How to draw the human form!

I am a beginner to drawing anything head to toe. I specialize in portraits and haven't yet tried the full form of the body. My drawings so far look quite stiff and dont get me started in my hands and feet! I've tried a couple of mediums with this (pencil, charcoal and watercolour) yet I still need help! Any tips?

Hello,

I'd highly recommend Vilppu's drawing manual and "Figure drawing - design and invention" by Michael Hampton. First book focuses mostly on shapes and dynamics in the pose, while the other focuses highly on anatomy: proportions, how to think, what to look for, muscle groups everything you need to know, how to draw them and how to think about them. Both are life saving. I mostly work digitally but I think I'd recommend pencil and charcoal. Charcoal mostly to make sure you don't get caught up in detail, or, the opposite - to make some shaded drawings.

I'm not an expert but seeing this thread empty made me think that might be of any help.

I would suggest you take a look here:

https://www.alexhays.com/loomis/Andrew%20Loomis%20-%20Fun%20WIth%20a%20Pencil.pdf

Have a look and print out the pages you want to work with. It is much better than having it on a screen, or better yet you could buy the book.

Just play with it and have fun. This book starts of easy and with Great fundamentals! Towards the end it gets more and more advenced and if you keep with it you will even learn about perspective and more advanced techniques. Good luck and have fun!

• Thestripper edited this post on February 14, 2021 8:54pm.
• Thestripper edited this post on February 14, 2021 8:55pm.

Hi there !
I am a beginner and drew yesterday evening my first human body from a photo of this site (thank you so much ! Very usefull website).
Without method I have chosen to draw shadows, one by one, and this first approach/experience satisfied me.
It's probably not an advice... !
Have a nice day

I think mediums are probably not the main thing. The most important one is to study anatomy and learn how to draw the pose. And of couse, all this can't be learned quickly. Drawing a human body is such a hard thing, it takes a lot of training. This video of how to practice to draw human bodies helped me https://youtu.be/n4XuE4Fe7N4 so I've recommend to watch it