Figure Drawing - The Human Figure

One of the greatest challenges to confront an artist is drawing the human figure. Our bodies are infinitely complex yet intimately familiar, giving rise to a subject that is difficult to depict accurately yet judged incessantly. The human figure is almost overwhelmingly complex for the artist to draw. The human figure is an organic structure that defies geometric simplification. It is composed of bones, muscles, and organs, all of which are covered by a flexible layer of skin. The body has many moving parts that make it almost impossible to define as a shape. Within its skeleton are more...
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Figure Drawing - The Human FigureC H A P T E R 1 ✎ The Human FigureO ne of the greatest challenges to confront an artist is drawing the human figure. Our bodies are infinitely complex yet intimately familiar, giving rise to a subject that is difficult to depict accuratelyyet judged incessantly.The human figure is almost overwhelmingly complex for the artist to draw.The human figure is an organic structure that defies geometric simplification.It is composed of bones, muscles, and organs, all of which are covered by aflexible layer of skin. The body has many moving parts that make it almostimpossible to define as a shape. Within its skeleton are more than 200 indi-vidual bones. Attached to the skeleton and throughout the body are morethan 650 muscles.Figure drawings are held to the highest standards. Because the body is veryfamiliar to us—we each have one of our own—we generally know a lot aboutit. We admire its beauty and we recognize its flaws. Physical perfection issought by many, giving rise to such industries as cosmetics, plastic surgery,and a plethora of diet programs. This basic familiarity can often become thebane of the figure artist because his artwork is judged by a higher standardthan almost any other art form.Any artist desiring to learn how to draw the figure needs all the help he canget. Fortunately, in addition to books and other forms of instruction, a newway to help artists with their figurative work is becoming available throughtechnology. This new technology gives the artist access to virtual figure mod-els to use as references for figure drawing. Figure Artist, a new software pro-gram, now brings the power of virtual models to everyone with access to acomputer. Figure 1.1 shows a screen shot of Figure Artist. 1Figure Drawing with Virtual ModelsAlthough virtual models should and talk with one mouth. It is diffi- Drawing the human form is excit-not take the place of human mod- cult to imagine any subject so simi- ing and rewarding. Although theels, they do add a valuable resource lar yet so individual. task might seem daunting, thefor the artist when real models are rewards are great. Not only doesunavailable or the pose is unattain- There is a rich history of art cen- the study of figure drawingable. Often artists are faced with tered on the human figure. The strengthen all of your art skills, itneeding to draw a figure with no human form transcends the history also enables you to express your-time, money, or availability of a of art from the earliest cave paint- self in ways that would be difficultmodel. Sometimes the pose needed ings to the present time. Great with any other subject. The veryfor a drawing is something that masters such as Rembrandt, da fact that we ourselves are humancan’t be held by a model, such as Vinci, Michelangelo, Velasquez, allows us to appreciate the inspiredin the case of something requiring Rubens, David, Picasso, and more work of a figure artist.dynamic motion in sports or other have all focused on the human fig-extreme physical activity. In these ure in their work. One can scarcelysituations, artists in the past had to walk through a major art museum without finding an abundance of The Humanrely on their own visualizationabilities. Now, however, artists can work depicting the figure. The Formset up models in Figure Artist and range is enormous, from breathtak- ing realism to thought-provoking Drawing the human form is a chal-use them as reference for their fig- abstraction and everything in lenge that requires extensive study.ure work. This book will help to between. Any artist who wishes to masterexplain how virtual models can be the drawing of the human formused to help artists improve their One of the reasons for the abun- needs to spend extended timefigure drawing. dance of figure art is the amazing studying the anatomy that makes range of emotional potential with up the human body. Although humans as subjects. Although some artists might gain the abilityD ...