How to Draw the Figure from the Imagination - Part 1

Hello my friends and welcome to another Tuesday of tutorial! I am Leonardo Pereznieto and as promised, today we will draw the figure from the imagination. Le´s do it in a very simple way. We start with an oval for the ribcage and we will simplify the hips, that is the pelvis bone, to one line and 2 ovals. Then the head, the legs and the arms. We are simplifying the skeleton to the simplest form. This is almost as easy as drawing a stick figure. We draw the scapula, which is this triangular bone from which the arms are attached, and then the arms. This is the foundation to build a figure. It is like if you wanted to build a sculpture. Like this one which I am modeling right now,for which the first step is to build a wire framework, a very simple skeleton to model on. In the same way we will draw our structure, this time in profile. The technique is the same as before: We start with an oval for the ribcage, an oval under it for the pelvis, and another one above it for the head. Then the arms and the legs. The height of the elbow is about the same as where the ribs end. Let´s do another one which will be almost in profile, but slightly viewed from behind. You can do a middle line for the rib cage, which is very helpful when it is not viewed from the front or from profile. These are very simple sketches which should not take you more than just a few minutes. We do the legs noting the knees, and then the arms. Practice drawing a lot of these ones in different poses. Lets do another one, this time with the torso slightly leaning back. Try to move your arm all the way from your shoulder, not so much for the wrist, this will help your drawing to become looser. Very well! Now let´s make one in motion, let´s say, running. The femur and the tibia. The humerus and the radius. And now... one walking. Now, one thing that we can do before the skeleton, are the mood lines. Mood lines represent movement or feeling. And they help us create a drawing which is more loose and less stiff. On top of the mood lines we can draw our skeleton. Good! This is very fun! Lets do our mood line for a figure that is going to be tall and slender. Those 3 or 4 lines were the mood lines. Now lets draw the skeleton. The ribcage, the pelvis, the neck and the head. The scapula, the humerus and the radius. If it is going to be a standing pose, the middle point should be a little bit below the ovals of the pelvis. Therefore the middle point should be where I have my thumb, if I measure from the head. I am going to leave you as homework, in addition to many of these skeletons in different poses, that you draw rapid sketches either of the full body or parts of the body, showing the muscles or bones. Like these ones which I still make with no other purpose than familiarizing myself with the parts of the body more and more. The reason for this is that one can not invent correctly the anatomy. So if you want to draw the figure correctly, from memory or from imagination, you need to priorly know anatomy and you accomplish this by observing it and drawing it. Ok, for the next drawing we do a mood line, it will be for a sitting pose, and then the skeleton as usual. I want to mention that if I weren´t recording this for you, I would be drawing a lot lighter at this stage. This is the final sketch I had planned to do today, however, I´m seeing your face right now of: "Leo, this is not helping me a lot!" Therefore, on one of these sketches, I will do the next step. Take it as a preview of what we will be doing on the next class. I will use this one on the left which we drew a few moments ago. I want you to see how having the skeleton we can sketch the figure more easily. I think I made the legs a little bit short. I will lower both the feet and the knees. It should go about here. Let´s draw the calf and ankle, and the foot. This point which Im making darker is very important as it is where the pelvis bone actually shows. We unite the 2 ovals of our structure drawing the abdominals, and then the chest. At this stage is when you want to know some anatomy to know how shapes go. Lets give her some hair. The weight is on her front leg, while the other leg will be relaxed. Let´s erase what we don´t need anymore to see it better. Very well. If I kept going with this figure for about 20 more minutes I would probably get a good result. But here the intention was only to show you what the skeleton was for. So, I leave it at this. I hope it was helpful and I´ll see you next week with part 2 of "drawing the figure from the imagination!" If you enjoyed it, please give it a LIKE and subscribe to my channel. You know where to follow me and where the links are. And I´ll see you on Tuesday.