Practical Guidelines Human Figure

(Secondary Level)

Notes 4
HUMAN FIGURE

AIM
The study of Human figure concerns in capturing the different characters and
emotional expressions. Both of these could be achieved with gestures and body
languages.

INTRODUCTION
Human being is probably the only creature who can express all kinds of emotions
in many ways. It is a real challenge for an artist to capture these emotions in
human being. Apart from vocal sound, human being expresses all these emotions
through different gestures, postures and movements of the body, eyes, lips and
eye brows. The other factor which is important to keep in mind for an artist is to
capture the different physical characteristics of the human figure. A student would
learn the different body languages of a human form expressing different kinds of
emotions through practice of sketching. Paintings are mainly a vehicle of commu-
nication of various expressions. A learner should try to use human form to ex-
press such emotions and moods.

OBJECTIVE
On completion of this Practical exercise, you will be able to:
! draw human figures with proportion;
! express the correct mood and feelings of the human figure;
! depict all kinds of expressions through movement, gestures and postures of
the human body.

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Human Figure Practical Guidelines
(Secondary Level)

Notes

Fig. 1
Draw human forms in simplified line-drawing as shown in frame-l. Try to express
action like walking, writing, running, playing or riding by moving the suggestive
arms and legs attached to its body. Drawing in frame -1 is done with crayon, but
you may draw them with pencil or chalk.

Fig. 2 Fig. 3
Add details to line - drawing in simplified blocks drawing which could indicate
posture, volume and forms of human figure. For reference see fig. 2. Drawings in
fig. 2 are done with HB pencil and later, with ink-pen. Try to compose more figures
of your choise as suggested in fig. 3.

Fig. 4

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Practical Guidelines Human Figure
(Secondary Level)
Learn some of the basic principle of human form adding geometrical elements to it
(see fig. 4). If we take the height of one head as one unit, remember an average
proportion of an adult erect body height is 7.5 head or 7.5 units. With children the
proportion stands as 6.5, 6 or even lesser units to it head varying according to it’s
age as shown in fig 4A. Male torso has almost a parallel waist and bust line, while
Notes female torso has a board hip line than the bust line as shown with triangle and
rectangle blocks in fig 4B. Compose the family with simplified human forms, as
framed in fig 4C. Drawing in frame 4 are done with HB pencil and later; with ink-
pen.

Fig. 5
To draw foot, recognise the triangle and rectangle block structure, and then add
fingers to it, as shown in fig 5: At beginning, place your own foot in the centre of a
paper and draw the outer contour to understand the basic drawing of your foot.
One may also develop the foot drawing watching your own foot prints carefully.
Practise the front view, side view, twist and turns observing the mirror image of your
own foot or sketching from life models. Drawing in fig. 5 are done with pen and ink,
2B and 6B pencils.

Step I Step II Step III Step IV Step V Step VI Step VII

Fig. 6
To draw hand and fingers, draw a circle, attach imaginary lines as fingers and thumb
shown is step (I), Fig. 6. Add details to the line drawing to get the frontal view of the
palm, see-step (II). Follow step (III) to get proportion of hand with its back view.

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 Human Figure Practical Guidelines
(Secondary Level)
Try to draw hand with folding of its fingers, both from front and back view, follow
and observe step IV, V, VI and VII for reference. Drawing in frame-6 are done
with pen and ink, 2B, and 6B pencils.

Notes

Fig. 7
Study a standing figure carefully. Let the figure lean upon and get supported by
something to stand. The distribution of the weight of the body is put on legs as
shown in fig. 7. Observe turn of the torso, hip line and head. Knowledge of actual
bone structure helps to construct solid block drawings. For the figure (See 7A).
One must model character of human figure in attachments of blocks with round.
Finally one may add details defining the form and rendering it further with drapery
as shown in fig. (7B). Drawing in fig. 7 are done with 2B,4B and 6B pencils.

Fig. 8
Look around to observe the different people at work. Try to make several rough
sketches adding different clothing they wear or typical accessories they usually use
at work, (for reference see fig. 8A, B, and C). Drawing in Fig. 8 are done with
2B,4B and 6B pencils. Step II

Step I

Step III Step IV

Fig. 9 Fig. 10

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Practical Guidelines Human Figure
(Secondary Level)
To construct a head, practice making a circle, divide it in two equal parts, as
shown in frame -9 step-I. Extend a circle to its side ways to form ear structure as
shown in step-II. Add another circle to form lower jaw and chin as. shown in
step-III. Divide the plane in three equal parts (line A, B and C) as shown in step-
3. Line A becomes the ear line, B the middle line and C the eyebrows. The place-
Notes ment of mouth in between nose and chin and adding eyes can be added later as
shown in step-IV .Further observe how the head moves from the side view to
front view, for reference see fig. A, B and C as shown in Frame-10.

Fig. 11
Locate the basic features to draw a face. Observe the drawing of eyes, lips and
nose from different viewpoints (for reference see fig. 9). Drawings in Fig. 11 are
made . in 2B pencil.

Fig. 12
Observe a smiling face of a girl, from different angle and viewpoints as shown in
fig. 12. Adopt these details, while practicing your own studies of a human face.
Drawings in fig.10 are done with 2B, 4B, 6B pencils.

PLEASENT CRY

ANGER SORROW

DISGUST DOUBT
Fig. 13
FEAR LAUGH

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Human Figure Practical Guidelines
(Secondary Level)
Relate different moods and expression of human face while studying the above.
Observe the changing shapes of eyes and eyebrows, lips to express the feeling of
anger (A), pleased (B) fear (C) laugh (D), sorrow (E), cry (F), disgust (G) and
doubt (H).

Notes

Fig. 14
Observe the interesting mechanics of movement of a walking human figure, as shown
in frame-14 drawn with 2B pencil. Try to create your own walking cycle of figure
observing the sketching in Fig. 14.

Fig. 15 A Fig. 15B

Study the details of portrait with its expression with the help of an appropriate
photograph. One may try to do the study; taking reference of his/her own photo-
graph. Moreover working to create a self-portrait is always interesting and achiev-
ing. Observe the light and shade in different techniques, like charcoal, pastel, strip-
ling or hatching. For reference see Fig. 15A (portrait done in stripling with ink-
pen), and Fig. 15B (expression of a child done in hatching and line-drawing with
charcoal-pencil).

Fig. 16 and 17
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Practical Guidelines Human Figure
(Secondary Level)
Do lot of live sketching starting from observing figures at rest or sitting to standing
position with different characteristics. Try to capture the basic structure in line-
drawing, with 2B or 4B and then add details to it further for reference see fig.-l ,2,3
and 4 (Fig.16 and 17).

Notes

Fig. 18
Compose five figures. Show each of them is engaged in different activities starting
with simple basic structure (see fig. no. 18).

Fig. 19
Arrange these figures according to your imagination. One such option is shown in
this composition. After drawing with H.B. pencil the details are finished with ink
and brush.

Fig. 20
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Human Figure Practical Guidelines
(Secondary Level)
You may also colour it with any medium of your choice, for reference see fig. 20
(the composition is done in water colour medium).
Exercises
1. Try to sketch your "mother in kitchen" or "father relaxing". First draw the
structure in block-drawing as shown in fig. 2. Then add details using HB and Notes
2B pencils.
2. Try to sketch a child of age 10 to 13 years in any posture. Use shading for
detail with HB, 2B and 6B pencil.
3. Observe people at work, try to sketch them in different position. Further com-
pose it in to a coloured composition. As shown in fig. 7, fig. 8 and fig. 20.
4. Try to make your own portrait using the help of a photograph as reference. Do
the detail shading with the process of stripling or hatching. As shown in fig. 15.

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Practical Guidelines Human Figure
(Secondary Level)

Notes

Study of a girl (Crayon on bamboo paper)

by Nandlal Bose

Dancer
(Pencil on Paper)
by Nandlal Bose

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