How to Draw People: Step-by-Step Lessons for Figures and Poses

How to Draw People: Step-by-Step Lessons for Figures and Poses

The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Drawing Figures! To draw an anatomical figure, you don't need a stack of weighty anatomy books. Just take it step by step! In How to Draw People , author Jeff Mellem teaches beginning artists how to draw the human figure, from stick figure to anatomically accurate person, in clear, easy-to-follow lessons. More than just a reference, this book provides the step-by-step instruction to teach you to draw the human figure and the anatomical knowledge to draw it realistically. In each chapter, called "levels," you'll learn core concepts for drawing the human figure. Each new chapter builds on the previous one to give you the skills you need to add complexity to your drawing. By the end of each chapter, you will be able to draw the figure with greater detail. By the end of Level 5, you will be able to draw an expressive figure with defined muscle groups in a variety of poses both real and imagined.    • Clear goals to progress from stick figure to anatomically correct    • Exercises and assignments to practice new skills    • Level-Up Checklists in each chapter to assess your skills before moving on With clear step-by-step demonstrations and check-ins along the way, How to Draw People is the beginner's guide to drawing realistic figures. The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Drawing Figures! To draw an anatomical figure, you don't need a stack of weighty anatomy books. Just take it step by step! In How to Draw People , author Jeff Mellem teaches beginning artists how to draw the human figure, from stick figure to anatomically accurate person, in clear, easy-to-follow lessons. More than just a reference, this book provides the step-by-step instruction to teach you to draw the human figure and the anatomical knowledge to draw it realistically. In each chapter, called "levels," you'll learn core concepts for drawing the human figure. Each new chapter builds on the previous one to give you the skills you need to add complexity to your drawing. By the end of each chapter, you will be able to draw the figure with greater detail. By the end of Level 5, you will be able to draw an expressive figure with defined muscle groups in a variety of poses both real and imagined. Clear goals to progress from stick figure to anatomically correct - Exercises and assignments to practice new skills - Level-Up Checklists in each chapter to assess your skills before moving on With clear step-by-step demonstrations and check-ins along the way, How to Draw People is the beginner's guide to drawing realistic figures. Professional artist and graphic designer  Jeff Mellem  has worked in various industries over the last decade. Among others, he has designed for magazines, video games, and theater. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton, and studied drawing at the American Animation Institute in Hollywood, California. Jeff uses traditional drawing techniques, the foundation of his work, to develop characters and stories. How to Draw People Step-by-Step Lessons for Figures and Poses By Jeff Mellem F+W Media, Inc. Copyright © 2018 Jeff Mellem All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4403-5316-1 Contents Special Offers, Overview, Level 1 Armature, Level 2 Simplified Skeleton, Level 3 Simplified Volumes, Level 4 Major Anatomy, Level 5 Putting it Together, About the Author, Further Reading, Visual Index, Acknowledgments, CHAPTER 1 Level 1 Armature The best way to learn to draw the human figure is to start as simple as possible. Forget about tracing contours. Forget about shadows and values. Forget about skin and bones and facial features. What you need to do is boil the figure down to its essence, something so simple that it can be drawn quickly, something so clear that there's no question about what it represents. When people who don't know how to draw want to sketch a person, they often end up with a stick figure. That's about as simple as you can get. The problem with the standard stick figure is that it doesn't possess the information on which to base a drawing. However, with a couple of additions and modifications, you can turn a simple stick figure into a foundation for a drawing. If you take a stick figure and add some shoulders and hips, you get something that looks a lot more like a human than the usual stick figure. If you also add in some hands and feet and some bends at the elbows and knees, some volume to the head and keep all the parts roughly in proportion to a real person, you'll end up with something that's both easy to draw and recognizable as a human. In art, this simplified figure is called an armature. Learning to draw an armature is a great place to start in figure drawing because you don't have to worry about making it look like the person you're drawing. Once you take away all the details, what you're left with is a diagram of how someone is posed. By reducing the figure to this simple representat