We share tips and tricks for drawing a figure. 
Get the low down on ways of finding proportion.
Stuck for art materials? Raid the kitchen cupboards for materials to create expressive mark-making.

Avril O’Brien, Artist and teen tutor, demonstrates with a portrait from the gallery in this short video and handy downloadable PDF.

You can download the PDF in Irish here.

#crawfordartgalleryhomelife

Drawing is all about Visual problem-solving. Eileen Healy’s ‘Portrait of Conal Creedon’ (2007) which is part of our collection is a stimulus for this figurative drawing video.

HANDY TIPS FOR FIGURE DRAWING

• PROPORTION
  Sighting: comparing angles, distances and shapes.
  Using a unit of measurement to compare sizes.

Expression through media, mark-making

• BLOCKING Build Up your drawing! Focus on:
  Negative and positive space (Background and Figure)
  Light and shadow to create form with areas of tonal value

• EXPRESSION
  Media chosen has a big effect on the feeling your drawing transmits.
  Mark-Making: Use a variety of dots, hatching, scribbles, soft marks. These create your expressive language.

• UNITY
  Tie up the whole image.
  Quality of line: Use thick, thin or broken line.
  Details: Emphasise some areas, create texture, points of interest, facial expression.
  Mood: Just a few marks can change the background or the lighting of your image.

MATERIALS

You don’t need a collection of traditional art materials. Look around your home!

Paper- Paper shopping bags, baking paper, cardboard boxes, packaging.

Media - Spices, vegetables, condiments. We used beetroot for dramatic expression. Ground turmeric (a tiny amount added to a little water), soy sauce, tea and coffee created a sepia tone. Think about light, medium and dark tones.

Mark-making tools – what is in the garden? Leaves, sticks. Around the house? Pasta, straws, biros, scrunched up tissue, string.

Click on the video below to view a timelapse of the process