Princeton Architectural Press · New York

Figure Drawing

Peter Jenny

L e a r n i n g to S e e

If you’ve ever wanted to learn

to draw, or to draw better,

the Learning to See series offers

a mix of inspiration, encouragement,

and easy-to-complete exercises

that will have you filling the

pages of your sketchbook more

confidently in short order.

Introduction 6

Mirror 24

recollect 30

Hold 34

Doodle 40

Write 46

Letter 54

Form 62

Surprise 70

Vary 76

Skeletonize 86

Build 90

Miniaturize 96

Construct 102

Surround 108

Silhouette 114

Fragment 120

Uncover 128

imply 138

Develop 150

Move 156

animate 164

Model 174

Notes 178

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VoidsFigure Drawing suggests, conceals, and

abstracts, and it remains intentionally

metaphorical in the representation of the

human body.

Pure spaceWhen I was young, I was lucky enough to

have had a teacher who allowed the class,

once we had finished our written work, to fill the

remaining margins of the paper—regardless

of content—with doodles. Without even being

aware of it, we developed our own doodling

introduction

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culture. Creativity was not important to my

teacher; he simply wanted to be economical

about the scarce paper supply. This gave us all

the more freedom to express ourselves without

restraint. Thus self-expression more frequently

found its way onto the margins of the paper

than within our essays. Not surprisingly, we

finished our essays faster and faster, while

the margins—our canvas—became larger and

larger. The drawings quietly conquered ever

more territory on our papers. Even in math

a parallel world grew around the numbers, to

the dismay of the school inspector, who did

not know how to evaluate these drawings.

GesturingIt is easy to draw figures in the air with your

hands. Even when done casually, the gestures

illustrate something and are drawings just as

much as anything captured on paper. The

expression of a drawing begins with the body.

Gesture and figurative drawing are closely tied

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and follow one another, but the distinction

between them can be erased if you are willing

to expand your understanding of drawing.

A drawing can be more easily expressed on

paper if you have first drawn it with your hands

in the air or your feet in the sand.

The archetypal drawingEarly cave drawings are simplistic, but the

range of possible interpretations—dependent

on the observer—is incredibly diverse. The

search for meaning often follows the inclinations

and the experiences of the individual interpret-

ers. The vague nature of the images allows

for subjective understanding. Those who made

the drawings—long ago, under wholly different

circumstances—reported on their lives with

what we view as imprecision, which permits us,

as outside observers, to call on our own experi-

ences as we engage with their messages. The

drawings themselves speak: they don’t attempt

to persuade us, but they are curious and thirst

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for eager eyes that will form their own

thoughts.

Those who doodle cultivate, above all

else, a meaningful monologue. The resulting

sketches are ends unto themselves, not

necessarily completed in order to learn some-

thing from them. (Just as monologues are

not held to increase one’s linguistic abilities.)

When speaking, making, or observing, people

access their trove of experiences, where

thoughts slumber, waiting to be awakened.

What jumps out at us is our ability to communi-

cate, and to interpret those communications,

in a variety of ways.

ImaginationFigurative drawings may at first strike us as

mysterious, which can quickly make us take

a skeptical stance toward them. Imagine

a silk veil covering an object that forces

us to guess at the obscured form rather than

revealing it. We only need to shift our

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perception of a drawing’s ambiguity to want

to see more in it, to experience it as something

inspiring. Fortunately, our eyes cannot see

everything—they always need the help of our

imagination. Start a sketch and then put it to

the side. In it, imply things rather than rendering

them completely, and soon you can’t help but

use your fantasy in order to interpret them.

That’s why every person has imagination:

perception could not occur without it. There

are wonderful drawings by people who are not

skilled artists. Those images especially appeal

to our imagination, because they themselves

are the result of it.

NaïvetéDoes it still make sense today, in our digital

age, to take a pencil and draw little figures

on a piece of paper? Is it pure naïveté that

drives this pastime? Are artistic media (that

don’t pretend to be art) still justifiable in the

age of the Internet? There is no scientific

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answer, but one with three letters will

suffice: YES.

Drawing can, among other things, make us

play, laugh, and fantasize. You can pass the time,

and even improve your drawing skills, while

exploring the language of images. Does not all

learning—even at school—involve making things

apparent? Images have always served to give

meaning to the visible and to help us understand

our surroundings. Drawings, even those made

by children, make it easier to understand what,

for example, a worm is, just as they can help us

develop a concept of the world. Drawing

something can be like dreaming while awake;

as with dreams, we accept unreliable information

in drawings as an inescapable part of the

process. Trompe l’oeil is an optical illusion that

shows objects in realistic detail and leads us to

forget that what we see is an illusion. In drawings,

the idea of reality is just as loose as it was in

child’s play. This emphasizes the value of images

that allow for various interpretations. It was

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Napoleon Bonaparte who said, “One must

first speak to the eyes.” It appears that he may

have understood the importance of the unseen

beneath the seen.

“Correct” drawing?If you own a dictionary, you can look up the

correct spelling of words. If you hire a lawyer,

you can expect the proper interpretation and

application of the law. But even if you have

a textbook of drawing techniques, you are still

allowed to make mistakes—breaking rules and

trying unexpected things are part of the creative

process. Allowing yourself to see things differ-

ently is essential for experiencing the greatest

number of ways of perceiving. “All that is right

and fair” acknowledges possible deviations from

conventions but is unsettled by them. Correct

drawing is a phrase that doesn’t exist because

the word drawing itself is sufficient—the senses

are engaged every time you draw, even when

you are just doodling. The artist Alberto

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Giacometti possessed great skill and could do

what only a few others can: create masterful

depictions of the essence of man. But such

expertise shouldn’t intimidate us and keep us

from trying. Even if genius is likely never to arrive,

you will still benefit from what drawing entails:

endless experimentation, revisions, and ques-

tioning. As they say, an ounce of practice is

worth a pound of theory.

You need only the desire?“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” This

aphorism appears to be true only in cases where

the way does not seem unattainable. The way

will seem too long and far away if we see making

art as the goal rather than as an experience.

Experimenting with modes of representation

must become habitual, and it will show that

nothing in drawing is permanent. Still, don’t be

too eager to reject ideas—you can look at

discarded versions as part of a repository of

memories. Creation and rejection are two sides

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of the same coin, but sometimes rejection

comes too soon. Even drawings that you’ve

thrown out leave a trace in the retina and can

reappear when the pencil seeks new forms,

influencing it accordingly. Drawings have

ancestors; collecting them should be just as

important as the safekeeping of those images

that we come to cherish.

BeautyThe Swiss-German author Peter Bichsel writes,

“In the eighteenth century a man from Bern,

Albrecht von Haller, discovered the Alps for the

world. He wrote a wonderful poem, ‘The Alps,’

that was read with great fascination by the

educated of the time. He opened their eyes,

and from then on the Alps were beautiful.”

(Of course images have also always helped to

reveal beauty.) We can follow Albrecht von

Haller’s lead (if not with poetry) by writing a few

words to accompany our sketches. We can

describe what we find beautiful and note this

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either on the back of the paper or within the

drawing. Even a few words can easily affect

the meaning of a drawing; the many possible

interpretations of any sketch encourage this.

These comments should not be explanatory

texts but the coming together of words and

image. These two types of notes combine

to form new content without imitating either

of the originals. Sometimes we see with words;

other times, with images. Eyes do not only

follow the visible, and thoughts do not only

consider behavior—together they declare:

“I don’t know what other people see, but this

has something to do with me and is therefore

no longer without name.”

On their own. . .A truly curious person doesn’t chase after

every new trend. Inquisitive people try new

things on their own, uncover something on their

own, consume on their own, read on their own.

Curiosity helps us understand better what we

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acquire. Is fantasy also something that can be

acquired? Many people believe that you are born

with imagination and that “you’ve either got it

or you don’t.” No one really wants to believe

that imagination can also be borrowed. But who

hasn’t borrowed a bit of inspiration here or

there? And when the borrower interprets an idea

and changes it, the adapted idea is then available

for someone else to use.

Choosing from the abundance of sources

available requires decision making, and the vast

supply of potential points of inspiration makes

it impossible to critically investigate each one.

It is, as a result, quite understandable that given

the choice between adopting or rejecting, action

or inaction, many choose the latter. Those who

do nothing, however, have time—perhaps just

enough time to engage in an activity that has

no other reward than self-satisfaction: drawing.

Most people don’t know how many of the

things they use function but are still dependent

upon them. In drawing we uncover little parts of

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a whole without being able to provide an

exact image of it. Figure sketches are not

images of specific people—Uncle Tom

or Aunt Susie, for example—showing us what

they look like, but they are representations

that reveal something specific about those

people. They are visions that do not depict

anything in particular but can succeed as

drawings. They don’t want to be anything more

than drawings—your very own drawings.

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Mirror

Although people are rarely symmetrical, it is

easy to identify figures in images that are

mirrored. Make a series of blotches. Place the

edge of a mirror perpendicular to the black,

amorphous spots. Turn and move the mirror’s

edge to create various figures. Just observe

them at first. Next, draw half of a figure with

ink; fold the paper while the ink is still wet

to double the drawing.

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40 min.,

one sheet

of

8.5 × 11

paper

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