Our bright step-by-step illustrations will help you learn how to draw a person. With their help, anyone can draw a human figure on paper.

By following simple steps, you can learn how to draw human figures and faces beautifully. We will tell you how to make the silhouette proportional, give a natural pose, and expressiveness to the face. Having mastered such techniques, you will be able to use them to create your own compositional solutions, draw people of different body types, in any outfit. It will take some practice, but learning will not be as difficult as many imagine.

In order to realistically depict a person with a pencil, it is important to convey the most significant features of his appearance, emotional state, and so on. In addition, from our lessons you will understand the easiest way to emphasize the differences between female and male figures. To make a picture look alive, it is not necessary to immediately work on its photographic accuracy or maximum portrait resemblance.

It is enough to indicate the main external characteristics person, make the drawing more voluminous with the help of shadow, and you can surprise everyone you know with your work. Well, after seeing the first results, you will probably want to learn more about drawing, improve your technique, try to work not only with pencil, but also with paints and pastels.

Drawing a person can be the most vivid and profound experience in an artist's life. Today we have prepared for you advice from a famous Italian artist Giovanni Civardi from Drawing the Human Figure. Let this knowledge become a source of inspiration and creative stimulation, helping to convey moods and memories in the form of a drawing.

You can draw a human figure and a portrait using any materials - from pencils to watercolors. The pencil is the most common tool due to its low cost and versatility. Charcoal is great for making quick drawings with strong tonal contrast and is less suitable for fine detail. Thick and smooth paper is recommended for ink. good quality. Mixed media is a simultaneous combination different materials in one picture.

Experiment to find your own techniques that will bring out the most expression, and try to take advantage of random effects.

Basics of plastic anatomy

Artists study anatomy with the goal of meaningfully depicting the human figure. To reproduce it reliably, you need to not only see, but also understand what you are drawing.

Thanks to knowledge of anatomy, the image becomes more convincing and alive than nature itself.

In general, the shape of the body is determined by the skeleton as the main supporting structure, the muscles that cover it, and the upper layer consisting of fat. It is useful to learn and remember the relative sizes of the articulating bones and their proportions relative to each other and the entire skeleton, because without this information it is impossible to “translate” a figure onto paper and acquire the skill of logically and consistently depicting it.

Below are the main bones of the skull and neck along with skin, cartilage, fat, muscle, hair and more in layers.

Skeleton of the male torso, enclosed within the contours of the body, in the frontal, lateral and dorsal planes. These drawings will help expand your understanding of body shape.

Upper and lower limbs in different planes. As in the previous figure, the skeletal structure is shown within the contours of the body.

It is important for the artist to consider three main aspects of muscle: its appearance (shape, size, volume), location (where it is located relative to the skeletal structure and neighboring muscles, how deep or superficial) and its mechanism (function, direction of muscle pull, corresponding changes in shape and etc.).

Proportions

To make the drawing believable, it is necessary to take into account the proportions of the body and head. The height of the head from forehead to chin is often taken as a unit of measurement to determine body proportions. The height of a standard figure is approximately 7.5-8 heads. Remember a few more proportional relationships: the head fits three times into the total height of the body and neck, the length of the upper limbs is also equal to three heads, and the lower ones - three and a half.

Despite the differences between individuals, they can be divided into three main groups of types with similar characteristics within each - ectomorphs, mesomorphs and endomorphs.

Hands and feet

It is easy to understand why the hands and feet, with their structure and the variety of possible gestures, are considered the most difficult parts of the body to convincingly reproduce, both in drawing and in painting and sculpture.

Drawing your hands and feet is the best way to study them in as much detail as possible. You will be able to make sure that the resulting studies are quite decent, comparable to facial drawings, and maybe even more expressive.

First, a quick (but diligent) sketch is made in the desired angle and pose, then, using its “geometrization,” the necessary anatomical information and volume are conveyed, after which details and individual outlines are clarified.

Just as for the head and body, knowledge about the structure of the bones of the feet and hands will be useful.

Draw your own hands and feet in different positions. You can use a mirror. Take different objects in your hands and convey the dynamics and mood of the gesture in the drawing.

Head, face, portrait

The main interest for the artist has always been the face and figure. A portrait is not simply a reproduction of physical features for the purpose of recognizing a particular character. This is a story through facial expressions about his personality, thoughts and emotions.

We described in detail how to draw a head and facial features in the article.

Sketches of a man in a sketchbook

A sketch is a quick, spontaneous drawing from life, completed in a short time with a few informative lines. Drawing people in natural settings, who are not posing deliberately and probably have no idea that they are being looked at and depicted, will seem difficult at first. But there is no real reason to be afraid or lost - it is unlikely that anyone will pay attention to what you are doing.

Ability to portray strangers̆ in any position and under any circumstances is important for the development of technical skills and value judgment. And, of course, regular sketching practice will sharpen the gift of observation and interpretation, teach you to look deeper and make quick, confident, understandable and accurate decisions.

Some quick tips on how to sketch from life:

• Make it a habit to always carry a pencil and a small sketchbook - one that can easily fit into your bag or pocket - with you in case something catches your attention or seems interesting.
• It is worth striving to increase observation and the ability to isolate the main thing and at the same time coordinate visual perception, value judgment and hand movements while drawing.
• Don’t try to reflect on paper everything you see in real life. Given the limited amount of time and the risk of the model changing her pose at any second, focus on what matters most.
• To learn to use your memory to reproduce the sequence of basic phases of movement, you will need maximum concentration in observing people.

If you're still nervous about the idea of ​​drawing people from life (keep in mind that if someone notices what you're doing, some might be flattered and others might walk away in displeasure), drawing statues can help you mentally prepare for it and gain some confidence. and sculptures in museums or monuments in public places.

Find out if you can do sketches in the museum, and if so, feel free to go there and sketch the sculptures from different angles.

This is how they teach drawing in Paris - in the courtyard of the Louvre with sculptures.

Drawing stages

If you're drawing a whole figure (clothed or naked), you can first draw a few quick, light lines to outline the space it will occupy on the piece of paper (maximum height, maximum width, etc.). Then outline the main body parts (head, torso and limbs) taking into account relative proportions.

Finish the drawing with significant outlines, shadows and details that cannot be omitted. Erase the construction lines if necessary.

In the book “Drawing the Human Figure,” each section is analyzed in as much detail as possible; there are detailed images of the human skeleton in different planes. It is described in detail how to draw the figure of a man, woman, child, elderly person, how to depict nudes and a person in clothes.

In addition to inspiration, high-quality paper and pencils, soft from 3B, you will need basic knowledge of how to draw a human figure. If you understand the proportions, then even a beginner can draw a human figure step by step. Let's consider the techniques and main points for successfully solving a creative problem.

Drawing stages

The drawing consists of several stages.

Layout on sheet

Any drawing begins with composition. Depending on the pose of the subject, a vertical or horizontal format is selected. Light lines create the movement and silhouette of the body.

A well-arranged figure is harmoniously placed on the margin of the sheet. Looking at the finished work, there should be no desire to move what was drawn.

The image scale must be selected according to the format. A drawing that is too large gives the impression of being cramped and requires adding space around it. Small - creates the illusion of emptiness, you want to cut off the leaf.

Clarifying the position of the figure and proportions

Sketch lines outline the curvature of the spine, the rotation of the head, the axial shoulder girdle and hip joints. The direction of the shoulders, forearms, hips, legs, hands and feet is indicated linearly and schematically.

Body parts are measured and placed on a sheet in a simplified geometric form (head - oval-shaped, chest - flattened barrel, cup-shaped pelvis, cylindrical and conical - neck and limbs, prismatic - feet and hands). The relative position of the main paired joints (shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, ankle) is clarified.

Construction

At this stage, characteristic anatomical features are worked out. The principle is from the general to the specific. Details emerge only after large parts are built.

In essence, construction comes down to breaking large geometric shapes into smaller components. The goal is to achieve an anatomically correct cross-section of forms.

The human body is symmetrical, and the spine is used in construction as a natural axis of symmetry when laying out segments to the right and left.

The drawing is done gently, without pressing the pencil, so that the auxiliary construction lines can be freely removed. At the same time, the boundary of light and shadow is outlined.

Black and white elaboration

Depending on the artistic task, chiaroscuro can be limited to light shading, or consist of complex multi-layer shading that conveys the features of the skin and the texture of the clothing material.

First of all, the own and falling shadows are completely covered. The main tone is concentrated on the shadow border. Then halftones and reflexes are worked out. At the same time, the density of the shadow increases. Lastly, work is done on the light. The illuminated areas are slightly muted with a light tone.

The final part is detailing. Highlighting highlights with an eraser, sharpening and emphasizing shapes with a stroke. Classic shading is done according to the shape of the object.

Pencil work for beginner artists

It is advisable to start drawing a person with short sketches from life. Daily practice will help you quickly develop your eye and acquire the necessary graphic skills.

Definitely worth studying plastic anatomy. Without basic knowledge of the structure of the body, good results will not be achieved; the drawing will be reduced to copying what you see. Wonderful teaching aid books by Gottfried Bammes may become.

Drawing will be a great help individual parts bodies in different positions with anatomical elaboration of details.

To help beginning artists, there is a special measurement technique to determine the exact proportions of the body:

1. Extend your arm in front of you, holding a pencil in your hand perpendicular to your hand. With one eye closed, the top point of the body part being measured (for example, the head) is compared with the top end of the pencil. The lowest point of measurement (chin) is marked on the pencil with the thumb.
2. Now you can measure how many segments equal to the height of the head make up the height of the person. The top of the pencil is aligned with the 2nd measurement point (chin). Visually in nature, the lowest point is marked, coinciding with the thumb on a pencil (approximately at the level of the pectoral muscles).
3. The third and subsequent measurements will be from the pectoral muscles to the navel, and then down.

Body drawing in different positions

Let's try to draw a person in different poses.

Silhouette

Silhouette drawing can be used for life sketches, caricatures, illustrations, and creating cartoon characters. With this type of image, the proportions are often not preserved and are even deliberately distorted. The contour type of drawing is usually used by children. Any drawing of the human body also begins with a preparatory silhouette sketch.

standing figure

The proportional construction of a full-length figure is associated with its conditional division into parts. On the sheet, lines mark the vertical dimensions of the person depicted. The pubic fusion approximately divides the body of an adult in half, the head occupies 1/8 - 1/7 of the part. The child’s head, depending on age, is from 1/4 to 1/6.

The dimensions indicated on paper are divided into the required number of parts. The corresponding body contours fit into the resulting segments.

And some more proportions:

1. The arms, when lowered, reach the middle of the thigh, the elbows are located at waist level.
2. The distance formed by arms apart is equal to height.
3. The length of the hand of adults is comparable to the front part, the foot is approximately equal to the height of the head.
4. Another eye must be removed between the eye sockets. Forehead, nose, ear, the distance from the tip of the nose to the chin is approximately the same size.

Knowledge of these patterns greatly simplifies the task of the drawing artist.

To “place” a person on a sheet, you need to determine the center of gravity. To do this, draw a vertical line from the jugular fossa (at the base of the neck in the front center) down through the center of the pelvis. For a person standing with support on one leg, the vertical passes through the foot of the supporting leg. In this case, the hip joint of this leg is higher, the pelvis is tilted downward from the support, and the shoulder girdle is in the opposite direction. If the sitter stands on two legs, or with his elbows, arms, shoulders, or back, the center of gravity is located between two supports.

In move

In order to draw a person in motion, anatomical analysis is required to accurately reproduce the dynamics:

1. Spinal position (bending forward when running, skiing, bending with straightening of the lumbar region when jumping forward, twisting when throwing, etc.)
2. Interaction of parts of the musculoskeletal system relative to the spinal column. For example, in a walking and running person, the pelvic bones and shoulder girdle work in opposition to each other. Shifting the weight to the right leg, the person moves his left shoulder forward and upward. In this case, the left hand moves forward, the right hand moves back.
3. Tension of a certain muscle group in each movement.

The beginning of the drawing is always schematic: the movement of the ridge, the location of the axes of the shoulder and pelvic girdle with the designation of joints, the rotation of the skull, the direction of the bones of the limbs with the simultaneous determination of their length, the position of the feet and hands.

Seated nature

When drawing a sitting person, the choice of perspective plays an important role. A position directly in front of nature is considered unsuccessful. In this case, when sitting on a chair, the hips are positioned in a sharp forward contraction. In a sitting position on the ground, the legs or torso contract, depending on the chosen horizon line. It is difficult to achieve a convincing image in such a position. The best angles for a seated subject are from the side, with the horizon line at head level, or slightly lower.

In a sitting position, the lumbar spine is straightened. The center of gravity is the center of support. Most of the muscles are in a relaxed state. The gluteal muscles and others in contact with surfaces are subject to deformation.

Figure from the side

A profile image allows you to most clearly convey the characteristic features of the body - posture, head and shoulders.

It requires constructing the chest, shoulder girdle and pelvic bones in perspective. If the head is not in a clear profile, neither are the skulls. The limbs further away from the viewer will also be somewhat smaller.

For a correct image, you need to find the vanishing point on the horizon line (at eye level) and collect all the center lines at it. Through paired points (for example: pectoral muscles, anterior superior iliac spines, eyebrows, corners of the lips) auxiliary lines should also be drawn to maintain the symmetry of the body.

Reclining nature

Features of a lying person are relaxation of muscles and sagging of soft tissues under the force of gravity. The muscles in contact with the surface are flattened.

The difficulty in drawing a reclining body lies in the perspective reduction of proportions. The most difficult angles of a lying figure are from the side of the head and feet. In such positions, the contraction of the body is maximum and construction is problematic.

In the perspective depiction of body parts, the method of constructing geometric bodies in perspective is used.

Drawing from the back

The sitter standing with his back is painted in the same sequence as the sitter facing. Proportional divisions are transferred to the back of the body. So, half of the height is at the level of the sacrum. The chin is located in the center of the cervical spine, the next mark is in the middle of the shoulder blades, etc. The task is simplified by not having to draw the face.

Anatomical forms are subject to geometrization. Avoid direct lighting, which makes it difficult to understand the shape.

Female figure

Drawing a female figure

Figure in clothes

Drawing a clothed person comes down to constructing a naked body and then modeling drapery on top of the construction. When depicting clothes, you need to make out in which parts the fabric follows the relief of the body, and where it has its own volume. For example: on a woman’s body, the blouse fits to the body from the collarbones to the middle of the chest in the front, from the hood muscles to the top of the shoulder blades in the back. Below this border the fabric drapes freely.

Rigid wardrobe items (some hats, shoes) have their own geometry.

When developing chiaroscuro, it is taken into account that the fabric has its own tone and texture. A common mistake is to work more carefully on the details and folds of the material than on the faces of nature, and therefore clothing begins to play a major role in the drawing.

Nude

The female figure has a number of proportional differences from the male figure. The shoulders are somewhat narrower, the chest is smaller in volume, the pelvic bones are wider, the legs are shorter than those of men. In men, the lower legs are longer, and the brow ridges are more developed on the skull.

An important point when drawing a woman: for women, the center of gravity is lower than for men. A shift in the center of gravity occurs when wearing shoes with heels and in pregnant women. This is most noticeable from the side and is expressed by changes in deflection in the lumbar region. You need to draw a female body taking this feature into account.

Thanks to the uniform distribution of subcutaneous fat, the muscles are hidden and have a calm relief. This requires smooth drawing lines and subtle light and shadow modeling.

Drawing different poses

Having mastered drawing from life, using the knowledge gained about anatomy, you can draw the body in different positions according to the idea. Whatever the intended pose - natural or acrobatic, it is important to understand the system of the skeleton and muscles in each specific case. The idea of ​​a female body as a geometric constructor will help to correctly simulate chiaroscuro from an imaginary light source.

Drawing a group of people

Drawing several characters is a composite task from those already discussed. Additionally, the compositional component and the problem of remoteness of people in the future are solved.

In addition to linear perspective, the group's drawing uses aerial perspective. Figures in the foreground are drawn more specifically and with more contrast than those in the background. The light and shadow elaboration of the central moments of the composition is the most meticulous. If necessary, the background plan is summarized with a light, broad stroke.

Drawing a person is not only a difficult task, but also very interesting. Having learned to draw a body, you always want more - to convey the character of the character and your attitude towards him.

How to draw manga 2

Body

Body: general principles

The simplest body has a skeletal structure. The idea is to try to add volume to a drawn flat image.

Let's try to place the character in a cube, the base of which will be the area under the soles of the feet.

One of the most difficult tasks when drawing the body is drawing in perspective. Using a cube around your character can help you do this.

Human skeleton and its structure

Let's take a look at the human skeleton and try to draw it.

Drawing the lower part of the skeleton will allow you to show more natural body movement by conveying body rotation and weight distribution.

Drawing with blocks

Imagine that the joints and stomach are spheres. When drawing occurs through the use of shapes and spheres, the future outlines of the muscles are immediately determined. In addition, this way you can feel the three-dimensional structure of the body.

Look carefully at how the collarbone is attached.

Pay attention to the angle of the shoulders and their projection, visible from the selected view.

If you can't imagine the projection of the shoulders on the other side, just use a 3D surface to indicate the shape.

Female body in blocks

The blocks are just guide lines used for your convenience. So don't get hung up on drawing them.

Pay attention to drawing the sides. Men's hamstrings are usually drawn longer, while women's hamstrings are shorter and flow more quickly into the thighs.

Do you want to draw well? You should always be aware of the invisible parts of the body you are drawing.

Drawing movement

When it is necessary to draw a human body in motion, the central line of the spine and the curve of movement are taken as a basis. The center line separates the right and left side body, thereby creating a balancing state. It goes both in front and behind.

Pay special attention to the movement in the waist area.
Draw the center line on visible side bodies.

Picture the center line as running along the direction the character is moving. It may well be that the center line on the visible side of the body will coincide with the curve of movement.

Using a motion curve will help you draw the correct body position and make it easier to work with the character's movements.

Drawing from the corner

A very large number of poses can be drawn using the shape method, however the best option there will be a combination of viewing angle and skeletal method.

It will be easier to draw if you base the pose on the position of the spine.

Standard form man's body

Below are the most important things to remember when drawing the male body.
- Watch the position of the elbow when the hand is at its highest point.
- Consider the radius of movement of the elbow and shoulder.
- Correct placement of the clavicle and sternum muscles.
- The trapezius (muscle) contracts and tenses when moving.
- The area of ​​the sternum coincides with the area of ​​narrowing of the arms.
- The crotch has a small gap between the thighs when the legs are together, and when the legs are apart the gap increases, but never draw the crotch as shown in the picture above (bottom, small).

When you cannot decide on the length of your arms in their horizontal position, use a guide line. This will make it easier to show the length of the arm parts. Another way to represent the length of the deltoid is by adding a little length of the biceps and the hinge (elbow).

Now let's look from the back

The muscles on the side in which the tilt is performed are compressed.
- On the other side, the muscles, on the contrary, stretch.
- If you look at the shoulder blades from a slightly different position, they look very much like a face. Try to use this interesting feature.
- Deformation of a body always occurs when it moves (tilts, turns).
- The shoulder blades rise when the arm goes up.

Now let's take a side view
Remember that the standard brush size is the character's face. The brush should cover it almost completely in height.


The length of the forearm is equal to the length of 1 and a half heads. The length of the rest is 2 heads.

The length of the foot is equal to one head and this length also includes the length of the toes.

The shoulders can move back and forth, but only slightly.

When the body is tilted, the shoulders drop and move forward.
On the other hand, when the body is tilted backward, the shoulders also move backward.

Difference between male and female body

Women have narrower shoulders and chests, but women's pelvis is larger than men's.
- The female pelvic bone reaches the navel and the waist line also crosses the navel. The highest point of the pelvic bone crosses the line of the navel.
- The male body is based on the shape of an inverted triangle, while the female body is more rounded and resembles a bowling pin.

Proportions
Body proportion is determined by the number of heads that will fit into his height, so first you have to ask yourself how many heads your character will be.

You can get more detailed information on all points of this lesson from the other lessons of this

So, we have here disassembled male and female mannequins. female body(Fig. 1). There are few differences between the two sexes: guys are usually muscular (I drew a feminine guy >_>), they have a longer torso than women, they also have tougher and rougher skin, and girls have a curved spine.

Now, the neck. A few things not to do. The neck starts from the ears (Fig. 2), you see dotted lines? Those angles in the head are always parallel. The muscles run from the ears to the hollow of the neck - this always gives a nice look (Fig. 3).
In Figure 3 you can see the collarbone - this gives a sense of realism.
Look at the picture on the right - this is the location of the tonsils in the neck: the guy’s upper part is much larger and thus we get an Adam’s apple. In girls, the lower part is not entirely noticeable (Fig. 4).

I think the front and back views speak for themselves (Figures 5a and 5b), so let's draw a straight line that goes down along the torso, helping you find the center line. The dimple on the neck is the middle of the base. Anterior view: dimple on the neck, base of the ribs and up to the navel. Posterior view: along the spine, along the spine to the chakra triangle. You need to remember these points: guys are very straight, while girls have a concave torso shape.

To avoid sexual attraction when you draw breasts, think of them as balloons filled with water; believe it or not, they are subject to gravity and will therefore move with the body (Fig. 6a, 6b, 6c) .

When the arms are raised, the biceps are tense and clearly visible, when the arms are straightened and tense, the triceps are under influence (Fig. 7a). Take a look at your own hands and you will see different forearm shapes, visible from the top and from the side. When the arm is straight, dimples appear on each side of the elbow (Fig. 7b)

Bring your full attention to your knee as you take a step back. It's all because of the kneecap. Do you see 2 lines on the turn of the knee (Fig. 8a, b, c)? This is where the muscles begin and work upward and leave this look. It's very fun to draw legs.

Here are the disassembled parts of the body (Fig. 9). Break the torso down into the rib cage and pelvis. Use circles for all connections of the torso sockets into the rib cage and into the pelvic part with the joints. This is the easiest way to work. Try different poses.

In this part you learned how to draw a figure. It's not so hard if you know what follows what and what is needed.
These are just some of my sketches notebook(Fig. 10). I do this all the time when I pick up a pencil. You should too!! Well okay, I hope this was helpful.

Female body

I want to start this lesson by answering one of the most asked questions - how to draw female breast. (I never thought that I would actually do a lesson on this topic.... ^_^). One of the most important things here is to make the subject look natural; you can draw an attractive girl without turning her into a silicone doll, like one of my friends did ^_^

The two main problems people have when drawing breasts are their shape and placement. Many artists (both pros and beginners) make them look like balloons pressed into the chest; it's very naturalistic. If you look at various drawing books, you will see that breasts look more like halves of spheres, or upside-down cups, than Balloons. Okay, now the location. Imagine a line that runs down the center of the body, from top to bottom. The breasts are positioned at a 45 degree angle to this line, and are approximately halfway across the chest (shown as red diagonal lines). Make sure they are not too close or too far apart, or too high; these are the most common mistakes. As you can see from the examples, the 45 degree breast position rule applies to all poses and character types.

Here's another pose. Notice that the breasts are still at a 45 degree angle. Yes, also pay attention to the shadows. Looking through various examples and samples, I came to the conclusion that such shadows look best (at least better than shadows, like on a simple ball, following the lower border).

Here is the last picture showing the correct shape and placement of the bust. The breasts are again at a 45 degree angle, although it's harder to see here (because I didn't draw the red lines, forgive me for that ^_^;). Note that the left breast is drawn as a hemisphere rather than a full sphere. If you want to exaggerate the size, that's up to you, but personally I think it's not necessary.

Let's now deal with the shoulders and neck. When drawing the shoulders, pay attention that they are not flat, their slope is very smooth. Try to understand the structure of the neck and shoulder muscles, especially if you want to learn how to draw them more realistically. You need to draw them softly, like fabric, and not like brick.

Here are some more examples of the shoulder girdle. Notice that the shoulders are never drawn straight and boring.

Another thing I would like to mention about the shoulders and the torso in general is how to draw them when the arm is raised up. ^_^ I sometimes find this a little difficult, so let's look at it together. When the arm is raised, we see a piece of the back of the back, the latissimus muscle. Don't make your upper torso too narrow. Note that the outline of the right breast does not continue to curve at the top in the form of a circle; remember that the chest is not shaped like a complete sphere, it is attached by muscles to the shoulder.

Let's turn our attention to our hands. The arm consists of three parts: the shoulder, forearm and hand. Each of them can be roughly depicted as ovals. Although I know people who don't like to do this; well, then you just need to learn how to draw a hand correctly right away. Some books advise building the arm from cylinders, but I prefer flat ovals; they better, in my opinion, convey its shape. This is not visible here, but if the hand is freely lowered, then the fingertips reach the middle of the thigh. Elbows should be at waist level.

Now that we've got the simplified hand shape figured out, let's improve it and make it look more natural. This is, of course, a little more difficult. ^_^ When drawing an arm, don't make it perfectly straight, it has muscles, after all! ^_^ Never draw an outstretched arm as a single cylinder (unless you are going for a chibi style). ^_^ The arm grows from the shoulder. It has very smooth curves. On the way to the elbow, the arm narrows slightly. Then it expands again, where the biceps are located (as seen in the top picture). The elbow itself can be difficult to draw. Remember that this is not just a place where the arm bends, it is a joint, a hinge (look at the pictures). You don't have to look far for examples.

A few more examples, this time showing bent arms. Sometimes it is easier to depict a bent arm, or a hand in perspective, if you use the simplest shapes (ovals or cylinders), but this is purely individual: if you don’t want to, don’t use them. See how in the top picture the arm becomes thinner as it moves away from the viewer.

Drawing these poses clearly can be difficult at first. It is very important to pay more attention to exactly how different parts of your arm look at you, and how your elbow is positioned. Imagine an arm made up of two parts: a cylindrical upper arm and a forearm, somewhat similar to a bowling pin with a ball at the bottom. ^_^ This will help you imagine what the elbow should look like.

Another challenge for artists is their feet. It is very difficult to give them the correct shape (especially if you don’t constantly practice, like I do... ^_^;) Just like arms, you don’t need to make them absolutely even and straight, like cylinders. It is better to use ovals because they better convey the shape of the hips and legs. The upper part of the leg is always thicker and rounder than the lower part. When drawing the legs, start with the thick base of the thigh, then gradually taper the leg towards the knee. Like the elbow, the knee cannot be neglected; this is the junction and needs to be drawn, because the real leg is not made of rubber. ^_^ The knee forms a convexity to the side; the leg doesn't just go from bottom to top straight. The muscles on the lower legs, especially the calves, should protrude slightly.

Here you see a few more poses. I didn't draw the auxiliary ovals here because I forgot, but you should still be able to visually highlight them. Again, I want to focus on the knees, especially in the lower pictures. When the leg is bent, the knee is drawn as a flat surface. I shaded these legs to give you a feel for their shape. The examples in drawing books are much more detailed, but since we don't often see every bone and muscle in an anime character's legs, I won't go into them. ^_^ In the right picture you can see how the calves overlap part of the thighs. In the rest of the examples here, notice how the lower legs are hidden behind the upper legs.

Okay, now you can draw the heroine from the front. But what if you need to depict her from behind? Now I'll tell you. ^_^ I wasn't actually going to write about this, but since a lot of anime girls are drawn from behind in swimsuits or tight suits, it's important. Hmmm... I don't even know what to say; just be careful how you connect your legs to your body. More details about this in part 3 of this lesson. If you need more information, get a copy of Burne Hogarth's book. He has several pages about it there. -_^

Okay, now that we've already gone over all the basic details individually, let's put all our knowledge together and try to draw the whole body. :) When you draw your character, you can start with basic ovals and circles, or immediately try to draw a ready-made version; as you like. If you are using basic shapes, notice that the body (torso and pelvis) is made up of two components that taper towards the waist. I'm not going to focus too much on this. ^_^ The body, like the head, should be built around a central guide line. (as shown in the picture.) This line represents the character's spine and will determine the heroine's pose. Also notice how the line bends slightly at the pelvis: this is because her weight is transferred to the left leg, which makes the pose more interesting. The body can be roughly divided into halves, as shown in the figure with red lines. You can use this technique almost anywhere where you need to determine the length of your legs. In anime and manga, the length of the legs is usually exaggerated, which makes the character more expressive.

When drawing the middle part, do not forget that the body is shaped like an hourglass. Anime girls usually have thin shoulders, thin waists, and rounded hips. Be careful to keep all lines looking natural. Once you become proficient in drawing the figure, you can afford to exaggerate the proportions and sizes a little.

Here is the same pose, only from the side. I find side view images a little more challenging than front view images, so I spent a lot of time looking for clear examples. ^_^ The body is built from the same basic shapes, only now rotated 90 degrees. Determine the angle of the upper body. It's not very visible here, but the collarbone should stick out slightly at the front as you move down the neck. After this, the body curve is a straight diagonal line all the way to the breasts (remember that breasts are not beach balls for you, but halves of spheres!) Then the torso line continues to “move out” a little forward, to the very bottom rib (there is usually a tubercle there). This is approximately one head's distance (or a little more) from the shoulder line. Next comes a slightly retracted stomach. Something else worth noting close attention- this is the shape of the legs (the hips in the back are flatter than in the front) and buttocks (do not exaggerate their size too much).

At the end of this lesson, I will show you a pose from behind (which you will probably have to learn to draw if you want to be able to draw manga at all ^_^). As before, the figure can be divided into two approximately equal parts vertically. Here we need to take a closer look at the neck; it attaches to the back of the skull and hides part of the head. The middle part of the body should be in the shape of an hourglass, but again, do not try to exaggerate the shape, you must first understand basic rules before moving away from them. There is no need to make your butt too big, there is no reason for this. Be careful when drawing the hands; From behind, the elbows usually look more prominent.

Well, the lesson on drawing the female body is complete. I hope you have understood some of the basics of this difficult task, and can now draw your characters in full size. :)

Step 1: Nothing fancy. Just a quick, quick sketch of a female body that will be the basis for our masterpiece. Please note that he is 7 heads tall. The shoulders are at a distance of one and a half heads from the top. Also, like the hips, they are usually two heads wide. The beginning of the hips is three heads down. Knees - five heads down. Don't draw anything at this stage, but keep an eye on the proportions.

Step2: You can draw a straight auxiliary line from head to toe. The entire body weight is distributed approximately equally on both sides of it - balance is maintained. HANDS The navel is located at a distance of two and a half heads from the top. The elbows are also located there if the arms are freely lowered. The hand reaches the middle of the thigh. LEGS In anime, legs are usually slightly longer than the rest of the body. The knees are halfway from the feet to the beginning of the legs. TORSO The body can be given an attractive and sexy look by arching the hips and shoulders in different directions. If the shoulders are mostly to the left of the center straight line, then the hips should lie on the right side.

Step 3: Let's fill our dummy with flesh. You need to be able to draw cylinders and ovals well to do this. Learn the muscle groups to understand how to draw arms and legs (better read the lesson written by Julia Dillon). The breasts are located approximately in the middle of the upper body. Don't use straight lines! There are no such things in a person, and even more so in a female figure! Curves, curves and only curves! A good model to study would be from "Black Magic" by artist Masamune Shirow. It shows a female figure broken down into basic shapes. She really helped me put this lesson together. Well, let's start putting our sketch in order. We take the “nag” in our hands (more about it in the lesson - approx. per.) and erase all the unnecessary lines. The better we do this, the easier it will be in the future.

Step 4: I gradually begin to refine her flesh-filled silhouette. A crumpling eraser (“nag”) works well for me with this, turning a sloppy sketch into a clean drawing. I go over the paper with it, correct any mistakes I made and prepare the work for tracing. There's nothing worse than inking a dirty and untidy sketch!

Step 5: And here it is circled! Not my best ink work, but not bad either. Then I put the drawing into the scanner and colored it in the computer This lesson is designed to show you how to build a body. Now try, using the knowledge you have acquired, to depict characters in various poses.

Before you draw, you should think about the draft. It is necessary to reflect on questions about the pose of the character, is the character a fanart or an original. If this is an original, then do you know the character’s style, his hairstyle, type of clothing. Although personally, I rarely think about all this. But the main thing is to think about the pose.

Step 1: I decided to put her in this proud, determined position. Hands on hips and one foot covering the other. I always start with a circle for the head, chest and a line for the hips. The shoulders should be small, because we are drawing an anime girl. Believe me, all these lines are really important and they really help. Moreover, they will simply help you place the character on the sheet. The line in the circle will show me which way the character is facing; it defines the center.

Step 2: After drawing the frame, I begin to fit it. I usually start with the breasts because that's really important when drawing a girl, but it's best to know when to stop. Imagine that the breasts are two cups that protrude from the chest. Although if you draw in hentai style, then size restrictions are clearly not for you. The green arrow will show you how I use simple lines to depict the collarbone. The purple arrow points to the arm pulled back. Drawing in this position can be quite difficult, but if problems arise, all that remains is to practice or take help from a mirror. The blue arrows show how I narrow my legs at the knees. Pay attention to this point, it is important, do not make your knees too round. Again, going to the mirror will be the best solution, or ask the girl to pose for you. The last red arrow represents your foot. This is a really tricky place and a mirror will help you the best here. But keep in mind: the shape of the foot will change depending on how the character stands.

Step 3: Look. This set of feet, made in 3D software, will do a great job of showing you some of the highlights.

Step 4: When I start to like the drawing, I remove all unnecessary lines - they have done their job. This is where I really advise against using an eraser on the end of your pencil. Using a vertical line I determined the center of the face, and using a horizontal line I marked the eyes. If the ears are visible, they should lie on this line. Next we begin to detail the face. You can come up with it on the fly, or you can already have the idea in mind. If you have no ideas, don’t rush, it’s better to sit over the sheet for an hour, drink mineral water, and when you are absolutely sure, then act.

Step 5: Then we move on to clothes. I've jotted down a few questions you can ask yourself to determine your clothing style. 1. Are the clothes based on real life or are they made up? 2. If it is fictional, then what is it based on? You cannot escape the influence of society, so it is better if you decide. This way the clothes will be uniform, and not colorful and tasteless. I chose a simple shirt and shorts. The shirt is not fitted, so there are folds. Many people have problems with this, but they can all be solved by simple observation or reflection (again, you need to think spatially and imagine the influence of gravitational forces on clothing). Since her belly button is exposed, I decided to draw a light line on her belly for effect. Real people They don’t have one, but we’re drawing an anime girl...

Step 6: Once I was happy with the details, I detailed my drawing and tweaked it. You need to erase all the blots and, if necessary, transfer the drawing to another sheet. Next comes the coloring. Here you can choose any style you like: from watercolor paints and a computer to a simple pencil. The main thing is to clean up the drawing before coloring. I hope this tutorial really helped you.

11. DRAWING A HUMAN FIGURE.

Sequence in pencil drawing.

(part 2).

On the previous pencil drawing lesson(part 1) we talked about initial stages drawing a human figure. Drawing school Artintent offers you a continuation of life drawing lessons.

DRAWING THE FIGURE. SEQUENCE OF DRAWING.

The model has been selected and posed, appropriately illuminated, you have examined it thoroughly, “impressed” it in your imagination, mentally drawn it, as it were, done a series of exercises, that is, you have enriched yourself with some of the knowledge necessary for an artist who begins to draw the human figure.

Now you need to draw it and draw it thoroughly, that is, bring your pencil drawing to completion, conveying the resemblance to the model standing in front of you, its movement, proportions, shape and character. The task is serious, a lot will have to be overcome in drawing such a complex object as the human figure. You can get confused, which often happens, especially for beginners in drawing. Here, as in any matter, order and consistency are required throughout the entire work on the drawing.

This sequence is dictated by the basic attitude towards the drawing, which contains both the nature of looking at nature, and the involvement of the necessary knowledge, and the ability to carry out the drawing from beginning to end. Drawing school Artintent proposes a simple principle: from the general - to the particular - then again to the general, that is, from the initial general to the transfer of details and then again to the general, but this time including details and enriched by them.

Where to start our drawing?
First of all, you need to take care of the layout of the figure in the format of the sheet of paper you took for drawing. Then you should determine the scale of the figure, its top and bottom points, and not go beyond the taken size, outlining all parts of the figure within the given size. This is very important point: You will thus learn to constantly relate the scale of the drawing to the format of the paper or canvas.

After you have set the size and determined the location of the figure, you need to place it. The figure should not appear to be falling. To do this, pay attention to the position of the footprints in relation to the plane of the floor or podium and their position in relation to the entire mass of the figure. If the marks are marked incorrectly, then it will be impossible to draw the entire figure correctly - the legs will turn out to be one shorter than the other, and such a mistake made and not corrected from the very beginning will lead to a major reworking of the entire drawing. The position of the marks must be determined at the very initial stage of the drawing and certainly in their perspective reduction, of course, from your point of view.

In the first stage of your drawing (Fig. 11), take the task of posing the figure, determining its height, proportions, location and starting to build it. Using a light touch of a pencil, show the total mass of the figure. This outline should not at all look like a soft doll. Knowing the skeleton, already at the very beginning of the drawing, find the divisions of the figure, using its reference points, which will make it possible to see the proportions and at the same time feel the connection of the forms, their correspondence to the main movement of the model. The reference points are located on the figure as follows: the jugular fossa (from behind - the seventh cervical vertebra), the pubic joint, the upper edges of the iliac crest of the pelvic bones (two paired points). The length of the neck can be marked by paired points lying on the axis of the ears. When constructing the head, it is most correct to be guided by the section line, more precisely, the plane passing through the sagittal suture of the parietal bones.

We find the proportions of the thigh and lower leg by noting the greater trochanters of the femurs, kneecaps, ankles, internal and external, heel bone and fingertips.
The proportions of the arms are established by marking the heads of the humerus, elbow and lower heads of the ulnas. In the hand, the supporting points are the protruding bones of the joints and the ends of the fingers.
It would be possible to indicate more reference points, but at first it is possible to limit ourselves to these to cover the figure as a whole (Fig. 15).

When starting to draw the total mass of the figure, you need to show and main line construction, and to accurately determine the footprint of the supporting leg - the line of the center of gravity, taking it along a plumb line from the jugular fossa (you already know how to do this).

I would especially like to emphasize that at the first stage of drawing with a pencil, when the total mass of the entire figure is outlined, you need to at all costs cultivate the ability to see the figure as a whole, that is, when touching with a pencil to any place in the drawing, do not lose sight of the whole nature and the whole drawing as a whole. When you look at nature, do not focus on one place, but look from bottom to top and top to bottom, “absorbing” the entire figure.

If at first beginners in drawing find this way of looking at nature difficult, then in order to understand it, practice on a simpler object.

Our school recommends this exercise. On paper attached to the wall, draw a circle with a pencil with a diameter of at least one and a half meters and place a clearly visible point in its center. Being from the circle at such a distance from which it is well, completely covered by your gaze, try to see the circle, but not see the dots in the center; then, looking at the point in the center, turn the circle line out of sight. Then look at the point in the center, but try to simultaneously see the entire line of the circle - the entire circle. Do this experiment several times until you learn to control your vision - the ability to look at nature. Then you will understand how it is possible, looking at a detail and drawing it, to see the entire figure at the same time.

Make it a rule to outline all paired parts at the same time, determining their sizes, distances and directions. And from the very beginning of the drawing, perceive nature as a form that has three dimensions and is located in space. It must be remembered that the line and spot (when you move on to shading) are only means of conveying a living form.

In the initial stage of drawing with a pencil, without leaving the given size, you began to draw the total mass of the figure, found the place of the traces, positioned the figure and, guided by the reference points, outlined its proportions.

After this, be sure to carefully check the drawing. Now it is possible to compare what appears on paper with nature. So, look at the nature, then at the drawing. Look critically, strictly, as if you were checking not your own, but someone else’s drawing.
Check the position of the figure especially carefully and, before it’s too late, make the necessary changes now.
And then you can continue drawing (Fig. 12). Begin to refine the proportions, focusing on the reference points of the skeleton. At this stage, several more points can be added to these points: nipples, navel, abdominal folds and, when drawing a figure from the back, gluteal muscles. When clarifying the proportions, you can use the ancient canon or Michelangelo's canon, taking into account, of course, deviations from it in your sitter.

The division of the figure of the ancient canon provides for the following order:
1 - head;
2 - from the chin to the nipple line;
3 - from nipples to navel;
4 - from the navel to the pubic junction;
5 - from the pubic joint to the middle of the thigh;
6 - from the middle of the thigh to the bottom of the knee;
7 - from the bottom of the knee to the bottom of the calf muscle;
8 - from the bottom of the calf muscle to the sole.

The unit of measurement for a figure is taken in in this case a head that fits the height of the figure eight times, and the division of the male figure into two almost equal parts will be at the level of the pubic joint. As you can see, some places where the figure is divided coincide with the reference points of its construction (Fig. 16).

Here it would be appropriate to talk about the possibility of accurately checking proportions, but only as a method of control, since it is necessary to develop the eye at all costs. At the Artintent drawing school, proportions are checked on a “natural” scale, from the point of distance between the painter and nature. If a sculptor, while sculpting a figure, can approach the sitter and measure the proportions with a compass, then the painter can, without leaving his place, take the exact size of the figure, but on a scale dictated by the distance of your drawing from nature. Holding a pencil at arm's length, mark the parts of the figure and accurately place them in the margins of the drawing or on a separate piece of paper, where the result is an outline of the proportions of the entire figure "in life size", but from your place. This value will be less than the intended size of the figure in your drawing (if you are at a distance from the model no less than two or three times her height). By increasing the natural scale appropriately to the size of your drawing, you can accurately check the proportions. But since this method will be mechanical in nature, it can only be used to check what should first and always be done by eye.

As you continue drawing, move gradually to the parts of the figure and start working on the details, not forgetting to relate all parts to the general. Here you will have to encounter one phenomenon that may turn out to be a kind of brake, a delay in work. It is possible that after determining the general appearance of the figure, you will be overcome by timidity or satisfaction with what has been done, or a conscious reluctance to destroy what is common in the drawing in the “freshness” characteristic of the initial sketch. A threshold appears, but it is absolutely necessary to cross it. It is in no way possible to linger on drawing the general, to linger artificially in any way. It must be remembered that if the general dictates the size and location of the detail, then the detail also helps to clarify the general. Everything is interconnected.
“The particular is eternally subject to the general; the general must always be in conformity with the particular,” as Goethe said.

Don't be afraid to get down to details. It’s not scary if the general thing you have received is lost in the drawing for some time, and diversity will appear. This is natural when learning to draw. This is, so to speak, a growing pain, and it will pass as you gain experience, in this case, in figure drawing. Then you will learn to generalize, there would be something to generalize. In further development of the drawing, clarifying the shape of the figure from large to small, you need to turn Special attention on the axis various parts figures. For example, let’s take the sitter’s supporting leg. Its general direction from the skewer to the sole of the footprint will be the same as in Fig. 17. But this direction will not be the common axis for all parts of the leg. Take a closer look, and then you will see that the axes of the parts of the leg, although they will be connected with its general direction, will retain their position characteristic of each part. The thigh has its own axis, the knee will have its own axis, the shin will have its own axis, and the foot will have its own axis, and each finger will have its own axis. And this will be the case for all parts of the figure. To convey this diversity of axes and directions within the unity of the general means to come even closer in drawing to the rendering of a living form.

And at this stage of the lesson it is necessary to draw with light lines, avoiding pressure and blackness in the drawing. This will make it possible to see errors and correct them more easily.
In the general course of work on drawing a figure with a pencil, a very serious question arises about shading (shading), about modeling the form by means of spots, or, as they say, by means of tone.

True, drawing a figure with a pencil can be done with just lines without shading (shading), and in the hands of an experienced and talented master, the relief of the figure (its shape) will be expressed by the line. We know a lot of such drawings, we admire their freshness and ease of execution. But these are drawings by masters who have studied nature a lot and constantly, who have gone through the school of drawing, who have understood form, as a result of which this is the only way that such an easy rendering of a figure in a drawing with meager lines is possible. We must not forget that this expressive line in the drawings of the masters could only appear as a result of a correctly seen, studied and understood form, a creative generalization of it, characteristic of the individual character of each talent. Sometimes we also learn how to make such drawings. There is reliable information that V. A. Serov, for drawings to I. A. Krylov’s fables, made very detailed, well-worked drawings of animals from life, and then, transferring them with tracing paper to new sheets, discarded the “extra”, thus achieving in a manner of captivating expressiveness using extremely minimal means.

But in the early stages of educational drawing for beginners, solving such a problem will be premature and overwhelming. Therefore, study and convey form using both lines and shading. But it should be noted that shading is inseparable from the line in the drawing.
You cannot first draw a completed outline and then shade it. As soon as the setting, proportions and construction of the figure are determined in your drawing, begin to introduce shading (shading) along the way - let the line and tone unite together and lead the drawing along the path of approaching the transfer of the living form and character of the model. But the light, halftone, shadow and reflex that we see in nature are not shapeless spots; they are inextricably linked with the plans, the facets of the form. Therefore, when laying them out and shading them, you need, so to speak, to draw with shading, that is, to sculpt the shape, as if chasing it.
The Artintent school of drawing uses a similar technique, with the goal of developing three-dimensional vision, forcing you to look not at the lines between which this or that form is contained, but to “keep in your eye” the entire form.

When moving on to modeling a form, you usually encounter two erroneous positions among students and beginners in drawing.

Firstly, when drawing on the plane of a sheet, they forget about the need to destroy this plane and draw a figure in space. As a result, it looks as if it is a bas-relief of a figure glued to the surface of the sheet, and the shapes of the figure do not continue deep into the sheet. This happens because, without cultivating a three-dimensional vision (the importance of which has already been mentioned several times), the student sketches and transfers onto paper visible spots of light, halftone and shadow within the plane of the façade of the figure facing him. As a result, the figure “sticks” to the paper. The point here is not that the relationships of light, halftone and shadow can be taken incorrectly. The main mistake lies, as stated above, in the inability to correctly imagine a form in space, first of all, and in the inability to connect this form with the background in the drawing itself. The second serious mistake is that when modeling the shapes of a figure, a person who begins to draw, without having studied them sufficiently, gives them an overly rounded appearance. The shape looks like it was turned on a lathe.

Therefore, when modeling a form, examining it carefully and supporting this work with knowledge of the anatomical structure of the form, look and mark in the drawing its plans facing you at different angles (relative to your point of view).
The edges of these plans - the “faces” of the form - need to be drawn, noting them, without losing sight of them throughout the entire time of working on the drawing, right up to its completion.

When we say in drawing lessons that all shapes of a figure can be reduced to the simplest forms, this does not mean that the head needs to be modeled like a ball, a hand, like a cylinder, etc. The head has certain edges determined by its structure (this is you already you know), also the hand, and any other part of the figure. These are softened edges, but still edges, plans, facing differently, located in different directions. If you imagine this or that part of the figure, say, an arm or a leg in its cross section, then their “facetedness” will be completely obvious.
Let's say you start drawing the torso of a figure and gradually refine its modeling. At first glance, the torso seems to have no edges; but begin to walk around the figure, and you will see that part of the torso will belong to the front facade of the figure, the other part turns to the side, forming lateral surface, some part belongs to the rear facade of the figure, etc. And somewhere there will be the boundaries of these transitions, like the edges of the faces (plans) of the torso, facing in different directions. (In drawing lessons at our drawing school, we strongly recommend looking at the whole nature, bypassing it.) This means that when sketching out the torso from a certain place, you need to draw these plans—the edges—immediately, starting with the large, basic ones, and not lose them during detailed modeling out of sight.

In one of Dürer’s drawings, made undoubtedly for explanatory purposes, we see that the torso in its upper part is, as it were, enclosed in the contours of a “box” with a clear indication of its edges (Fig. 18).

Look carefully at the fingers of your hand, and it will be clear to you that each finger has edges, sometimes softened, unclearly expressed, but still edges, and it will be illiterate to model the fingers as cylinders.
And so - you need to learn how to draw every shape from large to small.

To see the edges of a form, its plans - this is, in essence, to see the form, the volume, and the line of “edge” will, from a certain place, be nothing more than a greatly reduced edge of the form.
If the facets of the form are conveyed and its plans are drawn, your drawing at some point will look somewhat angular. Then, from drawing to drawing, you will find the measure of this “angularity”, its different degrees in rendering various forms, learn to see and convey a variety of forms that enrich the general, which you need to preserve when finishing the drawing.
When moving forward with further refinement of the drawing and detailed development of the form, you need to make it a rule to constantly check the drawing as a whole and at all moments of its execution. You cannot think that, having completed certain drawing lessons, you can consider learning to draw completed, correctly decided and not return to clarifying it.

The positioning of the figure, determined at the very beginning, must be checked until the end of the drawing; in exactly the same way are the proportions, the movement of the figure, etc.
Drawing details and detailed characteristics of the form is unthinkable without connecting them with the figure as a whole, and should contribute to a more accurate conveyance of the whole, the general in the entire figure: in the pose, its movement, its character. Therefore, noticed errors must be corrected throughout the entire work on the drawing. The task of drawing is not to “make” a drawing, but to, through constant comparison made with nature, learn to see mistakes and be able to correct them, thus acquiring the opportunity to move on and improve your skills from drawing to drawing .

Approaching the end of the drawing, you will need to pay special attention to the moment of conveying the general, but general, enriched with a number of details characteristic of the human figure, that is, your drawing, as it were, enters the last stage of drawing. And this stage will be that necessary generalization, which presupposes natural harmony, artistic consistency of all the details in the drawing of the figure as it is in nature itself. Let's say in your drawing there are plans of light, halftone, shadow, reflections with which you sculpt the form. Perhaps variegation and fragmentation of form have appeared, and this will cause you a feeling of anxiety. For example: you model the torso of a figure, convey the pectoral muscles, draw depressions at the end of the chest, mark the protruding ribs, and abdominal muscles. You tried very hard to draw it carefully, and compared each of these details with the general one, but the result was colorful. But in nature there is no such diversity, everything is in place. Here you need to move away from the drawing and quickly move your gaze from the drawing to the model, then from the model to the drawing. And you will see: something in the drawing was not reached, something was intercepted. Or maybe some places “pop out” from the drawing, while others, on the contrary, “failed” - which means you should check whether the shape of the torso has been disturbed. It is necessary to pay attention to this and eliminate the noticed diversity; where necessary, strengthen something, weaken something, or correct the size and direction of the plans of certain forms.

So, you need to look at the entire drawing. Checking will help in conveying the overall tone of the drawing, in its tonal scale (in this case, the tonal scale is taken in relation to the conventional background of a sheet of white paper). When finishing drawing, trying not to lose sight of the transfer of the integrity of the figure, you need to remember the connection of the forms, their subordination to the main movement of the figure in this setting.

The following drawing lessons will be devoted to the subordination of the details of a figure to its main movement.
But we consider it necessary to pay attention to this important point now, since it must be taken into account when transferring a figure in any, even the simplest pose.
It is quite possible that some of the parts of the figure will look as if isolated in the drawing, their connection with each other may escape your gaze, and the internal rhythm that can be felt in the movement of the living figure will be disrupted. After all, in a human figure, with a variety of parts, everything is imbued with unity, but in our drawing there may be diversity, but without unity. This means that at some point the sense of commonality was lost. And this is quite natural at the beginning of learning to draw, since you need to work a lot, draw, and most importantly, watch yourself all the time, control yourself throughout the entire drawing, so that the details are worked out and at the same time the general thing is not destroyed. Errors in this regard must be corrected immediately, and especially at the end of the drawing, when the question of a generalized, harmonious drawing arises. Then you need to strictly, without pity for your work, compare the drawing with nature and, without blurring the details, include them in the general rhythm of the movement of the human figure.

During the period of completion of drawing, when the drawing from a number of moments seems to be assembled into a single whole, you need to pay attention to the possibility of more accurately expressing the shape of the figure. This applies to drawing any objects. And it’s better if the understanding of what will be discussed has already been learned in simpler subjects (see the pencil drawing lessons above). And again this has to do with the way of looking at nature. You already know that a figure is perceived as an object in space, and its external contour will result from the correct transfer of the form, that is, the reduced plan, the edge of the form, will be its “edge”.
Consequently, considering a figure as a collection of various forms, we see not lines, but forms that are at different distances from us, as if entering one another. This is due to the anatomical structure of the figure and its position in relation to the point of view of the artist (anatomy and perspective). Drawing school Artintent conducts a series of classes on perspective, where issues with perspective abbreviations in nature are discussed in detail.
Therefore, when approaching in a drawing to clarify the external contour based on the elaboration of the form, pay attention to how one form enters another, some form is closer to us, the next one is further away, some turned this way, others differently - everything lives, shimmers, and we feel the beauty of the plasticity of a living organism. In any case, they should feel it (Fig. 19).

You need to learn to see this and draw, reinforcing what you see with knowledge of anatomy. Then in your drawing (of course, not immediately) a correct understanding of the external contour will appear, it will become alive, in some places almost imperceptible, in others more clear, the contour will not be an indifferently identical line outlining the boundaries of the form.

During drawing lessons at our drawing school, the following phenomenon was noticed. In an effort to get closer to conveying the unity of diverse figures in a drawing, novice artists, solving the problem of detailed modeling of forms, lose sight of the fact that the forms are different in mass and must be modeled differently. Beginning to draw, there is a tendency to look at everything equally carefully and to cut everything equally carefully. Meanwhile, to look closely means to see and convey the contrast of various forms. For example, the thigh cannot be modeled as knee-joint, the foot must be worked differently than the lower leg; the hip as a larger shape will require a looser, wider sculpt; the foot as a form with a number of small detailed divisions should be worked out more dryly, in small plans.
Various modeling of different shapes of the figure, while maintaining the unity of the whole, will also contribute to the appearance of vital and truthful features of living nature in the drawing.
The entire course of work on the drawing of a figure, both naked and clothed: posing, proportions, construction, modeling of the form, etc. - does not mean that the drawing should lack concern for conveying the character of the model and its similarities. You can't draw any figure at all. Each time we see a living person with characteristic features inherent to him and only to him, as was already mentioned earlier. Therefore, the desire to convey in a drawing a resemblance to a model, to convey the characteristic features of this particular model should be the concern of a beginning artist from beginning to end. When finishing drawing, you definitely need to look to see if this similarity has been lost, whether there is any figure in the drawing at all, to check what caused the loss of similarity, why the person’s character traits were lost. And, if it is possible to fix something, it needs to be done.

This clause: “if possible” is given because it will be difficult at first to solve a whole series of problems equally successfully in one drawing, and for a beginner, drawing a figure is, perhaps, very difficult. Therefore, whether you draw in a group or alone, create a specific program, drawing courses with a sequence of presentations, including a number of auxiliary, short-term drawings that will help strengthen your understanding and ability to solve certain problems associated with drawing the entire figure . So, for example, a series of quick drawings can be devoted to the posing of the figure, that is, the emphasis can be placed on conveying the posing. You can also make a series of drawings to practice conveying proportions. This kind of auxiliary drawings, in which attention is focused on certain moments of drawing, on individual terms from the total sum of the tasks of drawing a figure as a whole, will provide significant assistance in maintaining a long-term drawing, where the experience gained in auxiliary tasks will be transferred. Of course, these exercises should go along the way, in parallel with long life drawing lessons.
It is very important that pencil drawing lessons are carried out systematically, preferably daily. And how good it would be if a constant desire to draw from life accompanied the artist’s entire life, no matter what area visual arts he did not choose for himself.
When creating a drawing program for yourself, divide it into several sections, in which you include a more detailed listing of the settings.

Drawing school Artintent Conducts the following lessons in the figure drawing course:
1. Drawing lessons - Standing figure.
2. Drawing lessons - Figure in strong movement.
3. Drawing lessons - Seated figure.
4. Drawing lessons - Figure in perspective.
5. Drawing lessons - Group of two figures.

Each of these sections can include several productions. Let’s say, in the “Standing Figure” section, the first pose will be a figure in a classic pose with emphasis on one leg. The next pose can be complicated by introducing an additional fulcrum, then pose the model in a simple movement, etc. Thus, it is necessary to diversify the poses in each section of the program, with the indispensable condition that the poses will be natural, plastic, as mentioned above and what we would like especially emphasize.

The backgrounds of productions may also be different; if in the first exercises it is better to use a light, neutral background, then in subsequent performances the background can be taken darker in relation to the figure; It is interesting to use drapery and, finally, to place the model in space against the background of the room. With all the variety of productions, you need to remember that the main thing here will be the human figure, and you need to focus all your attention on it, and highlight it with all the means at your disposal: lighting, draperies, background.

One can cite a large number of educational productions from different times and schools, drawings, varied in nature and objectives. Many of them are published in relevant publications. Some of the educational drawings made by artists who later became outstanding are on display in art galleries and museums.

After drawing from a model in a simple classical pose with emphasis on one leg, you can somewhat complicate the pose, approximately as can be seen in the drawings of A. A. Ivanov.

On one of them the figure with a slight turn of the torso (Fig. 20), on the other - slightly leaning bent arm on the stand (Fig. 21),

in the drawing by A.P. Losenko, both hands of the sitter lie on a stand, the entire weight of the torso is supported by one leg (Fig. 22).

I. E. Repin in “The Model with a Sword” saw and conveyed the connection of forms associated with the nature of the main movement of the entire figure (Fig. 23).

The techniques for executing these drawings are different. A. A. Ivanov models forms with strokes; A.P. Losenko has sparse but energetic modeling; The drawing by I. E. Repin is distinguished by soft modeling. The connection between the figure and the background is resolved differently. In two drawings by A. A. Ivanov: “Young sitter with a stick in his outstretched right hand” and “Young sitter with a raised right hand and a stick in the left" - dark background. In A.P. Losenko, the background is touched only in places. In the drawing “Sitter with a Sword” by I. E. Repin, the figures are “tied” to the background of the paper.

In conclusion, I would like to say once again that the ability to draw human figures with a pencil is acquired only in the process of studying nature. Artintent Drawing School constantly follows this principle in its drawing curriculum.