How To Draw The Human Body

Drawing is a habit that helps to express what we cannot convey with words. Or just to vent. You don’t have to be a professional to have this practice as a hobby or a way to be better with yourself. Some people are born with the gift and others who acquire it through practice, advice, and study. Whatever the case, we will need some advice or base on which to work. This way we will improve our drawing technique. Not to achieve a better level or dedicate ourselves professionally to it, but to be able to have the tools at our fingertips. It is a way of being able to use our potential and our abilities to want to transmit what we want with that drawing.
One of the most difficult objectives for a cartoonist is to represent the human body. This choice has many nuances and not all are the same.

It is a very complicated task if we are not clear where to start or a base on which to carry out our project. But it is normal and understandable, especially if we haven’t drawn it for a long time. There are certain steps and actions to take to make it seem easier for us.
Drawing a human body has many possibilities and ways of doing it due to the variety of bodies, proportions, and postures. For not going into the complexity of the face. If we want to be successful, it would be nice to know how to draw a face. Although that makes it a much more attractive task, if possible.

Body

• In this article we will talk about how to draw a human body and the aspects that must be taken into account.
• The main thing is to separate the phases and establish a few steps since as the way to achieve our desired drawing is revealed, the process will seem easier and not an unattainable task.
•  If you want to draw a particular body, you will have to have minimum knowledge about it if you want to achieve realism, but it is not an added difficulty. On the other hand, if we want a human body without thinking about any in particular, we can be inspired by photos and videos at our disposal for this task

Instructions for drawing the human body

With these simple steps, we will obtain a good result:

1. The first step to start with our task is to simplify the outline of the human body. For that, we will draw a skeleton in the simplest way possible. A round figure emulating the head and the rest of the skeleton such as the neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, ankle, and trunk represented by lines.
2. Once each one of the joints has been carefully observed, we can try to draw the body in this way,  varying the positions, be it sitting, running, jumping, or whatever we can think of.
3. It is also important, before starting, to look carefully at the details of the body chosen to draw.
4. When we start drawing, a very effective exercise is not to stop doing it regardless of the result we are obtaining, since the purpose of this exercise is to increase our confidence to draw and have a looser hand, without any tension in it. If you manage not to lift the pencil from the paper, you will get a mind and a hand free in the task of drawing.
5. There are some differences that we will see later between a male and a female body, but for now, we will focus on similar characteristics when starting to draw.
6. The figure of a human body, whether male or female, is divided vertically into eight parts, each part is equivalent to the height of a head, and divided horizontally is the measurement equivalent to two heads between shoulder and shoulder.
7. References are important when drawing as they are a good base on which to learn. For example, some good references to have a good measure of the proportions can be the chin, the nipples, the hip, the knee, and the ankle.
8. To have a diagram of a proportionally drawn body it is necessary to have the following measurements:
9. Between the chin and the nipples there must be a distance of one head.
10. The distance between both nipples is one head.
11. Shoulders and elbows should be separated by a height equivalent to one and a half heads.
12. Two heads are the ideal separation between the nipples and the hip.
13. The distance between the elbow and the wrist will be one head and 1/4 as well as two heads between the elbows and the middle finger of the hand.
14. We will place the hip two heads from the knee and four heads from the ankles.
15. Once all the proportions on which to draw our body are clear, we have to take into account if we want to draw a female or a male body since, apart from the common proportions, there are some important differences and nuances.
16. The distance between the men of a woman is less than that of the men and the total width of the body is two heads.
17. The woman’s hands are located slightly lower than the man’s.
18. Compared to the man, the woman’s waist is significantly narrower and its level is above respect to the navel.
19. The man has narrower hips.
20. Taking these guidelines into account, we can vary the proportions a bit depending on whether we want a slimmer or wider figure. The distance can be slightly varied, but it is important to keep the proportions of the body standardized when drawing.
    A good exercise to be clear and control these proportions is to vary them by making an overweight figure, longer legs than normal, or whatever comes to mind. Apart from exercising and gaining ease with the figure of the human body, it will help you have a good time and make the task more dynamic.

What do you need to draw the human body?

1. To draw a human body we will need a series of tools that are easy to get and that we probably already have at home.
2. A table or desk wide enough to place our tools and draw freely.
3. A paper or sheet large enough to draw the figure. If we don’t have practice with them, we can use a millimeter sheet that will help us trace the guides and feel more comfortable.
4. A pencil.
5. A pencil sharpener to keep our pencil in good condition.
6. A rule to have well-determined distances and proportions
7. A rubber to correct some errors that we can make such as deviations in the lines.
8. The image of the body in question to draw so that we can orient ourselves and achieve the desired result.
9. The layout of a simple skeleton to develop our drawing with that base, locating the mentioned joints.
10. Colors if you want to give shadows or paint the skin, eyes, or some other aspect of the project.
11. Illustrating a human body, male or female, requires a lot of concentration since it is full of nuances and there are practically no two identical bodies, so it is important to know the body to be drawn in detail.
12. We will need to be calm and willing to carry out the task since in moments of stress we will see everything more complicated and we will lose motivation.

Tips for drawing the human body

• We must be aware that the difference between a good drawing and another not so pleasant to see is the number of attempts that you have invested in each project. This means that your first sketches are probably not to your liking or the expected level given your expectations created when viewing the final project.
  If the instructions are followed step by step, together with the perseverance in practice, the techniques to be refined, and the study, you will see results almost immediately.
• Three or four drawing sessions a week will be more than enough to progress at a high rate since if we spend more time than we should, we run the risk of becoming saturated and not thinking clearly. It is important when you sit down to draw, apart from being calm and without any distractions, to have a fresh and energetic mind.
  As we progress, we will notice much more looseness in our hand that at first was stiff and scary when starting to draw. You will also notice it in the strokes since you will do them with much more security than when you started.
• To draw a human body you can use some shadows to give it realism. If you want to make a realistic drawing you have to know the body to be portrayed well.
  If you want to capture his gaze on paper, it is not enough to focus only on the eyes, but also on the forehead, eyebrows, or cheekbones.
• Memorizing the gesture of the face and its ways of looking or the countenance of the face, in general, will be of great help to achieve the result that was in mind.
  The results do not matter and we should not throw away those that we do not like since we will focus our attention on them to capture the failures and correct them.
  The main key is to continue drawing without losing the illusion.