Notes on Figure Drawing

These notes were compiled from the lectures and demos of many of my teachers. For the first few pages in particular, I have leaned heavily on Steve Huston's explanation of "Gesture and Structure", where structure is "the parts", and gesture is the "connection between the parts". First, we learn to see the underlying connections and rhythms that flow between the parts, then we develop the parts themselves (this involves understanding anatomy and development of three-dimensional form). When a proper foundation of gesture and solid construction has been laid, we can move on to rendering light and shadow.

The plaster cast drawing in this next markup is not mine - I took it from the Grading Rubric in AAU's "Analysis of Form" class, and added my own notes to it, in effort to address common mistakes I saw in student assignments. The most common mistake is to apply too much value variation (for example, students typically go too dark in the light areas or too light in the shadow areas).

The figure drawing in this last page is not mine - it was by my teacher, Glen Orbik. I used it in this markup to explain "local value variation". However, the still life drawing was by me, and hopefully it demonstrates that a light object is always lighter than a dark object, regardless of light source. We must keep this in mind as we render light and shadow.