Sketching-People

LANDMARKS & PROPORTION: HEAD WIDTH
While it is possible to exactly translate a subject into a drawing
through careful observation, a little understanding about
the object will help you know what to look for. The more you
understand, the better your observations will be. Although
people come in all shapes and sizes, everyone’s body structure
is relatively proportional. A large bodybuilder and a short
horse jockey both stand roughly seven and a half heads tall
if you use their head height as a measure. The proportion
of the muscular man’s skeletal structure is the same as the
jockey’s, it’s just larger.
Knowing this, you can plot out landmarks on the body
using the point-to-point technique. But first you need to
establish a relative unit of measure for your specific subject’s
body. Many artists use head height to break down the proportion.
The problem, however, is that the distances sometimes
fall on landmarks that are movable, such as the nipples and
the bellybutton, which makes it difficult to measure when the
figure is in a dynamic pose and the landmarks have shifted up
or down. A better unit of measure is the head width because
the intervals fall on bony landmarks (areas where the skeleton
is near the surface of the skin) that stay in the same place
regardless of pose. The head width is basically the distance
between the two ears; it’s also called the five-eye line
because the width of the head is the distance of five eyes.
Just like using the point-to-point technique where
you determine a unit of measure from something
you’ve already established in your drawing, the
head width measurement will help you consistently
place all the landmarks that will help you
build the drawing with correct proportions.
FRONT LANDMARKS
Using the width of the
head as a measurement,
the landmarks on the
front of the torso from
top to bottom are: the
bottom of the nose,
the pit of the neck, the
bottom of the sternum,
the bottom of the rib
cage, and the front
protuberance of the
pelvis. The top of the
groin is an additional
half unit.
BACK LANDMARKS
The landmarks on the back run down the spine. Though
the actual landmarks aren’t on the spine, they can be located
by drawing a line along the spine. The landmarks along the
back are: just below the base of the skull, the top of the
scapula, the bottom of the scapula, the base of the rib
cage, and the center of the tailbone.