Eliza Hoffman

ISM – 6th Period

United States Archive. (n.d.). Andrew Loomis - figure drawing for all it’s worth.

https://illustrationage.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/andrew-loomis-figure-drawing-for-

all-its-worth.pdf

 Contours and lines are different; lines do not have to be so defined since they can
take away from how the form feels
 Value is better at building form and mass because of its ability to communicate
nuance and rid of the need to use harsh lines
 The human figure can be divided into eighths; “two and one third of these unites
will be the relative width for the male figure” (page 10); this is similar to a female
figure, where the proportions of their arms and legs will vary slightly from woman
to woman
 For both men and women, the “front of the thighs are slightly wider than the
armpits, and narrower in back” (page 14)
 Normal, ideal, fashion, and “heroic” are categories for idealized male proportions,
where normal is considered to be the narrowest and “heroic” is used for sculpture,
and thus favors wider proportions.
 Artistic widths call for a width of about 2 1/3 heads, on the other hand, “heroic” or
sculpture call for a width of about 2 2/3 heads wide
 Knowing anatomy and proportion is absolutely necessary, even if you can draw
from a photograph
 Knowing where the “bumps and humps” are (or nuances) make the figure look
much, much more realistic, instead of looking like a mannequin or inflatable figure
 Paper’s surface represents the lightest light value that is present when drawing, and
therefore all markings made will take away from that value
 This is why it is good to tone a surface if you are painting or using color; in drawing,
warm or grey toned paper is often used with white charcoal
 Lighting affects the way form appears, which is why a strong “Rembrandt” lighting
is favored in drawing and painting
 Highlighting form can build appeal, so use light to your advantage when setting up a
composition
 Eliza Hoffman
ISM – 6th Period

New York, The Viking Press. (1970, January 1). Drawing the head & hands : Loomis, Andrew :

Free download, borrow, and streaming. Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/andrew-loomis-drawing-the-head-hands

 It is a good strategy to think of the skull as “being pliable and laving taken a certain
shape as a result of pressures—as if one squeezed a rubber ball into various shapes
without changing its actual volume” (page 7)
 Understanding how flesh is distributed over the bones of the face helps with
understanding how the expression on a face can vary
 The skull is in a fixed position, and other than the jaw, it cannot be moved or fused
or flexed
 Next from the skull is spacing the features, which has a big impact on how the
expression lies on a face
 The spacing of facial features is also very important to communicating the age of an
individual
 The shape of the skull (varying its width and height) can really affect how the
overall face looks, even if the individual features look the same
 Combinations of cheekbones, jaws, noses, eyes, etc. creates new characters
 The pivot point is “at the top of the spine and at the base of the skull” (page 13)
 The cross and middle line determine the pose of the face
 Depending on where the cross and middle line curve and intersect, the face can be
looking upward, downward, left, right, etc.
 Establishing the “cross” is the most important step in drawing a face, since it tell
direction and the placement of the eyes and nose often
 “a feature will never fit on a head until it is placed correctly and in line with the
construction lines of the whole head” (page 13)
 The shape of the skin and flesh is influenced by how the structure of the bones are
 This is with the exception of the eyes, mouth, and cheeks, which have muscle
around them and can be moved
 “Blockiness” can give more character to men’s heads, while roundness is moreso
associated with women and children, femininity and youthfulness
 The most important facial planes are around the eyes, mouth, and nose, which is
where the darkest shadows and greatest dimension are located
 Eliza Hoffman
ISM – 6th Period

Schmid, R. (2013, February 22). Richard Schmid: Alla Prima: Everything I know about painting.

Southwest Art Magazine. https://www.southwestart.com/articles-interviews/featured-

artists/alla_prima

 The subject should be based off of innate sense; “never worry about greatness or
significance… in history”
 Every painting completed is a sort of self-portrait even if it is not a work of yourself,
since it reveals something about yourself
 Color charts and the knowledge of how to use them can change the way you
approach and think about color and painting; “not as boringly identical squares
arranged, but as flowers, leaves, stems, and a background” (page 8)
 Understanding the relationships between true values and colors can be done through
squinting
 “There is a definite limit to how far down you can usefully squint before your image
becomes” (page 12) a total blur, but it makes digesting the form and subject in front
of you dramatically easier
 Reducing the subject into basic shapes makes the drawing stage easier
 The blocking-in stage of painting is helped through squinting as well (squinting is
your best friend)
 Cool light incorporates with your pigments naturally when you mix white into it,
since “white is the coolest color” of all the colors
 Warm light can be achieved through mixing white with some yellow ochre, to
combat the coolness of white
 Northern light has a tinge of warmth to it, which is why artists often prefer it in their
studios
 Tones or half tones are what create form
 Values are comparative to each other; “the values in the sky are lighter tones that the
trees, but the leaves are halftones” (page 9)
 The “traditional Flemish value scale” is a grouping of nine tones from pure white to
black
 First four values are the “light values”, then the no. 5 “middle tone”, and finally the
last four “dark values”