Warming Up

• 1). Play around for a few weeks drawing shapes that represent human forms. Use circles to draw heads, triangles and ovals for torsos, and long cylinders for arms and legs. It's important to think of these shapes as three-dimensional so that you begin to see how the shapes change when someone is, for instance, standing, sitting, kicking or raising their hands.
  
  
• 2). Use magazine pictures as a reference to start learning how to draw eyes, noses, hands and different body positions. If your goal is to draw a complete human figure, use a magazine picture that depicts an entire person in the position you want to draw. If your goal is to draw faces, use close-ups of facial features.
  
  
• 3). Spend at least one hour a day drawing shapes and copying magazine pictures. After a few weeks, you will be capable of drawing basic people in several different positions.
  
  

Sketching

• 1). Begin drawing your person by sketching a circle for the head. Then use basic shapes or lines to sketch the frame of the body so you can visualize how you want the figure to be positioned.
  
  
• 2). Sketch over the basic shapes of the figure's body to start forming more human-like characteristics. Imagine muscles underneath skin, filling out the arms, legs and torso. Sketch the outline of hair. You can use a picture as a model to make sure the body looks right.
  
  
• 3). Sketch the facial features. This is the hardest part, so go slow and remember to make basic shapes first. Start with the eyes, move to the nose and then sketch the mouth and ears. Hair should not have too many lines, just a few framing the face, with a solid fill-in for brunettes.
  
  
• 4). Add detail. Draw pupils, nostrils and teeth if the person's mouth is open. If the picture is close up, draw a few tiny lines at the outer corner of the eyes for eyelashes.
  
  
• 5). Draw clothes for your person. You can erase parts of the figure to add t-shirts, pants, shoes or whatever outfits you want.