Human body drawing: Lesson 1: Proportion Study

With Praxiteles' Hermes, we approach ideal beauty, represented by a canon of eight heads.

With the Apollo Belvedere, attributed to Leochares, the canon has slightly enlarged again, marking the decline of the great period of Greek sculpture.

During the Renaissance, a manuscript by Vitruvius brought back to honor, had a great influence. It demonstrates that man, with arms and legs extended, is inscribed within two perfect shapes: the square and the circle.

It is thanks to this text that L. da Vinci executed his famous drawing, preserved in Venice.

This problem of proportions is found in Dürer and Michelangelo. The former besides realized that the system of proportions does not guarantee physical beauty; Michelangelo insisted on the close relationship between architecture and drawing.

Now the canon varies, depending on the purpose of the drawing.

(1) By CANON, we mean the rule or system that determines and relates the proportions of the human body, from a base measurement called MODULE. The module used from the Renaissance to our days is equal to the height of the head. In his Canon, Polyclitus took as a module the width of the palm of the hand. We have translated this module as head height, taking into account that this transformation changes nothing in the canon of the Greek artist, but that it facilitates, on the contrary, understanding and comparison with current canons.

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The Three Canons of the Human Body

Let's now pass to the practical application of the preceding conclusions and say that:

THE CANON OF SEVEN AND A HALF TIMES THE HEAD can be used in drawing characters from everyday life. It is the anonymous and characteristic silhouette of the neighbor across the street, of the man in the street; a man of rather short height—about 1.65 or 1.70 m—fairly stocky, with a rather large head, slightly disproportionate to the body, thighs, and legs (fig. 3).

THE CANON OF EIGHT HEADS will give you the ideal body: slender, athletic, rather tall—about 1.85 m—, in which the ratio of the head's proportions to those of the body and limbs will be perfect. It could also be a man in the street, but a man out of the ordinary. It is this one we will use to study in this book, the proportions and construction of the human body (fig. 4).

THE CANON OF EIGHT AND A HALF TIMES THE HEAD—and even if needed of nine heads—will serve you only in exceptional cases: to represent legendary heroes idealized to exaggeration. This is the type generally used by the adventure story illustrator, and whose head is small compared to the body, whose legs are elongated. But this can also be the biblical figure of Moses, or that of the Cid, in paintings on religious or historical subjects (fig. 5).

Let us now see the study of the ideal body, whose size is eight times the height of the head; we will draw from it the knowledge of the proportions and dimensions of the human body. Pay all your attention to the following explanations, thinking that you are taking a very important step there which, thanks to the knowledge of anatomy, will allow you to perfectly master the drawing of the human body.

STUDY OF THE IDEAL PROPORTIONS OF THE MALE BODY:

On the following figures: 6, 7 and 8, you see the image of the male body at attention, from the front, in profile, and from the back, whose proportions correspond to those imposed by the canon of eight heads.

Remark first of all the proportions of the whole, and compare the height and the width of the body, seen from the front. You notice that it has:

EIGHT HEADS IN HEIGHT FOR TWO HEADS IN WIDTH:

in such a way that, if you draw a rectangle whose dimensions are equal to eight units in height for two in width, you obtain the "frame," which contains a human body with ideal proportions.

Study now more lengthily the placement of the following fundamental points; this is determined automatically, by the division lines or modules of the canon. Observe that I have numbered the modules respectively from 1 to 8, so that one can realize more rapidly the dimensions and following situations:

• a) The level of the shoulders coincides with subdivision A, situated at a third of module no. 2.
• b) The nipples coincide exactly with the bottom division line of module no. 2.
• c) The navel appears a little below the bottom division line no. 3.
• d) The two elbows are practically found situated at waist level, a little higher than the navel.
• e) The pubis is found exactly in the center of the body, and coincides with the bottom division line of module no. 4.
• f) The wrists are found at the same height as the pubis.
• g) The open hand measures one head height.
• h) The total length of the arm—from the shoulder point to the fingertips—reaches a total of three modules and a half.
• i) The kneecap or most protruding part of the knee (see on the profile body drawing), is situated slightly above module no. 7.

Notice on the other hand, the following correspondences, also important for a perfect construction and proportion of the male body:

• 1. The gap between one nipple and the other is equal to one module (one head height).
• 2. By joining points B and C with two oblique and symmetrical lines, we obtain:
  • aa) The place of the nipples.
  • bb) The place of the end of the clavicle, or most protruding part of the shoulder.

Finally observe the male body seen in profile (fig. 7). You notice that, at attention and in profile, the male body presents a calf that exceeds the vertical line, on which the buttocks and the shoulder blade (points D, E, and F) come to rest.

All that you have just read is very important; study it by paying it real attention, and try to assimilate this knowledge to which it will be essential for you to have recourse, when you yourself draw the male body.