Figure Drawing Part 2 - Drawing Figures in Perspective

Another question that came up was how to handle models sitting, lying down, or seen from extreme angles — in other words, figures in perspective.

Many students can draw a standing figure straight on, but things fall apart when the body tilts or recedes. I've always found that treating the figure as a set of simple volumes in space can help. That coupled with some observational drawing techniques like plumb lining to see which points line up.

Resource to Study:

• Marcos Mateu-Mestre – Framed Perspective (Vol. 2)

  In the section 'Characters in Perspective', page 42, Marcos shows how to apply perspective directly to the human body - breaking the torso, arms, and legs into boxes and cylinders, and placing them convincingly in space.

How to Practise:

1. Start with simple box figures. Draw a box for the ribcage, one for the pelvis, and connect them with a cylinder for the spine.

2. Place the figure in a 1-point or 2-point perspective grid.

3. Once you can do that easily, begin to curve those boxes slightly to match the anatomy.

   
   

The goal isn’t necessarily perfect anatomy when putting it into convincing perspective - at least at the start - it's simplifying the forms first and then putting limbs into perspective since a cylinder or a cuboid is far easier to move around in space than a fully rendered arm or leg with all it's infinitely complex plane changes.

Related Posts in This Series:

Part 1 – Understanding Planes of the Body

Part 2 – Drawing Figures in Perspective