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FIGURE

The figure is likely the most difficult and most rewarding subject that can be captured by the practicing artist. But how does one go about drawing the figure? A few schools of thought have developed, primarily divided between two methods.

  1. Reference ABSTR + GESTR + SIMPL
    Referenced figure drawings are those that use some visual, pre-rendered form of the figure to serve as a foundation for the drawing. Usually this is a photograph or a cast, though recently 3-Dimensional figure references have fostered a growing field (generally frowned upon though, as they teach only a single body type and are much harder to find, though, if well made, useful for anatomical study). Another popular form of referencing are masterwork studies, taking a great work of art (usually not contemporary in nature) and recreating it.

    Referencing does NOT mean tracing, it also does NOT confine the artist to exact recreation of their reference material.

    • Abstraction ABSTR
      Abstraction refers to the practice of visualizing the figure as a series of abstract shapes and forms. This allows the interpretation step of visual understanding to by bypassed, allowing a more direct transcription of sight.

      One of the most common problems faced by beginning artists is known as "symbol drawing". The mind has specific symbols for different parts of the body with which it replaces the actual forms when the reference is interpreted. (The classic example for this is the eye, take a look at the stylized eyes used in the aesthetic of Ancient Egypt. They don't look anything like a real eye, they don't carry the same structure or perspective, they don't differ between individuals, and yet we recognize them simply as an eye. This is the symbolic interpretation of the eye.) One of the great benefits of abstraction is that it provides a simple method for seeing past the initial symbols to the actual forms.

    • Gesture GESTR
      Gestural drawings are a means of placing the mind into a state that it only sees the figure and is not distracted by interpretation. Usually these involve a time limit of some sort (often starting with very quick gestures, 30 sec or shorter, and moving on to much longer gestures, 30 min or more - much harder to maintain but with some intriguing results) forcing the artist to make quick decisions on the hierarchical importance of forms.

    • Simplification SIMPL
      Simplification is a method of training the interpretation a much wider vocabulary than the standard symbol set developed naturally. It involves seeing the simple structures, the column of the main torso intersecting the tapered spheres of the ribcage and hips - the face as a series of planes, the nose and mouth column, the top and sides of the cheeks, the sphere of the skull.

      It is important to distinguish the difference between simplification and construction, which uses similar shapes but does not depend on a reference image (however simplification with a reference is often used to develop methods of construction).


  2. Invention IDEAL + CONST
    Invention is the creation of a figure without reference, only using the mind's eye. Usually it is better to start with reference based figure drawing, at least until the mind begins to understand the true shape of the figure, and has gained enough experience with it to have trained the intuition. The benefit of Invention is that it is free from the constraints of reference material, while the downsides are that it is far easier to attempt and much more difficult to get correct.

    • Idealization IDEAL
      The classic form of invention is idealization, that is the creation of a form with symmetric and rigidly structured proportions. This is most often seen in the development of standards for the figure (the figure is seven heads high, with the navel being located two heads below the chin, the mouth is located three fifths down between the eye line and the chin, etc.). The side effect of this method is that it trains for the creation of only a single body type, greatly limiting the material available for an artist to represent

    • Construction CONST
      The method of construction involves forming the figure from a set of simple forms and the relationships between those forms. Depending on the type of construction, the variance of the initial forms allows for a great deal of opportunities for different proportions and body types to be developed.


In addition to these schools of thought, there are certain methods which are directly applicable to both.

  • Anatomy ANATM
    As a supplement to both Reference based and Invention of the figure, anatomical studies have traditionally been a method of fostering an intimate understanding of the subject. These involve skeletal studies and musculature studies. There are many classic anatomy books filled with plates of the different structures and the functionality of different muscle groups. In addition to this, medical anatomy study has also been used both in classical (popular among Renaissance artists following the scientific revolution) and contemporary times.


Of course there are more methods than just these, but most fall into these categories (or a combination of these categories). If an instructional resource does not fit into any of these categories, it will be marked OTHER. until a category can be developed for it.

Instruction


Resources


Artists
  • Jeremy Lipking
    [Merekat’s] all-time favorite for people and his marvelous flesh tones and atmosphere, however he’s also great at environments too. He’s a modern artist currently working in LA. Check out his ‘bookshelf’ link. He gives a list of some of HIS favorite artists. ;}


  • Craig Mullins
    THE master, you need to know him thoroughly. - Merekat


  • John Singer Sargent


  • Anders Zorn


References
  • Photographers
    • *mjranum-stock (NSFW)
      [Male] [Female] [Nude] [Costumed]
      As most of these are nudes, this requires having a deviantArt account.


    • Lois Greenfield (NSFW)
      [Male] [Female] [Nude] [Costumed]
      Beautiful dance photography. Most dancers are clothed with a few nudes here and there. A lot of these are very dynamic and more difficult poses, including many group poses. The images are not of the greatest resolution, but enough for use as a study reference.


    • A Yakovlev
      [Male] [Female] [Costumed]
      Another dance photographer, this time more on the grunge side of things (beautiful studio shots, but the style of dance is more rural). (Note : His iStockPhoto page is linked as there is more there than on his official page.)


  • Galleries


  • Collections


  • Stock
      For all of the stock websites you will have to deal with low resolution images (though some sites are pretty good, or include a flash based zoom operation) and watermarks. This being said, stock sites will have some of the highest quality images you can find on the web.

    • inmagine
      A good all-around stock site. Look through some of their CD collections for the higher quality nudes, including some excellent studio collections.


    • shutterstock
      No nudes here, but some wonderful poses and clothed shots. Also, if you are looking for a specific pose or reference object this is a good site for you, excellent high quality images of a diverse range of subject material (just make sure you are only searching photography and not vector or illustration work).


    • crestock
      This site has an excellent tagging system, it allows you to search images with people by age, gender, race, clothing type, and posing of the image. Once you have found an image with a model that fits the reference you need, you can then search by model to find different poses, often by different photographers.


    • Corbis
      One of the largest image collections on the web, if you are looking for something you can likely find it here.


    • iStockPhoto


  • Books


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TioTheBeetle's avatar
TioTheBeetle
holy crap that's a big description O.o
Just wanted to say this is really interesting and very well done ^^