In this article we will consider how to draw people correctly, what should be the proportions of their body and face. We also consider several methods of transmitting a particular movement or facial expressions in the picture. In the end, we note how to apply shadows on the picture and which areas should be left light. This mini-lesson will allow you to understand how to draw people in one way or another, and will contribute to the development of abstract thinking.
Preliminary Advice for Beginner Artists
Very often, people who are just beginning to comprehend all the basics of painting, have the habit of applying drawing on paper with intermittent short lines. It seems to them that this way the image will turn out to be more accurate, and after this “sketch” everything can be brought in and thus complete the work. In fact, such a technique is erroneous, since the drawing not only looks unaesthetic, but your ability to think holistically as an artist also deteriorates. Therefore, if you want to understand how to learn how to draw a person correctly, you must first understand that even the lightest sketch is drawn in solid lines, which are drawn "from cover to cover." This is necessary so that you first of all feel the object (movement or part of the body) that you draw. And even if the pencil goes the wrong way, everything can be fixed very quickly and simply.
Proportion - The Basis
Lost in guesses about how to draw people correctly so that their body turns out to be proportional, hands were not too long or vice versa, too short for the head to be “in its place”, and in general, all the nuances were taken into account, it is important first of all learn one rule. So, the whole body of a person, together with his head, is seven equal parts; it is easiest to apply them in the form of ellipses arranged vertically, since in the future rounded shapes will be easier to convert to the shapes we need. In this case, the uppermost ellipse will play the role of the head. The middle three and a half figures are the torso, and the rest of the lower part, as you already understood, will become legs. Arm length from the shoulder will occupy an average of three such ellipses, provided that it is straightened along the body.
We work within the target height
Now, to understand how to draw a person in stages, when we have the top point, as well as some control marks (lower back, legs, head, arms), we proceed to the sketch itself. We leave a small distance in the area of the lower part of the upper ellipse, and the upper part of the second - after it, in order to then draw the neck there. At the top, we draw a more clearly defined oval of the head, the lower three or more ellipses we circle into a common oval, which will become the body. For added convenience, when drawing, you can draw a vertical axis that will cut through the body you draw in half lengthwise. So the image will be more balanced and clear.
We mark the limbs in the figure
Further studying how to draw people correctly, we turn to the fact that we mark the shoulders and knees. The first will be located on the edges of our torso, respectively, from above. The size of the ovals that will symbolize future shoulders may vary depending on who exactly you draw. That is, if this is a woman, then they are very small, if a man, then, of course, large. Our knees will be marked at the top of the second from the bottom of the oval (of those that we drew at the very beginning). Then we apply the same ellipses in the place of the elbows (middle of the body), and then in the area of the heels. Only in the latter case, they need to be depicted horizontally relative to the picture. At the end of this stage, we draw two parallel winding lines that begin at the shoulders and end at the knees. So we conditionally determine the future silhouette of a person.
A more thorough study of the details of the human figure
If you still do not know how to draw people correctly, pay attention to those sketches that are offered by professional artists. This will be necessary for you in order to correctly convey all the reliefs and the thickness of the limbs, which we will draw according to existing marks. In general, we connect the hips and knees, knees and feet, and then draw the hands in the same way. Do not forget that we also need to mark the neck and roughly outline the outlines of the clothes in which your person should be depicted in the figure.
Face - how important is it in drawing
Undoubtedly, it is very difficult to understand how to draw a portrait of a person, especially in words. In some drawings, this detail is completely overlooked, and the face is depicted in the form of subtle approximate features that are characteristic of any person, without elaboration of details. If you want to portray a person in full growth, and even with facial features, then it is worth considering their proportions. For each person, it will be characteristic only that the eyes, nose and mouth are located more in the lower part of the head oval, and the upper one is occupied by hair. Everything else is exclusively individual parameters, which are measured in proportions.