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GUIDE TO DRAWING THE BODY

Joumana Medlej, cedarseed.com

The ideałised body proportions used to Iearn anatomy are essential to the learning process (it simplifies a very complex subject for the student), but that you are not expected to abide by them at all times as they do vary slightly in reality. Once you have integrated these rules, you too will veer from them to deve!op your own style - but I honestly don't recommend skipping ahead. Understanding them first is key to knowing how to change the proportions of a body without making it look distorted.

I. GENERAL

The first thing you should do when you want to draw a human body (or anything else, for that matter), is a quick, gesture-style sketch of the underlying volumes. Never start from the head and draw your way down. You have to work in layers, from the rough shapes to the fine details. This way you insure that your body proportions are correct and everything is in place before you put too much time into details you can't change anymore.

To illustrate this, here are three steps in my sketching process:

II. PROPORTIONS OF THE HUMAN BODY

The unit of measurement of the human body is the head. In Western art, men are conventionally 8 heads high, and women slightly smaller at 7.5 heads. In reality, even the Northern European models for this convention are usually closer to 7 heads, not to mention other human types whose proportions may be very different. Nevertheless, the 8-head model (shown on the right) is very useful for the beginners because it allows for easy-to-remember alignments:

I recommend accepting these guidelines in the begin-ning; once you are thoroughly familiar with them you will naturally veer away from them to draw a variety of body types. What is really essential to a well-proportioned body is the way articulations are placed in respect to each other. ('By "well-proportioned" I don't mean a model's body but one that doesn't look misshaped.)

The next step is to understand the differences between the małe and female bodies. They are shown below along with some important points in common:

2. Nipples

3. Belly button and elbow

4. Crotch and wrists

5. Fingertips and mid-thigh

6. Bottom of knee caps

7. Bottom of calf muscles

8. Soles of feet

III. PROPORTIONS OF THE FACE

The skuli is a morę or less flattened sphere to which the jaw is appended: together they give the head and overall egg shape from any angle. An adult face is proportioned as follows:

The lower half is divided in S.Counting from the middle linę, the nose is at 2/5th and the mouth at 3/5th

Seen head-on,the face can be divided in quarters.

The depth of the skuli varies between these two lines (see Human Types)

The neck makes the head jut forward, especially for women.

Foreshortening the face

As hinted by the diagrams above, the lines on which the features were placed run around the head, as does the linę that divides the face in 2 vertically. As a matter of fact, the quickest way to give volume to your egg-shape, as well as to locate the face on it, is to draw the 2 centerlines, now following the head's contour, that cross in the center of the face (right).

To draw the head in perspective, then, simply add the reference lines on the contour, bearing in mind that distances shorten with perspec-tive. Then add the features in their respective places.

The curve of the eyebrows is flattened

- 2/5th: Nose 3/5th: Mouth

Woman Both

Indicating the lower lip is always a nice touch

From the side the eye

has an arrowhead shape. The hairline varies

between 2/4 and 3/4

The distance between the eyes is equal to 1 eye, Wide-set eyes may make a face look infantile.and close-set eyes may inspire distrust, so be aware of what you do with this part of the face.

The ear is in the rear half of the head. Its height of the ears is equal to the distance from nosetip to top of the eyes.

Looking down

The nose oversteps the linę, looking much closer to the mouth. If the perspective is strong enough it will overlap the lips.

In real life the mouth curves up, which looks like a smile on paper, so adjustment may be needed.

The brow isat 1/4 of the upper half.

The hollow of the root of the nose occurs at or slightly above the midline.

Differences in the female and małe face:

(In relative terms this applies throughout the world, but the characteristics of the basie face varies with type -see the section on Human Types.)

Foreshortening from the side

IV. EASY PROPORTION REMINDERS

V. MUSCLE GUIDE

Here are a few diagrams that should help you remern-ber porportions. I visualize them when drawing to place the joints and scalę the lirnbs accurately.

These distances are the same!

shoulder to buttock shoulder to birth of fingers knee to buttock

Understanding muscle structure is a great asset in building bodies. This section offers a guide to this structure that's very simplified, but sufficient for most drawing needs. The muscles or protrud-ing bones are shown as areas of colours while the black outline shows you how that muscle would show on the surface of the body. For reference purpose I emphasize all the important muscles. But it is only in atltletic bodies that they would show this much: the less muscular the character the less muscle slrokes you should show, and the softer the outline of the skin should be as opposed to closely adltering to the muscles (which is what creates a toned look). Also remember females' muscles are morę graceful and less bulky than males'.

Proportion of hand and foot to the face

Where the hand would reach if you tried to touch your shoulder

Sole and palm are half as wide as the face

Notice how smaller they are in women.

B. Arms

With the arms we need to be aware of the way muscle behaviour determines the position of the arm, so I offer different views. Notę how the same muscles manifest differently in each.

It is this extcnsor that "pulls" the hand into a flexed position, thereforę it bulges in this case while its antagonist, the flexor, is relaxed. If the wrist was bending downwards instead, the reverse would occur.

Wrist-elbow measure when arm is bent

In the diagram below, the measures are all equal to the length of the index

Wrist-elbow measure when arm is stretched

The forearm starts thick and tapers till halfway between elbow and hand, then its width is nearly evei

Similarly the biceps bulge when the arm bends (assuming there is resistance, for instance if the hand is holding something heavy), and the triceps bulge if the rm is making an efforno unbend:" ~

Notę the alternation in the arm's contour:

The arm doesn't hang. straight down in resting position. Notę the relationship to the linę dropping from the back of the neck.

Arm bends OUT when thumb is IN. Arm bends IN when thumb is OUT.

C. Legs

Bent (in)

Bent (out)

The biceps bulge to bend the leg

If there is weight on the leg, these muscles bulge too to prevent it from bending completely.

To flex the foot, the tibialis anterior bulges while the calf relaxes. To point the foot, the reverse happens

When the leg is straight, the lower part is staggered baekwards and outwards.

Breasts

To draw breasts, simply place the nipples a little outwards,just inside the body 0-contour, then add the volume.

From the side, draw a circle that is centered on the linę where the nipple falls. Half of it is outside the body.

You can see here the relationship between breast and biceps The hollow of the armpit flows into the breast, though part of that linę may be omitted,

The bottom half of the circle corresponds to the bottom side of the breast. For the upper side, connect the nipple to the birth of the neck in a slight curve.

The breast shape starts at the armpit.lt either bulges out from it ordips ina little first

Proportions of perfect breasts, by Western standards:

The hollow and nipples form an equilatera! triangle where the sides are around 20cm

Ideał bust proportions are attained when the circumfer-ence at the nipples -is 15 cm morę than the circumference of the thorax under the breasts (for instance, 90 and 75 cm)

FAKE

For this cleavage effect to happen, one needs either a special bra.or breasts shaped like balloons, in other words a badly done boob job.

1/3 of the volume of the breast should be bove the areola, 2/3 under it

See Catalog of Human features for breast shapes.

VI. THE BODY IN PROFILE

Drawing a silhouette in profile starts with the usual skeletal structure, with additional details from this angle:

The shoulder joints are forward from the spine, not level with it, because the "linę" of the shoulders is in reality an arc.Top view:

Balance

To make surę a body is balanced, picture a vertical linę shooting up from the centre of its support. On two legs that will be the midpoint between the feet; on one foot, the centre of the foot. If a hand is on the ground it's the center of the feet-hand triangle, and so on.The body must be positioned in a balanced way around this linę:

ćb

brought back in linę or the body must step back or forward to move the linę itself.

Notę: this isn't an exact science because muscles play a role in opposing gravity-induced imbalance. Also, this doesnt apply to motion, because imbalance is the motor of the motion (running is nothing morę than falling forward while pumping your legs to use that vector). It's important to Iearn to evaluate what looks right, morę than what is right.

The body's centre of grayity is right below the belly button, inside the body. The body is most balanced and rooted when this point is on the linę of balance (see Balance box below.)

The hip joint-knee-ankle linę is angled slightly baekwards, so that the knees are aligned with the centre of gravity,the hip is forward, and the ankle is back.Oyerall the effect is of

a head-hip-feetarc -

(that is,when the posturę is erect. Nowadays many people slouch.)

shoul

-O⁵

The spine has a _A x curved shape like a fiat S. How strong this curve is varies with the indiyidual.

It peaks baekward between the shoulder blades.from where it juts forward to form the neck.

There is an opposite peak, inward.a little above the hip bonę, before the coccyx heads out again, creating the arch in the lower back and flowing into the curveof the buttocks.