Step 7 - Last Step

All right, now that we've gone over the major areas in detail, lets put them all together and make a full body pose. :) When drawing your subject, you can either begin with the preliminary ovals and circles, or you can go straight to the final draft, whichever you are most comfortable with. If you are using circles and ovals, then you will notice that the main body (torso and pelvis) are
composed of two basic shapes, both of which curve inwards towards the stomach. I'm not going to go over these a lot, because they have been well documented in other figure drawing tutorials. ^_^ Make sure that both of these shapes, as well as the head, are aligned along a central guidline (as shown). This guidline is pretty much the spine of the character, and will determine the pose she is going to be in. Notice here that the center line curves to the left a little on the pelvis; this is because her weight is shifted and her left hip sticks out slightly (which makes the pose a little more interesting than if her weight is evenly balanced). The body can be equally divided in half as shown to by the red guidlines. You can use that as a general reference when determing how long the legs should be in proportion to the rest of the body, but often times in anime the length of the legs is exaggerated, for both males and females, and it looks just fine. When drawing the midsection, remember to try to keep the hourglass figure shape. Female anime characters will generally have thin shoulders, a thin stomach, and a somewhat round waist. Be careful to make the curves look natural, unless you are really good at figure drawing and can exaggerate the proportions.




Here is a similar pose, this time shown at a side angle. I have found side views to be difficult, since I had a hard time finding decent reference pictures. ^_^ Notice that the body is composed of the same basic shapes, except the shapes have been rotated around. One of the things you need to consider when drawing from this angle is the shape of the upper torso. It isn't shown very well here, but as you come straight down from the neck, the chest will stick out slightly at a sharp angle as you come to the collarbone. After that point, the torso is drawn at a smooth diagonal until you reach the hemisphere shape of the breasts (remember that they are half spheres; don't draw them like beach balls!) Beneath that, the torso continues to protrude outwards slightly until reach the bottom of what would be the ribcage (its a little over one headlength down from the shoulders). After the ribcage, curve back inwards a little for the stomach. Other things to look out for are the shape of the legs (the thighs round out in front, and are flatter in back, while the lower legs are just the opposite) and the subject's behind (make sure you don't exaggerate it too much).




For the final pose of this tutorial, here is an example of someone drawn from behind (which you may actually need to draw at one point, especially if you are going to do manga ^_^). Just as before, the subject can be equally divided in half. Things to look out for at this angle include the neck; it connects up into the skull, and should obscure part of the face. The midsection should be somewhat hourglass shaped, but again, don't overexaggerate the curve unless you really know your anatomy (you have to know the basics before you can start bending the rules). Don't overdefine the lines on the behind, since there's little reason too. Be careful when drawing the arms; from the back, the elbows should be more prominent than usual. Check out the section on arms for more information.





That concludes the female figure drawing tutorial. I hope this gives you an understanding of basic anatomy, and helps you out when drawing full body subjects. :)