By Dorothy Gauvin

Then the genius of Michelangelo and Leonardo rose like a pair of new suns, to shed light on the darkness. Even so accomplished a master as Raphael was grateful for the lessons provided by their works. Like everyone since, Raphael realised he could never attain the perfection of Michelangelo. Like us, he could only look and wonder.

But Leonardo did something that surpassed the relatively small body of paintings he produced; something that must endear him to all artists who follow. With a scientist’s curiosity, he investigated the mechanics of Nature. What’s more, he left an invaluable legacy of detailed reports on what he uncovered. To make his discoveries, Leonardo had to dissect cadavers, teaching himself as he went. We, thankfully, don’t need to go through that. Today, we have the benefit of his hard-won knowledge available in texts of varying degrees of complexity.

TIP: For beginners, the excellent range of Walter Foster books in limp cover provides an easy-to-follow introduction to the subject. For painters, the ‘Bible’ is Victor Perard’s Anatomy & Drawing. Along with this study, it’s vital that you draw constantly from life. As a youngster, I helped out after school in my parents’ corner shop. Sure, it often seemed a drag, but it offered an opportunity beyond value. Perched behind the counter with my sketchbook and pencils, I drew the customers, scrambling to get down a likeness in the time they were there. It was the best grounding I could have had.

You can do the same while waiting for the bus, while taking your lunch break in the park, while commuting on the train. Your family and pets are readily available models; they’ll seldom submit to ‘posing’ but that just teaches you to catch a likeness quickly. If all else fails, there is always the mirror.

Another indispensable method of learning figure drawing is the Life Class. In most instances, no actual instruction is given at such a ‘class.’ What usually happens is that a professional artist – often one who gives private tuition – will invite a small group of other professionals, or serious students, to meet on a regular basis.Their aim is to maintain and hone their skills at drawing the nude figure. Everyone ‘hits the kitty’ in equal shares to pay the fee of an artists’ model. Professional models come in both genders, all shapes, ages and colours. They can hold even difficult poses for up to twenty minutes and deserve a lot more credit than they get.

The conveyor of the class will take responsibility for timing ‘lightning’ poses. For these, a stopwatch will be set for a dauntingly few seconds, while you – the newcomer – will sweat blood trying to keep up with the old hands. If you ever get an invitation to such a group, don’t hesitate to take it; you’ll benefit more than I can tell you.

Whether you’re drawing in a life class, at the bus stop, or in the park, a few good habits will save you a lot of frustration and false starts. The first mark you’ll make on your paper is the Line Of Gravity. This is a straight line, perpendicular to the ground, against which you will balance the figure. The second line will indicate the centre of the figure. You can find this by measuring with your thumbnail on a pencil held out at arm’s length. If you remember always to hold the pencil at full arm’s stretch, you’ll get correct measurements every time.

Your next step is to find the Rhythm Of The Pose. You’ll do this by quickly expressing the figure’s pose with freely drawn lines. It’s a good idea to keep these lines faint, to avoid later confusion. Now, indicate the angles of the shoulders and the pelvis, and you’re off to a strong start.

At home, hit those Anatomical Drawing books! Study the principles of proportion until they become second nature. You’ll learn to think of the human body in terms of ‘heads’ because you’ll know that the average male adult is seven-and-a-half ‘heads’ tall; a head being the length from top of the skull to tip of the chin.

Speaking of the head, a common error beginners make is to imagine they can draw ‘A Face’ without learning anything of anatomy. This just couldn’t be more wrong. You see, there’s no such thing as a face – in isolation – except as part of the head. And this is a three-dimensional object whose underlying structures build the face. To understand them is to be able to draw any person’s head, adding those variations from the norm that give each face its unique characteristics.

Michelangelo was not only sculptor, painter and architect, but also a writer of note. He once gave this advice to painters: ‘Painting most closely approaches perfection when it most closely resembles sculpture.’

In today’s high-tech world, painters have access to equipment that the Old Masters would have coveted. Cameras can save us hours of tedious reference sketching; projectors can reduce the time it takes to place objects in a composition. But painters who rely on such aids, lacking the confidence and skills gained by freehand drawing and a grounding in Anatomical Drawing, soon find themselves in trouble.

They are trapped in the same dangers as that unfortunate generation of school kids who were the victims of experimentation by well-meaning education reformers. Trying to make learning easier and more fun, they introduced ‘whole word recognition’ in place of boring old spelling. As a result, two generations of kids grew up lacking an ability to spell. Some people question if it matters. ‘After all, they can usually work out what the other person meant to say.’

Here’s an example. Recently, I saw an advertisement in the newspaper for a sale at a local department store. Among the items discounted was: ‘Intermit Apparel 50% Off.’ A good deal, if only I knew what ‘Intermit Apparel’ might be. Later, I spotted that sign over – you’ve guessed it – the women’s underwear section. The impression it gave me was: ‘These people don’t really know what they’re doing.’

(c)Dorothy Gauvin

Dorothy Gauvin’s oil paintings have been reproduced as high-quality, affordable, limited edition art prints. Four prints comprise the Waltzing Matilda series. Five prints comprise the Great Australian Horsemen series. See them at http://www.gauvin.com.au

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The following post contains five figure drawing videos by artist Cy Porter.  These free drawing and animation tutorials are posted to help promote Cy’s animated films. He hopes you find these videos helpful and please take the time to check out some of his animation work at solomation.com

Human Figure Drawing Lesson Part 1: Overview

This tutorial introduces some basics to drawing people from your mind.

Human Figure Drawing Lesson 2: The neck

Tutorial 2 offers some overview of drawing chest, neck and head as they would appear in a 3d space. No detail here. Early stages of the drawing is concerned with placement and angle of parts of the body.

Human Figure Drawing Lesson 3 : Shoulders

This tutorial introduces the early stages of drawing shoulders on a human figure. Shoulders are not fixed but can move almost as much as outer limbs.

Human Figure Drawing Lesson 4 : Shoulders Continued

More about how shoulders are not fixed in place on the chest and how they move around.

Human Figure Drawing Lesson 5 : Figure Standing, Seen From Front

In tutorial 5 I discus drawing people in 3d perspective then take you threw the early stage of drawing a figure standing, seen from the front.

Drawing Demonstration -- Front Nude (Reilly Technique)

Drawing demonstration using the Reilly technique in under 5 minutes of a front nude pose.

A big thanks to Donelli for making this figure drawing tutorial available!  You can lear more about Donelli and see more of his videos by following this link to reach his YouTube Page.

Structural Life Drawing with Gary Geraths (Otis College)

In this video drawing tutorial, artist and instructor Gary Geraths shows the first steps in creating a gestural, anatomical and structured life drawing from a live model.

Figure drawing is one of the most challenging forms of art.  Gary breaks things down for us in an easy to follow format that you are sure to learn a lot from.  Please enjoy!

A big thanks to Gary and the Otis College of Art and Design for making this wonderful video available. See more videos over at their YouTube Channel.

So you are interested in becoming an expert at drawing and painting the human figure? You have certainly found the right place! I thought it would be a good idea to find the best resources and information on figure drawing and put it all together for you in one easy location for easy reference. Below are what I feel to be, some of the best resources for helping you learn how to draw the human body.

Figure Drawing Resource 1

Ebook: Figure Drawing Secrets

How to quickly and easily master figure drawing and painting without a model…

Stop drawing and painting figures the hard way! Now you can learn the secrets of drawing people and figures quickly and easily – without a model… This newly released work called “Figure Drawing Secrets” by Victor Perard is the quickest and easiest way to learn figure drawing. This amazing resource contains over 1016 detailed illustrations for you to study and learn from. Covering every single aspect of human anatomy for the artist. It’s a shame for you not to draw people well – when it’s so simple with the right instruction.

Follow this link and download a copy of the ultimate tutorial on Figure Drawing!

Figure Drawing Resource 2

Software: Virtual Pose

The virtual pose system is the next best thing to working with a live model. It is the ultimate reference for artists that do not have access to a live model. The virtual pose system presents the human form in a way that allows for a deeper understanding of shape, form and gesture.

Highly Recommended!

Follow this link for more information about this amazing product!

Figure Drawing Resource 3

Website: Creativespotlite.com

http://www.creativespotlite.com/

A wonderful assortment of free step by step figure drawing and painting demonstrations.

Figure Drawing Resource 4

Website: Figuredrawings.com

http://figuredrawings.com/

This website is loaded with great information and resources on figure drawing including books, ebooks lessons and more. The site is a bit cluttered and difficult to navigate, but the amount of information there makes up for this shortcoming.

Figure Drawing Resource 5

Website: About.com

Figure Drawing – Life Drawing Tips and Lessons

Nice little series of lessons and exercise on figure drawing including line and contour, structure, proportions and more.

Figure Drawing Resource 6

Website Lesson: Figure Drawing Basics

http://www.drawspace.com/lessons/lesson.php?id=h17

Figure Drawing Resource 7

Website: Figure Drawing Lab

http://drawinglab.evansville.edu/

Figure Drawing Resource 8

Website Tutorial: Figure drawing: Basic Pose and Construction

http://www.elfwood.com/farp/figure/williamlibodyconstruction.html

Figure Drawing Resource 9

Website Lesson: Life Drawing

http://art.net/~rebecca/LifeDrawing1.html

Figure Drawing Resource 10

YouTube Videos

Below are several of the best Figure Drawing videos I could find from YouTube.

Video 1: Drawing the Human Figure From Your Mind

Video 2: How to Draw a Female Figure

Start a female figure drawing by outlining the shoulders and moving to the hips. Learn to draw a female figure with tips from a professional illustrator in this free video about learning to draw.

Video 3: How to draw the human figure – Dan Nelson

Video 4: 10-Minute Figure Drawing Techniques

Video 5: How to Draw the Human Figure

Figure Drawing Resources Update

Since publishing this post a few people have contacted me with more resources to add to this list and I have included them below.

Update 1

Website - http://www.posespace.com/

Update 2

Website - http://www.posemaniacs.com/