An artist who wishes to sketch or paint a figure or portrait needs to understand the proportions of the human body. It’s best to practice with an HB pencil, neither too hard or too soft it will allow you to create a broad range of tints and marks.

When drawing the complete figure, it’s useful to use the head as one unit measure. Based on this, the height of a person is approximately eight units high, the torso (from chin to groin) is about three units and the legs are four units long with the knee half way up at two units. The elbow is about three units down from the top of the head and the wrist is at about four units from the top of the head. In general, a female figure is about two units wide at the shoulders and hips, a mans shoulders are slightly wider.

When portioning a head for a portrait, draw an egg shape, locate the eyes and top of the ears at the halfway point. The base of the nose is shown halfway between the eye line and base of the chin. The lips are about a third of the way down between the nose and chin.

At first, begin by practicing with simple postures whilst you get used to using these proportions and, as you get more confident and these rules of proportion start to become second nature, you can explore more complex arrangements. With head portraits, the best angle to start with is a with the sitter facing just off centre, again as you get more comfortable with this, try more unusual viewpoints and young or old sitters.

By adhering to these basic rules of thumb you’ll be well on your way to creating a well proportioned portrait.

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Remember, pet portraits are for life, not just for Christmas!