Start by drawing an egg shape for the head and a curved line for the spine and neck. Draw lines to indicate the angles of the shoulders and hips and rectangles for the torso, adding an oval at the belly button. Draw circles for joints and rectangles or ovals for bones of the arms and legs, adding circles for elbows, wrists, knees and ankles. Draw squares for hands and triangles for feet, then practice more poses using magazines or photos as references before adding details like hair and clothing.

1. Figure Drawing
Learning to draw the human body!
presented by EmilyValenza

2. Start with an egg shape for the head!

3. Draw the curve of the spine and neck.

4. Draw a line for the angle of the shoulders and the angle
of the hips. (Leave room for a neck!)

5. Draw two rectangular shapes for the upper and
lower part of the torso. Draw an oval at belly-button
level to show where the body naturally bends.

6. Draw circles for the shoulder and hip joints.

7. Draw rectangles or long ovals for the bones of the arms and
legs. Don’t forget circles at the elbows, wrists, knees and ankles!

8. Draw squares for hands and long triangles for feet.

9. Once you are comfortable with this technique,
try trickier poses:

10. If you don’t have a model to pose for you,
use a magazine, and try sketching shapes over
photos of people to practice!

11. Add details like hair and clothing once drawing the
basic figure becomes easy for you:

12. Practice! Any time you are in a public space, you have
hundreds of models waiting to be drawn!