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FIGURE DRAWING 2
Updated Dec. 2, 2006

Basic Proportions and Height

Observe the size of the palm in proportion to the human head; one (1) eye in between the 2 eyes; the height of the nose in line with the bottom of ears; and the hairline's imaginary boundary.

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	THE BROWS - Always start at the line of growth to make brows more realistic.  Play with stroke and don't make it too solid.
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	THE EYES - I learned this quite sensibly...The main keywords when drawing the eyes are:  "straight, curve, straight, curve."  Believe me, you will be able to draw effectively shaped eyes. Avoid putting lashes if the drawing is small. By assuming scale, lashes are not visible when far.
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	THE NOSE - Observe how the structure of the nose has been developed. Nose evolved from bulges, by doing the shadows, the shape could form in a nice way. Just let it take form without getting too conscious.
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	THE EARS - The ear has no definite rule but you may consider drawing 6 and sketch the curves and strokes.
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THE LIPS - Observe how the lips are formed out of ellipse shapes.  These shapes serve as guides to imagine the form and bumps of lips.
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Woman has exactly 2 heads for shoulders	THE BODY - It is quite handy that the head does a good job in proportioning the body. The head alone can make everything in the dimensioning of the anatomy.
The man has an excess of 1/3 the size of head
The Muscles and Bulks in a Figure - try to visualize, memorize by practice and learn to apply the muscular logic of human bulk to give life to your figure drawing. Front torso muscles Muscles in Arms Try to memorize the bumps if you want to do effective drawing by imagination, otherwise, let a model do the action for you Muscles of the arms The Back View Muscles of the legs and thighs         - No matter how muscular a man, still the shape is similar to that of a woman
THE HANDS - The hand and its joints if you can not seem to start with it, make an easy approach by doing the above sample. Try copying your hand and its actual curves (left); or try using your imagination by assuming the right image where the a finger points directly into you. Quite playful, huh?     FEET - It is quite funny that a horseshoe resembles the extreme front view of a human foot .  Just visualize it facing you.

When I was a kid, my first drawings were sticks. Sounds too elementary? No. One of the most important techniques in figure drawing is to do it like when you are a kid. Draw a stick. It is like a skeleton being dressed up by muscles. The only difference is, you should now do it with sense of proportion. By applying this technique, your drawing will achieve motion. Complex postures could be easily laid out using sticks.

Composition

The effective way of composing a picture on a sheet of a work paper/canvas is by dividing it into 3rds like below:

If you observe, the composition of subjects appear more interesting when the weight is on the dots rather than making it too symmetrical as expected. This kind of balance could be similar to "fulcrum balance". Focal points should land on the dots.

"Perspective and Figure"