We draw a woman from life. Drawing nudes and Why is it so scary to lose shape?

A classic of American graphic and advertising illustration, Andrew Loomis teaches his readers the basics of nude drawing. With wit and energy, he talks about perspective and lighting, the peculiarities of working with a model and photography, how to “stop” the flow of life and make a high-quality sketch in literally an instant.
His methodology and techniques for bringing images to perfection allow the artist to create work that will look equally worthy both at an exhibition and on a magazine cover.
These exercises, precise and practical, instill confidence in the reader's ability to cope real work and provide him with the necessary portfolio. Author's instructions on working with models, using photographs, and the ability to stay within limits given topic And general organization studios for good and enjoyable work provide the reader with the experience that most artists gain over time through trial and error.

STUDY YOUR NEIGHBOR.

Try to develop the habit of carefully observing your surroundings. One day you will want to place the figure you are drawing in a similar setting. You won't be fully successful at drawing the body until you learn how to draw details. environment. So start immediately collecting the details that will give the environment its “atmosphere”.
Learn to notice significant details. It is necessary to pay attention not only to Martha’s hairstyle. What exactly is the difference between Martha in a uniform dress and Martha in shorts or trousers? How do the folds of the dress fall to the floor when she sits down?
Watch your gestures and emotions. What does a girl do with her hands when she says: “Oh! This is amazing!"? Or with his feet, when, falling into a chair, he says: “Oh, God! How tired I am!”? How does a mother’s face change when she turns to the doctor with the words: “Is there really no hope?” And what does a child’s face express when he says: “Wow, that’s great!”? You must have more than just technical skill create good drawings.

Almost every successful artist is driven by a special interest, a passion, an emotional uplift that gives direction to the development of his technical skills. This often takes quite a significant part of one's life.

CONTENT.

INTRODUCTION
APPROACH TO DRAWING THE BODY
CONTENT
BONES AND MUSCLES
DRAWING A LIVING FIGURE: PROCESS METHOD
FIXED MODEL
FIGURE IN MOTION: ROTATION AND TRSION
FORWARD MOVEMENT: THE THIN LINE OF BALANCE
BALANCE, RHYTHM, PERFORMANCE
FIGURE KNEELING, BENDING AND SITTING
RECOVERING FIGURE
HEAD, HANDS AND LEGS
FINISHED FIGURE IN COSTUME
CONCLUSION
How an artist works
Open your own studio
About your prices
Introduce yourself
Do it your way

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In a familiar environment. However, acquiring sufficient knowledge and experience to produce authentic and convincing drawings from memory or imagination is impossible without understanding naked human figure so you need to start learning human drawing from the nude. Although you will probably draw more clothed figures in the future than naked ones, they will not be successful unless you are confident in the shape of the body under the clothes. In later lessons we will discuss physical anatomy, but the knowledge will be much easier to grasp if you do a few real-life drawings, so at this stage I recommend that you make numerous quick sketches of the model in different poses.

Ask your husband/wife to act as a model, it will take a little time. However, if you have absolutely no one to ask, take photographs as a reference.

This exercise should develop in oneself ability to observe and draw at the same time. Of course, this is physically impossible. You cannot concentrate on the model and the drawing at the same time: if you look at the model, you cannot look at the drawing. But the more connected the two activities of seeing and drawing are, the more vivid and expressive your drawings will be, and you will quickly develop the ability to create figures from your imagination. You'll be able to draw actions and poses that no model could hold for long enough. Please note that the time when you know everything about the human figure will never come, and you will have to look at it again: just as professional football players do not give up their training when they reach their peak performance, so artists must constantly keep themselves in shape .

When you're working at home or in a studio, you'll probably want to work on a larger scale than when sketching outside, so using A3 or A2 may make sense. There are no rules about this: work in an environment that makes you feel comfortable and on whatever size sheets you like. Some artists always prefer to work on a very small scale, while others like to make large, sweeping brush strokes from the shoulder to produce almost life-size drawings.

Place your notebook or drawing board in such a position that you have to move your head as little as possible. You only need to look over or to the side of it to see the poses clearly enough.

Your goal at this stage is to fix the pose of the entire figure. Of course, everything can be seen just by looking once, but until you have learned to take the curve of the spine and distribute the limbs, the angle of the head and neck on it, then you need to periodically look at the model as you work. Sit far enough away from the model so that you can see the entire figure at once, rather than allowing yourself to linger on each pose more than four minutes. It should look something like this:

First try to convey the shape of the spine and the positions of the arms, legs and head by just quickly looking at the model, checking the relative proportions and angles. Such drawings are often called " gesture drawing“, the main essence of which is to convey the feeling of posture, movement, gestures. When you see your model's position, you should try to mentally feel yourself in that position. You also have a spine, shoulders, arms and knees that move in the same way as the model. This will help you understand how the model feels in a given pose. Once you can do this, you will begin to create more impressive drawings.

When you draw a hand, think about the hand and feel your own hand. This kind of identification with the subject of your drawing is the secret of success. Try it and you will see that good drawing begins with the thought of him.

Each of these sketches you must draw in just a few minutes, so it's a good idea to instruct your model to strike a new pose every four minutes, without your direction. As soon as the model has changed position, you need to start a new sketch, even if you did not finish the previous one. It's a workout and you won't get as much as you could unless you feel a little pressure. That's why don't use an eraser: If you draw something incorrectly, redraw directly over the drawn lines. Several drawings can be done on one page and it doesn't matter if they overlap. We are not aiming for clean neat work at this stage. The valuable ones here are physical exercise And right attitude mind.

Practical task

Practice sketching from a nude model in reality or from a photograph. Do at least 20-30 sketches of different poses before starting the next lesson.

More detailed study

Further more detailed drawing of the figure can be done different ways, and they may vary from case to case. Each drawing is new experience, so choose the approach that seems right to you in a given situation. Nevertheless, if you are new to drawing, then you can start in the same way as you did the quick sketches: look for large shapes and place them on one line, and then add details.

Beginners' drawings are often flat and illusory, so do your best to emphasize the shape of the figure - its volume, strength and hardness. You can emphasize the shape by focusing Special attention light and shadow.

Another very An interesting method is to start from any part, which interests you. Draw it in detail, and then move around the figure and move on to another interesting area. You may find that the drawing looks quite complete when there are still some details that you haven't even started working on. This approach can easily throw some parts out of proportion with others, but it's not too much a big problem in most cases, and sometimes can add charm finished work in a completely unexpected way; Plus, this drawing doesn't cost that much, so you can discard it and start again - you'll always be learn something new, which at this stage is main goal drawing. Most expressive drawings are born when you give freedom to your imagination.

Quite often your best and most available model — it's you yourself! This model is guaranteed not to get boring while you are drawing it! Use a large mirror for this purpose. Mirror drawing Ideal for building and understanding the shape and structure of the hand, wrist, elbow and knee: you can do it all understand very quickly after a few sessions careful study.

Recently I unexpectedly remembered a conversation with one former friend about how in order to lose weight, you need to look at really obese, fat people to scare away, and not at slender models and think: “Oh, I also want to be such a doe!” Now I understand why! Because fear is a much more effective thing than promising yourself to someday lose weight and be a ballerina. I remembered this unappetizing topic because this week in the drawing studio nudity a really obese model came. I’ve been going there since November last year to paint once a week, but so far new people have been coming there every time as sitters. That's why I usually go there and don't know who will be there. This time it turned out that we had two whole models (and women are very rare here - mostly only men come to pose). And all because fat girl I was an hour late, but by chance the model came to the drawing session next week to see how it works in general. She supposedly had never done anything like this before, but she would like to try her hand. It was a separate performance, as the girl was afraid to undress in front of a company of 20 people. I understand her very much! I wouldn't be able to. And it had to happen that as soon as the girl was persuaded to undergo a baptism of fire, a late model came running. On this occasion, they decided that the shy rookie model (in the picture below on the right - with long hair and wearing glasses) will stand for the first 9 minutes, and then another model will take its place. Let me remind you that this is drawing nudes in the studio, where models only stand for 9 minutes - no more.

A3 format, colored pencils, watercolor and white on tinted paper

When full model I walked into the center of the studio, and I must admit, I was a little confused. I honestly have never seen such a truly huge person naked. It was psychologically very difficult to draw her, although from experience I know that models with bodies come out much more picturesque on paper than skinny ones. But then I just couldn’t come to my senses - I was so sorry for the man that he let himself go like that! The spectacle is not for the impressionable. On an incredibly flabby, obese mountain big body sat a pretty girl's head with an upturned nose and the fire of intelligence in her eyes. I spent the whole evening drawing her (I tried to draw her a little more prettier - I always draw a person and his character, and not just a model) and thought what such a terrible thing happened in this life young creature so as not to love yourself? She was actually about 25 years old.

A3 format, colored pencils, watercolors and white on tinted paper. For those who asked: at home I DO NOT finish painting my work, because I simply don’t have time for it. I show it the way I bring my work after a drawing session in the studio - with search lines and errors.

I thought that if it were not for the false morality of our society, in which nudity- this is a horror guard, and the killed and maimed are the norm on all screens, it would be possible to force manufacturers of fast food and sweets to place neglected bodies with folds, flabbiness, chafed armpits, stretch marks, rubbed heels and other “charms” on their packaging. Or how cancerous lungs are placed on cigarettes, etc. Why not show how terrible the liver or heart of an obese person looks. Very sad! And sorry again for the unappetizing topic - the memories are still fresh. I really want them to stop feeding their children all sorts of, excuse me, crap. After all, if there is no culture of normal nutrition since childhood, with a slowdown in metabolism, serious problems, which you can just get rid of.

In general, I have already accumulated a mountain of drawings of nudity - after each session I get 10-15 drawings. But for now they are all more or less the same type. I don’t know if it’s worth showing everything or if it’s better only when something interesting happens, as in the case of the two models above. I'm thinking about changing technology. But only 9 minutes, which the model costs, still irritates me somewhat. It would be interesting as a warm-up, but in reality I leave the studio after every evening as if I had been squeezed out. Real plowing. And there is no time to think about a more precise execution technique. I would like to. And under the cut you can see a couple of fragments.

When drawing a person, we turn to a living object, so first important point It becomes an image of living nature, direct observation and contact. At the beginning of training, it is useful to make small three-minute sketches, gradually moving on to serious studies. However, we should not forget that excessive elaboration can “freeze” the drawing, the image begins to look like a statue and becomes dead.

It is optimal to illuminate the model with one light source. Even the old masters discovered that the best lighting for creating the necessary depth and shape of the image is provided by one light source. The best position is high above the model, slightly to the side.

The most important knowledge when drawing a figure: proportions human body and human anatomy. You can notice that in the drawing you pay attention only to what you already know well. We are designed in such a way that we see only what we already know. At first we see only the outlines of the figure. When we pay attention to shadows, we try to convey shape and volume in our drawing. Knowing the structure of muscles, ligaments and bones, we begin to see them and include them in our drawing.

There are a limitless variety of techniques and ways of drawing. Try to use all the tools and techniques that resonate with you. The most important thing is not what we draw with, but how we do it.

Body proportions

Of course, there are no identical typical people. However, knowing general proportions makes drawing much easier. Classical Greek and Renaissance figures have heights of eight head sizes, with head size used as a unit of measurement. In nature, average length The human figure is seven and a half head lengths, however, a figure of eight sizes looks nobler in the figure and is more convenient to measure.

At the classic male figure The width of the shoulders is two head sizes, and the hips are one and a half sizes. For women it’s the other way around: hips are two head sizes, shoulders are one and a half sizes.

Some bones appear on the surface of the skin and become important reference points for drawing, when assessing proportions. On a thin body they protrude, but on a full body they stand out in the form of dimples.

Submitting a form

When depicting any objects of living or inanimate nature, we consider them or their parts as simple figures. The parts of the human body are shaped like a cylinder or a sphere. All angular planes of the body always end with soft rounded edges. By drawing a torso or a finger (both parts of the body are based on a cylinder), we solve the same problem of conveying the shape. Where it is important for us to clearly understand the relationship between light and shadow.

It is easiest to consider these relationships using the example of a sphere illuminated from above and from the side. Mid-tone is the overall hue of the illuminated area. This is usually 80% of our image. Most bright part, highlighted by light, is located closest to the light source. The area facing away from the light source is called the shadow. The darkest shadow lies on the border with the middle tone, this is the “shadow accent”. The area in our drawing lying at the “borders” of the sphere will be lighter, since the background or other nearby objects give a reflex to it. The sphere will cast a falling shadow on the background or nearby objects. In terms of saturation, such a shadow is darkest next to the sphere itself. The saturation softens, becoming lighter and more diffuse, towards the edges of the cast shadow. From lightest to dark shades can be arranged this way: highlight, the most bright light, midtone, reflected light (reflex), shadow, falling shadow, shadow accent, beginning of a falling shadow.

By cast shadows you can determine how objects relate to each other.

Most of the old masters used one light source, producing three-quarters of the illuminated space and one-quarter of the shadow.

Body shapes

When studying body shapes, it is important to understand and keep in mind, first of all, how female figure different from men's. Women tend to have more fatty tissue, which gives their body shape and shadows a soft, rounded appearance. The bones of both skeletons are the same, with the exception of the hips, but in women they are smaller. Women's facial features are thinner, the neck is more graceful and visually looks longer, the collarbones are located more horizontally, and the shape of the muscles on the chest and shoulders are not visible. The chest lies on top of the chest muscles, varying in shape and structure. Women's waists are higher than men's, and their buttocks are heavier and their lines are smoother. The navel is located below the waist and recessed deeper into the stomach.

In men, the jaw protrudes more strongly, the neck is thicker, and the shoulder muscles are larger. The collarbones are elongated and point with their tips towards top part shoulder The size of the arms and legs, relative to the size of the body, is larger than that of women. The male skeleton is larger and the muscles are more developed. Less fatty tissue, which gives the figure a more angular appearance.

When drawing a standing figure, we do not need to take into account perspective, in this case it is easier for us to use our knowledge of standard proportions.
There are three ways to pose the figure: with support on one leg, when the weight is evenly distributed on both legs, with support on one leg, the other is raised.

When the body weight is transferred to one leg, the thigh on this side is higher than on the other. The other leg provides balance to the body. The shoulders usually form an opposite angle, providing balance to the figure. This is the so-called confrontation pose. When the body weight is evenly distributed, the shoulders form a straight line.

In most cases, the height of a sitting figure is six head sizes: four for the torso and two for the part of the leg that is not in perspective. Body weight is transferred to the buttocks and thighs, making them flatter.

When the figure is kneeling, the weight is distributed on both knees or on one, and also, sometimes, on the elbows or hands. The height of the figure is six head sizes. Figures in kneeling poses can be very expressive.

It is quite difficult to depict a figure squatting. This pose gives a feeling of anticipation of action. The distribution of body weight is temporary. It's difficult to draw arms and legs in complex perspective.

Drawing a reclining figure seems to be the most difficult task due to the need to depict body shapes in perspective and from different angles. Most main difficulty becomes the observance of proportions. It is difficult to use the rule of eight heads, due to the fact that the perception of a lying person is not as familiar as a standing one. Apparently, the easiest way is to divide the length of the figure into halves, then into quarters and mark the reference points.

When working on a perspective image of a human figure, it is important not to be too close to the subject, as being too close will visually distort the proportions. It is important to find body parts that are on the same line.

To create the impression of movement of a figure, you should draw it freely, without delving into the details. It is necessary to catch the main line of the gesture. Motion image happens three characters: preparation for the movement, the movement itself and the moment when it occurred. The figure should appear unbalanced to give the movement a realistic feel.