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-canvas boards
-drawing paper
-origami paper of various patterns and colors
-colored paper
-magazines
-newspapers
-fabrics of various patterns and colors
-felt
-yarn
-twine
-buttons
-fake flowers
-aluminum foil
-rhinestones
-feathers
-pencils
-markers
-colored pencils
-scissors
-x-acto knives
-rubber cement
-hot glue gun
-tacky glue

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Mixed Media Maidens

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Personal mixed-media artworks available as prints in my shop.

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Mixed Media Girls

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Missbehave

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Mixed-media artwork for the final issue of Missbehave.

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Inspired by the work of Nikki Farquharson, students will create a mixed media project focused on figures and fashion design. They will find figures, or parts of figures, in a magazine and incorporate them within their piece. Using a variety of materials, they will design outfits to dress the figure. Students can draw these outfits as well as use materials, such as fabric, yarn, buttons, etc. We will be looking at various red carpet looks, which will encourage the students to think outside the box and create crazy designs.

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the use of a variety of media in an entertainment or work of art ; multimedia

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the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories

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a piece of art made by sticking various different materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric on to a backing.

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Look at red carpet pictures from any given year, and you can be transported back in time, remembering the biggest names, the major trends, and, sometimes, even the biggest issues that were weighing on people's minds. The last decade changed how we consumed and talked about Hollywood fashion-social media played a bigger role (Twitter was founded in 2006, Instagram in 2010, after all), stylists became celebrities in their own right, and the veil was lifted slightly on what actually goes into dressing someone for a high-profile event. We asked different questions: of actors, but also of the fashion industry, of who has access to the glitz and glamour and gowns. And we got plenty of memorable looks we still think about and reference today.

There are a few red-carpet moments that we can all agree on. (Several people interviewed for this story called out Billy Porter's Christian Siriano tuxedo-gown hybrid from the most recent Oscars as a standout from the decade.) But looking back on the last ten years of red carpet fashion, there have been countless fashion moments that have landed in the headlines for a wide variety of reasons: because it was beautiful, because it showed someone in a brand-new light, because it sent a message, because it opened up a conversation.

"An 'iconic' red carpet moment can be interpreted in so many ways," says stylist Andrew Gelwicks, who works with actors like Catherine O'Hara and Dominique Jackson. "On one side, you have Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake's matching denim looks from to the 2001 American Music Awards-they were kitschy and costume-y. Then, on the other, you have Lady Gaga in Valentino at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, where it's iconic because it's so incredibly special."

Vanessa Friedman, fashion director and chief fashion critic for the New York Times, says: "For me, the most effective red carpet looks are not just aesthetically successful-elegant, beautiful, flattering-but reflect a moment of social or cultural change. It's the combination of style and substance that makes them memorable."

The fact that we still talk about some of these looks months, even years later speaks to the power of a red-carpet moment. "I do think there's something to this idea that you can have a couple of really terrific profiles written about you, but a singular image can really speak volumes," says The Washington Post's Robin Givhan. "It's something that can be conveyed over and over and over to a public that may not sit down to read a full interview. It's a shorthand that says, 'I'm important.'"

We asked people in the fashion industry-from critics and editors to stylists-to share what they believed to be the most memorable red-carpet fashion from 2010 to today. From Porter to Lady Gaga to Rihanna, see who made an impression.

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The 41 Best Red Carpet Looks From the Past Decade

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Look at red carpet pictures from any given year, and you can be transported back in time, remembering the biggest names, the major trends, and, sometimes, even the biggest issues that were weighing on people's minds.

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This year started off with virtual awards shows and celebs wearing pajamas.

But as we near the end of 2021, there's been no shortage of in-person events or iconic fashion.

These are 102 of the most iconic red carpet looks of the year.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Jason Sudeikis started off the year with a bang in his tie-dye sweatshirt at the Golden Globes.

Sudeikis became an instant meme when he accepted his Golden Globe for "Ted Lasso" in a tie-dye sweatshirt, proving that celebrities really are just like us - they also don't dress up on Zoom .

The sweatshirt is from Forward__Space, a New York-based dance and exercise studio that was founded by his sister, Kristin Sudeikis.

Dominique Fishback absolutely slayed the Critics' Choice Awards in this jewel-encrusted gown.

Fishback's dramatic gown was designed by Reem Acra and inspired her makeup look.

"The dress felt very Old Hollywood glamour, which inspired the cat eye liner and swooped back hair, but the nude lipstick and jewels kept it young and fresh," Fishback told Vogue.

Little Mix looked like angels in matching white gowns at the BRIT Awards.

Perrie Edwards (left) and Leigh-Anne Pinnock (right) debuted their baby bumps at the BRITs.

Edwards chose a set by David Koma, Jade Thirwall rocked a Vivienne Westwood gown, and Pinnock's dress was designed by Maison Margiela.

Kim Kardashian's look at the 2021 Met Gala was easily the most memeable.

Technically, we're assuming that's Kardashian underneath there - her black form-fitting Balenciaga gown extended all the way over her face.

Tessa Thompson also stunned at the same event in this feathered gray gown with a simple black belt.

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The most iconic red carpet looks of 2021, from the Golden Globes to the 'Spider-Man' premiere

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This year started off with virtual awards shows and celebs wearing pajamas. But as we near the end of 2021, there's been no shortage of in-person events or iconic fashion. These are 102 of the most iconic red carpet looks of the year. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

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Martha Haversham

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'Found Fashion,' a look at the art of Martha Haversham (smallditch)

For my whole life, I have heard 'One person's trash is another person's treasure,' does this mean to go into people's garbage looking for coins? For me, it meant beauty is in the eye of the beholder, something someone else doesn't want, I might find quite useful. Martha Haversham (@smallditch on Instagram) brings this concept to life in her series of works titled "Found Fashion," a play on words with fast fashion, found fashion is what you get when you make clothing out of everyday objects found on your desk, on the side of a trail, and well pretty much anywhere you can think.

Martha is an interdisciplinary artist who was born and raised in London and grew up surrounded by art. Her father, a photographer, and her mother a Ballet Dancer would always encourager her to be creative and expressive. After feeling like she was trapped in an endless loop of work she began to go for walks while on her lunch break and would use this time to tap back into her creative process. She began to discover objects laying on the ground while on these walks and would take these back with her to create her artworks. In the series 'Found Fashion' anything can be an article of clothing, cigarette butts become pants, a used face mask a skirt, leaves into dresses, and the list goes on. We invite you to join us in following SmallDitch and experiencing your everyday trash through the eyes of an artist.

"Accordingly, I believe 'trashion' as one of my followers termed it; is an art form of today. It literally stops you in the street and puts a massive smile on your face. My collages are merely samples. The actual creativity is illuminating the path back to our imaginative childhood brains, to a playful place I call Smallditch. My job as an artist is to hand you the keys to a stockroom brimming with far superior garments in your head, a constant source of earthly delight. I'm minded to attach a few care instructions; I'll print off a few labels and call it a manifesto." - Martha Haversham (via an Interview with Gavin Ambrose of 'Unseen Sketchbooks' )

Follow Martha Haversham (smallditch) on Instagram

to read more articles about collage art.

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'Found Fashion,' a look at the art of Martha Haversham (smallditch)

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For my whole life, I have heard 'One person's trash is another person's treasure,' does this mean to go into people's garbage looking for coins? For me, it meant beauty is in the eye of the beholder, something someone else doesn't want, I might find quite useful.

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Edgar Artis

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Aypoupen - Armenian Website in English Language

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Edgar Artis is an Armenian illustrator who has conquered the internet with more than 473k followers on Instagram only, with his magnificent art. He is the creator of various sketches of dress designs, using the drawn silhouette of a girl-model and dressing her in an extravagant attire with stylized paper cut-outs using a bright natural background and or objects of nature or everyday life that we find around us such additional items as twigs plants, rose petals, food, life, and even the architecture of the buildings. Perhaps, many ladies would dream to get dressed by Edgar Artis, even if he is not a fashion designer, but an illustrator. However, his ideas, that mainly exist as images, are worthy of realization in real life.

"Genie from "Aladdin" I know this is not what I usually do but I hope you like it as well ☺ Have you watched my tutorials on YouTube? P.S I don't know why his face turned out so sad. ?"

Although the idea might not be a new one, Edgar Artis gives his creations a new touch as every artist-designer with his perspective, using the simple phenomena of nature, with natural accents and touches that cannot be cloned because natural phenomena don't recur frequently.

The designs take you to another world of fairy tales and princesses no matter what the material he is using, droplets of water, burnt matches, food or animals, they come together to capture the hearts of true art lovers who will dive for hours in the beauty of each sketch and spend hours in admiration.
"You cannot imagine how I overcame my fear to approach this huge spider... one more thing, I was amazed by the caretakers of these animals, they were very good people. I am amazed by good people because they are so rare" says Edgar.

You May Follow Edgar on his Facebook page or Instagram or subscribe to his Youtube Channel.

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Meet Edgar Artis The Most Followed Armenian Illustrator

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Edgar Artis is an Armenian illustrator who has conquered the internet with more than 473k followers on Instagram only, with his magnificent art.

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Fabric and folds can take all sorts of forms depending on the softness of the material and the shape of the body. This illustrated tutorial by comic artist miyuli covers basic concepts and approaches for drawing fabrics of all kinds.

Folds depend on the form they fall on. They are not universal. There are many different types and factors that influence them.

There is no single rule on how to draw folds-The best way to understand drapery is to do as many studies of folds as you can. The more realistic you want to draw and paint folds, the more references you will need. Understanding some common principles will make it possible to draw them convincingly in a more stylized way.

I've collected some pointers and commonalities here that I've come across so far.

Materials

It is very important to consider the materials that you draw when dealing with folds. They all have their very own characteristics that help to decide where to put the appropriate folds. Their texture dictates how diffused the shadows are.

Thicker material has wider folds that are usually less visible.

Hard materials are usually pulled more at the bending area or at the seams.

Soft and thin material produces the most folds, especially around the bending areas.

The amount of folds also depends on how heavy the fabric is and what kind of material it is made of. When drawing fabric it is a good idea to consider how thick/thin, hard/soft, heavy/light and smooth/textured the material is first.

Heavy fabric causes folds of a different volume and different width. It is also more idle and shows fewer folds even when moving.

All clothes have their own arrangement of parts, which heavily influences the formation of folds.

It's good to familiarise yourself with common placements of seams. You don't need to draw them all, but it is better to have a good fundamental knowledge of the construction.

Folds tend to pull at prominent seams, especially on clothes like suits where the transition between seams is quite noticeable at the shoulder.

Sweaters usually have their arm seams much lower and the folds don't pull at them as much.

Clothes with a wide cut show different folds than clothes with a narrow cut. A tight cut follows the form of the body and wraps around it. Wide clothes show a lot of droopy folds that go from the pulling point towards the ground.

Clothes are often designed with folds or lack thereof in mind.

Fitted material is designed to look elegant with as few folds as possible. When clothes are too tight or too loose there are more folds that give a less elegant appearance of the clothing, especially when looking at the silhouette.

Worn-out fabric tends to crease more than new or well-maintained fabrics.

Note: When drawing clothes and folds, it can help to consider what material fits the character's personality first.

External influences

Folds can be heavily affected by wind or water.

Wet cloth acts differently from dry cloth. It tends to stick more to the form underneath. The water makes the light material a lot heavier, so it does not move as easily anymore. Thin fabric becomes see-through.

When the body is resting the fabric is usually dragged down by gravity. More prominent droopy folds appear the wider and lighter the fabric is.

When bent the fabric is pressed together and creates hollow shapes that vary in size.

There are more bumps with more narrow material. Wide material tends to squish together with fewer folds.

The material adapts to the forms' movement. Folds usually follow the twist. It can be very helpful to emphasize the movements.

Note that the lighter and thinner material in the example above shows fewer folds since the arm is still mostly resting.

The arms heavily dictate the pulling areas where folds emerge.

Opening a jacket absorbs some of the pulling when the arms are raised.

The fabric of the pants is supported at the waistline.

Pants start wider and narrow down to the knees because they adjust to the bone structure of the legs.

With narrow pants, creases are usually visible at the knees.

When drawing bumps in the fabric it's good to show their origin and volume. It does make a visual difference when you can imagine the folds in a 3-dimensional space.

From the back, you can see folds forming under the butt region that go up to the hip.

The folds at the knees are also visibly pulled by the hips from the back view.

In general, when the body is just standing and resting, there are less dynamic folds.

When a leg is lifted, the knee becomes the strongest pulling point.

Be careful of the forms that the pant legs create when the leg moves.

Shadows and Highlights

Depending on the thickness of the material the shadows around the folds appear slightly different.

When shading folds, it's good to use a combination of soft and hard edges.

When painting pay attention to how smooth and soft the material is. The smoother it is, the more it reflects light and has a brighter highlight. Rougher and more textured materials diffuse light.

The darkest area is usually where forms are pressed together and an occlusion shadow appears. This also applies to very deep creases where light does not reach.

Here are some quick tips that I noticed while shading materials.

The shading, like the width of the folds, varies between soft edges or highlights depending on the material, so it's good to familiarise yourself with as many materials as possible to build up a rich visual library.

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Essential Tips for Drawing Drapery and Folds

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Fabric and folds can take all sorts of forms depending on the softness of the material and the shape of the body. This illustrated tutorial by comic artist miyuli covers basic concepts and approaches for drawing fabrics of all kinds.

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Kate Cuthbert

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MEGAN HESS (@meganhess_official) on Instagram

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ARTIST / AUTHOR / CREATOR
Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Prada
Creator of CLARIS @claristhemouse
Shop my boutique at:

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Primary Source - Interview

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For our "X Questions With" series, we're speaking with talented individuals from around the world who have inspired us with their creativity and passion. If you have a story to tell or someone you'd like to see profiled, let us know in the comments or on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!
Today, we're chatting with Nikki Farquharson, a supremely creative freelance illustrator who uses vibrant colours and intricate details to create her mixed media artworks. To see more of Nikki's work, check out her website and portfolio at nikkifarquharson.com!

1) Please tell us a little about yourself

Name: Nikki Farquharson
Age: 30
City: London, UK
Places: I've only lived in London. I've travelled to Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Portugal, Belgium, Scotland and Montserrat (my family homeland).
Passions: I have a really big passion for gaming. My tastes range from GTA to World of Warcraft to RollerCoaster Tycoon. I'm also very passionate about feminism and race politics.
Education/Training: I graduated in Graphic & Media Design at the London College of Communication (University of the Arts London).
Occupation: Freelance Illustrator
Creative Works: Past clients include MAC Cosmetics, Adidas and Malibu Rum.

2) We rather serendipitously found out about your art when you posted a photo of your new 2016 Paperblanks® Diary. Any big announcements or activities you've already planned out for the new year?

Ah yes! Well I ended 2015 vowing to finally complete an ongoing collaboration I had with Singapore-based photographer Scott A. Woodward, before the new year. It's titled " Mythos" and the theme is based on the classical elements. This is the first new project I have showcased in 2016. It is an exciting project for me because it's allowed me to explore and experiment with new digital techniques combined with my hand-drawn illustrations. I'm working on another personal project called " Mixed Media Manifestations of Me " and I also have plans to start creating large and complex typographic pieces again.

3) Aside from that posting, your Instagram is such an amazing resource for artists (and art-lovers) to check out. We especially love how you show the step-by-step process of sketching and filling in your colourful artwork. Why did you decide to show your followers the road to the final product?

I initially didn't realise that it would be interesting for other people to see the process of my artwork. As I draw and colour the majority of my work by hand, I take pictures to save moments of the progression for myself. One day I was working on a project and decided to upload a WIP pic to my Instagram account. I was surprised to see that it received such a positive response. Now it just makes sense to share my work in this way and social media is the perfect platform for this. Another reason why I share the development - especially on my blog - is that many times, people often mistake my work for full digital art. It's a popular method for many creatives so I'm not surprised by that, but sharing the progress is a great way to showcase that I do in fact draw and colour my work by hand. It also gives people a good sense of how long a piece can take, how I make and remedy mistakes and how an illustration can evolve from a blank page.

4) Right now it seems like you're in the midst of your "Mixed Media Manifestations of Me" project and this looks to be your most personal subject matter. What prompted this direction?

I've been creating mixed-media artworks for almost 10 years, for both personal projects and client commissions. But for every piece, I've begun with photography that I've either found or has been given to me. This has been great because I get to be continually inspired by new imagery to create original pieces. However, over time I've had a growing sense of wanting to create a similar art series from scratch - including the photography. It was also important for me to improve my representation of women of colour within my artwork - especially being a Black female artist. With these feelings combined, it slowly began to make sense that I ought to begin with my own body. By starting here, it has not only given me full control of the entire image, but as a feminist, has given me a new liberating space to express my autonomy in a way I've never creatively done before. I have a growing need to express my personal politics into my work and this project is my way of stepping in that direction.

5) Your graphic style is so unique, with the intricate line drawings and even more detailed patterns you fill them in with. How did you develop this style?

I've been drawing ever since I was a little girl but after my GCSE's (school exams taken at 16 y/o) I did much less of it as I chose to study graphic design. While studying the subject, I began to feel constrained by the strictness of the discipline. I felt that there were too many design rules to consider and I just wanted to feel free again - as cheesy as that sounds. I released this frustration by drawing in my free time but noticed that my style had dramatically changed. My drawings had always been slightly surreal but I was quite fond of creating still life. Now my drawings were incredibly abstract with a strong graphical edge. I could only attribute this transformation to my six-year stint with graphic design.

6) We found it interesting to see a photo of Joanna Basford's Enchanted Forest on your Instagram, when your own art seems like the perfect style for a colouring book! Have you ever thought about approaching this medium from a publishing standpoint?

It has been suggested to me several times by many people and my cousin who loves adult colouring books has even asked me to produce a single edition just for her, but I've never given it much serious thought until quite recently. It seems like quite a daunting task and at the moment, I just don't have the time to commit to a challenge of that size but I would like to revisit this idea in the future.

7) Are you especially inspired by any artists or artistic styles?

This won't come as a surprise but I am greatly drawn to other artists and illustrators who specialise in abstract, patterned artwork. I find it more attractive and expressive than most other styles. Any piece of art that displays a high level of intricacy and time-consuming detail will always catch my attention. It motivates me to increase my own skill and to continue exploring new avenues to improve my own work. Instagram is a great place to follow and keep up-to-date with the works of my favourite artists and I also run a blog called Love + Inspiration where I collate and present art, illustration and photography that keep me inspired.

8) How did you go from graphic design school to successful freelance artist?

I studied graphic design in three consecutive courses for a total of six years, graduating in 2008. While studying for my degree, I began to draw as a hobby (along with creating other design projects such as Random Got Beautiful) to offset my discontentment with the limitations of the subject. I taught myself to build a website and uploaded these random drawings. They caught the attention of a student blog which then caught the attention of It's Nice That, a popular blog which was very new at the time. Shortly afterwards, I got an email from Sims Snowboards expressing their interest in purchasing an illustration after seeing my work online. I was stunned that a brand wanted to pay me to create something I love doing for free. They became my first client while I was still at university. That was the turning point that made me fully aware that this could be a legitimate career path for me.

9) Do you have any advice you could share with aspiring artists?

I always advise people to stay true to themselves, and what I mean by that is to avoid following trends or trying too hard to imitate the style of their favourite artists. There are different degrees of success and we all have varying definitions of what it means to us, but to create a body of work that sincerely represents your own vision should be the foundation to having a portfolio you're proud of.

About Paperblanks®: At Paperblanks®, we believe that art should have a place in all aspects of life. That's why we follow the artist's way in everything we do - creating, crafting and releasing designs we believe have the power to touch people. For more about Paperblanks®, go to our website at paperblanks.com.

Robyn has been a part of the Paperblanks family for over eight years as a part of our Canadian office.

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9 Questions with Nikki Farquharson, Freelance Illustrator

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For our "X Questions With" series, we're speaking with talented individuals from around the world who have inspired us with their creativity and passion. If you have a story to tell or someone you'd like to see profiled, let us know in the comments or on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!

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Primary Source - FAQ

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HOW DID YOU BECOME AN ILLUSTRATOR?
After getting an 'A' in Art GCSE, I considered studying fine art but instead chose to study graphic design as I was very interested in visual communication. I studied graphic design for a total of six years. I graduated in 'Graphic and Media Design - Typography' from the University of the Arts London (London College of Communication) in 2008. I completed the degree in two years as I qualified to start from the second year of the course. I still wish I started the course from the first year. The degree course focused very heavily on conceptual ideas and solutions, which I really enjoyed. However, I wanted to be more expressive outside of graphic design so I began to draw again. I found myself drawing a lot of abstract shapes and patterns; a completely new aesthetic to what I had before. I believe studying graphic design has been a big influence on my current style. While still at university, I began getting commissioned for illustrations. After graduating, I decided to focus on making illustration my primary discipline.

WHO ARE YOUR DESIGN INFLUENCES AND INSPIRATIONS?
I did a lot of research on Salvador Dali while I was studying art in school. Surrealism and Dada were two of my favourite art movements. Herb Lubalin was a great inspiration for typography and graphic design during college. My first dissertation was a comparative analysis between the works and lives of Marcel Duchamp and Damien Hirst. In 2010, I visited Pompidou in Paris, which was massively motivational and left me awestruck. It completely reignited my passion for art. I now try to visit art galleries and exhibitions as often as I'm able to. Contemporary illustrators who create abstract works inspire me the most. They challenge me to expand my own imagination. I adore shapes, colours, photography and typography, so I try to incorporate them into my own work. I post beautiful art, illustration and photography by other artists on my Love + Inspiration blog. I post beautiful graphic, information and brand design by other designers on my Love + Appreciation blog.

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR A NEW ILLUSTRATOR?
Create a lot of work and build both a physical and online portfolio that strongly demonstrates your skills and personal style. Send links of your work to magazines, brands, studios, agencies etc. and join online design communities and social media platforms to get that initial ball rolling. It's about letting people know that you exist. Try not to let negative feedback or criticism deflate your confidence. Instead, use that criticism to motivate you to experiment, develop and improve.

WHAT MATERIALS DO YOU WORK WITH?
I almost exclusively work by hand with a lot of pens and paper. They're my favourite media because they give me the most control, I enjoy the process and prefer the results. I use mechanical pencils, fine liner pens, colour markers, plain paper, coloured paper, tracing paper, magazine cut outs, real photography, digital photography and an A2 lightbox. Sometimes I complete, edit or make final touches to my work digitally when necessary.

WHAT METHODS DO YOU USE FOR CREATING YOUR WORK?
I do a lot of preparation now that I didn't practice before. I used to draw with ink straight onto paper, with no clear vision of the final outcome. Now I sketch, lay out many compositions and test several colour/pattern combinations. The plan is to have the final artwork be as close to how I imagine it to be with as little mistakes as possible, so I can keep any digital editing to an absolute minimum. You can veiw the progress and development of many projects on both my Instagram account and my accompanying Blog.

HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND TO COMPLETE AN ILLUSTRATION?
This really depends on the detail, size and timeline of what I am creating. Illustrations can take between a few days to a few weeks.

WHY DO YOU CREATE MIXED-MEDIA ARTWORK?
Mixed Media Girls began in 2007 as experimental artworks combining found imagery with personal illustration. I initially began drawing only shapes and patterns but wanted to create artwork that appeared to be lifesize and otherworldly. I later decided to add women to the work to achieve this effect. By adding people, the patternwork automatically scaled up and became surreal environments. The inclusion of the women put their random surroundings into context. A mixed-media piece is always initially inspired by the original photograph. At first, I saw the women as either props to the patterns or just part of the canvas. However, I began to grow more attached to the women as I developed the Mixed Media Girls set. They became as significant as the rest of the piece and it was important for me to draw an enviroment that complimented them. I wanted to enhance the woman, not drown her out. I created Mixed Media Maidens in 2012 as a follow up set to Mixed Media Girls. They were no longer experimental pieces, but fully realised artworks with the intention to celebrate the essence and attitude that each woman evoked. Individually and as a set, they symbolise vivacity and fun. Naming these new women 'Maidens' was a half ironic yet deliberate departure from simply viewing them as 'Girls'. They each exude a matured sense of confidence and strength but still continue to retain an inherent innocence. My latest mixed-media set is called Manifestations of Me, which is my first self-portrait series exploring and celebrating the sensuality and vulnerability of the Black female body.

CAN I COMMISSION YOU TO CREATE ORIGINAL ARTWORK?
To discuss potential commissions, please contact me directly at mail@nikkifarquharson.com. Please note that I work almost exclusively by hand with pens on paper. Although mixed-media artwork and illustrations for products are a prominent feature within my portfolio, I am not a digital artist nor a product designer. I am unable to provide real imagery for clients requesting mixed-media art or source physical items (e.g. textiles) for product design projects. To avoid delays, please include the photography for mixed-media projects and deadline dates for all projects in your brief at the start of communications.

IS YOUR WORK FOR SALE?
Any work for sale will be available in my online store at shop.nikkifarquharson.com.
Join my mailing list to get exculsive news and discounts for the products in my store.

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HOW DID YOU BECOME AN ILLUSTRATOR? After getting an 'A' in Art GCSE, I considered studying fine art but instead chose to study graphic design as I was very interested in visual communication. I studied graphic design for a total of six years.

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Secondary Source - Prezi Slide Show

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Background Information Procrastination 23 year old artist London, UK freelance graphic design, mixed media artwork, typography GCSE in art University of the Arts London (London College of Communication) chose the graphic design > fine art interest due to interest in visual

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1. How to Draw a Body: The Basic Figure

Step 1: Create Your Chart From Heads

Let's begin with the basics of human body drawing. A well-proportioned figure, regardless of variations due to gender and such, is defined by the alignment of the joints, which is invariable (that is, we perceive something odd if it does vary). This is our groundwork for the proportions of a human body diagram. Draw your own chart with me as we go-it really helps with learning the material.

To learn how to draw a body, we start with the head. Start by drawing an oval or egg shape (pointy end down) for a head, and mark down eight measurements, the last one being the ground.

The measurement (ideal male height = eight heads) was set down during the Renaissance as an idealization of the human form. It's rather obvious that very few people are actually eight heads tall (even Northern Europeans, who served as the basis for this model, are closer to seven heads), but this is still the best model to start your anatomy drawing, as it makes it easier to grasp the alignments.

Step 2: The Pelvis

Add the pelvic bone next, simplified as a flattened circle between marks 3 and 4, with the hip joints sitting on 4. Its width is roughly 1.5 to 2 head-widths. You can now add the spine to your body sketch, connecting the head to this most important part of the body, its center of gravity and stability.

Step 3: The Legs and Knees

Let's assume the figure in this human anatomy drawing is standing with the feet vertically aligned with the hip joints. The knee joints sit on mark 6, as that line corresponds to the bottom of the kneecaps.

When the leg is stretched out, the knee joint is placed on a straight line with the hip and ankle (left). But this straight line is virtual: to complete the leg, connect the hip joint to the inside of the kneecap, and then again, the outside of the knee to the inside of the ankle (right).

This is a very simplified but accurate representation of the actual bone structure, and it helps capture the natural look of the human leg when drawing bodies, which tapers in from the hip, then staggers out at the knee, and tapers in again. It also helps with placing the muscles of your anatomy drawing at a later stage.

Step 4: The Ribcage, Nipples, and Belly Button

The ribcage-lungs group is the third important volume of the body, after the head and the pelvis. Simplified, it is an oval that starts halfway between 1 and 2, down to mark 3. However, it's best to chop off its lower part as shown here to imitate the actual rib cage, as the empty part between the two volumes is important: it is soft and subject to change (flat belly, soft belly, wasp waist) and it is also where the most torsion and movement happens in the spine.

When drawing a body, it's good to be aware of that and not to attach the torso and pelvis together like two blocks, as that would "block" your body drawing's range of motion. The width of the oval is roughly the same as the pelvis for now.

Two more details here: the nipples fall on mark 2, just inside the sides of the head, and the belly button on mark 3.

Step 5: The Shoulders

The shoulder line is about halfway between marks 1 and 2 of your body sketch, with the shoulder width 2 to 3 head-widths, but its apparent position can vary a great deal. To begin with, it's slightly curved down, but in tension the shoulders tense up and the curve can itself turn up and look higher.

Furthermore, the trapezius muscle, which from the front appears to connect the shoulder with the neck, is highly individual. If it's very muscular or carries much fat, it can make the shoulder line look so high there's no neck. Inversely, an underdeveloped trapezius, often seen in very young women, gives the impression of a long neck.

This brief digression into non-skeletal details is to ensure there's no confusion between the actual position of the shoulder line and its apparent placement in a fleshed-out body, some examples of which are shown on the human anatomy drawing below.

Step 6: The Arm, Wrists, and Hands

Finally, let's learn how to draw a body with arms. The wrists are on mark 4, slightly below the hip joints, which sit on it (you can test it out for yourself by standing up and pressing your wrists against your hips).

The fingers end roughly at mid-thigh, which is mark 5 on the body sketch. The elbows are a slightly complicated joint that we'll examine in detail later, but for now it's helpful to mark them in your anatomy drawing as elongated ovals sitting on level 3.

We're done with the basics of how to draw bodies... almost. Before summing this up, let's extend those marks into lines and see how this works in a profile body drawing.

2. How to Draw a Body: The Basic Profile

The next step in learning how to draw a body is the profile. Start by drawing the head again, the same egg shape but with the end pointing diagonally down, and drop a vertical line from the crown to the ground.

In an erect posture, you can place the pelvic bone (a narrower version of the head's egg), the shoulder, and the knee of your human body diagram roughly on this vertical line. They are on the same level as before: all the joints are, but the others are not on the same plane as these.

Step 1: The Spine in Profile

From the side, the spine is revealed as being shaped like a flattened "S". From the base of the skull, it moves down and back till it reaches its furthest point at the level of the shoulders (between the shoulder blades). Note the shoulder joints are ahead of the spine! This is because, again, the shoulder "line" is in reality an arc: the medallion shows a top view of it.

The spine then comes back forward, and peaks again (inward) a little above the pelvis (the small of the back, which varies in depth and can make for an arched back). Finally it changes direction again briefly and ends in the coccyx or tailbone.

Step 2: The Ribcage and Legs in Profile

The ribcage is closely attached to the spine and, in a reasonably fit body standing erect, the chest is naturally pushed forward.

The hip joint is ahead of our vertical axis, and this is counterbalanced by the ankle being a bit behind it. So our hip-knee-ankle line is slanted backward, and staggered again: from the hip joint to the front of the knee joint, and from the back of the knee joint to the ankle.

The overall effect of this posture is a visual arc from head to chest to feet (in green), and when it's flattened or reversed, we perceive an uncertainty or slouch in the posture.

Step 3: The Arms in Profile

Finally, the arms of your human body drawing. The upper arm falls fairly straight from the shoulder, so the elbow can be aligned with the latter (or fall slightly backward).

But the arm is never fully stretched when at rest, so the forearm is not vertical: the arm is slightly bent, and the wrist falls forward, right over the hip bone. Also, when the hand is relaxed, the fingers curl a little, as shown here.

3. How to Draw a Body: Summary

This completes the basic, undifferentiated human body drawing tutorial. Here's a human body diagram to sum up all the human anatomy drawing outline techniques we reviewed:

Human Body Proportions Drawing Reminders

The following examples of how to draw bodies are a few useful visual reminders based on human anatomy. They come in handy when your human body drawing is not standing upright.

4. How to Practice With Body Drawing Exercises

We've covered a lot of material in this human anatomy drawing tutorial. Now is a good time to pause the studying and familiarize yourself with this basic figure and the principles of drawing a body with the right proportions. Then, we'll move on to the differences between male and female structures (and others).

For instance, you can integrate this new knowledge into your daily human body sketch practice by overlaying a quick energy sketch with this correctly proportioned basic figure.

Tips on Proportions When Drawing Bodies

When I'm drawing a body, I consistently start with the head. But it doesn't really matter what part you start with when drawing bodies, as long as you're comfortable and get a good result. If you're unsure or are having a hard time learning how to draw a body, then I suggest trying with the head first.

Get used to drawing this basic figure of your human body diagram with a light hand, since the finished body will be built up over it. Traditionally, the final lines are inked and the guidelines then erased (hence the importance of a light hand), but even when I'm sketching with a ballpoint pen with the intent of inking on a different sheet by transparency, keeping a light hand ensures I can see what I'm doing.

Discover More Awesome Human Drawing Tutorials

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial about how to draw a body step by step. If you want to learn even more about how to draw bodies, we've got this great learning guide: Human Anatomy Fundamentals. There you'll find detailed human drawing tutorials and resources like these:
Editorial Note: This post has been updated with contributions from Maria Villanueva. Maria is a staff writer with Envato Tuts+.

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Human Anatomy Fundamentals: Basic Body Proportions | Envato Tuts+

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In this human body drawing tutorial, you'll learn basic human body outline drawing techniques. Discover how to draw a body and start practicing!

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For the past few sessions we have become thoroughly familiar with the general structure and posture of the body in a range of variations. Now we're ready to clothe it with flesh, and above all that means the muscles layer, since that defines how things look on the surface.

Understanding What Your Need to Draw

Learning to draw muscles may conjure medical charts in daunting details, but such complexity is unnecessary. We only need to know what shows up through the skin, since that's what we draw: in real life, you'd have to look hard to find someone whose body displays intense muscle detail (basically bodybuilders and some athletes). Similarly, it is only a niche of illustrators who give a lot of attention to muscle details in their work, such as artists for superhero comics.

Therefore it is quite enough to start with a simplified understanding, and move on to medical charts later if one feels the need!

In the diagrams below, I'll be showing muscle groups in color, with a black line to show the forms that would show through the skin (I also show protruding bones that would do the same).

We all have a layer of fatty tissue under our skin, and this softens the look of the underlying muscles. Take an angular object, such as a box, and cover it with thin fabric, such as a bedsheet. Note how the angles look now. Then cover it instead with a thick bathing towel. See how all sharpness disappears? This is what happens in the body.

Now this layer of fat, comparable to that thick bath towel, is generally thicker in populations that originate in colder places, and it's also thicker in females than in males, while males naturally have more muscle mass. Beyond that, an individual's personal story creates infinite variation. You can be very muscular but have a thick layer of fat that makes you look deceptively soft. You can be skinny and have no muscle mass to talk about. You can have an average muscle mass, but so little fat everything looks chiseled (the "sinewy" look). And everything in between.

Muscles Guide

Quick Notes On Muscle Behavior

1. A muscle's job is to pull together the points to which its ends are attached. This simple fact can help you deduce what movement a given muscle is associated with.

2. An active (contracted) muscle bulges and is hard (this is to a light degree: the more effort involved, the more it bulges).

3. An inactive (relaxed) muscle does not bulge and can be quite limp to the touch.

4. A muscle can only pull, not push: to return to its original position it needs an opposite (antagonist) muscle to pull in the opposite direction. So most muscles in the body come in antagonistic pairs, and when one in the pair is contracted, the other is necessarily relaxed. For instance, if you bend your leg, the muscle whose job it is to un-bend it cannot be bulging, and vice-versa. (You can deliberately contract all your muscles, for instance to block a blow, but no movement is possible while you do.)

Understanding the above means that, no matter what movement you draw, you'll always know the correct muscles that should be bulging. Then you won't end up with something haphazard and anatomically nonsensical. Here's an illustration of how the position of a limb does not determine the state of the muscles, only the movement does:

In the diagrams below, when you see muscle names that are the same color, it means they are an antagonistic pair and should not be both drawn bulging at the same time.

The Torso

Below are the muscles in the torso and on the back that you need to be aware of. Note also two bones:

The clavicle bone which is always a prominent feature unless an unusually thick layer of fat erases it.

The shoulder blades, which are prominent unless the back muscles are so developed they cover them up. The visibility of the shoulder blades also varies with arm movements, torso bent, and other movement, so observation from life is useful for this detail.

Obviously, as I'm showing all the possible muscle lines, the result is a very ripped body, whereas softer bodies would show less lines: compare below our original model, with muscles muted to show the lines better, and a more average figure where only a few still show, with the shoulder blades more prominent than the back muscles. Note also less bulky shoulders and a waist that's less thin. This goes for females as well, except that their pectoral muscles are hidden behind the breasts, so they can be replaced by them altogether in drawing.

The Arms

Using another muscular example, here is the arm:

In an average arm, this underlying structure translates as this contour:

The Legs

In the legs below, two more bones are to be noted: the patella (knee cap) and the tibia, which defines the front of the lower leg; indeed there is hardly any muscle there. It's why a kick in the shins is so terribly painful - no cushioning. One can have powerful, hyper-developed calves, but their antagonist, the tibialis anterior, will never grow to the same extent.

Note also that the ankle bone juts out on both sides of the foot, but is higher on the inside. Finally, Achilles tendon, as its name indicates, is not a muscle: though it can be sharply defined in a body with developed leg muscles, it can never be contracted, i.e. bulge like a muscle (its role is to anchor the muscle to the bone, not itself move).

Body Fat

As mentioned above, we all have a layer of fatty tissue under the skin. It can be really thin in our most ripped athletes, and disappears altogether in starved bodies, but even healthy bodies have it - in fact it is what makes us think of a body as healthy, as opposed to "skin and bones".

In addition to this, fat reserves are stored in certain parts of the body, and these are not the same in males and females! As shown below, females store fat in their underarms, thighs and buttocks, while males do in the belly.

Does this mean they don't put on fat in the rest of the body? No, it only means that this is what "fills up" first. A slim female who puts on weight will first notice it in her backside and thighs (aka "can't fit into my jeans!"), then under the arms, and a male will first see a "beer belly" appearing (inversely, when losing weight, these parts are the last ones to go, if they do at all.)

Then if the weight increase continues, the fat under the skin grows along with the fat reserves, and we see the weight piling up all over the body. Finally, in extreme cases, there is inflation everywhere the skin is willing to stretch.

Note also:

The tendency to store fat increases when we hit our forties.

Post-menopause, a woman's fat reserves are redistributed to the belly and follow the male pattern.

Breasts

One more body mass that needs to be understood: female breasts. You'll earn the respect and thanks of slightly over half of humanity by drawing them as they are, rather than as they appear in mainstream comics and manga.

First a few words about anatomy: breasts are not bags of soft tissue. They are a gland, so there is a hard mass in there, surrounded with soft fatty tissue. This also means they have weight and that they react to gravity. The proportion of fatty tissue means they do increase or decrease in volume as the body gains and loses weight; what's more, intense exercise goes hand in hand with a reduction of the chest, which can be slight or dramatic (as can be observed in female athletes, particularly those who started training before puberty.)

Breasts come in all sizes and shapes, so it's not easy to give proportions and guidelines. So, just as we did with the 8-head-tall figure, we'll start with what Western society considers a perfectly proportioned breast, as detailed in reconstructive surgery guidelines:

This very brief exposé is meant to put you on the right track. I realize it's nearly impossible to find references for random, natural-shaped breasts when search engines only yield questionable results and roundabout sources (like lingerie websites) only feature chests that display their products to their best advantage. But one can observe, without being creepy please, fully-clothed females and how that part of their body behaves and affects their posture.

Practice Time

We have covered a lot of detailed material in this session that requires taking in. Stand in front of a mirror and find each of the muscles shown here in your own body. It's not essential to memorize their names, the point is to become aware of what's there (if you do sports, you're probably already aware of quite a few).

You may find you have to move in certain ways, or contract certain parts, or stand in a certain relation to the light, for some of them to be guessed. This is the best possible way to absorb and make sense of this material, as muscles make up a very dynamic aspect of the body that the best charts in the world cannot truly convey. Understanding them and what they do from the inside, empowers you to understand the underlying structure of other bodies you observe, and to draw them without having to guess.

Look at photos of people, still or in motion, whose muscles are readily visible. Sketch them as you see them and use a different color to draw the muscle - all of it, hidden under the skin, in a simplified shape. Also mark jutting bones and such.

Once you're gaining confidence, do the same with less lean models where you have less outside clues. At what point is there no hint left of the structure beneath?

Sketch from scratch, as we've been doing with our basic stick figure, now fleshing it out with a muscle body and a contour of skin, not forgetting breasts for female figures.

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Human Anatomy Fundamentals: Muscles and Other Body Mass

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For the past few sessions we have become thoroughly familiar with the general structure and posture of the body in a range of variations. Now we're ready to clothe it with flesh, and above all that means the muscles layer, since that defines how things look on the surface.

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What You'll Be Creating

Of all parts of the body, the hand is by many considered to be the hardest to draw. We all have stories of how, early on, we would keep our characters' hands behind their backs or in their pockets, avoiding as much as possible the task of tackling hands. Yet paradoxically, they are our most readily available reference, being in our field of vision every moment of our lives. With just one extra accessory, a small mirror, we can reference hands from all angles. The only real challenge, then, is the complexity of this remarkably articulated organ: it's almost like drawing a small figure onto a larger one, one doesn't know where to start.

In this tutorial we will deconstruct the hand's own anatomy and indeed demystify it, so that when you look at a hand for reference, you can make sense of it as a group of simple forms, easy to put together.

I use the following abbreviations for the fingers:

Basics of the Hand

Here's a quick look at the bone structure of the hand (left). In blue, the eight carpal bones, in purple, the five metacarpal bones, and in pink, the 14 phalanges.

As many of these bones cannot move at all, we can simplify the basic structure of the hand: the diagram on the right is all you really need to remember.

Note that the actual base of the fingers, the joint that corresponds to the knuckles, is much lower than the apparent base formed by flaps of skin. This will be important to draw bending fingers as we will see later.

Based on the above, a simple way of sketching the hand is to start with the basic form of the palm, a flat shape (very much like a steak, but roundish, squarish, or trapezoidal) with rounded angles, then attach the fingers :

If you have a hard time drawing fingers, it's very helpful to think of them, and draw them, as stacks of three cylinders. Cylinders are easy to draw under any angle, taking away much of the headache of drawing fingers in perspective. Observe how the bases of the cylinders are exactly the folds you need to draw when the finger bends.

This is important: The joints of the fingers are not aligned on straight lines, but fall onto concentric arches:

In addition, fingers are not straight, but bend slightly towards the space between MF and RF. Showing this even subtly gives life to a drawing:

Let us not forget the fingernails. There is no need to always draw them, indeed they are a degree of detail that only looks right when the hands are seen sufficiently close up, but we are not usually taught how they should look, and because of this, I for one couldn't make them look right for a long time. Here are some notes on the fingernail:

1. The fingernail starts halfway up the top joint of the finger.

2. The point where fingernail detaches from flesh varies: some people have it all the way at the edge of the finger, others have it very low (dotted line), so in their case the fingernails are wider than they are long.

3. Fingernails are not flat, but shaped much like roof tiles, with a curvature ranging from extreme to very slight. Observe your hand and you may find that this curvature is different for each finger - but this level of realism is unnecessary in drawing, fortunately.

Proportions

Now, taking the (apparent) length of FF as our base unit, we can roughly put down the following proportions:

1. The maximum opening between Th and FF opening = 1.5

2. The maximum opening between FF and RF = 1. The MF can be closer to either without affecting the total distance.

3. The maximum opening between RF and LF opening = 1

4. The maximum angle between Th and LF is 90º, taken from the very base of the Th's articulation: the fully extended LF is aligned with it.

I said "roughly" because these do vary with people, sometimes a lot, but remember that deviating from the norm on paper can look wrong. If in doubt, these measurements will always look right.

Details

The basic shape is only one challenging aspect of the hand; the other may be the detailing of folds and lines. Who hasn't been frustrated by drawing a hand and not being able to get all these lines to look right? Let's look at fold lines and some measurement details:

1. The virtual extension of the inner line of the wrist separates the thumb from the fingers. A small tendon line may mark the junction of wrist and hand.

2. When fingers are close together as above, the thumb tucks a bit under the palm and is partially hidden.

3. The FF or RF as sometimes almost as long as the MF.

4. The folds that mark the knuckles are elliptical or like parenthesis, but when the hand is flat as above they are not pronounced (unless someone has protruding knuckles, which happens on much-labored hands) and can be drawn as mere dimples.

5. The folds of the finger joints show elliptically on the back side, but they fade when the fingers are bent. They show as parallel lines on the palm side, but they are more pronounced at the lower joint - typically you wouldn't use two lines for the upper joints.

6. From the back, the lines of the fingers extend down to the limit of the palm, which makes the fingers look longer from the back.
From the inside, the lines are shorter because the top of the palm is padded, so the fingers look shorter on the palm side.

7. The lines of the fingers end in are drag lines (these short horizontal dashes) on both sides, and on both sides these drag lines all point away from the MF.

Note also, in the diagram above, how the fingernails are not drawn fully but indicated in a subtle way appropriate to the overall level of detailing (which is rather higher than necessary, for purposes of showing all the lines). The smaller the hand you're drawing, the less detail you want in it, unless you want it to look old.

I didn't mention the lines of the hand above, so let's take a look at them closely here:

1. The most visible lines in the palm: the so-called heart, head and life lines, are where the skin folds when the palm is cupped. Unless your style is very realistic, there's no need to draw others, it will look excessive.

2. Don't confuse the life line with the contour of the thumb, which becomes visible under certain angles such as the one on the right. The life line is almost concentric with the contour of the thumb, but see how much higher on the palm it originates - the (true) base of the FF, in fact.

3. From the side, the padding at the base of each finger appears as a series of curved, parallel bulges.

4. These fold lines wrap halfway around the fingers. They are accentuated as the finger bends.

5. There is a small bump here on the extended finger due to skin bunching up. The bump disappears when the finger bends.

Now, what do we see when the hand is extended and seen sideways?

1. Outside, the wrist line curves out into palm base, so the transition between the two is marked by a gentle bump.

2. The bottom of the hand looks flatter from the outside than it does from the inside, although the thumb base may still be visible.

3. From the outside, the RF's last joint is fully exposed because the LF is set well back.

4. From the inside, a little or none of the MF can be visible, depending on the FF's length.

5. Inside, the wrist line is covered by thumb base, so the transition is more abrupt and the bump more important.

Note also that when seen from the outside, the palms shows another, new contour line. It starts at the wrist and, as the hand turns more, joins up with the LF line, until it covers up the Th base:

Range of Motion

Detailed articulation implies movement, and the hands move constantly. Not just for functional uses (holding a mug, typing) but also expressively, accompanying our words or reacting to our emotions. It's therefore no surprise that drawing hands well requires understanding how the fingers move.

The Thumb and Fingers

Let's start with the thumb, which works alone. Its real base, and centre of movement, is very low on the hand, where it meets the wrist.

1. The natural relaxed position leaves a space between the Th and the rest of the hand.

2. The Th can fold in as far as touching the root of LF, but this requires much tension and quickly becomes painful.

3. The Th can extend as far as the width of the palm, but this also implies tension and gets painful.

The other four fingers have little sideways movement and mainly bend forward, parallel to each other. They can do this with a certain degree of autonomy, but never without some effect on the nearest fingers; try for instance to bend your MF alone, and see what happens to the rest. The Th alone is completely independent.

When the hand closes into a fist and the fingers all curl together, the whole of the hand maintains a cupped shape, as if it was placed against a large ball. It's just that the ball (here in red) gets smaller and the curvature stronger:

When the hand is fully extended (on the right), the fingers are either straight or bend slightly backwards, depending on flexibility. Some people's fingers can bend back 90º if pressure is applied against them.

The fully closed fist is worth a detailed look:

1. The 1st and 3rd fold of the fully bent finger meet, creating a cross.

2. The 2nd fold appears to be an extension of the line of the finger.

3. Part of the finger is covered by the flap of skin and the thumb, a reminder that the whole thumb structure is outermost. You can make your FF slip outside and cover the flap of skin, it's anatomically possible, but it is not a natural way to form a fist.

4. The MF's knuckle protrudes most and the other knuckles fall away from it, so that from the angle shown here, the parallel fingers are visible from the outer side, not from the inner side.

5. The 1st and 3rd fold meet and create a cross again.

6. The thumb bends so that its last section is foreshortened.

7. The skin fold here sticks out.

8. When the hand makes a fist, the knuckles protrude and the "parenthesis" are visible.

The Hand as a Whole

When the hand is relaxed, the fingers curl slightly - more so when the hand is pointing up and gravity forces them bent. In both cases, the FF remains straightest and the rest fall away gradually, with the LF being the most bent. From the side, The gradation in the fingers makes the outer 2 or 3 peek out between FF and Th.

LF frequently "runs away" and stands isolated from the other fingers - another way of making hands look more natural. On the other hand, the FF and MF, or MF and RF, will often pair up, "sticking" together while the other 2 remain loose. This makes the hand look more lively. RF-LF pairings also occur, when the fingers are loosely bent.

Since the fingers are not the same length, they always present a gradation. When grasping something, like the cup below, the MF (1) wraps the most visibly around the object while the LF (2) barely shows.

When holding a pen or the like, MF, RF and LF curl back towards the palm if the object is held only between Th and FF (pick up a pencil lightly and observe this). If more pressure is applied, MF participates and straightens up as it presses against the object. Full pressure results in all the fingers pointing away as shown here.

As we have seen, the hand and wrist are remarkably articulated, each finger almost having a life of its own, which is why hands tend to stump the beginning illustrator. Yet when the hand starts to make sense, we tend to fall into the opposite trap, which is to draw hands too rationally - fingers carefully taking their places, parallel lines, careful alignments. The result is stiff and simply too tame for a part of the body that can speak as expressively as the eyes. It can work for certain types of characters (such as those whose personality shows stiffness or insensitivity) but more often than not, you'll want to draw lively, expressive hands. For this you can go one of two ways: add attitude (i.e. add drama to the gesture, resulting in a dynamic hand position that would probably never be used in real life) or add natural-ness (observe the hands of people who aren't thinking about them to see the casualness I'm referring to). I can't possibly show every hand position there is, but I give below examples of constrained vs. natural/dynamic hand:

*Note in this particular case - trained fighters will always hold their fingers parallel while punching (as in the forced position), otherwise they may break their knuckles.

Hands vary individually just as much as facial features. Males's hands differ from female's, young from old, and so on. Below are some existing classifications, but they don't cover the whole range of characters a hand can have. Character is a good word because it's most useful to draw hands as if they were characters with their own personality: delicate, soft, dry, callous, uncouth and so on. (See Practice Time)

Hand Shapes

This is really about the proportion of fingers to hand:

Finger Shapes

Even fingernails are not all the same! Well, Mother Nature gives us flat or round nail bases, really, and the different ways of styling the nail are man-made.

Practice time

Observe people's hands. First, for anatomy: how the fingers look in various positions, how lines show and change, how certain details are dependent on tension, etc. Second, for diversity: how do male hands differ from female hands? How do they change with age? With body weight? Could you recognize someone by their hands?

Make quick energy sketches of hands, from any source - yours, other people's, photos. You can find some stock photos of hands on Envato Market. Don't worry about your sketches having correct proportions or even looking like much; this is about capturing expression.

Draw your own hands in various positions and, using a mirror, from various angles, making sure to deconstruct them into the simplest possible forms (the equivalent of drawing a stick figure and then fleshing it out). You can also start with the energy sketch and build on that (as we have done with the full figure) before finally refining the details. In the sketches below the under-sketch is very light but in some you can just see the broad simple shapes used.

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Human Anatomy Fundamentals: How to Draw Hands

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Of all parts of the body, the hand is by many considered to be the hardest to draw. We all have stories of how, early on, we would keep our characters' hands behind their backs or in their pockets, avoiding as much as possible the task of tackling hands.

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Human Anatomy Fundamentals: Basics of the Face

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Having thoroughly explored the human body, it is time to start looking more closely at its details, starting with the face. The very first thing the eye looks for, in any setting, is the human...

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-fashion design
-figure drawing
-collage
-mixed media

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Megan Hess

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What You'll Be Creating

The foot may well be the most neglected part of the body, largely because it's so often hidden inside a shoe, or simply left outside the frame of the drawing - out of sight and out of mind. This unfamiliarity is, I suspect, what makes feet confusing to draw when they do come up, because as we'll see below, they have relatively simple forms and very little motion. As with the hand, you should not hesitate to take off your shoes and use your own feet as references, when possible!

Basics of the Foot

Let's look briefly at the structure of the foot: The tarsals or ankle bones in blue, the metatarsi or instep bones in purple, and the phalanges or toes in pink.
Very little of the foot can move, so we can simplify it as shown on the right:

Although the first joint of the toes is back where "actual base" is indicated, flesh covers the foot up to the "apparent base" line, which is why they appear so short (that and the fact they are curved at all times, as we will see.)

The bones of the foot are arranged to form 3 arches that give it the strength to support our bodies. The first two arches shape the bottom of the foot and the third shapes the upper part. Squeeze the sides of your foot and note how rigid they are: the bottom of the foot is not soft and does not deform under pressure. This means that in any position, the indentations of the arches will always show in an adult foot.

The Lateral Longitudinal Arch:

This is the barely marked one outside the foot. It shows as a slight indentation from the heel, both below and outside the foot.

This arch means that the outer contour is not a flat line (except in flat feet), and similarly the line from heel to ball is not a smooth curve but marks the arch.

The Medial Longitudinal Arch:

This is the large one inside the foot. It's a very noticeable indentation. The part of the sole that's behind the arch (under the red curve in the diagram) would be lost in shadow when the foot is on the ground, so we'd still see the arch, but since we usually see feet from above and not from the ground level, we see it really emphasized:

The Transverse Arch:

This arch shapes the top of the foot.

The toes:

Note the direction of the toes: while the big toe is parallel to the ground and points straight ahead, the other four bend towards the ground, and point down.

Drawing the foot

A simple way to draw feet is to begin by drawing the sole of the foot. No toes, no arches, just the basic shape. It's shaped like a long egg, flattened on one side (below left).

The advantage of this is that this flat shape is simple enough to be drawn in perspective and under different angles. This part of the foot doesn't bend in any appreciable amount, so this flat shape doesn't need to bend either, saving us a level a complexity. Anatomical accuracy is not a requirement at this point, we're giving ourselves a guideline to build on.

If you have trouble with the perspective, draw the basic shape, on a sheet of paper and place that paper under the angle you need. It's also a useful observation exercise, to become familiar with how this shape changes under various angles.

The next step is to make a small adjustment to the shape, cutting off a corner to get closer to the foot's natural shape. If you're comfortable doing so, you can start directly with this step:

Now to give it dimension. As you can see, it's a flattened, curved pyramid, with the apex closest to the heel: the circle is the section of where the leg joins with the foot and forms the ankle. The dashed lines are to help you see the contour. Only the black outline is needed for the drawing.

Finally, add the toes. Adding the toes separately means you can draw their movement independently from the basic shape, which as mentioned above bends almost not at all. If needed, sketch a guideline to define the general shape of the toes (see shapes further down) before drawing them individually. They are pressed together so, from almost all angles, they overlap. Note the position of the little toe: its base is positioned between 1/4 and 1/3 of the total foot length (here the lines divide the foot in 4, so it's 1/4th).

Finalize by carving out the arches and adding the ankle bone and Achilles' tendon.

As an alternative to the above method, you can also draw the foot as a wedge, and then add the toes and carve out the final form:

Additional Details

Here are more advanced details, small things that make the foot look right. You'll notice that some are the same as in the hand.

1. The toes look longer on top of the foot than they do underneath it.

2. The toenails start halfway up the top joint. As toe joints are so short, toenails are wider than they are long.

3. Note also how much larger the big toe is, twice the size of the second toe, so that its first joint is within the foot and can barely move.

How the toes look when the foot is bent depends on how much weight is on them:

Foot A below is relaxed. Even though the toes bend a little, there is no real weight on them. In this situation they preserve their gentle curve to the floor (1).
In foot B, most of the weight is on the toes (note that this is only possible when pressing against a surface, this can't happen in a foot in mid-air). The pressure makes the second joint stick out, as shown in (2). Bend lines appear in the other joints (3) and the big toe goes even straighter and it is completely flattened against the ground.

When not pressed against a surface, the range of mobility of the toes is limited to the 2 extremes of curled vs. splayed (with, literally, wiggling room in-between.)

1. The first joint can completely hide under the foot...

2. ... except for the big toe, which is stuck at around 90º.

3. Hyperextending (splaying) the toes makes them point in different directions.

4. Tendons appear, as well as space between the toes.

5. Note that the 4 smaller toes remain curved down, they can never curve up.

Profile Views:

1. There's always a bump here that's more or less pronounced.

2. The ankle is higher on the inside.

3. At least 2 toes show behind the big toe, depending on angle of view.

4. Only a ground-level angle of view hides the small toes completely.

5. The outer line of the foot travels up as the foot turns out.

6. The inner line of the foot shows a proper arch, and then reverses into another, smaller arch (the padding line) near the toe.

7. Again, the inner line travels up as the foot turns in. Note that the line of the arch disappears very quickly because there's no real angle there, while the padding line remains visible.

8. At some point the joint of the gig toe starts protruding, creating a bump on the upper side of the foot.

9. These tendon lines may or may not show. Tension makes them pop out, and they can be permanently visible in male or elderly feet, but they will look out of place on female or young feet. You have to judge for yourself whether they serve your purpose or not.

Front View:

A shows the foot seen frontally when it's perfectly level, such as from ground level.
From this angle the toes look like peas in a pod, and you can simply draw them as balls before connecting them to the foot. Usually however, our frontal view of feet (when they are on the ground) is from a higher point of view, as in B.

1. What looks like a "6th toe" is the padding outside the foot.

2. The big toe looks oval rather than round.

3. The big toe and second toe are usually separated by a space.

4. In a frontal view that reveals the underside, the ball of each toe shows clearly.

5. The padding line is horizontal from this angle, NOT parallel to the sides of the foot.

6. When the toes are lifted, the padding of the forefoot is visible underneath them.

7. The inner line of the padding may appear, cutting the foot in two by running towards the ankle.

Where the Foot Joins the Leg:

1. Roughly speaking, the front side of the leg falls vertically into the foot.

2. The back of the leg slopes in, but the heel protrudes out again.

3. This is a transition plane between leg and foot - there is no sharp angle. Look for it in all the diagrams above.

4. Note that the inward slope of the back and outer sides of the leg is connected to the calf muscle. The less muscular the calf, the straighter this line; in extreme cases of muscle depletion it becomes quite vertical because it then follows the bone. Inversely, excess fat will cause both lines to bulge in a sausage effect.

5. Seen from the front, the inner side of the leg is vertical while the outer side slopes in.

6. The ankle bones jut out both inside and outside, but higher on the inside.

7. On the outside, the ankle bone appears tucked behind this line.

8. The Achilles tendon runs up from the heel into the leg, creating an open drop shape.

9. The thinnest part of the leg, both from the side and from the front, is a little above the ankle bone.

Considering the line of the tibia, which is the straight line running down from the knee, a relaxed foot (A) forms an angle with this line, while a fully extended foot (B) causes this line to run down all the way to the toes. Some people can point the foot until it bends even further than the line (C), but this isn't common. Note the skin folds above the heel!

Diversity

No less than hands, feet are quite individual and have their own small range of shapes. Unlike hands, they can be permanently affected by non-genetic factors, namely the wearing of shoes. Note that in a given person, hands and feet work rather like a set. If someone has big hands, they'll have big feet as well; thick fingers are reflected in thick toes, and so on.

Male and Female Feet

Female feet are not a smaller version of male ones, but have a slightly different structure. In a female foot:

1. The big toe is shallower (not so prominent)

2. This inside line is more curved.

3. The arch is higher.

4. The foot is smaller for a given body height.

5. This outside length is shorter.

Arch Types

These show most in the foot's imprint. A normal foot shows, in print, a pronounced inner arch and slight outer arch. In flat feet (aka low arch or pronator) there are no arches, all of the foot sole touches the ground. In a high arch foot (aka supinator), only a narrow band connects the heel and the ball of the foot. Flat and high arch feet can cause aches in the muscles and back (note however that infants commonly have flat feet, the arches developing in early childhood).

Foot Shapes

The overall shape of the foot is created by the arrangement of the toes in two ways:

Which toe is longest:

Egyptian foot: The big toe is longest.

Greek foot: The second toe is longest.

Square foot: Toes have even lengths.

Contrast between the widest part of the foot and its "tip"

Wide foot: Less contrast between the widest part of the foot and its tip.

Narrow or Tapering foot: More contrast between the widest part of the foot and its tip (due to the last 2 toes receding too much).

Shoes vs. Barefoot

It makes a big difference to the shape of the foot whether one has been made to wear shoes from childhood or not. In cultures where closed shoes are worn most of the time (such as in Western cultures), the feet are narrower and the toes squeezed together. The big toe tends to point inward and the little toe can be permanently curled up under its neighbor.

In parts of the world where people go barefoot or wear thongs (which is probably the majority of the world population!), the foot shows its natural form: broader and flatter, the toes splayed for a better hold on the ground. The big toe points straight, even slightly out, and there is space between the toes. As they are not squeezed, they are rounder and broader. This is shown a bit exaggerated below.

Practice Time

Summertime makes it easier to catch bare feet, in sandals or on the beach! Observe people's feet, both for details (volumes, how lines show and change, etc) and for diversity.

Draw feet (others' or your own) in various positions using the basic "pyramid" form before adding the toes.

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Human Anatomy Fundamentals: How to Draw Feet

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The foot may well be the most neglected part of the body, largely because it's so often hidden inside a shoe, or simply left outside the frame of the drawing - out of sight and out of mind.

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Fashion Staples That Defined Every Decade

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A gallery featuring popular fashion trends during each decade.