Life drawing
Under life drawing refers to the visual representation of the naked human body. A nude model - women and men - is usually chosen as a template, and often a statue in courses for laypeople . The depiction of the naked body is a difficult artistic task and is often used as an exercise for proportion studies. The result of the nude drawing is called a nude .
Place and participants
Life drawing usually takes place at art academies and universities as part of a course or tutorial, as well as at drawing schools or adult education centers. The seating arrangement in the nude drawing room differs depending on the size and layout of the room. Most of the time, the places are distributed in a circle around the model in the middle , but semicircular or other groupings are also possible. The participants can sit as they please and work with the help of a sturdy drawing board. Others prefer to stand at an easel . It is less favorable to paint on a horizontal table top while sitting, as the proportions cannot be seen in the correct ratio. In addition to a chair and a couch for the model, there is sometimes a device in the room for fixing the position and an artificial skeleton for analyzing the musculoskeletal system. It is important to have a heating facility, as large halls are usually too cool and do not meet the heat requirements of a naked person. A water point in the room makes it easier to paint with watercolors, Indian ink or ink.
Life drawing is part of the voluntary basic artistic training at academies, art colleges and universities, but nude courses for amateurs and amateur artists are also offered at adult education centers or drawing schools.
Nude model
A nude model is a naked person portrayed by artists. The body is studied in its external appearance and not evaluated. There are no specifications for the appearance, age or gender of the nude model. Well-trained people are an advantage for studying the muscles. Model standing is often carried out as part-time or temporary work, also by students for reasons of secondary employment. Some models bring props such as a staff, a spear, a musical instrument, a jug or a cloth. This allows unusual and unusual positions to be assumed. Model standing is usually very strenuous, especially when it comes to uncomfortable and complicated poses . Therefore, lying down or sitting down alternates between resting positions. The duration varies from seconds to around 45 minutes. Breaks serve to relax the muscles and to refresh.
If two people stand as a model, the constellation is called a double act. There are different ways of representing interpersonal communication: When two models are present at the same time, a successful external and internal relationship is important. If possible, no part of the body may be completely covered by the person drawing; the double act was intended to illustrate the closeness and distance, separation and connection of the figures. Well-chosen overlaps create optimal bridges and spaces.
Proportions
Life drawing is a figurative study of nature in order to get to know the proportions and anatomy of the human figure and to implement them artistically. The parts of the body are considered in their structure, their function and their spatial expansion and subordinated to the overall physical gesture. The limitation to simple shapes makes it easier to understand the functional processes of the skeleton and the behavior of the soft tissues. Since every person is different, there are no rigid proportions, but the knowledge of an ideal doctrine of proportions is very useful in the beginning.
body
As the first important basic orientation, the body is recognized as a structured whole with main and secondary forms that can be easily memorized. As Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man shows, the total height of a person corresponds to the extension of width with arms outstretched, so that he can be enclosed in a circle or a square.
The total height of the body from the top to the bottom is divided into eight equal parts by horizontal axes, the distance from one axis to the other corresponding to the length of the head (KL).
- KL0 = vertex
- KL1 = chin
- KL2 = approximate height of the nipples
- KL3 = waist
- KL4 = pubic bone
- F5 = middle of the thigh
- KL6 = knee gap (lower edge of the kneecap)
- KL7 = middle of the lower leg
- KL8 = sole of the foot
The greatest width of the trunk at hip height is different for the sexes and is about two head lengths in women and less in men. Fat deposits on the female body, such as on the breast, on the stomach, in the hip area and on the thigh, form characteristic shapes and shape individual proportions. The skeletal measuring points of the ear canal opening, shoulder joint, elbow joint, hip joint, knee joint and ankle are also important. The center of gravity is between the first and second sacral vertebrae. In the profile view, the upper body bends towards the pelvis at a flat obtuse angle to the front and back. The hip region and rib cage are constant shapes and their position in relation to one another can change significantly through flexion and movement.
Because of the fundamental importance of this architectural structure, life drawing in beginner courses usually begins with the height division of the standing figure through the horizontal axes. The outline is only drawn after the rough body shapes have been laid out over a large area, so the figure is built up from the depths. The skeletal shapes are more important than the muscles, so it is often useful to draw simplified bones as straight lines in the outlines so that the mechanics of the body can be understood. It is also helpful to break down the figure into spatial forms such as cube, sphere, hemisphere and cylinder.
head
In life drawing, no value is usually placed on the design of the head in the sense of a portrait study. There are special courses for this, such as study head or portrait drawing . However, the length of the head, which is one eighth of the height, is an important unit of measurement. As an additional exercise, you can also deal with the proportions of the skull . The dome-shaped brain skull and the flattened face skull form the head. The eye axis is in the middle of head height. The distance from the top of the head to the chin can be divided into three parts. The tip of the nose extends slightly below the second third, the gap in the mouth is in the middle of the lower third. The ear extends from the upper eyelid to the tip of the nose. These points of orientation are only approximate guidelines, as the proportions and physiognomies of the face vary greatly . Bending, stretching, twisting and tilting the neck results in shortened views.
Hand, foot, torso
The proportionally correct representation of hands and feet is crucial for the success of a nude drawing. The hand extends from the chin to about the hairline. The foot is about as long as the forearm without the hand. The skeletal structure is important for both in order to avoid an unclear and informal representation. Torsos are mainly designed in sculpture, but concentration on the core of the body and its muscles can also be used as an exercise when drawing.
Positions
Resting posture while standing, sitting and lying down
In the straight posture with the body weight distributed on both feet, it is important to clearly work out the plasticity of the individual body masses in the frontal or rear view. In the standing leg free leg posture, the standing leg is inclined, the pelvis sinks to the unsupported side to maintain balance and the upper body bends to the side of the standing leg. The structure of this contrapostal study begins with drawing a vertical line from the top of the head over the center of gravity to the sole loaded on one side in order to convincingly demonstrate the ability to stand. Twisting the body, lifting or crossing the extremities and other postures cause congestion and stretching. The outer shapes should not simply be drawn, but rather the clarification of the relationships between them. A representation in profile shows a completely different picture of the body. Overlaps and shortenings result from a half-sided viewing angle.
The sitting posture enables a variety of designs thanks to special arm and leg positions. The abdominal wall is stretched or stretched, the shoulder girdle behaves differently depending on the position of the arms. Every posture has not only a mechanical, but also a psychological aspect, as The Thinker by Auguste Rodin shows.
In the supine position, the abdominal wall sinks. In the female model, the breasts give under their own weight, depending on their size. By twisting the pelvis or chest, the soft shapes change differently according to their function. In the case of transitional forms between sitting and lying down, the arm, elbow or buttocks take on supporting functions, while the unsupported side is flexible.
Movement and dynamism
A model cannot stay in a moving position for long. Postures of lively gestures that follow one another in rapid succession are often combined on one sheet of paper. Often there is a disturbed equilibrium in which the body's center of gravity is shifted, resulting in instantaneous representations of step, run or gesture. The forward movement is to be shown credibly, especially in profile, in the sense of relaxed, hesitant, creeping or graceful to hasty, brisk, spirited, happy or dancing. Moving poses are often overwhelming for beginners who still have functional and spatial-physical problems with proportions. In dynamic postures, the position and shape of the upper and lower body change, twisting, bending and other activities result in foreshortenings that are difficult to draw.
When it comes to dance, sports and games or at work, people adopt characteristic postures. Picking up, carrying, pulling or pushing a box, going up a flight of stairs, or climbing a ladder is different. Every musical instrument, every tool requires its own posture, which includes typical leg, arm and hand positions. A variety of activities can be simulated with a simple stick, such as fencing, shooting, rowing, throwing a spear or chopping wood.
Exercises
Sketching is generally not desired; the student should understand the body of the model both spatially and in outline. Many instructors suggest special exercises to sharpen the imagination, to loosen the painting hand and to ensure fluid movements. Quick changes of position are well suited for this, whereby the draftsman is forced to grasp the postural expression as a whole quickly and only to put brief linear or flat hints on the sheet. Anatomical details are neglected in favor of the expression of movement, the drawing approaches abstraction. Studying the model only briefly and then sketching it without further consideration also increases the ability to observe. This is also possible with closed eyes, which sometimes leads to more compact statements and better formulations. Painting from the imagination, completely without a model, is especially important for advanced users, who can use it to check their inner intuition and knowledge of the proportions.
Linking the model with a surrounding space leads to new insights. This ranges from the integration of the figure in a rigid form, such as a rectangle, to the addition of the ambience, i.e. the hall, the other students or the demonstration skeleton. To clearly outline the body shapes, portraying them as positive and negative shapes is a good practice. With a circular arrangement of the painting areas, it is possible to depict a position from different viewing directions.
Materials and Techniques
Pencils of different degrees of hardness are not only suitable for drawing outlines, but also allow the reproduction of plastic shapes as a bundle of lines or hatching . With strong or weak pressure and a change from light to dark, depth is created. Charcoal , sepia and red chalk pencils can also be softly smudged. The same effect occurs when you apply chalk dust with your finger. Broad-edged pieces of carbon or graphite allow the abstract representation of surfaces or plastic forms. Clear lines are created in pen or felt pen drawings.
Other expressive options than the pen offer brushes of different strengths. They are used both linearly and flatly. This tool is used to apply watercolor and opaque paints, ink, Indian ink, gouache and oil paints, working with a lot or a little water and binding agent depending on the desired effect. Different degrees of pressure or painting with a half-dry bristle brush produce different results. With the help of a toothbrush and your fingers or a sieve you can spray on liquid colors. Wax crayons or oil pastels are also suitable for the knock-out technique, whereby the outline is laid out with the greasy chalk and painted over with a water-soluble paint. With a stamp, the proportions of the individual body parts are clearly illustrated.
White, colored or black background papers as well as the limitation to a few tone values or to two complementary colors enable varied presentations. All these materials and techniques represent only a small part of the wealth of possibilities.
literature
- Gottfried Bammes: Studies on the shape of man. Verlag Otto Maier GmbH, Ravensburg 1990, ISBN 3-473-48341-9 .
- Gottfried Bammes: Workbook on artist anatomy . Verlag Otto Maier GmbH, Ravensburg 1993, ISBN 3-473-48374-5 .
- Louise Gordon: Anatomy and Figure Drawing. Bauverlag GmbH, Wiesbaden and Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-7625-1393-7 .
- David K. Rubins: Anatomy for Artists. Verlag Otto Maier GmbH, Ravensburg 1970, ISBN 3-473-48234-X .
- Werner Maier: The Art Academy. Fascination of life drawing. Expressive and focused. English publisher, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-8241-1382-8 .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ www.shortnews.de: USA: Nude models go to the union - the rooms are too cold. , accessed March 22, 2010
- ↑ Gottfried Bammes: Workbook on artist anatomy . Pp. 54-60
- ↑ Gottfried Bammes: Studies on the shape of man. P. 126 and 127
- ↑ a b Gottfried Bammes: Studies on the shape of man. P. 9
- ↑ Gottfried Bammes: Workbook on artist anatomy . P. 14 and 16
- ↑ Gottfried Bammes: Workbook on artist anatomy . P. 20
- ↑ Gottfried Bammes: Workbook on artist anatomy . P. 64
- ^ David K. Rubins: Anatomy for Artists. Pp. 18 and 19
- ↑ Gottfried Bammes: Workbook on artist anatomy . Pp. 33-40
- ↑ Gottfried Bammes: Studies on the shape of man. P. 32
- ↑ Gottfried Bammes: Workbook on artist anatomy . Pp. 55-59
- ↑ Gottfried Bammes: Studies on the shape of man. P. 29
- ↑ Gottfried Bammes: Studies on the shape of man. P. 23
