PHOTOSHOP : DWARF

This week I have been looking at form and how to represent accurately a human (and other) bodies. I looked at head heights (how many heads fit into a body) this helps us get an accurate representation of proportion. a human is regularly 7 heads tall by 2.5 wide. however in any art we like to use the "ideal form" and use 8 heads. this is easily divisible when drawing and also represents a stronger character. for a heroic character we often use closer to 9 or 10 heads by 3 wide as this shows a heroic form and is a technique dating back to ancient Greece. when playing games where you represent the hero such as Fable, you notice that your character is a good head taller than the civilians in the game.   now when representing other figures but with humanoid characteristics (like Dwarfs or  Elves) we have different head heights and proportions. for example on a normal human character we draw the waist half way down (4 heads) the knees half way (or there about) between there and the bottom (2 heads) and so on. for a dwarf the head height is closer to 4 by 3 heads. creating the short broad look. also the waistline is lower down the body about halfway between 1 and 2 heads. conversely with an elf they are 9 heads tall and 2 wide. creating a slim figure. we also move the waist up to create long legs. these characteristics are vital because they represent the characters background. and tell a story in themselves. I took it upon myself to practice this technique and draw a dwarf.

DWARF LINE DRAWING.

This Shows the line drawing I produced and how I used the head heights and also construction and measurement lines. For the hand heights etc. I have used a few different layers of drawing to get to this point. shaping out the skeletal form in lines, then the body shape and then drawing over the top and adding the details such as clothing etc. 

At this point I decided to continue the drawing without the constructions etc as I wanted to now move into shading.

DWARF GREY SCALE.

  

I added Highlights and Lowlights with different shades for different parts of the drawing. 

after this i added colour to finish off and finalise the drawing. 

DWARF COLOUR.

This is the final drawing. I'm quite happy with this piece and believe most importantly the form is represented correctly and looks right.