Anatomical landmarks: the checkpoints of the body

1Checkpoints you can see

You do not need to be a doctor to draw a convincing body, but you do need a few anatomical landmarks. These are places where bone lies just under the skin, so they stay visible whatever the person wears or however they move. Like the checkpoints on a road, they let you test your drawing: if the elbow and the kneecap are in the right place, the rest usually follows.

2Landmarks of the body

• Pit of the neck: the small hollow between the two collarbones. It sits directly above the centre of the body and is the start of the line of balance you will meet in the next lesson.
• Collarbones (clavicles): two bones running from the pit of the neck out to the shoulders. They set the width and tilt of the shoulders.
• Shoulder point: the bony tip of the shoulder, where the arm hangs from.
• Seventh neck bone: the bump at the base of the back of the neck; bend your head forward and feel it.
• Elbow point and wrist bone: the elbow point stays visible when the arm bends; the wrist bone is the knob on the little-finger side.
• Kneecap (patella): a flat bone at the front of the knee.
• Ankle bones: the inner ankle bone is higher than the outer one. Beginners often draw them level; check your own feet.

3Measuring rules that use landmarks

• With the arms hanging, the elbows are at the waist (about navel level) and the wrists at the crotch.
• The fingertips reach mid-thigh, never the knee.
• A hand, from wrist to fingertip, is about as long as the face from chin to hairline. Test it: rest your chin on the heel of your hand.
• A foot is about as long as the forearm, elbow to wrist.
• The arm span, fingertip to fingertip, is about equal to the height.

4Landmarks of the face

• The eyes are halfway down the head, not near the top. Most beginners place them too high and lose the forehead.
• The face is about five eye-widths wide, and the gap between the eyes is one eye-width.
• The base of the nose is about halfway between the eyes and the chin; the nose is about as wide as the gap between the eyes.
• The mouth is about one third of the way from the nose to the chin, and its corners line up below the centres of the eyes.
• The ears fit between the eyebrow line and the base of the nose.

Worked example: correcting a drawing

Keza draws her cousin standing. The fingertips reach the knees and the eyes are one quarter of the way down the head. Check against the landmarks: fingertips belong at mid-thigh, so the arms are about half a head too long; the eyes belong halfway down, so the forehead is too small and the head looks flat on top. She shortens the forearms so that the wrists meet the crotch line and redraws the eye line across the middle of the head. The figure immediately looks more natural.

5Make it: a landmark portrait of a partner

1. Sit facing a partner. Draw a large egg shape for the head, narrow end down.
2. Draw a light centre line from top to chin, then a line across the middle for the eyes.
3. Divide the eye line into five equal parts; draw the eyes in parts 2 and 4.
4. Mark the base of the nose halfway between the eyes and the chin, and the mouth one third of the way below it.
5. Place the ears between the eyebrow line and the nose line, then add the hair, which sits above the top of the skull.
6. Check two landmarks with your partner's real face using a pencil, then press harder on the final lines.

6Look closely

The Dutch painter Jacob de Wit (1695–1754) made this study of an old man's head as a plan for a figure of Moses. The head is turned in a three-quarter view, halfway between front and side.

• In a three-quarter view the centre line of the face curves around the head, so the far eye looks narrower than the near eye.
• The long beard hides the chin and neck. De Wit still had to know where the chin was to hang the beard from it; try marking where you think the chin is, then check whether the eyes sit about halfway between it and the top of the head.
• The strongest light falls on the forehead, the nose and the cheekbone: landmarks where bone pushes out towards the light.

Practice