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See Art in a Fresh Way

Many figurative artists make wonderful gesture drawings in twenty minutes or less. Yet, if they spend more time on the work, peculiar problems of proportions surface.  They will often doggedly stick with the gesture technique and feel that over-analyzing  is a curse; when, in fact, mastery of proportions is what is needed.

It's virtually impossible to make a detailed, beautiful, figurative drawing without mastering proportions--and proportions are pure math.

I don't think there is any easy way to master proportions, but I would like to share with you a wonderful technique that, when mastered, gives you a great deal of freedom to tackle difficult poses.

Many years ago I learned the Triangulation of Points from a dear friend and colleague, Martine Vaugel. She is a great sculptor and wonderful teacher. www.vaugelsculpture.com

I prepared for a 3-hour model session, aiming only to line up the proportions of her body. A model posed live for this drawing and I choose a simple pose: a standing frontal nude centered on the paper.

The mediums are Strathmore pastel paper with a compressed charcoal rub and charcoal pencils (soft).

The crotch is more or less the half-mark on the human figure.  So, if you have the crotch smack dab in there center of the page, you should be able to get a standing figure's feet and head on the page. That is the "v" shape in the center.

Looking at the model, I held up my pencil in space and lined it up from her crotch in the direction of her right knee. This is the light blue line.

Imagine a transparent clock face centered over your first point.  In this case, it is her crotch. When I lined up the pencil and pointed in towards her knee, the angle was similar to a hand of the clock pointing towards 7:00. Example, clock fig. 1.

Next was to center  the imaginary clock face over her left hip bone and to point the hand of the clock again towards her knee. This dark blue line on the drawing above. Its direction points to about 7:30. Example, clock fig. 2.

Our first triangulation!

I know this seems terribly complicated and difficult, but after an hour or so of practice it gets easier and easier.

You do not need to use this technique for every mark you make in a drawing. At the first sign of trouble, however, find your key points and triangulate from there. This will keep you on track.

To see the steps I took to completed her in this final image, go here.

Dreams of Round Things, 2006, charcoal on Rives BFK, 19x26"

I used the same triangulation technique for this extremely difficult pose, from a live model, in my Ascension Night. The original is in color.

I hope you enjoyed seeing proportions in a fresh way.

Michael Newberry
New York, December 14th, 2006