by Miriam Slater

Created on: September 22, 2008   Last Updated: April 10, 2012

This article covers nine of the most common mistakes artists make when drawing from the model. I have spent over twenty-five years drawing the figure, which has helped me to define some commonly made errors. The art process is fluid and impossible to pin down with rules but if you wish to make a more convincing life drawing then these ideas will certainly help achieve that end. The following are the nine mistakes along with their solutions:

Mistake #1 is starting to draw without first giving thought as to what it is that you would like to achieve. More often than not, people immediately begin sketching without ever establishing some kind of intention in their mind first. A well thought out drawing has more focus and reads clearer than one that doesn't. Mental meandering from the very start sets the tone for the rest of the drawing and leaves no aesthetic foundation on which to build.

The solution is to pause for a moment before beginning your drawing and to look at what you see in front of you. Keep your mind open and then notice what ideas pop up the moment of stillness. This allows undiscovered ideas to reveal themselves to you and is the point where things start to get more creative.

Mistake #2 is the failure to establish the position of the complete figure on the page resulting in a drawing in which heads, arms or feet end up getting unintentionally cut off because the artist has run out of room on the paper. The solution is to put in underlying structure lines first, over which sub-forms can be placed. Be sure to include the top of the head and the bottom of the feet in your initial rendering plus some extra space for the margins. It sounds simple enough but it is amazing how many people will forget to do it.

Mistake #3 is the unintentional straightening of angles on the model (angles are important because they show how much the model is leaning). It is done unconsciously on our part and must be compensated for continually. Because most people aren't aware of this tendency the problem never gets addressed in their drawings with the result that the model looks stiff. The solution is to start to draw the angles just as you see them but then to exaggerate the angle further to compensate for your innate tendency to straighten things. The effect is that your drawing will appear to be more accurate. You have to go out of your comfort zone and force things a bit, but to the viewer the drawing will look more believable.

Mistake #4 is the equalizing of the proportions

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