This tutorial is basically aimed at beginners honing their drawing skills.

 

Body proportion is something a beginner should be aware of very early in his or her training, but most, including me during my starting years, have neglected knowing this knowledge until later on. Now I find that as a major no-no. This tutorial simply aims the reader to be more aware of human body proportions (specifically the female form) when he or she draws. There are alot of books, and online sites about this particular subject, and what you'll read here is nothing really new, but only the way I go about determining proportion for my own drawings.

You've probably read this on many illustration 'how-to' books before; the 8-head rule. In drawing, a 'perfect body' is 8 heads high. A superhero body is relatively about the same, but sometimes can go to about 8 - 9 heads depending on the character and artist. And seeing as comicbooks and comicbook art perpetuates the perfect human look, then it applies here.

I would suggest starting your studies on proportioning by drawing simple poses (standing, or simple sitting poses) for your characters, just to get a visual feel.

THE STICK FIGURE

Always start your drawing by using the stick figure. Its simple and you could establish your proportions and pose right away without getting into much detail. Getting your stick figure's scale right would benefit your final drawing immensely.

 

For females, it is often that artists draw them with their bodies slightly curved, their hips bent on one side, an arm resting on one side of the hips. A pose like this visually tells you that this person is feminine in nature right away.

For stick figures, it is essential that you establish the size of the head right away, for this will be your 'unit of measure' for the rest of the body.

Let's get into the measurements.