Hi everyone. Sorry I’ve been gone so long. The evil finals are finally gone, so I’m back, hopefully for good. I hit a little burnout last week, but now I think I’m finally ready to go.

The tutorial I have today I came up with spontaneously while working on a picture of a tribal character I’m working on. He’s from the prehistory Phillipines, an area that I’ve never heard of a story being written about. Such a fascinating area.

That picture up there shows Snake Island in the Philippines. The completely naturally formed landbridge connecting two islands is shaped like a snake. Click the thumbnail to see how beautiful and clear the water looks. Anyway, I can’t get myself to draw the main protagonist as I see him in my mind.

Anyway, as I was working on trying to draw him a few nights ago, I realized that a lot of people draw the majority of their characters the same way. They’re always standing forward or to the side with their legs straight or slightly bend. But in real life there is a whole range of positions and motions that an individual can do. So I decided that my newest tutorial would be on how to draw a character sitting.

There’s a ton of ways that characters sit, so covering them all in one tutorial would be crazy. So instead, I’m going to focus on how to draw characters sitting in chairs. The way a character looks when sitting in a chair varies depending on how the body is shaped and what the character is wearing, but there is a general shape that the legs take when in a sitting position.

(Click the picture to make it larger).

Side Profile

Start by  drawing a slight vertical line that curves outwards to the right (or left). This will be the character’s butt.

At the bottom of the line you just drew, continue with a very slightly curving line that curves downwards and to the right. This line is part of the character’s butt and thigh.

Continue the line as it travels more and more horizontally, becoming less and less curved. This forms more of the thigh.

Draw a line that attaches to the last line you drew. This line will be drawn vertically and curve slightly outwards. The bottom end of the line will travel to the left (or right).

Here I switched the line I just drew to the line of a pair of pants, but you can keep the original line if you want. Draw a horizontal line that travels to the left and slants slowly upwards. Then have the line curve dramatically upward and to the right, forming the toe of the foot. This will form the bottom and front part of the foot or shoe.

There should be a point where the thigh and the calf intersect. At this point, draw a curving line that travels downwards and to the left. The line will also curve outwards and to the right.

Have the line that you just drew curve outwards to the left (or right). Have this line travel downwards, forming the back part of the other leg.

Continue with the line you just drew, drawing a small bump where the heel should be. From this point, draw a curving line that curves slightly upwards and travels to the left. This line curves slightly upwards because it is forming the arch of the foot.

Draw a line that travels upwards and to the right, curving upwards and to the left. This will form the top part of the other shoe or foot.

Now, switch over to the other foot, drawing the curving horizontal line that makes up the shoe or foot for that part of the body. Have the line curve slightly upward and travel to the right.

Draw a line that curves horizontally and slightly upward. This will form the top part of the other thigh.

Continue this line by drawing a line that travels vertically, curving to the left until the line reaches the ankle, where it then curves to the right. The line finally curves to the left again to meet the lower foot.

Make adjustments to the leg.

That concludes part one of the sitting tutorials. I’ll be covering different positions and different sitting styles. I’ll keep covering this until I’ve run out of sitting styles or until someone emails me at sketchinghouse@gmail.com with a different topic. Just no dirty or degrading requests. I really want to cover how to draw every topic under the sun, but if this bores you to tears, send me an email and I’ll teach other things.

Best wishes,

Alex

Tags: Anatomy, character, characters, draw, drawing, Drawings, drew, How to Draw, Life, lines, Night, Perspective, picture, poses, profile, proportions, real, Returning, side, Travel, Tutorial, Tutorials, Work