1. History of Figure Drawing

2. The Earliest form of Figure Drawing
The human figure was depicted in prehistoric cave art as rough art simplified symbol, compared with the incredible realistic images of bison, cattle, horses and deer.

3. Neolithic Drawings - later part of the stone age
We see this early form of human stick figure animation in the hunt scene, where slightly greater detail, sense of the 3-dimensionality, and more correct proportion, particularly about the head and horns, is given to the body of the bull.
A fight, apparently for possession of a bull

4. Egyptian Art
Figures in Egyptian art, based on relating to images rather than on direct observation, combined profile and frontal views into the same image
Differences in scale designated degree of importance.
Duck hunting and fishing scene, detail of wall painting from tomb of Nakht.

5. Greeks and Romans
Later, Greeks and Roman artists developed remarkable skill in depicting the complex form of the human body, mastering the proportional relationships of its parts and principle of foreshortening.
Karneia Painter B.C.

6. Foreshortening
Foreshortening - the term that applies to organic and bodily structure forms seen in perspective. Such as the knee ->
How: Careful observation of overlapping shapes and diminishing scale.

7. 4th Century to 14th Century (300s to 1300s) A.D.
With the emergence of Christian art in the fourth century, and for almost a thousand years thereafter, human drawings of the human figure were replaced by more symbolic, even stylized forms stressing the spiritual rather than the physical qualities of its visual presence.

8. Human Body Drawing
In the years of the European Renaissance (1400) with its heightened focus on the visual, the need to understand natural phenomena and their interrelationships led to merging of artistic and scientific inquiry.
Study of human anatomy.

9. Michelangelo / Renaissance Artist
These powerful bodies - with their small heads, hands, and feet, and their great torsos, thighs, and arms - are convincing because they are based on a profound, studied knowledge of the bone and muscle structure.
Figure Study, Pen and Ink, by Michelangelo

10. Renaissance Artists
With their new understanding of the human body, Renaissance artists moved from direct observation to creating ideal figures by establishing a system of proportions as the ancient Greeks had done.

11. Renaissance Artists
The best known example of this systematic approach to human proportions was Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.

12. Sculptor - Adolf A.Weinman (1870-1952)
Artist Adolf Weinman, drew skeletons and cadavers in a class in anatomy for artists, 2 times a week for two years.
An awareness of the body’s basic construction is of obvious assistance in drawing the human form, since inner structure influence outward appearance.

13. Life Drawing
The act of drawing from live models in order to record the movement, gesture, and essential physical capabilities of the human body as an aesthetically pleasing art form. Also, drawing from life in order to gain a mechanical as well as visual understanding of live forms and how they exist and move in space.