Any typical lines for perspective guides when drawing the figure?

#1

Lately, I’ve started to work from Loomis’ books on drawing. In several of his books, he mentions applying some perspective when creating figures. It makes sense in theory, but, it seems like the lines that he chooses as perspective guides are arbitrary, based upon experience. I’m wondering if there are typical construction lines you look out for when applying perspective to a figure drawing, or if you just kind of “wing it” and hope for the best.

What makes sense to me is to look out for the processes in the figure: collarbones, sternum, line connecting the illiac crest, etc. Are there other lines you look for, like contours around the largest and smallest points in the body?

This seems like an excellent way to understand what’s going on when foreshortening, leading on to generating a good figure from memory, without reference.

#2

I think loomis describes it fairly well later on. You know the basic sold form of the body, and it’s proportions. If you look at the examples on page 46 and 49 in “Figure Drawing for all it’s Worth”, it shows how they can be applied in perspective dimensions, especially when using arcs to figure out foreshortening. There is a bit of guesswork I think (unless you put your figure into a box every time), but once you have drawn one figure, you can use perspective to draw other figures in relation to the first.

What you suggest makes sense. Although there are no real straight lines in the body, you can use the shoulders and hips to line up a path, as well as the crosslines of the head. It becomes a little more complex with weight distribution (when parts of the body angle away from the horizon), but in principle it seems like a decent grounding.

Loomis (and even da vinci if you look at some of his anatomy studies) uses a lot of guides on the body to calculate proportions, such as the ‘V’ he uses to line up the collar bone, nipples and belly button. These guides can also help to distort the figure in perspective.

Um… yeah. That’s my ramblings anyway. Did any of that make sense?? :smiley:

#3

That makes perfect sense (to me, at least). Sometimes when you read something, it doesn’t really click until someone else points it out in a different way.

It feels like perspective work is best kept simple and direct. Identify a few key points (the points you see) in “known” and “altered” positions, and then fill in the boxes.

It’s all becoming clearer … mwa ha ha…

<MrBurns>excellent</MrBurns>

#4

This is a delayed answer :slight_smile:
I think that the lines shouldn’t to be drawn with rule, but with loose free hand. You can read this article about it:
http://www.viewpoint.cl/perception.html

#5

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