The human body is so complex in its colors, structures and textures, transparency and softness, that in a small area of the skin you can see a million shades. I have always seen “too many” colors; they tend to “explode” in my paintings. I had to learn how to understand them and use them consciously, so that they could constitute a harmonious whole—the human body. To know more about them we have to start from local colors.
A Practical Guide to Painting Human Figures
Many painters desire to become masters of painting human figures. It is not just about drawing the body alone but expressing the human’s feelings and gestures. It is bringing life to the painting by cutting off the distractions and focusing on the base. However, getting precise at it requires patience and a lot of practice. You have to understand how to position and draw the hands, feet, and faces. Further, you have to match the line, tone, and shade.
You can try different styles of human figure painting and then choose the one that suits you the most. Experimenting is always the key when it comes to painting complex arts like human figures.
We have simplified the steps so you can practice and paint a human figure yourself-
Understand Your Model-
- Get the Proportions: Rely on your optical judgment to measure the proportions of your model. Draw lines for their abdomen, thighs, calves, and head. Next, paint boxes to suggest the width of each part. Divide the body with lines at approximate angles for the shoulder and the pelvis. Further, add lines to get an idea about hands and legs.
- Observe the Gesture: Observe your model’s gesture and direction. Begin with drawing lines to get the basic idea of your painting. You should have a rough painting of your model by the end of this process. You can complete these two steps with a pencil to get a crude draft.
- See the Light Patterns: Start with the first layer and paint the areas where the light falls. Also, paint the objects with lighter shades first. It will include the clothes of the model and any body part that comes under the lights.
- Refine the Parts (Add Anatomical Features): Once your basic structure is painted, you can use smaller brushes to add finer details. Paint the clavicle, the sternum, and other minor details.
- Paint the Features: Paint the model’s features like eyes, nose, lips, and ears. Painting the model’s features requires more practice as this gives life to your portrait and helps you express the model’s feelings.
- Add the Shadows: Add the extra layer of the paint to suggest shadow over parts. These parts will be opposite to those having light. Add an extra layer to the darker objects and features as well.
- Detailing the Background: For the final touch, add objects and details to your model’s background. These can be the model’s seat, the paintings on the wall, lights, and decorations.
- To suggest movement, try to paint in a blurred manner.
- Use different tones of the same shade to suggest shadows and add a three-dimensional effect.
- Start with more prominent shapes. Move to smaller intricate parts later.
- Use the lightest tone first because you can add more layers to the watercolor anytime.
- Add shadows to the floor to make your painting look more realistic.
- To draw abstract human figures, paint with lines without worrying about the curves.
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Local Colors
Old Masters used so-called “local colors.” What this means is that they tried to bring out the benefits of pigment in its purest form. Red was dark in the shadows, and intense bright red in the light. Changing this was treated as a mistake and an evidence of bad skills. This was particularly important in the case of expensive pigments, such as ultramarine, which simply was not allowed to be connected with other shades, because in doing so it lost its value. The blue color was always pure blue, and green, pure green.
Later, when paints became cheaper and easier to produce, pure pigments stopped being so expensive, which allowed artists to treat them more freely. This was the moment when artists began to experiment and break pure colors. They used more and more shades and started studying the relationships between the individual colors. In my opinion we get the best results by using pure local colors next to carefully selected shades. With this diversity we get the most interesting combinations.
Combinations of Colors
A gray rectangle surrounded by a dark gray background will seem darker than the same surrounded by a light gray background. That’s how our perception works. Our brains adapt optically to what we see. Everything has to match to everything else. The same is true for colors—identical red will seem to differ in shade when surrounded by a blue or yellow background. Thus, the colors appear different depending on the setting we put them in. Interior designers and decorators would have more to say about this.
Leonardo da Vinci, in his genius, used this mechanism fantastically. Surprisingly it was the clients who were deciding which colors would be used in a painting by da Vinci. The more the client was willing to pay, the more expensive pigments the artist could use. The color blue, for example, became an indicator of social and economic status. Artists had to sign an agreement, and the price depended on the amount of ultramarine pigment used. Leonardo used a cheaper counterpart, and then juxtaposed colors in the painting in a way to make this inexpensive alternative look like the more expensive one.
Another great example of using color properties is Byzantine mosaics. We know that the colors lying on opposite sides of the color wheel are the most contrasted with each other. When we put them side-by-side, both will look more saturated, more intense. When we look at mosaics closely, we see that the golden background for religious scenes is not filled only with golden pebbles. We also notice here and there a single blue or green one, which optically highlight the gold.
The same is true for turquoise backgrounds enriched with red blocks. In both cases, the procedure is not visible at first glance. We only notice that the surface of gold or turquoise seems to be incredibly intense, almost vibrating. That’s how you can make the colors appear more saturated.
Painting the Figure: Reflected Colors
In addition to the colors matched in various combinations, we have to keep in mind the surface of the object—that we are trying to oppose it with another object that has its own texture. This is really important and we have to remember it simultaneously.
Different surfaces reflect the light and thus color in different ways. Imagine a red apple freely lying on a white background. Now we exchange half of that white background for black cloth. The part of the apple that has contact with whiteness will reflect a little white, and the part on the black will seem more intense.
Each side will look a bit different. On the gleaming structure it’s easier to perceive this phenomenon, but it occurs on any surface. In addition, the apple will influence the background as well. The whiteness in the background will seem a bit pinkish, while against the black it will appear as a very deep red (or depending on the hue—reds and blacks, more purple or dark blue).
Now, let’s replace the black fabric with a blue one. All the colors look a bit different, don’t they? Let’s go a step further and surround our apple with objects of different colors (the more intense the colors, the easier it will be to see) and various surfaces. For example: yellow fabric, black ceramic vase, green plastic gloves and what we have in hand. Notice what happens with colors.
Not only does each of them affect the background color and vice-versa, but they start to interact with each other and bounce off each other. Each object has in its color something from the objects around it. So it is in the painting, all the colors affect each other. Each local color of each item is reflected in the colors around it, and together they form a harmonious whole.
