Free Human Anatomy Guide for Drawing Lively Characters

To create compelling and relatable drawings, learn the rules of anatomy so you can break them!

One of the most powerful ways to tell a story is through character: crafting someone that readers can relate to and understand, even at a glance. So understanding anatomy and the way bodies and faces move is absolutely key when it comes to illustration. With knowledge and practice of some basic rules, you can discover and nurture a character’s personality and feelings through body language and expression.

Sarah van Dongen (@sarahvandongenillustration) is a Dutch illustrator based in Amsterdam who is passionate about crafting stories from real-world situations, those everyday experiences that make each of our lives interesting and unique. She has illustrated a number of children’s books and worked with clients including Adobe, Lannoo, Querido, and Flow Magazine.

Having made two courses with Domestika—one on sketchbooking, and her latest on character creation—Sarah has much to share about drawing relatable humans with her friendly and playful illustrative style.

In this free download, she details the basic rules and guidelines for drawing human anatomy, which you can then build on (and even break!) to create interesting characters.

Why are rules important?

In her course, Sarah explains that “in order to draw from observation and to be able to create characters from imagination, it’s important to know some basic human anatomy rules.”

Even if your personal illustrative style involves different bodily proportions, it is useful to understand the baseline from which you can experiment. This knowledge will help you sketch quickly and not get stuck on simple elements like the overall shapes that make up your characters. Instead, you can focus on the distinctive features that make them who they are.

Sarah divides her advice into two broad sections: the face and the body. She works from an oval shape for the head and face, and then uses straight lines or ellipses to decide where features should be placed. As for the body, she draws a ruled line divided into eight equal sections. While the head generally occupies the top section, the body can fill the rest of the space in two rough halves: one for the torso and one for the legs.

What you’ll need

To follow along with Sarah’s rules and start creating your own characterful illustrations, you will need:

- watercolor markers for fainter guidelines and also for coloring
- crayons for drawing in bold features
- a ruler to help divide up your body into sections
- most importantly: your body, because you can use it for reference!

There’s no better reference than your own body, as you know exactly which poses you need. Either work from observation or use your phone to take photos of yourself in the poses and angles required.

Free Download: Human Anatomy Guide by Sarah van Dongen

In the resource below, Sarah shares her guidelines in detail. You’ll learn how to draw the human head from the front, profile, and ¾ angles, among others. Then you’ll examine the human body divided into the eight sections mentioned earlier, which will help you get comfortable with drawing average body proportions. This includes the limbs, hands, and feet, with notes on what to pay particular attention to.

After clicking on the button below, you’ll find a .pdf file in your Downloads folder titled, Free Human Anatomy Guide by Sarah van Dongen.

If you want to learn more, you can sign up for Sarah’s online course, Character Creation from Observational Drawings, in which you’ll draw and paint unique characters inspired by the world around you using a variety of artistic materials.

You may also like:

- The History of Anatomical Drawing: How Illustrations Revolutionized Science
- 4 Easy Watercolor Exercises for Beginners
- 7 Free Tutorials for Learning How to Draw the Human Body
- Illustrated Life Journal: A Daily Mindful Practice, course by Kate Sutton
- Dynamic Character Illustration, course by Thomas Rohlfs