Mannequinization – Structure of the Human Body

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Assignments 975Lesson NotesDownloads 2

Mannequinization – Structure of the Human Body

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Figure Drawing Fundamentals

55K

Mark as Completed

Assignments 975Lesson NotesDownloads 2

When you’re doing these mannequin sketches, always start by establishing the gesture. Find the flow, major angles, and check your proportions with measurements. Then as a second layer, start adding the 3d forms of the mannequin.

@josephl

•

2mo

This was really hard, I felt like I put too much detail sometimes and guessed the anatomy a lot because I'm not familiar with it. Feel liked I learned a lot through this assignment though.

Melanie Scearce

•

2mo

Wow, incredible! Even though you had to guess at the specific anatomy, you definitely have a solid understanding of how to group the forms. Nice work 👍

@dropfeeling

•

4mo

Some initial tries at mannequinization. Will need to get better at defining the shapes.

Martha Muniz

•

3mo

Great start! Love seeing all the breakdowns of the shapes with cross contours indicating the perspective. For the feet, a shape I like to think about is a wedge, like a triangular piece of cheese. Having a solid flat base for the sole of the feet, but still having that slope at the top, really helps me picture the perspective needed to ground the shape properly. Give it a try! :)

Dave S

•

6mo

Definitely need to work on my twists and clean up my lines. Need to do like a thousand more of these. Great exercise though. I couldn’t have drawn this a couple weeks ago beyond copying the contours of the photo.

Rachel Dawn Owens

•

6mo

Nice work!

Rachel Dawn Owens

•

6mo

A couple more mannequins

Alex McCaleb

•

2mo

Okay WOW. This is stellar!

Art Stark

•

6mo

I've no idea how you figured out the scapula positions on the twisting pose, but it's very helpful to see. Thanks for posting.

Rachel Dawn Owens

•

6mo

I like this assignment. I tried to come up with my own mannequins using what I have learned from Proko. Thanks for the great lessons!

Jeremy Harper

•

6mo

Gannon Beck

•

6mo

Good work!

Jeremy Harper

•

6mo

@aleeex

•

7mo

my mannequinization practice drawings :) I find it difficult to properly construct a pose, especially the arms and legs atm. any critique is appreciated

Melanie Scearce

•

7mo

I think these are looking great. Mannequinization is meant to be a tool for you as an artist to use in a way that suits your needs, so make it work for you. Your lines could be cleaned up a bit, which makes me think you may be moving too fast through the exercises so maybe try slowing down, taking your time and thinking about each form carefully before placing a simplified shape. Overall I think you have the right idea!

Nicole Guz

•

7mo

More mannequin practice! My gestures look very stiff but keep working at it with gesture drawings. Aside from that which of my practice help to become better with gesture and perspective more efficiently? the first four or the last four. Any critiques or feedbacks are also welcome!

Jonatan

•

7mo

I think you're doing pretty good! Especially on those last 4, the gesture and the constructions is looking pretty great, and your lines are pretty clean! Cross contour lines properly indicating direction, and the pieces all seem to connect well! I'm no expert but if I had any advice to give is to doing more!

Nicole Guz

•

7mo

Did this before watching the example assignment just to challenge myself and so I could check where I went wrong. But even without checking it yet I can already see most if not all of my gestures are wrong or I ve made it too plain. And I am struggling to wrap my head around mannequinizing the erector spinae, lattisimus and shoulder blades. So I know i definitely need to practice all those. Let me know if theres anything else I didnt notice! Also if there is any tricks or tips on how you learned this. Thank you!

Melanie Scearce

•

7mo

Simplification really helps in Mannequinization. Learning/developing shortform shapes for specific muscle groups will be beneficial in the long run. For example, here is an example of a simplified shape for the erector spinae muscle group. This is the muscle group at rest, so once you learn the shortform, you need to figure out how it moves with the body. There's a lot to learn, but it's all super interesting! I applied the shortform shape over your drawings. Hope this helps :)

Phil

•

8mo

Trying some mannequins with some indications of landmarks and anatomy. seems like there’s many levels to these mannequins. Stan seems to get fairly detailed in the anatomy with complex 3d shapes while other art books simplify everything to bare minimum primitives.

Jocelynn Darlene

•

9mo

Maan, Stan was not lying when he said this wasn't easy 🥲

@maximilienle2d

•

9mo

I think I went a little too much in the anatomy, for lack of understanding the forms

maciek szczech

•

9mo

I like the way you draw the head circle, the chest oval and the pelvic box first, at least that is how I see it, and build the figure from there. Some might say that there are too many repeated messy and dirty/not necessary lines, but I like that too. Maybe because it is similar to what I am also capable of drawing, however not so well as you. Overall your figures are believable and solid and beautiful in terms of lines and overall structure. I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Stephen Clark

•

9mo

I can understand why you feel you went too far into the anatomy of the form on this mannequin study. But if you're working from anatomy knowledge and trying learn how they work together, this is solid. Good use of the cross contours in here too!

Giorgi Karkuzashvili

•

9mo

It really took some time. The key is to continue the 30s and 1 min gestues so you keep developing. The process truly felt like a meditation

@lwel

•

11mo

I first drew along with the examples. Then tried to apply it to new poses. But I kind of feel I should be simplifying more than the examples until that goes well and then do more with muscles. I cought myself getting more occupied figuring out details as opposed of looking at the full figure in space. Feedback is appreciated!

Michael

•

11mo

So, these took a really long time (probably more than an hour each). Some poses were easy to get the gesture for (like the first example), and others were not so easy (last example). I could definitely keep going with more drawings, but I feel like I haven't made visible progress. I had real difficulties with the shoulder/upper torso, as I just couldn't figure out the perspective of the box and how it goes into the arm. Throughout I tried to keep in mind to soften some of the forms like the torso and pelvis. Still had fun with these (most of the time!) but I've still got a lot of mannequins ahead of me.

Rachel Dawn Owens

•

11mo

These are looking great! It ok to draw slow while you’re learning. I notice your drawings are improving too. The last one seems the most confident and smooth to me. I made this quick drawover of your first sketch to hopefully help you out. If the drawing feels a little overwhelming, it’s good to simplify things more. For the torso, a bean shape is the most simple to me. You can establish the weight and balance with a bean and build the structure on top. Your drawings are solid though. I noticed the first one felt a bit stiff, so I added more gesture. But that’s all. Keep it up!

@yoyoy12

•

11mo

Martha Muniz

•

11mo

Looking good! Just remember to keep drawing through key areas that communicate form, like showing the box shape of the pelvic area and the box form of the knee that connects the two cylinders for the legs. Area like these are key to showing the 3-dimensionality of the figure and help establish the connection points properly. Keep at it and keep up the good work! :)

maciek szczech

•

1yr

240502 Continue study. Kind of mannequinization. Peper, pencil, kneaded eraser. What I have noticed is that the model neck is elongated and her hands are drawn a bit too much away from her face, but I will leave it as it is for now..

Rachel Dawn Owens

•

1yr

I think these are fine studies. Don’t worry about the neck or hands. It’s great! I would recommend moving further from the reference actually. Sometimes a photo is not so accurate. The camera can’t capture foreshortening very well. The photo of the lady has distorted proportions and her foot looks too small. If you were to draw that same model from life, her foot would not look like that. It might help to make more changes to stuff like that if it makes the drawing look better. Just be mindful of the changes you make. Keep it up 👍

maciek szczech

•

1yr

240430. Continue study. Kind of mannequinization. Paper, pencil, kneaded eraser. Ref. pinerest.

Melanie Scearce

•

1yr

This is beautiful. I love the rhythm that you found in the turn of the torso. Something that stuck out to me is the position of the navel on your final drawing. In the third progression it looks like it's in the right place but in your final it seems to skew a bit to her right. With the position of her breasts on the ribcage, my eyes want to see the pull to her left on the navel. Just a small thing, overall this is a great drawing!

@lazy0

•

1yr

These are the mannequin studies, It took me a lot of time with these because I had to measure proportions. I feel like my mannequins are lifeless and boring, I'm having a lot of trouble with the, Head, Neck, Feet and hands. They are hard to make look good. The neck makes it look stiff and the hands and feet makes the drawing look wonky and weird. Please Give me honest feedback, I want to know what I can improve on, because its getting hard for me to see my own mistakes even if I flip the canvas(at least on the first two).

Umar Khalimov

•

1yr

One thing I noticed on most of these is that the ribcage and pelvis boxes are not deep enough/too flat. If you try to imagine a ribcage in those boxes you could notice that it would be way too squished. On a separate note, a couple things that helped me when drawing mannequins is actually finding the perspective of the environment that they would be in. I try to first establish a horizon line, the height of the whole figure (could just be a vertical line) and then drawing a box that represents the orientation of the figure, which forces you to find (roughly) the vanishing points. This way, you get the perspective of the whole figure and not each individual structure on its own. This will later enable you to draw that figure from a different angle by changing the perspective of the box. It's the way that Kim Jung Gi simplified his method and I personally learn a ton from practicing it, even if I want to unlive myself 2 hours in.

Melanie Scearce

•

1yr

Structural drawings like these tend to be pretty stiff. I think you did a great job finding the angles of the ribcage and pelvis. The only one I would adjust personally is the first one, by tilting the ribcage backwards and bringing her right hip up a bit to accentuate gesture. Whenever I do studies like these I like to counterbalance it by doing some gestural work as well. Great stuff, keep it up!

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Stan Prokopenko

Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.