You've probably heard of figure drawing before.

Figure drawing is drawing the human form in various shapes and positions. To effectively draw moving characters, you need a general knowledge of the human body. Most importantly, you need to know where and how the arms, legs, and head attach to a torso.

This tutorial covers figure drawing proportions and techniques for drawing different types of characters.

Note: You can also find a video of this lesson at the bottom of the page.

 

Balance of the human figure

Have you ever seen an image of the figure below? It is called the Vitruvian Man.

 

It shows two crucial points that makes the figure drawing balanced well:

 

1. The length between the figure's arms spread wide is the same as the length from its head to its feet.

2. When the figure's arms and legs are open and extended, it forms a perfect circle.

 

With these two measurements, you can maintain the balance of the whole figure.

 

Head to body ratio

There is a unique balance found in nature, music, mathematics, etc. such as the golden proportion.

For drawing, a well-balanced human body is about 7-8 heads tall. Head to body ratio refers to the number of heads that fits into the body.

 

The length of a head is measured from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin. So drawing seven more heads below the first head will give you the ideal body length as shown in the image below.

 

 

 

The body proportion of an adult male standing upright

 

First, decide on the head to body ratio, and from there determine the position of each body part.

Proportion measurements:

 

(1) Width

Think of the width of the shoulder as about 1.5 heads width.

 

(2) Crotch/hip joints

The middle of the body, or 1/2 of the total body’s height becomes the crotch.

 

(3) Knees

1/2 of the crotch’s height becomes the knee.

 

 

 

Arm position

 

After confirming the overall position of the arm, I go verify the proportions of other parts.

 

(1) Elbow

The elbow lands roughly above the lower back near the solar plexus.

 

(2) Hand

The wrist sits at the crotch/hip joints, and the hand extends out from there.

 

Following this method allows you to make sure the whole body is well-proportioned.

From there you can adjust the arm or leg length as needed, etc.

 

Note:

Take care when drawing the balance of the whole body in regards to biological sex.

For males, the elbow hits the navel, and the navel is at the waist.

For females, the elbow hits the waist, and the navel is below the waist.

 

Facial balance

There is a golden ratio for the proportions of the face.

It is often used when applying make-up, etc.

 

(1) Eye position

The eyes appear at the midpoint of the head.

The gap between the eyes is one eye long.

 

(2) Nose position

The nose sits halfway between the eyes and the chin.

 

(3) Mouth position

The bottom of the lips sit halfway between the nose and the chin.

 

Balance the profile of the face using the same measurements.

 

If you think about balance too much, your figure will end up looking stiff, so think of this as a drawing tool guide rather then an ironclad rule.

 

How to draw an adult male

Now, let’s take what we just learned and draw a character with it.

First, I will draw an adult male.

 

 

 

References

 

Instead of immediately going in and drawing the face, let’s start by imagining what the whole body will look like and making sure that its proportions are well-balanced.

 

I want to draw him standing up straight, so I draw a vertical line down the paper as a reference.

 

I use the heads for measurement and make the figure 7.5 heads long.

Here is my figure's approximation. Don’t worry if it gets messy at this stage.

 

I will draw the character here.

 

 

 

Determining joint positions

 

In the end, you should be happy with the balance of the body and face, but your personal preferences about how your characters look like are important too!

 

▼ Roughly drawing the whole figure

First, I roughly draw the whole body of the figure, head to feet.

 

▼ Shoulders

Next, I add the shoulders.

The current trend is to draw a character with a narrow shoulder width, so I make the shoulder width about one head in length.

 

▼ Thighs

After drawing the neck and the shoulders, I position the crotch roughly three heads below the shoulders.

 

▼ Knees

I draw the knees halfway between the feet and the crotch.

Humans have pretty long thighs.

 

▼ Elbows

I then draw the elbows about three heads below the figure’s head.

With adult males, the elbows are at the same height as the navel.

 

The adult male’s body is now proportionately even.

You can apply this way of drawing to all figures such as babies and seniors.

 

How to draw babies, seniors and adult women

Babies

 

Babies have big heads.

A baby's total body length is about three heads tall.

 

Tips for drawing babies

When drawing a baby, the second head fits between the neck and the lower back; the third head fits between the lower back and the feet. 

 

Making the palms fall at the same length as the crotch makes the proportions look even cuter.

 

With this the baby’s proportions are complete.

 

 

 

A senior man

 

Moving on I will draw the proportions of a senior man

 

Let’s make the senior man a little shorter than the adult man.

From the head let’s make him about six heads in length.

 

Tips for drawing seniors

 

Giving him a slumped back, and slightly bent knees will make the character look like a typical grandpa.

 

With this, I have drawn a senior man.

I dress him in a tank top so that he looks even more like a grandpa character.

 

 

 

Adult Woman

 

Adult women are generally a little shorter than adult men.

I draw the adult woman about seven heads long.

 

Tips for drawing adult women

A tip for drawing adult women is to bring their waist higher than an adult man’s waist.

Unlike adult men, both the torso and hips will be about the same size.

 

A high waist makes the figure look like a model.

 

Drawing the face

Finally, I will explain how to draw a face.

I draw a circle for the face and then, draw a vertical line down the center, and draw a horizontal line halfway between the top and the bottom.

 

 

 

Eyes, Nose, Mouth, Ears

 

Using the crossed lines as a guide, I draw in the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears of an adult man.

 

Note:

Depending on where you concentrate the facial elements, you can determine a character's age. When drawing a child, put them on the lower half of the face.

Drawing the eyes and nose beneath the horizontal line gives the face a youthful appearance.

 

 

 

Long Hair

 

Draw a figure’s hair slightly raised from the outline of the head.

 

Following these figure drawing guidelines I was able to draw various figures.

 

 

 

What do you think?

You don't need to be hyper-aware of proportions, just knowing the basic guidelines of figure drawing will help you distinguish both age and sex.

 

Please try them out for yourself!

Note: You can switch the subtitles to English by pressing the setting button on the bottom right of the movie.

 

This lesson is part of a comic creation course by Manabi Journey.

 

MANABI JOURNEY (Manabi Journey) is an online school for people all over the world who want to learn.

Note: The service is currently available in English and Japanese.