Figure Drawing in Perspective

Series Summary

Art is decided upon by the critics. You can make a painting, draw a charcoal likeness, or arrange a urinal in a museum display as beautifully as possible, but unless your work makes someone think— unless your work reaches others and causes them to find pleasure gazing or reflecting upon it, then it is not art. So, it is in the audience that the painting becomes “art,” and the true artist is not offended by this. What were once religious cave paintings used to appease the gods are now art. What was once a medieval suit of armor used for protection and combat is now art. What was once a spiritual song used to bring peace of mind during captivity is now art. See, it is in the reception of a creation that “art” is born. Otherwise, it is mere stuff.

In this free video series, expert Craig Browder teaches you how to draw the human body in perspective and with foreshortening. Figure drawing is as old as art itself, and capturing the subtle curves of the human body is the greatest artistic achievement. You will learn how to draw the arms, legs, torso, muscles, and other features of the human body in perspective. Craig will show you how to use a box to draw in perspective and how to foreshorten the shapes that make up the human figure.

Video Transcript

"Alright, this next segment, if you've just watched the previous one, it was about the Human Body in Perspective or in scale. This one is actually on Perspective, and how to use, if I talked about the 2 point perspective of boxes actually using the 7, 8 1/2 head in scale, using that box and actually like turning it on its side and putting it in perspective; examples I can give you are maybe like shots of Superman flying like towards the screen and his feet are like really small. We'll talk about fore shortening and how that works, and like I said, this is another very, very rough sketching, it's getting to the point where you, it's becoming more difficult, and it's a lot, you have to sketch a, more and you're going to have to go back and erase and fix it because it's not going to look right so just be prepared for that, be prepared to maybe stop and if you get frustrated it's okay, it's just one of those things where you're going to have to start to practice a bit more. And actually, after this segment, I'm actually going to go into finalizing like a nice sketch, getting a nice like, pose from your initial sketch, from what you'll learn from here, and after you've done that, actually take that and we'll do an overlay, and I'll show you how to actually start getting in on shading, we'll talk about how to draw the mouth and the eyes, and all, all that stuff, the human head and how it works in scale and all that stuff. Like I said, these two, the last one and this one, are going to be very short and quick and to the point I'm just kind of giving you the idea and you just got to go out there and practice. Like I said from last one, if you can, you want to pick up something, pick this up, this is a great reference, really $18 bucks or something like that, it's I recommend it, if you're really going to get into this, this is a great thing to reference and to look at all the time, it's got great sketches for you to look from, I'm just kind of giving you, opening the door for you, so this is, after this point you've just got to go out there and practice, so alright, let's get started."