Fashion Design Drawing

Building the Figure

Fashion Design Drawing - Figure Drawing Building The Figure 1.jpg

From a piece of lath and a few inches of copper or other flexible wire, a
working model of the solid portions of the body may be constructed. Cut
three pieces from the lath to represent the three solid masses of the body:
the head, chest and hips. Approximately, the proportions of the three blocks,
reduced from the skeleton, should be - Head, 1 inch by 5/8 of an inch; torso,
1 1/2 inches by 1 1/4 inches; hips, 1 inch by 1 1/4 inches.

Fashion Design Drawing - Figure Drawing Building The Figure 2.jpg

Drive two parallel holes perpendicularly through the center of the thick-
ness of each of these blocks, as closely together as practicable. Wire the
blocks together by running a strand of flexible wire through each of these
holes, allowing about half an inch between the blocks, and twist the wires
together.

The wire in a rough way represents the spine or backbone. The spine is
composed of a chain of firm, flexible joints, discs of bone, with shock-
absorbing cartilages between them. There are twenty-four bones in the spine,
each bending a little to give the required flexibility to the body, but turning
and twisting mostly in the free spaces between the head and chest, and be-
tween the chest and hips. The spine is the bond of union between the
different parts of the body.

The portion of this wire between the head and chest blocks represents the
neck. On the neck the head has the power to bend backward and forward,
upward and downward, and to turn. The head rests upon the uppermost
vertebra of the spine, to which it is united by a hinged joint. Upon this joint

it moves backward and forward as far as the muscles and ligaments permit.
The bone beneath this hinged joint has a projection or point resembling a
tooth. This enters a socket or hole in the bone above, and forms a pivot or
axle upon which the upper bone and the head, which it supports, turn.

So, when we nod, we use the hinged joint, and when we turn our heads,
we use the pivot or axle.

The wire between the two lower blocks represents that portion of the spine
which connects the cage or chest above with the basin or pelvis below. This
portion of the spine is called the lumbar region. It rests upon the pelvis or
basin into which it is mortised. Its form is semicircular: concave from the
front. On this portion of the spine, the lumbar, depends the rotary movement
between the hips and the torso. As the spine passes upward, becoming part
of the cage or chest, the ribs are joined to it.

Fashion Design Drawing - Figure Drawing Building The Figure 4.jpg

The masses of head, chest and pelvis, represented by the three blocks, are
in themselves unmoving. Think of these blocks in their relation to each other
and forget, at first, any connecting portions other than the slender wire of
the spine.