Discover Your Drawing Skills

Drawing of the Human Form

• Figure drawing is a drawing of the human body in any shape or posture using different drawing media, which can range from detailed and anatomically correct to loose and expressive.
• Life drawing is a drawing of the human figure, traditionally nude, from observation of a live model, and it has been a significant part of the training of artists in the Western world since the Renaissance.
• Artists use various approaches to drawing the human figure, including drawing from live models, photographs, skeletal models, or memory and imagination.
• Most instruction focuses on the use of models in "life drawing" courses, but the use of photographic reference is often criticized or discouraged for its tendency to produce "flat" images.
• Artists take different approaches to developing the image, such as focusing on the shapes created by light and dark values, taking an anatomical approach, or constructing the body out of geometric shapes.
• Proportions commonly recommended in figure drawing are most useful for a standing model, and poses that introduce foreshortening of body parts will cause them to differ.
• Different media used to make figure drawings include Conté crayons, charcoal sticks, graphite pencils, and ink, and each has its advantages and disadvantages.
• The human figure has been the subject of drawings since prehistoric times, and the Carracci set the pattern for later art schools by making life drawing the central discipline.
• Historical accounts reveal that nude models for aspiring female artists were largely unavailable, and it was not until 1893 that female students were allowed access to life drawing at the Royal Academy in London.
• Figure drawing instruction is an element of most fine art and illustration programs, and individual models are most common, but multiple models may be used in more advanced classes.
• Modern and contemporary artists may choose to exaggerate or distort proportions to emphasize the gesture or perceived mood of the model's pose.
• The artist's kinesthetic response to the pose and how this is conveyed through a choice of art media is a more advanced concern in life classes.