Including figures

Learning how to include figures in a scene will help give your paintings life.  Rarely is there a scene without human or animal life.  Having some experience including them in the composition will help give movement and interest to an otherwise lifeless scene.   Figures can be used to interrupt lines or overlap a shape so that they can be a compositional device.

Practice figures separately to ease the fear of placing them in crucial areas.  Heads are smaller than you might think.  Legs are longer. 

Figures also can provide scale by comparison.