human body tutorial

HUMAN BODY TUTORIAL

Let's now learn the basics on drawing a proportioned human (anime) body. First of all, being a anime style drawing, the bodies are usually longer and more stylized than a real human body (still some authors use short bodies), that's because they look thinner and aesthetically more appealing.

MATERIAL:
- A sheet of good paper (obviously ^_~)
- A 0.5 mm propeller pencil (I use a Staedtler) with blue graphite (if you don't have blue graphite, you can use regular ones [I recommend HB]) - See pic
- If you like, you can use a regular pencil (I recommend a HB or F graduation)
- An eraser (with enough practice you maybe won't use an eraser anymore)

FOR INKING:
- Any of these pen nibs: spoon pen or quill pen (even both) - See pic
- A pen holder
- Black ink
- You can substitute all of the above with a disposable rapidograph (if you can't afford a pro one). Check out the Sakura Micron ones - See pic

I highly recommend you have some experience in anime/manga drawing style, it will be easier for you. Little by little you will develop your own drawing style, and soon, you won't be needing tutorials or complicated methods (like this one) to draw pretty pics ^_^

Overall Proportions

The proportions I use for drawing bodies are the ones marked on the left. This body has a total height of 9 heads (take the measure of the head you draw).

The measurements are like the following: a half head for the neck, 3 heads for the chest, abdomen and hips, 4 heads for the legs, half head for the knee, and a half head for the feet. The arms take 4 heads of aprox. lenght.

Remember the body of the man and the woman are different in almost everything, except they have a head, two arms and two legs ^_~, so the female body is lithe and soft, and a male body is stronger and broader than a female one (of course there can be exceptions). Here is a chart where I put the most remarkable characteristics of a female and male body, but they can always change depending on the character.

Female	Male
- Thin chest - Curved hips - No visible muscles - Delicate hands and feet	- Broad chest - Straight hips - Muscular body - Rough hands and feet

You can always change this scheme and adapt it to your own style.

Now move into the next page for the Male Body Tutorial XDD (I know fans would like to learn).

Male Body >>