How To: Draw correct human proportions for figure drawing

This is the ultimate guide to drawing correct human proportions. If you've always had trouble with it in high school art class or in art school, this video condenses all the information into a tight package that's fun and easy to understand. This will uncover all the tricks to human proportions for figure drawings.

Watch this tutorial to learn how to draw correct human proportions for figure drawing. There's no actual drawing in this video, but just the tips and tricks to correctly discerning body size through head lengths.

Check out the step-by-step instructions.

"Lets get started with the most common unit of measurement — a head length. Head lengths are the most common measurement in figure drawing From antiquity through the Renaissance, artists painted and sculpted figures that were 8 or 9 head lengths tall. For instance, Michelangelo's David, when measured, is 8 head lengths tall. The proportions of the David are idealized and heroic and different than the proportions of the average person, such as myself. I measured 7 1/4 head lengths tall. Now, I could never get a consistent answer on how many headlengths tall the average human body is....so I decided to construct an experiment. I have read in some places that the body is as short as 7 head lengths and as tall as 8. I measured 100 people. 50 males and 50 females....right now you are seeing only a small sample... I made sure to include various body types to make this study scientific. I was able to learn that a humans proportions in head lengths is directly related with a persons height. The shortest person measured only 5 and 1/3 head lengths...the tallest was 8 and a half head lengths. But the vast majority were very close to 7.5 head lengths. And when I averaged the 100 people together, the result was 7.47 head lengths."

--Merrill Kazanjian