Human Body Drawing: Lesson 6: The Articulated Mannequin & Perspective
THE ARTICULATED WOODEN MANNEQUIN
I spoke to you about an articulated mannequin, composed of metal rods, which had little success, mostly because of its overly abstract form. However, I didn't tell you that it was undoubtedly created to compete with wooden mannequins, which have a prohibitive price.
Indeed, there are still articulated mannequins specially designed for draftsmen, which offer such a perfect set of proportions and articulations that they can, for example, raise, bring back, or bend the leg, just as the human body can do; the elbow joint almost perfectly imitates the real movements of the arm and forearm.
But these mannequins are unfortunately not within everyone's budget. An articulated wooden mannequin, 35 cm high, as it appears in the photo opposite (fig. 31), is relatively expensive. Handcrafted, meticulously assembled, its cost price can only be high.
It is unfortunate that such necessary equipment is so expensive because a mannequin like this provides the most valuable help when it comes to drawing characters from memory. Wishing to find a solution to this apparently insurmountable disadvantage, we take the liberty of suggesting the following idea:
SECOND DIAGRAM OF THE HUMAN BODY FROM AN ARTICULATED PAPER MANNEQUIN
As you will see, making an articulated mannequin out of wire and paper is not difficult, if you are even slightly skilled, and here is how:
How does it look to you? Doesn't it correspond to the goal we set for ourselves, that is to say, learning, through practice, to draw the body from memory? As far as I am concerned, I have tested the possibilities of this simple imitation many times, and I truly believe that we can get enormous benefit from it. You will see: stand the mannequin up, at attention, and try to find in it this law valid for all bodies:
PERSPECTIVE (1)
Our second diagram, the paper mannequin, is wonderfully useful for studying and grasping the importance of perspective in the construction of the human body. It confirms what has been said so many times: "the human body consists of a set of cylindrical forms." On this subject, do you remember perfectly how to construct a cylinder in perspective? Do you know what happens, depending on whether you look at it from a higher or lower point of view? Review these fundamental effects just in case, using figure no. 34. It is formed by a series of small cylinders—similar to tin cans—stacked and separated from each other by the same gap.
Besides the proper construction of each cylinder, it is interesting to remember that the further the cylinders are from the horizon line, the more their base relative to it is visible, bearing in mind that a) the cylinders, which are located above the horizon line, offer their lower circular plane to our gaze, while b) those situated below, show their upper face.
The human body presents the same problem of perspective: the construction of the trunk, and especially that of the arms and legs, is very similar to that of cylindrical parts seen in perspective. Look at figure 35: if we place the horizon line at head level (suppose we are close to this figure), we notice that the perspective effect is the same as for the tin cans, that is to say, we see circular planes, the narrowing being greater or lesser, depending on whether they are closer or further from the horizon line.
Likewise, observe in the following figure no. 36, the influence of this law on the construction of the human body. And, moreover, notice a new aspect highlighted here: when you look at the body from a rather high point of view—the same thing would happen in the opposite case—the whole body is subject to the laws of perspective; the shoulder line (A) and the line formed by the limit of both feet (B), converge towards a single vanishing point on the horizon.
(1) For a complete study of the laws of perspective, we recommend the book "How to draw in perspective", in the same collection.
