How to Draw Anime/Manga: The Male Body

When drawing human figures, whether realistically or anime/manga style, you need to have an understanding of basic anatomy. Remember the How to draw Characters (Male) and (Female) tutorials(which can be found at my site. Please see the links at the top and bottom of this article)? The third step is to draw the anatomy of the figure, but without basic understanding, it's really quite a difficult task to accomplish.

But never fear. Although the body is a complex piece of biology, it can be simplified so that everyone can understand. When drawing the body, you need to at least have an understanding of the major skeletal muscles. These include biceps, calves and abdominal muscles as well as others that you might not know the names of.

In the example I have attached, I have labeled the major skeletal muscles. Although you don't really need to know the names, other tutorials in books and sites may use these scientific terms, so it's also good to remember a few.

The major information you should get out of the example, is not actually the names of the skeletal muscles, but the locations of certain parts of the body. These are labeled in bold. It is also good to spend a bit time remembering how the body looks and how to draw certain parts, so go wild. Also notice how the waist is almost as thick as the shoulders, which is one of the key features that make men and women different.

When drawing the male body, it is usually a good idea to define the muscles.

Yeah, I know that there is a watermark. I spent quite a bit of time on this example, so I don't really want people to steal it. Don't worry though, there won't be many like this, only images I feel appropriate and viable for a watermark. Remember you can save all pictures on this site for references when you draw. You can also distribute and display it, provided to give credit to Alvin Ng as well as this site. See the About Page for what you can and can't do with the images and information available on Alvin's Art.

Moving on, the body is a three dimensional figure. There isn't just the front to study, but the back and site too! When drawing the figure from the back, it's good to include drawing the shoulder blades, or wings as I like to call them. There's not much to say about the examples I have drawn, except try to spend a bit of time looking at them, and maybe practice drawing them so you know how to draw the body at different angles, and where the muscles are located.

Finally, if you want to draw the body, you need to know the average length of certain body parts. From previous tutorials, we have learned that the hand is big enough to cover the face and the adult foot is equivalent to one head. For the length of the legs, look at the Body Proportions tutorial, which can be found at my site (see link at the top/bottom of this page article) Usually for adults, the thighs and the calves are both one and a half heads each. Sometimes it's longer, depending on the height of the character. What we haven't covered though, is the length of the arm.

Usually the Upper Arm is equivalent to one and a half heads. The upper arm consists of the shoulder all the way down to the elbow.

The Lower Arm is equivalent to two heads. The lower arm consists of from the elbow all the way down to the hand (with straightened fingers). Examples are below.

I hope you learned something today whilst reading this tutorial on the Male Body as well as Basic Anatomy for Drawing - Realistic and Anime. Remember to keep practicing, especially since the human body is quite complex, with many different poses and angles that can be drawn. Bye for now ^^