Drawing people in motion is considered one of the most difficult. Such pencil drawings require certain experience and training. But if you are patient, you can learn to draw men and women in a variety of poses. There are several useful tips that will help you quickly understand this area of fine art.
How to draw a person in motion with a pencil
The simplest and most effective advice is to start with the simple. You need to think through the details, decide in what pose the person will be depicted and prepare everything you need.
| Drawing tools | Peculiarities |
| Pencils | When drawing with shadows and highlights, you can use pencils of different softness. For beginners, medium softness tools are ideal. They are convenient for drawing and shading the finished image. |
| Eraser | It is also worth choosing a medium softness so that it does not scratch the paper. |
| Paper | The best option would be A4 album sheets. When drawing on canvas, larger paper will do. |
When drawing a person in motion, you need to follow a few simple rules:
- First, you need to prepare a sketch, that is, you need to press on the pencil only lightly, just to outline the image and its boundaries.
- Next, you need to follow the principle of "stick, stick, cucumber, and here comes a little man." That is, you need to create a very simple image. You will get a kind of simplified skeleton.
- After this, you can move on to detailing the body.
The very first lines created on paper should convey the pose that the artist wants to depict. Accordingly, it is necessary to decide what action the character is performing, since this will also determine his pose. In addition to the lines, you can add guides for the upper and lower limbs.
To understand how exactly a pose is built, you can stand in front of a mirror and try to take one position first, and then another. You need to understand how your arms and legs look when you bend, how your back, head, etc. deviate. When a person takes a position, he must simultaneously maintain balance, that is, the body mass must be balanced.
Therefore, it is important to understand what the centers of mass are, there are only 2 of them: the mass of the pelvis and the torso. The head is usually positioned straight. The arms and legs are supports that are necessary to help a person maintain balance.
When people stand up straight, the chest tilts forward slightly. The pelvis, on the contrary, moves back. This is most noticeable when a person stands in profile. You can stand sideways in front of a mirror and use a second mirror to see exactly how the body is positioned.
There is another term that is often used in fine art when it comes to drawing different human poses. It is the sternal notch. This is a special depression on the collarbone (marked with a red dot in the image below). In fact, it is the sternal notch that is the center of gravity without which a person would not be able to maintain balance.
When a person stands up straight, the weight of the body is distributed very simply and evenly., since both supports (legs) occupy the most stable position. In this case, the jugular fossa is located directly above the central point of support.
From the jugular fossa to the center of the support, you can draw an absolutely straight line. It visually divides the body into 2 parts. And it is very difficult to see it from the front. People in motion (pencil drawings turn out very beautiful and lively) - this is a difficult idea for drawing. But it will be easier if you take into account a few more important nuances.
Skeleton
Although no one draws a skeleton, it should be studied not only by doctors and biologists, but also by artists. Anatomy is an important part of drawing, since without knowing it, it is impossible to draw details realistically. Otherwise, you will only have to copy, and not understand meaningfully how exactly you can depict movement.
The human skeleton is essentially the core and foundation of the body. Muscles are attached to the bones, and their shape changes depending on the movement being performed. Also, when a person moves, the bones begin to protrude to a greater or lesser extent.
If you look at the photo of the skeleton, it becomes obvious that if you simplify it, you will get exactly what was said earlier, or more precisely, "a stick, a stick, a cucumber." It is the basis that needs to be depicted at the sketch stage, when the most simplified silhouette is created.
In art schools, students are first taught to draw different poses using only a skeleton. Only after understanding the anatomy can students move on to the next steps.
Mechanics
Anatomy is not the only knowledge that an artist simply needs. You also need to understand the basics of physics. The body moves in space, has its own mass, shape. When depicting any pose, even the simplest, you need to consider the center of gravity, motor skills and much more.
When a person leans on one leg, the entire mass moves to it, and therefore the center of gravity itself. This is what needs to be taken into account when creating a sketch, that is, a skeleton.
If you look at the muscles attached to the bones, you will see that they are very similar to complex mechanisms that interact with each other. This means that if a person bends his arm and bends over, the action affects not only the main zone, but almost the entire body.
Above is an example of different positions of a human foot. This drawing clearly shows that there are muscles and bones under the skin. Depending on the position of the foot, they change their position. This should be taken into account when drawing more complex poses, when the center of gravity is shifted.
Proportions
If a person is just learning to draw people in motion, then the most difficult thing for him is to ensure that the image does not look cartoonish or childish. Of course, knowledge of anatomy and physics helps with this. But you also need to understand the proportions correctly. They are quite simple. For example, the average height of a person is approximately 7-8 heads.
It will also be useful to look at yourself in the mirror and pay attention to the ratio of your arms and legs to your body, how high your upper limbs reach, and how wide your shoulders are.
References for beginners in the form of human movements
It is quite difficult to understand how to draw human movements right away. Especially if there are no references, i.e. examples of works. It is worth starting with redrawing. This will allow you to understand the features of different poses.
It will be useful to consider a few useful examples:
- Dancing girl. During the dance, the human body can take many different positions. When creating the image, you need to draw a curved line. The waist in this example is shifted to the right, and the shoulders, on the contrary, to the left. It is also worth drawing guidelines for the hands, which are located above the head.
- The girl is leaning on a stool. In this example, a stool is used as the main support. However, part of the weight is still supported by the bent left leg. The right leg is almost completely extended and bears almost no weight. The body itself is curved in this position, the chest is shifted forward.
- Gestures. To make the image more realistic, you can work with the hands. Their position also affects the emotionality of the image being conveyed. For example, it could be a girl trying to remember something or count. In the second example, the man is demonstrating something and smiling.
- Dancing girl. Dancing is an action during which the body can take the most unnatural poses. However, in almost all examples there is a fairly strong bend of the torso. The arms are positioned as gracefully as possible. It is recommended to use guide lines in the drawing process. It is best to use a technique in which a sketch is first created.
- Basketball player. Often a person in motion is drawn from the side, but if the image is full-face, then to achieve the effect of, for example, running, it is enough to tilt the body. Then it will seem that the character is running quite quickly. At the same time, as with any run, one leg is bent at the knee and pulled behind the back.
- Fan. Cheerleaders usually hold their arms at right angles. You can depict a cheerleader in the pose shown below, or come up with another movement for her.
- Ballerina. Ballet is the most graceful form of dance. The movements must be very graceful, the lines thin. At the same time, the arms and legs can bend in a way that does not usually happen to an ordinary person.
You can also find many useful references online that can be used not only to create static images, but also for animation. For example, using the template below, you can draw a walking person. All that remains is to choose which moment of movement you want to capture.
In this example, in addition to the guides, circles are used to indicate possible bending points. This is a kind of hinge drawing technique that allows you to better understand how the limbs and other body parts are attached.
Running is a more spectacular action with a larger swing. In this case, the human body is pushed forward and does not lean back. The legs bend more, and their swing also increases.
Hands are the most difficult element to draw. They are usually more difficult to draw correctly, which is why many cartoons have characters with 4 or less fingers instead of 5. Below are different references for creating a palm.
If you don't want to draw hands, you can simplify the task. To do this, you need to depict the limbs as if they were clenched into a fist. For example, something like this would work for running. A person clenches a fist when fighting or carrying something.
When drawing with a pencil, you need to pay attention to seemingly insignificant details. If something doesn't look as natural as you'd like, it's best to use an eraser and correct the situation.
One of the tricks of drawing is to use lined paper. If you draw squares on a sheet, it will be much easier to navigate with proportions. It is also very convenient when redrawing. You can also draw squares on the original image. Then things will go much faster.
If you plan to color the image with a pencil, then it is worth studying how shadows should fall correctly, where you need to depict highlights. This way, you get gradients with soft transitions from dark to light.
If you can't create such transitions right away, you can use another trick that beginner artists often resort to. To do this, it is enough to draw only dark lines, and then shade them in the right direction. If such shading goes beyond the boundaries of the drawing, you can always remove the defects with a regular eraser.
Sometimes it is difficult to find the necessary examples and references for depicting human movement on the Internet, then it is enough to find a video with the necessary poses. After that, it is enough to take a screenshot of the desired frame, then an excellent reference will be ready.
Pencil drawings
People in motion (pencil drawings are discussed in the article) can be very different in complexity. It is worth starting with simpler images. For example, you can try to depict a skier.
To do this, just follow 3 simple steps:
- Depict the main features of a person, that is, the simplest skeleton. At this stage, it is easier to use simple and straight lines. It is also necessary to draw the lower parts of the legs in the form of triangles. Using the same simple lines, you need to sketch out the skis and ski poles.
- Now you can give the skier a shape. At this stage, you need to adjust the proportions. After that, you can detail the image by adding accessories and other details.
- It remains to color the picture. For this, you can use colored pencils, paints, markers and any other tools. Some people use crayons, but it is very difficult to draw with them without preparation. To make the picture more clear, you can use a thin black marker and outline the main lines of the image.
This is a very simple example that does not look very realistic, but in terms of proportionality, everything is done correctly. This option is suitable for beginners or children who are not yet ready to move on to more serious images. Also, in such a drawing there is no need to draw hands.
Girl in motion
This is another simple option. But it will help you learn how to draw the base and properly prepare the simplest guidelines. In this example, the head is disproportionate to the body, which gives the finished image a more cartoonish effect.
For drawing:
- First you need to draw a simple skeleton and an oval for the head, inside which you need to add several intersecting lines.
- Now you need to add elements and make the drawing more voluminous.
- It remains to detail the image and, if desired, color it. Before this, you need to delete all unnecessary lines.
Walking
In fact, walking is a rolling of the body from one side to the other. This is also called a controlled fall. The arms help balance during walking, so they also move forward and backward alternately.
When one shoulder drops lower, the hip on the same side, on the contrary, rises. The picture below shows how the movement occurs at different angles. The image demonstrates that regardless of this, the sequence of movement of the body parts remains the same.
Running
It is much more difficult to draw a running person, since we are talking about more complex dynamics. If a person quickly runs forward, then his torso drops lower and lower, depending on the speed of movement. The center of gravity leans forward. If the person does not put his foot forward at this moment, then he will simply fall. This is how running happens. That is, a person throws his torso forward and puts his feet forward.
The figure above clearly shows how the center of gravity is located (red lines). The direction of movement can be seen by the blue arrow. The green dots mark the so-called support points, that is, those lower limbs to which the body weight is transferred at a certain moment.
Step by step drawing of a running man looks like this:
- First, we draw a slightly curved line, as the person is running. It will go from the head to the heels. This way, we can get the main length of the body. That is, at this stage, the artist visually imagines the character's figure and correlates it with the real proportions of a person.
- Now you need to determine where the waist and shoulders will be. To do this, you need to draw short and also curved lines on the figure's axis. In the future image, the person is running from the side.
- Next, you can move on to creating the skeleton. To do this, use the already created lines for the shoulders and waist. From them, you need to draw additional lines, thereby indicating the arms and legs. Additionally, you need to add a head.
- The next step is to give the image thickness. Since the base is already set, this will be quite easy to do. For this, you can use simple geometric shapes, such as rectangles.
- So far the image is quite simple. It is necessary to use imagination and add realistic outlines. This means that it is necessary to add shoes, a face, clothes and other elements.
All that remains is to add some shading to give the image a shadow. You can go further to add more detail to the drawing.
In a sitting position
Drawings of people in motion require patience and the ability to work with a pencil. Some artists do not like to use lines as a basis. Instead, they prefer to immediately create more voluminous sketches, using geometric shapes such as rectangles and squares.
Movement of the torso and arms
It is the position of the hands that gives the image dynamism. The central part of the body is the torso, so it also deserves attention. Dynamics should be visible throughout the body.
For example, when a boxer punches an opponent with his right hand while standing on both feet, he must adopt a very stable and balanced posture in order to lunge and maintain balance. At the same time, during the swing, all the mass from the torso goes directly into the arm.
A similar technique is used to swing a baseball or tennis ball. However, in this case, the person has an additional object in their hands, which also has weight. That is, they need to apply a little more effort to hold the bat or racket. Therefore, it would be logical to also consider other features of drawing movements.
With cargo
People in motion, whose drawings (pencil or other instruments) are considered, do not always perform actions with empty hands. If a person carries an additional load, then his body must balance so that the mass of the body itself and the weight can balance.
In this case, the support point is located between the jugular fossa and the center of gravity of the load used. In this case, it coincides with the center of the supports, that is, the legs. This is shown in more detail in the figure below. People in motion (pencil drawings are discussed above) can perform additional actions.
It will be useful to consider 3 examples of how to depict people with additional baggage:
- The first picture shows a person carrying a heavy basin filled with water. Since such a load pulls it forward, it is necessary to lean back. In this case, the point of balance of both masses will be in the area of the feet. In this case, the person is slightly hunched over, and if the weight of the basin is large enough, the legs will be half-bent. If the basin is lighter, the pose is not so tense.
- If a person carries a heavy bag on his back (for example, you need to draw Santa Claus with heavy gifts), then he, on the contrary, leans forward so that part of the weight falls on his back. If the person does not lean forward much, then he will simply fall on his back. In this case, the point of equilibrium of the mass of the person himself and the load is located between the supports (legs).
- When it comes to depicting a pregnant woman, it is important to understand that the load in this case is located in front, but also inside her. The larger the child, the heavier it is to carry. Accordingly, by the last stages of pregnancy, the woman leans back more and more.
She bends the additional supports (arms) and rests them on her back in order to slightly redistribute her weight and the weight of the child and thus find the optimal point of support.
Accordingly, drawings of people in motion with a pencil are much easier to create if you first study anatomy, physics and poses. In the process of drawing, you need to decide what style the artist likes. But regardless of this, it is important to follow the proportions, even if the drawing should turn out cartoonish.
Video about drawing
People in motion pencil drawings: