One of the most frequent questions I receive are from those who are having trouble drawing the body. Well, worry no more because I’m going to cover the basics right here in this article!
The first thing you have to learn when drawing the whole body is to use guidelines. As when you are drawing guidelines to draw the face, you use guidelines to draw bodies so it is drawn proportionally and anatomically correct.
As this image above illustrates, you can draw guidelines in many different ways from lines, to bubbles, and to full shapes like cylinders and circles. You can draw as little or as much detail as you want according to your preferences just as long as you are aware of the proportions of the body.
Here’s some proportion guidelines that you should take to heart when drawing the body:
1) the elbows tend to align right at the waist of a person (the waist, for the record is where your belly button is situated and is generally the slimmest part)
2) the wrist aligns right around where your hips and leg meet
3) the hand falls right at the top of your thigh
4) the top and bottom half of the leg (i.e. the parts above and below the knee) should be about the same length
5) the shoulder width should be about half the size of the head on each side.
1) the elbows tend to align right at the waist of a person (the waist, for the record is where your belly button is situated and is generally the slimmest part)
2) the wrist aligns right around where your hips and leg meet
3) the hand falls right at the top of your thigh
4) the top and bottom half of the leg (i.e. the parts above and below the knee) should be about the same length
5) the shoulder width should be about half the size of the head on each side.
There are of course exceptions to these rules like malformed individuals, mini-people, exaggerated characters that have animal-like builds (ex/gorilla), monsters and aliens. Other than that, your characters should pretty much look like this in the guideline form:
The second thing you have to learn is that the body is comprised of multiple shapes all attached and working together like Lego building blocks. Shapes vary from cylinders, circles, ovals, triangles, and other odd shapes. It is best to think about these shapes in 3D (i.e. cylinders, cubes, etc) as it will help you visualize the body in different points of view more easily.
Last but not least, in regards to the arms and legs, there is one thing that you must remember when drawing a regular person: Wide to thin.
What do I mean by this? Well, the arms and legs have this shape that tends to be wide then taper off as it reaches the next joint. For example, if you take your arm, it starts off wide at the shoulder and then will become thinner as it gets to the elbow. Then it will start off wide again and taper at the wrist. The same for your thigh. Wide to thin to the knee and again, it is wide to thin down to the ankles. Check out the drawing below to clarify what I just described:
As always, there are exceptions to the rule but this is a very general detail that you should take measures to remember when drawing the average human body.
All in all, keep these three points in mind whenever you’re drawing a body until it becomes subconscious and you do it automatically. If you ever run into a tight spot though, come back to these basics and you should be able to fix your mistakes.
Torso
Basics of a Torso
Drawing the torso can be a bit tricky. I’ll break it down for you in two ways: the first is the simple “shoujo” method and the other is the standard method. The image below is the basic outline of the upper body in the standard method.
The collarbone is from the shoulder down to the top of the chest (in blue), and rib cage extending from the collarbone to just at the waistline (in green). The chest, whether its a female or a male, will end at about the area in red. As for drawing the torso in the “shoujo” method, it’s just basically using a big triangle! The triangle points down and generally covers from the shoulder to the pelvic area. Since we’re only at the torso, it’s cut off. :)
Drawing the torso can be a bit tricky. I’ll break it down for you in two ways: the first is the simple “shoujo” method and the other is the standard method. The image below is the basic outline of the upper body in the standard method.
The collarbone is from the shoulder down to the top of the chest (in blue), and rib cage extending from the collarbone to just at the waistline (in green). The chest, whether its a female or a male, will end at about the area in red. As for drawing the torso in the “shoujo” method, it’s just basically using a big triangle! The triangle points down and generally covers from the shoulder to the pelvic area. Since we’re only at the torso, it’s cut off. :)
Different Point of Views
The torso in different points of view is done the same way you would do the face or any other object. Just change the angle of your outline and draw from there.
The torso in different points of view is done the same way you would do the face or any other object. Just change the angle of your outline and draw from there.
If you look at the images above, can you tell which one is female and which one is male? If you guessed the top is male and the lower is female, you’re right! Why is it? Because of the shape of the torso. Slimmer torso’s are generally associated with a more feminine person whereas bulkier torso’s are connected with a male. Use this knowledge to your advantage to create yoru average stereotypical gender build or create unique situations with athletic, bulky, females or thin, femininely-shaped guys. ;)
Basics of a Male Torso
Starting off the male torso, we’ll begin with drawing the shoujo way which uses the simple triangle method mentioned in the Torso Basics. But first, here is a quickie differentiation between male and female bodies…
Starting off the male torso, we’ll begin with drawing the shoujo way which uses the simple triangle method mentioned in the Torso Basics. But first, here is a quickie differentiation between male and female bodies…
On the right side of the first drawing is a stick figure comparison between a male and a female body. A male’s chest is wider than his hips whereas a female is equal in size, both chest and hips. That’s why female’s get the “hourglass figure” description. The main image shown is that of a male just looking at the hip and chest ratio. If it was a female, just extend the hips a bit wider. The bigger figure is generally how I prefer to draw males in shoujo style with the tip of the triangle as the hip. If you like drawing a male using the stick figure method with triangle ending at waist, that is your choice.
From the simple triangle is just a matter of adding in details. The next image is a guy with a slim built. Your typical shoujo guy. The only details this guy has emphasis his pecks, and a line for the middle of his chest and stomach.
The next buy, though, is an average built. I say average since you can draw a bulkier built than this image. When drawing someone like this guy, a little more detail is added plus the torso becomes bigger and less curvy (i.e. more angles, less round edges). New details include the outline of the ribcage.
Quickie upper torso (pecks) point-of-view (ASCII style!):
Turned Left Center Turned Right
|___|______ |____|____| _____|___|
Turned Left Center Turned Right
|___|______ |____|____| _____|___|
More Muscles
The neat and quick way to add the impression of more muscle is to add certain lines at particular areas. The first being at the pecks. A few additional lines creates “look” of more taut muscles and a more built guy. Make sure you curve your lines since the peck is curved and is not flat.
,br> The second is to add the six-pack! They’re basically square in shape except round at the edges as shown below.
The neat and quick way to add the impression of more muscle is to add certain lines at particular areas. The first being at the pecks. A few additional lines creates “look” of more taut muscles and a more built guy. Make sure you curve your lines since the peck is curved and is not flat.
,br> The second is to add the six-pack! They’re basically square in shape except round at the edges as shown below.
Third, rib lines at the side adds the lean and muscular look. They’re like adding scales really!
A little trick I do is to add lines on certain muscles for emphasis. Another trick is to make the lines to the male body more angular – didn’t I mention this in the last page? Well, you get the idea. :)
For those of you who would like to draw a bulkier and bigger torso than shown above, it’s just a matter of drawing your base torso outline (i.e. triangle) wider. Now, it’s just a matter of practice!
Hips
Hips are fairly easy but can be difficult at first. Below shows the differences between the female and male hips. The female tends to be curvy and proportionate to the torso while the male hip is rather straight and equal or smaller than the upper body.
Let’s take a closer look at the hip on the side view. Females generally have a rounder posterior with males tending to be less. The crotch area tends to protrude further than the beginning of the leg and the waist differ for each gender. The female waist goes inwards with the stomach curving outward. Males has less of a curve inwards with a flatter stomach. Of course, these are for slim people – this would change if the person was fat or old.
Before we tackle the butt, lets take a quickie look on how to draw the crotch. At the left most image, the female crotch is drawn in a big “V” shape while the male crotch is much wider and drops at the middle. Again, the female is drawn rounded and the male is more angular. The same can be applied to the backside – female butt is rounded, male is more angular. There’s a little trick to draw the posterior. Females tend to have a rounded W shape that defines their butt and males have a more of a stiff W bordering on two U’s beside each other.
