Find the Gesture of the Pose Quick Sketches
To draw the human figure convincingly, you must be aware of the gesture, or the movement, or position of the body. This gesture gives movement and direction to your drawing, which makes it appear more lifelike. Observing the gesture carefully helps you to understand the placement of the spine, which serves as the center of movement for the whole body. You can also think of this in the opposite way Observe the placement of the spine, and you will understand the gesture. This quick sketch...
The Portrait
Many individuals are fascinated by the multitude of faces that they see and are compelled to draw them. However, beginners often find it too difficult a subject for them to tackle based on their skill level. In this chapter, we will attempt to demystify portrait drawing by conveying some basic principles that will help the student draw more three-dimensional, solid, and sensitive portraits. The Allure of the The Portrait in Three Facial Features Drawing a Tonal Portrait 214 Gallery Portrait...
Planar Rendering of Complex Forms
When rendering complex forms, such as the palm fronds in Chapter 8, it is helpful to simplify the forms into facets or planes. Once you are able to think of form in these terms, you can draw more complicated three-dimensional objects. Interpret Form Through Cross-Sections of The Planes of the Hand The Planes of the Head Choose Your Subject and Prepare Your Materials 154 Let the Light Reveal the Drawing Demonstration A Palm and a Deer Skull 156 Gallery Geometric The subjects that we have been...
Find the Gesture of the Pose Quick Sketches continued
The direction of movement in this sketch is captured with few details. The artist has simplified the pattern of light and shadow to convey a figure about to stride forward. Shadow and light have been used here to describe the form, but line has been used mostly to describe and accentuate this sense of movement. The only line drawn to describe the back is a short, dark line that pronounces the curve of the back as the figure steps forward, its darkness accentuating this movement. The small...
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In this arresting drawing, Eder has used the full tonal range of the medium, from white to black, to create an image with a strong visual impact. The chair seats are drawn in one-point perspective, but the compositional element is directed by the pattern of shapes of light and shadow. The mysterious red lines seem to be incongruous at first glance but in fact give a visual strength and added structure to the drawing. Musical Chairs, by Eileen Eder, courtesy of the artist Musical Chairs, by...
Create A Cube On A Perspective Grid
Once you have determined the width and depth of the cube in perspective, as seen in the diagram above, it's easy to transform this into a three-dimensional cube. The first thing to determine is the height of the cube that you would like to draw. This is achieved by drawing two vertical lines starting on the two front corners of your cube to the determined height. In this case, it's an arbitrary height. The next step is to connect the two tops of the vertical lines A and B with a horizontal...
Practice to Develop Your Style
Humans perceive reality in terms of relationships between shapes of tone. The junction where one shape of tone meets another is evident as the edge of an object meeting another edge. Early humans perceived this and in their desire to give representation to this phenomenon of the edge of one object meeting another edge, visually, they drew a line. With a leap of creativity, early humans invented a language for a visual shorthand, which to this day is still practiced by artists in a multitude of...
Add More Dimension to Your World TwoPoint Perspective
While one-point perspective was most often used by artists throughout history, it is more common for artists to view reality in two-point perspective. Two-point perspective takes into account an object's visible side angles versus the face-on appearance of an object in one-point perspective. For this reason, it is important to understand the rules of two-point perspective and to see, when applied well, what a useful vantage point it is for creating very interesting art. Introduction to...
Add a Color to
This is a continuation of the drawing starting from page 250. The chair that the model is sitting on has been defined here. Some additional shading was added to the side plane of the thigh and to the center area of the lower back. The artist did not make this area too dark in tone, as there is still light on this area however, the light is not as strong as the light on the upper back. Now you can see the development of the foot. The ankle-bone is defined by shading around the protruding bone...
In the Studio
In this chapter, you will learn about the objects and pointers that we, as artists, have come to rely on in our studio environment. Our years of experience will help you avoid the practical pitfalls you may come across while drawing. Ample Space Types of Easels Mirror Use Where to Buy . 29 Lighting is an extremely important aspect of drawing to consider. Drawing is about what you see and how you see your subject. Light is the most important element of drawing because it reveals the structure of...
Stage Bjx
All of the planes throughout the still life have been defined and shaded at this stage. The artist worked hard to define each shift of form with a plane. The artist was tempted to call the drawing finished here because he liked the geometric interpretation of the subject. For the sake of this exercise, he proceeded to soften the transition between the various planes to enhance the naturalistic quality of the drawing.
Light And Shadow
Now that the drawing of the subject is more advanced, you can focus attention on developing the drawing tonally. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, this will be a high-keyed drawing by focusing on the lightest half of the tonal range, from white to about 50-percent gray. This means that you will have to gradually and selectively develop the darker areas of your subject. By pushing most of the tones toward the light end of the tonal spectrum, notice how you can create the illusion of a dark...
Drawing the Human Figure
There is no greater pleasure or challenge in the world of art than to draw the human figure. In this chapter, you will be introduced to various approaches to drawing this very special subject. Set Up the Model Light the Light Reveals the Copy Works of Art in Find Your Guidelines . ' 236 Examples of Foreshortening 240 Find the Gesture of the Pose Quick Sketches 244 Add a Color to Your Paper 248 Gallery . Human Figure Drawing the human figure is an excellent way to improve and expand on your...
Tip
Remember to continually step back at least 6-10 feet from your drawing to make sure that you aren't overemphasizing the details and, in turn, compromising the big forms. In order to obtain the illusion of reality in your drawing, you must be able to portray the light that you observe on objects or scenes. Previously, you have considered light and shadow as shapes fitting together to form a jigsaw puzzle. You must now consider the quality of that light in those shapes. Ask yourself the following...
Gallery OnePoint Perspectives continued
Although this image is a painting, it is included here because it displays the artist's knowledge of perspective. Once you have mastered the rules of perspective, you can create a believable space such as this. One-point perspective is used to dramatic effect to suggest the wide, lonely, seemingly never-ending road of a Texas town. The painting has a precision of drawing objects in perspective which adds to its very believable sense of realism. Through its accuracy, you can get a very clear...
Acknowledgments
We hope we have created a book which will inspire the reader, through the ideas and imagery presented, to find the process of becoming a skilled artist less frustrating and more enjoyable. We would like to acknowledge the contribution of all the artists who took part in this project by generously allowing us to reproduce their work. Also, thanks to our editors Pam Mourouzis and Donna Wright from Wiley Publishing for their friendliness and patience during this process. Flatness into Form An...
The Horizon Line
The objects on this table are below the horizon line. The horizon line eye level of the viewer is the level where all of the sides or lines of the objects that are perpendicular to the viewer converge. Judge accurately, with your eye, the level of your horizon line and place a mark on the wall behind the still life. It is good to place a mark somewhere, so that you do not become confused and forget where it is. You can also mark your eye level on a stick and place the stick next to your setup,...
TIP Swk
There are some instances where three-point perspective can occur, such as when you are drawing cityscapes and you are on the street looking up at a tall building, or when you are inside a tall building looking down at the street. In the first example, both sides of the buildings are visible, as in two-point perspective the third vanishing point occurs as the vertical lines of the building converge up in the sky. When looking down from a building, the vanishing point occurs below the ground...
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To develop the multitude of tonal relationships in your subject, use the peephole method discussed in Chapter 5 of comparing areas of tone. The more carefully the tones are observed and rendered, the more realistic it becomes. Look for the half tone or transitional tones between the lights and shadows, as these areas help to add volume to your forms. Now that you have rendered the large forms in relation to each other and have constructed a feeling of space and light, you can add a further...
A Day at the Museum continued
This Greek sculpture of a male torso from 450-400 BC has a freshness, vitality, and degree of realism that completely transcends the passage of time. An important aspect of its vitality is the subtle lateral swaying motion of the sculpture. The sketch was executed with an HB pencil and a kneaded eraser. The line around the figure was intentionally varied to help capture the rhythm of the figure. Copy after a Greek statue, by Dean Fisher Copy after a Greek statue, by Dean Fisher This drawing of...
The Nuts and Bolts of Landscape Drawing
Many of us are inspired by the overwhelming beauty of the natural world. However, you may find that once you are in the landscape, the subject, with its vastness and complexity, is very difficult to scale down to a sketchbook-sized image. For this reason, one of the most useful tools of the landscape artist is a viewfinder. A viewfinder is to the artist what looking through a camera's viewfinder is to the photographer. It's a way of isolating a subject and seeing how the arrangement of the big...
The Thumbnail Sketch
The thumbnail sketch is a very small sketch approximately 2 x 2 of your subject as you are viewing it through your viewfinder. The purpose of this type of preliminary sketch is to visualize how your subject will look once you begin drawing it larger on your paper. Because of the simplicity and rapidity of execution, these sketches are very useful for experimenting with the arrangement of your subject within the format of your paper. It is recommended that you do two or three thumbnail sketches...
Facial Features
It's important to have a clear understanding of the forms and proportions of the nose. It is often the area of the face that is closest to the viewer, and therefore, it has to be rendered with clarity. If clarity of form is achieved, the nose becomes a device that brings this part of the face closer to the viewer spatially, allowing the other parts of the face to recede. With a view of the nose from this angle a , you can see some of the distinct surfaces, or planes, of the nose. The underside...
Index
Accuracy in drawing, 111, 128, 179 aerial perspective, 102, 270-271, 278 Alberti, Leon Battista, 72 anatomical awareness, 204-205, 232 angles cast drawing, 175-176 finding, preparing to draw, 46-47 planar rendering, 156 two-point perspective, 96, 98-99 animated models. See modeling armature, 125 artificial light, 22, 24, 35 artistic intent, 121 art stores, 29 background. See foreground and background barn, two-point perspective demonstration, 104-113 cast drawing, 175, 187 defined, 278 human...
What Is Drawing
Drawing is a very personal endeavor. Here, in this short introduction, the authors introduce ideas and motivations as to why they are attracted to the art of drawing. Flatness into Form An Introduction from Dean Fisher . . . Drawn to Create An Introduction from Josephine Robinson A Gallery of Drawings to Inspire You Flatness into Form An Introduction from Dean Fisher The creation of the illusion of reality on a flat, blank surface always has and still fascinates me as an artist. With some good...
Perspective
Two Florentine architects, Leon Battista Alberti and Filippo Brunelleschi, first formulated mathematical systems of perspective in the fifteenth century. This enabled the artists of that era and onward to represent a recognizable three-dimensional world on a flat surface. This chapter will teach you some basic rules of one-point perspective. What Is One-Point Perspective 74 One-Point Perspective in Everyday Life 76 Determine the Create a Perspective The Ellipse in Perspective . ' 81 Draw...
The Facets of Form
As we lead up to drawing the human head and figure in subsequent chapters, which can be intimidating subjects for the student because of their complexity, here are some ideas that will help you break down objects into simplified facets. Notice how the addition of gradated tone impacts a greater level or realism to the object. As an exercise, try rendering basic objects like the pot pictured below as a series of planes. As you gain confidence, move on to more complicated forms such as a shell,...
Draw a Barn in TwoPoint Perspective continued
Now that all of the large forms are in their correct perspective and look solid and lit, it's time to give the drawing a sense of completion. Adding the subtle nuances in tone and incidental details in each area imparts a sense of texture. Notice how breaking up the large area of tone in our drawing that represents the grass, by drawing some individual clumps of grass in a few areas, begins to create a sense of focus it also helps the illusion of dimension by bringing the foreground closer to...
Greek Torso Sculpture
While Dean was in art school, he was fortunate to have several plaster casts to work from. Eventually, he could draw two of them from memory because he had drawn them dozens of times. Both were anatomical casts made by nineteenth-century sculptors One was of the planes of the human head, and the other was a life-sized sculpture depicting the musculature of the human body. The drawings on pages 170-173 are the result of a day that the authors spent in the Antique Sculpture rooms at the...
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Here is a sketch using only line. The line encompasses the area of shadow that you see when squinting. Notice how the grapes are treated as one large object. The artist has introduced only a tiny amount of detail to suggest individual grapes. The apple was incorporated into the dark shadow on the wall, but not differentiated from it. This will happen when the drawing is further refined. When you think about shadows rather than individual objects, you can refine your drawing and know that the...
Discover the Pattern of Light and Shadow
In this chapter, you will learn very simple ways of establishing the shape of light and shadow areas in your drawings. You will also learn how to achieve the illusion of three-dimensionality. The techniques in this chapter are used to create a reductive or tonal drawing, as the shape or pattern of light is removed from previously toned paper. A beautiful oval-shaped vase is used for many of the drawing examples because it has a simple round form, which lends itself well to the principles being...
Draw a Plaster Cast
The drawing of sculptures and plaster casts is a tried-and-true exercise that has been practiced by artists for centuries. It is the perfect bridge between drawing a still life and a portrait or human figure. The Tradition of Plaster Cast Drawing 168 A Day at the Plaster Cast Drawing in Charcoal 174 Gallery Plaster Cast At the heart of the Renaissance, there was a revival of and fascination with the proportion, form, and beauty of ancient Greco-Roman sculpture. Artists of the time steeped...
TIP Jda
Inevitably, there will be areas of your line drawing that you'll want to lighten, without completely erasing what you have drawn. To do this, you can take your clean, kneaded eraser and blot the areas that you feel are too dark. You can also lightly rub the eraser over the lines to take away some graphite. Near the final stages of the line drawing, the artist continued the same process from the previous step lightening some areas considerably to allow them to recede and form a less important...
Prepare to Draw
In this chapter, you will be introduced to methods that help you to simplify the process of drawing. You will learn how to light and situate your subject so it will be easier to understand and to draw. You will also be shown a method of drawing that is concerned with drawing shapes rather than lines. This will help you to understand how to draw your subject three-dimensionally on your flat, one-dimensional sheet of paper. Finally, you will consider and look at a variety of marks which can add...
A Palm Frond
In this section, you can see four different approaches to drawing a portion of the palm frond. These are only a few of the many ways that you can approach this subject using line drawing. Notice how each of the examples creates an entirely different effect from the others. This drawing was made with a thin, black ball-point pen. There was a conscious effort to keep the pen on the paper, with one unbroken uniform line, while drawing each individual palm frond. The pattern of positive and...
Appendix
Aristides Classical Atelier Cast drawing after an unknown nineteenth century artist's rendition of Moses, p. 185 Cast drawing after Charles Barque's Belvedere Torso, p. 188 Cast drawing of the head of the Callipygian Venus, p. 186 Cast drawing of the hand of Michelangelo's David, p. 187 Cast drawing after a Greek sculpture of Venus, p. 187 Figure Study, p. 125 Portrait of Jorge, p. 223 Portrait of Andrea Quaratesi, p. 8 Jacob Collins www.jacobcollinspaintings.com The Artist's Mother, p. 193...
