In this video lesson series, Glenn Vilppu will break down each area of the human figure
to show you the essential construction for drawing. You will learn about the anatomy
of each region in addition to learning useful ways to think about the structures three-dimensionally.
Glenn will demonstrate for you over the live model as well as through clear diagrammatical
drawings. By the end of this series, you should have a much firmer grasp on the complexity
of the human figure that can be built upon even further.
In this lesson, Glenn will teach you how to draw the hands and feet.

We can see looking at the skeleton, of course there is sort of a disconnection here where
these things are put together that way. But let’s just talk about some of the proportional
things here. In other lectures I’ve mentioned about the fact we think of the upper arm as
one bone; the lower arm, two. Then we have a row of three bones here, and we have a row
of four bones, and then you’ve got five bones. So that’s a nice bit architecture.
If you take and let’s look at the proportion of elements, I’m just going to diagram this
out a little bit here. We take from the wrist. Now, as you can see the distance is working.
You take the distance of the width of the wrist here. That’s pretty much corresponds
to the middle three fingers. Going down this way. Coming through.
You look at your own hand. You will see that the middle knuckle is like the center of a
triangle here. You find then that the middle finger is taking and coming out this way.
Then we have the thumb taking and going off in this direction. The distance from here
to here is equal to the end of the fingers. In other words, the proportions we’re talking
about, this distance from here to here. You can see how equal that is now right from the
wrist, coming down from there.
Okay, we take the halfway point from here to here. It gives us a rough approximation
of the next point coming down. Then it gets shorter. The actual ration is a 3:2, 3:2,
3:2. So now you can see that the little finger is taking and coming out this way. The next
one, the index finger is over a little bit. This is a little bit longer. The point, see
really how the thumb is really coming off to the side. This is going to correspond,
the arc will take and correspond to this joint here.
So we’re taking and, as you can see we’re taking the finger from here. Then you’ve
got the next two digits coming out here. Okay, so we keep working with this then. You can
see that I talked about the fact that the palm of the hand is larger than the top of
the hand. So if you take, come up, it’s halfway in between. Now here’s the point
which you’re looking at this and we use the idea of the box. Where the box comes into
play here is that you can see how square the end of that knuckle is. It’s a very, very
clear-cut corner that you’re taking and working with. So you try to see that corner.
You can look at this. You can see that there is a rounded shape. This is like a bowl that’s
in here coming through. Then we’re going around this way, and that the actual underside
of the bone is curved. This is an arch. In talking about the feet, we talk about the
fact that how all of our weight is on these arches. We have these arches in the fingers.
We have that shape there. We find that the next part comes in and fits into that. You
can see that this we have a bowl on the end of this joint, and that the knuckle is fitting
on and around that bowl. It comes down. You can see the way it fits in. It’s going to
rock over that surface. Comes down. You’ve got the corners coming through. Then it comes
down into the next joint then, the next corner. We then go back to the box, the corner, the
ball. Then it progressively develops and gets a little bit subtler as we go through.
So now with that in mind here, as we come through we can see this corner coming down
and around. Now, where do we go from that? At this point in here you can see there is
a tremendous amount of depth between these points going back in. Like I’ve pointed
out, that comes over halfway in between the two joints. You’ve got this long depth.
You can see the tendons sliding across this squared off knuckle. We have the tendons taking
and coming over that surface this way. We have muscles now that are pulling to the side
here. So you have on both sides, you’ve got the muscles coming across in between the
joints. It’s two layers. Actually, there are those that take and pull the fingers apart
and those that pull them back. Never quite remember which is on top and which is on bottom.
But being able to take and do that is tricky.
Okay, so you feel the tendons coming through. But you can see there is a strong shape, there
is a triangular shape being caused by the tendons, by the muscles coming through. So
part of the characterizations then of this as a plane that’s created, that’s coming
down onto the finger itself. The next thing that you’re dealing with is the thickness
of the pad. The cross section of the finger is like a slice of bread; fat on the bottom
and relatively straight on the top and then slightly flattened on the sides. You have
the pad itself, this shape that we have going here. The arc.
Now we fill this in with the fat pad.
One of the characteristics of the hand is that in the fingers themselves there is very
little muscle. It’s all tendon. That’s where it is sort of dangerous when you start
cutting into your fingers. You’re starting to cut tendons I just take and play with.
All of this stuff is coming through. I mentioned it earlier in talking about the arm, about
the carpal tunnel syndrome. The carpal tunnel is literally a tunnel. If I hold my pencil
across here you can see that there is literally a tunnel being created in this area here.
The tendons go through there, and their forms just like your four fingers, they’re folded
on top like this. The tendons for those go inside that tunnel. Now what the interesting
part about that is that as those tendons go through that the tendons themselves are doubled.
As we come out towards the end of the finger, let’s take and go through the joint here.
Then we’re coming off out here. One tendon is taking and going all the way out to the
end of finger out here, the end of your fingers. The
second one is taking and coming over and tying in here.
These tendons, then—now, this is not necessarily going to help you draw any better, but it’s
interesting. It’s that the tendons, the one that’s going through, I’ll just draw
these as a cylinder. One going all the way to the end. It’s going there. The next one
that comes over, and I’m drawing it; I just turned it over. The tendon is taking and coming
through. So you have one coming through from underneath the other, and so these two are
on top of each other. Then they’re both enclosed in wrappings that
are going around the bone.
Okay, so now you think you’ve got two tendons inside this wrapping. Well, so when you say
you have the carpal tunnel here instead of four tendons you’ve got eight tendons going
through that point. So you can understand by if it gets irritated that this is going
to create a problem with swelling. It’s going to create difficulties. That’s really
what it is all about. Okay, so what they do is they have this strap going across here.
The operation is they cut the strap to cut down on the tension. That’s really the elements.
Now, in taking and going after capturing the gesture, this is really the point. As we’re
taking and doing the drawing you’re easily indicating the gesture. It doesn’t have
to be complicated. In other words you just want to get a feeling. You want to just get
a feeling for what something is going on. Okay, the thumb is going down here. This is
going off and coming through. It takes very, very, very little. You don’t want to get
encumbered with taking and trying to draw in terms of details to begin with. Just the
gesture. You try to feel what, so you’re
taking and saying, oh okay, it’s going off,
going through. That’s the beginning. Then once you’ve got the sense of where it’s
going then you can take and start to break it down. As we’ve been talking about using
the box forms you start building it up and you slowly, slowly taking and doing. That
approach goes back into the 1400s. So there is nothing new about it. Same thing, the boxes
are the standard way in the animation industry. Look at the drawings by
Albrecht Durer, Hans Holbein; you find the same thing.
This is the process. First you get the gesture and attitude. But the more you understand
about the basic structure and the essential proportions of the hand then you can—another
essential proportion of the hand is that it’s the same size as your face. In other words,
if you happen to have a profile, or I should say if you happen to have a hairline it’ll
take you up to your hairline. It also takes and this fits into the instep of your foot.
Your foot is the same size as your head so that’s understandable.

As I approach this drawing, same thing. Taking and starting with the pit of the neck. Feel
the clavicle coming across. Clavicle turns, goes in. Feeling the end of the clavicle fitting
into the scapula. It’s actually a good idea as you’re doing the drawing. You sort of
you go through and I’m verbalizing all the bits and pieces of anatomy as I go along.
In reality when I’m drawing I’m always dealing with anatomy. This is coming forward.
As I’m going through I’m constantly in a sense rehearsing. Rehearsing, going through
the dialogue of what muscles I’m taking and drawing. I’m constantly drawing muscles.
We start with very simple, very, very, very simple volumes over the surface. Come through.
Arm is coming across. I’m visualizing the rectangular shape of the whole wrist area
as we’re going through. I’m always thinking of corners overlapping. In this case I’ve
got a very strong overlapping of the hand coming through. Again, I’m looking at placement,
come through. I’m actually drawing a little darker than I normally would to start with.
Coming through. I look at the placement of where all of the forms are. For instance,
I’m trying to see, checking a vertical. I can see that the little finger
is already going to be out here.
Since I’m drawing from a model here I’m taking and looking at where the forms are.
At the same time I’m thinking of the mass. For instance, we get the large muscles coming
off of the hand, coming down the center. Think of where it would bend. Coming through. Looking
at the drawing of the hand, the cross section of the front visualizing, thinking of the
thickness, the thickness that we have to the hand. Then I’m coming through and now blocking
in, a strong two-dimensional shape now. We’re looking at where these forms are going back in.
Coming through. Thinking of the box coming in. Back in.
I’ve been talking about using the box. You could equally use a simple cylinder. It would
accomplish the same thing. For instance, here I’m just taking and doing a combination.
I’m thinking of the box then cylinder coming through. I can feel this coming down.
The finger is overlapping. Now I’m going to draw this first. It’s a simple cylinder
going back in taking two joints at the same time. Then we start working back in.
Since I’m getting a thing blocked in very, very
simply. Now I’m going to take and work from
the closest objects going back, and so I’ll build these shapes. As I’m drawing this
now I’m taking and thinking of the coming over the surface. I’m definitely visualizing
this as a box. I’ll draw the box so you can see exactly what I’m thinking of. As
we’ve got the corner, through, got that pushing down, corner, box.
We have the side of the box. Coming in.
Next finger over, coming in and over, across the form, and down. At the same time we have
to be very, very, we have to think about the fact that we’re looking, this is going back
in. It’s fitting in, through. So I’m visualizing here. We don’t see it really clearly. We
can do that on the little finger a little bit. Come through, corner, box.
We’re going back in.
Now, as this pulls back through I can start to, as I’m doing this I’m always
sort of second-guessing myself. I can feel that this is going through. I’ll adjust
it a little bit. Shape here coming back in. Now I want to feel it going back through to
here. So you see all the way this is just a series of boxes. This is going back in here.
We start coming around. I want to see there is a thickness to here coming through, coming
in. Now it’s going over. The thumb is really coming out at me so I’m looking to the end.
Again, so I’m drawing this as a box form, taking and going back in, joint. I want to
feel the thickness across through here the way these thenar muscles are coming around.
Now I’m pulling in. Going down. This is a plane going down. We can feel the folds
as they take and go over the surface. So I’m adjusting the shape coming in. The plane.
Now we’re going back in. Going over. I’m thinking of these volumes turning in back.
So now I’m going to take and draw a little bit darker pencil here so we can start to
push these things a little bit more. So as I come through now…
in and going over the corner.
As you can see, the way I draw these surfaces I’m taking into consideration that
the box idea, the fingernails.
I’m going over and around the surface.
Coming through, coming through.
I want to feel the overlapping. How this is going back and fitting in. In fact, here is
where we would be feeling the plane. I’m getting a certain amount of distortion here
because it’s so close to me. I’m over corners. So feel the knuckle behind. Feel
this fitting in. Feel the thickness coming over. So as I’m doing this again I’m thinking
of the corner. I’m going to feel where the knuckle is at. Go out of my way to emphasize
the squareness of the form going through. It’s coming forward and going over, through.
You can see we’re starting to get the pull. Now as I’m going into the thumb here I’m
going to take and push over that surface. Feel the pinching going around, going over
the surface. I want to think of the way the bone is going inside. I can feel the pull
with the muscle going down. It’s coming off the center. As I’m doing this I’m
consciously thinking over that surface going down, fitting in. So this is a division right
down the middle. Coming through. I can feel the thumb coming out. I can feel the knuckle
behind, coming through, pulling in. Now we’re really taking and feeling the thumb. The pads—you
actually have three pads in the thumb. Two in the bottom and one that sort of goes over
the end. Feel the overlapping as we’re coming through. The pull. Feel the shifting change
as this comes down, fits into arm here.
Now, as I go into the wrist. Here is where we start to feel the pull, and I mentioned
there are three separate layers of muscles for your flexors. The top one, the foremost
one actually just goes to the palm of the hand so that when you take and flex your hand
you can see how I can pop out that tendon that’s coming through. That’s just going
to your fingers or to the palm of the hand. So I’m pulling this out a bit. Then I’m
thinking of the shape as we go through and over the surface. As I go back into this I’m
going over the overlapping. This is, again, my main theme here is continually talking
about overlapping. As I’m drawing that part of the hand there. Notice I let the line going
behind, let it fade out. So we’re taking and pull. Let’s just move your hand, rotate
it there slightly. Okay, thank you.
Now we can feel the pull over now as this is going back in. This is a spherical form
that’s pushing back and going over that surface. Coming through. We actually have
a point in here where this, you can see now I’m giving this more of a, I’m trying
to feel the corner of that surface as I’m going back in, over.
This is coming around. We could take and feel the corner of the wrist in here. I didn’t
carry these fingers very far. I’m just going to take and leave those in a box type form
here. Little more of an indication. You can see the basic idea is to take and build, feel
these volumes going behind and overlapping. I want to feel the corner here. As this is
going back in I’m taking into consideration where I can see the condyle here.
This is a corner. I’m taking a line, visualizing this line. I’m creating in a sense a visual
structure. It may not actually be the bone but it gives us a visual solidity to the form.
Then I can take and pull, coming through again, over. Here you can see I’ve created a line
that’s carrying through. You can feel underneath the biceps. Let’s just take and block in
this fairly simply here. The bicep as it comes down this way. It’s going over to the radius
side. But underneath that, all what’s going on under here, you have an intramuscular septum,
and the shape that is filling in underneath that is your brachial muscle.
Coming through. The brachial muscle is filling in in this area in here. We can feel the shape
of the bicep as it comes down and it’s pushing down. Through. Coming across.
Tendon goes over the surface.
We’re going over the surface as we go back in. You can see here, this is,
since the arm it bent we can’t see the fact that these muscles are actually going over
here. But we can see a bit of a ramping taking place in here, which is caused by the muscles
actually going back. Then we would feel from behind that. We start to pick up the triceps
going through behind. As I build this then the deltoid is coming down in front. We get
the combination now as this deltoid comes. It’s turning, coming through, going over
the surface. It’s coming across, over the biceps.
So now I’m drawing considerable more than I can actually see. Coming through, across.
Feel the deltoid going back. Corner. Going through. So as you’re building the arm then
you’re drawing, I’m using all of the elements that we talked about anatomically. Particularly
in here now we can feel the end of the scapula. It really sticks up. We can feel how the deltoid
is pulling from that. The muscles actually, the fibers are taking and starting to move
down this way, and they’re coming across the corner here. We can feel the pull.
There are actually three sections to your deltoid. There is a front part that’s coming
essentially off the clavicle. And then the end which is coming off the scapula, and then
the other part is from behind. But they actually have these overlapping qualities to them as
they take, and you can see what I’m doing here. I’m pulling that in front and then
we’re coming through. I can actually feel these fibers coming through. These are coming
over. So what is happening at this point here then it’ll be started out, we have the pectoralis
muscle, which is a cylinder now, taking and pulling through, going underneath, coming
across, go through. As I work on the drawing I’m constantly building overlapping volumes,
going through. Try to feel the corners of the form, drawing on the surface. I have drawn
very little in terms of just drawing a contour. I’m taking and feeling the
volumes of these forms as I’m drawing.

And so you can see the tendons just like we were just talking a little bit about the hand.
All of these are the extenders now that are pulling from this area in here. All of what
would be considered the flexors on the bottom side of the feet. In here you can see there
is a big toe muscle here. This is the tibialis anterior muscle, this shape right here. That
actually goes all the way underneath the big toe. It has a mate on the outside. Can you
turn sideways? This is going all the way across? And you can see that line as it goes behind.
It’s pulling over and attaching right there at the end of the little bone here.
Okay, another one—that’s the brevis. The other one is going through the notch here,
and it goes all the way over and attaches on the other side where we had the tibialis
anterior attaching. These are the basic elements that you work with. If you look at the back
of the leg here, tenuous. We have a gracilis. We have the sartorius muscle. I’ll show
these more easily in the drawing, but these are all taking and coming up and attaching.
These muscles that we’re seeing, these are going inside your gastrocnemius, your calf
muscles are going inside those shapes. We’re going in and tying in this way. They’re
attaching at this point here. We always talk about the calf muscles, but underneath the
calf muscle is the soleus muscle. This is taking and fitting underneath. It doesn’t
go up above. It just stays but attaches below the knee. It comes down and it works with
a common tendon that goes through the end of the calcaneus bone, your heel bone. This
is what we refer to the Achilles tendon.
So you can see this Achilles tendon is really very, very prominent. This is coming down
to the heel. You have this big hollow inside here. Then we’re going to the bone over
here. This is a very critical point when we’re taking and dealing with the drawing. You’ve
got, again in a sense, a ridge. Your peroneus muscles here are taking and sort of coming
off that ridge. Your peroneus muscles are taking and starting. They pull from in this
area right here coming down. They go down behind the bone, again, and at attach over
here. The brevis is attaching here. The longus is going all the way underneath and attaching
below the big toe. That’s just sort of a run through here. And the rest I’ll have
to take and show more clearly with drawing.
The idea is that feet, the main problem people have is making feet too complicated. I start
out, take and visualize the foot as being just a very, very, very simple volume.
Coming through it’s almost like we’re taking and just looking at a right angle triangle.
Something like this. I’ll take and do both of these at the same time. The other one is
even though the gesture is a little bit stronger it’s still very, very simple. I’m feeling
an arc coming down. Feel it a little bit farther over. Feeling the toe. It’s going to come
in, through. Again, this is still a simple, very, very, very simple shape. Coming down,
blocking in. Very simple. Keep in mind that the bone now goes through. As we come from
here we want to go over the ankle. Come through. As you look at the skeleton you can see that
the shape of the bone as it goes through. All of this is taking and going underneath
and going through. We’ll end up with the Achilles tendon in the heel back here. But
this shape, the bones are going through this way. You have your carpal and you come through.
Then the big toe is coming down, through here. Then we come from that, and we will feel that
the pads of the feet are underneath. The calcaneus bone is coming through, behind. So essentially
I’m, you can see as I’m doing it. I’m drawing. I’m drawing the skeleton. Now as
I draw I keep that in mind, as I’m coming through on the arch I’m going underneath
the foot. Coming across. We can feel it coming through.
Keep in mind when you’re looking at this shape here. If we were to take and look at
the pattern, look at the bottom of the foot. Look at your footprint, what we see. The heel
coming across to the outside of the foot, and then we can see where the big toe would
be. Again, we get the toes coming off out here. Okay, all of this hollow in here. This
is your arch and keep in mind now that the arch is the thing that holds up all the weight
of the body. That is literally an arch that is coming—in fact, there are two arches.
There is one going this way, and there is one coming across that way. It’s a double
arch which is the most weightbearing piece of architecture, engineering.
It’s not a bad engineering job. So you can feel this going underneath. You can see that what we
have at this point here, you have the bone coming through. Feel the corners. You notice
in the hands we talk about the fact that the palm is larger than the top of the hand. We
have the same thing with the toe. The bone is coming from here, but the pad of the foot
is going halfway in between those two points. Then we’re taking and feeling coming down
and we’re going over that surface, coming out to the big toe.
You can feel the corner come through, carrying this underneath. We run up the top. We feel
the arch, the corner. Even though this, again, one of the points where difficulty comes in.
We recognize that point right there. But the actual shape that we’re dealing with is
very subtle. There is practically, this is on the interior of the form, not the exterior
of the form. We’re building. We build these points coming through. In drawing the leg
I talked about you had the tibialis anterior tendon coming from here and actually goes
underneath and attaches below the big toe. The other forms are taking and coming off.
Going off through here. We look at the other foot. We can see really clearly
how we come down the ankle bone.

Here is what you do. You try to see that bone as going over the surface of the form.
Coming through, feel the pull come across. We want to feel the calcaneus bone coming out in back.
Feel the Achilles tendon coming down. There’s a point to make here now. She has such clear,
simple feet, but remember that the pad of the foot, this pad is really, when you have
the heel bone coming down the pad is coming through and is really big on the bottom. And
so the pads on the bottom of the big toe and all the way across and all the way around.
This is really a major piece of the anatomy that you’re looking at. So when you’re
drawing think of this as a form that’s coming down. Often it’s just taking and coming
through and visualizing the edge of that form. Feel the pull. Then we’re taking and coming
across the way to the toes.
We start talking about the toes. Each toe actually has a unique shape to it. Some screwdriver
are boxes, pointed. They all vary. Not every person is the same. There is a lot of variety
within that. But when you look at it as a case, a lot of times what you find is the
toe, for instance, can be coming through. It’s straight out, going like this.
Coming through the pad coming from here. Okay, but if you’re standing you are constantly balancing.
Every toe then has its sort of unique shape, but it’s constantly shifting. Some people
are quite adept at picking things up with their toes. You’re taking and feeling and
drawing, but it’s, again, toes are like hands. You can overdraw them. You need to
take and, notice I start out with a very, very simple shape. Now all I’m doing is
taking and thinking about sort of the planes.
Let’s just talk about the planes a little bit for a second here. As we look at the foot
and taking from a straight front view, taking and saying, okay, here is the way we’re
fitting in, coming through. The inside is straight. Then we start to go off this way,
and then the outside we find the bunion coming through. There is a series of planes that
take and go through with the foot. It always reminds me of the Civil War monitor, the way
the shape that that takes and coming off and coming around and going over and around these
shapes. Then we start to build the toes on that. So if I look at this from a little different
angle here you can see that we’re going over that surface and coming down, coming
out. Feel this plane. We feel the surface coming down. Maybe get broadening. Then we’re
coming across. Then we come through the big toe area coming out, coming in. But it’s
like I’m drawing a, almost like a shoe. Coming through.
You’re constantly always thinking of these three-dimensional planes as we’re taking
and doing the drawing. You’re building and thinking of these surfaces on the other side.
On the other side we would see going through. Probably the most difficult area that people
have is drawing the underside of the foot, especially if there is some kind of foreshortening
in it. Let’s just take a moment and change the pose and draw the underside of the foot.
Okay, the area that tends to give the moist difficulty is the underside of the foot, the
foreshortening. Let’s take and draw both of these feet here. The one is obviously very,
very simple. You can see nice, clean simple shape.
This is just like drawing a formula here.
Right angle triangle. Now the other foot as it comes over this, this is where
the difficulties come in. Again, it’s really quite simple. What’s happens is that you
have to make sense out of this. You have to emphasize the three-dimensional quality to
it. I’m going to focus on that. I’m starting with taking the pad.
So this is a plane that is coming out.
See how I’m going over the surface. Bringing that out. This takes in
here and it goes back in, going over that surface. Coming through.
We can feel this going back into the heel, which is taking and coming across.
Go over that surface, coming around.
On the end of the heel. I want this to go back, fitting down, fitting in. I’m
really diagramming this now. That goes behind, coming through. Going over the surface. Pushing
it down. Coming through. Feel the folds. Feel the pad in the center. Now she doesn’t have
really, it’s pretty subtle. She’s not very extreme.
We can go over. I’m pushing and going over the surfaces, get things to go back.
I’m going to exaggerate this even more now. I’m going to take and make this really push
back going down. So now you can feel that corner, that corner going back in.
Then, I’m taking and I treat the toe here. Think of it as a cylinder coming out within the pad
of the front of the toe on top of that. You’re going over but you’re attaching the cylinder.
As I come through getting the fullness of the pad, the shape of the toe coming out,
and we’re going around, over that pad coming down. Going through, going over that surface,
going through. So I’m constantly going, you think of this, see the end of that foot
is really what we’re sitting into. It’s like a plane. This is like the end of a box
coming through. So in doing so we have to go over that surface. As I come through from
underneath, coming in from in between the toes, pushing down, and so each one of the
toes then I take and—again, the toes like we talk about the fingers, it’s a, I’m
going to treat this more like a cylinder. We can feel this goes in, and then it’s turning.
As I come through I can see the end of the toe coming over the surface.
This is going back in. This is going in. I’m using the tone.
Going over, pushing that surface back in.
Then they come across. We come into the next joint. Then we’ve got—one, two, three,
got the other ones hidden behind as it’s going back in. We can feel the way these pull
the shapes. They’re overlapping, coming through. I can feel that each one of these
things then has its own sort of characteristics, but you want to constantly be focused on the
fact that you’re going over this surface. This is a change in direction. This is going
back. As I’m drawing this we feel the pushing of tones going down.
Like I say, she’s got a, it’s very subtle.
We don’t get any kind of real extremes.
We can actually start to pick up a bit of the muscle that comes across. Going through, going over.
The big area where most people have difficulty with this is if this foot was turned perfectly
flat facing us, what happens is most people will have a tendency to take and do this.
They’re closing that shape off. This is exactly what you want to avoid doing.
What you do is you need to show, again, one of the things I’ve been constantly talking
about, you have to overlap. But we have to leave room for the eye to move back.
The main thing here is that, as I’ve been constantly saying, you have to take and focus
on the overlapping. What happens when you take and do something just like this and you’re
drawing it. It tends to turn into sort of a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. It’s flat.
What we have to do is, what I’m doing here is I’m trying to leave space in between
so that your eye can get in between and travel back in space so you’re building overlapping
forms constantly to allow the eye to take and step back into the picture. So this is
what I’m doing. I’m overlapping, pulling through, coming in. We would take and slowly
start to build, build all these forms as we go back into the picture. So even here in
this simple contour that I’ve already been talking about. This is very, very simple.
I bring a line in front. Feel the plane. The back, the contour is actually out here, carrying
through. You’re constantly thinking of the pad of the foot. This is a plane that’s
going back. We can feel the pull of how the forms take and fill into this. We’re working
over the surface. Even to the ankle bone I would take and go behind even though this
is a very, very simple shape.
So you’re constantly working. You’re constantly working with the very, very simple shapes.
Feel the pad coming up underneath. Feel where the joint is. Come through. Going underneath.
Then we slowly start to build out into these things. But it’s keeping it feeling. Even
as this shape here, it’s not perfectly flat. It’s not perfectly straight. There actually
is a bit, but most of the time I can just get that sense by how I pull into the interior
of that in pulling the tone out from the underside. Now you get a sense of the curvature and I
can pull in the tone giving a little bit more sense of the volume as we slowly start to
take and build the forms up.