1. The arm is held directly out in front with the elbow kept rigid.
2. A pencil, or the imaginary line of the "claw" between thumb and index finger is kept parallel (in the same place as) your face, which is in turn parallel with the model.

If you are looking at a model you can quickly take the distance between the top of the head and the bottom of the chin, and then either with pencil or claw, move down in the same parallel line to see how many "heads" are in that pose. There happen to be slightly over seven in the pose above. If the perspective were different there would be more or fewer "heads". Tick the line to which the feet will come. The big toe is about seven heads. Put a light perpendicular line down the page as shown. Taking the head measurement again go across from the perpendicular to see how many heads the toe is from it, and tick there. It is about three and a half on the above figure. The knee point (patella) is about three heads across and three heads down. With only a few basic measurements which have relation to the head and the pertinent ticks on the page the figure can be roughed in and developed in proportion.

1. There are three canons for determining the proportions of the human figure:
(a) A canon of seven and a half heads for the ordinary figure (fig.1).
(b) A canon of eight heads for the ideal figure (fig.2).
(c) A canon of eight and a half heads for the heroic figure (fig.3).
2. The canon normally used by artists is the eight head canon, which corresponds to the proportions of the ideal figure (fig.2).

• The seven and a half canon may be used for drawing ordinary figures taken from everyday life. It is the anonymous figure that represents the neighbor across the street or the man in the corner store - the man in the street. The shortish figure, about 5'6" or 5'8" tall, on the stout side, has a rather large head in proportion to the size of the body, the thighs, and the legs. (fig.1)
• The eight and a half canon may be used for exceptional cases, for idealized and exaggerated legendary figures (fig.3). This is the figure normally used by comic strip illustrators; it has a small head in relation to its body and long legs. This is the heroic figure who goes by the name of Superman or Batman. It can also be used for the biblical Moses or the legendary El Cid in religious and historical paintings.
• Let us now study the ideal figure of eight heads (fig.3), using it as the basis for our knowledge of the proportions and dimensions of the human body. Pay great attention to the next page since, along with our knowledge of human anatomy, it represents an extremely important step toward a perfect grasp of the technique of figure drawing.

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