Body Base Sketch: Female

When creating a character design, one of the most essential steps is establishing a solid base for the body. This article will provide a step-by-step guide on how to sketch a female body base, covering height, shoulder width, and more.

To begin, imagine your character jumping with their feet pointing downwards. In this position, the entire head defines the length, but when standing flat-footed, cut the head in half to determine the height. This technique can be applied to both male and female characters. For our purposes, we'll focus on the female body type.

The size of a human head can fit approximately eight times (excluding the head) within the human body. Sometimes, seven is a more suitable number when considering the feet are excluded from this measurement. By understanding these proportions, you can easily determine the height of your character.

To create the body base, start by drawing a simple oval shape for the head with slight indents around the jaw area to define it further. Add two anchor points roughly at the top edge of the jawline, allowing you to push them slightly inward to create a more defined jaw indent.

Next, duplicate this head eight times and align them in a straight line underneath the original head shape. This will serve as your foundation for creating various body types. The great thing about Adobe Illustrator is its ability to add anchor points, making it easy to manipulate shapes and define features like the jawline.

With your basic body base established, you can begin adding more details such as rectangles, triangles, and irregular quadrilaterals to create a fuller figure. This will help you achieve a more realistic appearance for your character.

In the following steps, we'll explore different female body types, using simple shapes to draw out the design. We'll also cover male body types in subsequent tutorials. These guidelines are designed to be useful for both beginners and experienced artists looking to create a wide range of characters.

For those interested in adding more variety to their character designs, I might release additional resources in the future, including different head angles and body types. The ultimate goal is to provide a comprehensive resource that can be easily swapped out with other bodies, allowing for greater creative freedom.

Feel free to use this body base sketch as a starting point for your own character designs. If you do decide to use it, please consider linking back to this article so others can benefit from the resource as well. I'm excited to see what kind of characters people will create using this guide!

Body base sketch female