How to Draw People Step by Step
Mastering how to draw people step by step is a matter of learning a drawing technique, then following that technique with the appropriate deviations for the person you’re sketching. If you want to be an expert at drawing human bodies, you need to study the proportions of human anatomy. You’ll also need to practice a lot.
The basics of drawing people is a pretty simple and straightforward process, though. Some people are going to be better than others, but every person improves with practice, repetition and a few easy-to-follow steps.
Drawing a Human Head
A human head is roughly egg-shaped with the top of the head slightly more rounded, and the bottom of the head (the chin) needing to be more pointed and narrower.
Drawing a Human Torso
The main body of a person is called the torso. The body is the shape of a quadrilateral, roughly the shape of a rectangle, but slightly smaller at the bottom of the torso (the waist) than the top (the shoulders).
By the laws of proportion, the torso of the body is 2.5 times taller than the head. So if you draw a head 2″ tall, then you should draw the torso 5″ tall.
Drawing a Human Neck
How to Draw People Step by Step
The head and torso should be drawn relatively close to one another, but unconnected. Connect the two by drawing two diagonal lines, with a steep slope at almost 90 degrees.
How to Draw Human Arms
Draw the arms of your subject by adding two lines coming off each shoulder. Arms are slightly longer than the human torso, so makes these arms a little bit long than the torso you drew.
How to Draw Human Legs
Drawing legs requires you to draw vertical lines extending from the torso. Human legs tend to be 3.5 times as tall as the human head, so if you draw a head 2″ tall, you should draw that person’s legs at 7″ tall.
Adding feet to the legs often trip up people, because of the front-on perspective. Draw the feet as knobs at the bottom of your legs.
Drawing People Step by Step
Follow these steps for people you draw, though keep in mind that children have different proportions than adults. You’ll want to add specific details like hair, facial features and clothing that brings out the style and personality of the person in question. These features take more practice than the rough sketch of a person.
There’s the rub: learning how to draw people step by step is simple, but getting go at it takes patience and practice. Beyond the rough lessons you got here, learn more about proportions and anatomy, especially about draw human facial features. But not everyone is a natural artist, and some people who aren’t natural have become pretty darned good, just from dedication, study and lots of practice