Drawing The Rough Skeleton

by | Jul 21, 2015 | Drawing Tutorials | 9 comments

I just finished up teaching a one week long pre-college figure drawing class for animation students. As always I started the class off with the rough skeleton.

It truly is the least intimidating way to start drawing the figure.

In class I had the students draw the figure in one minute poses. You really only need one minute to draw out the rough skeleton.

So where do I use this technique?

This technique is best used when trying to draw the figure from your imagination. It’s amazing how you can craft a figure out of nothing using this simple technique. However you can also use this technique when drawing the figure from life.

The Rough Skeleton

Now in the video above I showed you more versus less. However if you work from light to dark just drawing out the bones that is truly all you need.

If you would like to learn more about how to dive into this technique a little deeper click here.

This is certainly not a technique to blow off. There are many subtleties to drawing the rough skeleton from your imagination or from life. They include goodies like anatomy, gesture and form just to name a few.

Learn how to draw a likeness of the figure every time.

The Rough Skelton

9 Comments

  1. Matthew
    Matthew on July 21, 2015 at 3:54 pm

    Hey share your comments below:)

  2. Linda
    Linda on July 21, 2015 at 11:07 pm

    beautiful sketching Matthew… would love to see more about constructing
    the human figure…

    • Matthew
      Matthew on July 22, 2015 at 11:30 am

      Hi Linda,

      Yes look for videos like this to arrive every other week or so along with some cool new articles. We’ll also post up some online pose videos.

  3. Indigo
    Indigo on July 22, 2015 at 4:02 am

    I think it’s great that you are doing vids that cover that original material.
    I really like your approach to drawing the figure!

  4. Matthew
    Matthew on July 22, 2015 at 11:31 am

    Thanks for the feedback Indigo!

  5. Yasmin
    Yasmin on July 22, 2015 at 2:52 pm

    a big help, i can start giving my drawing moment instead of studying still, one question will this work for a male body? . x

    • Matthew
      Matthew on July 23, 2015 at 12:31 pm

      Yasmin, Yes this will work for the male figure two. It’s when we get in the male torso, that’s when we add different widths to the shoulders and hips.

  6. elaine
    elaine on July 22, 2015 at 5:03 pm

    I am so glad to see the videos back. I have learned so much from the older ones, and look forward to the weekly practice. Many thanks!

  7. Mary
    Mary on July 26, 2015 at 3:30 am

    Thanks Matthew for being the best educator out there. I recomend you to everyone I come into contact with but worry that you will keel over as you work so hard !