Learning to Draw People
Many people who want to learn to draw aren't sure where to start. Many more are challenged when it comes to drawing people. The shape of a human body is more complex than any building or vase, and adding the illusion of life to a still drawing can be difficult - which can make learning how to draw people a bit of a challenge for anyone.
For longer articles, visit the How to Draw People blog. How to Draw People is for any artist - pro, amateur, or downright wanna-be - who hasn't yet mastered drawing the human form, but is willing and eager to learn.
Contents
How to Draw People Blog
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byRecommended Book: Draw Real People
Lee Hammond's book, Draw Real People, includes directions on shading, using grids and proportions, and everything else you'll need to learn to draw people in no time. If you'd like to draw people, pick up a copy of Draw Real People today!
How to Use a Gesture Line
The Most Important Step of Learning How to Draw People
Fortunately for beginning artists, the journey of a thousand portraits begins with a single simple line: the gesture or "action" line, which shows which direction the body is moving and can be compared to the spine of your subject. In fact, for some artists, the gesture line really is just the location of the spine. Other artists will make the gesture line so long as to encompass the whole body from head to toe, but the general idea is the same.
Gesture Line Examples
from How to Draw Simple Poses with Gesture Lines
from How to Draw People in Chairs and Other Seated Poses
from How to Draw Romantic Couples
To practice finding gesture lines:
- Find some reference photos of people in poses you'd like to draw. Practice drawing a single smooth line which goes through most of the pose (see the pictures above for some examples).
- Watch how other people move when you're at work/school, shopping, etc. Observe how the spine usually stays in a single smooth curve no matter how complex the pose is, and pay attention to how their limbs go with or against the curve of the spine.
- Practice drawing stick figures (cartoon characters, real people - depending on your skill level) starting with a gesture line and branching out to include the head and limbs.
Proper Proportions
When drawing people, it's important to draw everything at the right sizes. As a result, many books on how to draw people include charts to show where important proportions are.
Proportions Examples
from Female Proportions
from How to Draw a Girl's Face
How to Draw People - Instructional Videos
More Tips for Learning How to Draw People
- Making a Mark: 10 Tips for How to Sketch People
- These tips are NOT of the 'get rich quick' variety. They're essentially principles which make much more sense through application. However the real benefits really only come when they become ingrained habits through lots of practice.
- Sketchbooks » How to Draw People
- Any blank scrap of paper will do for basic drawing, but a sketchbook is extremely convenient for artists who draw on a regular basis. Here's some of my favourites.
Reader Feedback
Melissa Vick wrote
Okay for one thing this tutorial, I think, is fun and inspiring. Most of this I already knew...but enjoy looking at others techniques and whatnot. Anyway I'm doing fashion designing and love it. I look to these for simplistic ideas and can be helpful to those who are starting out artisticly and need a little reference as to how to draw a human siluette. Like a friend of mine is a great designer with many unique ideas but is not well to illustrate it. So with this tutorial for example is here for him to look at whenever he wants, and at his own pace. So stop being so Imature and leaving such ignorate, and irritating messages for nothing. Make a comment to improve, suggest, or approve. Otherwise just shut up. I'm not perfect myself but I do have manners. I'm only just starting my twenties but I know better and just had to say something.One more thing,I thought it was so well done & neat to watch that I saved it so I can look at it whenever I want thanx!MEL 22 years old, canadian,Montreal
Posted May 28, 2009
Elle wrote
The title of this post should be changed to "I'm sorry the title of this post is confusing to you and that I neglected to include a step-by-step diagram explaining which end of the pencil goes on the paper, but I incorrectly assumed you all weren't absolute morons." Maybe the owner of this site would be kind enough to slap together a tutorial on how to operate these here magical drawing sticks you've all somehow managed to know nothing about. Maybe when he's done that he'll make another on how to blink and breathe simultaneously.
Posted May 20, 2009
none wrote
This crap sucks balls
Posted May 15, 2009
bhghghghg wrote
this issssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss dumb
Posted April 06, 2009
baruchz
Great lens
Posted March 31, 2009
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