Figure Drawing: Poses Archives - DRAWING LIFE by fred hatt DRAWING LIFE by fred hatt

2014/07/06

End-On: Extreme Foreshortening – Part 2

Filed under: Figure Drawing: Poses — Tags: Anatomy, Art Modeling, Crayons, Figures, Nudes, Sketch, Technique — fred @ 00:25

Rotation, 2006, by Fred Hatt

One of my all-time most popular Drawing Life posts is “End-On: Extreme Foreshortening“, from 2010, which featured my sketches of models in mostly reclining poses, seen at angles from near head or foot, a view which radically alters the perceived contours and juxtapositions of parts of the body. Many life drawing practitioners find extreme foreshortening very challenging, but if you can learn to analyze what’s in your visual field for this kind of drawing, everything else will be relatively easy. The original post has lots of observations that you may find helpful if you’re trying to learn how to see the figure in perspective. Here is a new set of drawings, all done directly from life without the use of photographs or any optical aids (with the exception of “Linear Man” later in this post, which was drawn while experimenting with a camera lucida).

Laced Fingers, 2014, by Fred Hatt

The body in perspective can be looked at like a landscape, with rises and hollows receding from immediately in front of you to a distant horizon. To render this landscape, let your drawing hand roam over it, feeling the heart quicken as you scale each mound, trying not to lose your footing as you skitter downhill. At the same time, keep the eyes fixed like a surveyor’s transit, noting how each prominence aligns with each other prominence in the conical geometry of the seen scene.

Boulder, 2004, by Fred Hatt

The head-end view of the body is close to what we see if we look down at ourselves, and can express a kind of subjective sense of the body as the physical situation of the mind.

Absence, 2011, by Fred Hatt

Organic forms are composed of three-dimensional curves, swellings and veerings in space. End-on views of parts of the body give a powerful experience of the swooping flow of such forms. I think of these forms as motions that happen in time. Organic shapes are not defined and constructed, they grow. To grow is to unfold. Unfolding is a motion in time, and every unfolding has its particular arc or waveform.

If we look at the leg, for instance, in a standard standing anatomical position, we see this time-based phenomenon translated into space, like a “timeline of history” chart. This growth that has taken place over time is manifest in the present moment as a particular shape in space. To experience it energetically, we need to translate space back into time. When we see the leg end-on, we can observe this spatial form in cascading cross-sections, experiencing the development of the form as it evolves from moment to moment, in flowing motion.

Hypotenuse, 2009, by Fred Hatt

Hillocks and hollows, nipples and dimples, curves and straightaways, compose the Corpus Humanum.

Headward, 2014, by Fred Hatt

Dive, and surface. Scale the Alps/Rockies/Andes/Himalayas. Plumb the Marianas Trench.

Resting Power 2, 2013, by Fred Hatt

Resting Power 1, 2013, by Fred Hatt

In the foreshortened world, the knee is a projection of the face, the thighs radiate from the shoulder, and the breast echoes the foot, as shapes related in space, and as parts of the body that contain pulsing hearts.

Angularities, 2014, by Fred Hatt

Slap the feet, gather the pelvis, stoke the gut, radiate the heart, open the throat, illuminate the dome.

Youth, 2006, by Fred Hatt

Moving up the body from the feet is moving through a springy helix that curls around the ball and arch of the foot and swells out and eddies inward, the lines crossing and crossing again, a mighty and euphonious chord made of living matter.

Foot Root, 2013, by Fred Hatt

The vessels of blood and the nerves of impulse are the highways and subways of the body. In observing the body, I try to simplify all that traffic, to intuit from it the arteries of spirit and the veins of mortality.

Meridians, 2008, by Fred Hatt

The centerline of the body is the trunk line. The limbs are byways, regional roads to the dirt farms and bordellos of the outer empire. Peripheral, yet vital. The way the limbs move in relation to the trunk defines the character of the living body.

Naga Sadhu, 2011, by Fred Hatt

Oxygen . Carbon . Hydrogen . Nitrogen . Calcium . Phosphorus . Potassium . Sulfur . Sodium . Chlorine . Magnesium .

Linear Man, 2013, by Fred Hatt

The spark of life vivifies the carcass. The animal enjoys and suffers the experience of the world. By this experience it is honed and culled, and its wisdom is reproduced.

Check Mark, 2014, by Fred Hatt

The form of the body is sacred geometry, but unlike abstract geometry, it is not best rendered with straightedge and compass. It is better apprehended through intuitive senses: rhythm and flow.

Rectangles, 2013, by Fred Hatt

Moving down through the body from the head end, one passes through the dome of the cranium, the barrel of the chest, and the vectors of the jointed limbs.

Points of Contact, 2013, by Fred Hatt

Here’s a foreshortened pose that is not a reclining pose. This is a view of the standing figure from beneath, as observed, upside-down, in a mirror placed on the floor.

Cat’s Eye View, 2013, by Fred Hatt

Below, a magnetic vortex of foreshortened figures. The void attracts you. Go deep. There are three spatial dimensions, plus time, which is light.

Vanishing Point, 2014, by Fred Hatt

Besides “End-On Part 1“, other posts that include my drawings of the foreshortened body include “A Torso Even More So“, “Reclinging, Not Boring“, and “The Body Contemplated“.

Most of the drawings pictured here are drawn with aquarelle crayons on paper, in the size range of 18″ x 24” (46 x 61 cm). “Vanishing Point” and “Check Mark” are 38″ x 50″ (97 x 127 cm). “Rotation” is 36″ x 36″ (91 x 91 cm), and “Linear Man” is 9″ x 12″ (23 x 30 cm). All are drawn directly from life without the use of photographs.

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2010/09/26

End-On: Extreme Foreshortening

Filed under: Figure Drawing: Poses,Top Ten — Tags: Anatomy, Art Modeling, Crayons, Figures, Nudes, Technique — fred @ 23:18

Dynamo, 2010, by Fred Hatt

My friend, model/muse and blogging mentor Claudia likes to post photos of herself to celebrate the anniversaries (first, second, third) of the launching of her great blog, Museworthy, and it has been my honor to be the chosen photographer each year so far. This year we were seeking a new approach. Claudia had the idea of getting in low and close with the camera, treating the body as a landscape. She chose this sensual abstraction for this year’s anniversary post.

I love seeing the body this way. Unusual angles create perspective effects and unfamiliar juxtapositions, and utterly transform the familiar forms of the body. Foreshortening is a fundamental concept in drawing, designating the distortion of long shapes when seen end-on. Often, in figure drawing, this refers only to an arm or leg that appears pointed toward the viewer of the image. A familiar example would be the pointing finger and arm of Uncle Sam in James Montgomery Flagg’s iconic army recruiting poster of 1917. Here I post examples of my figure drawings in which not only the extremities but the entire body is seen from a foreshortened perspective.

Looking at the body from an angle close to the central axis is very helpful in understanding it as a three dimensional form. In these foreshortened torsos, we see the protuberances of the iliac spine of the pelvis rising to either side of the pubic bone. The abdomen is a saddle-like shape, concave in one direction and convex in the other. The ribcage is a converging arch. The pectoral or breast muscles show a continuity with the deltoid muscles of the shoulder. The upper of these drawings still shows analytical lines I drew to figure out the angular relationships of bodily landmarks.

Surveyed, 2004, by Fred Hatt

Thorax, 2009, by Fred Hatt

Looking at the body from the head end shows a succession of rounded or symmetrically swelling forms: the top of the skull, then the cheekbones and nose, the jaw, the collarbone, the shoulders, the chest, the ribs, the abdomen and pelvis. You can see it as a kind of architecture based on a series of differently shaped arches that you pass through or over, or as a landscape of hills and valleys that you can traverse on a meandering trail. From this angle the legs and feet are often severely forshortened, and are best observed in relation to the cross-sectional contours of the torso.

Lounging, 2000, by Fred Hatt

Head End 2, 2006, by Fred Hatt

Head End, 2006, by Fred Hatt

I try to see organic physical forms as manifestations of patterns of energy. In looking down the length of the body, you can see each of these levels as manifestations of the elemental forces associated with the chakras, a series of focal points arranged along the central column of the body in a Yogic conception of energy anatomy. For example, the pelvis, corresponding to the water element, has the form of a basin, while the chest, corresponding with the air element, has the form of a bellows. Here are a few sketches from a series exploring the energy patterns of the body in this context:

Strata, 2002, by Fred Hatt

Flat, 2002, by Fred Hatt

Zones 1, 2002, by Fred Hatt

To see the body in extreme foreshortening, I find it helpful to look at it not in terms of an understanding of structural relationships and proportions, but cross-sectionally, as a series of transverse contours receding in space. The National Library of Medicine’s Visible Human Project, a three-dimensional atlas of human anatomy, has a website that offers animated “fly-throughs” of the human body in the various planes of sectioning. Here’s the transverse section animation, the one most relevant to these end-on views of the human body.

Here are some more of my compositions of the body in extreme foreshortening:

Crossed Ankles, 2004, by Fred Hatt

Nuit, 1999, by Fred Hatt

The examples above are drawn from a distance of at least three meters and so show a sort of compressed perspective. The feet and head are roughly in the same proportional scale but the angle of view has caused things to be seen in unfamiliar juxtaposition. The drawing below is drawn from much closer, so it shows more perspectival diminution. The feet and legs, closer to me, are large in comparison to the upper body and head, which are further away. The length of the foot, measured on the drawing, is more than twice the width of the skull, but it looks right because it represents the perception of perspective.

Perspective, 2010, by Fred Hatt

In this foot-end view, the angles of the feet and legs are the foreground of the drawing, while the upper body becomes the mountain on the horizon.

Side Drawn Up, 2001, by Fred Hatt

Prone Reach, 2006, by Fred Hatt

Splay, 1999, by Fred Hatt

When the head is the foreground element, it remains abstract as we are looking at the top of the skull, and the face, if seen, is highly abstracted. The body is even more landscape-like seen from the head end.

Climber, 2006, by Fred Hatt

In the drawing below, the blue line in the background is the “horizon”, or edge of the floor on which the model was lying. The body formed a tilted rectangular form, so I tilted my drawing board to maximize usage of the page.

Tilted Horizon, 2001, by Fred Hatt

Sometimes these end-on views become visions of pure organic form.

Prone Twist, 2009, by Fred Hatt

The twisting of the body, as seen in the example above, also creates interesting sculptural forms seen from the foot end.

Corner, 2010, by Fred Hatt

Here the legs go one direction and the head the opposite, with the hand and arm reflecting that arc of movement.

Helix, 2001, by Fred Hatt

Here the position of the legs gives a soft curve to one side of the figure and a sharp angle to the other.

Bow and Arrow, 2000, by Fred Hatt

When the body is visually compressed by foreshortening, an upraised knee becomes dramatically long and vertical by contrast.

Wrist to Knee, 2008, by Fred Hatt

Angular Recline, 1998, by Fred Hatt

In the drawing below, the use of a mirror gives a view of the same pose from both the head end and the foot end.

Mira, 1996, by Fred Hatt

I’ll close this collection with a more finished piece, a foreshortened figure of graceful serenity.

Tranquility, 2008, by Fred Hatt

All the drawings in this post are aquarelle crayon on paper, in the size range of 18″ x 24″ to 20″ x 30″. Other examples of foreshortened figures can be seen in this post and this one, and there are many others scattered through my portfolio site and other figure drawing posts on this blog. This post features a famous 15th century foreshortened figure painting by Andrea Mantegna.

If you’re a student of drawing, you might be interested in a new series of articles on learning the basics of drawing that has begun appearing in the Opinion pages of the New York Times online edition, under the title “Line by Line” by James McMullan.

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2010/06/28

Reclining, Not Boring

Filed under: Figure Drawing: Poses — Tags: Anatomy, Art Modeling, Collaborations, Crayons, Figures, Nudes, Process, Technique — fred @ 20:09

Body Helix (Beu), 2010, by Fred Hatt

Some artists denigrate the reclining pose as the choice of the lazy model getting paid to nap. But reclining poses can embody tension or emotion rather than just relaxation, and the open-minded artist will revel in the chance to see parts of the body foreshortened and juxtaposed in unusual and even complex ways they would never see in a vertically composed pose. This post is a collection of my recent reclining pose sketches, twenty-minute or ten-minute poses, mostly from the Saturday morning life drawing sessions at Figureworks Gallery in Brooklyn.

The above sketch is as far as possible from the familiar gently-curved sideways reclining nude painted by many artists from Giorgione to Modigliani. Note particularly the twisted torso, showing both front and back of the body, the balanced angled supports of left arm and leg, and the lower leg folded up the wall.

The posing area at Figureworks is in an archway between two rooms, with artists drawing from both rooms. Models are not posing in the round, but to two sides, with a sort of frame providing supports for leaning. The model in the drawing below raised his left leg with his foot up on the wall of the arch:

Dreams (Saeed), 2010, by Fred Hatt

Here are some other uses of the wall as a leg support. Here the body is held in a state of tension between the hands pressing against the floor and the foot pressing against the wall:

Angle Tension (Theresa), 2010, by Fred Hatt

This pose conveys an unusual bold power in the contrast between the closed upper limbs and the open lower limbs propped against the wall:

Arms Crossed Legs Open (Beu), 2010, by Fred Hatt

Another pose by the same model, also using the wall as a support for the legs:

Right Angle (Beu), 2010, by Fred Hatt

Reclining poses can provide interesting challenges in foreshortening. I try to see the body as though it were a landscape, with the shapes as hills and mountains arranged at different distances.

Hands Clasped Behind (Jiri), 2010, by Fred Hatt

The face is a particular challenge when seen from an angle at which the features are not in standard frontal relationship. Studying faces from these unusual perspectives can give you a much stronger sense of their three-dimensional structure.

Lying Back (Danielle), 2009, by Fred Hatt

Ribcage (Jiri), 2009, by Fred Hatt

I often approach the foreshortened forms of the body using cross-contours and studying light that strikes the body from opposite my viewing angle, as in these two studies of the model Corey’s unusually well-defined musculature:

Hammock Style (Corey), 2009, by Fred Hatt

Hugging the Blanket (Corey), 2009, by Fred Hatt

Similar techniques are used to convey the form of this beautiful female back:

Callipygia (Lilli), 2009, by Fred Hatt

Various twists and crossings can add interest to reclining poses:

Ankle Knee Cross (Jiri), 2007, by Fred Hatt

The quick sketch below is interesting because you can see my first approach to analyzing the figure, building it out of ovals, in beige, and then a second stage, going for more precision, in black and white, with significant corrections to proportion and relative positions:

L with Twist (Claudia), 2008, by Fred Hatt

That’s Claudia, the Museworthy blogger. Here’s another of her great poses. This is dynamism in a horizontal orientation:

Arm Overhead (Claudia), 2010, by Fred Hatt

Here are three wonderfully sinuous poses from the model Madelyn:

Complex Repose (Madelyn), 2010, by Fred Hatt

Tight Coil (Madelyn), 2010, by Fred Hatt

Supine Arched (Madelyn), 2010, by Fred Hatt

This model created an evocative pose simply by posing with a flashlight, giving a feeling of lying awake at night in a lonely tent:

Flashlight (Taylor), 2010, by Fred Hatt

Contrasting that waking stillness, the final pose in this post gives me the impression of active dreaming:

Dreaming Puppeteer (Theresa), 2010, by Fred Hatt

In previous posts I haven’t always credited all the models by name, but in this case it seemed appropriate, because these poses are all so creative and expressive. You’ll notice some of the same names appearing several times. These are magnificent models, and I would never have been able to make these images without them.

All drawings are aquarelle crayon on paper, sizes ranging from 18″ x 24″ to 20″ x 28″. All are 10-minute or 20-minute sketches, mostly drawn at Figureworks Gallery.

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2009/10/30

Opening the Closed Pose

Filed under: Figure Drawing: Poses — Tags: Anatomy, Art Modeling, Crayons, Figures, Nudes, Portraits — fred @ 03:08

Spinous Process, 2008, by Fred Hatt

Some figurative artists dislike “closed” poses, and complain when the models take these positions. They may feel the models are shutting them out. The face and soft frontal torso are hidden, and the back becomes a protective shell, as in the defensive balling-up of a hedgehog or armadillo, or a turtle retreating into its shell. But this kind of pose often conveys emotional qualities and presents the body in abstract forms of great beauty and complexity.

Taoist subtle anatomy sees the front of the body and the inside of the limbs as yin (soft or receptive) and the back and outside as yang (hard or active). The fetus develops curled in this egglike position, with its soft parts protected inside. The fetal position can be experienced as a comforting return to that contained and nourished state. In yoga, it is called the child’s pose, and is one of the primary restorative or relaxed positions.

Balasana, 1996, by Fred Hatt

Many people sleep in a curled-up position. A pop-psych analysis says, “Those who curl up in the foetus position are described as tough on the outside but sensitive at heart. They may be shy when they first meet somebody, but soon relax. This is the most common sleeping position, adopted by 41% of the 1,000 people who took part in the survey. More than twice as many women as men tend to adopt this position.” Most sleepers curl up on their sides, as seen from three angles in the following three sketches:

Sleep Fold, 2008, by Fred Hatt

Bony Points, 2004, by Fred Hatt

Asleep, 2004, by Fred Hatt

This kind of pose presents a variety of juxtapositions and foreshortenings, depending on the angle of view. I’ve often been inspired to bring more than one aspect into a drawing, as in the one below. Here the same side-curled pose is seen from three points of view in superimposed outlines, one in red, one in green, and one in blue, with some sculptural development:

Triple Angle Curl, 2000, by Fred Hatt

In the next two examples, the body is shown as seen directly and in a mirror reflection, bringing out the landscape-like qualities of the body in space:

Reflection, 2000, by Fred Hatt

Mountain Mirrored, 1998, by Fred Hatt

The curled-up position can bring out anatomical forms of great beauty, in ways they wouldn’t otherwise be seen, as with the muscles of the shoulders and back here:

Serrate, 2008, by Fred Hatt

Or the shoulder cleft here:

Hanging Head, 2009, by Fred Hatt

It can reveal complex networks of negative spaces:

Curved Triangular, 2009, by Fred Hatt

Or fresh perspectives and unusual spatial progressions:

Oblique, 1996, by Fred Hatt

The closed pose is not always a simple ovoid structure.

Angular Equipoise, 2001, by Fred Hatt

Positions with the head down or even with the face hidden are not necessarily guarded or concealed, but may express emotional states.

Elbow Knee, 2009, by Fred Hatt

Headrest, 2005, by Fred Hatt

The crouching figure can suggest darkness and brooding:

Tight Crouch, 2009, by Fred Hatt

Brooding, 2009, by Fred Hatt

The human body is as expressive when it is turned inward as when it is expansive or active. The guarded nature of the crouch or fetal position shows vulnerability in a different way than the open pose. The upper and lower parts of the body are drawn together, and the energy pattern becomes circular rather than vertical.

All the newer drawings in this post are 50 cm x 70 cm, aquarelle crayon on paper. The drawings from 2001 and earlier are the same medium but may be a bit smaller.

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2009/05/02

Negative Space

Filed under: Figure Drawing: Poses — Tags: Art Modeling, Crayons, Figures, Nudes, Technique — fred @ 22:50

Claudia Curl, 2008, by Fred Hatt

“Negative space” is what we call the parts of the picture around and between the primary subject. In the image above, all the green and blue spaces are negative spaces. Here, because the subject goes beyond all four edges of the paper, and there’s a hollow in the middle, we have a balanced set of five shapes, no two alike. The bright color keeps them optically connected and emphasizes the pattern they form. The drawing below is a similar pose and composition, but the forward bend of the body gives the negative spaces around it a less balanced, more active feel. The hollow formed by the space between the front of the body and the arms and thighs is a more complex kind of negative space, with more distant parts of the body showing through the arch.

Lilli Grotto, 2009, by Fred Hatt

Negative spaces can be very useful in figuring out a pose on the page. Doubles poses, for instance, are notoriously challenging to draw. The spatial relationships are not just doubled, they’re multiplied. Here’s an analytical sketch of a doubles pose. You’ll notice an overall framing shape, lines showing the angular relationships between various points, and carefully delineated negative spaces, not just between the two bodies, but also between the contours of the bodies and the framing shape. Clearly seeing the negative spaces can help an artist to overcome some of the confusion that comes of trying to see the parts of the body as we think they should be, rather than as they are.

Marianna & Emma, 2009, by Fred Hatt

Certain poses are challenging to draw because of multiple crossings of limbs, or foreshortening, or because they’re seen from up close or at an unusual angle. Looking at the body itself can be quite confusing in these situations, but the negative spaces are simpler and their spatial relationship is clearer, so we can start from the negative spaces and then fill in the body details.

Stanley Folded, 2008, by Fred Hatt

Jiri Twisted, 2009, by Fred Hatt

The negative space can be developed to suggest the three-dimensional environment of the model, as in the drawing below, where there is a close vertical plane on the right and a more distant vertical plane on the left.

Theresa by Corner, 2009, by Fred Hatt

Or the negative space can be elaborated as a sort of complement or mirror of the positive space. In the drawing below, the folds in the fabric become almost biomorphic, reflecting the wrinkles and multiple roundnesses of the twisted feet.

Maria's Feet, 2007, by Fred Hatt

Clearly seeing negative space is about shifting the focus from presence to absence. Finding the figure by looking at the negative space is one of the many artistic applications of the Hermetic principle “As above, so below” or “As within, so without”. All reality exists on the cusp between interior and exterior, between past and future, or between any polarity you care to examine. To draw is to surf on the points of contact.

All drawings in this post are aquarelle crayon on paper, 50 x 70 cm.

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DRAWING LIFE by fred hatt

2014/07/06

End-On: Extreme Foreshortening – Part 2

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2010/09/26

End-On: Extreme Foreshortening

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2010/06/28

Reclining, Not Boring

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2009/10/30

Opening the Closed Pose

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2009/05/02

Negative Space

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