Fantasy Art School

Drawing the Human Form Continued - Filling in the general form by using shapes

Let's draw in the general form of the knight - I have drawn these shapes with dark lines so you can see them. You should draw all of these lines lightly because you will be erasing them and moving them. This drawing, erasing and re-drawing is a normal part of the art process. You will not draw the lines exactly right the first time. This is a normal part of the artist process. As you draw the lines you will see better and be able to adjust everything.

Think of these shapes as the underlying muscles and bones in the figure. You can see this real well in the neck and shoulder area of this figure. In the next step we will be putting a skin on this figure. These shapes will define how the skin wraps over the body. That is what your skin does! It covers the body but it shows many of the underlying shapes.

Don't be dismayed if you keep drawing the shapes and it takes many tries to get it look right. This is how you will develop your skill as an artist. It is absolutely normal.

Let's take a look at this figure and note some important things to look for with your drawing.

First big thing to notice: The body is divided roughly in half. The top four segments are the upper body and the lower four segments are the legs. This is easy to see.

Second thing to look at: Don't forget about the pelvis/hip section. This is a section that is often overlooked and people often try to draw the whole torso with one big oval. You should break your torso into two different parts - the upper part (chest and rib cage) and the lower part (hips and lower abdomen) This breakdown of the torso is very important when you are defining the type of figure you are drawing. For example: if you were drawing a woman the hip/pelvis section would be as wide as or wider than the shoulder section. In the case of a man the shoulders are wider than the hips. Of course this is very important when drawing fantasy creatures. You would play with this relationship of hips and shoulders to define the male/female aspects of other creatures too.

Look at my drawing carefully and try to mimic all the relationships in your drawing. Here is a breakdown of how the different sections size up.

• Head - 1 segment in height
• Upper torso - 2 segments in height
• Pelvis - 1 segment in height
• Legs - 4 segments in height
• Arms/hands - about 3 segments in height and about 3 1/2 if you include shoulders

A note about distortion of this shape: remember that when you draw fantasy creatures like elves,trolls, hobbits, goblins, gremlins and any other humanoid form you will distort these relationships. A goblins arms might be extra long or a trolls stomach might be extra big! Just keep this in mind.

Remember: Draw your lines lightly and look at them, erase them, re-draw them, move them and continue looking at the figure. This process is how you will get better quickly. It is normal to erase and re-draw. If you look at your drawing and see that something doesn't look right you should be encouraged! This means that your eye is developing and you are improving as an artist.

Let's continue with our lesson and start to fill in this fantasy knight figure!

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Fantasy Art School HOME PAGE

Fantasy Art Lessons

1. lesson 1 - Holding the pencil and getting a feel for it and warming up with lines
2. lesson1c how to draw a straight line
3. lesson 2 - Drawing some simple geometric shapes
4. lesson 3 - Understanding and using Perspective
5. lesson 4- foreshortening in perspective
6. lesson 5- Drawing depth and distance
7. lesson 6-Using lines of varying thickness
8. lesson 7- drawing form and shape with a medieval mace
9. lesson 8- Drawing metal - We draw a medieval helmet
10. lesson 9- drawing our first human form
11. lesson 10- Distorting the human form to create fantasy creatures
12. lesson 11 - doodling and creativity break
13. lesson 12 - a Morning star mace - drawing textures
14. lesson 13 - how to draw chainmail
15. lesson 14 - How to convey action in your fantasy drawings
16. lesson 15 - How to draw sword shapes
17. lesson16 -draw an armored knight
18. lesson 17 - Draw a fantasy dagger using the Five-S method
19. lesson 18 - Creating space in your drawings - A Dragons Lair
20. lesson 19 - Practice by drawing dragons
21. Lesson 20 - Drawing from Memory
22. Lesson 21 -Draw a Catapult

Fantasy Art Lessons from Guest Artists

1. How to draw a magical genie using Corel and Photoshop

Art Books & Supplies

1. Art Kits
2. Art Books
3. Fantasy Art Books

Stormthecastle.com
Castlefiction.com
The Telescope Nerd
Epic Fantasy.com
The Medieval Armory
THe Fantasy Guide
The Heroic Dreams Blog Knight-Medieval.com willkalif.com
make-video-games.com

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