Human Body Drawing: Lesson 12: Detailed Study of Body Parts
DETAILED STUDY OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE HUMAN BODY
Trunk - Arms - Legs - Feet and Hands
THE TRUNK: FOR MICHELANGELO, THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE BODY WAS THE TORSO
Michelangelo attributed capital importance to drawing the trunk. "If one examines a large part of his sketches—Professor Stratz tells us—one easily notices that his starting point was not the head, but the trunk. In his studies of the body, the hands, feet, and head are most often indicated by simple lines, while the trunk is already executed in its smallest details."
Michelangelo's predilection for this part of the body is easy to understand: as a perfect anatomist, his main preoccupation related to the origin of movement, that is to say, to the trunk. The muscles of the trunk and limbs were the most important for him, because they twist, incline, stretch; conversely, he considered that mobile parts, the head, the hands, and the feet, were of only secondary interest.
Verify for yourself that when the construction and modeling of the torso are correct, the proportion of the rest does not present any difficulty. Devote a lot of time to the study of the torso; draw it from the front, in profile, bent forward, backward, with the body tilted to the side, and the seated figure, etc. Be your own model by placing yourself in front of a mirror, or ask one of your friends to pose for you. If you don't have a model, practice for now by copying the attached illustrations, which show the torso in various poses, highlighting all the muscles (fig. 18).
THE ARMS AND LEGS: FOUR MUSCLED CYLINDERS
"The human body is composed of a set of cylindrical forms": never could this fundamental concept be better employed. The arms and legs are effectively that, with, of course, the corresponding muscle relief and the bony appearance that certain places offer. To obtain the desired form, it is necessary to know this relief, which will rely on the guiding cylinders. See the following figures (p. 62 and 63), the study of arms and legs that I made myself for you; observe on each example the placement and shape of the muscles (fig. 19). Notice a very important detail that relates to the modeling of these body parts—and also, of course, to that of the trunk and in general all parts that are essentially cylindrical:
The line is enveloping and follows the cylindrical conformation.
But be careful: never draw the shadows of a cylindrical form—arm or leg—with vertical strokes in the direction of the length as if it were a grooved tube (because that would be its appearance!). Always do them with loop-shaped strokes, which envelop the cylindrical form; do the same way when you smudge with your finger or with the stump. When you frame or pass the grays, do not forget that you can do it with diagonal strokes, but, I repeat, never vertical.
THE COMPLICATED SHAPE OF THE FEET
It is here that you can study on yourself and draw your feet. Do it as often as possible; take off your shoes and pose on the floor, leaning on something, a mirror almost vertical; look at your feet, study them, and draw them. Their shape is a bit complicated, even if you claim to render it roughly, without paying the interest that they require for placement and construction.
Observe the sketches above: they prove that all secrecy consists, here as elsewhere, in a serious study of the dimensions and proportions, which begins with the fairest possible linear framing (fig. 20). Also observe on these sketches of the feet of men's shoes and women's: it is a brief graphic reference to the study of the shoe, of which the form seems very difficult to render, and it is - when you don't know to the bottom the shape of the bare foot.
