A gazillion free tutorials on drawing the human figure

John Martz | December 18th, 2006

That’s right — a gazillion! Okay, maybe not a gazillion, but pretty close. The Structure of Man blog has links to 178 video tutorials on YouTube by artist Riven Phoenix (not to be confused with River Phoenix I’m sure) that range anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes long. This first episode, shown here (which, admittedly, I haven’t watched in its entirety), is kind of weird in that it’s a lesson on method, rather than one that results in a practical end result, and Riven teaches this episode with a strange “creature contraption” metaphor that’s a little hard to follow. But I’ve skipped ahead a few epsiodes, and it’s a great-looking resource, and pretty amazing that they’re all online (although you can also buy a DVD set of the tutorials if you don’t like the craptastic quality of YouTube).

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  • sciboy
    As i understand it what he means by inventing is to actually go through the entire design process of the subject. By doing so you break it down into rules that can be easily remembered.
  • calebcharles
    I'm on lesson 12 right now and have learned much. Only 166 to go. The instructive style is a bit dry, but if you get past that; watch out. If you have no formal art education this could be your chance. I'm gonna do all of them.
  • I used to be able to draw a figure fairly well, but now I'm confused.
  • patchouli14
    wow thats awesome! I cant beleive how much that changed the way i look at drawing the human figure- always seemed so daunting before. Thank you!
  • it is awesome! yea..u really need a lot of patience to watch the whole thing through but after 20 lessons or so you kinda get used to it. if you listen closely you can even hear his kids in the background.he has a sense of humour and knows he sounds corny haha. at one point..i'm not sure whther its just me or what..but i've played it over and over again and it sounded and looked like he paused for a moment to let one rip! lol!

    anyways... i'm up to 92 now and i've learnt so much. Thank you Riven Pheonix!
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