Human figure: anatomy, proportion, gesture, movement and portraiture
The exam tests whether you can build a believable body from the inside out - skeletal landmarks, canonical proportion, line of action - and keep a portrait structurally sound instead of copying features. Examiners check the mass distribution and the weight first, then the head construction, then the extremities.
Proportion
- Adult canon: seven and a half heads (eight for academic or heroic figure). The eye line sits near the midpoint of the head.
- Landmarks by head units: chin 0, nipple line about 2, navel about 3, crotch about 4, knee about 5.5-6, ankle about 7.5.
- Shoulder width roughly two head-widths in the male canon; hips relatively wider in the female canon. Hand length approximates face length (chin to hairline); foot approximates head height.
- Proportion is age-specific: a five-year-old is about five heads tall.
Structure and anatomy
- Learn roughly twenty landmarks, not six hundred muscles: clavicle, acromion, sternum, iliac crest, anterior superior iliac spine, greater trochanter, patella, tibial crest, malleoli, olecranon, wrist.
- Masses: ribcage as an egg, pelvis as a box, deltoid cap, pectoral, rectus abdominis, gluteus, quadriceps, gastrocnemius.
- The body is a chain of tilted boxes; counter-tilt of ribcage and pelvis is what produces contrapposto.
Gesture and movement
- Begin with the line of action: one sweeping curve from the weight-bearing foot to the head that carries the thrust of the pose.
- Weight: the centre of gravity falls over the support; the supporting leg straightens, the free leg bends.
- Rhythm lines: paired curves of shoulders against hips, plus the S-curve of the spine. Foreshorten limbs as tapering cylinders.
Portraiture
- Construct cranium as a sphere plus jaw wedge; establish brow line, eye line, nose base and mouth on the tilted planes.
- Eyes sit at about half the head's height; the ear runs from brow line to nose base; one eye-width separates the eyes.
- The neck is a tilted cylinder; the head pivots on the top vertebra, so head tilt and neck tilt are not the same.
Worked example
A standing figure with weight on the left leg. Reasoning: the line of action rises from the left foot; the pelvis tilts up on the supporting side; the ribcage counter-tilts; the shoulders drop to the right; the free leg relaxes with the foot placed forward. Every tilt follows from gravity and the support point, which is what makes the pose read as weight rather than symmetry.
Traps
- Symmetry imposed on a non-frontal pose.
- Legs too long or short: re-check the crotch at four heads.
- Tiny hands and feet.
- Drawing eyes and brows before the skull's tilt is established.
- Hair rendered as separate strands, and ears placed at random height.