Figure Drawing notes

Hands- 

Hands are one of the most struggled with item in drawing. Once you start paying attention to art, you notice when artists intentionally hide hands or make them less obvious than the rest of the piece. 

However, we can simplify them into simple shapes so they are less intimidating. 

1) Hands are actually boxes instead of rounded ovals. 

2) Find the images above. Many artists start with simple lines (sort of action lines) to build the structure of a hand. 

3)Next, cubes or boxes can be drawn over the shape. I suggest tracing your reference image with a box to see where the hand lies within it. Make sure to use straight, not curved, lines. 

4) Once your box is established, add more detail- you can now include curves for the fingertips and straight lines for the top of the hand and fingers.

5) Finger tips (especially thumbs) tend to curve up at the end. This can be done by drawing a straight line with a curve at the tip. pictured above

Feet

Feet are Pyramids! - Almost any foot you are attempting to draw can be broken down into a triangle or pyramid shape- see photos above

To draw feet

1) Find the pyramid in the foot on your reference photo. Trace it then draw it on your page. Now you have the general position of the foot. 

2) Establish the arch of the foot (if your figure has one) by drawing a slight arc at the bottom of the pyramid- pictures above. 

3) Establish a sphere for the heal, the ball of the foot, and an egg for the tip of the big toe. 

4) For the big toe- it points up just like the fingers and points straight out. The toe next to your big toe is typically very straight as wel with a slide inward curve. See photo above.

5)- All other toes- bend inwards. Each toe curves more and more in with the pinky tie having the most intense bend towards the big and second toe. Toes typically have spheres at the end with a cylinder as the rest. 

On top of hands, Fabric is one of the more difficult things to draw but can be simplified with a few lines and understanding highlight/ shadow relationships. 

1) Determine where the focal point of your fabric is- Fabric tends to be radial- coming from one point when handing or draping.  See the top left and right images. 

2) Once you identify the point from which you fabric is hanging, identify the lines radiating from it. 

• Are they curved?

• Are they hanging from a supporting source (arm, leg, shoulder)? - See middle photo above

• What direction are they going in?

3) Curving your fabric lines around a supporting source gives the illusion of a rounded and 3D object- which we want. See middle photo above and Degas ballerina neck ribbons.

4) Shading- shading fabric is a lot easier than it looks! Highlights are always next to shadows. The peak of a fold will be light and any space in between is typically your darkest shadow or a medium tone. See top right photo