drawng a human body 1

8/3/2019 Drawng a Human Body 1

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These notes by San Iakob To be used by my DA friendshttp://saniakob.deviantart.com/

2009 Santiago Surez Posadas Misiones Argentina

BASICSTEPSTOWARDSDRAWINGA

HUMAN

BODY

Aguideforbeginners

01

HeadPro ortions


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Introduction

Hello!

Lets start a journey towards the fascinating world of drawing a human body.

Before going on, I want you to know that you are free to ask me as many questions as

you like as many times as you need.

These notes are intended to give you an introduction to certain aspects you should

bear in mind at the time of drawing (in this case) a human body.

I say an introduction because the real way will be walked by your self through practice

and watching. Practice will help you to progressively incorporate drawing skills such as

domain of shadings, diversity of line styles and so on. But the real challenge is to learn towatch, to see details Why? Because before you are fully capable of drawing a person (or

any other thing) without using a reference (either a real person or a photograph) you need

to know very well what you are actually drawing.

Now if you already draw, perhaps you are familiar (by intuition or natural talent) with

some of the stuff will be dealing here, so the whole thing will be much easier.

Remember that all that is said here is A GUIDE not a RULE to be blindly obeyed. Every

person is different one from the other, so there is no magical formula to draw themonly

guides. Even though we are all anatomically different, we all have limbs in the same place

and our faces have all the same organsthe guide deals with thatthe things we all have

in common. To make a realistic portrait of a particular person, you will need your ability of

watching the details of that persons face, which is the only tool you need to make your

drawing look like the real person

At the end I leave a little homeworkif you want send me your images so we can

correct and solve any doubt.

Also feel free to correct my English mistakes since it is not my native language.

Also if you notice a conceptual error, please tell me. I am not God and I dont know

every thing

Note me at DeviantArt

http://saniakob.deviantart.com/

or send me an email to

[email protected]

I think we can start right now


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Thehumanhead

In this first issue we will deal with the human head.

The first thing to remember is that either the maleasthefemaleheadsarestructurally

identical.

What do you mean by structurally identical?

Simple, every thing is in the same place for both men and women

Now remember that:

Adult people heads Adolescents heads Children heads Babies heads

Arenotproportionallyequal!

That is, that as people grow old the sizes and shapes of their organs as well as the

places where they are situated on the face CHANGE. For example de distance between the

nose and the upper lip of a baby is shorter than the distance on an adult persons faceor

the size of the eyes of babies, in relation with the size of their heads, is bigger than an adult

size

Lets start with adults heads.

How do I know what is the right proportion and the proper structure of a head?

Here is where we use our first tool the CANON.

A canon is a sort of map of the head and face (theres another set for the whole body).

It is a grid that shows you where approximately should be placed every thing and what

size things should have (also approximately).

Canons where developed during the renaissance period. They were created to answer

a need of the moment which was the seek of right proportions. People of that time

started to write down everything they watched in order to learn as much as they could

from nature, they also followed the classic Greek paradigmsone of them was beauty

defined as the right proportion of the parts. This has a longer explanation, but I dontwant to bore you

The image of the Vitruvius Man that I use in the cover of these notes is an example of

a canon. It was created by Leonardo Da Vinci to show the perfection of the proportions of

the human body. As you may infer, geometry and mathematics were most important to

determine the right proportions (which is beauty). So, the more geometrically and

mathematically perfect, the more beautiful the thing was

In present days, it was scientifically proved that the faces that we find more attractive

(or the things we find more beautiful) have mathematically perfect proportionsdid you

know that?

So the canon (or map, or grid) we use to draw human heads and bodies is from that

time. Therefore they are IDEAL proportions. In a few cases in real life you will find that

those proportions are 100% present in a face or head (say Brad Pitts or Angelinas faces).

So as I said, the canon is a GENERAL GUIDE your main challenge will be to watch


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carefully your models faces to find how to adjust their physiognomy to the canon

proportions it sounds difficult but it isnt, I promise.

Make friend of CANONS (not the cameras). If you ever found your didnt like your

recently drawn portrait that took you like 300 hours to finish because the eyes are too

small, or one is bigger than the other , or the mouth is weirdCanons will help you to

prevent those timewasters dilemmas.

LETS DRAW!

O! I forgot to say that, of course, these notes are also useful for painting, for anime,

manga, comics and God knows for what else.

Traditional portraits are drawn from three different views.

Front view Profile view profile view (those which are neither complete front

nor complete profile)Once you domain this three, you will be able to tweak them to draw other (more

difficult) head positions.

The first two are the most easier to do (at least for me). So lets start with those.


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Let me introduce you to my modelpeople this is HeadHead this is people.

Lets start building our canon

1. The first thing

we need to do is to

determine our

work space. So we

start by drawing a

rectangle around

Heads head. Note

that the lines are

enclosing the skull,

thats why the hair

and part of theears are left

outside.

2. Now notice that

the general shape

of the head is an

ellipse.

Hello.

I am Head and I am

the most handsomeboy you will ever see.


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3. Following step is

to mark the middle

points by drawing

lines that cut the

rectangle sides

into 2 equal parts.

Note that the

horizontalmiddle

linepasses

throughthe

middleofthe

eyes!

4a. Now we need

to divide the

height of therectangle into 5

equal parts.

4b. Extend the

lines all through

the rectangle and

see what happens!

The eyes areperfectly

enclosed by the

lines (2, 4)


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One eye and thenose have both

the same width!

(3)

The distancebetween an eye

and the headedge is also one

eye width! (1, 5)

Inconclusionthe

headwidthis

equaltofive

timesthewidth

ofaneye

The eye width is most imortant. So, for clarity, from mow on that measure will be called X

5. Take X and flip it

to a vertical

position.

Now draw a

horizontal line all

through the

rectangle.

Yes! The bottom of

the lower lip

touches that line.


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6. Now on top of

that line draw

another line at a

distance of X

The bottom of the

nose and the ears

touch that line.

To complete the

mouth theres no

linebut half X(that is X/2) can

help.

From now on X+X equals Y, ok?

7. Now draw a line

on top of the other

at a Y distance.

The top of the ears

and the eyebrows

touch that line.


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8. Repeat the

previous step.

The top end of the

forehead touches

that line.

The part thats left

is another X size.

In conclusion.A

headheightis

equalto7X,or3

Yandahalf.

To complete the

heir and width of

the ears calculate

X/2

Also, the corner of

the mouth is

approximately

X/2.

Ok. Now we have our Canon to draw an adult head from a front view.

Try to memorize it.

In next issues we will with other canons and each face feature specifically. So dont

panic.

Rememberthatpeoplefromwithotherethnicityhaveslightmodificationsin

theircanons.


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Homework.

- Takemagazinesoranyphotoyoucanfindanddraw

thecanonofthosefacesThiswillhelpyoutomemorize

the

proportions

and

will

show

you

how

each

face

is

different,therefore,youwillhavetofindthewayto

adaptthecanontotheirfacessomewillhavebigger

earsorforeheads,othersmallorhugenoses;whatyou

willsurelyfindisthatthedistancebetweentheeyesis

notaneyewidth

- Makethecanonofyourownface.

-Make

the

canon

of

your

friends

or

relatives

_Trytomakethecanonofpeopleyoufindbeautiful.Try

tomakethecanonofpeopleyoudontfindbeautiful.Try

tofigureoutinwhichcasesyouneededtomakemore

canonadjustments

- Veryimportant.seotherpeoplesdrawingsand

paintingsto

see

how

they

solve

face

drawing

problems

promiseyouthatwillbemuchfun!

Thishomeworkistobedonewithphotosbecauseitis

easiertotakemeasuresTherearetechniquestotake

measuresfordrawingbuttheywillbeexplainedlater.

In the next page I leave a canon guide to print if you want.See you!


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AdultHeadCanon - FrontView

Width: 5X Height: 7X (x= an eye width)

drawng a human body 1

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