Body proportions

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

In art, body proportions are the study of relation of human body, or in general, animal body, parts to each other and the whole, essential for depiction of the overall figure.

Some common proportional relationships for humans:

Body:

The average adult human figure is about 7 to 7.5 heads tall.
The idealized human figure is traditionally represented as being 8 heads tall.
8 head proportions:
1. head
2. from the bottom of the head to the middle height of a chest (place where a man's nipples should be)
3. from previous position to the navel
4. from previous position to (upper edge of) the pubis
5. from previous position to the middle height of thigh
6. from previous position to the middle height of a calf
7. from previous position to the point just below the ankles
8. from previous position to the feet
The pubis, or its upper edge, is at mid-height of the average adult figure.
The length of the shin is equal to the length of the hip for an average adult figure.
When the body stands upright, the length of the arm is such that the finger tips come down to mid-thigh.
The arms' wingspan (measured from the tips of the middle fingers) is about equal to the body height.
The length of the foot is about equal to the length of the forearm.

Head:

The eyes are at the mid-height of the head.
The head also can be divided into thirds - from the top of the head to the bottom of the forehead, from the bottom of the forehead to the bottom of the nose, and then from there to the bottom of the chin.
The width of the head is between four and five eyes wide.
The height of the face is about equal to the length of the hand.
The eyes are separated by a distance of one eye width.
The bottom of the nose to the corner of the eye is equal to the height of the ear.
The width of the base of the nose is equal to the width of the eye.
The width of the mouth is equal to the distance between pupils, or the width of two eyes.

Body proportions

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