The human body is capable of performing a wide variety of movements: walking, running, jumping, doing some work.

With all these movements, changes in the external shape of the body occur. Changes in shape occur even without any noticeable movement of the figure. A living person cannot remain motionless for a long time. Muscles, being in static tension, get tired much more strongly, therefore, a person, remaining in any position, constantly changes it slightly.

This is the complexity of the drawing from the figure of the sitter in comparison with the drawing of gypsum. Here you need to know the form well. No careful mechanical copying gives the image a real plastic connection - the image turns out to be sluggish, lifeless.

Therefore, before starting to work on a drawing of a living nude model, it is necessary to study everything that forms the forms of a living organism and on which the regularity of its movements and statics depend. To study not only from the outside, visually, but to study the skeleton, the joints of the bones among themselves, the muscles of the body.

Such study gives knowledge of what is required to be depicted. Then we will depict what we know, we will not copy the model, but use it.

It is better to start drawing a figure by drawing a standing figure without complicated movement. Before you start drawing a figure, you need to examine it from different points of view in order to clearly imagine the position of the body in space. For a better understanding of the sitter's body structure, it is necessary to get used to this pose, repeat it with your own body. Only then can one begin to determine the composition of the sheet, the center of gravity, the area of ​​​​support, the movement of the figure, etc.

As an illustration, you can get acquainted with the modern method of constructing a human figure, which is offered by R.P. Kurilyak, who teaches plastic anatomy at the St. Petersburg Academy of Art and Industry V.I. Mukhina (Fig. 24-33).

We draw a vertical line and divide it in half. We mark one-eighth of the vertical from above, which is the size of the head. If we draw a figure based on one leg, then our vertical coincides with three points: the jugular fossa (notch), the pubic bone (pubic fusion), the inner ankle (tibia) and the heel. On the vertical from the heel, we mark the height of the rise to the ankle joint, which is equal in proportion to almost half the height of the head.

The further course of our reflection is as follows: we determine the direction of the shoulder and pelvic girdle, their degree of inclination in opposite directions; the line of the shoulder girdle will pass through the jugular fossa with an inclination to the side, and the line of the pelvic girdle will pass through the pubic fusion from the greater trochanter of the supporting leg with an inclination towards the free leg.

We determine the width of the shoulder and pelvic girdle, which will later change slightly and be refined. In the meantime, the width of the pelvic girdle in relation to the height of the entire figure is determined to be one sixth, the width of the shoulder girdle is one fifth of the height of the entire figure.

If we connect the footprint from the heel of the supporting leg with the point of the greater trochanter with a light line, then we get an almost axial line of the entire volume, however, in the future, undergoing major changes and additions. On the shoulder girdle above the supporting leg, we connect its edge with the edge of the pelvis of the belt above the free leg.

The whole course of our thinking, with a pencil in hand, occurs very fluently and quickly, lightly touching the paper, without pinching it or blackening it.

One of the main tasks for the painter is to determine the line of the "big movement". It is depicted as an arcuate line running from the jugular fossa towards the pubic bone and further from the pubic fusion in the opposite direction of the arc to the heel of the supporting leg. If the head is tilted towards the supporting leg, then the arcuate line running from the pubic fusion to the jugular fossa can be continued to the parietal eminence of the head.

Now it's time to outline the hands in the movement in which the model is. It is already possible to draw a contour of the skating leg, covering large volumes of the shin of the knee joint, to show the plastic transition from the opposite side of the chest to the side of the skating leg to its silhouette with access to the knee joint and covering the shin of the calf.

We outline the free leg, its axial foot, and also specify the position of the pelvis, its axial ones, coordinate the location of the patella of the supporting leg with the free knee joint.

The free limb is defined in large volumes along its main plastic directions: from the ilium (its upper spine) with access to the inside of the free leg, which almost coincides with the direction of the sartorius muscle; covering the contour edge of the thigh (epiphysis femur), we continue the arcuate line to the outer side of the lower leg and then, at the level of the ankle joint, we draw a line to the internal condyle of the tibia with an oval coverage in the cross section of the entire lower leg at this level.

On the inner side of the free leg from the pubic bone, contouring the thigh with an arcuate line, direct it, intersecting with the tailor's line, and go to the outer side of the thigh, coinciding with the arc with the external thigh muscle (quadriceps), and through the edge of the upper patella we draw an arcuate line to the inner the edge of the lower leg of the free leg, emphasizing the calf muscle. Now, if we carefully look at our scheme, we clearly read S-shaped, arched, “serpentine” lines in it in a curious ratio between long and short segments of this very S-shaped one. All ratios will correspond to the principle of the golden section, which, in fact, is the principle of harmony. This is easy to verify if you measure any of the S-shaped lines of our volumes diagonally. This principle is that the ratio of the general to the greater part must necessarily be equal to the ratio of the greater part to the lesser.

First of all, I would like to warn you that if we are talking about the golden ratio, about logic and pragmatism, then this only means one thing - such signs and understanding should be present at the level of “forgotten”, that is, unobtrusive, but conscious drawing, which is one of the main ways mastery of drawing.

The outline of the whole figure is already clearly visible in the drawing: the supporting leg, as the main natural core of this setting, acquires clarity in silhouette and in separate volumes, such as: thigh, lower leg, foot. The thigh, in particular, may be shown by the clarity of the quadriceps muscle, the lower leg by the external character of the anterior tibiofemoral muscle and the long peroneal muscle; the inner side of the lower leg is drawn primarily by the triceps muscles of the calf. It should also be noted that in this figure the entire volume of the knee joint is already outlined in detail. The chest is already well and clearly visible, the pectoralis major muscle is outlined on the right side of the model near the shoulder, the broad back muscle along with part of the shoulder blade, giving a clear outline of the left side of the model. Since the left hand is closest to the drawing in relation to the front plane, we pay more attention to it both in tone and in drawing; a feature of the elbow joint is the triceps muscle of the shoulder. Softer in tone, but quite attentively and with full “respect”, we treat the right side of the model, and already at this stage of drawing we refine (show) the shoulder and forearm, outlining the hand as well. The knee joint of the free leg is especially clearly drawn.

The next stage is connected with the refinement of the spatial and constructive perception of the figure on the sheet and the refinement of the fragments: the foot of the free leg, the contour of the thigh from the inside are outlined taking into account the falling shadows. In a word, this stage of the drawing may be on the verge of completion. On it, we solve the planning, front and side platforms of the structure of both the entire figure as a whole and its individual parts.

Completion in any business is a convention, because you can complete it indefinitely. And this is true, but in this case we are talking about such a completion when what we have drawn gives us a clear picture of an object or person.

At the final stage, one should also remember about graphic culture, that is, about such a performance in which the object should be beautifully read by the viewer.

At the end of our reasoning, it must be emphasized that learning to draw begins with the simplest preparatory exercises, with a consistent and gradual visual mastery of the knowledge and skills of artistic mastery in the visual arts. We must always remember that the task of drawing is to show the three-dimensional volume of the form on the two-dimensional plane of the sheet. And this can be done either in tone - in full force correlating light and shadow, - or in line and tone, without overloading the drawing.

After getting acquainted with the forms of the human body in the drawings of a standing figure, you can move on to drawing nature in action. Only by working on the figure of a person in motion, from any angle, do we better understand the relationship between external form and internal movement. We understand how the external posture of the body changes from the position of the skeleton, from the work of certain muscles. Knowledge of anatomy, a good understanding of body structure and knowledge of the basic proportions of the figure, in other words, the knowledge that we talked about above, will be of great help in such drawings.

To master the drawing of a figure in motion, it is very useful to make small sketches and sketches of the body in one position or another, analyzing it from a constructive point of view (Fig. 34). In such sketches, much attention is paid not so much to the external analysis of the posture as to the internal movement of structurally important parts of the body: the spinal column, chest, pelvis, shoulder girdle, limbs. Such an analysis of the pose will simplify the task of depicting the figure from a perspective, since it will give us an idea of ​​the position of the axes in space. And the wonderful teacher Chistyakov believed that for a correct image of the form, it is necessary to start the drawing by finding the internal axes on which the form should be increased. Feeling the internal axes, more precisely, the direction of the movement of the masses, is absolutely necessary during the entire work on the drawing, since it is the axes that allow you to create the correct volume solution on the plane. Without identifying the internal axes and checking the image along them, the drawn form inevitably loses that plastic basis, the absence of which turns any construction into a transfer of the external surface.

It is very useful to check the degree of mastery of the image of the figure to make drawings from memory, and then from imagination.

To make it easier to navigate in such drawings, we can suggest that you familiarize yourself with the method of drawing a person as an image of a combination of simple geometric bodies. Even the Renaissance artist Dürer suggested looking at the shape of the human body more simply, reducing it to a number of simple geometric bodies. These individual bodies, which bear a rough resemblance to human parts, he proposed to study by drawing them in such movements and foreshortenings that can only be observed in the human body. This idea was also developed by S. Holloshi (Fig. 35). He divided the figure into a number of basic forms. So, the neck, interpreted as a cylinder, supported the head truncated by planes, was inserted into the torso cylinder, which rested on the pelvis, depicted as a combination of a cube and a truncated prism, etc. All these forms were depicted in relation to the middle line of the figure, which served in the work as the basis for constructing the volume of the body.

Consider this approach to the image on the example of building a standing figure. We start the drawing with the composition of the figure and the definition of its general shape. We very generally outline the size of the figure in the sheet and the design of the pose (Fig. 36). After that, we determine the position of the center of gravity, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bsupport and the main axes of the figure. On the basis of geometric bodies, we outline the main masses of the body (Fig. 37). Upon completion of such an analysis of forms, we proceed to concretizing the details of the figure, building them on the basis of geometric shapes (Fig. 38).

Even in ancient times, it was noticed that a person - most interesting riddle nature. Many tried to solve this riddle, and each applied his own methods. The ancient Hindus and Egyptians, for example, were interested in the proportions of the human body. They took the hand as a unit of measurement and tried to calculate the ideal ratio of the various parts.

Also, the Greeks and Italians spent a lot of time and effort on studying. But these sculptors and artists tried to figure out how the proportions of the human body differ. They studied the difference in the proportions of male and female bodies compared the proportions of the bodies of children different ages. All this was necessary in order to reflect human beauty as accurately as possible.

Could it be expected that the great Leonardo da Vinci would remain aloof from this topic? Of course not. He took many measurements, studying height, weight, limb length. Having shown himself both as a scientist and as a brilliant artist and sculptor, he created a reference drawing, consisting of an overlay of two positions of the human body. For artists of many generations, he served as an example depicting ideal proportions body.

According to the definition of Leonardo da Vinci, the body of a proportionally folded man with arms and legs apart fits into a circle, and with arms apart, but legs brought together, into a square.

A detailed description of the parameters and a table of values ​​was compiled somewhat later by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio. For many artists, these values ​​were and remain the reference in the process of drawing a proportional body.

The theory of the golden section

The doctrine of proportions dates back to antiquity. The first official references that have come down to us are in the works of Euclid. The golden ratio underlies the pyramid of Cheops and the bas-reliefs of the tomb of Tutankhamen. And in the Renaissance, brilliant sculptors and artists often tried to check the harmony of their creations using algebra and geometry.

A remarkable example of the repeated use of the golden ratio is the painting by Antonella da Messina "Saint Sebastian". Mathematicians, armed with rulers, discovered that the golden ratio underlies not only the construction of the body of the central character, but also the basis for drawing objects in the background of the picture. Together, this creates a unique sense of balance in the image.

Also, the famous "La Gioconda" by Leonardo da Vinci is unique not only for its mysterious smile, but also for the proportions of the building. Mathematicians have determined that the composition of the picture, which includes the figure of a woman, fits perfectly into the golden triangles that make up the correct star. For many artists, followers of the great da Vinci, the golden ratio is associated precisely with the proportion that describes the mathematical ratio of the “law of the star”.

Compliance with proportions

The proportions of the human body, taking into account gender, height and weight, have more than a hundred canons. Scientists and artists have compiled more than one table, and drawn many graphs, in an attempt to systematize these relationships. A novice artist may spend many years trying to meet all of them in the process of drawing, but is unlikely to achieve a good result. That is why they take as a basis a drawing containing one or two canons with a breakdown of the figure into 8 or 10 parts.

Each of these methods is convenient in its own way. If you divide the body into 8 parts, then the unit of measurement will be the size of the head.

The result is 8 main points that divide the body into equal parts, regardless of the height or weight of the person depicted in the figure:

• head;
• chest (nipples);
• navel and elbow line;
• perineum and wrist line;
• fingers and thighs;
• lower line of the knee joint;
• the lower line of the calf muscles;
• Feet.

However, when creating a drawing, it must be borne in mind that this is an ideal model. And people are rarely perfect. So, for example, the monumental work of Professor Zeiling, on the study of body proportions, was declared "mathematical aesthetics." The golden point of the body according to ceiling is the navel, so to speak, this is the most important point of the golden ratio.

Drawing teachers, in order to explain the proportion of the body, often divide a drawing of a person into 10 parts. In this case, a diagram can be drawn up showing that the value from the crown to the lower border of the nose fits into perfect figure 10 times. The conditional line passes through the level of the shoulder, the lower border of the pectoral muscles, the navel, the upper part of the womb, and so on.

The value of proportions in bodybuilding

Compliance with the proportions of the figure has great value not only in the process of drawing, but also in bodybuilding. However, indicators such as height and weight play an important role here. We are talking about a very beautiful sport that allows a person to build an ideal body. The standards of the golden section are also applicable here - 1: 1.62.

So, for example, when measuring the thigh, its ratio to the length of the entire leg should be equal to 1: 1.62 (the length of the thigh is taken as a unit here, and the length of the leg means the length of the thigh and lower leg taken together). The weight/height ratio plays a big role in bodybuilding. This coefficient is repelled when building the body.

If a person's weight is 70 kg, and the height is 180 cm, then the coefficient is 0.39, and the ideal proportions for him should be as follows:

• neck - 38.1;
• forearm - 30.0;
• biceps - 35.8;
• chest - 99.8;
• waist - 74.7;
• pelvis - 89.7;
• thigh - 53.8;
• lower leg - 35.8.

Naturally, this ratio is true for men. In bodybuilding, there is a whole table of ratios, on the basis of which measurements are taken both during training and during competitions.

So, it is quite clear that the observance of proportions allows you to create both an ideal drawing and develop an ideal body in life. The harmony of the body, cultivated in bodybuilding and fitness, is bringing more and more people to the gyms. Hard work allows artists to create ingenious paintings, and athletes - perfect bodies. When the weight and height of a person are in the right ratio, then he is mentally prepared to conquer the world, and to achieve heights not only in sports, but also in his career and in his personal life.

Very often, novice artists neglect the study of the human skeleton and muscles, mistakenly believing that “it will work out just fine”. But ignorance of human anatomy leads to the fact that the drawn person turns out to be unconvincing, and his facial expressions and movements look unnatural.

Therefore, today we will look at the basic principles that you should be guided by if you want to draw a good and high-quality portrait.

1. Proportions of the face

The skull and jaw are a slightly flattened sphere, so looking at human face in full face, we see something like an egg turned upside down. Two perpendicular lines passing through the middle divide this egg into four parts. Let's look at the details:

• Mark the midpoints of the right and left halves of the horizontal line. The eyes will be located exactly at these points.
• Divide the bottom half of the vertical line into five sections. Bottom part the nose will be located on the second mark from the top, and the line on which the lips meet will be located one point below.
• Divide the top half of the vertical line into four parts. The hairline will be located at the second or third mark, this feature varies. The ears are between the upper eyelid and the tip of the nose, but this rule is only true when the face is not down or up.

Helpful hint: the width of the face is usually five eyes wide or slightly less. The size of the distance between the eyes is equal to the width of one eye. Very rarely in humans, this distance is very different from the standard, but this feature will be quite easy to notice. The distance between the lower lip and chin is also equal to the length of one eye.

Another way to measure is to use the distance between the tip of your thumb and forefinger. The figure below shows what distances can be measured in this way: ear height, distance from the hairline to the eyebrows, from the eyebrow to the nose, from the nose to the chin and from the pupil to the pupil.

Profile

In profile, we still see the shape of an egg, but the sharp side of it looks into a corner. Lines now separate the head into a face and skull.

On the skull:

• The ear is just behind the vertical line. In size and location, it is still located between the upper eyelid and the tip of the nose.
• The depth of the skull varies within the limits indicated in the picture below in paragraph 4 with dotted lines.

• Everything is located as mentioned above.
• The root of the nose coincides with the horizontal line or is slightly higher
• The most prominent part is the first dot above the horizontal line that marks the brow line.

2. Features

Eyes and eyebrows

The eye is simply two arcs connected in an almond shape. There is no definite rule in drawing eyes, because the shape of the eyes can be different, and there are a lot of such forms, but we can notice the following trends:

• The outer corner of the eye may be higher than the inner, but not vice versa.
• If the shape of the eye is almond, then the rounded part of the eye will be closer to inner corner, and elongated - to the outside.

Eye details

• The iris is partially hidden under the outer eyelid. It touches the lower eyelid only if the person looks down, or if the eye is built so that the lower eyelid is higher than usual.
• Eyelashes grow from the inside out, not the other way around, and this is very important when drawing to make them look natural. Eyelashes on the lower eyelid are shorter.
• When trying to draw all the little things (tear ducts, lower eyelid, etc.), remember that drawing in detail does not always mean that the result will be beautiful.

In profile, the eye takes the form of an arrowhead (with convex or concave sides), with a slight hint of the upper and possibly lower eyelids. In real life, you will not see the iris from the side, you will only see the white of the eye. But an eye without an iris looks weird, so draw at least a hint of it.

As for the eyebrows, the easiest way to draw them is to follow the arch of the upper eyelid. Often the widest part of the eyebrow is closer to the inside, and the “tail”, tending to the outer part of the eye, gradually becomes thinner.

If you look in profile, the shape of the eyebrows changes dramatically and becomes more like a comma. The eyebrow, as it were, begins where the tips of the eyelashes are.

The nose of a person is approximately wedge-shaped, it is enough just to imagine and draw it in three-dimensional form before drawing the details.

The back and wings of the nose are flat surfaces that are only outlined at the end, but it is still very important to take these surfaces into account when sketching in order to correctly calculate the proportions. The lower flat part of our wedge in the form of a truncated triangle is connected to the wings and the tip of the nose. The wings fold inward towards the septum to form the nostrils - note that the bottom view shows how the septum begins before the wings and connects to the face. It protrudes lower than the wings when we look at the nose in profile, which means that in 3/4 view the distal nostril is hidden by a septum.

Just like in the case of the eyes, detailing does not always give a good result. Therefore, it is more important to work out the proportions than to pore over the details, which in the end can disfigure the drawing. When drawing from the front, the nose looks better if you draw only the lower part of it. If you are drawing a 3/4 view, then most likely it will be better for you to draw the line of the back of the nose. You will have to examine and study a lot of noses in order to understand how and when to draw it.

Lips

• The line where the lips meet should be drawn first, as it is the longest and darkest of the three lines that form the mouth. This is not just a wavy line, but a whole series of thin curves. In the picture below, you can see an exaggerated example that will explain the movement of the mouth line to you. Please note that there is different forms lips, and that the main line may reflect the lower or upper lip. Lips can be softened different ways. The line in the middle can be very straight to reflect a sharp look, or very blurry to loosen the lips. It all depends on the shape of the lips, how plump they are. If you want to achieve symmetry, start from the center and draw one half of the lip and then the other.
• The two upper tips of the upper lip are the most obvious parts of the mouth, but they can also be pronounced or practically run in one line.
• The lower lip is a soft arch, but can also vary from almost straight to very rounded.
• The upper lip is usually thinner than the lower one and protrudes from the general relief of the face less than the lower one. Try to shade the upper lip with strokes.
• On the sides of the lips are shaped like an arrowhead and what upper lip slightly protrudes forward in this place, it can be seen very well.
• The midline of the mouth at the ends deviates downward from the lips. Even if the person smiles, it curves down before going up again. Never draw this line straight up if you are drawing a face in profile.

The most important part of the ear is the long, C-shaped outer line. The inside of the ear is like an inverted U. There is also a similar curve just above the earlobe, connected to a small C-shaped arc. In general, the shape of the ear also varies.

When we see the face in front, the ears are visible in profile:

• The rim, which was previously U-shaped, is now a separate part - as happens when we look at the plate from the side and see its bottom.
• The earlobe will look more like a drop and will stand out.
• How thin you need to draw the line of the ear depends on how close the ears are to the head.

If you look at the head from behind, the ear looks as if separated from the head: the rim is attached to the head with a funnel. Don't be afraid to draw the funnel too big, as it really isn't small.

3. Angle

Having the shape of a ball with a few changes, the head is drawn easier than expected. But, despite this, you need to study how it looks from different angles. Of course, the appearance of the nose changes first of all, but the eyebrows, cheekbones, the central part of the mouth and chin also change.

When we drew a face in full face and in profile, we practically simplified it to a two-dimensional plane. For other viewing angles, we need to think in 3D space.

look down

• All details are rounded up and the ears are also moved up.
• Since the nose protrudes forward, it protrudes from the general line of the face and its tip is closer to the mouth.
• The eyebrow curve becomes more even. In order for it to take a reverse bend, you need to turn your face in some particularly unusual way.
• The upper eyelid becomes more visible and covers most of the eyeball.
• The upper lip almost disappears, and the lower lip protrudes more.
• Note that since the mouth follows a general curve, it looks like a smile has appeared on the person's face.

look up

• All details are rounded down and the ears are also moved down.
• The upper lip becomes fully visible and the mouth appears plumper.
• The eyebrow line becomes more rounded, but the lower eyelid is rounded down, giving the effect of a sharp look.
• The lower part of the nose is clearly visible, the nostrils are also clearly visible.

Side turn

When a person is seen almost from the back, all that is visible is the protruding line of the eyebrows and cheekbones. The line of the neck protrudes and tends to the ear. Eyelashes are the next thing you see when a person turns his face.

Then part of the eyebrow appears, and the protrusion of the lower eyelid and the tip of the nose protruding from behind the cheek also become visible.

When the face is already turned almost in profile, the eyeball and lips become visible (but the midline of the mouth is still small), and the line of the neck merges with the line of the chin into one line. You can still see the part of the cheek where the nostril is hiding behind.

Drawing still lifes, landscapes, of course, is great. But in the creative life of any artist there comes a moment when interest in a person wakes up in the soul. He takes up a pencil or a brush, runs to the canvas and ... He understands that he does not know where to start.

We see people around us every day, we see our reflection in the mirror, but for some reason it is the image of the human body that is given to the masters of fine art with such difficulty. But in order to correctly depict human figures, you need to know the proportions of a person for. It is with the study of the basics of plastic anatomy, the relationship of individual parts of the body with each other, that the creative path of any creator of art begins.

Dot, dot, dot...

Contrary to the well-known children's counting rhyme, a person does not consist of dots and sticks alone. Our outer shell is multifaceted and beautiful, special and at the same time has common features inherent in each individual. So let's look at the fundamental points regarding the proportions of the human body, which are so necessary for drawing.

To date, about a dozen different methods and approaches have been developed to determine the “ideal human figure”. All of them have the right to exist, because people are not copies of each other, but individual personalities. But we will analyze the most popular ways to calculate the proportions of a person for drawing, which are suitable for beginners.

It is worth remembering that the human body is divided into eight parts:

1. Head (from crown to chin).
2. Top part chest (from chin to nipples).
3. The lower part of the chest (from the nipples to the navel).
4. Pelvis (from the navel to the perineum).
5. Upper leg (to the middle of the thigh).
6. The lower part of the leg (to the knee).
7. Calf muscles.
8. Leg and foot.

Thanks to this division, it is much easier for the artist to draw proportional people. Reference points appear, landmarks that help the pencil move in the right direction.

Uncle Styopa and Dwarf Nose: where to find the "golden mean"?

The first thing that catches your eye when looking at a person is his height. The reference unit of its measurement in the fine arts was the head. To date, several standards for this approach have been developed.

The first one is normal. This type of proportion is used in academic painting. Holds 7 "heads". The second, not far removed from it, is the idealistic standard. Consists of 8 heads. It is used in practice by the vast majority of contemporary artists. We will call it "golden". Using this approach, it is quite easy to divide the human body into eight equal parts, which we talked about above.

The next two types are also quite interesting - model and heroic. The first consists of 8 and a half "heads", and the second of 9. The people depicted with their help look like really podium models or mythical heroes with gigantic growth. Take a closer look at each of the methods and experiment with them. Appearance the people you get will be noticeably different from each other. This will help to master this skill, to understand which of the methods is right for you.

Let's start drawing!

We will analyze the remaining proportional relations along the way. So, mark on the sheet the places where the crown and heels of the future person will be located. Draw a vertical line between the points and divide it into 8 equal parts. In this case, the first line should pass at the level of the chin, and the last - stop. The height of each part, as we remember, is the head.
The distance between the most distant points (shoulders) is equal to the height of 2.3 heads. Already drawn by a vertical line, we divide it in half. You also need to remember the following key points:

• the width of the waist is equal to the whole head, while in men it is lower than in women;
• the elbows are at the level of the navel, and the fingers reach the middle of the thigh;
• hips narrower than shoulders;
• the body of women has rounded outlines, while men are trapezoidal and angular;
• the arm from the elbow to the tips of the finger is equal in length to the leg from the knee to the heel;
• the neck is not a cylinder, and therefore tapers downward, and the transition from it to the shoulders should be trapezoidal;
• do not forget about the natural curves of the body!

To understand the last point well, you need to take a little time to study the muscle groups of the human body. Thanks to them, we do not look like even geometric shapes, but have smooth and beautiful outlines. To calculate the length of the feet and palms for drawing, the proportions of the human head are also used. The sole of the foot and the palm of a man occupy a large part of it, a woman, respectively, a smaller one.

Measurement of the proportions of a person's face for drawing is carried out using the length of the index finger. It corresponds to the height of the ear, the distance between the pupils, from the inner corner of one eye to the outer edge of the other, from the chin to the tip of the nose, from the eyebrows to the hairline. Of course, in one article it is difficult to contain all the nuances of drawing a human figure. Besides, a lot comes with experience, so go for it. Do not be afraid to try and make mistakes, the main thing is desire, and then you will definitely succeed!

Who does not remember the famous work of Leonardo da Vinci, where the artistic scheme vividly illustrates the proportionality of the human body. Harmoniously designed, it looks incredibly beautiful. But we ourselves should figure out how to draw a person. It is worth learning to convey this harmony of the proportions of the human body. How? Now I will try to show what discoveries in drawing a human figure I made for myself.

Some kind of manual on how to draw a human body will come to my aid, a set for creativity from the necessary items for every artist, both a professional and a beginner, for example, a preschooler, items: paper, pencils, a ruler and an eraser. My son, who is 7 years old, will also come to my rescue.. My baby and I decided that our model of a person is a man in jeans and a T-shirt. His photo was found by us on one of the sites.

But I want to point out right away that this step-by-step instruction suggests that those who will follow these drawing lessons will easily be able to repeat any step. And even a child can do it easily..

We distribute the entire execution of a person’s drawing into several stages:

• Ancillary work;
• Detailing the picture;
• We “revive” the drawing of a human figure.

So we can draw a person in stages with a pencil. Go!

Ancillary work

First of all, we make a schematic sketch, taking into account the proportions of a person.

How to draw sketches of people? To do this, you need to start small. We make the image of an oval. This will be the head. We measure its size. I got it 2 cm long. The proportions of a person are such that you need to measure only 7 such lengths in order to depict a person of average height.

Here is a sketch of the silhouette. It is difficult to see a picture of a person in this. But this is how we will understand how to draw a person in full growth.

Now we are waiting for exclusively step-by-step work.

Neck.

The neck of a person can be different. But I went with the average. The neck is usually not wider than the head, and at the same time not too thin, about half the width of the head.

Do not forget that this is a pencil drawing for beginners and there may be any inaccuracies in it. With practice, you can achieve good success and even understand how to teach a child to draw a person, no matter how old he is.

Shoulders.

To draw the shoulder line, it is important to take into account the fact that, on average, in a man they are the same length as the head. And one moment. We draw the shoulders with a slight downward slope (see the picture above).

Waist.

How to draw a human figure? The next moment is how to "find" and draw our person's waist. Markup will help with this. If my head is 2 cm, then I will determine the waist below the fifth cm, approximately 5.2-5.3. I put a point and draw a horizontal line from it, which will be more than the width of the head, but less than the span of the shoulders. I connect this line with the shoulder line.

Torso.

The fourth mark (from top to bottom) will be the point of the lower torso. It is usually wider than the waist, but should not be wider than the shoulders. Draw a horizontal line. We connect its edges with the waist.

Legs.

The drawing of a person should be supplemented with the "production" of the legs. How easy is it to do? Let's break this down into several steps:

Arms.

We are approaching the final stage and supplementing the drawing of a person with another important detail - the hands. And again we divide this step of the image of a person with a pencil in stages:
In general, we figured out how to draw a figure. But that is not all. Now the model needs to work out individual details.

Picture detail

Our pencil-drawn man needs a face to "appear". And therefore, we depict each element in the picture. And these are the ears, and the hairstyle, and the eyes, nose and eyebrows.

We were able to draw a human figure. But it was only a scheme. Now we work on each detail of his clothes separately. We make folds on clothes, and even mark some noticeable seams.

We erase all auxiliary lines. And now we see that this is more reminiscent of a human appearance than the picture of a robot "on hinges" was before.

Bringing our model to life

We figured out how to draw the body. And now we will dress this body. In the photo that we chose as a model, a man in jeans and a T-shirt. We show all this in our image.

Do not forget about the chiaroscuro effect, as this makes the work more voluminous.

If until now it was difficult for children to explain some points, then even a child who is a year or two will cope with the coloring stage.

The child and I tried and we got a pretty nice man. Perhaps in the future we will be able to learn how to portray a girl and a child. The main thing is the beginning. Good luck in your future practice!

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