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How to Draw People

Learning how to draw people can take a bit of practice, but it is not very difficult once you learn a few principles.

This section outlines some of the principles used by artists throughout history, and contains a few exercise on how to draw stick figures, human figure drawing, and how to draw men, women and children.

Proportions of the Human Figure

How to Draw People: Human Body Proportions

The Greek statutes have regulated and determined the standard of beauty in art.

These proportions, however, vary in individual cases and indivual taests. Nevertheless, they are valuable as a foundation from which modifications may be made.

In the greek statues, the height of a develeoped man was usually equivalent to eight heads. In other words, the head was 1/8th of the length of the body.

The height of a woman, Greek standard, was about seven heads.

Now, the human figure may be divided into four parts of equal length, namely:

From the top of the head to the arm-pit;
From the arm-pit to the middle of the body;
From the middle of the body to the knees; and
From the nees to the soles of the feet.

From finger-tip to finger-tip, when the arms are extended at right angles to the body equals the length of the entire figure from crown to toes.

The face may be divided into three parts:

From the top of the forehead to the root of the nose;
From the root of the nose to the bottom of the nose; and
From the bottom of the nose to the bottom of the chin.

The ear is the length of the nose and its general direction is parallel to it.

From the top of the shoulder to the elbow measures twice the length of the face.

from the elbow to the writes, one head.

The hand measures three quarters of a head from the tip of the middle finger to the wrist.

The foot measures one sixth of the whole length of the body.

The foot measures 1/6th of the whole length of the body.

These proportions are only a guideline you have to keep in mind when learning how to draw people.

Ok. Learning the proportions of the human body is essential, but when do we get to draw people?

That's the topic of the section below.

How to Draw People: Instructions

These are the instrutions on how to draw people by Victor Perard:

First, draw a perpendicular line indicating the placement of the figure.

This will be the balance line or line of gravitation.

Next, indicate by a line the action of the shoulders, leaving room enough above for the neck and head, then indicate the tilt of the pelivs.
How to Draw People: Fig 2

Use egg shapes for the start of the head, the torso and the pelvis, and in this way it will be easier to judge the proportions by eye.
How to Draw People: Fig 3

How to Draw People: Fig 4 How to Draw People: Fig 5

In the above drawings, most of the weight is resting on the right leg, which forces the pelvis to tilt in an opposite direction to the upper part of the body, and the foot touches the line of gravitation.

There are a few points to observe when drawing the human figure.

The neck is lower in front than in the back.

A man's chin is often on a level with the back of his collar.

The muscles of neck should be studied as at every turn of the head their forms are modified to balance the head which weighs from twelve to fifteen pounds.

In a back view start the line of gravitation at the seventh vertical vertebra (the prominent vertebra).

Draw these stick figures lightly, and then add some of the anatomy.

If you're not very familiar with human anatomy, Victor Perard wrote a book called Anatomy and Drawing, which is an excellent resource artists use as a reference for their sketches.

But if these instructions are too advanced for you, perhaps you should consider doing some more work on how to draw stick figures, in one of the links below (coming soon).