Drawing People

I find drawing people both fascinating and challenging. People are fascinating because we come in so many shapes and sizes and have so many different characteristics, such as ethnic and cultural differences. Yet with all the differences, we are still very much alike. Most people have two eyes, walk on two legs, and talk with one mouth. It is difficult to imagine any subject so similar yet so individual.

There is a rich history of art centered on the human figure. The human form transcends the history of art from the earliest cave paintings to the present time. Great masters such as Rembrandt, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Velasquez, Rubens, David, Picasso, and more have all focused on the human figure in their work. One can scarcely walk through a major art museum without finding an abundance of work depicting the figure. The range is enormous, from breathtaking realism to thought-provoking abstraction and everything in between.

One of the reasons for the abundance of figure art is the amazing range of emotional potential with humans as subjects. Although other animals may have emotion, no creature has the immediate emotional impact that a person does. In fact, we judge all emotion based on our own human experience. We cry. We smile. We laugh. We cheer. We quietly wait out our days. No other subject has the potential for emotional diversity that comes packaged in one person.

Drawing the human form is exciting and rewarding. Although the task might seem daunting, the rewards are great. Not only does the study of figure drawing strengthen all of your art skills, it also enables you to express yourself in ways that would be difficult with any other subject. The very fact that we ourselves are human allows us to appreciate the inspired work of a figure artist.