Tutored Life Drawing Blog Week 29: The Feet (Patreon)

Feet play an important role in any standing pose as they support the body's weight, and ground it. They have a lot of subtle complexity, with a similar underlying structure to the hand despite the overall shape being very different – this makes them quite challenging to draw.

One of these challenges is making the foot look three dimensional, especially when dealing with foreshortened views and the back of the foot. There are also a lot of small surface changes created by bones, small muscles, tendons, and fat.

This lesson will cover some observed properties of the foot, particularly regarding understanding and portraying its structure, and introduce some ideas about the anatomy of the foot, and how that affects what we see.

Image Above: Study of a foot.

Observational Features of the Feet

The most changeable features of the foot are the ankle and toes, both of which can move and change in different poses. However, both these areas have some consistent features that can be checked and used to navigate them.

One of the bones of the ankle sits higher than the other. This results in the bump for the bottom of the tibia – the one on the inside of the foot – sitting higher on the leg than the bump for the bottom of the fibula – the one on the outside of the foot. The bump for the fibula is usually bigger as well. This results in an angle that crosses the top of the foot.

The toes also have a predictable structure, fitting to an arc. This can vary a bit from person to person, as there are a few different common foot shapes where the furthermost toe is different. (It is not necessarily the toe length, but a combination of this and the metatarsal bones.) Arcs are a useful tool in ensuring the toes align, at the tips and further up at the joints and knuckles of the foot.

One tricky aspect when starting out with drawing the foot is the directional aspect of it, especially in front and back views. It helps to be mindful of the direction the foot is pointing in and the contact it makes with the ground.

Arcs marking out the alignment of the toes and knuckles (orange) and the angle of the ankle bones (green).

Identifying a side edge to the foot will help with establishing front or back edges. This forms a rectangular base of sorts that the foot sits on top of, and helps with defining clearer forms.

Here the back or front side of the foot is indicated (red) with a direction line for the foots length (orange). Another way to visualise this is by imagining a rectangle for the foot to stand on.

Purely frontal or rear views are more difficult. Starting with the back, the heel and Achilles tendon form a back 'plane' or surface to the foot. This overlaps the rest of the foot – the middle of the foot is wider than the back, which is quite narrow, so the sides of the foot spread out from the back. There is also a top edge that runs from the front of the ankle to the knuckle of the big toe that forms a useful reference.

The front of the foot is more challenging because it is more like a wedge shape on this side, and does not have a definite front 'side', but more of a slope. The toes sit in front of the bulk of the foot, but the top plane of the foot is visible, showing something of an 'end' on view of its volumes. The cross section of the foot is asymmetric, sitting higher on the inside than the outside, with an arch across the foot as a whole.

The back of the foot creates a rough surface with the heel and Achilles tendon (green). The front side of the foot has a varying cross section (blue) that is a little like a 'D' rolled on its side and slightly squashed.

The foot can be broadly split into different planes for the top, back, base and sides. There are a few different ways to do this, but the simplest is to create a lop-sided wedge shape that is a bit narrower towards the outside of the foot.

A simplified version of the foot and its planes. This can be simplified further to a wedge shape; this version shows the thickness of the toes, and how the inner edge of the foot is thicker.

Anatomy of the Foot

The skeletal structure of the foot is complex and contains many bones, but these can be simplified into broad groups. Much of the foot is fairly rigid and doesn't move – most of the action comes from the ankle and the toes.

Bones

The ankle is formed by the tibia and fibula straddling the talus bone, which fits between them and rotates up and down. The bumps on the ankle are created by the ends of the tibia and fibula – the medial malleolus of the tibia on the inside, and the lateral malleolus of the fibula on the outside. At the back of the ankle, sometimes a little bump from the calcaneus is visible – this bone is mostly hidden by protective cushioning. There are a number of other small bones that make up the ankle, but these tend not to affect the surface forms as much.

Major bones and groups of bones in the foot. Note that the bones are protected from the ground by fatty pads.

The metatarsals of the foot are similar to the metacarpals of the hand, in that there is one for each toe and they link the toes to the ankle much like the metacarpals link the fingers to the wrist. These bones arch downwards and across from the inside of the foot, and downwards from the back of the foot to the front of the foot. They also radiate out from the ankle to widen the foot.

The metatarsals also create 'knuckles' with the toes. This is especially prominent with the big toe. The toes themselves are made of three phalanges, except the big toe, which only has two, like the thumb.

Three-Quarter view of the inside of the foot.

Each toe is distinct in appearance. The big toe is most rounded, the second toe is squarish, the third toe is somewhat pointed, the fourth toe is rounded and the little toe is somewhat bullet-shaped. It is worth observing the shapes of the toes individually to portray them more easily. (One trick to doing this is to draw the negative shapes created by the occlusion shadows or gaps between them.)

There are a few muscles in foot, most of them hidden under protective padding on the sole of the foot. Most of the movement of the foot is driven by muscles in the lower leg as well, though some of the tendons that attach to these are often visible.

The tip of each toe has a distinct shape (orange). Useful negative shapes are indicated in blue.

Muscles

The tendons that move the toes are very visible on the top of the foot and stem from two muscle groups. The extensor digitorum longus and extensor hallucis longus are based in the lower leg, and the extensor digitorum brevis comes from the ball-like muscle that is visible on the top, outer side of the foot. These all extend and lift the toes, with the longus set of tendons sitting on top. (There are opposing flexor muscles on the sole of the foot which are largely covered in padding.)

The two abductor muscles on the sides of the foot also round out the form a bit, and may be more visible when they cause the big or little toes to splay outwards.

Major visible surface muscles and tendons of the foot.

Fat

A final key feature of the surface of the foot, especially on the underside, is its fat pads. These thick, protective pads help protect the bones of the foot when it supports the body's weight. There are three major fat pads on the sole of the foot that sit under the heel, behind the big toe, and behind the other four toes up to the side of the foot. These conceal the muscles and bones of the foot and protect them by cushioning the body's weight. There are also little fat pads under the tip of each toe.

The skin and fat pads are thinner where the foot doesn't press against the ground – under the arch of the foot and under the middle joint of the toes. This is worth considering when drawing the forms of the foot, as these areas will have less volume. The toes in particular have a narrower middle portion.

Approximate placement of protective fat pads on the foot.

Sculpture and Gesture of the Foot – Application in Artworks

This sculpture is an imprint of a foot – it actually has a matching foot that fits it. The sole of the foot has a varied surface due to the volumes of the fat pads that support it, as can be seen here. Little pads at the ends of the toes create deep indents, whilst the gaps between the toes and the sole of the foot do not. On the sole of the foot, there are clear changes in how fast the forms curve around the edges of the pads, and how deep they go. The heel and ball of the foot have the most padding, whilst the arch on the inside of the foot, not only raised by bone structure, is less protected.

Anonymous Artist - Rachel's Footprint (Source: Musée de la Vie romantique, Paris Musées Collection)

These studies were made from a painting by Rubens, and are a great example of the role the foot plays in the overall gesture of the leg, even when not supporting the body. The fluid ink marks show both gesture and structure conveyed in the original painting, sculpting out the different surfaces of the feet and legs with hatching, and indicating landmarks such as the ankles and the arch of the foot. The raised foot in the left-most drawing uses hatching to very subtly show the change in surface direction created by the extensor digitorum brevis and abductor digiti minimi.

Eugène Delacroix (after Peter Paul Rubens – see below) - Study of Arms and Legs of Christ Crucified (Source: Art Institute Chicago)

Peter Paul Rubens - Cruxifiction (Source: The Yorck Project)

Key Points to Remember About Drawing the Feet

• The foot has clear back, side, top and sole surfaces, but is also characterised by a curved arch both across and along the metatarsal bones.
• The foot is mobile in the ankle and toes, but the bulk of the foot is quite rigid.
• Most of the foot is made of bone and fatty padding, with only a few small flexing muscles visible at the surface.
• Fatty pads and thick skin protect the sole of the foot and define its surface forms.

Over to You – Drawing the Gesture and Form of the Feet

Recommended Materials: Any

Exercise 1: Feet Studies in Poses

Drawing the feet from lots of different angles in the context of the lower or full leg will help with improving understanding of how it attaches to the whole leg, and changes with different poses. When doing these studies, try to cover a range of angles, including more challenging foreshortened ones and poses that both support the body, and don't bear any weight.

When drawing these quick studies, think about how the ankle wraps around the top of the foot to create a hinge, how the forms of the sole of the foot compress with weight and how the toes bend relative to the rest of the leg.

Foot studies in context of the rest of the leg, using a variety of different poses.

Exercise 2: Feet Studies from Observation

Drawing your own feet is a convenient little exercise that can help with improving your understanding of the forms and surface qualities of the foot – drawing from life is especially helpful regarding this. It also allows you to control the pose of the foot, and see what happens when the toes flex, or the foot twists in certain directions.

If you want to, a mirror can also be used in this exercise to get angles that you ordinarily wouldn't.

Various foot studies.

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Further links

>> Watch the Week 29: Feet main lesson HERE (Student & Life Tiers)  
>> Watch the Week 29: Feet main demo HERE (Student & Life Tiers)  
>> Practice your drawings with our photo set HERE (Student & Life Tiers)

Find links to the whole Tutored Life Drawing Course HERE