Term
Mannequin
Meaning
A mannequin is a simplified drawing figure built from basic shapes such as spheres, boxes and cylinders, used to plan pose, perspective and overlap. The head is an oval, the ribcage and pelvis are boxes or eggs, the limbs are tapered tubes and the joints are small balls. It is a scaffold rather than a finished drawing, because real bodies are more varied. Drawing each shape as transparent, so lines pass through it, shows what overlaps what. See also: Gesture, Ribcage, Pelvis, Contour line and the guide "Torso, Mannequins and Light on Form: Building Solid Figures".