Koloman Moser - Art Nouveau Lithographs

Koloman Moser is one of the most important artists of the Viennese Art Nouveau. He was important in the Vienna Secession movement and a founder of the Wiener Werkstätte. He was a designer of furnishings and interiors as well as a painter and graphic designer. These prints are are for sale on Ebay.

January Discounts at Lulu.com

The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form in a hardcover edition, and Figure Drawings in Color and other books at Lulu.com are available at special January discounts of up to 20%.

Check them out now.

Another great way to view many of them on any computer or device is at Google eBooks. There's a link to all of them at this post.

How to Draw a Person Standing and Walking on Tiptoe

Standing on tiptoe

I had a request about how to draw a figure standing on tiptoe. The drawing to the right shows the posture of a figure standing on tiptoe. Notice the tension of the figure's muscles. In order to get up on the tips of the toes the muscles of the calves and thighs have to be tensed. There is a natural inclination to lean the torso back slightly which is exaggerated in this figure because she has raised her arms and leaned her head back. The drawing comes from a photo, see it here.

The drawings below also show the tension of the muscles in the leg. The first shows a man standing on tiptoe and the second a woman walking on tiptoe. You can see that in both of them the lower leg is thrust slightly forward which will cause the standing figure to lean backward slightly from the torso. The gastrocnemius muscle at the back of the calf contracts, as does the biceps femoris at the back of the thigh. These two contractions cause the knee to bend slightly when a figure either stands of walks on tiptoe.

Left, standing on tiptoe, right walking on tiptoe.

An anatomical drawing of the knee, leg and ankle on tiptoe from Cunningham's Textbook of Anatomy By Daniel John Cunningham 

Cunningham's Textbook of Anatomy (Oxford Medical Publications)

Drawing Hands & Feet: Form, Proportions, Gestures and Actions (The Art of Drawing)

Comic Artist's Photo Reference - People & Poses: Book/CD Set with 1000+ Color Images (Comic Artists Reference)

More photos of people walking here.

How to Draw Posture and Balance in the Figure making a Forceful Motion

The animated figure above illustrates the follow through of a forceful motion. (Click on the picture to see the animation) In the animation I arranged multiple views of Bernardino Genga's study of the muscular anatomy of the Gladiator around a line representing its center of gravity. The torso is thrust forward from the center of gravity is supported by the left leg which is positioned beneath it and is balanced by the opposite arm and the right leg being thrust back. A similar concept, in this case the motion leading up to a forceful motion is  described below in the notes about Figure 19. from Trattato della Pittura By Leonardo da Vinci.

How to Draw Posture, Balance and Weight in the Human Form

Leonardo made an extensive study of painting in his treatise of painting. Along with many other subjects he addressed the portrayal of the human figure in action, showing how to draw a dynamic figure in order to bring life to paintings. The book is called Trattato della pittura By Leonardo (da Vinci), Preface of the life of the author by Carlo Amoretti, 1804. The plates reproduced here demonstrate some of the principles that he described.

Figure 22. The man carrying a weight on his shoulders illustrates how weight is balanced when a figure is carrying an object, as the caption states the entire weight of the object and of the man is balanced over a vertical line drawn through the foot which supports most of the weight. The figure bends slightly in a contrapposta pose in order to balance the weight. The right leg supports the weight, the left leg is thrown slightly away from the body. He raises the left hip and lowers the right to offset the weight. An imaginary line may be drawn between the weight on the man's shoulder and his right heel to demonstrate the center of gravity.


Translation:
CAP. CC. A Man carrying a weight on top his shoulders.
The man's shoulder that supports the weight is always higher than the shoulder without weight, and this is shown in the figure (Fig. 22.), the weight of the entire man and the weight he carries passes through the center line which passes through the center of the leg which bears the weight, the entire composition would be ruined if it did not do so, you need to ensure that the natural weight of the man is thrown to the side to equal the weight which he is carrying, you cannot do this if the man does not bend and does not lower his lighter side, and you cannot do this if the shoulder that bears the weight does not raise. By this means the artifice is found to illustrate this action.

CAP. CC. Dell'uomo che porta un peso sopra le sue spalle.
Sempre la spalla dell'uomo che sostiene il peso è più alta che la spalla senza peso , e questo si mostra nella figura , (Fig. 22.), per la quale passa la linea centrale di tutto il peso dell' uomo , e del peso da lui portato; il qual peso composto se non fosse diviso con egual somma sopra il centro della gamba che posa , sarebbe necessità che tutto il composto rovinasse: ma la necessità provvede che tanta parte del peso naturale dell' uomo si getta da un de'lati, quanto è la quantità del peso accidentale che si aggiunge dal 'opposito lato; e questo far non si puo se l'uomo non si piega e non s'abbassa dal lato suo più lieve con tanto piegamento che partecipi del peso accidentale da lui portato; e questo àr non si può se la spalla del peso non si alza , e la spalla lieve non s'abbassa . E questo è il mezzo che l'artilìziosa necessità ha trovato in tale azione.

Most Interesting Figure Drawing Books of 2010

These are the ten life drawing books that readers of this site were most interested in in 2010. It's interesting that half of them are older books which have been republished or brought up to date in new editions and the others take a very classical approach to figure drawing. All are useful for the art student or artists who are designing figures for motion picture computer graphics or for video games.

The Art Student's Guide To The Proportions Of The Human Form - My own republication of Johann Gottfried Schadow's most complete treatise on the proportions of the human body.

Boris Röhrl in his book History and Bibliography of Artistic Anatomy makes a mention of Dr. Schadow's work:

"One of the first remarkable German publications of the 19th century was initiated by the director of the Dusseldorf academy, Gottfried Schadow, who edited a folio sized atlas with figures from Albinus in 1830. His atlas on proportions, printed four years later, entitled Policlet, was more successful and was re-printed six times. Copies from this work are still used in modern anatomies."

There is more at my post History of Artistic Anatomy. Read more about the book at Figure-Drawings.com

How to Draw the Human Figure in Motion and How to Draw Action Figures

Click on the picture to see
the animated version

To draw a figure in motion or to animate a figure the first thing to observe is the structure of the skeleton and how the parts move as an action is completed. Observe each part of the body by itself and notice how foreshortening and perspective come into play as the parts move.

The animated example here is derived from Eadweard Muybridge's photographic study of a nude descending a staircase.

The dots represent the joints and the lines represent the bones. By reducing the figure to this simple form a framework can be built to represent movement. The Biomotion Lab Walker is an interesting example on the web of how to reduce a figure to its bare essentials, this example produces the illusion of movement with only dots representing the joints. The example goes farther and allows you to experiment with faster and slower movement and a male or female figure.

This is the basic structure for animation, for motion capture and for rendering computer animation for motion pictures and game animation.

Drawing Contour Cross Sections in Figure Drawing

Contour cross section lines superimposed on an image from a Postcard of Galathée by the French Sculptor Laurent-Honoré Marqueste in the Musée du Luxembourg. When doing your drawing pay attention to the curve of the form, but also to the perspective of the form and the what the plane of the cross section would be if a cross section was actually made.

How to Draw a Volume Study of the Human Figure - Life Drawing

A volume study of the human figure is used in life drawing or figure drawing to help see the forms of the figure. The figure is broken down into geometrical components to help determine the posture and action of the figure. The shapes are based on the common geometrical shapes, and positioned according to the perspective of the figure. The sketch above is based on a figure from G.M. Ellwood and F.R.Yerbury's Studies of the Human Figure. The model is the same Dorothy Lees who modeled for Adolphe Armand Braun's Hieroglyphic or Greek Method of Life Drawing.

Frank Weston Benson

Frank Weston Benson at CRN Auctions

Frank Weston Benson was an American Impressionist painter. He was was born in Massachusetts in 1879, he stuidied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and at the Académie Julian in Paris. He painted portraits and late in life painted many landscapes showing wildlife.

Charles Grignion engravings of the academic figures of Jean-Baptiste Van Loo

Charles Grignion engravings of the academic figures of Jean-Baptiste Van Loo published by Robert Sayer.

How to Draw Hands

 These prints from The Principles of Drawing by Gerard De Lairesse. Published by Thomas Bowles: 1752, London. 5th Edition are for sale on Ebay.

The Principles of Drawing: or, An Easy and Familiar Method whereby Youth are directed in the Practice of the useful Art. Being A COMPLEAT DRAWING BOOK: Containing a Curious Collection of Examples in all the Variety of Cases; As the several Parts of the Human Body, whole Figures, Landskips, Cattle, Building &c. curiously Engraved on Copper-Plates, after the Designs of Albert Durer, Abrah. Bloemart, Carlo Morac, Le Clerc, Hollar, and other Great Masters. To which is prefix'd, AN INTRODUCTION TO DRAWING; Containg an Account of the Instruments and Materials used in DRAWING, and the Method of managing them; also Instructions to form the Judgment of a young Beginner, and direct his Hand in Practice, with easy and proper Lessons for him at the first Entrance. ALSO, Easy and Proper Lessons for a YOUNG BEGINNER, with Instructions to form his Judgment and direct his Practice. Translated from the FRENCH of Monsieur GERARD DE LAIRESSE, and improved with Abstracts from C.A. Du Fresnoy.

French 19th century academic drawing of a pair of hands. 

  

How to Draw the Hand and Foot A Layered Approach Part II

Draw Real Hands! (Discover Drawing Series)

HOW TO DRAW HANDS,

 

Gerard de Lairesse: An Artist betweeen Stage and Studio

The principles of drawing: or, an easy and familiar method whereby youth are directed in the practice of that useful art. Being a compleat drawing book