Figure construction demo- female

Step 1: gesture and blocking in basic shapes thinking about spheres and tubes rather than flat lines. Drawing around the object,  I'm also considering how the figure fits on the page and in space. Note the hash marks on the edges to delineate space. 

Step 2: I start to block in the forms using tubes and looking for overlaps where one basic shape lays over the other. I use strips lines to show volume, always thinking about drawing volumes.

Step 3: Now I block in the harder parts, this is why we draw big, because details like faces and hands are difficult to convey on smaller pieces of paper. I look for the planes and angles of the head, and basically block in the basic shapes of the hands and feet. Note that i am going beyond the original exterior hash lines that I had made for the space of the drawing. I need to work on big enough paper that I can have some wiggle room on where things might go beyond the edges of the space I allocated for the drawing. Not also that I have establish the figure in space by placing the hand below the feet. This shows that the hands are closer to us and that the horizon line is higher than than the feet probably centered around the hips. 

 

 Step 4: I use a darker pencil to begin "tubing out" fingers, still remembering that they have bones structure so they don't look like sausage fingers.

Step 5: Now I can draw with a darker line. choosing only the lines I wish to keep rather than redrawing everything. often I will use line weight to denote area where the body is in shadow. note that I am using contour lines and NOT outlines. Contours move from the outside to the inside of the figure always conscious of volumes.  One way to remember is every line on one side needs to relate to a line on the opposite side. This is balance. 

 Step 6: Now I start thinking about shading. I gently block in the biggest most basic shadow shapes. If the shapes cover over detail thats fins as long as the shapes still consider the volumes of the figure.

Step 7: I start to clean up the drawing and get rid of the extra lines..I recognize I went beyond the original space hash marks on the page, I'm glad I used a big enough paper to work with. On a final illustration piece I might have to traces this down onto another sheet of paper. 

 Step 8: I have removes the red lines and will clean up the black.  I don't want the tubes on the arms, but i have basically a good single tone and line drawing. Note the second image here, If I chose to make a more high contrast version, you can see how the shadow shapes are formed to create volume.

Step 9: Now I must begin thinking about final rendering. Do I soften some lines? Do I put reflected light into shadows with my eraser?