Tài liệu Drawing by Lauren Jarrett and Lisa Lenard- P7 docx

Part 6 ➤ Drawing Animals and People

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Where’s the Beef? Where the Ice Cream Goes

Fat deposits are shapes to contend with when drawing the figure.

Muscle development varies from person to person of either gender, but male musculature is

generally heavier than the female. Fat distribution is different, too. Men carry weight at the

middle, on the upper back, and lower back. Women tend to carry weight on their buttocks,

abdomen, thighs, breasts, and the backs of the upper arms. While today’s culture doesn’t al￾ways consider this attractive, it’s a natural part of human anatomy. So relax and open that

carton of Mocha Almond Fudge.

Typical areas of fat de￾posits on the human

body.

What We Have to Look Forward To

As the body ages, the flexor muscles shorten and tend to pull the body into a stoop. In ad￾dition, the spine curves more, the shoulders round or stoop, and the neck thrusts the head

forward. At the same time, muscle tone changes, and the muscles become thinner and

shrink. Joints, meanwhile, seem larger relatively. Skin and soft tissue gets softer and saggy at

the stomach, breasts, elbows, and chin. More ice cream, anyone?

Children, with their longer more flexible muscles, are, not surprisingly, more like animals,

always in motion.

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Chapter 21 ➤ The Human Body and Its Extremities

Extremities: Getting Over Hand and Feet Phobias

The most commonly drawn figure pose is a lovely torso, with the hands behind the back and

the head and feet somehow left off, as with the Venus de Milo. There is a reason for this.

Hands

Hands are the bane of many a figure drawing. There are dozens of small bones and muscles

and ligaments in the hand and the wrist which allow us the wonderful range of movement

we take for granted, even down to the typing of the manuscript for this book.

Think of the hand as a flat, rather squarish shape, with a wrist joint at one end (it is amazing

how often the wrist is ignored), and a curved edge at the other end from which four fingers

extend. This plane is flexible and can rotate and bend at the wrist. On one side, there is a

wedge-shaped muscle from which comes the thumb. The placement of the thumb in this

flexible wedge is what allows us the wonder of “the opposing thumb,” the use of thumb and

fingers in coordinated effort. Think of doing anything without this gift!

Practice, with your own hand as your cheap model, is the best way to draw the hand. Make

that model work for its lunch. Practice, in fact, is the only way you will learn to draw the

hand. There’s no getting around it.

Children are more like animals, in perpetual motion, so you’ll want to use gesture drawing when captur￾ing them. The tilt of a knee can express so much! Practice as well the folds of a dress or getting that

ponytail to have just the right swing.

Here are some hand po￾sitions to practice copy￾ing. Use arcs to get the

relationship of wrist and

finger joints. (see next

page)

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Part 6 ➤ Drawing Animals and People

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Feet

Feet are similarly avoided in figure drawings. But because they are the base for the body at

rest or in action, you need to pay closer attention to them.

Think of the feet as wedged-shaped bases, higher where they are connected at the ankle

joint, sloping down toward the front edge, with an arched shape underneath, and ending

in five toes for added stability. Here, too, practice will best acquaint you with the shapes

and positions. And you have two of these fine specimens to work with, as you probably are

not holding a pencil with one of them.

The base of all figure

drawings: the feet.

Practice copying these

foot positions. Visit the

sculpture gallery of your

local museum with your

sketchbook in hand and

start sketching the feet of

the statues. Try sketching

the feet of one statue

from different eye levels

or views to see how the

foot changes as you

change your orientation.

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283

Chapter 21 ➤ The Human Body and Its Extremities

Head and Neck

The head and neck top off a striking structure. The cervical vertebrae go up into the skull

and allow the head its range of turning, twisting, and bending. If you’ve ever had a bad stiff

neck, you know how precious this flexibility is.

The head itself is roughly as wide as it is high in profile from the front, although it is thin￾ner than it is high and has an oval shape. In the back, the skull is rounded, behind the

shape of the face and jaw. The back of the neck goes up into the skull, while the front of

the neck goes up under the chin and jaw. The main plane of the face is modified by the

facial features: the wedge shape of the nose, the forehead, the eye sockets, the cheekbones,

the mouth and jaw, and the ears on the sides.

Along with studying a few examples here—or better yet, in the hundreds of master draw￾ings in books or museums—just get in there and try some head studies. They’ll help with

portraiture to come.

Take a look at these head studies to see how to top off your figure drawing.

More Form and Weight, Now

Okay, ready to try a figure drawing of your own?

1. Start your drawing with a few gesture or action lines that are the main limbs and

direction of movement. Then, think of the body as a collection of spare parts, drawn

as geometric shapes of various sizes and on various angles relative to each other.

2. Use quick lines to establish gesture, proportion, and shape.

3. Use ellipses for form, particularly ellipsoids.

In longer efforts, the same is true; just continue to add detail, check proportion, and

then add more detail and form.

4. Look at the shapes and the way a shape goes over or under another, especially at the

joints. Think of the roundedness of the body, its strength, and its flexibility as you

draw volume and weight into the gesture.

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Part 6 ➤ Drawing Animals and People

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5. Try to add tone that rounds the shapes and adds a sense of the smoothness, hardness,

flabbiness, flatness, or thinness that you see on the model.

A figure drawing is as simple as the sum

of its parts.

In Chapter 22, “Dress ’Em Up and Move ’Em Out,” we will approach the head, its propor￾tions and parts, the always popular portrait, a consideration of clothing, and the business of

populating your drawings with your friends, family, or perfect (or close to perfect) strangers.

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