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Learn To Draw Figures Step By Step

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Drawing realistic figures is all about understanding the movement of the human body. In this manual we are going to look at;

• The “3 Golden Rules” and how we use them to help us understand the human body.

• Discuss the “Limitations of Scale”, and what you need to be aware of. • My “Quick Sketch Approach” that I recommend everyone practices • As well as a complete step by step demonstrations

The 3 Golden Rules The first golden rule is what is known as the “Rule of Eights”. Essentially what that means is if you were to take the distance from the top of your head to the ground and divide it evenly up into eight, you would notice that your head is approximately 1/8th of the total distance. You would also notice that the line of your shoulders is at approximately 7/8th from the ground, while the line of your nipples is another 1/8th below that, at approximately 6/8th from the ground. Then you have the line of your navel, at 5/8th from the ground. Then of course you have the bottom of your crouch at approximately 4/8th, or half way up your body. Finally you have the bottom of your knees which is 2/8th up from the ground. On the next page is a diagram so you can visually see what I have been describing. But at this stage if you get the idea that your head is 1/8th the total length of your body, you can start to use it like a visual ruler to help you capture the proportion of your figure.



The Second Golden Rule

The second golden rule is what is known as the “Line of Action” or sometimes referred to as the center line. Essentially it is an imaginary line that runs down the center of the figure and determines the flow, or swing of the character’s movements. It doesn’t matter if the figure is simply walking along the beach or is a hero flying into battle, every single figure has a line of action. What this means is you have a perfect starting point for all your figure drawings. How I teach my students to use this rule is first determine the line of action by looking at the figure and imagining the center line running through their body. Usually you can use the center of their spine as a bit of a guide to help you find this line. Once you have found it, I recommend simply sketching it as a guide line as it is one of the key guide lines to build your image around.



I will discuss in more detail later the other two guide lines, but at this stage the important information to take note of is.

1. How to identify the “Line of Action”. 2. The “Line of Action” is a key guide line for determining the movement of

your figure. To help you get an understanding of exactly what I mean I have included several sketches clearly showing the line of action.



Limitations of Scale The concept of scale limitations is really simple, but few amateur artists take the time to think about it. Basically the idea is this, as your image gets smaller so do the individual details that make up the image. Now that sounds simple, but what few amateur artists realize is as the details get smaller there comes a point where you cannot physically draw them, due to your tools not being fine enough. A prime example of exactly what I mean is in the step by step demonstration video, you will notice that the size of the eyes have shrunk to approximately the same size as the same size as the end of my pencil. What this means is it was impossible to capture the highlight on the pupil, due to the scale being so fine. Now that was not a problem because I had decided before hand that I would not make it detailed for a more impressionistic approach. However if I was not aware of it before hand and had tried to go for an exact approach there would have been an issue. Basically what I am saying is you need to be aware of the potential issue before hand, and choose a scale that will allow you to draw the level of detail you require.

The Quick Sketch Approach When it comes to accurately capturing the movement of your characters, there are three key lines that you need to pay attention to. These are:

1. The “Line of Action”, also referred to as the center line. 2. The line of the shoulders 3. The line of the hips

The line of action gives the direction of the movement, and an indication of the center of the body. The line of the shoulders clearly shows the top of the shoulders, and starts to indicate the direction of the arms. While the line of the hips clearly indicates the center of the pelvis and start to indicate what the legs are doing.



Essentially the combination of these three lines, are the frame work that you are going to build your image around.

So for example if we were drawing this photo on the left, the first step would be to determine these three lines. In the photo below I have clearly marked these lines in red. But in the mean time I recommend taking a second to try and determine them for yourself.

As you can see there is the line of action running straight down the center of her body. Then obviously we have the line of the shoulders running across her shoulders and the line of her hips running through her hips. Now if you look closely you will notice that the line of the hips and the line of the shoulders are not parallel. The reason why that is the case is because her upper body is slightly twisted, as she walks.



Once you have found the center line, and the line of the shoulders and hips. The next step is to use these lines to help you find the key lines of the drawing. In this case the key lines are the back of the right leg and hip, back of neck and head on the right, and top of the left arm. The image on the right clearly shows the key lines.

Once you have found the key lines. The next step is to start to add the depth to your image by finding the other side of the limbs and indicating the width of the waist and front leg. In the image on the right you can clearly see the line that gives the shape to the front leg and waist.



The last step is to simply add a light shadow to your drawing to create the 3D look.

Notice the shadow is just a flat single tone. This is because we are just interested in quickly capturing the shape of the figure, and not developing it into a full drawing at this stage.

If you did want to complete this drawing, the next step would be to start to break the shadows down into smaller more intricate shadows. This process will be shown later in this manual.

But at this stage I want to stress the importance of being able to quickly capture you figure on the paper. It is this skill that ultimately determines how your drawing will look.

If you can’t get the proportion right in a quick sketch adding more detail will not help.

What I recommend to all my students is to spend half an hour a day for a week just drawing as many quick sketches like this as you can. If you are disciplined and do it for a week I guarantee you will notice amazing improvement in your work.

To help with this process I have included three other quick sketches below, so you can practice the process again.



Again the first step is to determine the line of action, the line of the shoulders and the line of the hips.

So once again I recommend you take a few seconds to identify them for yourself and then check on the image below.

Now if you look closely at the image on the right you will notice that the shoulder and hip lines are not parallel.

This is due to the upper body being twisted slightly away from you.

The second effect of this twist is that you are able to see more of her left shoulder and chest, while her right shoulder appears slightly smaller.

Notice how you would not have noticed these tiny details without first finding the center line, and lines for the hips and shoulders.



Now you have found the center line, and the line of the hips and shoulders, the next step is to use these lines to help you find the other key lines of the image.

In this case the key lines are:

• The top of her left leg • Hip and back on the left • Her shoulders

All these lines can clearly be seen in the image on the left.

Now we have the key lines in place the next step is to further develop the image by adding the other side of the arms, the stomach and the upper chest area.

If you look closely you will notice that all the lines are nice and straight, which helps me simplify the drawing, and caputre the impression.



The next step is to add a light shadow to to indicate the 3D nature of the figure.

Once again you will notice that the shadow is just a single tone, and really light.

Like I said before if you want to take your sketch further the next step would be to develop the the second level of shadow.

The image on the right shows you what this would look like if you refined the shadow slightly.



After the two examples above you probably have the idea by now, but I just want to run through one more example, as this skill is vital in drawing figures.

So once again the first step is to identify the center line, the line of the shoulders and the line of the hips.

All these lines can be seen on the image on the left.

So having found the center line, the line of the hips and line of the shoulders, the next step is to find the remaining key line. In this case these are;

• The back of the right arm and neck

• The back on the right • The front of the left leg • The front of the right leg



So now we have the key lines in the right place the next step is to add a flat shadow.

The same as before the shadow is a single tone, as we just want to create the indication of being 3D at this stage.

Also find the edge of the shadow around the stomach and left leg. Then draw a faint line to indicate the edge.

Here is another example of the level of detail you should be able to create within a few minutes. By practicing this skill of quickly capturing the impression of your character, I guarantee that your drawing will rapidly improve.



Complete Step By Step Demonstration This demonstration is going to show you how to take the skill of drawing quick sketches and transforming them into complete drawings. But before we get started I want to stress that the initial techniques is the same as we were practicing before. That was.

1. Find the center line or line of action 2. Find the line of the shoulders and the hips 3. Using these three lines as a reference, find the other main lines in the

drawing 4. Add a flat shadow to indicate the 3D nature of the image

If you haven’t already I strongly recommend that you spend some time practicing creating these quick sketches until you are easily capture the essence of your drawing. Now moving along, for this particular demonstration we are going to be using the image of a cowgirl to the right. You will notice that I have already changed this image to be black and white, as that allows us to see the tonal difference more accurately instead of getting caught up with the particular colors.



So once again the first step is to find the center line, the line of the shoulders, and the line of the hips. Now because of the way the model is sitting we are unable to see the line of the hips clearly, so to get around this we need to use another point that’s clear and easy to identify. For me there is one line that really stands out, but what I would recommend is that you just take a couple of seconds now to try and work out which line you would use.

For me the most obvious line to use is the top of the right leg. The reason why are:

• There is a clear contrast between the leg and the clothing behind it, making it stand out.

• It crosses an existing reference line.

• It is a central part of the drawing



So the same as before, use the center line, and the line of the shoulders to help find the other key line. The only difference this time is you have the top of the right leg to help you out as well.

Once you have captured the key lines the next step is to fill in the rest of the outline, using the key lines as a reference point. Notice that we are still using straight lines to help simplify the process.



Now that we have completed the outline, the next step is to add a flat shadow, just to indicate the 3D nature of the subject. At this stage I am just looking for the biggest shadow, and applying a nice flat tone over the entire area. Later on I’ll come back and break the shadow down into smaller sections, but at this stage I am just trying to keep everything simple.



Now that the shadow is in place, the next step is to go back to our focal point, which is the face in this case, and start to add more detail by breaking the shadow down into their smaller sections. For example: if you looked at the underside of the hat, you will have noticed that the hair and the hat were blending together into one shape. So we need to darken the shadow in front of the hat, and the hair so they are clearly separate.



In this step I am just going back over the image again, adding detail by breaking the shadows down into their smaller sections. Essentially this process is as follows.

1. Don’t worry about the individual tones in the shadow; simply shade the biggest area with a single light tone.

2. Once you have shaded the big areas, go back to the focal point and start to add more detail by breaking the nearby shadows down into the different tones that make up the bigger shadow.

3. Once you have completed the nearby shadows, start to move to the shadows further away.



This step is all about blending the shadow, so that they lie flat, instead of jumping forward off the page. If you look at the image on the previous page, you will notice how there are white spots within the shadow. This makes the shadows look messy, and like they are jumping forward. So all we need to do is get out our smudger and gently blend over the shadow so these whites spots start to disappear. As you are doing this you need to be very careful that you don’t smudge the edge as this can make your drawing appear messy, and unfinished.



The last step is to simply work your way around the image refining the edges, and adding the little details that got lost as you used the smudger. For example you will notice that I have sharpened the edge of the hair and added the suggestion of individual stands of hair across her shoulders.



Remember all drawings are going to be slightly different. But if you follow the steps laid out above you will notice amazing improvements in your drawing ability. So practice hard, and remember to have fun. To your drawing success,

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