A figure drawing is a drawing of the human form in its shapes and postures using a variety of drawing media, including dry media such as graphite pencil, charcoal, pastel, conté crayon, pastel, and fluid solvents such as a marker, pen, and ink. Drawing can also be done in colors by using colored pencils, pastels, watercolors to build up a powerful sense of mood.
The human body is a representation of the most complex form. The artist must constantly study and practice drawing human figures in order to accurately capture and depict the complexity of the subject. For that reason, figure drawing course is one of the most elementary instructions at fine art programs. The study of the human figure can be the basis of portraiture, sculpture, medical illustration, and other fields. The degree of representation of a drawing may vary from loose and expressive line sketches to anatomically correct renderings with every details depending on the purpose and the approaches of the drawing.
Techniques and Methods
Drawing techniques can be roughly divided into two categories: formulaic and observational techniques.
Formulaic Techniques
In formulaic techniques, there are counting heads method, the Frank Reilly method, and gesture drawing method.
1. Counting head method
Counting heads technique divides the human body into heads length. An average person is 7-and-a-half heads tall. However, an ideal figure is depicted in 8 heads tall while a heroic figure is 8-and-a-half heads tall. It is needless to say that there is a difference in head to body proportions depending on the figure’s gender and age. Once you figure out the body proportion based on counting heads, you may move onto the pelvis, the legs and knees, the rib cage, the shoulders, the arms, wrist and hands.
2. The Frank Reilly method - Six Line figure
Frank J. Reilly was an American artist and teacher who taught drawing and painting at the Art Students League of New York for his twenty-eight years. He established and instructed at the Frank J. Reilly School of Art until his death in 1967. He developed the Frank Reilly method that constructed a framework of the figure with six basic structural lines. Reilly's ideas were that the relationships of the various parts and proportions of the figure can be visualized using the lines and then anatomical features according to the forms of the model. Mr. Reilly mostly used the term “relationship” to refer to the key to placement, shape, balance, proportion, and structure.
To learn more about the Frank Reilly method, visit The Frank Reilly School of Art page on Doug Higgins Fine Art.
3. Gesture drawing method
A figure drawing session often begins with the model making gesture poses, a series of brief poses in rapid succession of typically one to three minutes each. Gesture drawing method involves drawing a line of action which is an imaginary line that runs down the spine of the model.
The curvier line of action, the more attitude, force and/or movement the image will be depicted to the viewers. After defining the line of action, the following step would be placing the head and pelvis on the line of action, and then the limbs and joints.
Observational Techniques
There are several observational techniques used to train the eyes of artists. Continuous line drawing and contour drawing methods are the best known in observational techniques. Both of the techniques are commonly used for fast sketching and well suited for shorter poses.
1. Continuous Line Drawing
As you can easily suspect by its name, continuous line drawing is created without lifting the drawing tool from the paper. By keeping the drawing media in contact with the paper all the time, outlines and internal shapes will double back each other without any broken lines. Because erasing marks are avoided, it is encouraged to use an ink pen with a varying weight and thickness to play around with the line qualities that add a sense of form and structure.
“A line drawing is like taking a dot for a walk” - Paul Klee
2. Contour Drawing
Contour simply means “outline” in French. Contour drawing is sketching the contour of the figure, creating silhouettes of the objects, but leaving out most of the details such as surface textures, colors, and tones. You might as well try drawing blindly by having your eyes move along the object the outlines of the figure as your drawing tools move along the paper. Drawing blindly is an effective way of developing and training observational skills to learn structures of an still life object or sometimes a live model.
Suggested Readings
Life Drawing Techniques and Methods, a Quick Overview by Sandrine Pelissier
(Link to: https://paintingdemos.com/life-drawing-techniques-and-methods/)
Line Drawing: A Guide for Art Students
(Link to: http://www.studentartguide.com/articles/line-drawings)
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