So you can't Draw Part 1 of 6

Okay, here it is and you have a project. Someone wants you to draw figures doing something. Well...if you are like me, you really suck at drawing and I really, really do suck at drawing. Hey! I was trained as a Safety Engineer, we didn't have art in the curriculum! :(

Here's a non-artist approach to making poseable (POSED) figures. It is beautiful artwork? heck no!

Is is effective? Yeah, for me and maybe for you, if you suffer from lack of art training or genetic inbred artistic talent. :)

Okay, here are some samples to get you started. Introducing Geo-Shape Man in the top left corner; next we have a martial artist Geo-Shape man; next we have a crime scene victim (ugh); next we have a golfer; next is a showman Geo-Shape man leaning on his cane. Lastly we have a banana daquiri drink gorilla looking thing or not???

Why Geo-Shape Man? Because he is made up of proportioned, geometric shapes and can be easily manipulated by just dragging his body parts to the proper position. If you are interested, read the next five threads. If you are an artist, go away! Just kidding. :)

This is part 2, I come back and add text to this if necessary.

part 3. If more explanation is needed just ask.

Part 4. Let me know if you need more instructions or hints. I can avoid the issue like a , er help you with what you need. :)

Part 5 almost there!

Part 6, Painting it in.

Here my finished product is a UPS guy delivering ummm... lead weighted lipstick, yeah that's it. :)

Notice on the Geo-Shape Man that it has an outline around it that is very rough. This is the most important step to bring reality to your geometrically shaped character.

Do you have to be accurate? Nope! Just draw an outline around the Geo-Shape man. It doesn't even have to be good, like mine wasn't. :)

Then, start painting on your posed GeoShape Man outline.

My suggestion. Do each step in Layers. If you don't know how to do layers just ask. Make the Geo-Shape Man in one Layer, The outline shape in another layer and the painting of the outline in another layer.

Give your character a prop if you want. Mine has a case of lead-weighted lipstick or some such thing. :)

Things to remember about Geo-Shape Man project.

1. Always save Geo-Shape man in a separate file after you make it. You may find a need to use it again.
   
2. Remember each part of Geo-Shape man can be resized, stretched out or any other thing you want to do with it in your favorite paint program (Xara.) :)
   
3. I would recommend that you pose your character first before stretching, resize or whatever. This way you can fine tune the look of "perspective" as you proceed in your drawing.
   
4. You can use Geo-Shape Man as a posed figure in individual frames (hint, hint.) Just strike a pose (insert Madonna music here) go to next frame, change the pose and repeat ad nauseum. Do the artwork AFTER you pose please. :)

Other things to remember:

1. Clean Design First - Start with nothing but Geo-Shape Man on the page.
   
2. Conceptual art (actual finished project) comes later after posing and outlining.
   
3. Females are slightly different than males (gasps.) You can turn Geo-Shape Man into a female, by just slightly lowering the nipple line, give it a proper buttocks if in side view, make the shoulders chest slightly smaller (if you want) and do whatever you wish actually. :)
   
4. If you know the power of Xara or your favorite paint program, then you will find the Simplicity of Geo-Shape Man and how it will help you with your bidpedal projects (that's people or two legged creature drawing.)

Yes, there is still a ton to know about making human figures in art. This is what I do and it works for me. Hope you find good use for it. :)

NOTE: Making cartoon characters is different. Can you use Geo-Shape Man? Yep! Just remember that arms are shorter, heads can be bigger or smaller, bodies shorter, feet longer, etc. etc.

....you can also make space monsters and other two legged monsters, let your imagination run wild. :)

Very good information James. Thanks.

Excellent!
Tony

Very nice, something I can definitly use, being artistically challenged. Thanks and have a good one, Willy

yeah, thanks james, very cool

This thread is a very interesting idea to help anyone with figure basics. I've attached a Xara file produced some time ago with a drawing of an artist wooden model. If anyone is interested in downloading it you should be able to pull it apart and reposition it to a degree. If you place it on a locked layer and work on a new layer on top you can draw over it to flesh it out, or put clothes on it etc. Its only full frontal I'm afraid, I'm sure I had a side view, which might be on a backup disk, so I'll look for it if anyone thinks its useful.

Derek

Ah! Thanks Masque!

Very well done and it has articulated joints! Quite handy!

Thanks. :)

Cheers Derek and James - they will be very helpful I'm sure.

Dave

Hi All,
I can agree with most of the comments made here, it was the way I instructed all my students when I taught Craft & Design in Scotland a few years back to draw figures for folio work. We stated of using DrawPlus with a library of parts using Acorns, then when we upgraded (changed) to PC's and used layers and we used Xara. The hard part was changing the scale to achieve a form of perspective which would look right as a drawing and we developed a formula for changing the X & Y scaling but I am blowed if I can remember it.

James,
Thank you very much. Really nice information. Very instructional.
ron

Thank you I will be able to use the information provided.

---------.Norman.

Art S. Buck makes a some great Male & Female Artist Models. I've found these to be helpful with foreshortening.

Byrne makes a great book too, Dynamic Figure Drawing.

Terrific! Proportions of the human form has been one of the toughest things for me to master.
Thanks so much for this!

This would make a great guest tutorial, maybe with a little extrafleshing out.

psst now all we need is an armature system in xara ;) ;)

and tweening ;D

tsk tsk sorry :D

RonC

Outstanding tut.

So you can't draw, looks like a figure drawing class to me :)

Jack

Why not just get hold of Daz studio; http://www.daz3d.com/program/studio/1_0index.php

Similar to poser, it's free and quite easy to use (don't forget to look around for some free figures on the site too).

Pose your figures and export as a bitmap, then you can load that into Xara and trace away.