Figure Drawing : Lights, Clothing, Action Poses!

            A human body can do so much more than standing, sitting, ect. There's a certain shape and flow that truly shapes the motion in a drawing. Artists manipulate shapes and curves to make a balanced and natural look in to the human body. As Loomis describes it, "If you balance a pole on your hand, you must follow with you hand the movement of the top of the pole." (Loomis, 116). For example, if you were to draw a running pose turning to the right, the whole body with shift to that angle. However, the figures hips and shoulders sway in certain angles to create a thorough shape in the figure.
            Loomis states the this as "the 'spirit of the movement". An artist cannot be successful if your drawings are static. Movement and action look pleasing to the eye (Loomis, 117). If you look back at post #1 it's the most stiff pose you could put a figure in, straight and forward. While it may be perfectly fine if you were to study measurements. But once you've mastered eyeballing proportion, an artist must move onto using those skills to draw a figure in more complex poses.

          The key is balance. Notice in the bottom right drawing that the figure has their right foot extended out. In that case I knew to make the arch of her back more acute to compensate the balance of her footing. Therefore, her shoulders are aligned and the pose looks natural. As far as a poses fluidity: this is best exemplified in the top right picture. Her legs, arms, spine and hars all have aruved angles. Here is no straight edges shapes, ect used in this particular piece because I wanted the movement to have a rounder and softer approach.

           In my personal opinion, I believe that my first few drawings were static and stiff regardless of the curriculum. Most of my drawings then had no fluidity to the piece at all, and most poses I knew at the time were limited. I believe that now, after learning so much from this book and even brushing up my basics, has helped me improve in art. Not only sharping up my skills but learning new abilities that I have used to personal art. I think this project was a great experience for me to interpret an authors meaning and applying it for educational purposes. Both academic and in art. While the human anatomy has become more clear to me now, there is so much more to learn. Most likely, if you're reading this, you've done this project as well. Do you believe you've improved after this project? Are there things that you excelled in? How about things you lacked?

Loomis, Andrew. A Guide to Figure Drawing : For All It's Worth. N.p.: Titan,
          1944. Print.

Figure Drawing : ( Portrayals of Nudity Warning! )

              Now it's time to bring it all together and test my true abilities. Throughout my life I've picked up abilities simply from photos or other drawings. But I never took the time to look at still life and models as a way to learn anatomy. Loomis begins by saying that the best ways to learn still life anatomy is through a figure window as shown in on the right sides. He continues by saying that anatomy can be see easiest when separated into portions, measurements and horizontal and vertical lines, "It is easiest to sight in vertical and horizontal lines, so that important points directly across or under each other are quickly "checked". When a point falls out of the figure, such as a hand, angles of points within the figure will help to find it" (Loomis, 82). This is why you often see artists stopping to place your pencils beside the model. He states it as a "visual survey" since no measurements can be taken into ratio. It's all about eyeballing and letting your interpretation of the object be portrayed onto your canvas. Not only do you depict the curves of the models body but the shadows/half-tones/lighting as well. In the previous post I have experimented with different lighting on different faces and body types. I've now applied this skill onto still life figure drawing and every time I've learn previously.

                  In this post, I've edited the pictures on the right in Photoshop to censor the model for the sake of sensitive eyes. Nonetheless, I used the figure window provided in the book to place on top of the models. Of course, I would never get the chance to find an actual still model to pose for me so turning to the internet was my best choice. I made sure to place the window finder on both my drawing and the figure to see it best. Loomis states to constantly check your lines and even divide them into smaller portions if necessary. In a three-dimensional setting, it's critical that you align your potions in the same angle each time to ensure it's accuracy.

              Overall, I'm happy with the results. It surely isn't perfect but it's a step closer to ultimately understanding drawing human anatomy. There is only one post to go and I anticipate that I'll be able to do with it and push my abilities to the most challenging levels. There's a lot of things you can notice while drawing, like I've said in the first posts, it's a visual thing. You get to see improvement visually, and I believe that I have improved a little more during this project. How do you think you've improve through your life? Is there anyway you can show it visually?

Loomis, Andrew. A Guide to Figure Drawing : For All It's Worth. N.p.: Titan,
          1944. Print.

Figure Drawing : Lightening Up! (see the pun there?)

       Our lives are filled with depth: lights, shadows. But depicting depth and shadows onto a 2D image requires skill, especially when it derives from a 3D model. "The simplest way to explain the fundamental principle of rendering light and shadow is to think of a ball with light focused upon it as the sun lights the earth." (Loomis, 74) (Refer to the bottom picture). Shadows and lighting are incredibly important to add to the human figure. You may have a great outline of the body but without depth, your image looks static. Often times, artists are unable to portray certain curves within the body, this is what shading in for. In the image below there are several elements when it comes to shading. The highlight is the lightest part of the piece, its where the light source focuses on and is directed towards. It's important shade sparingly and only when necessary as the "treatment of light gives a drawing cohesion no less than structural form" (Loomis, 81). Anything under this point of your light source often is the shadow portion, these are where your darkest tones emerge. Now, the reflection is a important part and almost a key concept, even though it's a small detail. A human body has curves and contours, there's not a single flat surface on our body. Often times when drawing curved edges from a realistic object, it catches light from behind or beside it. This is especially prevalent in dimmed light or outside light.

 Now that I have explained the basics to lighting, you can see how I've applied these rules to the human anatomy. I have a lot of prior knowledge in facial anatomy compared to the body. So it was best if I presented it on surfaces that I am familiar with. Notice how the reflections are applied to either pictures. The left depicts a strong light source from the right. The image on the right has a softer source of light that comes from above. I chose to make this image more stylistic (aka adapting back into my own art style). I could go on forever about how muscles, fats, and curves catches light from each type of light source but sadly, these posts can only be so long. So take a look around you. Do any of these lighting rules apply around you as well? How does the intensity of the light source you sit in at this moment change how things look? How do you think that lighting could be manipulated to produce other things?... Like mood....


Loomis, Andrew. A Guide to Figure Drawing : For All It's Worth. N.p.: Titan,
          1944. Print.

Figure Drawing : Drawing From Imagination

Being an artist starts from learning to copy. Especially as a growing artist who is just learning the basics of life itself. It's very important to be specific with anatomy as an artist. A body moves, changes between sexes and angles. Imitating such from imagination begins from the inside out.... Literally! Artists learn to layer on muscles and fat once an artist has a throughout understanding of the skeleton.
The author states, "Ignorance upon demands upon you is as great a handicap as ignorance of anatomy" (Loomis, 58). This derives from how little mistakes an artist can have in their anatomy can ruin a piece. Essentially the author warns artists the dangers of not learning from the basics. Aka the skeleton. Drawing the anatomy requires the artist to maintain a fluidity throughout the piece. A pose is never stiff, "curvature in the bones [have] much to do with the rhythm and action of a figure. It helps make it appear alive" (Loomis, 57)

 Of course, I had to learn this too. In all my years of drawing I never thought to study muscles in order to draw anatomy. Amazingly, it's helped me as you can see in the second picture where I've applied the curvatures of the body into poses. I would also like to mention how my lines are neater, more curved naturally and look nicer on the body. I believe this is the first few steps of achieving or even bettering myself as an artist as I'm more confident to try different poses without sketching each shape. So how did I go? Do you believe that the curves shown in these pictures are accurate tot he human body? What curves do you see in your OWN body?
Make sure to leave a comment below! I would love to hear how each body type is portrayed through not only the eyes of a artist, but yours!


Loomis, Andrew. A Guide to Figure Drawing : For All It's Worth. N.p.: Titan, 1944. Print.

Figure Drawing : For All It's Worth : POST 1

          "Nearly every successful artist has a particular interest or drive or passion that gives direction to [their] technical skill." (Loomis, 22) For a large chunk of my life, I've been drawing. When I envision myself picking up a pencil, I can remember myself as young as a toddler trying to copy images of my mother. Till this day I'm still doing that and even bringing these skills into an academic perspective.
           Of course as a child, the idea of being a "good" artist never came to mind, nor did my passion. I was simply drawing because I liked to draw, and it had the benefits of visually displaying your improvement with time. Perhaps it was the satisfaction I got each time I put my works side by side and saw the goals I had reached.
          To this day, I am contempt with my abilities to draw, but now my ambitions have altered for the sake of this project. Before I begin, I wanted to first analyze my traditional abilities with Loomis' instruction.
Loomis states that a correctly anatomical body should be proportional, ideally be eight heads long. How ever the proportions between sexes differ. For now I will post a male's proportions.

         If the art gods could see me now, I would be dead due to my poor/stiff line work. Nonetheless, Loomis provides diagrams, instructions and examples to show the basics of the anatomy.

        While the stiff figure I drew was foreign for my hands, I managed to loosen up afterward; drawing the second part was much easier for my hands because of the more natural poses.
I decided to challenge myself and use Loomis' plank method shown in the bottom picture to demonstrate perspective. I mainly use male models for these attempts because academically, it is the common model for art students (even though I'm not an art student)
       So far, Loomis has taught me to be observant and to see curves and shapes in bodies by breaking them down into flat surfaces to reiterate my understanding... Do you believe that returning to fundamentals can help you improve? Or is it best to just stick with what you know?


Loomis, Andrew. A Guide to Figure Drawing : For All It's Worth. N.p.: Titan, 1944. Print.