Posing Your Character | 01 | How to Draw Female Proportions

how to draw female proportions final sketch

The Front View Proportions

When learning how to draw female proportions, it’s a good idea to start off from the front view. If you are just starting to learn to draw the female figure then you may want to go over this step a few times so that it becomes more familiar to you.

Drawing females is something that any artist is going to need to do a lot of over the course of their career, so you might as well just bite the bullet and put in the time now really cement these proportions to memory before you start to move ahead.

basic female proportions sketch

Basic Proportion Guidelines

Here’s a quick recap of some of the key female proportions from the video in case you missed them:

  • Shoulders are slightly narrower than the widest point of the hips.
  • The length of the upper and lower arms is the same.
  • The elbow falls at approximately the bottom of the rib cage.
  • The wrist falls at the bottom of the pelvis.

female body drawing breasts

Placement of the Breasts

Instead of first thinking of the soft tissue of the breast, you should instead think about the muscle tissue underneath that makes up the pectoral muscles in the chest.

Because the pectoral is flat it’s a lot easier to draw and place on your character’s body, and then once you have the chest muscles placed correctly you can move on to drawing the soft tissue on top to make up the actual curves of the breast that will be seen in your finished drawing.

body proportions female arm length

Two Features to Keep in Mind for the Arms

When learning how to draw female proportions, there are two things to keep in mind for the arms to help give her a better look:

  • The lines from the neck to the shoulder should slant downwards.
  • The lower arms should flare outward at the elbow.

how to pose characters final sketch

Examining the Legs

As you finish off the legs, pay attention to and be conscious of where the legs will and won’t naturally make contact with each other when they are side by side. It’s important to take note of the natural curves of the legs, especially as you start to draw your females in other poses.

Why? Well, that’s a good question, and the additional curves are going to very subtly enhance the silhouettes of your characters making them all more interesting to the eye.

Go to the Posing Your Character Video Course