This short lesson will show you some techniques for making better corrections in your artworks. Proportions can be really tricky, so it’s handy to have a few tricks up your sleeve when trying to figure out what’s going wrong. These principles apply to both drawing and painting – whenever you’re working realistically.
- Start by plotting a few basic points on the paper.
- You can use a vertical guideline (like the one above) to help get started.
- Pay attention to where the subject crosses this line, as well as how far to the right or left of the line it is.
- Use simple lines to approximately block in the main proportions of the form that you’re copying.
- Don’t worry if it’s not accurate – you will just be using this as a starting point.
- The image on the left is my first at the foot and the one on the right is my corrected version.
- I primarily relied on ‘horizontal and vertical alignments’ to make the necessary adjustments.
- To do this I chose a point and imagined a horizontal or vertical line travelling out from it. Then I used that line to tell whether other points matched it’s placement (were they too high or too low etc.).
- This little trick will help you to problem solve when something is wrong with the proportions in your drawing or painting.
