Stick Figure Drawing: From Stick Man to Real Poses

How to draw a stick figure with real proportions, fix the stiff look, and turn it into a moving figure. Six steps and five poses to practise today.

A stick figure drawing is the simplest picture of a person: a circle for the head and lines for the torso, arms and legs. Draw it in six steps, give it real proportions (about 7.5 heads tall, hips at the halfway point), then curve the lines so the figure moves.

What is a stick figure in drawing?

A stick figure is a very simple drawing of a person in which straight lines stand for the torso, arms and legs, and a circle usually stands for the head. The form is more than 30,000 years old. For an artist it is a planning tool that fixes the pose before any detail goes on.

Source: Wikipedia's stick figure article .

How do you draw a stick figure step by step?

Draw a stick figure in six steps: a circle for the head, one line for the spine, a short shoulder line, a short hip line, then arms and legs with a dot at each elbow and knee, and small marks for the hands and feet. The whole figure takes under a minute.

One line down for the spine.

A short shoulder line across the top.

A short hip line across the bottom.

Arms and legs, with a dot at each elbow and knee.

Small marks for hands and feet.

What proportions should a stick figure have?

Use the head as the ruler. An average person is about 7.5 heads tall, and the halfway point of the body sits at the hips, just above the pubic arch. Legs measure 3.5 to 4 heads from floor to crotch, and arms about 3 heads. A stick figure with these lengths reads as a real person.

Source: Wikipedia's body proportions article . Our body proportions guide maps every head unit.

Why do stick figures look stiff, and how do you fix it?

Stick figures look stiff because straight lines carry no movement. Stan Prokopenko's gesture lesson warns that thinking of the body as a stick figure can make a drawing stiff, and asks for action lines in place of sticks. Draw each line as a C curve, an S curve or a straight line, whichever the pose shows.

Proko's gesture lesson starts from the longest of those lines, the line of action. Our line of action guide covers that stroke.

What poses can you practise with stick figures?

Start with five stick figure poses: standing with the weight on one leg, walking, running, sitting and reaching up. In each pose, tilt the shoulder line one way and the hip line the other, and let the spine curve between them. Those three lines make the pose readable before you draw a single arm or leg.

Do professional artists still use stick figures?

Published 2026-11-14 on the Refimages blog.