Tips and Tricks

When drawing or sculpting the human figure, keep these simple tricks handy when working out the multitude of proportions.
The distance from the tip of your index finger to the tip of your thumb is the length of the bridge of your nose.

Michelangelo's Vitruvian Man
Vitruvian Man Michelangelo

For people of average proportions, two-times the diameter of your wrist is your neck size. Two-times the diameter of your neck is your waist size. Get a piece of string and check it out yourself!

 

Personage Throwing a Stone at a Bird, Joan Miro
Personage Throwing a Stone at a Bird
Joan Miro, 1926

Of course, if you are creating an abstract human form you may have to use your own proportional ideas!
To find the center of a rectangular canvas or sheet of paper without a ruler draw two lines connecting the top corners with opposite bottom corners. The intersection of the lines is the center of the rectangle.

To make a good looking ellipse use a circle of string and a couple of pushpins. Place the string around the two pins and let the string control where your pencil draws. With a little practice you will make a perfect ellipse!
If you want to draw a realistic looking flower pick a Fibonacci number to guide how many petals you create. Click here.

 

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