Introduction

It seems that in Art there are two ways of drawing a person - 1. Drawing their head and face - this is known as a Portrait, and 2. Drawing a persons body - this is called Figure Drawing. This site covers drawing a portrait here, and this section that you're looking at right now will discuss Figure Drawing. What Figure Drawing will help you understand is how to draw the human body. We're not going to get all medical about it and draw bones and nerves and such, because you don't see those every day (unless it's your job). What we'll look at is how to draw "the man on the street", the types of people you see every day. This section assumes that you are comfortable with the activity of drawing, and that you have a basic understanding of how to draw. If you don't feel like you're comfortable with drawing yet, may I suggest that you take a look at the DRAWING BASICS section of this site. Pay particular attention to the measuring, shading, perspective and contour drawing topics because there will be a lot of that going on in figure drawing that is assumed you're comfortable with. In this figure drawing section we'll go into the general proportions of a typical human body and also explore some of the common errors that people make when drawing the human body. Topics to be explored in this section will include:

	Typical human body proportions
	Basic muscle structure of the human body
	We'll look at two problem areas for many people: Hands and Feet
	Many times when drawing a human figure, your subject isn't looking at you, so we'll look into drawing the head at different angles
	And of course step by step how to actually draw a human figure

So let's get this party Started! Click Next Page!

Close ups of Male and Female figure drawings