Alignment, baby.

Painting a great figure can start with the spine

I love a good hack and will watch anything on social media that helps me get all the ketchup out of the bottle or organize a drawer. I especially love a great painting hack and have no shame when it comes to using any tool I can find to make a painting look the way I want it to look.

And this is especially true when it comes to painting the body, which is a challenging thing to do. Over the years I have learned from teachers and books and the internet a few hacks that help me make sure that the human bodies I paint look like human beings and not space aliens or Neanderthals. Because, while we don’t always knows why a body we are painting does not look right, our eyes can always tell when something is funky with the length of the arms or the curve of a back.

For this painting hack you focus on alignment and angles and start with the spine.

If you are like me and walking around the world not wearing your eyeglasses when you should be, you might not recognize the face of a friend approaching you on the street, but you most definitely recognize the way they strut or shuffle or slouch. And when you are painting somebody you know personally or a famous person you are very familiar with, then you will know if something is wrong with their posture.

So you can have success capturing the spirit and slouch and attitude of a person if you focus on the spine. This exercise begins by printing out an image of the person you want to paint and mapping out the basics of your subject’s body on that.

Step 1: Establish the curve of the spine

Step 2: Mark the tilt of the collarbone and the hip bones.

Step 3: Mark the joints at the elbows, knees and ankles

Step 4: Connect the joints to create the bend of the legs and arms.

Step 5: Recreate this drawn armature from your printout onto your canvas or paper. Make sure the spine on your painting is the same and that the angles of the arms and legs are accurate.

You now have a frame on which you can start building your figure. Add the neck and head, being careful to capture the correct tilt and angle of the face.

Build up the flesh and clothing and then add the small details that tell the story of the person you are painting, like eye color, the arch and thickness of the eyebrows and the fashion and jewelry that make them, them. Because capturing the essence and spirit of a person is the reason to paint them.

As Michelangelo said, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." Your job when painting a portrait is to free the angel.

Here is a video of the entire process and stay posted for some great hacks for painting the face. Happy Painting! S.