Posted Jul 29th, 2008 in Drawing Tips. Get notified of updates by email.
By Paula Lee, permanent contributing writer for EmptyEasel.com.
One of the most important skills any artist needs to have is the ability to draw something with the correct proportions. Proportion, by the way, is simply the size of an object in relationship to other objects around it.
So, if you are drawing a cat for example, you need to be sure that the head is not too large for the body, or that the legs are not too long or short in relation to the rest of the animal. An artist could draw every line and shape perfectly and shaded his drawing beautifully, but if the proportions are incorrect, the entire piece is ruined.
The easiest way to ensure that this doesn’t happen is to learn how to measure. I don’t mean with a ruler, necessarily—there are many methods of measuring in art.
For example, some artists hold up a pencil or their paintbrush handle and estimate distance that way, while others use viewfinders with markings on the side.
For now we are going to focus on one of the simplest ways to measure an object: finding a basic unit of measurement.
It’s probably best if I just give you an example of what a basic unit of measurement is, and how to use it, so keep on reading and all will soon become clear.
The most convenient unit of measurement when drawing a person or an animal is the head. It is not the largest part of the body, nor is it the smallest, so it’s a very handy thing to compare other things on the body with.
Of course, not every object you are going to draw is going to be a living creature with a head. In that case, you simply use something else you see on or near the object you’re drawing.
Observe the cartoon drawing below, and what I’ve done to measure it. I simply used a small piece of red scrap paper, aligned it with the top of the cat’s head, and then made a small mark at the base of the cat’s head.
For this drawing, that would be your basic unit of measurement—one head.
To figure out how many “heads” tall this cat is, move your scrap paper down one head and make a second mark on the body.
Continue moving down the cat’s body, making more marks. You can see that this cat is about three heads tall, from the top of his actual head to the bottom of his paws.
If you put your paper scrap at the top of the leg and measure, you’d note that the cat’s legs are about one head-size in length as well.
Now do the same for the tail. . . another head.
With one basic unit of measurement, you’ve easily established all the measurements for your cat. And of course, if the tail happened to be shorter, you’d recognize that it was only half a head, or a quarter. No matter what size it is, you still have a basic unit of measurement—the head—to compare it to.
Of course, the next step is to transfer your measurements to your drawing paper. If you want an exact copy of the original cat, use your scrap paper and draw a circle according to those measurements.
Continue down, marking for the body, legs, and tail, using the same “head” measurement to make sure all the marks are the correct distance apart.
When you have completed your marks, simply draw the necessary shapes of the cat’s body, legs and tail. Stay within the marks you’ve made, and your cat will be the exact same size as the original, with the exact same proportions.
More importantly, and more useful for the artist, is that with this method of measuring you can draw something much smaller (or much larger) than real life quite easily.
For example, if you decided to draw this cat larger, you would simply draw a larger circle on your paper, establishing your NEW head size, and then measure out the rest of the cat from that new unit of measurement. No matter what size of head you go with, if you make your new cat three heads tall, your proportions will be spot on.
Find some other simple pictures and practice measuring, or use this method on people. See if you can guess how many heads tall a person is, how many heads long their legs are, etc.
Playing “how many heads?” is fun, easy way to sharpen your observation skills. Keep doing it and you will be amazed how quickly you will be able to accurately figure out how many heads make the length of a leg or the width of a body.
Before long, you won’t need to use a scrap piece of paper or anything else—your own eyes will measure for you. When drawing, you’ll be able to keep everything in proportion using the figure’s head as your basic unit of measurement.
So practice, practic, practice! And until next time. . . happy head-hunting!
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