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.

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/

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 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!

Todd Harris is an artist who has spent thousands of hours being classically trained in the Florence Academy method. He works as a concept art director for the Walt Disney Corporation where he teaches and critiques teams of artists. He has had many paintings published in magazines such as Dragon. His mission is to help artists of all levels to achieve their artistic goals. He does this by providing his guide and supplemental information along the way. The archived articles, newsletters, forums, and portfolio reviews from his websites will all work as a whole to better artists anywhere in the world.

“April” by Todd Harris

THE INTERVIEW

Q – What medium or mediums do you work with?

A - I work with charcoal, pencil, and digital mediums. I’m looking to move into the oils soon. I’ve always been a strong believer for figures that you master pencil before going into painting.

Q – How long have you been an artist? How did you get started?

A – I have been an artist for the past 12 years professionally but have been doing art for as long as I can remember. It’s the only thing that makes sense in my life.

I didn’t have as much talent as other artists but I wasn’t good at anything else, lol! My first job as an artist was drawing the pictures for tombstones (kind of a dead-end job). It was actually a really good starting job because you felt like you were bringing comfort to others through art and I really developed some good drawing principles during this time.

Then I did some commercial art and then went over to video game art, which lead me to Disney.

Q – Do you have any formal training or are you self taught?

A – Both…I have a Bachelor’s in Fine Art but that alone wouldn’t have put me in the place I am now. I would find that sometimes the artists taking the classes knew more than the university professors. So, I bought a bunch of books, studied those as often as I could. I also took workshops and independent classes here locally. One thing that I have found that is really cool is that most universities will offer figure drawing classes on the weekends for cheap. You can do a drawing session for about 5 dollars. These have really helped me to grow as an artist.

Q – Do you have any favorite art supplies that you would like to recommend??

A – The digital art medium is starting to become more legitimate and is great for saving time. I use Corel Painter 9 for my digital art.

For traditional products I like toned paper. It gives you a head start getting you half way there because it starts you off with your midtones and you can finish your drawings faster.

Q – Do you work with any specific styles or subject matter?

A – I like to draw people and then the more adventurous side of me likes to do a lot of fantasy as well. Working for Disney has kept me in imaginative worlds, so I like to work in those creative atmospheres a lot.

Q – Can you recommend any books, videos or other resources that will help new artists?

A – I like several different drawing books. I really like Bridgman, he has a bunch of anatomy and figure drawing books. I like Vanderpoel as well. Charles Bargue has some good educational figure drawing books. Stephen Peck has a good starter called Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist. I wrote a book on figure drawing as well, it’s called Master the Human Form.

Q – How do you get ideas to create a piece? What inspires you?

A – I’m inspired by reading and story . I am also inspired by that place in my imagination that I want to visit. (My wife is laughing at that last statement right now) I’m inspired by great writing and other beautiful art.

Q – Are there any artists that have influenced you and why?

A – Howard Pyle, NC Wyeth are two of the old timer’s that I am inspired by. Frank Frazetta and others. I am really inspired and love the old illustrators and visual storytellers. James Gurney and many others as well. I’m influenced by many artists that I have rubbed shoulders with or taken classes from or read their books.

Q – Do you have a website you would like to share?

A – There are many great advantages of the internet. Artists have such great resources now to help them in their artistic endeavors. I have a couple of websites that focus on figure drawing. They are www.learning2draw.com and www.alldrawnout.com. One offers a book and the other offers a site with video instruction and tutorials so you can see figure drawings being done right in front of you. About.com has some good resources for drawing as well, and of course, I love creative spotlite!. The blogging world is becoming big for artists to share their work, we are like a big community of artists. My blog is found at www.hog-heaven.blogspot.com.

Q – Finally, do you have any last words of advice for beginner artists?

A – Yes, just focus on your passion and love of art. Don’t get discouraged. As I mentioned before, I was probably the most untalented artist I know. Just keep practicing! You may hear that a lot but I think you hear it a lot because it’s the golden ticket to great art.

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