Leg and a foot

7/29/2019 Leg and a foot

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Brenda Hoddinott

U-05 ADVANCED: FACES & FIGURES

Every artist who aspires to include people in his or herdrawings needs to become proficient in drawing the various

components of human anatomy. In this project you explore the

basic shapes of a leg and foot and then add graduated shading

with hatching and crosshatching to illustrate the threedimensional forms.

Skills incorporated into this lesson include: identifying

accurate proportions, drawing with contour lines, planning

shading strategies, adding graduated values with hatching andcrosshatching, and applying foreshortening as a component of

perspective.

This project is divided into two sections:

OUTLINING SHAPES: You visually identify the exteriorshapes and forms of legs and feet, as defined by bones, fat,

and muscles.

DEFINING THE FORMS OF THE LEG AND FOOTWITH SHADING: You identify where the highlights and

the light and dark values are located, based on a dominantlight source from the right. You use hatching and

crosshatching to realistically illustrate the various forms.

Suggested supplies include 2H, HB, 2B, 4B and 6B pencils,

vinyl and kneaded erasers, good quality drawing paper such assmooth hot-pressed watercolor paper.

7 PAGES - 12 I LLUSTRATI ONS

This project is recommended for artists, from age 12 to adult, with advanced drawingskills, as well as home schooling, academic and recreational fine art educators.

Published by Hoddinott Fine Art Publishers, Halifax, NS, Canada, Revised 2006


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Copyright to all articles, images, text, projects, lessons and exercises within this drawing class belong to Brenda Hoddinott andmay not be reproduced or used for any commercial purposes whatsoever without the written permission of Brenda Hoddinott.

E-mail [email protected] Web site http://www.finearteducation.com or http://www.drawspace.com

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OUTLI NI NG SHAPES

You need to be able to visually identify the exterior shapes

and forms of legs and feet, as defined by bones, fat, andmuscles before you can draw them realistically.

Legs come in many shapes and sizes, from the shortchubby legs of a tiny infant to the long,

well-defined, muscularlegs of an athletic

adult.

Grab your drawing materials and follow along with me to

draw a leg and foot. Thank you to my son, Ben, for allowing

me to borrow one of his legs.

1) Lightly sketch the outline of the individual shapes ofthe leg and foot.

Observe the basic shape of the entire subject and look

for the shapes of its various parts. Visually measure

proportions, how large or small some parts are ascompared to others. The various parts of the leg

include:

The upper leg is a large elongated oval-shape. A circle encloses the shape of the knee. A smaller long oval defines the shape of the lower

leg.

The ankle is a very small oval shape. A triangle marks the shape of the foot. Note that

this triangle is lower on the right.

2) Lighten your sketch lines with your kneaded eraser,until they are very faint.
mailto:[email protected]://www.finearteducation.com/http://www.drawspace.com/http://www.drawspace.com/http://www.finearteducation.com/mailto:[email protected]


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3) Lightly sketch the outlineof the shape of the leg.

Use the rough sketch as a

guideline.

Take note of the: lengths of the lines directions in which the

various lines curve

relationships betweenthe lines

proportions of thevarious parts to oneanother

At this point you can eitherleave the rough sketch lines

visible, or you can carefullyerase them.

When you draw a flower or a

tree, if the proportions are off, it

really doesnt matter. Not so witha drawing of a leg and foot. If

your proportions are wrong, yourdrawing just wont look right nomatter how wonderful your

shading is.

Drawing from life is the bestpossible way to develop an

understanding of anatomy. Its

important to become familiarwith how individual parts of

bodies connect to one another.

Once you know how to draw thebasic shapes and proportions,you can easily transfer this

information into drawing from

photos or instructional drawings.


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4) Lighten your lines again with your kneaded eraser andredraw your outline adding more detailed information.

5) Very lightly sketch the shapes inside the outline thatidentify some of the forms to be defined with shading.

6) Take your time and draw the details of the foot andankle.

Logic dictates that a human foot is

actually longer than it appears in

this drawing. However, keep inmind that this foot is being viewed

from an extreme frontalperspective.

You use a rule of perspective,

called foreshortening to indicate

the shape of a foot realisticallywhen viewed from this angle.

Foreshortening is the process in

which perspective creates the

illusion that a figure is shorterwhen viewed from an extreme

angle. The foreshortened qualities

of parts of bodies, such as legs andarms, become more noticeable

when viewed from an end.


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DEFI NI NG THE FORMS OF THE LEG

AND FOOT WI TH SHADI NG

In this drawing, the dominant light source is from the right, so the

shading on the left is darker. Before you begin, visually identify

where the highlights and the light and dark values are located.

7)

Use hatching lines and 2H and HB pencils to shade thelight and medium values of the leg and foot.

Take note of how

progressions of graduatedvalues from dark to light or

from light to dark

realistically illustrate the

various forms.


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8) Use crosshatching and 2B and 4B pencils to buildup the values to further accentuate the forms of

the foot.

9) Use 2B and4B pencils to

build up the

crosshatching

values to

emphasize

the forms of

the various

sections of the

leg.

Crosshatching

lines

beautifullyillustrate

anatomical

forms.

By emphasizing the

more complicatedcomponents, which

characterize

movement, such ashis knee, ankle and

foot, they becomeimportant points of

interest in this

drawing.

I use a lot of

contrast betweenlight and dark

values to help make

the forms of the legand foot stand out.

10) Use parallelhorizontal

hatching lines

to indicate the

cast shadow.


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BRENDA HODDI NOTT - BI OGRAPHY

As a self-educated teacher, visual artist, portraitist, forensic artist, and illustrator, Brenda

Hoddinott utilizes diverse art media including graphite, technical pen, colored pencil, chalkpastel, charcoal, cont crayon, and oil paints.

My philosophy on teaching art is to focus primarily on the

enjoyment aspects while gently introducing the technical

and academic. Hence, in creating a passion for the subject

matter, the quest for knowledge also becomes enjoyable.

>Brenda Hoddinott

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Leg and a foot

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