Fundamentals of Drawing

In this second lesson of Human Anatomy, Maria talks about three fundamental aspects of drawing a human body: muscle, fat and bone.

These three are the most visible elements of a person’s appearance. Without knowledge of the characteristics & structure of bones, muscles and fat, it’s harder to draw believable characters and poses.

Whatʼs every artistʼs worst nightmare? Drawing hands!

But worry no more! You will quickly learn how to draw hands correctly using the Loomis method and also get some cool bonus tips from Maria’s personal experience of how to tackle drawing these troublesome body parts.

This lesson builds on what you learnt in the previous one. Follow along with Maria as she explains how to apply the principles of perspective to drawing complex character poses. It’s a great way to simplify the process, so even if a pose seems daunting – you can tackle it!

It’s sometimes easy to forget that hands and fingers are 3D objects, so they end up looking flat. In this tutorial, you’ll discover useful tips for drawing hands in perspective, difficult angles or even just normal positions that somehow seem difficult at first — we’ve all been there! 😉 You’ll get the hang of this in no time!

Gesture/life drawing is about force and movement – it means capturing the dynamics of a pose in a few short minutes and transferring it to paper.

Practicing life drawing regularly is the best thing you can do to improve your skills. Most of the times it is exactly like going to the gym: initially you donʼt feel like going, but when do, you feel great after! 

The line of action is the imaginary line passing through the core of the body identifying the energy running through the movement of the pose. Learning where to place it and using it as the basis of a sketch will give your art more dynamic flow. You will also learn about the directional axis so your characters will be balanced correctly.

When masses are balanced in the body, it results a more harmonious figure. This sense of weight is very useful in figure drawing, making a character look more believable and real. Discover just how to achieve this effect in this tutorial. 

The last step in figure drawing!

Maria will show you how to complete your sketch by adding shapes to it. You’ll also get a quick summary of  the entire gesture drawing process. Additionally, Maria demonstrates how to create both a realistic and stylized figure and explains the differences. 

In this practice video, Maria shares with you a fun exercise designed to take you out of your comfort zone and free your imagination!

Clothes are a big part of what makes a character stand out – what makes them unique. They not only identify a characterʼs culture, background and time
period, but they say a lot about their personality. Learn her methods and tips as Maria discusses this subject in detail.

When a human being is happy or excited their whole body shows it and the face will transform to accommodate the expression. Their attitude and charisma not limited just to the position of the mouth, eyes or eyebrows. 

You’ll learn how to simplify human emotion with expression sheets and discover valuable insight for creating compelling expressions.

Hurray! You’ve made it to the last lesson! Now you have a solid foundation of the fundamentals of drawing. Well done!!! 

Join Maria in this last video for a quick summary of what you learned and a review of the most important points. As each individual topic could be explored much further, she also includes a reading list of recommended books that you can have a look at. Enjoy!