In the series at the upper left I tried to capture the basic gesture of the folds of the costume using pencil and white gouache. At upper right is more of a tubular form emphasis, using just light and shadow and no outline.

In the middle row, I used a brush and ink to try to capture the black silhouette. In the bottom row, we moved the light around to the back and I tried drawing edge-lit silhouettes, where the light side becomes the paper color.

Drawing directly with the brush, I first drew the side away from the light before sorting out the complex lit side. This way of sketching gives a very photographic effect.

Over the last year, Stan Prokopenko, also known as "Proko" has produced some of the best online tutorials on head drawing.


Here's "How to Draw the Head from Any Angle" (Direct link to YT Video). Proko studied at the Watts Atelier starting when he was in high school, and later was a teacher there. His way of drawing and teaching is like a 21st century version of art instruction legend Andrew Loomis.

Now he is polishing up the next series, which will be on figure drawing (video link). The first episode of the new series will launch tomorrow.


For viewers who like getting their stuff free online, he is committed to continue producing short videos, but he also offers paid content that's longer and more comprehensive. There is already a DVD and download available of his head drawing material. The figure drawing videos will have premium versions available for a fee.
-----
The Proko YouTube Channel
Proko's website (for newsletter signups and products)
Book: "Creative Illustration" by Andrew Loomis

 He also includes diagrams of difficult-to-draw details such as feet, ears, and hands.

According to Alexandra Greist, who wrote her dissertation on the topic, these instructional manuals are known as "libri da disegnare." "Libri da disegnare are groups of printed images that instruct in drawing the human body through a progression, whether by means of line-by-line instructions, following steps from outline to shaded, or building up the body from its individual features. Intended for both professional and amateur audiences, these printed sources were soon copied throughout Europe where they influenced drawing education for the next 400 years."

Life Drawing at The Book Club from Wriggles & Robins on Vimeo.
(Direct link to video) This video is made up of separate figure drawings made by a group of twelve artists arrayed in a circle. As the intervals speed up, the individual drawings merge into a three-dimensional sense of the figure as an animated form.
Thanks, Mary

I have run across the idea that the human form should be drawn only with convex lines because "there are no concave lines in the figure." The argument goes that the outer contours are governed by the bulging masses of the bones and muscles. Even when you cup your hand, your hollow palm is made up of a set of smaller convex shapes. Convexity is synonymous with life, volume, and fullness. Even on a thin person, the planes and lines should gently curve outward. Concave contours can be conceived as a series of overlapping convex forms.

The opposing view is that the figure is made up of a variety of lines and planes, including straight and concave. Some artists emphasize only straight lines, especially in the layin. Regarding concave contours, elastic skin stretched across any acute angle will form a concave shape, such as on the inside of the elbow or the curve of the neck. This would be true even on Mr. Universe or a heavyset person. Concavity is expressive of receptivity and inertness. Variety is the spice of life, and good drawing is a product of contrast.

I haven't made up my mind yet on this issue, and would be interested in your comments. Maybe you can make one case or the other better than I can. What have you been taught, and what thought process produces the best for you? You can also add your vote to the poll at left.

Yesterday we considered how even the most skeptical scientists agree that the golden mean is expressed in nature at the level of crystals, seed clusters, and leaf stems.

Then we followed the history of how golden mean geometry became accepted into art training, often accompanied by broader claims that golden mean geometry "permeates all structures" in nature, especially the human form.


The first question for today is: Can we believe assertions that golden mean geometry underlies the human form? 

This is more than just idle philosophical speculation for us as artists, because in order to draw accurately, we must always be looking for hidden proportions in the figure.

Art teachers have developed diagrams showing what appear to be golden mean relationships in the proportions of the face and the bones of the hand, and in other measurements of the figure. Below, the ratio of successive phalangeal bones of the digits appears to match the golden mean.

Part 2: The golden mean and Leonardo
Part 3: How the golden mean caught on with artists
Part 4: The golden mean and the human body
Part 5: Last question about the golden rectangle


Book: Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis
Book: The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI, the World's Most Astonishing Numberby Mario Livio
YouTube video: "Nature by Numbers"
Finger measurement slide from here.