A tall courier in three-quarter view

Goal: Separate an elongated adult silhouette from a three-quarter facial turn.

Prepare a white sheet, an HB pencil, a soft eraser and a fine ink pen. Digital students can use separate construction, ink, value and flat-color layers. Keep the demonstration visible beside your paper and reserve its full outer margin before beginning. Ivo is an original adult courier with a long leg rhythm, a short angular fringe, two temple clips and a diagonal satchel strap.

Compare the white wedge between the hanging sleeve and jacket with the larger gap between the legs. These gaps clarify which contours belong to the arm and which belong to the torso. Construction is a way to test these relationships while they are still easy to alter. Compare lengths, widths, slopes and overlaps within this particular original design. Use a mirror, your own reference or a friend who agrees to pose when you need an observation that the diagram simplifies.

The complete figure stands on the left; the larger matching head and flap study occupy the right. The far eye is narrower than the near eye, the nose projects to the right, and the satchel strap travels from the opposite shoulder into the near bag. Work through the illustrated sections in order, pausing at each checkpoint. Use the individual stroke control when a contour changes direction or an overlapping edge needs examination. A white paper reserve marks an opaque surface; a shaded or colored closed area is a region to fill deliberately, not one magical pencil stroke. Watch how a contour starts at a landmark, follows the form and returns to its attachment. Before ink, compare the important negative spaces as carefully as the positive silhouette. Keep the outer contour stronger than short interior texture.

The fixed studio light comes from the upper left. Check right-facing planes and areas beneath blocking forms before adding value. Keep one family of bounded gray shadows and a restrained palette beneath the finished contour. Local color does not change the geometry, and a dark costume hue does not replace a form shadow. Revisit the exact overlap or joint where your redraw differs; adding more decorative marks cannot repair a missing connection.

For independent practice, redraw Ivo facing the opposite direction, retaining the same fringe sequence, temple clips, leg-to-torso relationship and satchel construction. Add a second flap design using the same bag volume. Keep the demonstration and your new drawing together. Check the silhouette at half size, inspect every visible joint or attachment at full size, and compare the value grouping before judging small detail. Name one measurable correction and redraw that area once. Save a two-view courier design sheet with the completed demonstration, a reversed turn and one annotated strap correction. Include the light direction and one short note about an observation you chose to simplify, so the artifact records your decisions as well as the finished image.

Self-check

Q: In a three-quarter head, which eye is narrower?

A: The far eye. It turns away from you, so its opening is compressed toward the centerline.

Q: Where does the satchel strap start and end?

A: On the far shoulder and at the bag on the near hip, crossing the chest in one line.

Sources actually read

• Proko, How to Draw the Head from Any Angle
• Getty, Understanding Formal Analysis
• Celsys, Pen Settings for Anime Art in Any Style

Next: A broad engineer with a work apron.