Human Figure and Portrait Study
This domain tests the standard proportions of the adult figure and the head, and whether you can build a figure from gesture and mass instead of drawing an outline and filling it in.
Figure proportions (adult, about 7.5 heads)
- One head unit = chin to top of the skull. Shoulders fall about 1.3 heads below the top of the head, the nipple line at 2 heads, the navel at 3, the crotch at about 4 (the mid-point of the body), the knee at 6, the ankle at 7.5.
- Shoulder width is roughly two head-widths in a man, slightly less in a woman. The elbow rests at waist level, and the fingertips reach mid-thigh.
- Begin with a line of action, then head unit, then ribcage and pelvis as two blocks joined by a flexible spine, then limbs as cylinders.
Head and face
- Eyes sit on the horizontal midline of the head. The face is about five eye-widths wide, with one eye-width between the eyes.
- The base of the nose is halfway between the eyes and the chin; the mouth line is one third of the way from nose to chin.
- Ears run from the brow line to the nose base. The skull is a sphere with the jaw as a wedge attached to the front lower part.
- Hair is a mass with volume, not a set of separate strands, and the neck is a cylinder set slightly back from the jaw.
Worked example
A standing figure in three-quarter view. First a sweeping line of action from the neck pit to the weight-bearing foot; then a head unit marked off, four units down to the crotch, knee and ankle located; then the ribcage tilted back and the pelvis tilted forward; then limbs. Hands and feet are drawn as blocks before fingers and toes. The reasoning: proportion errors happen at the block stage, so landmarks are fixed before any contour is committed.
Traps
Features crowded into the top half of the head, oversized eyes, an oversized head on a short body, hiding hands behind the back or in pockets, a stiff symmetrical stance, and drawing clothing before the body underneath exists.