Human Proportions – Cranial Units
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Figure Drawing Fundamentals

Proportions

Human Proportions – Cranial Units

330K
Mark as Completed

Human Proportions – Cranial Units

330K
Mark as Completed

Study Hale's cranial units

Study Hale's cranial units. Copy them. Then, put the reference away and see if you can draw them from memory!

Newest
Paco Boi
11d
I did a study of hale's method and I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly or not. Some critiques would be appreciated 🙏
May Berry
21d
Filippo Galli
Billy Morris
Left reference. Right Imagination.
hArtMann
1yr
Left is from reference and right from imagination. Struggled quite a bit with the side view pelvis from imagination but managed to simplify it.
Jesper Axelsson
Cool! - I might have made the humerus a little thicker. Cheers!
Samuel Sanjaya
This is my study of Hale's Method. I find it easier than the Richer for certain pose. But when drawing sometimes I like to mix them, since Richer's Method is faster for certain poses. I hope i can get some insight on where and when a certain method is best used.
Vera
2yr
Hello everyone. Here are my drawings. I copied the proportions and then I tried to draw them without the reference. Advice and critiques are appreciated.
Jesper Axelsson
Nice work! It's good to take the time to analyze the proportions. Now comes the difficult part of applying it in your figurative work XD. You'll constantly be working on proportions :) It's one thing to have memorized them, and another to get them right in your drawings. You might forget them every now and then, so you'll be refering back to the proportion chart. - I've heard that when the old masters talked about proportion, they didn't only talk about proportions, but also about symmetry. Proportion AND symmetry. This could be something to be aware of when you draw. It's difficult to get right, and I have a lot of practicing to do there, but if you look carefully at your drawings, you'll notice that the arms aren't perfect mirror images of themselves. The skeleton isn't symmetrical. To help with getting the symmetry right, it helps to draw a vertical line, cutting through the center of the skeleton; a symmetry line. By comparing the distances to the centerline you can assure symmetry. This vertical line will also help keep allignments in check, and with making sure that the figure is standing straight. In the drawing to the left of image one, the ribcage and pelvis don't line up, suggesting a crooked spine. This is getting picky, but focusing on accuracy has it's place. You might want to practice trying to draw a perfectly vertical line on a page. Do your best guess, compare with the edges of the paper, which you consider to be perfect verticals. Then measure the distance of the ends of line to the paper edge. If the measurements aren't the same, the line isn't vertical. Make adjustments. Also, place the ruler against the line to see if the line is straight. I've found it benficial to do the same with a horizontal line. Try to get these two to run through the center of the page (forming a plus +), and you'll get some extra practice in dividing things in halves (check if it's a true split by measuring with a ruler.) As you do this exercise, you'll find what your tendencies are. If I try to split a vertical distance in half, for example, I tend to make the lower part longer than the upper. This is probably the reason why I make the legs too long in my figure drawings. When doing figure drawings, one thing that could help with getting the symmetry is to draw the corresponding parts together. So for example, when you've drawn the right upper arm, you go to the left upper arm, trying to make sure they're the same length in space. I hope this helps :)
@kotka
2yr
Hale is my favorite for obvious reasons, but it was extremely difficult to produce an accurate meat and muscle overlay. I haven't started on the anatomy course yet, so I guess it will become easier to see once I start. The hand, and knuckles specifically, are not very obvious to relate to the skull. I have tried matching the wrist to the greater trochanter, but the hands always feel oversized.
Jesper Axelsson
Nice! - Your circles are a bit off. I think I would recommend drawing spheres as a warm-up for a short time. Check their accuaracy with a compass or a ruler. Also try fitting them into squares, that you might divide into 4ths or with diagonals. After having done this a little, your awareness of circle and square accuracy will have improved. You tend to make the circles too wide, and this error spreads into the rest of the figure. Improving the accuracy of your circles and boxes will improve proportions overall in your drawings. In my drawings I tend to make the legs too long. When I've done the exercise of trying to split a distance in half (I draw a vertical line, then decide on a top and bottom, then mark halfway), I've noticed that I tend to put the halfway mark too high. Working on this has improved the leg proportions in my drawings. Hope this helps :)
@elkad
2yr
Hiya, here's my Hale's proportions exercises first image is using a reference and the second is from memory
@nongthimay31797
mine are not so accurate but i still upload
@opaqueapple
Hi everyone, I finished some Beverly Hale cranial unit studies, any critiques would be much appreciated. The final 3 are from recalling. Have a good week everyone!
Alexis Saldivar
These are a little hard to see but they're fairly decent. Watch your proportions. On some of them I notice stuff like the rib cage being too large or the femur being to short.
@fooze
3yr
Hey everyone. here is my copy and from memory drawing of robert bevery hale's cranial units. Feedback will be greatly appreciated!
Sandra Süsser
I never heard of Hale before, yet this method of proportion has quickly become my favorite. Unfortunately though, the cranium doesn’t match up with Loomis method, so I try to combine these two in my own way since I really like the portrait method by Loomis and don’t want to give it up.
@hiflow
3yr
I think I prefer this method over the other one
@willyjohn
3yr
Here is my submission for this assignment. Any and all feedback is appreciated.
Jesper Axelsson
Nice! - Remember that a cranial unit is a sphere. You seem to have given it an ovoid form. Cheers!
CHARLES DEIGHAN
Here's my assignment for Hale's proportions, cranial units. I put these in my sketch Book just for reference.
@omarg
4yr
Robert Beverly Hale human proportions drawn from memory.
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