Human Body Drawing: Lesson 5: Hip Position & Weight Distribution

When a body moves, advances a foot, rests its weight on one leg, walks, runs, etc., a fundamental element appears for properly constructing the human body: it is the factor that stems from the ischiatic position. Anthropologists call it this because a certain bone called the ischium (located in the center and lower part of the pelvis) tilts to one side or the other, depending on the body’s movement or attitude. Since the movement of the ischium causes the movement of the entire pelvis and therefore the hip, this factor can also be called hip position.

What does this factor consist of?

The hip position factor is determined by the position adopted by the pelvis (and the thorax) when the body’s weight is on one leg or the other (fig. 25).

Let us return for a moment to the study of the skeleton. In figure 26 below, we see a skeleton at attention; the body's weight is distributed equally on both legs; in the center of the pelvis and in its lower part, you can notice that the two ischia are on the same horizontal level.

Skeleton diagrams demonstrating the ischiatic tilt and hip position as body weight shifts from resting to walking

In the preceding figure, no. 27, you see two skeletons in motion, or rather, skeleton A at "rest"—militarily speaking—and skeleton B walking. In both cases, the body's weight rests on a single leg, the second being relaxed, whether at rest (A) or moving forward to take a step (B). The ischiatic position is realized in both cases, meaning that the two ischia tilt or rock due to the fact that all the body's weight rests alternately on one or the other of the two legs.

But that is not all; when the pelvis tilts, the thorax also tilts, as we have said, but in the opposite direction, as the drawing of the two skeletons shows.

It seems necessary to me to insist on these facts, so that you understand and remember them better. We are going to do some practical exercises and experiment with what happens on yourself.

Stand up, in front of a mirror, and adopt the following attitudes: first, at attention. Are you? Now imagine the position and function of your own bones: the vertebral column, straight, perfectly vertical, supports the thorax and the pelvis; the two femurs—thigh bones—whose heads are firmly fitted into the lateral cavities of the pelvis, each seem to become one with the tibia and the foot bones.

Now, bring your right leg slightly backward and let the body's weight fall onto this right leg, leaving the left one relaxed, the knee barely bent; think again about the position and function of your bones. When you put your leg backward and you rest your body on it, your skeleton has lost its point of support — you even thought for a moment you lost your balance; your pelvis, pushed and supported by the femur of the right thigh, has "fallen" to the left side; as for your thorax, feeling that it too lacked support on the left side, it has "shifted" to the right side.

Grave this into your memory: when the body walks, runs, kneels, or sits, the hip position factor intervenes, almost always in a logical way, to serve as a counterbalance for the body. When you draw a character from memory, ask yourself:

— On which of the two legs is it leaning? Then deduce the consequences. Also consider that the support is more or less total; that the body can just as well lean completely—in an attitude of rest and abandonment, as in figure 27 A—as it can do so halfway, in a half-relaxation (fig. 27 B). Finally, remember that when we adopt certain attitudes, we distribute the body's weight on both legs—for example, standing, legs apart, arranged symmetrically in relation to the torso—and that in this case, the hip position factor does not occur. Put this data into practice by drawing the attached diagrams (fig. 28); study them and try to grasp the "why" of each attitude, take into account the influence of the perspective on the position of the forms corresponding to the thorax and the pelvis, when they are tilted either to one side or the other, or slightly forward or backward, and this, always in accordance with the attitude adopted by the rest of the body.

THE BODY IN MOTION

Finally, draw the body in motion, always in a schematic way, moving freely, walking, running, climbing quickly steps, then relaxing on a chair, sitting normally, reflecting, talking and gesticulating, fighting, thrown to the ground.

Schematic drawings of the human body in motion demonstrating hip position in various active poses

See the diagrams in figures 29 and 30. Draw these positions and others still; imagine new gestures, other attitudes, other movements... Attention! Watch the proportions!

In doing these practical exercises, keep in mind the submission to the forms of the diagram; but this dependence must not take anything away from life and movement.

Notice that I have sometimes suppressed the gap that is at the waist; elsewhere, I have slightly modified the shape of the pelvis, always trying to imagine and draw the living memory of the human body, and not the cold, calculated form of its schematic representation.