stick figures! I didn’t come to this site to learn how to draw stick figures! Hold on, maybe these stick figures can help. One of the most difficult challenges when learning how to draw figures is how to get the proportions of the figure right. It is frustrating to complete a drawing, even if this only takes you five or twenty minutes, only to find that the leg is too long, or that the figure has a pin-head, or an arm that is too short.

The stick figure can help you overcome this problem by forcing you to consider the stance, gesture and proportions of the figure very quickly, and early in your drawing.

Use twelve (yes, just 12) lines to capture the figure.

  1. Draw a line to represent the spine. But don’t just draw a vertical line, look at where the figures back is, look at the angle, the curves, and draw that line. But draw it quickly.
  2. Now draw a second line to represent the shoulders. Again aim to capture the angle and curve, but also consider the size of the line – it needs to be in proportion to the spine as you see the figure.
  3. The third line should represent the width of the hips. And by now you know to watch the angle, curve and proportion.
  4. You can draw a circle or ellipse for the head. Don’t just draw it on top of the shoulder line. Draw the line where the head is on the figure, is it lifted from the shoulder by a neck, crossing the shoulder line?
  5. Arms – two lines each. One shoulder to elbow, the second elbow to wrist or hand. Think about the proportion. Use the other lines as anchor points – hang the upper arm from the end of the shoulder line. Use the other lines as guides: where is that elbow – halfway down the spine line, below the shoulder, out to the side?
  6. Legs – same deal, two lines each. Hang the upper legs from the ends of the hip-line.

There, twelve lines, that you can complete in 15 seconds. You can use this an exercise to help you observe and capture poses. Or, you can use this stick figure as a framework on which to draw the figure more fully.

Why does this work? Drawing the stick figure forces attention on the whole figure. We should never focus on a single part of the figure, as it can become overworked, and can lead us to neglect the overall pose. But when you are trying to capture the light and tone and colour and shape of that arm it is easy to neglect the direction and size.

Drawing the stick figure first works because it helps you break down the drawing exercise and get size and overall pose down straight away.

A couple of other points to help you along:

  • Don’t allow your preconceived notions of what a stick figure looks like to get in the way of what goes on paper. If the pose is such that the spine line will be short (maybe the model is leaning forward, towards you), then draw it that way. If the shoulder line is short because it is parallel with your line of sight then draw it that way.
  • I often add four more lines, small ellipses, or even squiggles, to capture the hands and feet. Sometimes I will use tiny circles to capture the knees and elbows, so my stick figure looks more like a small maquette. But the principal is the same.

Practise this next time you have a model, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how well it helps you to consider and capture the proportion and gesture of the pose. Twelve lines, fifteen seconds.

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Figure Drawing Tools # 2 – Shading your Paper

Posted on March 16, 2011 by | Leave a comment

When learning how to draw figures we often start with a blank sheet of white paper, and something to draw with.  That approach will take your drawings in a particular direction, perhaps making you focus more on line, than tone.

The figures you draw will be in differing surroundings and in differing lighting arrangements.  The model may be well lit, or have a lot of shadow.  You may wish to emphasise the shadows on the model, or a dark background.

Preparing your paper with a background of tone can help you take your drawing in a different direction, helping you to focus on tone first, rather than as an afterthought.  The darker tones can become a more integral part of your drawing – before you even start drawing the model.

To do this, use the side of a piece of charcoal to scrub tone all over your paper. Try using willow charcoal to do this.  Willow charcoal has a lighter tone than compressed charcoal.  This will allow you to use compressed charcoal to create line and darker tone on your drawing as it develops.  You can also use your kneadable eraser to pull the light willow charcoal off the page to reveal highlights.

Your aim here is provide a background on which you can build other tones.

Preparing your paper this way will not be right for all drawings, but it is one of the tools in your artists toolbox you can call on when needed.

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How to Draw Hands # 1 – Less is More

Posted on July 10, 2010 by | Leave a comment

One of the problems with drawing hands is that there is a lot of ground to cover. Four fingers, a thumb, a palm, back of the hand, knuckles, nails. It can seem as if there is as much to draw in one hand as there is to draw in all the rest of the figure.

When we first start learning how to draw figures we can spend a lot of time on the hands, and so it can seem like they are really difficult to draw. We can spend too much time on hands and overdraw them. We can spend too much time trying to get the hand right and have that area of the drawing overworked, fussy, and out of keeping with the rest of the drawing. Or, we can focus so much on a hand that we forget to work the rest of the figure, so the hand can become out of proportion.

The first thing to remember when figuring out your approach on how to draw hands is to think of the figure as a whole. This is a general rule of figure drawing. If you find yourself working on any part of the figure for too long, you should move your eyes away to a different area, and start drawing that different area. Do not become fixated with a single spot, whether it is hands, feet or anywhere else.

Another thing to consider is keeping your mark making simple. This can help to prevent a single part of the drawing, like the hands, being overworked. Less can be more.

In this first example the hand does not match with the rest of the figure very well. The foot at the forefront of the picture is large compared with the rest of the figure, as it should be to show the perspective. But the hand is too small. If you look at the detail of the hand you can see other inconsistencies: the index finger is too wide, the thumb too narrow. I do like the way the knuckles have been represented with those rough, incomplete lines, but overall the hand doesn’t help this drawing.

In this second example I think the hands work well with the rest of the drawing. The whole drawing is completed with line only. As the hands are drawn this way too, they do not seem overworked, or inconsistent. The drawing of the hands is also sparing. The choice has been made to minimise the level of detail. The fingers of the figures right hand are not distinguished with there is just enough detail to suggest the positioning of the fingers. The knuckles of the left hand are indicated with brief dashes of line. It could be argued that the hands are too small given the pose of the figure. Because the hands are close to the foreground they could be larger to help to represent the perspective the observer would see.

By now you might be able to guess which of the two hands in the third example I like the most. That’s correct – the figure’s right hand (seen on our left) which is just hinted at, while the other hand is overworked.

In this example the hands are again kept simple. The fingers of the left hand are only suggested. The lack of shading helps to keep the view of the hands simple, and helps to balance the picture by supporting the overall composition.

And finally, simpler still. There is not always a need to show every detail of the hands. Especially if you are working in a life drawing class where you will have limited time, but still want to complete a balanced drawing.

So, don’t focus on the hands for too long. Keep it simple. Suggest detail, but don’t draw the detail. Keep it simple and remember that one view of how to draw hands is that less is more.

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Sistine Chapel

Posted on July 6, 2010 by | Leave a comment

I just stumbled on this link, which you have to try. It takes you into a virtual Sistine chapel, and allows you to look round and zoom into any painting there. It is amazing to see the depth and breadth of painting there. It seems like the chapel is steeped in colour.

How does this relate to learning how to draw figures? Well, here are classic depictions of the human form that have inspired artists for centuries. It is worth looking at this site just for inspiration. Look at the way the gesture of a pose has been captured, or how a facial expression is depicted. Look at the use of colour and light. Think about what you like about some of these characters – is it the way shadow is used, or the use of tone, or the way emotion is depicted?

Another use, you don’t ever need to worry about not having anything, or anyone to draw. Well, maybe you could worry about that, but only when you have zoomed into every one of the figures shown here and drawn them first.

Here’s the link – it took a minute or so to load for me, but worth the wait!
Virtual Sistine Chapel

If you’re interested in the history or background you could try these links as starting points:
wikipedia – Sistine Chapel
wikipedia – Sistine Chapel Ceiling
wikipedia – Michelangelo

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Drawing On-line

Posted on July 4, 2010 by | Leave a comment

It can be easy to get into a bit of a rut with drawing.  Doing the same things, using the same materials, even going to the same class can become less interesting over time.

It’s important to keep your drawing fresh and alive so that it is fun for you, and so you keep practising.  So be on the look out for inspiration away from your normal drawing routines.

This post has a few on-line tools you can try which will hopefully be fun for you, but which may also help you to find news ways of thinking about drawing.  I used my regular computer mouse to draw the examples below, so don’t be put off because you don’t’ have a fancy drawing tablet.

The Scribbler

http://www.zefrank.com/scribbler/

This tool allows you to sketch something, and then it will “scribble” using your lines as a basis.  It’s like an on-line doodler.  You can change the results by changing line thickness and transparency, and (my personal favourite) you can change the level of “scribbliness”.  I like the way pictures appear that I hadn’t seen before – a bit like watching clouds.

Here’s an example where I (with mouse) drew a figure.  Here’s my drawing… …and two different scribbled results.

Sketch Swap

http://www.sketchswap.com/

This site allows you to draw something, submit  it, and you get someone else’s drawing returned.  There is nothing fancy about the way you draw on this site – just a virtual pencil with a fixed thickness of line – so it is a challenge.

My view on this is, it may not  be high art, but five minutes on this each day is better than not doing any drawing at all.  Perhaps you could swap a sketch with someone during your coffee break at work.

Here’s that figure again…

Try these tools our for yourself.  More to come in a future post.

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How to draw figures – technique # 5 – draw the tone first

Posted on June 26, 2010 by | Leave a comment

How to draw figures – technique # 5 – draw the tone first

This technique was the one that had the most impact for me.  It changed the way I approached drawing – giving me an option that was the complete reverse of the way I had approached every other drawing I had ever attempted.

I picked the technique up in a life drawing class that I attended.  I had already started using charcoal on large sheets of butcher’s paper rather than using a pencil on an A4 sketch pad.  The size of the paper and the boldness of the charcoal line had already inspired me to approach drawing differently, and more confidently.

Then the tutor said that for the next drawing we were not going to use line.  Excuse me?  How does that work?  The answer: put your charcoal on its side and use its edge.  There was no way to use line.  I had always, always approached drawing by putting together lines first.  Often faint construction lines to begin with, then lines to highlight the figure or object, then maybe finishing off the drawing with some shading.  The drawings often seemed a little flat, lifeless.  Now I was being asked to provide the tone and shade of the drawing first.

This drawing started as blocks of tone created with a charcoal edge. Line has been added later, and a kneadable eraser used to clean up line and negative space, and to create contrast.

A good way to do this is to half close your eyes.  This takes away some of the detail and allows you to focus more on the tone.  You will find that some areas are the darkest, some areas will have half-tones and some areas will be light.  Now try putting that on paper.  Using the side of charcoal is a great way to represent tone, so you might like to try using that for this exercise.  Use as many shades of grey and black as it takes to get down your subject.

Once you have this exercise completed, you have a great foundation for your complete drawing.  You can now use line to pull out the shape of the figure.  You might also use a kneadable eraser to lift some of the tone to highlight some of the more lit areas.

If you, like me, tend to use line first then I thoroughly recommend this technique to give your drawings greater depth, and to help you explore tone which is one of the key elements of a successful drawing.

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Shadows

Posted on June 26, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Anywhere where you have some thing or some person, and a light source, you will see a shadow. You will see shadows every day, everywhere, and so it is easy to become so used to them that you no longer register them. If someone asked you to point out the shadow you could do it, but if asked to describe a scene you might not think to mention the shadows.

Don’t forget this when you are thinking about how to draw figures. You might see the person modelling, but not register their shadow. But if you neglect to draw the shadow, then the drawing could look incomplete, as if there is something missing. Although we take shadows for granted, it can still look odd when they are not there.

The example picture is a quick drawing from a life-drawing class. I think the bold shadow of the figure gives the picture a depth it would not otherwise have.

Shadows also help to give the figure context, in a similar way to showing the figures surroundings can give context. It makes the drawing look more expressive of a real person, in a real situation, with a real light source.

You might see shadows on the figure itself, and you are likely to see shadows around the figure as well. If you really want to go to town with this you might even want to know that there are two main parts to a shadow. First, the umbra the darkest part, which is completely hidden from the light source. Then, the penumbra, a lighter part of the shadow, which may not be completely hidden from the light source. I don’t want to make this a physics lesson, but look at a few shadows. Try to find some shadows where you can see a lighter edge round a dark middle.

When you are drawing figures look for the shadow and include it in your drawing.

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Fear of drawing

Posted on June 26, 2010 by | Leave a comment

If I was to hazard a guess as to the top three things that would stop anyone who wanted to learn how to draw figures from trying out a life drawing class, those top three things would be: fear, fear, and fear.

One of those fears is going to be about being in a room with a naked person.  That’s right, those life models take their clothes right off.  That can be worrying for us, because most of us are a little uncomfortable about nakedness.  We rarely see strangers without their clothes.  Generally speaking it is illegal for people to be naked in public.  Some of the situations in which we might see naked people are seedy (think buck’s night strip clubs) or bizarre (think ‘streakers’ invading the pitches of sporting events).  Let’s face it – we’re embarrassed about nudity.

But we needn’t worry about this fear at a life drawing class.  Here the models are doing a job – not running from the police across a football pitch.  They are professionals who will work with the class tutor to agree on a pose.  They are not worried about their nudity (or have overcome their worry), and in a class you needn’t worry either.  It will seem quite clinical.  The model’s body is just a challenge for you to draw.

A second fear is about other’s seeing our work.  In that same class there will be other artists.  They may have been drawing figures for years.  Maybe they are really good at it, and your drawings will look poor and amateurish in comparison.

Again, this fear is unfounded.  The other artists are at the class to improve their own drawing.  They are unlikely to be judgemental of your work.  In life classes that I have attended there has been a real camaraderie, with people willing to share and learn from each other.  Indeed my life drawing tutors have always encouraged the artists to look at each other’s work, and to learn from the way other artists have approached a drawing of the same figure.  You should look on this as an opportunity not a problem.

I would guess that a third fear is the kind of fear that we might have with any new venture, not just learning how to draw figures.  This is the fear of doing something new.  Going to a new place.  Meeting new people.  Moving outside our comfort zone. Taking a risk.  Fear of change.  Fear of failure.

I certainly experienced this fear before I went to my first life class.  I thought about going to a life class for years – probably ten years or more – but never did.  Looking back I find it difficult to believe I could have been that way.   Once I was at a class it turned out there was nothing to worry about, and I have learned so much about drawing in these classes.  I should have gone to classes earlier.

Attending  life drawing class can be daunting, but I recommend you try to overcome your fears.  If you are serious about learning how to draw figures I think you will find it most rewarding.

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How to draw figures – technique # 4 – negative space

Posted on June 26, 2010 by | Leave a comment

How to draw figures – technique # 4 – negative space

When you are figure drawing, that figure is the positive element of the drawing.  The figure is what you are focussing on and trying to

represent on the page.  But look around that figure and you will see negative space – the part of what you can see that is not the figure.

Negative space could be the surroundings of the figure.  You could imagine this by thinking of a cookie-cutter that takes away the shape of the figure, and whatever is left is negative space.

Negative space could also be a shape held within the confines of the body.  Imagine a figure with a hand on one hip, and the elbow held out akimbo from the body.  Can you imagine the triangular shape that out-turned elbow might make, with the arm forming two sides of the triangle, and the line of the body forming the third?

there is shaded negative space between the model's arms and body. Additional negative space has been created because the drawing has a drawn frame.

Why should you care about negative space?  Well, when learning how to draw figures, one of our main aims is to get the proportions of the figure right.  To get the shape and attitude on your page, close to what you can see in the figure.  Negative space helps you to compose the shape of the body on your page.  In the example of the triangular negative space formed by an out-turned elbow, you can check the triangular shape on your page with the triangle you see in reality.  If the angles are similar, and the lengths of the line are similar then perhaps your drawing is a good representation of the model. If the lines and angles are out then this might be a cue to re-check your drawing – something is not right.

You might be thinking that you could just check the arm you have drawn, against the arm of the model, and not worry about negative space.  You could.  But it is easy to become so involved with your drawing that you cannot see it clearly.  Using negative space is a way of seeing your drawing with fresh eyes for a moment.

You can generate more negative space by using a frame around your drawing.  The negative space can become an integral part of your picture, informing how you place the figure on the page.

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The Figures Surroundings

Posted on June 26, 2010 by | Leave a comment

One thing to think about when learning how to draw figures is to give your figure drawings context by including in your drawing some element of the figure’s surroundings. You don’t need to spend a lot of time doing this. If your model is posing then you want to maximise your time spent on drawing the figure, not on drawing the rug they are sitting on.

But spending a little time making some marks to suggest the model’s surroundings means your figure drawing will not be floating in white space. The attitude of the figure, they way their limbs and body are sitting will make more sense to the viewer.

Showing the cushions, that a reclining model’s head rests on helps the viewer to make sense of the attitude of the figure’s head in the drawing. Showing a chair a model is sitting on gives context, and explains to the viewer how the pose can be just so.

The marks that suggest the surface this woman is reclining on help to make sense of the pose for the viewer.

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