In this episode we'll add structure to the bean to create the robo bean.
If you haven't seen the bean, structure or landmarks videos, you might be a little confused
with some of the things in this video because we'll be taking the bean and adding structure
to it based on the landmarks. so click to watch those now!
Why use robo bean?
A few weeks ago we met the Bean. After you're comfortable with the bean, it's time to move
on to his friend, Robo Bean. The robo bean is great because it combines the motion from
the bean with 3d form. Now we're able to show the side planes to show rotation and top or
bottom planes for tilting and leaning.
These drawings are gonna be extremely stylized and by no means is it a finished drawing or
how I'm saying you should draw. This is however exactly what I'm thinking about when I analyze
the form. So showing this simplistic exercise is a great vision into the thought process.
It's also just a really good exercise to practice to see and draw three-dimensional form. You
should be able to freehand cylinders and boxes from any angle and get the perspective right
as I explained in the structure video a few weeks ago.
Review cylinders and boxes
This exercise is very similar to the bean exercise except now instead of using balls
we're gonna use boxes. Boxes are little bit more advanced, but more effective because
now you have plane changes to better explain the orientation of the forms. Spheres are
not effective in showing perspective as I explained last week. You can't see a sphere
as three-dimensional unless you add tone. Without tone a sphere is just a circle. A
cylinder introduces perspective because it has a plane change at the top and bottom.
A box shows even more perspective because it has a plane change from the front to the
side plane, along with top and bottom planes.
Landmarks
Ok so let's take a look at the details of the robo bean and what exactly the boundaries
represent. The top box is the rib cage and a portion of the shoulders. The bottom is
the pelvis combined with the butt.
Remember those landmarks we went over last week? Well they're really going to come in
handy as you construct the robo bean. Almost every edge or corner falls on a specific area
along the body. Let's start at the top!
The top front corners of the first box align with this corner on the clavicles. At the
bottom, the corners of the 10th ribs indicate the bottom of the box. These 4 corners give
us the front plane of the box. On the backside, the ridge of the spine of the scapula provides
the edge between top and back plane. Just stretch that back plane to the length of the ribcage.
Sometimes it's hard to tell exactly where those corners are because the ribcage
in the back is covered by the muscles. But the exact points are not important. Just make
sure to get the length and angle correct.
The top plane is everything between the scapula and clavicles. You have to ignore the trapezius
muscle to see this. This is a very important plane to show when the body is leaning forward
or backward toward us. Usually I'll even extend this to the edges of the shoulders, but we'll
save that for the mannequinization video.
Connect the side planes for the sides of the ribcage.. And the bottom plane doesn't matter
much. The space between the boxes is filled with guts and other fun stuff.
Lets move on to the bottom box.
The most useful corners, I feel, are the ASIS. The corners on the front of the pelvis. They're
extremely important to find the angle of the pelvis. Unfortunately, there aren't any good
points to indicate the bottom of the front plane. You'll just have to use your imagination
and extend them from the pubic bone. Follow the edge of the iliac crest until the PSIS
for the side planes. The back plane starts at the PSIS and includes the mass of the gluts.
The rounded part at the bottom of the gluts is the edge where you can show a bit of a
bottom plane.
And again, the top plane doesn't matter because of the guts thing.
Together all these points form the two boxes connected by the spine, which moves the boxes.
Differences between genders
The proportions are going to vary from person to person. That's why its good to know what
landmarks youre looking for on the body. So that you can analyze those points on the person
youre drawing and measure the proportions. Generally, the ribcage and pelvis on a male
are about the same width. On a female the ribcage is thinner and the pelvis is wider.
There's variation within genders - some men have wider hips and some women have wider
shoulders. Mentally identifying the body type before you draw it will help.
Motion
With the addition of the top, bottom and side planes we can show the motion and position
of the body with more detail than with the bean.
The corners help to show the tilt side to side with the angles from one side to the
other.
The top and bottom planes help to show the leaning forward or backward
And the side planes help to show twisting.
More about the Twist
This brings me to an important part about the twist that I forgot to mention in the
bean video. I showed with the towel that the overlaps come from the corners that are closer
to us. This is true from the side view of the torso, but from front or back, its actually
the opposite! Here's a better explanation for getting the overlaps right..
figure out which side of the body you're seeing completely. The overlaps are the ones parallel
to this rhythm.
If you're looking at the side, then the side plane is being twisted like this. And the
front and back plane will wrap back around the side plane. If you're looking at the front
plane, then the same thing happens here, but now the side planes wrap behind the front
plane and the center line is following this S curve rhythm.
So basically the overlapping lines are going to follow the rhythm of the plane we're looking
at.
With the robobean its actually much easier to see why this happens. Here the side plane
is wrapping behind the front plane, so this edge would overlap this one. On the other
side same thing..
Assignments, Critiques and Giveaway!
Alright so the assignment for this lesson is pretty obvious.. Just find some poses (plenty
available at proko.com/poses) and draw the robo bean for that pose... You'll probably
have a bunch of questions, concerns, mistakes you might have made. So, next week I'll post
examples of me drawing the robo bean which hopefully will address some of your questions..
Also, keep submitting your exercises for critiques. I'm going to combine the submissions from
the bean, structure, landmarks, robo bean and mannequinization lessons into one critique
video.. Since all these lessons are related to building forms.
So if you want to submit for a critique - do the assignment from this week's lesson. Post
your drawings on your Facebook page, tumblr, blog, forum, wherever you like to post your
artwork. In your post make sure to mention this video and include a link to it. Email
me and tell me where I can find your drawings. Make sure to follow the guidelines that I
describe on proko.com/critiques.
Aaand.. Giveaway time... 3 lucky, super awesome, hardworking students who submit for critiques
will get free access to the Figure Fundamentals Premium videos.. aww ya!
If you want extended versions of this video and all the other videos from the figure fundamentals
series check out proko.com/figure. There's a bunch of examples of gesture drawings, bean
drawings, robo bean and landmarks from last week. So, if you want more content to practice
from check out proko.com/figure. Or you can just click the link here.. Right now, you
can click that right now. This is a button. Just click the button. I'm gonna wait till
you click the button.... [whispering] click the button. Click da button!
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