Drawing the Human Figure

As I stated at the beginning of this section, I don’t have a model so will have to draw myself.  As the notes suggest: “All the following exercises can be completed as self-portraits if you’re unable to find a model.  You can produce some very interesting work but it may require some ingenuity in terms of arranging mirrors, space and your painting support and equipment”.  They really weren’t joking when they said about the ingenuity in arranging mirrors! 

My first sketch pose was seated, almost cross-legged with one leg raised.

As I drawing myself, I didn’t want every single pose to be of me drawing/ painting, so I did the right arm from memory – so am pleased that this hand, and the foreshortening of the arm work well.  I think the overall proportions are good, although the head is a little too small.  I didn’t find these pose too difficult to hold – I do yoga regularly so reasonably flexible!  The one area I really struggled with was my face – for some reason I can do faces OK on their own, bodies OK on their own, but have problems putting the two together! 

My tutor on my drawing course said I should treat the face “in the same casual way as the lines of the body” but when I try this it just looks all wrong and very amateurish! Hence the very overworked face here. 

One of the real problems I have is that I have very poor eyesight in my left eye (less than 50% due to a lazy eye) and, because I am right handed, when I turn my head to draw, I really can’t see very clearly at all.  This is not a problem when doing the body, as I can keep that still while still moving my head, but I can’t do this for my face.  I think I will have to resort to photographing my head in the angle I want sometimes, purely in order to be able to see it properly!!

In terms of set-up, I have a wall of mirrored wardrobes in my spare (junk!!) room, but another problem I have is the room is quite small, so I have to sit fairly close to the mirror.  This means that I am struggling a bit judging proportions – using the usual pencil at arm’s length doesn’t work because I am too close.  Will have to think about this a little more.

The other problem with this room is that there really is nothing in it, so not much in terms of background.  Again, will have to think carefully about how I can introduce backgrounds while still having access to the large mirrors.

My next drawing was kneeling on a cushion on the floor at a slight angle leaning towards the mirror.  Again, I am happy with the overall proportions and haven’t concentrated too much on detail.  I did the hand and foot very loosely, just to get the overall impression.  The main problem again is the face – the head shape/ size is probably more accurate than the previous drawing but the features are wrong, it really doesn’t look like me. 

Again on the practical side, my drawing arm could be simply drawn in by placing it at the side, so no need for any complication here!

For my next drawing, I varied the kneeling pose by turning and placing a mirror in front of me so I could view my back easily. 

Again, the proportions here are more or less OK although the  shoulders may be fractionally too wide – although I am tall and have broad shoulders / slim hips so possibly not!!

Also, no problems with the face here because I chose not to draw it!

I did this sketch in charcoal pencil and then used willow charcoal to enhance some of the shadow areas.

For my final prep sketch I decided to include more of a context by introducing a chair and the backdrop of the room.

The chair I am sitting on is an old fashioned one with a spindle back, so I draped an old sheet over it – partly so I  could practice fabrics and secondly so that the chair back detail did not detract from the outline of the body.

I have another chair in front of me which I am resting my foot on, and have the mirror I am looking into in front of me.  I think this is an interesting sketch because of the way the body is bent over to draw and also the different angles of the legs.

Obviously the view in the mirror is very basic because I am drawing with this hand and so can’t see it, but I think it would make an interesting painting to have the reflection of the legs and hands in it.

Part Three - Portrait and Figure

Finding a model

This part is easy; I don’t have one!!  Was hoping there would be a life drawing class through the local LLC but there is nothing this year.  A local art group have run a couple of sessions through the summer but I was unable to attend due to other commitments – hopefully they will run some more so I can get some practice in.

So, I will have to paint myself for each exercise, and will deal with the practical problems of self-portraits as I come to each exercise.

Drawing Practice

When I completed Drawing 1, the one thing which was commented upon by the assessors was accuracy in life drawing, so I decided to do a number of studies on the areas I find most challenging, namely hands, feet and facial features.

The anatomical drawings were completed using a book I have on anatomy for artists, and the other drawings were completed using a mixture of instructional drawings and photographs.

I began with hands drawing the skeletal structure both from the side angle and straight on, followed by the muscle structure of the hand and forearm.  A number of drawings of hand gestures followed, trying a number of methods to simplify the overall structure and to achieve accuracy of scale.  The next two sheets of gestural movement were studied in a range of media; biro, graphite, charcoal pencil and willow charcoal sticks.  I found the willow charcoal easiest to work with for depicting skin and the underlying structures – because it is so soft, it is very easy to blend to achieve the soft, malleable forms of the hand, as well as being very easy to erase and restate marks.

I followed the same format with the feet – basic bone structure from differing angles, muscles of the underside of the foot, and those of the foot and lower leg, followed by the foot from different angles with a range of media.  One I found particularly effective was using mixed media – ink and dip pen, charcoal and charcoal pencil.  This achieved the hard edges and dark tones of nails and underlying bones while allowing for soft, dark shading.  I found feet harder to draw than hands while they should be simpler because the form is not as complicated.  However, I found it much harder to judge accurate proportion with feet – I think with hands, because of all the joints, these are more measuring points which I found helpful.

I progressed to basic structure of the skull (side on) and then a split drawing of the skull (face on) with the overlying muscle structures opposite.  I think, although very time consuming, completing anatomical studies do give a very good grounding in how the body works, which in turn informs the artist in accurately portraying the human form (ie on the face, you can see the layers of muscles around the mouth and jaw, which explains why folds and wrinkles appear where they do).

Using photos from a magazine, I sketched a couple of heads to gauge angles, and then remembered how bad I was at simplifying facial features so decided to study individual figures, again using different techniques to achieve the correct proportions.  One technique I found helpful (but really obvious when you think about it), is to imagine the lips on a cylinder, and to use this to get the right angle and foreshortened effects you get when a head is rotated or tilted.

I next attempted noses, which I think have to be the most awkward thing to get right – the form is so different depending on your viewpoint, and because the nose is (literally!) central to the face, if you get that wrong, an accurate likeness will not be achieved. 

I decided to try a full face and so used a small photo from Artists & Illustrators (appropriately of an artist!) which I choose because she was smiling broadly, creating more range of highlight/shadow and creases than are normally seen on portraits.  I am quite pleased with this drawing, although I feel the right side is much better than the left – it has more life and detail than the left – which I think is due to the detail in the right eye.  Again, I used charcoal here for depth of tone and easy ability to rub out!

The last sketch I tried here was of Jessica Ennis - as the Olympics was on, there were plenty of figures to draw!