"Do you have any tips for placing small figures in paintings? People, animals, etc., make paintings so much more interesting, and some artists seem to have a knack for getting everything just right. But, I just can't figure it out. They're too short, too tall, arms and legs are different lengths, head's too big, or something else is wrong." -- Dale S.
I think with small figures you need to use as little detail as possible. Use broad shapes and changes in tone to suggest, and let the viewer's mind fill in the detail. In a sketchbook, experiment with painting as little detail as possible. For instance one color for body, one for legs, one for hands/face, and a darker version of this for hair. Vary the tone within both the torso and legs rather than using another color.
Count the number of brush strokes you're using to create the figure and try to reduce it. One for body, one for each arm, one for each leg with a flick for a foot, one for head, one for hair. Use pressure on the brush to widen the stroke rather than making two.
Practice Painting Small Figures
Watercolor is an excellent medium for practicing painting small figures as you simply dip your brush into some water to lighten the tone from what you're already using. And it's totally unforgiving if you rework an area, forcing you to be decisive. I think the Australian watercolorist John Lovett does a brilliant job at reducing small figures to basic shapes. Take a look a this two-step explanation of his (scroll down the page a bit).
Like so many things, it gets easier with practice. (Lots of practice.) Start by concentrating on the shape and proportions of the figure, just by itself, forgetting about color. Use magazine or newspaper photos to give you poses and help with proportions. Take a pen to the outline of the figure to get the outline shape, then fill it in with paint. Now repaint it in your sketchbook, reducing the figure down to no more than an inch or two.
Learning Figure Proportions
If in doubt how far an arm extends, for instance, use your own body as a guide. If your arm is straight down, how far does it reach on your leg? Your elbow is generally around waist level. With your elbow tucked into your waist, put your hand on your shoulder and compare the different lengths of your forearm and upper arm.
Spread your hand across your face and you'll see how the two compare for size. Put the base of your hand on your chin and extend your fingers -- they generally reach above your eyebrows or where someone's hair might start. Now place you other hand at the tip of your fingers to measure how far there is to the top of your head. (It's actually still quite a distance; eyebrows are about a third of the way down the head.)
Measure the width of your head, then the width of your shoulder on either side of your head if you're looking to the front. Now turn your head and measure the width of your head/shoulders. Get these proportions right, and place hair on the right edges, and a shapeless small blob of paint transforms in to a head onto shoulders. It doesn't need eyes, mouth, nose, or eyebrows to "read" as a face.
Feet are surprisingly big. About the length from your elbow to wrist. (Check, it's true!) But again, you don't need detail in the feet or shoes, just a shape to give the figure something to be standing on. Think "rectangle tapering to the toes".
Little formulas like these help make proportions easier to remember, and easier to apply to a figure you're painting from your imagination. With practice (that word again!) it will become instinctive.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Once you're feeling a little more comfortable with individual figures by themselves, the next step is to practice painting them in proportion to what else might be in a painting. Sketch an outline of a building or tree, then add individual figures in proportion to this. Then a family group where the figures are different sizes. Again, with time and practice, this too will become more instinctive.
Fill pages of your sketchbook with small figures. If one's not working, don't fiddle with it but abandon it to start again. Then when you're going to paint a small figure on a "real painting", if you don't trust yourself to have practiced sufficiently to do it satisfactorily, look through your sketchbook for one that suits the painting and copy it. You did it before, so trust yourself to do it again. Practice is the path towards perfection.
