History of Figure Drawing
The Earliest form of Figure
Drawing
• The human figure was
depicted in prehistoric
cave art as rough art
simplified symbol,
compared with the
incredible realistic
images of bison, cattle,
horses and deer.
Neolithic Drawings later part of the
stone age
A fight, apparently for
possession of a bull
• We see this early form of
human stick figure
animation in the hunt
scene, where slightly
greater detail, sense of the
3-dimensionality, and more
correct proportion,
particularly about the head
and horns, is given to the
body of the bull.
Egyptian Art
• Figures in Egyptian
art, based on
relating to images
rather than on direct
observation,
combined profile
and frontal views
into the same image
• Differences in scale
designated degree
Duck hunting and fishing scene,
of importance.
detail of wall painting from tomb
of Nakht.
Greeks and
Romans
• Later, Greeks and
Roman artists
developed remarkable
skill in depicting the
complex form of the
human body,
mastering the
proportional
relationships of its
parts and principle of
foreshortening.
Karneia Painter - 410 B.C.
Foreshortening
• Foreshortening - the
term that applies to
organic and bodily
structure forms seen
in perspective.
Such as the knee ->
• How: Careful
observation of
overlapping shapes
and diminishing
scale.
4th Century to
14th Century
(300s to 1300s) A.D.
• With the emergence of Christian art in the
fourth century, and for almost a thousand
years thereafter, human drawings of the
human figure were replaced by more symbolic,
even stylized forms stressing the spiritual
rather than the physical qualities of its visual
presence.
Human Body Drawing
• In the years of the European
Renaissance (1400) with its heightened
focus on the visual, the need to
understand natural phenomena and
their interrelationships led to merging of
artistic and scientific inquiry.
• Study of human anatomy.
Michelangelo /
Renaissance Artist
Figure Study, Pen and
Ink, by Michelangelo
These powerful bodies with their small heads,
hands, and feet, and
their great torsos,
thighs, and arms - are
convincing because
they are based on a
profound, studied
knowledge of the bone
and muscle structure.
Renaissance Artists
• With their new understanding of the
human body, Renaissance artists
moved from direct observation to
creating ideal figures by establishing a
system of proportions as the ancient
Greeks had done.
Renaissance Artists
• The best known
example of this
systematic
approach to human
proportions was
Leonardo da
Vinci’s Vitruvian
Man.
Sculptor - Adolf A.Weinman
(1870-1952)
• Artist Adolf Weinman, drew skeletons
and cadavers in a class in anatomy for
artists, 2 times a week for two years.
• An awareness of the body’s basic
construction is of obvious assistance in
drawing the human form, since inner
structure influence outward appearance.
Life Drawing
• The act of drawing from live models in
order to record the movement, gesture,
and essential physical capabilities of the
human body as an aesthetically
pleasing art form. Also, drawing from
life in order to gain a mechanical as well
as visual understanding of live forms
and how they exist and move in space.