Figure Drawing Lesson 007 - The Secrets of the Masters

Hey guys, my name is Riven Phoenix and welcome to the Structure of Man, Learn to Draw

the Human Figure from your Mind Training course.

Okay, so in the previous lesson we had proved the concept of invention working on really

rapidly increasing our ability to draw the figure because we were the ones who created

all the rules and all the design factors about it, right, we understood where the negative

spaces were and we also understood where the proportions were, right, so in that process

you can see as to how in this aspect of artistic thinking we're basically layering on one idea

on top of another basically creating a story that will become the story of figure drawing

for us, right, and this is really just looking at how rapidly the mind learns concepts

because it's approaching everything from its own point of view rather than adapting to

it.

Now we come to the really the most pivotal part of this course and here's where we will

start to go into the direction of understanding the complete structure of the human skeleton

which we will create completely from scratch, meaning that we will create all the bones,

all the formulas that will allow us to create a realistic skeleton structure and then

top of that we will put down all the muscles and then look at all the different techniques

of being able to draw the figure, right, and the reason for doing this is because the idea

here is that we want to master the human figure, this is why we're doing it this way and

we're proving on paper in each lesson that what it is that we're doing is always going

to be true.

So to do that, what we need to do is take a look at Da Vinci in Michelangelo and this

is going to be a really important concept to get and you will really see the fruits of

your labor as to why we were going through this process of invention.

So first I'm going to show you a drawing here by Da Vinci.

This is one of his studies that he's done so notice one of the things that I had stated

is very important to keep a sketchbook when you're going through this course is because

when you're doing the drawings, you'll be making notes for yourself just like it is

over here, right?

So if you look at this drawing from Da Vinci, right, he's going through a study process

of a painting that he's going to be doing so you can see that he's drawn out this figure

here in an outline form, right?

So which I already proved to you that once you have the enormous knowledge of the human

figure, we can do it this way, just like I did it before, right?

So this concept here, I'm just showing to you that it does exist, right?

So the thing to understand about these studies that these master artists leave behind is

because they really want us to look at their work and understand something from it, right?

It's like they're trying to give away their secrets, but in a much more subdued form where

we have to really investigate and see what is it that the artist is trying to say as to

how they got to this very high state of thinking about the human figure.

So if you look at this drawing very closely, you're going to see something very amazing

about it and that is the concept of invention.

So you'll notice that there is a grid here that Da Vinci put down, right?

So what this grid is, is basically a formula system which we also did in one of the previous

lessons just like this, right, to force the mind to understand concepts.

So when Da Vinci came up with his own formula, right, in his head he's measuring everything

out in this process and you'll see when we get to the human skull how this will really

be a moment of Eureka, when he does this, what's happening is that he's grabbing secret

information about how the design of the human figure looks like in the real world, right?

So when he draws out, when he sketches out like a drawing like this, he really doesn't have

to use the grid system is because he can just eyeball and he understands he can visually

see the grid that allows him to create very realistic figures, right?

So there are different formula mechanisms for that and here you can see he just divided

it and this is like information that only he would know.

So if he drew, let's say this figure in front of us, we would never see him use the

formulas because he's simplified them so much that we just don't know what they are, right?

But he's left a clue here to help us understand how the mind in the concept of invention

works because these are very powerful toolkits that we can invent ourselves.

Okay, so let me show you another drawing.

Here's another drawing of Da Vinci, it's kind of small here, but you'll see he's also done

the same thing with the grid system, right?

He's put a grid on top of the human face here and he's measuring out stuff that allows

him to understand what is going on.

So there's another drawing by Da Vinci, which I don't have here, but in one of his other

studies he's put like a star over here and from that star he holds lines down, touching

all these little small angles of the nose, right, where everything hits and he will even

go down to the chin.

And the reason he does that is because if you want to create something very realistically

you come up with a very secret formula that no one knows where you know where the grid

is, you basically just map it out here and once you pull those lines you always get the

angles based on reality giving your figures a very realistic look, right?

What I'm showing you here is artistic thinking, right?

The power of artistic thinking that we usually don't see when the artist is drawing out figures.

So having understood this, let's take a look at some other drawings here from Da Vinci.

So here's obviously a study of Da Vinci is doing of the human structure, right?

So these drawings he did them from in actual carcass, right?

Back in those days they didn't have anatomical books, they didn't have the amazing software

products that we have that allows us to see a complete structure of where everything connects.

In those times he had to actually get a dead carcass, skin him and look at each muscle and

do all his studies, right?

So he was really the only person who's really now looked at us a master of anatomy because

he was the guy who really took the bow by his horn and really started documenting this

to us to what he was discovering, meaning that when he's going through this process, right?

Because he was really the only person doing this in a very secret way.

Every time he documented this, from his point of view, it was seen as an invention idea,

right?

Because it's like an alien world to him, so every time he understands, okay, if the

deltoid and the biceps go here, he understands the connection points and how everything

is connected, right?

And this is the thing that we are missing is because we have so much information and

we have to go, we have to basically go back in time and do exactly what David cheated.

So here we'll just take a look at other drawings here.

Here's a study of a skeleton, you'll see that he's just doing the same thing, he understands

where everything goes.

And if you look closely, you can see like these small hint of grid lines that he's put

on because he understands exactly where everything goes here, right?

So he's really the go-to guy if you wanted to understand anatomy, right?

So he's coming up with his own systems, just like we are, right?

So here we came up with the 8-head formula, how everything is connected, and you can see

that these are hints of these lines as to how they're done.

And just to prove that, here's another drawing from the venting, you can see this line

going right down this figure, right?

It goes right straight down the gravity line, and he puts that line in the middle for the

crotch as to where it divides, right?

And you can see these hints of these lines again that David is doing, right?

Exactly what we've been doing all along in these studies that we did, right?

So we know that this is what I'm showing you, the concept of invention, we know that

it's been done by artists, but unfortunately, it really hasn't been documented ever by any

artists, even from that time, all right?

So this process really is also a proof of concept that what these artists went through, that

when we go through this exercise, that what DeVinci is seeing is obviously going to be true

over here also.

And here's just another drawing of DeVinci where he's using the concept of invention, where

he's put the human skeleton now, he's just understanding, okay, how does each muscle

connect?

So look how he puts all these muscles and tendons together, because he just wants to

understand how things connect, in his mind, it's like a mammary mat system, and again,

more notes over here, and once he's understood this, he's doing like these quick sketches of

the human head, of the skeleton structure, and he's putting like these muscles over here,

right?

To understand this, what I just showed you, all the stuff here is basically how we will

now begin our journey into understanding the entire human skeleton structure, right?

So just to make sure we all understand, what is it that we're trying to do here, is that

let's take DeVinci here, right?

So this is going to be DeVinci over here, and this is going to be us over here.

So let's just imagine that we are both starting our journey as artists into mastering the human

figure, right?

So we already know that DeVinci, when he went through his path, right?

He got access to dead carcasses, right, and from that, he began to understand and document

and draw out how every muscle and skeleton structure was constructed, right?

So his experience here was really an alien experience.

What I mean by that is that it's something that he's never seen before ever in his life.

So as soon as he starts looking at it, dissecting it, he's so excited about it, that everything

is imprinting in his mind, and he basically ends up mastering the structure of the human

figure down to the level of surface anatomy.

So the problem here with us is that we just have too much information available in today's

time when it to do with anatomy.

So we basically have to do the same thing here, but we have to do everything on paper.

So to do that, what we are going to do is invent, invent the actual structure of every

bone, every muscle, the surface anatomy, come up with all the rules, meaning that we're

really the pioneer, what we're doing is we're approaching figure drawing from a point

of view as, as if we are the ones who are going to pioneer it, we're going to create this

thing called a human being with all the rules, with all the secret information.

So when we draw it, it just looks like a human figure, which I proved to you in the

beginning of this course, when I drew it out like this, right, having the secret information

as to how the human figure is constructed, right.

And in this invention process, we will end up doing the same thing and that is to master

the human figure.

So obviously, the difference here is that we are going to do everything conceptually in

the Vinci, what he did was he did everything from reality, he turned it, he put it onto

paper, understood it conceptually, and obviously had a life drawing class of an experience, right.

So in figure drawing, what I'm showing you here is that 90% of the human figure, when

you're drawing it out onto paper, can be understood conceptually, right.

And that 10%, the remaining 10% has to come from life drawing and that, so that means 90%

is going to be conceptually, which is the structure of man, and then you're going to get 10%,

so we can divide that 10% into 5%, each, right.

So meaning that this 5% here must come from life drawing.

It has to, right, because you really have to see the human figure in the end, draw it

out to understand how the muscles are really wrapping and moving around the body.

This is something we just can't do anything about, right.

But the difference is that when we go through this course, and when you're doing life drawing

class, you'll just know exactly what each muscle is.

So it leaves this 5% or what is this 5% and this 5% is something that also can be understood

conceptually, and that is nothing more than understanding the counter of the human figure,

all these lines, right.

So because it's the same thing, if you went through life drawing classes for years and years

and got it to that level, you end up having all this information that counter aligns

anyways, right.

So meaning that you can also document that as a conceptual idea.

So basically the structure of man is really all about understanding how to draw the human

figure 95%, right.

That 5% has to come from life drawing.

There's nothing we can do about that.

So now I just want to touch on Michelangelo and we'll be done with this lesson.

So the thing about Michelangelo is that Michelangelo was an architect, right.

So he was really a sculptor.

So his understanding of the human figure was on a completely other level, right.

He was understanding everything in 3D, that's why he was a master.

So one of the things about Michelangelo is that he burned all his studies.

Every time he did like a painting or something, he always made sure that all the studies,

all the secret work that he did, he got rid of it.

I guess he just didn't want to show how he came up with his stuff.

So recently they actually ended up finding about 600 drawings for Michelangelo that he

didn't want the world to see.

And they've actually published a book about it and it's called Drawings of Michelangelo

and they're not that many, but even in his process.

So here's one of the studies that were privileged to see of Michelangelo,

but you can see that Michelangelo, even he, does the same concept in his studies

when he did sculptures or paintings, he would go through a process of understanding.

So if you can see here, he's putting the bone structure down.

He's trying to even understand himself how all the muscles just goes to fit together.

So when he sculpts it or paints it, he knows exactly where everything's supposed to be.

And over here you can even see like this cartoonish drawing of this bone structure of the leg

where he's trying to put all the muscles over here, right?

So in here, again, he's just trying to understand the contour lines of his drawing, right?

So each artist, what I'm showing you here, that even Michelangelo uses sketchbook

and he documented his process, right?

These are some of his secret stuff that we're looking at as to how he was able to do it, right?

And so the, and here's another drawing from Michelangelo,

this is obviously from the system chapel, right?

So he did a, he went through an enormous study process.

He got a lot, a rid of a lot of his drawings,

but you can see that his mastery was in surface anatomy, right?

He understood just like we are going to all the entire structure of the human skeleton,

but his power was really in surface anatomy.

You can see that he made sure that all the muscles showed through, right?

Even here he's just doing all his study work here.

You can see that he's erasing the foot, changing it around,

trying to make it as realistic as possible, right?

So that is the difference between in, in like a nutshell,

if you had to compare Da Vinci and Michelangelo, right?

Da Vinci is the person who documented anatomy

because he just left his studies, we know he did, right?

But Michelangelo got rid of all this stuff,

but he left these clues here for us to take away from his work

as to the power of surface anatomy, right?

He understands how all the muscles connect, right?

So this is the idea, like in this,

what I'm all the stuff that I'm saying to you is called artistic thinking, right?

We're just talking about loud, thinking about helping the mind understand

how to put this pivotal moment in the structure of man together.

This is like this idea here that we're trying to get the mind to understand, right?

So his concept here that he's stating from his drawing

is that you got to understand how all the muscles connect,

where this is supposed to connect and how they move across the body, right?

So he's more about this idea here.

He's talking about the most important,

which is the 5% that comes from life drawing, right?

As conceptually, you can draw figures like this just from this 95%.

This is just an experience that you need for yourself to understand how the body moves around, right?

So one thing that you would understand from life drawing is really this area of the body

really doesn't change much.

Neither does this.

It's really the area of the abs that there's really only the spine connects to it.

Then from here, it's very flexible, right?

So that allows you to understand how to twist and turn the body.

So having looked at all this,

so basically what we're going to do now is now when we start to look at the first idea

that we want to understand and that is going to be understanding the human skull, right?

So every time we understand something, we're just going to do the drawings again.

But next time when we draw the human skull,

we're actually going to draw out a realistic human skull completely from memory

in all these different views over here.

And you'll see that it's very easy to understand using the power of formulae.

So I will see you in the next lesson.

Thanks.