CHAPTER 4 VOLUME AND CONTOUR
It’s hard to imagine something flatter than a piece of paper. Despite this flatness, a successful figure drawing should create the illusion of having three dimensions. We must pull the viewers gaze through the surface of the page and into the space the figure drawing occupies. We want our viewers to experience the sensation of the body extending toward or retreating away from them. To do this we must understand the figure as an interconnected collection of three-dimensional volumes like spheres, ovoids, cylinders, and boxes.
The forms that make up a living human body are infinitely complex. But these forms can be distilled down to their most fundamental forms. For example, the upper arm—despite the muscles, tendons, ...
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