How to Draw Figures from Imagination

How to draw figures from imagination

Lesson by Vladimir London, a Life Drawing Academy tutor

How to draw realistic figures is an exciting topic. There are many things you need to know to make good sketches. Above all, you need to be familiar with human body construction, its proportions and anatomy. Here are some of my sketches. I've done these drawings from imagination. When you have the needed know-how, sketching a figure from any point of view in any pose is relatively easy. All you need to do is to follow simple steps of figure drawing. What those steps are and how to develop good figure drawing skills will be explained in this lesson. Because figurative drawing is a huge topic, I will make several videos to cover all details one by one. In this video, we will talk about the biggest volume of a human body - its ribcage.

You may notice in these sketches that I actually depicted the complete outline of a ribcage as if using x-rays. This is done on purpose to show you the thinking process of figure drawing. In different poses, the point of view on a ribcage is different. So, to be a good figure artist, you need to know how to draw a ribcage at various angles. This is what you will learn in this video part.

There is a reason why I sketch in pen and ink. Because ink is not erasable, fixing mistakes is very difficult. This forces an artist to pay more attention to every line, making sure it is accurate and precise. So, in this lesson, we will sketch in pen and ink.

To begin with, here are diagrams with human body proportions. The head will fit eight times into the figure's height. The rib-cage has an interesting shape. Here it is depicted in different views. Also, here's the front and side drawings of a ribcage.

I will use the Hard grade of Monster Clay for sculpting a small, but accurate model of a ribcage. This model will be used for sketching from life. The waxy oil-based clay never dries and its hard grade will hold the shape well. I'm adding small bits of clay to build up the model's volume.

This video is created for the Life Drawing Academy Correspondence Course students. Together with full instructions, they will also get scanned diagrams of body proportions and ribcage templates that can be used to sculpt a model at home.

Here's how to use the template for sculpting. Simply print it out and measure the dimensions. You do not need the same tool as I'm using. It allows measurement with zero point zero two millimeter precision, but there is no need for such accuracy here. I will show you later how to use tools you already have or can easily make yourself.

There are three main dimensions we need to know - the rib-cage width, its height and depth. I still need to add a bit of clay to get the right size. You may wonder why you need to invest time and effort in sculpting a model. Here's the thing - to draw figures from imagination, you need extensive experience of drawing figures from life. I doubt that you have a full skeleton at home. Even if you do, it is not the best model to draw, let say, a ribcage from all points of view. To solve this challenge, it makes sense to sculpt a ribcage model. There is also another reason to sculpt - this way, you will better learn the ribcage shape, its geometry and proportions because you will handle it from every possible angle while making and sketching.

The model is taking shape. I will polish it now. Let's double check the dimensions. The height is sufficient. It measures from the 12th rib at the bottom to the seventh vertebra at the top. The width of the first pair of ribs will define the width of the neck. I need to make it a bit bigger. Please note, the first pair of ribs is not horizontal, but tilted from the seventh vertebra to the top of the breastbone. For the model purposes, this pair of ribs will be sculpted as a flat oval shape. You can clearly see its angle - it is higher at the back and lower at the front. The height of the breastbone is an important dimension. According to the classical proportions, it is equal to the length of a hand or the height of a face. At the bottom, the ribs outline is shaped as an arch. I will fine-tune its shape with the wooden tool. In the side view, the rib-cage is not vertical, but tilted at an angle, so is the plane of the first pair of ribs. I will fix this angle now. I will also double check the depth. It is easy to do with the template at hand. At the back, the rib-cage is not flat, but intricately shaped. At the front, there are two curved lines, which are borders between bones of ribs and their cartilages. In the middle, there is the straight breastbone line. In addition, I also marked two contours around the ribcage. These contour lines will be very helpful when sketching this model from life. Also, note how the back-side of this model is shaped. The rib-cage model is complete and ready for drawing. It follows the same design and dimensions as the template. A real skeleton won't give you the same stylised shapes as this model. That is why sculpting such a model is a very useful exercise. I'm showing this model from different angles, so you could see its shapes and compare them to drawings.

Now, as promised, I will show you the simplest measuring tool that you can make in no time. Just take a couple of pencils and join them with a piece of clay. Such a tool is easy to make and use. Later on, I will show you a bit more sophisticated measuring tool you can make at home using a piece of metal wire. But for now, two pencils would do. When you are happy with all dimensions, you are ready for the next step of this lesson - sketching the ribcage model from life.

I will sketch in pen and ink. Drawing in ink has its advantages and downsides. To begin with, drawing in ink can be messy if you smudge still wet marks with your hand. Secondly, ink marks are not erasable. This will force you to pay attention to every line you draw. At the same time, drawing in ink is fast because every line is final. You either make it right or wrong. Should you mark it the wrong way, the only way to fix the mistake is to make another sketch. This trains the eye-had coordination and improves confidence in drawing.

I will do another sketch from a different point of view. The first pair of ribs is depicted as a tilted oval. The breastbone is marked as one line. The bottom edges are on the same vanishing line in perspective. The same angle is used for other vanishing lines. This is important - I do not use a two-point perspective here, but parallel perspective. There is a reason why parallel perspective is better suited for figure and portrait drawing - it gives less distortions and appears more natural.

Once again, I see this model from a different point of view, so the sketch will differ from how this model is seen by the camera. In two previous sketches the contours were depicted from below. In this drawing, these contours are seen from above. Let's make another quick sketch from a different angle. It only takes a minute or so to sketch this model. So, making numerous drawings is the aim of this exercise. Four drawings easily fit on an A4 size paper sheet. I will now make a side-view drawing. As you can see from this angle, the rib cage is not vertical. Its top part is tilted to the back and the front part is protruding forward. That is why its contours are also tilted diagonally. Here's another view; this time, we see the model's back. The aim of this exercise is to make multiple sketches from various angles. It is not about precision, but quantity. Quantity will inevitably turn into quality. Repetition is the key here. With time and practice, you will get familiar with curves and outlines of the ribcage by drawing the model from every angle. So, when you get to drawing human figures from life, memory or imagination, the ribcage shape won't confuse you because you will know how it looks from every point of view. It is fine to make mistakes while you are sketching. Making mistakes is a part of the learning process. However, it is important to see your mistakes because only by fixing them will you be able to improve. They say practice makes it perfect. That is true as long as you practice the right way. Repeating the same mistakes over and over again will make you perfect at making the same errors. That is why it is so important to have a dedicated art teacher who will help you and point out all mistakes you make. Such assistance will help you not only in fixing errors, but also will teach you how to recognise mistakes, so the next time you will avoid making them. This is why the Life Drawing Academy Correspondence Course is a great way to learn good drawing skills. In this course, you will receive one-to-one personal tutoring that is tailored to your level of skills.

If you are not a Life Drawing Academy student, I will tell you a few words about this course. This Correspondence Course is one of the best drawing courses in the World today. It is also one of the cheapest options to get the advanced level of drawing skills the fast and easy way. We actually guarantee that by the end of this course, you will reach the professional level and will be able to draw whatever you see or imagine. There are many reasons why it will happen. To begin with, before the course, every new student has to make several drawings from life as instructed and submit such tests for tutors' review. These test drawings allow us to assess the current level of skills and see which skills are missing or need to be improved. According to these test results, a student receives a full review and a custom-tailored drawing curriculum, which consists of many different topics. The topics a student needs to learn will depend not only on the skills level, but also on one's aims. For example, if a student is interested in portraits, landscapes, still life drawing, or maybe in industrial design, such needs will be included in his or her personal curriculum. All the topics will be covered in 100 drawing tasks. Such tasks will be given to a student one by one. They will range from simple to more advanced tasks. Every previous task will give you something new to learn and such new skills will prepare you for the next task. Every task will be explained in depth, so you will know what to do and how, step by step. There is no way to fail because every step will be explained and demonstrated. Should you need our help, we will make instructional illustrations and even video demonstrations for you. Such tutorials will be in addition to the video lessons from the Life Drawing Academy online course. Our tutoring will help you to solve difficult topics with ease. Every artwork you make in this course will be critiqued by professional art teachers. Tutors will also point out every mistake you make and advise how to fix it. This is very important because seeing your own drawing errors is difficult, but your skills will only grow when you are able to work on your mistakes and learn how to avoid them.

You will get unlimited personal tutoring, which means that you can report as often as you are ready to go forward or need our help. You can ask as many questions as you like and every question will be answered fully and promptly. This is what personal tutoring means - it is about having your dedicated art teacher who is ready to help you as often and as much as you need it.

Because it is custom-tailored, the Life Drawing Academy Correspondence Course is suitable for students of all levels - from beginners to advanced artists. If you are a complete beginner, your tasks will include very simple, yet needed topics, such as how to sharpen and handle a graphite pencil, how to hold a pencil and draw lines the right way, how to draw simple geometric shapes and measure relative proportions, alignments and angles, how to use the correct pencil grip to make professional hatching for rendering tonal values. You will also receive tasks on linear and aerial perspective. Our research reveals that even art college graduates have never heard of all 16 different types of perspective and 21 rules of drawing in perspective. We cover such rules extensively in this course, so our students get a good sense of perspective and fully understand which type of perspective to use for every case. Perspective, although important, is just a small part of 34 constructive drawing principles. We cover all the constructive drawing topics in this course. Other topics include how to use contours for drawing foreshortened objects, how to intersect objects to obtain the best contours, how to use virtual lines of construction to reveal three-dimensional nature of objects and so on. In this course, students draw from life geometric solids, draperies, still life and man-made objects, landscapes, cityscapes, architectural details, learn classical orders of architecture and make interior and exterior drawing. This course also teaches all you need to know about anatomy for artists, classical proportions of a human body and its construction. Students receive not only drawing, but also sculpting and model-making tasks. They draw from life models of geometric bodies made of paper and clay; sculpt facial features, a human skull, and the shoulder girdle. Such experience fully prepares them for portrait and figure drawing. The advanced tasks include such topics as depicting emotions in portraits, drawing figures in motion and composing multi-figure artworks. There is no other personal tutoring drawing course like this. And the best part is - it comes at a very low one-time fee for a lifetime membership. It will actually cost you 15 times less than its real value!

I will flip through pages of my sketchbook to show you multiple rib-cage model sketches from various points of view. Your task is simple - you need to make at least 300 different view drawings to get familiar with the ribcage proportions and construction. Although 300 sketches sounds a lot, it is actually not that difficult and can be done in one or two drawing sessions if you draw in pen and ink. However, speed is not the aim, but a sub-product of your fine-motor skills and eye-hand coordination in this case. Ideally, make 500 or more sketches, the more the better. By the time you complete this challenge, you will be a master of drawing a ribcage from any point of view. So, when you come to drawing human figures from life or imagination, this topic will not be a secret for you.

Coming back to the ribcage drawing, I'm making more and more sketches and with every new sketch, it becomes easier to depict the characteristic shapes of this model. After making several hundreds of sketches, you will realize that drawing a ribcage from memory is not that hard. Of course, there is much more than a simple egg-shape to this part of the torso; and we will cover those things in the later parts of this lesson. For now, your aim is to learn a simplified construction with its main contours and outlines. In the next video, I will show you how to make a DIY wire tool for measuring and how to sculpt a simplified head with the correct proportions and construction. I will also make a portrait sketch to explain the main proportions of a human head. Such a head will be connected to the ribcage in a very special way that demonstrates the function and construction of the neck. And, of course, we will make numerous sketches of the ribcage, head and neck in various poses from different points of view.

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