How to Draw a Man

Learn how to draw a man by following the steps in this tutorial.

Things You Should Know

  • Start your drawing with a basic wireframe sketch.
  • Break the figure down into rough shapes to build the body.
  • For a cartoonish look, keep the shapes and angles soft and round.
  • To make your drawing more realistic, add in facial details and erase any unnecessary guiding lines.
Method 1
Method 1 of 4:

Draw a Standing Man

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    1
    Sketch the wireframe of a male human figure.
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    2
    Sketch the shapes needed to build the body.
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    Sketch the human figure using the previous steps as a guide.
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    4
    Sketch the clothes, hair and facial details.
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    5
    Draw the outline over the sketch.
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    Erase and remove the sketch marks.
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    Add color.
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Method 2
Method 2 of 4:

Draw a Man in a Pose

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    1
    Sketch the wireframe into a pose to serve as a guide.
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    2
    Sketch the shapes needed to build the body.
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    3
    Sketch the clothes, hair and facial details.
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    4
    Refine the artwork using a smaller tipped drawing tool.
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    5
    Draw the outline over the sketch.
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    Erase and remove the sketch marks.
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    Add color.
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Method 3
Method 3 of 4:

Draw a Man

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    1
    Draw a circle for the man’s head and an oblong for the trunk.
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    Add the limbs and two half circles for the feet.
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    After you finished drawing the outline, start with the face by sketching the eyes, nose, ears, and lips.
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    Add thick hair on the man’s head.
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    Using the outline, you can now easily sketch out the man’s clothes depending on your preference; here we are drawing a polo shirt and pants.
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    Add more refined details to the hand’s framework which you made earlier.
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    Erase all unnecessary lines.
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    Add color as desired.
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Method 4
Method 4 of 4:

Draw a Man in Manga Style

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    Draw a circle for the upper portion of the head. Add details of the jaw, emphasize the angled line to make it more masculine as compared to that of a female character. In drawing the shoulders, emphasize on the angles imitating the trapezius muscles and the collar bone.
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    2
    To help you draw the details of the face, draw a horizontal line across the area where you’ll be drawing the eyes; and also draw a vertical line across where you’ll position the nose.
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    3
    Based on the outlines you made, draw the details of the man’s face, like the eyes, nose and lips. For added effect, you can also add a quick and easy slanted line for emphasis to the cheek bone.
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    Draw soft, short lines on the head for the man’s hair. You can choose any hairstyle you want.
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    Add details to the ear for a more realistic touch. Adding beard is optional.
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    Draw the man’s clothing.
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    Erase unnecessary lines.
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    Color the drawing.
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Expert Q&A

  • Question
    How can you get better at drawing faces?
    Claire Wentzel
    Claire Wentzel
    Award-Winning Artist and Strategic Creative Consultant
    Claire Wentzel is an award-winning Artist and Strategic Creative Consultant. Her business, Red Rose Studios, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she also serves on the Clark County Public Art Committee. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in mixed media participatory art, brand messaging, and building organizational culture. She earned her BA in Fine Art with Distinction from the University of Colorado-Boulder and completed a painting residency at the International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture. Her chalk mural work has been featured in EdHat and I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival advertising.
    Claire Wentzel
    Claire Wentzel
    Award-Winning Artist and Strategic Creative Consultant
    Expert Answer
    Look at them. My favorite technique that I learned for drawing anything, but especially as a good technique to draw portraits, is blind contour drawing. This is an exercise where you look at your subject and you cannot look at your paper or lift up your pencil while you draw. You are training your eye to talk to your hand. This is a fundamental skill that really helps with drawing portraiture in particular.
  • Question
    How can you get better at drawing humans in different poses?
    Claire Wentzel
    Claire Wentzel
    Award-Winning Artist and Strategic Creative Consultant
    Claire Wentzel is an award-winning Artist and Strategic Creative Consultant. Her business, Red Rose Studios, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she also serves on the Clark County Public Art Committee. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in mixed media participatory art, brand messaging, and building organizational culture. She earned her BA in Fine Art with Distinction from the University of Colorado-Boulder and completed a painting residency at the International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture. Her chalk mural work has been featured in EdHat and I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival advertising.
    Claire Wentzel
    Claire Wentzel
    Award-Winning Artist and Strategic Creative Consultant
    Expert Answer
    The human figure is quite challenging to draw. One method is to do warm-up poses, where each pose lasts 30 seconds or maybe a minute. This forces you to get down the essential information as quickly as possible and you won't have time to get bogged down in the details. I think it's just a matter of doing it repetitively and giving yourself the freedom to have it look like whatever it's going to look like. Whatever you see first, just follow that line and then be done and move to the next pose.
  • Question
    Is there a way to make a male character look noticeably feminine without making it look like a female?
    raven claw
    raven claw
    Community Answer
    Make the shoulders less broad and change his facial features so that he has more feminine characteristics.
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Things You'll Need

  • Paper
  • Pencil
  • Pencil sharpener
  • Eraser
  • Colored pencils, crayons, markers or watercolors


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About This Article

Claire Wentzel
Co-authored by:
Claire Wentzel
Award-Winning Artist and Strategic Creative Consultant
This article was co-authored by Claire Wentzel. Claire Wentzel is an award-winning Artist and Strategic Creative Consultant. Her business, Red Rose Studios, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she also serves on the Clark County Public Art Committee. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in mixed media participatory art, brand messaging, and building organizational culture. She earned her BA in Fine Art with Distinction from the University of Colorado-Boulder and completed a painting residency at the International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture. Her chalk mural work has been featured in EdHat and I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival advertising. This article has been viewed 222,802 times.
2 votes - 50%
Co-authors: 20
Updated: October 25, 2022
Views: 222,802
Categories: Drawing People
Article SummaryX

To draw the figure of a standing man, start by sketching the wireframe of a male human figure, including sticks for his arms and legs, an oval head and torso, and a rounded square for his hips. Next, add the shapes for his arms, legs, neck, hands, and feet. Add in some of his muscles, using a picture of the human form for reference if you need to. Finally, sketch in his hair, clothes, and facial features, then outline the final form with dark lines and erase any sketch marks you made. Keep reading to learn how to draw a man who’s posing!

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