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12 Croquis Development Drawing Techniques
 
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Assignment : Mapping the Figure on the Page

 

Using the five images below, we are going to use the ten heads grid to begin mapping the figure into a drawing. Use a 2B graphite pencil to draw with, on your 11 x 14 inch tracing paper. Put the 10 heads grid under a clean sheet of tracing paper. You will always begin by first drawing the Balance Line on the page as a guide. Then you will start by putting the head within the first lines of 9 – 10 and move down to line 0 to add marks where the feet will be. Find the crotch next at 5 1/2. Then find the waist and knees, which will cut the figure into thirds.



5 Poses for Mapping :

Note:
Click on the thumbnail to the left to view the enlargements of and, from there, the five poses.

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Then add:

  • Shoulder line
  • Hip line
  • Pelvic box
  • Torso box
  • Center Front Line

Note: you can approach this assignment in two ways.

  1. You can begin to draw with the cheating a little technique right on top of your 10 heads grid.
  2. You can simply draw the figure “cheating a little” and then scale it later to the 10 heads grid, by redrawing it to the 10 heads fashion dimension.

Using the cheating a little technique, you will be adjusting the drawing scale of the figure to 10 heads. The photo is for you to use as a “jumping off point.” Do not feel as though you must get in infinite detail at this point. Keep your lines clean and simple. Use the guides you have mapped out on the tracing paper.

The first drawing you do will be your “working “drawing. When you are done with that, carefully place this drawing under another piece of tracing paper (keeping the figure upright) and begin to draw over the original.

We are not tracing here, but REFINING the drawing. This means you will slim down the shoulders, legs and arms, pull in the waist and indicate the shape of the head and hair. Keep doing this until you feel you have a good basic drawing of the figure in fashion proportions. It may take redrawing with more tracing paper 4 or 5 times, but no less than 3.

If at any point you are having trouble with the hands and feet or the head, revert to drawing them in blind contour and then refine them later in another drawing as you lay down a new piece of tracing paper.

  • Remember: Waist and knees cut the figure into thirds and the crotch hits at about the 5 1/2 line. Start with the head being the size of area between lines 10 and 9.

There are two videos for this session. The first one will show you how to map on the ten heads grid, and the second one will show you how to adjust a “cheating a little” drawing to the ten heads grid and then further refine the croquis. View these videos now.

  • Mapping the Figure Using the 10 Heads Grid
  • Further Refining the Croquis

Assignment 2.4: Mapping the Figure on the Page

Scan or photograph and post six croquis figures that are clean and well presented. They should be drawn with a sharp 2B graphite pencil on 11 x 14 inch tracing paper. They should also show the Balance Line, as well as the Center front line, pelvic box, hip and shoulder angles and leg, feet, and hand details. No lumpy legs and claw hands please!

 

 
 

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