Many fine painters avoid drawing the human figure because they think it is too difficult and consequently will not include human forms in their painting.  They will readily put animals into their paintings, but never the human.  The problem is that the human form, when not painted correctly, is easily viewed as incorrect in proportions by just about anyone.  Most of the human forms you are going to paint will be about 8 inches tall and most of the form will be covered by clothing, so selecting a skin tone does not have to be an exercise in complex paint mixing.  In the painting “The Glade” the face has very little shading because it is so small.  Use of shading on something that small would only distort the face (shading is used on the larger body parts).  If you go on the net you will find suggestions that use up to 15 different colors to produce skin tones.  Wow…unless you want to make yourself nuts, just use some Burnt Sienna or Yellow Ochre mixed with a lot of white.  Add of tad of yellow to Burnt Umber or Burnt Sienna to achieve yellow ochre (yellow ochre is a sort of standard when it comes to skin tone).   That will give you all the shades you need.   When you turn pro you can play around with exacting skin tones. If you are not skilled at drawing then purchase a cheap digital camera (color is not the issue just proportions) and printer then take some pictures of friends and family posing or candid, make a print and trace a copy onto your board.  You’re not doing a portrait so resemblance to the person is not an issue: all you need are the body parts in correct proportion.

The Glade

Humans have an eye for what is correct in terms of the human form and most of us can quickly spot distortions in the drawings and paintings of humans.  However, given the modern digital camera and home printer, just about anyone can take a picture, make a copy to a printer, and then trace the result.  With a little creative effort you can modify the tracing to match what you are attempting to paint.  The photo below was used to develop the couple in the painting “Journey Home”.  A tracing was made of the picture and then modified for the painting.

Unless you are attempting to paint the human form without clothing, the actual painting of people dressed is not all that difficult to accomplish.  Clothing does not have an expected proportion as does the naked human form, therefore just about any rendition will do.  A few light and dark shades to denote folds etc. is about all you need to do.  Also the more you use this approach the more proficient you will become in free hand drawing.  By starting with some tracing you learn quickly what is in proportion.  When first starting out stick to back views so as to avoid having to paint the human face.  Hands and feet are not all that tough.  Just enlarge those areas of hands and feet, trace then practice free hand reproduction into a smaller size.  You will get the hang of it, but it takes a bit of practice.  The simple truth is that no matter how well you can draw the hand: painting it will become a challenge because of the small size and the tendency of paint to bleed.

The human form really enriches a painting and gives it some distance from the concept of landscape.  Once you practice this and develop some skill you will never want to do another painting without the human form.

Steps (Face, hands and feet will require an extremely small soft brush: 18/0)

1. Decide on the figure you want to represent in the painting.  Start simple with the backs of people.  In the painting of the couple the hand of the elderly gentleman in nothing more than a dab of Burnt Sienna at the end of his sleeve.  It is so small that the human eye will interpret the dab as a hand.  The same is true for the slight profile of the elderly woman:  all that is there is a light shade of Burnt Sienna.  I did put a very very thin line of a darker shade of Burnt Sienna at the position of where the eye would be.  I mean this was really slight and I used a magnifying glass to do it.  It took a few times to get it right because the paint wanted to bleed.  This is where Qtips come in handy!
2. Take a digital photo of a friend posing in the desired position.  As an example if you want to eventually paint someone climbing up a mountain trail, have your model pose on a stair case.  Steps are easily replaced with dirt and rocks.  Caution:  never use a photo that you did not personally take.  Copyright laws will get you into quick trouble if you start tracing photos off the net.
3. Decide how large the figure needs to be and print out accordingly.  On a 16 x 20 canvas a 5 x 7 is likely to work well.
4. Trace the picture on tracing paper.  Make modifications as necessary.  This should be absolutely complete so that no modifications are necessary after transfer to the painting.