Transcript

Erik M. Gist www.erikgist.com

Figure DrawingFundamentals

Notes to the readerThis book is not meant as a step by step or a formula (art is not a for-

mulaic pursuit) so do not study as such. This book is also not meant tosolve all your problems, which can only be done by you through diligentstudy and hard work. This book is intended to be a guide through theworld of figure drawing. Careful practice of the principles documented inthis book will improve your drawings more than copying the drawingsused to demonstrate these points. The best way to use this book is to finda good piece of photo reference, or better yet get into a life drawing classand apply what you have learned in this book to the problem in front ofyou. It does you little good to copy the drawings in this book because forthe most part the problems have already been solved for you.

It is more important for you as an artist to learn the principles behindwhat I do and the reasoning used to govern my, or any one else’s “style”.In so doing you will begin to produce original art, and not just mimic,what has come before. In art there are no rules. Rules are what we oftenuse to simplify key principles and concepts for those newly initiated intothe fraternity of artists. Always try to get from any instructor why they dowhat they do, not how they do it. Why we do what we do is what makesus good artist’s, how we do it makes us individuals. If you simply drawhow someone else draws you will never be an individual. So when youstudy from an artist or an artist’s work try to figure out why the make thechoices they do, not merely copy the decisions they make.

My recommendation to you is get out your sketchbook, read throughthe following pages all the way to the end, and make notes where you feelnecessary. Then put away the book, and get out a good piece of photo ref-erence and your drawing pad and get to work. Only get the book outwhen you run into a problem. This is the best way to test how much of thematerial you have retained. Every time you get out the book make a markon the chapter you needed to review, this will show you the areas you stillneed to study. Next get your butt into a life drawing class... this is the bestway to learn.

Good luck,E-

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Gesture

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Chapter 1: The GestureThere are few things in art more chal-

lenging than drawing the human figure. I havefound that when facing a daunting challengethe best thing to do is attempt to break theprocess down and simplify. That is what I amgoing to try to teach you in the following chap-ters; to break down the process into separate butinterwoven steps and principles. The reason fordoing this, is so you only have to worry abouton thing at a time rather than fifty.

The first step in this process is to estab-lish the gesture or linear lay-in. This is the mostimportant step of the drawing because it dic-tates all other steps in the process.

Before going any further, lets define ges-ture. In it’s simplest form, gesture is the actionof the pose or movement between its forms.However, this is too vague because gestureshould also establish the length, width anddirection of all the masses of the figure. In amore abstract sense, the gesture is the life, flowand energy of the figure. This is why I say ges-ture is the most important step of the drawingprocess. If your linear lay-in doesn’t have theforementioned elements neither will your finish.As you take your drawing toward completion, itwill typically become more stiff and uptight, sotry to give your gesture as much energy as youcan with out sacrificing accuracy.

Lets begin to capture the gesture. Thegesture should be established using the longestlines possible. Anything else is a scribble not aline. In the first pass through the figure youshould find the triangular or pyramid shape ofthe pose. Almost all poses fit in to a triangle ofone proportion or another. Next, begin to estab-lish the gesture of the pose using those longlines we talked about earlier.

Remember above all else, keep it light.Nothing is a mistake until you can’t erase it.

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There are threebasic lines:c-curves-curvestraight

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1) Establish the head first using either a bloatedtriangle or an oval (which ever works best foryou), and the sweep of the neck.

2) Next establish the sweep of the shouldersfrom acromium process to acromium process(the acromium process is the visible and palpa-ble bump near each end of the collar bone)

3) Now find your way to the ground as effi-ciently as possible. This is usually through thecenter line, or from the pit of the neck to theweight baring foot.

4) From the acromium process on each sidedraw a line mimicking the center line down tothe crotch. Then draw a line from the outside ofthe neck to the hip on each side. These linesshould establish the gesture of the torso andhips while ignoring the true breadth of the ribcage and pelvis.

From here you should inject only as much structureas is needed to connect the limbs.

5) Establish the gesture of the limbs by firstdrawing the flow of the limb (usually the tende-nous inner portion). Then by establishing thewidth (the boney outer portion). Also terminatethe limbs with the hands and feet, use simplegeometric shapes at this time.

6) Complete the gesture with any supportingelements, in this case the stool, block, pole, etc.

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Before moving on I want to discuss a fewmore principles of gesture with you. Lets startwith one of the most important, Stretch andPinch. Stretch and pinch is essentially the ideathat in any natural pose the body has an activeor “pinch” side and an inactive or “stretch”side. This is best seen through the bean bagmetaphor. When you bend a bean bag you cansee the fabric elongate on one side and bunchup on the other. In fact you can stick arms, legsand a head on the bean bag and have a decentrepresentation of a human figure.

This theory actually applies to most partsof the figure, but none so obviously as the trunkof the body. As I mentioned, the stretch andpinch happens all throughout the body, even inrepose. As you can see, stretch and pinchappose each other on opposite sides of the fig-ure, and you will rarely have stretching orpinching simultaneously on both sides of thefigure. This creates a “Michelein Man” orsnowman effect, which is dumpy and undesir-able.

Plumb lines are another helpful tool dur-ing the lay-in stage of the drawing. Plumb linesare basically straight vertical or horizontal linesto help establish proper placement in yourdrawing. This is especially helpful in the case offoreshortening. The way plumb lines work is tohold up your pencil exactly vertical or horizon-tal. Where things line up on either a vertical orhorizontal axis, they should line up exactly thesame way in your drawing. This is a good wayof double checking your drawing with themodel.

bad good

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Books and Artists To Study ForThese Principles

Andrew Loomis:Figure Drawing For All Its Worth

Glenn Vilppu:Vilppu Drawing Manual

Frank Frazetta

John Paul Rubens

Steve Huston

Henrich Kley

Characteristics of Gesture

1) Movement between forms

2) Curved, fluid, graceful

3) Lifeline

4) Connecting line

5) Long

6) Keep it simple (s-curve c-curve straight)

7) Stretch

8) Two-dimensional

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Structure

Chapter 2: Structure

Structure is the movement around aform. While gesture is more or less a two-dimensional lay-in, Structure adds a thirddimension, depth. Essentially structure turns ashape into a form. The main difference betweena shape and a form breaks down like this. Asquare is a shape, a cube is a form; a circle is ashape, while a sphere is a form.

In the second stage of the drawing we aregoing be adding volume to our linear construc-tion. The reason for using this method is so wecan all be sure we understand the volumes andare not just mimicking superficial shading tricksthat we have seen used by other artists. Weshould understand the principles behind thetricks so that we can come up with our ownway of communicating with the viewer and notbe stuck being a second rate copy of some otherartist.

Here we are mainly going to be workingwith cross contour lines, which essentially takethe gesture line and turn them either into arounded cylindrical form, a squared of boxyform or anything in between. This is basically atool for you to use later on in the drawing, ashorthand or road map for guiding you in yourshading of a the form, much the way you willdraw in a guideline before cutting a piece ofwood.

So let us begin. First we need to analyzeeach form and decide three things:1) What is the primitive form, is it a cylinder, acube, sphere or a cone? 2) How rounded orsquared off is this form? 3) What is its positionin three-dimensional space? Is it angledtowards me, away from me, or parallel to me?These principles are going to dictate our crosscontours.

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Characteristics of Structure

1) Movement over form

2) Three-dimensional

3) Pinch, flexion, tension

4) Form, depth, perspective

5) Strength

Books and Artists To Study ForThese Principles

Andrew Loomis:Figure Drawing For All Its Worth

Glenn Vilppu:Vilppu Drawing Manual

Frank Frazetta

George Bridgman

Steve Huston

Burne HogarthAll of his books

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Shapes

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Shape analyzation is probably one of themost difficult aspects of drawing for most peo-ple. It requires you to put aside most of whatyou have spent so long learning for a time andtrust your eye. We spend most of our liveslearning what an eye or nose or arm looks like.We essentially acquire a library of symbols thatstand in place of reality in our mind. The prob-lem with this is that when we sit down to drawfrom life part of the goal is to make it look likethe person or thing that is the subject of ourstudy that day. Now weather you are drawingyour “Grandpa Joe” or a vase your approachshould not change, you are still drawing YOUR“Grandpa Joe” or THAT specific vase so, at leastfor the purposes of training your eye, it shouldlook like your “Grandpa Joe” or that specificvase.

The best way I have found for improvingshape analyzation skills is just practice, practice,practice. That cannot be taught. However whatcan be taught or rather shared are a few tricks Ihave learned over the years that have helpedme to break away from what drawing symbolsrather than what is in front of you. The firstthing that has helped me in seeing shapes moreaccurately is to squint. By squint I don’t meansquint, and then strain to see through mysquinted eyes. The best way I have found tosquint is to sit at one arms length from mydrawing surface, relax, then close my eyes andopen them back up slowly until I can make outthe figure as a series of blurry light and darkshapes. Don’t worry that you cannot see anyhalftones or detail, this is actually the idea. Thisis the proper way to see when analyzing shapes.

Now you are probably saying “That’sgreat, I can see the shapes, but how do I drawthe darn things?”. The best trick I have learnedfor getting my self to draw the shapes moreaccurately it to think of it almost like connectthe dots, but (and here is the trick) you have tofind the dots. So basically when looking at theperimeter of a shape I mentally, or physically ifyou find it helps, put a dot on my drawing sur-face where ever I see a major change of angle.Then I connect the dots with with a straight or

Chapter 3: Shape Analyzation

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slightly curved line, whichever seems mostappropriate to me. Where exactly you choose toput these “dots” and curved and straight lines iscalled your “design sense”. The result of seeingand drawing this way is the simplifiction of theincredibly complex visuals that nature presentsus with into a geometric, posterized, two valueversion of reality.

There are times that what works visuallyin the real three-dimensional world will notwork in the illusionary two-dimensional worldof our drawing pad. This is why we sometimehave to interpret what we see and not simplytranslate. The things that each artist choose tochange to create a better illusion of three-dimen-sions on their pad is very individual, so takewhat is presented in the rest of this chapter witha grain of salt and realize these are ways that Ihave found to improve my drawing on a per-sonal level not so much an academic one.

When drawing a form that is slightlyforeshortened, (which by the way almost allforms are) instead of pushing that form moreinto profile like a lot of beginning artists do (thisis one of the things that gives a lot of artists thatvery stiff uptight look) I push it more into fore-shortening just slightly. Another thing I like todo is push the outlines of a forms closer to tome in front of the outlines of forms farther fromme. For instance if the models arm is pointed atme I push the lines of the hand in front of thethose of the wrist, those of the wrist in front ofthe forearm, etc.

One last thing I like push in my drawingsare a anatomical indications that show the vol-ume of a form and conversely remove or playdown those that go against that form. Forinstance I might push the hip insertion of a fore-shortened leg, but not the downward bowingarch of the teardrop shape of the vastus internus.

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Keys to shape analyzation

1) Squint

2) Squint

3) Squint

4) Two values

5) Connect the dots

6) Keep it simple

7) Visually relate lights and darks

Books and Artists To Study ForThese Principles

Harley Brown

Alphonse Mucha

J. C. Leyendecker

Mike Mignola

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Values

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As mentioned in the previous chapter,we want to start our drawing with two values,this two value breakup is very important tomaintain through the drawing. Once you havethis established you can add as many values asyou want (it is not advisable however) as longas you keep the added values secondary to thebig two value separation. The rule for this says“The lightest light in the dark should always bedarker than the darkest dark in the light.”Thus, nothing in the unlit side of the formshould be as light as anything on the lit side ofthe form.

The best process I have found to establishmy full value range goes like this:1) Establish the big two value block in (posterizeand simplify) 2) Add in your middle tone toadd depth and soften the transition between thelight and dark 3) Add your darkest dark andand lightest light, preferably around your focalpoint with contrast lessening as you move out-ward away from your focal point. In the endthis will give you a controlled five value draw-ing.

A brief aside on the subject of composi-tion: Composition is essentially the visual breakup of value grouping on your visual field. Inrespect to composition all drawings should bethree value drawings. Essentially those threevalues break down into foreground, middle-ground, and background. Standard conventionwill say that the lights come forward and thedarks recede. This is not entirely true, for itwould be more accurate to say that contrastcomes forward and lack of contrast recedes. So,in the break up of your values only put yourdark and light next to other where you want todirect attention. Also it is generally a good ideato do several small scale comps to find creativeand orderly breakup of value.

Chapter 4: Values

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Books and Artists To Study ForThese Principles

Harley Brown

Richard SchmidAlla Prima: everything I know about painting

Rembrant

Keys to controlling values

1) Squint

2) Five values or less

3) step 1: block in light and darkstep 2: add half tonestep 3: add darkest darkstep 4: add lightest light

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Forms

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Chapter 5: Developing Forms

Form by definition is the shape or struc-ture of anything. A at this point in our drawingwe should have already defined the forms whenwe defined the structure, but now we need tocreate the illusion of light on form. To do this itis best if we break things down into the fourbasic primitives of form;the cylinder, sphere, cube, and cone.

By breaking things down in to basicforms we remove ourselves from having tothink about drawing complicated things likelegs, fingers, etc. On any basic form lit by a sin-gle direct light source, (this is the best way toobserve and learn about form) there are twobasic fields of value; lit and unlit or light anddark. We have already discussed this to somedegree in the previous chapters, but as in allthings art related, there is overlap. Because wealready discussed value I am going to jumpright into the key factor in developing form andthat is edges, or the transition between light anddark. Any time you have a light and darkvalue coming together within a form, a corneror change of plane is created visually. The sud-den or gradual transition from one value toanother is going to tell us weather this changeof plane is sudden like on a cube or gradual likeon a sphere or cylinder. This transition is whatis called an edge in drawing or painting.

Basically there are four kinds of edges,soft, firm, hard, and lost. Soft edges are thosegradual transitions that you will see on a round-ed form. Hard edges are what you would seeon an angular form like a square or at the edgeof a cast shadow. A firm edge, as its nameimplies, is somewhere in between and would befound most commonly on an angular form thatis not completely squared off, like a nose, kneeor other bony areas.

Occasionally you will observe a darkband of value at the edge of a shadow. This iscalled a core shadow. Basically this is createdwhen there is a transitional plane that is notbeing lit by the direct light source or by thereflected light bouncing off the surface beneaththe form.

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Identifying the value zones is veryimportant to developing form. Even beforeapplying your edges the careful analyzation andplacement of your light, shadow and reflectedlight can reveal important changes of plane tothe viewer. Be careful to notover-play the reflected light or core shadowcard. When used too often they can create ametallic look to your figure. Even more, theycan break down a drawing into too many val-ues, and in doing so create confusion for theviewers eye. You should always strive to keepthe lighting situation very clear. It will allowthe viewer a stronger foot hold in your littleworld you have created, and therefore make amore comfortable place for the viewer to visit.

A few problem solving tips: If yourdrawing or painting is looking cartoon-like,check to see if your edges are too hard. Thiscan create a graphic or cartoon-like look to yourdrawings. If your shapes are appearingambiguous and lacking in structure, check tosee if your edges are to soft, this can create afoggy or weak appearance to the drawing.Overly hard edges are generally favorable tooverly soft for two reasons. One, viewers willgrow quickly bored of a drawing they are hav-ing difficulty solving, and two, it is easier tosoften an edge than to harden an edge.

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Keys to Developing Form

1) Think in terms of primitives(cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones)

2) Carefully observe and utilize your edges

3) Identify the breakup between direct light,reflected light and core shadow.

4) In the beginning error on the side ofhard edges.

Books and Artists To Study ForThese Principles

Harley Brown

Richard SchmidAlla Prima: everything I know about painting

John Singer Sargent

Andrew Loomis

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The Head

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There are many ways of approachingthe head. What I will be covering here are theways that have worked best for me, but remem-ber to look for the under-riding principles, notthe technique.

Lets start at the beginning. The silhou-ette of the head can be drawn, from the front, asa boxy oval not unlike a pumpkin seed. Andfrom just about every other angle except behindas a sort of bulging triangle. This is how I pre-fer to start the gesture of the head.

The head can essentially be broken upinto thirds vertically and fifths horizontally. Ifwe take the face plane of the head, starting atthe top of the forehead or hairline and runningdown to the chin, and break it up into perfectthirds we will find that the top of the eye socketand the ear will fall on the top division, belowthe hair line, and the nose and bottom of the earon the bottom division, above the chin. Now ifwe divide the width of the head into fifths wewill find that the middle fifth defines the widthof the nose which is then flanked be the eyes,and those by the width of the head.

I f we now look at the head in profile wefind that our vertical measurements still holdtrue, but our horizontal obviously change. Thehead in profile will fit exactly into a perfectsquare, if we take that square and cut it in halfboth vertically and horizontally we find that theear rides on the back of the horizontal halfwayand between the brow and nose marks that wefound earlier. If we place the vertical halfwaywe can use that the place both the bottom lid ofour eye as well as where the neck connects tothe back of the head. A common mistake withconnecting the head to the neck is placing theneck on the center of the head like a lollipop.Avoid this mistake by using this measurement.

When dealing with up and down headtilts it is helpful to think of the head as a cylin-der, or more precisely as a whistle. The mainreason it is helpful to think of the head this wayis because it is easier to visualize your axis anddivision bending intoperspective. If you observe a cylinder with

Chapter 6: The Head

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three equal divisions tilted up or tilted downyou can find the top of your eye sockets, thebottom of your nose and your ears at any angle..

I am not going to go in depth into each ofthe features in this book, but there are someimportant points that I would like to make-some corrections to the most common mistakesI see new students make. One of the most com-mon mistakes I see is drawing the features flat,almost like they are features painted on a vol-leyball, or worse yet a flat cardboard mask. It isimportant to realize that for protection, all of thefeatures are built with a bit of an over-hang toprotect them from things falling from above.They also fit to the slight curved contour of theface plane. Rely on skeletal markers for theplacement of your features-at the brow ridge,where the cartilage of the nose connects to thenasal bone, and where the flesh portion of thelips connects to the face at the base of the nose,and at the mentolabial sulcus at the top of thechin.. Do not rely as much on cartilage andeven less on flesh, because this varies so muchfrom one individual to the next.

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Books and Artists To Study ForThese Principles

Harley Brown

Andrew LoomisDrawing the Head and Hands

John VanderpoelThe Human Figure

George BridgmanComplete Guide to Drawing From Life

Keys to Drawing the Head

1) Break the head down into thirds vertically

2) Break the head down into fifths horizontallyfrom the front

3) Head fits into a box in profile

4) Use a cylinder metaphor to help find upand down tilts

5) head sits forward on the neck, avoid thelollipop head

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Interlocking

It is very important to think of the figureas a whole, and not as a series of anatomicalpieces. So, as artists we need to find a way tolock these pieces together in a believable man-ner.

What I have shown here are simplersolutions to some of the more difficult prob-lems. For instance, the shoulder area is a verydifficult area because of the double articulationof the shoulder socket and the scapula Theshoulder socket itself has only about 90 degreesof movement in any direction except back-wards, which is substantially less. After this,the scapula takes over for any further motion-this is what give the human shoulder such anincredible range of motion. A good visualmetaphor for this is a towel peg like you mightsee in a gym locker room. Think of the peg asthe upper arm and the towel draped over it asthe deltoid, pectoralis and scapular muscles.

Joints are always a difficult area to dealwith. I will often try to break it down into inter-locking puzzle pieces. Instead of using twocylinders stuck together, I employ more of atongue-in-groove construction as demonstratedwith the arm’s elbow joint on the right.

Another good way of connecting areas iscombined shapes. For instance, combining asphere and a cone. This can be useful in draw-ing any ball-in-socket joint such as the shoulderor hip. Practice all of these, but remember thatthese are just principles. Don’t just steal theseand go on about your day! Each individualpose will present you with a different set ofproblems, and to solve them you will need tounderstand why they work. An indepth knowl-edge of anatomy will help with coming up withvisual metaphors, but it is not necessary. Whatis more important is that you understand form.Once you do, you can use it as a very powerfultool to turn figure drawing into a much simplerand pleasurable experience.

Chapter 7: Interlocking Forms

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I showed you this image earlier as anexample of thinking of the human form in termsof simple forms. However, it is also a very goodexample of how to lock the figure together, andshows what I am thinking when trying to unifyan area that can have a tendency to look broken.Few things will break down the believability ofa drawing faster than broken areas of anatomy,so keep it simple, and good luck.

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Keys to Interlocking Forms

1) Simplify

2) Use visual metaphors

3) Overlap forms

Books and Artists To Study ForThese Principles

Frank Frazetta

George BridgmanComplete Guide to Drawing From Life

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