Drawing a Male Nude

Having established an outline of the structure and light, I merely have to consult the original sketch to to give a fuller definition to the shadows.

I begin shading at the figure's left arm and move outward across the torso. I do not yet bring out the darkest darks, because I may need to make erasures later. 

Below, I continue shading outwards from the center. I have established by now all the basic muscular  and skeletal forms to be fleshed out. I try to do this with a fluent hatching stroke to avoid making prominent lines in the interior of the figure.  Besides giving a convincing roundness to the form, it also puts an added emphasis on the harshness of such lines that I do want to feature, such as those in the deltoid and triceps. This allows me to stress angularity without sacrificing realism. 
If you click on any of the images for a close up view, you will see that my hatching is done in largely uniform direction. This is a choice that grew out of starting shading on the figure's left arm. This stroke was a natural choice in this regard, and I found that by continuing it across the figure, I could produce a rhythm, of which the sharp lines of the arm are a kind of climax. The only cross-hatching is in the torso, where it is fine enough to be imperceptible. 


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