How to Draw a Man's Body

 

We've seen how to draw a woman's body, now over to the gentlemen!

Many things are very similar but just like with the face, more things can be highlighted in men. Notably, the musculature that is much more prominent.

There are far fewer different body shapes in men. Mainly the V-shape morphology and another with shoulders aligned with the body.

As with women, I repeat, but to create a truly realistic body, we must learn anatomy, a long and tedious task that we won't cover here. And as with women, we will talk about the beauty standard, so a bit muscular nonetheless :)

THE PROPORTIONS OF THE HUMAN BODY

As I was saying, most of the proportions are the same.

Men are generally taller, about 8 heads tall (again, I refer to the generally accepted standard).

There are also 4 heads for the upper body. With the same main points as in women:

1 head: the chin

2 heads: the lower chest

3 heads: belly button

4 heads: pubis (or genitals therefore)

We keep half a head from the ground for the length of the feet.

The knees are placed at the mid-length point of the legs.

The wrists also end at mid-thigh.

 

STEP-BY-STEP DRAWING GUIDE

DRAWING A MAN'S BODY FROM THE FRONT

We start by drawing all our markers to be able to work properly.

We start by drawing the head and the neck.

 

 

Then the collarbones and shoulders. We notice the first change here. Men, regardless of their build, always have wider shoulders than ladies. The width can vary depending on their body type. Where you can fit two head widths in the shoulder width of a woman, in a man you can go up to three head widths.

We can also place the trapezius muscles, which are more developed than in women.

Similar to women, the rib cage descends down almost to the level of the navel. Given the width of the shoulders, it is wider and more V-shaped.

Then the abdomen goes straight down, flaring out slightly, where in women it flares out distinctly towards the hips.

We also place the pelvis.

 

The pectorals are placed, they attach under the arms, form a curve, and go up to attach to the sternum.

The abs can be quickly positioned, a large roughly rectangular area that starts in the middle of the pectorals and narrows down to the pubis.

Now we move on to the legs. For those who wish, you can position the "package" before continuing :D

The legs are not very straight and vertical but slightly inclined. They are less thick than in women, particularly because the pelvis is also narrower. Apart from that, the legs are constructed in the same way.

I will add a bit more detail because we see more of the musculature in men. Generally, there are two main shapes for the front of the thigh. After placing the knee at mid-height, draw a diagonal line from the hip to three-quarters of the thigh.

 

 

Towards the inside, we add the adductors.

Regarding the rest, the large thigh muscles are bulkier.

Then, as with women, the inclined shin.

Then the calves, always at different heights: lower for the one on the inside, higher for the one on the outside.

Placement of the feet.

Then the arms at last. They have the same length and structure but we're going to go into a bit more detail on the musculature there as well.

We start with the shoulders and, as with women, we avoid making a ball and this time it goes lower, almost to the middle of the arm.

Next, the biceps.

And the end of another muscle, whose name I've forgotten, specifically for raising the biceps.

For the forearm, we're also going to mark some muscles notably around the elbow.

Then, of course, the hands. To learn more about this subject, there is an article about how to draw a hand on our blog. Feel free to check it out! ;)

All that remains is to go over everything again, making sure to define the shapes this time. You can outline the muscles, emphasize the bulk, etc. It's the same principle as with faces ultimately. As always, I urge you to use references to place the details correctly and not to just invent muscles anywhere.

So, we'll end up with something like this:

DRAWING A MAN'S BODY IN PROFILE

The proportions are of course the same from the side and the body is easier to build.

So we set our usual main points.

Then the head and the neck. The latter is tilted forward.

The torso will be slightly tilted backwards (very slightly), so the rib cage is positioned accordingly.

We can mark the area of the shoulder blades which protrude slightly at rest.

Then the abdomen, which is very vertical. The back, however, will have a slight curve.

We can place the abdominals again. Personally, I like to place the hip bones as well, the crest of the pelvis actually.

We also place the pectorals on our reference line as before. They are slightly voluminous (depending on the character's musculature), however be careful, they are not breasts.

 

Then the buttocks which end slightly below the pubic line.

The legs are slightly inclined backwards. Other than that, they are similar to those of young ladies, just a bit less bulky.

We must not forget that the front of the lower leg is not completely straight but is also slightly curved.

And the feet, of course.

I remind you that the length of the foot is equivalent to the length of the forearm. A little tip if you have trouble proportioning them to the body.

We're going back to the arms. The position of the shoulder is important as men's shoulders are more voluminous. We can say that they start at the vertical line of the ear. This only applies to a static position as we are doing here.

Shoulders can be pushed forward or pulled back depending on the posture. I urge you to observe yourself in a mirror and strike different poses, slouching to varying degrees, in order to see the difference.

Regardless, in terms of height, they are positioned as in women. They start at the base of the neck / the collarbones.

 

Next, we position the biceps/triceps. As always, following the principles of curve and counter-curve. The elbow is at the level of the navel. The tip of the hand reaches the middle of the thigh.

 

We also outline the forearm using the same principle of curve and counter-curve, this time not forgetting to indicate the elbow.

We also place the hands.

For the final details, we position the trapezius muscles and the missing part of the pectorals.

We then go over everything again, emphasizing the muscles and bulk. This produces the following:

 

DRAWING SUMMARY

• We are looking for the major points of the body to make the task easier.
  
  
• As always, the simplest way to build is to simplify through geometric shapes.
  
  
• We freely use anatomical charts or photo references alongside to fully understand everything that's happening, particularly in terms of musculature and bone structure.
  
  
• Curves and counter-curves govern the entire human body, we never have ovals anywhere

And with that, good luck with your character drawings!

Illustrator and writer: Rakjah