Drawing Anatomy Based on What You Know

Breaking the Rules

As an art student, drawing anatomy is part of the curriculum. A previous post, Draw What You See, covered one of the first things that was taught in art school. The primary reason was that most students rarely study the object in front of them and try to draw it based on memory or on what they think they know about the object. The results were less than ideal. In that post, I hinted at being able to break that rule…once you’ve mastered it, of course.

Vetruvian Man — Based on original by Leonardo da Vinci — (Photo Credit: 123RF.com ID: 27226524 Copyright: omnimages)

The thing that makes drawing anatomy special is that there is a formula to drawing people. There are standard proportions that every human body fits into. For example, using the length of the head as a measuring tool, most people are seven and a half to eight heads tall. The eyes sit at the midpoint of the head, between the top of the head and bottom of the chin.

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This is just a small portion of human head proportions. (Photo Credit: 123RF.com, Image ID: 43705151 Copyright: Ion Chiosea)

The head is about five eye-widths across. The bottom of the nose is one third the distance down from the eyes to the chin. And the line between the lips is at the two-thirds line down from the eyes to the chin. The wrists fall at the top…