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Interested in drawing? here are some of the tips from me. I'm no Picasso, so don't take my words as words from a pro. (^_^;)

How to Draw Human figures (outlines)

Using Geometric shapes

the most basic form of drawing out outines of human figures is to use basic 3D geomtric shapes. the one most important is the sphere, as not only can be used to portray heads and joints, but also contours.

Let`s start from building a basic figure...

This here, is drawing of the head and the neck. the head is a sphere, and the neck is a cylinder.


Torso and shoulders are added here. shoulders are spheres, and the torso is curved cone, with half of the top side cut off, and attached to the neck by a square.


The arms, waist, and hips are added. notice what shapes are used for what. waist is a cylinder connecting the torso and the hips, and the hips are a cone, with top half chopped.


here is an up on the arm. attached to the shoulder sphere, is a cylinder. notice the sphere used for the joints have the same diameter as that of circle of the base of the cylinder. the lower arm is a cone, cut off at the end.


the legs are added now. The thigh is football, with both ends chopped off. curve one end of it to fit the thigh. same law for the joints for the arms apply for the joints of the leg. diameter of the sphere equals that of the circle of the base of the thigh.


now the basic figure is done, with the geometric shapes. draw figures in diffrent poses, and see how the shapes connect each other.

Here, I added flesh to the figure. the best way to do this is by adding many lines onto it. notice that I selected one line out of many, and made it thicker.


now, erase the unwanted lines, and clean up the image. the figure is mostly done now. you can add face, clothes, etc to this.


More advanced form of Figure drawing

This is a typical outline of a muscular figure. notice that there are many lines for each outline. this is what I call a random line outlining.

first, you make a very rough outline of certain part of the body you are drawing. then, go over that line, but with slight diffrence. do this over and over, until you find the line most fitting for it. then, you thicken that line, to make it more visible than the others. This techinque works for many things, not just figure drawing. It is much more advanced than the geometric shape style. However, you have to have a good knowledge of the figure you are drawing beforehand, in order to use this technique. it is MUCH faster form of drawing than using geometric shapes, but the basic is similar.


here in this drawing, I used a much more advanced form of geometric shaping (since it contains shapes that's not basic) and also the random line outlining. by mixing those two, you can make a more accurate figure, much faster and appealing. it saves time, and look better.


This is the basic outline for one of the drawings in my artpage.

rough48.jpg

I recommend looking through your favorite artworks by various artists, and try to draw their figures in forms of these basic outlines to get a good grip on the human body. Try it, it really works. ^_^

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This page is created and organized by Hiroyuki Hironaga.
susanooh@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu