HUMAN PROPORTIONS
Proportions are the relationships, or ratios, between the heights, widths and depths of a subject.
In order to draw a believable likeness of any subject, no matter what or who it is, we must draw the proportional relationships as they appear on that specific subject.
Today the most common unit of measurement is the head of the figure, and the figure is generally thought to be between 7.5 and 8 heads tall. The 8 head tall figure will have considerably longer legs, such as those of a runway model or heroic action figure. A more realistic figure is approximately 7.5 heads tall, though these are generalizations and should not be accepted as rules.
Note that these proportions refer to a standing figure. When the figure leans toward or away from you, or sits or lies down, measurements become more complicated and sometimes obscured, and will often no longer fall into the proportions listed below.
PROCESS - HUMAN PROPORTIONS
HOMEWORK: Print images of a human figure in a sequence of movements.
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A3 size drawing paper - horizontally Draw horizontal lines with a 3 cm distance. You will use 8 rows for drawing the human figure, number eacht row (1 to 8). You're going to draw multiple figures next to each other. |
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Draw a figure with the right proportions from the front view. Draw a figure with the right proportions from the side view. |
3 |
Draw figures in a sequence of movements. |
The average adult human figure is about 7.5 heads tall.
The idealized human figure is traditionally represented as being 8 heads tall:
The pubis, or its upper edge, is at mid-height of the average adult figure.
When the body stands upright, the length of the arm is such that the finger tips come down to mid-thigh.
The arms' wingspan (measured from the tips of the middle fingers) is about equal to the body height.
The idealized human figure is traditionally represented as being 8 heads tall:
- head
- from the bottom of the head to the middle height of a chest (place where a man's nipples should be)
- from previous position to the navel
- from previous position to (upper edge of) the pubis
- from previous position to the middle height of thigh
- from previous position to the knees
- from previous position to the point just below the ankles
- from previous position to the feet
The pubis, or its upper edge, is at mid-height of the average adult figure.
When the body stands upright, the length of the arm is such that the finger tips come down to mid-thigh.
The arms' wingspan (measured from the tips of the middle fingers) is about equal to the body height.
Leonardo’s famous drawings of the Vitruvian proportions of a man’s body first standing inscribed in a square and then with feet and arms outspread inscribed in a circle provides an excellent early example of the way in which his studies of proportion fuse artistic and scientific objectives.
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Le Corbusier developed the Modulor in the long tradition of Vitruvius, Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, the work of Leon Battista Alberti, and other attempts to discover mathematical proportions in the human body and then to use that knowledge to improve both the appearance and function of architecture. The system is based on human measurements, the double unit, the Fibonacci numbers, and the golden ratio. Le Corbusier described it as a "range of harmonious measurements to suit the human scale, universally applicable to architecture and to mechanical things".
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