How to Draw Realistic People for Your Artwork
- 1). Select a photograph of a person in the body or facial position you would like to draw.
- 2). Draw the shapes that make up the body. These shapes should be drawn loosely, without too much concern for accuracy. For example, draw a larger oval for the central shape of the body (the chest, stomach area, and hips), draw an upside-down egg shape for the head, long oval shapes for the arms, and so on. Draw these shapes lightly so they can be covered up or erased later.
- 3). Connect the shapes you drew in Step 2 with an outline that brings them all together. Draw the outline lightly at first and then darken it when you are satisfied.
- 4). Draw mapping lines on the face to show the structure of the face. For example, draw a horizontal line across the face for the eyes, and a vertical line to bisect the eye line, to show the placement of the nose. If you are drawing the form of the body for a painting or a collage, you may not wish to fully develop the features of the face and other details of the body, because in some cases, details will only take up your time and will be too intricate to be followed exactly. Still, if you plan to draw the details on the face, do them over the mapping lines--the eyes will be an almond shape and the nose will fall between the eyes, defined by a line up the side and under the bottom.
- 5). Draw the outline of the hair. Again, you many not wish to go into great detail, depending on the purpose of the drawing. If you do choose to draw the details of the hair, you do not need to draw every hair to give the impression that there is a lot of hair on the head. Study the sweep of the hair in the photograph and draw a few sweeping, telling lines within the outline of the hair on your drawing. Work to capture the texture of the hair--curly, or wavy or straight.
- 6). Draw the outline of the clothes on the body. Note that the clothes will be drawn over the body and will not conform completely to the sides of the body--the clothes should drape over the body. Draw details on the clothes (buttons, patterns, etc) as necessary, if it makes sense for your purposes.
- 7). Shade in the areas of the body that appear in shadow in the image you're drawing from. Hold your pencil in your hand lightly and run the tip of it back and forth over the page to create a smooth, even shadow. Darken this shadow as necessary--don't start off too dark.
- 8). Leave the photograph and drawing for a while and return later. Examine your drawing and look for errors. If you're stuck, try turning the photograph and the drawing upside down for a fresh perspective. Edit the drawing as needed (you may even want to draw on it while it is still upside down).