The proportions of the human figure is one of those topics that seems to fascinate artists, and there are numerous systems—or canons—of proportion that various artists have championed over the years.
[Insert image with detail of figure 1, below]
Modern canons almost always rely on the height of the head as a unit of measurement, mostly in relation to the height of the body, but also across the width in certain places. (The exception to head-height canons is the late Robert Beverly Hale’s well-known system using the height of the cranium alone.) Yet, even among those approaches that use the head as a measuring unit, there are many variations as to how many heads tall a figure should be, or how certain multiples of the head should map onto the features of the body.
The traditional head height to body height ratio for an average person is around 1:7 1/2. When drawn or painted, however, such proportions can look somewhat stocky and inelegant. Consequently, many artists prefer to draw the figure 8 heads high, and for certain purposes—such as drawings of superheroes or fashion models—figures that are 8 1/2 or even 9 heads high (or more) are not uncommon. Artists may also use different canons for different figures in the same work, depending on whether certain figures should look more heroic, more common, or of some other nature.
As you may have seen in the first tutorial and model drawing, the StArt System uses the 8-head canon (fig. 1). There are several reasons why I prefer this canon, even though it deviates from the average proportions of real people:
• It results in figures that are reasonably natural in appearance, but more aesthetically pleasing than ones with “normal” proportions.
• It is widely-used by artists, probably more so than any of the idealized canons.
• It is easy to learn and apply.
• It is easy to modify for figures that need to appear either more stout, or more lithe.
[Insert composite image of front, side, and rear view model drawings with proportional grid]
Fig. 1. A proportional canon for a figure that is 8 heads high from front, side, and rear views.
Memorizing the proportions of the figure according to at least one canon is one of the first and most important steps for learning to draw the figure from the imagination. Over time, you may come to rely less definitely on such a canon and to draw the figure more intuitively, but when starting out, it’s good to learn a set of proportions.
It may also happen that you choose to follow other canons of proportion, either exclusively or just for certain characters in your drawings. My recommendation, however, is that you learn a single canon thoroughly—and be able to apply it to multiple views of the figure—before studying other systems. In a future article, I’ll discuss how to convert figures drawn according to the 8-head canon to proportions of both greater and fewer head lengths.
My recommendation…is that you learn a single canon thoroughly—and be able to apply it to multiple views of the figure—before studying other systems.
In the tutorials for the front, side, and rear views of the figure, which are among the first model drawings in the StArt System, I give particular emphasis to the subject of proportions according to the 8-head canon. These views are especially suited to the study of proportions, which is one of the reasons I introduce them first.
The tutorials demonstrate how the canon of proportions is used to draw the figure from each view. In this post, I just wanted to introduce the idea of proportional canons and the reasons for choosing the 8-head canon in the StArt System. Don’t worry about trying to memorize how these proportions map onto the figure in the three views depicted in Figure 1—you’ll have plenty of opportunities to do that with each tutorial and model drawing.
If you’re familiar with other canons of proportion, such as Robert Beverly Hale’s cranial-unit version, the 7 1/2-head naturalistic version, or something more extreme, such as Burne Hogarth’s 8 3/4-head version, do you have a preference? If so, for what purpose do you use your preferred canon?
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