1

These tutorial books cost a lot of sweat

and tears, and are an important part of
my livelihood so please do not redis-
tribute them. They should not be avail-
able online anywhere other than my
shop lulu.com/cedarseed. Kindly report
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2
 Drawing People
A tutorial collection by
Joumana Medlej

This book’s contents are © Joumana Medlej, cedarseed.com.

NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED OR REDISTRIBUTED.

For inquiries: mana@cedarseed.com

3
 Contents

Cultivating your Drawing Skills 5

Drawing the body 7

Proportions of the body 8
Proportions of the face 9
Proportion reminders 11
Muscle guide 12
More on the body 15
The hand 16
The foot 22

Flexibility 27

Emotions and facial expressions

38

Aging the face and body 53

Catalogue of human features 62

Human types 72
Asian types 73
Caucasian types 82
African types 93
Pacific types 96
Notes on mixed types 100

Bibliography 101

4
 Cultivating your Drawing Skills
I believe drawing skills are never innate: when
someone is a natural, what they really have are
remarkable observational skills and the ability
to apply them – in their case, through drawing.
Drawing skills can be cultivated by anyone able
to use their minds and hands. There are two ap-
proaches to this: Theory (+practice) and Obser-
vation (+studies).
• Theory is a structured, systematic approach
where we learn from someone more experienced
who’s laid it all out for us in a course or tutorial.
• Observation is an organic, unpredictable ap-
proach, where we learn directly from the real
world around us and gradually derive principles
from it.
Each taken alone is incomplete; trying to work
with only one of them would be like trying to
walk with one foot. Studying Theory lays down
a solid foundation, but that remains abstract and
limited until Observation brings it to life with de-
tails and real-life application – but Observation
needs the founding structure of Theory to make
sense of itself. For instance, it is only if you know
how muscles work that you’ll understand why a
contracted arm bulges the way it does – and you
can’t draw (correctly) what you don’t understand.
It is the combination of learned theory and
observed reality that favors integration, or in-
depth learning.
An essential ingredient of this integration is prac-
tice. We all know that we remember best what
involves us personally. Reading a tutorial and ob-
serving our surroundings are the passive compo-
nent of the learning experience: To anchor what
our mind absorbs, we must involve ourselves ac-
tively, that is, put pencil to paper. We must prac-
tice what we learned in a book until the knowl-
edge becomes second nature and is no longer
something we need to recall. As for observation,
we must put it down in a study. Every great mas-
ter did such studies. They didn’t pull their skills
from thin air, but relied on studies, or models (or
studies of models) as references.
A study is simply a collection of sketches from real
life. There is no rule as to how complete or de-
5
tailed they should be, but it is important to know
what you’re after to derive real benefits from it. If
you need to draw a dragon, your study may be of
reptiles, the shapes of their limbs, the texture of
their skin, the way they move, and may also ex-
tend, for instance, to bat wings.
Studies will help you not only in learning to draw
something you have a hard time with (such as
folds), but also in introducing realistic variety into
your work. Aspiring fantasy or graphic novel art-
ists pay heed! Imagination is fed by observation.
The conscious mind is little more than a super-
computer, powerful but incapable of creating any-
thing from scratch. It creates by combining things
that you have stored in your memory. The more
elements you feed your mind, the more creative it
(and you) can be. So if you want to draw people
who don’t all have the same haircut, design cloth-
ing and weapons for your characters, or not be at
a loss for backgrounds all the time, you have to
look, look and look, and allow the randomness of
the world to surprise you (as opposed to confin-
ing yourself to a limited and completely predict-
able environment such as your house – contrary
to appearances, illustration is a not an armchair
occupation!)
As you must have gathered by now, this book is
about Theory. The tutorials and guides serve to
help you understand the subject you wish to draw.
The Observation part is in your own hands, but
I’d like to help you getting started by suggesting
a method to learn through studies. It’s really an
elaboration on the often-given advice “sketch
from real life!” but it may be more helpful.
It’s very simple, actually. Just go to a public space
(a coffeeshop is an ideal place to start) and sketch,
with the following in mind:
• Pick a focus, something specific you want to
learn or need references for. I’ll list some sug-
gestions below. Don’t sketch anything that’s
not related to your focus – that’s why I’m
calling it a focus. Do not confuse with doo-
dling: Sketching from life should never be
random. Know what you’re after or you’ll get
nothing out of it.
• Are you worried people will catch you star-
ing? Good. That will force you to steal glimps-
 es of your subjects. You will need to absorb
more information in each glimpse and you
won’t be able to afford getting lost in details
other than your focus. This is great train-
ing. Don’t worry if at first it makes it diffi-
cult or the sketches don’t come out right.
That’s what studies are for. You’re learning
to store the important details deep in your
hard drive and discard the unnecessary
bits. Persevere and it will get easier – and
what is stored will remained stored. But for
heaven’s sake don’t look self-conscious and
guilty or try to hide. If you act like you’re
doing something wrong, people will think
you are doing something wrong. Be casual.
Often you can sketch someone while look-
ing slightly to the side of them, so that if the
person looks up they’ll think you’re staring
into space (as long as you don’t shift your
gaze hurriedly). And if someone notices you
and asks to look, don’t be childish about it,
just let them look. “I’m practicing” is all you
need to say.
• For each focus chosen, do this regularly for
a while. For instance every day, or every
other day for a week or until you feel you’ve
milked the topic.
• Think of what you draw as assortments of
volumes, not as lines put together. If you can
think in forms (3d) as opposed to shapes
(flat), you can rotate and foreshorten sub-
jects in your mind. The dimensionality also
translates into your drawings. It’s not a con-
scious process, but the final result speaks
volumes. So, think in forms!
• In that line of thought, resist the temptation
to sketch from photos. They are flat, deceiv-
ing representations of a three-dimensional
world. Always learn from the original.
You can use photos as references once you
are proficient enough to see the volumes
through the flat picture.
• Keep your studies! They are references you
are compiling for yourself. Label and file
them in an organizer for easy retrieval.
There’s no limit to what you can come up with in
terms of focus subjects. Pick a general weakness
of yours that needs strengthening, or something
you need for a specific project. For instance, in
my work I frequently need to draw random
contemporary characters, but I never know
what to do for hair and fashion, so I end up relying
on a limited “vocabulary” for both. I remedied this
by sitting in coffeeshops and sketching, with hairdos
and clothing (including color schemes) as my focus.
I’m a quick sketcher so I can easily handle both (I
take color notes and add that with markers later),
but they can be done separately.
Here are things you can easily observe and sketch in
a coffeeshop:
• Hairdos – good opportunity to also study hair-
lines, hair quality, the behavior of strands of hair,
etc.
• Fashion, including accessories and colors.
• Footwear – make sure to sit somewhere with a
clear view on the queue, or on the street.
• Facial features – the shapes of lips, noses, eyes,
the facial contour. There’s no better way to real-
ize just how varied they are.
• Profiles
• Shading – how the light falls on facial features,
folds etc.
• Signs of age or youth – lines, facial proportions,
clothing style and more... Once you start look-
ing for them, you’ll find more than expected.
• Folds – don’t forget to note the nature of the ma-
terial, as they behave quite differently!
• Posture – how people sit or stand, how they hold
their hands while talking, etc. Different settings
provide different sets of postures - for instance
the beach is a good place for reclining poses.
Other suggestions for other settings:
• In a park: tree shapes, leaf and flower shapes,
how they are grouped, color schemes...
• At a gym: the perfect place to study muscles at
work.
• At the beach: body types, reclining postures, di-
versity in body proportions (made easier by the
absence of clothing).
• In the city: building types, windows, street de-
tails, stone/concrete hues, textures...
• At your little cousin’s birthday party: children’s
faces and proportions, children fashion...
• If you’re lucky enough to have access to a botan-
ical garden, zoo or history museum, do yourself
a favour and make an occasional trip there with
a sketchbook. Botanical gardens in particular
often have a diversity of miniature ecosystems,
and can give you a feel of the natural environ-
ment in different parts of the globe.
6
And so on. These are basic suggestions, but I hope
they can give a clearer direction to beginners and
new ideas to the others. I find studies addictive:
they’re much like collecting something, except
these items are free and abundant. I also find they
make me increasingly interested in what’s around
me, and when I’m not sketching, I’m still looking
and “storing”.
I’ll end on a final piece of advice: Never expect to
be spoon-fed. Don’t, for instance, look for some-
one to show you how to draw “a big guy throw-
ing a punch in manga style”. Instead, learn about
the muscles and joints involved, observe yourself
in the mirror in the desired pose, and learn what
defines the manga style. Make the synthesis (com-
bining what you know with what you see, adapting
the body type and the style) yourself. You may not
reach the perfect result the first time around, but
what you’ll have learned in the trying is something
earned, that you can consequently build on.

DRAWING THE BODY

The idealized body proportions used to learn anatomy are essential to the learning process (it simplifies a
very complex subject for the student), but that you are not expected to abide by them at all times as they
do vary slightly in reality. Once you have integrated these rules, you too will veer from them to develop
your own style – but I honestly don’t recommend skipping ahead. Understanding them first is key to
knowing how to change the proportions of a body without making it look distorted.

I. GENERAL

The first thing you should do when you want to draw a human body (or anything else, for that matter),
is a quick, gesture-style sketch of the underlying volumes. Never start from the head and draw your way
down. You have to work in layers, from the rough shapes to the fine details. This way you insure that your
body proportions are correct and everything is in place before you put too much time into details you
can’t change anymore.
To illustrate this, here are three steps in my sketching process:

7
II. PROPORTIONS OF THE HUMAN BODY

The unit of measurement of the human body is the head. 1. Chin

In Western art, men are conventionally 8 heads high, and
women slightly smaller at 7.5 heads. In reality, even the
Northern European models for this convention are usu- 2. Nipples
ally closer to 7 heads, not to mention other human types
whose proportions may be very different. Nevertheless,
the 8-head model (shown on the right) is very useful for 3. Belly button
the beginners because it allows for easy-to-remember and elbow
alignments: 4. Crotch and
wrists
I recommend accepting these guidelines in the begin-
ning; once you are thoroughly familiar with them you 5. Fingertips and
will naturally veer away from them to draw a variety of mid-thigh
body types. What is really essential to a well-propor-
tioned body is the way articulations are placed in respect 6. Bottom of
to each other. (By “well-proportioned” I don’t mean a knee caps
model’s body but one that doesn’t look misshaped.)
7. Bottom of
The next step is to understand the differences between calf muscles
the male and female bodies. They are shown below along
with some important points in common: 8. Soles of feet

Woman Both Man

Men are gener-

ally taller than
Body made women.
up of oval,
soft shapes.
Body made up
Elbows at waist of trapezoid,
level (but male angular shapes
waist tends to
look lower)

Fingertips at Shoulders
mid-thigh broader than
hips (hip joints
Shoulders nar- being inside the
rower than hips Legs taper inward from pelvis area).
(hip joints being hips (more pronounced in
outside the pel- women), then stagger out
vis area). at knees, to taper in again.

8
III. PROPORTIONS OF THE FACE

The skull is a more or less flattened sphere to which the jaw is appended: together they give the head
and overall egg shape from any angle. An adult face is proportioned as follows:

The depth of the skull varies between

Seen head-on, the face can these two lines (see Human Types)
be divided in quarters.

The eyes are cen-

tered on top of
these two middle
points

The lower half

is divided in 5.
Counting from 2/5th: Nose
the middle line, 3/5th: Mouth
the nose is at
2/5th and the
The neck makes the
mouth at 3/5th
head jut forward, espe-
cially for women.
From the side the eye has
an arrowhead shape. The hairline varies
The distance between between 2/4 and 3/4
the eyes is equal to 1 eye.
Wide-set eyes may make The brow is at 1/4 of
a face look infantile, the upper half.
and close-set eyes may
inspire distrust, so be The hollow of the root
aware of what you do of the nose occurs at
with this part of the face. or slightly above the
midline.

Indicating the lower lip

is always a nice touch.
The face above is female. The adult male
face follows the same construction, but it is
broader, more angular, with a heavier neck:

Differences in the female and male face:

(In relative terms this applies throughout the world, but the basic face varies with type – see Human Types p70.)

Overall smaller
than a man’s
Eyebrows lower
head
and thicker

Curved
brow Brow juts out

Mouth is wider
Softer jaw line
Harder with thinner lips
and chin
jawline
More Thicker
slender Pronounced chin
neck
neck
9
Foreshortening the face

As hinted by the diagrams above, the lines on which the features were placed
run around the head, as does the line that divides the face in 2 vertically. As
a matter of fact, the quickest way to give volume to your egg-shape, as well
as to locate the face on it, is to draw the 2 centerlines, now following the
head’s contour, that cross in the center of the face (right).
To draw the head in perspective, then, simply add the reference lines on the
contour, bearing in mind that distances shorten with perspective. Then add
the features in their respective places.

Looking down

The ear The curve of the eye-

moves up brows is flattened

Features
curve up. The nose oversteps In real life the mouth
the line, looking much curves up, which
closer to the mouth. looks like a smile on
If the perspective is paper, so adjustment
strong enough it will may be needed.
overlap the lips.

Looking up
Eyebrows gain
Features more curve
curve
down. The upper lip
shows more
surface
The ear
moves Jawline shows
down Throat line comes increasingly with the
to the fore tilt of the head

Foreshortening from the side

At the extreme, Almost profile: eyeball appears,

only the jutting Part of the eye-
the eyebrow pupil may be
points of brow brow shows
seems to curve hinted at
The ear seen and cheekbone on itself
can be seen. Lower eyelid
from the back
juts out, but A small part
detaches itself
no eyeball yet of the cheek
from the head
like a funnel. still hides the
The eyelash
nostril
then comes
into view Nose becomes
visible behind Lips appear,
the curve of the mouth slit
cheek. very small
Chin line
joins throat
10
IV. EASY PROPORTION REMINDERS

Here are a few diagrams that should help you remember

proportions. I visualize them when drawing to place the These 3 distances are the same:
joints and scale the limbs accurately. Shoulder to buttock
Shoulder to birth of fingers
Knee to buttock

Heels never protrude

Elbow to beyond buttocks
fingertips =
Knee to heel
Proportion of hands and feet to the face:

Sole and palm Notice how much

Here’s where the hand are half the smaller they are in
reaches when you try to face’s width women
touch your shoulder

Man Woman

Wrist to (inner) elbow measure In the diagram below, the measures

when the arm is bent are all equal to the length of the index

Wrist to elbow measure when the arm is stretched hairline

to
eyebrows
ear height
to
nose tip
pupil to pupil
to
inner corner to chin
outer corner
11
V. MUSCLE GUIDE

Understanding muscle structure is a great asset in building bodies. This section offers a guide to this structure that’s very
simplified, but sufficient for most drawing needs. The muscles or protruding bones are shown as areas of colors while the
black outline shows you how that muscle would show on the surface of the body. For reference purposes I emphasize all the
important muscles. But it is only in athletic bodies that they would show this much: the less muscular the character the less
muscle strokes you should show, and the softer the outline of the skin should be as opposed to closely adhering to the muscles
(which is what creates a toned look). Also remember females’ muscles are more graceful and less bulky than males’.

Shoulder line is not a

A. Torso straight horizontal line

Neck is not a
straight cylinder
sterno-mastoid

clavicle bone trapezius

deltoids

pectorals
Neck tapers in

abdominals
latissimus dorsi Trapezius
creates a
gluteus
transition
from neck to
shoulders

Breasts
The breast shape
To draw breasts, starts at the
simply place the armpit. It either
nipples a little bulges out from
outwards, just it or dips in a
inside the body little first.
contour, then
add the volume.

You can see here the relationship

between breast and biceps. The
hollow of the armpit flows into
the breast, though part of that line
From the side, may be omitted.
draw a circle
that is cen-
tered on the The bottom half of the circle cor-
line where the responds to the bottom side of the
nipple falls. Half breast. For the upper side, con-
of it is outside Volume may nect the nipple to the birth of the
the body. show here. neck in a slight curve.
12
 deltoids
B. Arms Relaxed arm
Arm with hand flexed (inside) (outside)
With the arms we biceps
need to be aware of
the way muscle be-
havior determines triceps
Note junction
the position of the
to torso
arm, so I offer dif-
ferent views. Note elbow
flexor pronator
how the same mus- “peak” teres
cles manifest differ-
ently in each. extensors
It is this extensor that “pulls” the hand into a flexed
position, therefore it bulges in this case while its
antagonist, the flexor, is relaxed. If the wrist was
bending the other way, the reverse would occur.

Similarly, the biceps bulge when the arm bends

(assuming there is resistance, for instance if the
hand is holding something heavy), and the triceps
bulge if the arm is making an effort to unbend.

The arm doesn’t hang

straight down in rest-
Bent arm ing position. Note the
(outside) relationship to the line
dropping from the back
The forearm starts thick and tapers of the neck.
till halfway between elbow and
hand, then its width is nearly even.
Note the
alternation
in the arm’s
contour Arm bends OUT when thumb is IN.
Arm bends IN when thumb is OUT.

The hollow and

Proportions of
nipples form an equi-
perfect breasts, by lateral triangle where
Only fake breasts show a
Western standards: the sides are around break or bulging here!
20cm

Nipples point
Areola diameter forward and
Ideal bust proportions is 3.5 to 5cm slightly out
are attained when the
circumference at the
Breast projects 1
nipples is 15 cm more
to 3 cm out of the
than the circumference
thorax line
of the thorax under the
breasts (for instance, 90 1/3 of the volume of
and 75 cm) the breast should be
above the areola, 2/3
under it

FAKE NATURAL
For cleavage to look this way, The distance This line is
one needs either a special bra, between more likely
or breasts shaped like bal- breasts is 1 to appear
loons, in other words a badly to 3 cm. from 3/4
done boob job. view

See Catalog of Human Features for breast shapes.

13
C. Legs

vastus adductor biceps

rectus femoris semi- rectus femori

tendinosis
sartorius sartorius

patella patella
The calf muscle
is lower inside

extensors Achilles’ tendon calves

tibialis anterior

The ankle bone is tibia

tibia
higher inside

extensors

Front Out Back In

Bent (in) Bent (out)

No weight on this leg,
so these muscles are
relaxed

The biceps bulge to

bend the leg

If there is weight on the leg,

these muscles bulge as well
to prevent it from bending
completely..

To flex the foot, the tibialis anterior bulg-

es while the calf relaxes. To point the foot,
the reverse happens

When the leg is straight, the

lower part is staggered back-
wards and outwards.

Side Front
14
VI. THE BODY IN PROFILE
Drawing a silhouette in profile starts with the usual skeletal
structure, with additional details from this angle:
The shoulder joints
are forward from the
spine, not level with it,
because the “line” of
the shoulders is in real-
ity an arc. Top view:
shoulder
joint
top of spine
The body’s centre of grav-
ity is right below the belly
button, inside the body.
The body is most bal-
anced and rooted when
this point is on the line of
balance (see Balance box
below.)
The hip joint-knee-ankle line
is angled slightly backwards,
so that the knees are aligned
with the centre of gravity, the
hip is forward, and the ankle
is back. Overall the effect is of
a head-hip-feet arc
(that is, when the posture is
erect. Nowadays many peo-
ple slouch.)
Balance
To make sure a body
is balanced, picture a
vertical line shooting
up from the centre of
its support. On two legs
that will be the mid-
point between the feet; NO
on one foot, the centre
of the foot. If a hand is
on the ground it’s the
center of the feet-hand
triangle, and so on.
The body must be po-
sitioned in a balanced
way around this line:
The spine has a curved
shape like a flat S. How
strong this curve is varies
with the individual.
The ribcage and hip bone are set, but
It peaks backward be-
the way you choose to attach them
tween the shoulder blades,
together (basically by adding flesh)
from where it juts forward
individualizes the character.
to form the neck.
There is an opposite peak, inward, a little
above the hip bone, before the coccyx heads
out again, creating the arch in the lower back
and flowing into the curve of the buttocks.
Women’s spines
tend to be more
arched, and more
flexible, than
men’s.
In reasonably
slim bodies,
women’s stom-
achs tend to a
gentle curve
while men’s tend
to flatness.
Similarly,
women’s
bottoms are
rounded while
men’s are not.
Note: this isn’t an exact sci-
ence because muscles play
a role in opposing gravity-
induced imbalance. Also,
this doesnt apply to mo-
NO yes
yes
tion, because imbalance
is the motor of the motion
(running is nothing more
than falling forward while
These will work for a mo- pumping your legs to use
ment. The centre of gravity that vector). It’s important
pulls the body, so it either to learn to evaluate what
briefly
has to be brought back in looks right, more than
line or the body must step what is right.
back or forward to move
the line itself.
15
VI. THE HAND

Of all things, the hand is by many considered to be the hardest to draw

– and yet it’s also the thing for which we carry a visual reference at all I use the following
times, right at the end of our arms. By all means use this reference; a abbreviations for the
small mirror propped on your desk will allow you to see it from awk- fingers:
ward angles. Th = thumb
FF = forefinger
MF = middle finger
RF = ring finger
LF = little finger
Here’s a quick look at the bone structure of the hand.
In blue, the 8 carpal bones, in purple, the 5 metacarpal
bones, and in pink, the 14 phalanges.

As many of these bones cannot

move at all, we can simplify the
basic structure of the hand:

Note that the actual base

of the fingers is much
lower than the apparent
base formed by flaps of
skin. This will be im-
portant to draw bend-
ing fingers as we will see
later.

Based on this, a sim-

ple way of drawing
the hand is to start
with the basic form
of the palm, then at-
tach the fingers :

16
 If you have a
hard time draw- PROPORTIONS
ing fingers, it’s (Taking the length of Maximum opening between FF
very helpful to FF as base unit) and RF = 1. MF can move closer
think of them, to either without affecting the total
and draw them, distance.
as stacks of 3 Maximum Th-FF
cylinders: opening = 1.5
to 1.8
Maximum RF-
Cylinders are easy to draw
LF opening= 1
under any angle, taking away
much of the headache of draw-
ing fingers in perspective.

Maximum angle
between Th and LF
is 90º, taken from
the very base of the
Th’s articulation: the
fully extended LF is
aligned with it.
The bases of the
cylinders become
the joint folds.

Joints fall
onto con-
centric
The fingernail arches.
starts halfway up The point
the top joint. where fingernail
detaches from Joints are NOT aligned
flesh varies: some on straight lines.
people have it
all the way at
the edge of the
finger, others
very low, so their
fingernails are
wider than they
Fingernails are not are long.
flat, but shaped much
like roof tiles, with a
curvature ranging from Fingers bend slighty
extreme to very slight. towards the space
Fingers are NOT straight. between MF and RF.
(although they look straight in Showing this even
some of the following diagrams subtly gives life to a
for the sake of simplicity.) drawing.

17
Details of the hand The FF or RF as sometimes
almost as long as the MF.
Drag lines
Fingers are NOT on both
straight (although sides all fall
they look straight away from
The joint folds are arranged
in some of the fol- the MF.
elliptically on the back, and
lowing diagrams
like parallel lines on the
for the sake of
inside. They are more pro-
simplicity.)
nounced at the lower joint.

The line of From the back, the lines of

the wrist the fingers extend down to
separates the limit of the palm – the
the thumb fingers look longer.
from the Also elliptical, but From the inside, the lines
fingers. when the hand is are shorter because the top
flat they are not of the palm is padded – the
pronounced. fingers look shorter.

tendon line
Back Palm
These lines wrap halfway around the fingers.
They are accentuated as the finger bends.
The most
visible lines
are where There is a small bump here
the skin folds on the extended finger due
when the palm to skin bunching up.
is cupped.
From the side, the
padding at the base
NOT to be confused of each finger appears
with the contour of as a series of curved,
the thumb, which parallel bulges.
becomes visible under
certain angles:

When seen from the outer side, the palms shows another new contour line. It starts at the
wrist and, as the hand turns more, joins up with the LF line, until it covers up the Th base.

Wrist line curves

into palm base A little or none of the MF can be vis-
The RF’s last joint is
ible depending on the FF’s length
fully exposed

Out In

The bottom of the hand looks flatter from the out- Wrist line is cov-
side, although the thumb base may still be visible ered by thumb base
18
Range of motion

Thumb Th can fold in as far as touching the root

of LF, but this requires much tension and
The natural relaxed position quickly becomes painful.
leaves a space between the
Th and the rest of the hand.

Range of movement on the back-forth axis

Th can extend as far

as the width of the
palm, but this also
gets painful.

Centre of
movement

Fingers
When the hand closes into a fist so that the fingers bend together, the whole of the hand
maintains a cupped shape, as if it was placed against a large ball. It’s just that the ball gets
smaller and the curvature stronger:
Unless it’s pressed against a flat surface, the hand is
never flat, always slightly convex or concave.
Biggest fold
The 2nd The 2nd fold
When the fist is
joint is the becomes an
closed, the 1st and
first to bend extension of
3rd fold meet
the finger

Part of the fin-

ger is covered by
the flap of skin
and the thumb
Th can remain Inner side of the fist
independent of this Knuckles fall away from the MF’s
movement and is just knuckle, so that from this angle the Same “cross”
shown for reference. parallel fingers are visible from the phenomenon
outer side, not from the inner side.
When the hand is fully The thumb bends
extended the fingers are so that the last
either straight or bend section is fore-
slightly backwards, de- shortened.
Outer side of the fist
pending on flexibility.
When the hand makes a fist,
the knuckles protrude
The skin fold
here sticks out.
Some people’s fin-
gers can bend back
90º (if pressure is
applied against the
fingers).
19
Additional details
The gradation in the
fingers makes the
When the hand is outer 2 or 3 peek out
relaxed, the fingers curl between FF and Th.
slightly – more so when
the hand is pointing
up and gravity helps.
Since the fingers are not
In both cases, the FF
the same length, they
remains straightest and
always present a grada-
the rest fall away gradu-
tion. When grasping
ally, with the LF being
something, the MF wraps
the most bent.
the most visibly around
the object while the LF
The ever-present arcs barely shows.
When holding a pen or the like, MF, RF and
LF frequently LF curl back towards the palm if the object
“runs away” is held only between Th and FF. If more
from the other pressure is applied, MF participates and
fingers – another straightens up as it presses against the
way of making object. Full pressure results in all the
hands look more fingers pointing away as shown here.
natural.

Often the FF and MF or MF and RF will pair up, “sticking” together

while the other 2 remain loose. This makes the hand look more lively.
RF-LF pairings also occur, when the fingers are loosely bent.

The hand and wrist are remarkably articulated, each finger almost having a life of its
own, which is why hands tend to stump the beginning illustrator. Yet when the hand
starts to make sense, we tend to fall into the opposite trap, which is to draw hands too
rationally – fingers carefully taking their places, parallel lines, careful alignments. The
result is stiff and simply too tame for a part of the body that can speak as expressively
as the eyes. It can work for certain types of characters (such as those whose person-
ality shows stiffness or insensitivity) but more often than not, you’ll want to draw
lively, expressive hands. For this you can go one of two ways: add attitude (i.e. add
drama to the gesture, resulting in a dynamic hand position that would probably
never be used in real life) or add natural-ness (observe the hands of people who
aren’t thinking about them to see the casualness I’m referring to). I can’t possibly
show every hand position there is, but I give below two examples of constrained vs.
natural/dynamic hand:
Forced

Forced Natural Stiff

But note in this case – trained fighters will

always hold their fingers parallel while
Natural punching to protect their knuckles. Dramatic
20
Hand shapes
(= Proportions of
fingers to hand)

Square palm, Square palm, Long palm, Long palm,

short fingers long fingers short fingers long fingers

Finger shapes

Regular Thin Thick

Tapering Square Spatulate Bony

Squared Rounded Almond- Short

styling styling shaped styling styling
Fingernail shapes

The half-moon
shape is not neces-
sarily present.

Square nail Round nail base Spatulate

base
21
VII. THE FOOT

As with the hand, don’t hesitate to take off your shoes and use your own feet as references, when possible!

Let’s look briefly at the structure of the foot: The tarsals Although the first joint of the toes is
or ankle bones in blue, the metatarse or instep bones in here, flesh covers the foot up to this
purple, and the phalanges or toes in pink. line, which is why they appear so
Very little of the short, especially added to the fact they
foot can move, so do not rest straight, as we will see.
we can simplify it:

The bones of the foot are arranged to form 3 arches that give it the strength to support our bodies. The
first two shape the bottom of the foot and the third the upper part. Squeeze the sides of your foot and
note how rigid they are: the bottom of the foot is not soft and does not deform under pressure. This means
that no matter the position of the foot, the indentations of the arches will always show in an adult foot.
The blue part
is what touches
the ground and
leaves a print.

The lateral longitudinal arch is

the small one outside the foot.
The medial longitudinal arch is
It shows as a slight indentation
the large one inside the foot. It’s The transverse
from the heel, both below and
a very noticeable indentation. arch shapes the
outside the foot.
The part of the sole that’s behind top of the foot.
it is lost in shadow in any case
when the foot is on the ground, Transverse
cut: high arch
but since we usually see feet from
ankle above and not from the ground
The outer contour is level, the result is this:
not a flat line except in heel
flat feet. arch
The line from heel to
ball is not a smooth
curve.
low arch
(flat foot)

Note the direction

of the toes:
Big toe: Parallel
to the ground.

Other toes: Bend Toes are NOT all flat Big toe does NOT
towards the ground. on the ground. bend down.
22
A simple way to draw
feet is to begin by draw-
ing the sole of the foot.
No toes, no arches, just
the basic shape. It’s
shaped like a long egg,
flattened on one side.
The advantage of this is that this
flat shape is simple enough to be
drawn in perspective and under dif-
ferent angles. Anatomical accuracy
is not a requirement at this point,
we’re giving ourselves a guideline
to build on.

Still have trouble? Draw it on a sheet of paper and

place that as needed for a quick live reference.

The next step is to make

a small adjustment to the
shape, making it asym-
metrical to get closer to
the foot’s natural shape. If
you’re comfortable doing
so, you can start directly
with this step.

Now to give it dimension. As

you can see, it’s a rounded and
pretty flattened pyramid, whose
apex is near the heel: the circle,
representing the ankle, where
the leg joins with the foot. The
contour lines (dashed) are to
help you see the contour. Only
the black outline is needed for
the drawing.
The height reserved
The little toe is positioned
here is for the toes.
Finally, add the toes. If between 1/4 and 1/3 of
the total foot length.
needed, sketch a guideline
to define their general shape
(see shapes further down)
before drawing them indi-
vidually. They are pressed
together so from almost all
angles, they overlap.
Finalize by carving out
Adding the toes sepa-
the arches and adding the
rately means you can
ankle bone and Achilles’ make them bent or
tendon. curled independently
from the base sketch.
As an alternative to the above, Here curled.
you can also draw the foot as a
wedge, and then add the toes
and carve out the final form.

23
Additional details Note also how
much larger
The toenails start the big toe is,
Several details The toes look lon- halfway up the twice the size
from the hand ger on top of the top joint. As toe of the second
foot than they do joints are so short, toe, so that its
apply to the first joint is
underneath it. toenails are wider
foot as well: than they are long. within the foot
and can barely
move.

These tendon lines may or

may not show, depending.
Tension makes them pop
There’s always a At least 2 toes out, and they can be
bump here that’s show behind big permanently visible in
more or less toe, depending male or elderly feet.
pronounced. on p.o.v.
You have to judge for
yourself whether
higher they serve your
Out ankle In purpose or not.

bigger
arch Again, line
This line travels
traveling as foot
up as the foot
turns in. Only a ground-level
turns out. round
view hides the small
toes completely. toes

A baby’s foot
is so pad-
Big toe joint ded it looks
starts pro- bloated,
truding without pad-
ding lines.

Padding line From front

and below, the
ball of each toe
Here is the foot seen frontally
shows clearly.
when it’s perfectly level, such Usually however, our
as from ground level. frontal view of feet (that
From this angle the toes look are on the ground) is from
Padding line is
like peas in a pod – simply a higher point of view.
horizontal from
draw them as balls before con-
this angle
necting them to the forefoot.

The big toe Big toe and

looks oval second toe
What looks like a “6th usually
rather than
toe” is the padding separated by a
round.
outside the foot. space.
Toes lifted: the Lift a bit more, and the
padding of the inner line of the pad- Using our meth-
forefoot appears. ding appears, cutting od above to build
the foot in two by run- the shape before
ning towards the ankle. adding toes
makes even this
complex angle
easy to work with.

24
 This foot is relaxed. Even though
the toes bend a little, there is no
real weight on them.
Bend marks
appear in these
Here, most of the weight is on the toes. hollows.
The pressure makes this joint stick out.
See what’s happening below: As for the big
toe, it goes
Such a position is only possible even flatter.
ground when pressing against a surface.
When not pressed against a surface, the range of mobility of the toes is limited to
the following 2 extremes (with, literally, wiggling room in-between.)
Curled Splayed

Space
appears.
Tendons
appear Note the small toes re-
main curved down, they
The first joint can can’t curve up.
completely hide Except for the big
under the foot. toe, which is stuck Splaying the toes
at around 90º. makes them point in
different directions.
Attaching the foot to the leg:
On both sides the
Roughly speaking, Seen frontally, line juts out with
the front side of The back side the inner side the 2 ankle bones.
the leg falls verti- slopes in, but the is vertical while The inside bone
cally into the foot. heel protrudes the outer side is higher than the
out again. slopes in. outside one.

Transition plane between

leg and foot. Look for it in Outside ankle
all the diagrams above. tucked behind
this line.

Note that the inward slope of the back/outer sides

is connected to the calf muscle. The less muscular
the calf, the straighter this line. Inversely, excess
fat will cause the lines to bulge in a sausage effect.
The thinnest part of the
leg, both from the side and
from the front, is a little
above the ankle bone.

The Achilles
tendon runs up
from the heel
into the leg.

The relaxed foot A continuous line Some people can skin

forms an angle runs down the leg point the foot until folds!
with the leg. to the toes when it bends further
the foot is fully than the line, but
extended. this isn’t common.

25
Men’s vs. Shoes vs. barefoot
Man Woman
Women’s feet Big toe is Foot is smaller
shallower for a given body In cultures where closed
(more dis- height. shoes are worn most of the
Women’s feet are creet) time (all Western cultures,
for one thing), the feet
not a smaller ver- This inside are narrower and the toes
sion of men’s, but line is more squeezed together. The big
have a slightly dif- curved. toe tends to point inward
ferent structure. This outside and the little toe can be per-
Higher length is manently curled up under its
arch shorter. neighbor.

Arch types Normal Flat/low arch/pronator High arch/supinator

(Show most Both arches No arches, all of Only a narrow band
in the foot’s visible the sole touches the connects the heel and
imprint) ground. the ball of the foot

In parts of the world where

people go barefoot or wear
thongs (Africa, a great deal
of Asia and South America),
Foot shapes Egyptian Greek Square the foot is broader and flat-
(Created by toe Big toe is longest Second toe is longest Toes have even lengths ter and the toes splay for a
arrangement) better hold on the ground.
The big toe points straight,
Wide: Less even slightly out, and there
contrast is space between the toes. As
between the they are not squeezed, they
widest part are rounder and broader.
of the foor (Shown a bit extreme here.)
and its tip.

Narrow or
tapering: More
contrast be-
tween the wid-
est part of the
foot and its tip
(due to the last
2 toes receding
too much).

26
 FLEXIBILITY
Flexibility is not just about leg splits. It is the ability to stretch a joint to the limit of its range of movement, and a key ele-
ment in drawing the human body in motion.

This guide describes the “normal range” of flexibility for the different joints in the body. This means the average human
being can, through flexibility training, reach the full potential shown here. People who don’t train specifically will not,
as a rule, be able to reach it. Either way, this is the limit. (In art, especially action comics, nobody is going to mind a little
exaggeration, so this may not matter so much. It’s still good to be aware of how the body actually works, to know where
and how you can exaggerate and where it would look really wrong.)

Important notes:

- Double-jointed people, contortionists and anyone who’s undergone intensive flexibility training from a young age are
considered exceptions and this guide won’t attempt to take them into account.
- All things being equal, women are more flexible than men (and men have more muscle power than women).
- Flexibility in one joint does not by any means imply flexibility in others.
- More muscles means less flexibility. Bodybuilders have the most limited range of movement for all the joints, first be-
cause they don’t stretch, second because the bulging muscles get in the way (remember Zangief in Street Fighter II?) Only
athletes and performers who follow power workouts as well as stretching routines (Wushu athletes, gymnasts) can have
both muscle strength and flexibility, and their muscles are fine and sinewy, not bulging at all (think Bruce Lee.)
- The reverse is also true: More flexibility means less muscle, and those muscles are often very fragile because they are
stretched so thin. Yoga practitioners for instance tend to pay for their contortionist abilities by being extra vulnerable to
muscle tear. Muscle power is actually essential for certain types of flexibility, as I will explain below.

Flexibility is a complex business, and I don’t want to go into more details than necessary. I will simply differentiate it into
3 kinds: passive, active and dynamic. (Athletes will immediately notice I am simplifying the material. I readily admit I
am adapting the material to artistic purposes and this should NOT be used as a reference for physical activity. I am not
responsible for any injury that may derive from using this for purposes other than an illustration reference.)

Active flexibility is how

much you can stretch
unaided, by stretching
the joint and freezing
Passive flexibility is
in the position. Raising
how much you can
your leg as high as you
stretch when aided (ei-
can (without kicking it)
ther by the weight of
is one example. This is
your body, for instance
much more difficult and
when splitting on the
this range is always infe-
ground, or by a partner
rior to the passive range,
or machine pulling the
because the resistance of
body part in question).
the elongating muscles
There is no muscle work
must be overcome by
in this case, and the ex-
the strength of the set of
tent of the stretch is de-
muscles opposite them
termined by how much
(the antagonists).
the mucles involved can
elongate.
Doing this doesn’t mean you can do this !

Dynamic flexibility is how much you can stretch by forcing the stretch using momentum, for instance swinging the
leg. Doing so pushes it beyond what you could do either passively or actively, but only for a split second. This is what
happens during fights or actions sequences because of the speed of the movements, so it’s quite appropriate to show
extreme stretching in characters captured at the peak of the swing. In real life however, this can be used to gain more
range – at high risks of tearing a muscle (definitely do not try this at home.)
27
 I. THE NECK
These are the joints
we will discuss here:
The neck corresponds to the
last 7 vertebrae in the spine
Neck
(the cervicals). They are like
Shoulders stacked cylinders separated
by a “cushion”, so their range
of movement is limited.
Elbows

Lumbar spine 70-90º Flexion

Hips The chin can touch the
sternum. This creates a
Wrists double chin and un-
sightly skin folds.

Knees 55º
Extension
The neck- and jaw
lines merge into a
single curve.
Ankles

35º
Head too bent
The neck Lateral bending WRONG!
doesn’t The ear cannot
show a Neck bent
touch the shoulder
bend.
unless the shoulder
is raised.
Head too far
The top vertebra joins the head at the level of the from vertical
nose, so if you bend the head from there, the nose
appears to be the centre of rotation and remains
on the vertical (the line of the spine). The diagram
above shows bending at the lower neck, and how
much this can move the head sideways.
70º

Rotation
To look further back,
the upper body has
to rotate as well. Head Head +
only upper body
28
II. THE LUMBAR SPINE (lower back)
This “articulation” is made up of the 5 ver-
Extension
tebrae that emerge from the pelvic bone. Its
range of movement is quite limited but be- 75º 30º 35º
cause we never, in natural movements, use
it on its own, it often looks as if it allowed Lateral
considerable motion. The diagram below Flexion bending
clarifies this: in all 4, the lumbar bending Contortion-
Note that
ists can
is exactly the same. the pelvic hyperex-
or hip bone tend this
doesn’t tilt

In daily life we have no reason to bend solely from the

Lumbar Lumbar Lumbar Lumbar +hips lumbars. For the composite stretches that are more
+ spine +hips + spine likely to occur, see section X.

III. THE SHOULDER JOINT

Of all the joints, this one has the biggest
range thanks to its socket articulation
– but that also means it can pop out of
place if pushed to the limits.
130º

Horizontal flexion
(The arm is swung horizontally)
180º

Abduction Adduction 45º

The arm is
brought up 45º
sideways) Horizontal extension

The shoulder joint al-

It takes some
lows the arm to rotate
flexibility to
360º continuously
connect the
fingers behind
one’s back.

180º

60º It is because the shoulder joint

is stretched to its limit and
would dislocate if it tried to
counter the pressure that this
Vertical flexion Vertical extension lock is so efficient.

29
IV. THE ELBOW

Extension
Some people’s elbows overextend:

Although not that uncommon, it looks

180º awkward on paper, so avoid it.

Flexion
This movement is impeded by muscle mass. This
should be emphasized when drawing muscular
150º characters, to give the muscles bulk; if not taken
into account it will on the contrary make them
look insubstantial and wrong.

From this position:

180º
90º

Supination Pronation
Turning out Turning in

V. THE WRIST

20º
30-50º
70º 80-90º

Extension Flexion Radial Ulnar

deviation deviation

Fingers can be quite flexible as
well and be bended back up to
90º – but not without help.
Unaided they can bend back just
a bit all together, but it requires
much tension. Occasionally using
this in illustration gives the hand
life and fluidity.
30
They can also bend back individ-
ually, but if the rest of the hand is
relaxed the neighbouring fingers
will always be pulled up slightly
by the lifted one.
VI. THE HIP JOINT
The hip is the key to leg splits, and, of course, to all kicks so essential to martial arts.

(only possible
dynamically)

athlete’s active reach

110-130º

Flexion

When the knee is straight, it is much more difficult to raise and hold the leg above waist level.
Achieving the full angle this way (through the sole power of the leg muscles) is near impossible
even for specially trained athletes, though I know of a single jaw-dropping case.
A flexed foot makes it even more difficult. Special training, such as seen in Chinese martial arts,
is necessary to achieve it even dynamically, though this training can lead to touching the forehead
with the toes while kicking. A ballerina, for instance, would not be able to achieve the flexed foot
stretch without injuring herself.

Extension
Turning the toes
outward (as op-
posed to keeping
them forward as
shown here) allows
a few more degrees
and makes it easier At this
to keep the knee point the
straight during the leg has to go
movement. behind the
shoulder.

Toes 170º
forward
45-50º
30º

Abduction
Turning the toes outward
permits a considerably
bigger range than pointing
them forward. This is due Toes
to the positioning of the outward
joint in each case:

31
 blocked!
WRONG!

This (middle split

with toes pointing Hip joint Abduction, toes Abduction, toes

LEG
forward) is anatomi- forward outward
cally impossible! See
hip joints at right...
Lumbar extension: the
pelvic bone is tilted
forward and the feet are
If you ever see a picture of parallel to it. Basically
someone who seems to be it’s the correct split +
doing this, what is really lumbar stretching.
RIGHT!
happening is this:

A middle split
should have the
toes pointing up.

40º 45º Adduction 20-30º

Internal External
rotation rotation

VII. THE KNEE

Extension
Exaggerated silhouettes are due to the thigh and calf
130º muscles making it look like the knee is hyperextended.

Flexion
Just like in the case of the elbow, muscles can
impede the flexion. Someone with muscular
legs won’t be able to sit on the heels this way.
15º
More muscles means sitting on the calves, the
buttocks away from the heels.
Internal
rotation
This reaches a
greater degree
when the
hip joint also
rotates in.
10º
32
VIII. THE ANKLE

45º From the outside

the top of the foot
can look aligned
with the tibia, as
seen on p23

Flexion

Extension
20º 30º 20º
Pronation Supination
The flexion can be Sole faces in Sole faces out
given more range by
turning the foot out,
which also provides a
stronger footing than
attempting to keep
it aligned with
the tibia.

IX. THE UPPER BODY (thoracic spine)

Not listed among the joints and not included in most flexibility trainings, this part of the spine has very lim-
ited movement. Usage of it will make a character look particularly fluid (think Spiderman), but make sure
not to go too far because here it’s very easy to end up with someone that looks like his back is broken.

Extension
Vertebra at base
Flexion
of neck juts out
Space between
Sternum juts shoulder blades
out, giving a sinks
Sternum sinks Individual verte-
strutting look
brae can be seen
under the skin Back shows a
as spine presses furrow as spine
against it recedes.

The spine in
normal state has
an S shape.

33
 Rotation WRONG!
Rotating the upper body means keeping the hips fixed and rotating only the rib
cage left and right. Only a small movement is possible this way, much smaller
than if you allowed your hips to help. This ability is cultivated, for instance, in
Taijiquan and belly dancing.
OUCH!!
The spine
can’t bend
The head can
30-40º Note how the this way!
of course still
central line turn further, but
twists within the neck’s
limits, so it can
just reach 90º
now.

RIGHT!
A number of
joints extend:

Neck
Upper body
Lumbars

Hip joint

X. COMPOSITE STRETCHES
Now that we understand how the individual joints stretch, let’s examine some
actions that require several stretches together. The red arrows indicate the joints
where stretching occurs.
Note: The more joints are stretched on the same body part (torso, leg or arm) the
harder it is for each joint to stretch to its full potential.

Side kick
Continuous
A “side” kick is not truly given sideways: the position body-leg
of the legs are not a middle split, or even a hip abduc- RIGHT! line
tion, but almost a frontal split (martial arts version:) Back arches

Broken body-leg line

WRONG!

RIGHT! The correct side kick

position is closest to
The “pure” side
All the joints involved the frontal split, mean-
kick is used
have laterally limited ing the kick is actually
for low kicks,
range, and the body has directed backwards –
no stretching
to compensate by lean- but as the upper body
involved.
ing sideways, risking a twists to monitor it, it
loss of balance. looks lateral.

34
Side kick
There are two ways of splitting the legs frontally:

Flexing the toes would add

a stretch on the calf, which
would be a superfluous
extra effort. Knee
down Sole up

(upper thigh)
This is the “classic” way, and the more difficult one, because the position
of the knee demans more flexibility from the thigh-hip junction in the
rear leg in order to “sit” completely on the ground.
Martial artists, however, split this way:

Flexing the toes is done pre-

cisely to stretch the calf in some
martial arts (e.g. Wushu)
Knee Toes
out point out

(inner thigh)

Not because it’s easier, but because from this position it’s possible to jump
into a standing position:

The rear leg is slightly bent to Using the rear knee and front heel to push
press the knee on the floor. the floor, the athlete springs up high enough
to pull the legs together and stand.

Attempting this from the first splitting position would injure the knee and/or up-
per thigh tendons – as would attempting it without the necessary muscular power
(i.e. people like ballerinas and yogists would not be able to perform this move.)

35
 Bridge
A good bridge, where the feet and hands are distant by one
forearm, requires almost all the joints to be extended:

Heels push the ground so

that weight is mostly on
the hand – it’s the only
way to stretch the hip/
lumbar areas enough by
pushing the waist up.

Elbows remain
fully extended,
or “locked”.

Gymnasts who can take a bridge from a standing position

extend each joint in turn:

Shoulders and Upper body Lumbars (knees start bend- Hip joint
elbows and neck ing as weight shifts forward
to keep the balance)

A good bridge is the key to skipping up, as the body relies

on that position (and strong abs) to regain its footing:

Preparing jump by pull- Throwing the legs, waist Abs take over to straighten
ing the (straight) legs pushed as high as pos- the upper body the moment
towards the body. sible (creating a bridge the feet land (otherwise one
in mid-air) falls on one’s butt.)

36
Hanging limp
This is assuming the entire length of the back is supported, otherwise
the weight of the body would make it slide to the ground.

This angle de-

pends on the hip
flexibility.

From the knee down,

the leg swings freely
The arm rolls down and the ankle will
into the “easiest” posi- look for the lowest
tion, where there is no point it can hang
tension on the shoul- (pure gravity)
der: straight down, Loose fingers
palm facing back. curl slightly

The loose foot does not have

pointed toes, it merely tilts
slightly at the ankle.

If the upper body leans more towards the ground, the arms may be
stuck in one of two positions:

Palms up, elbows locked because of the angle.

At the slightest shift the arms will roll into a less
precarious position.

Palms in, from the elbow up the forearm

swings freely and the wrist looks for the
lowest point.

These few postures are far from constituting a complete survey,

but hopefully by now you understand enough about flexibility to
figure out any move on your own!

37
 EMOTIONS AND FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
I. GENERAL

To anyone whose illustration work includes characters, facial expressions are like this computer moni-
tor: if it doesn’t work right, then all the brilliant engineering that went into building the hard drive is
wasted. The human face ranks at the very top of the hierarchy of things the eye is immediately drawn to,
so that if a face is visible in a composition, its expression is what we’ll see first. That and the fact there’s
no point in drawing a face if we can’t make it show anything are two good reasons why we should re-
ally work on this particular skill. A facial expression that looks alive can make up for (slight) mistakes
in proportions (partially because it will keep the eye from wandering away from the face!), but not the
reverse.

In drawing facial expressions one has to deal with the dichotomy of reality versus representation. Just
like theatre actors have to support their acting with more gesticulation and theatrical speech than usual
because the stage makes regular facial expressions hard to see, so do we have to bypass “what a sad face
would look like” and aim for “how one would recognise a face as being sad”. This is because an illustra-
tion has to make up for the loss of other clues we have, in real life, to decipher someone’s mood, many
of which we perceive unconsciously. In real life, we “just know”, but in a drawing, we depend entirely on
what the illustrator put or did not put there to figure out what the character is feeling.

In this tutorial I discuss the parts of the face and body that change to express emotion, then go on to
show how a wide range of facial expressions is achieved. I tried to include many emotions that are com-
plex yet often used, but by no means does this represent the full range of what a face can express. The
diagram works much like a color wheel: any two colors can be mixed, but when there are too many of
them or they are too contrasting, the result is an indefinable greyish hue. Similarly, we can feel many
emotions at the same time, but the more numerous and/or contradictory they are, the more the face
takes on an ambiguous mask as if they cancelled each other out. There is no recipe to successfully
achieve this, just one big rule of thumb: how well you express an emotion in drawing is proportional to
how well you are able to stimulate that emotion in yourself, in other words to feel it as you draw and be
aware of how you react to it – exactly as a convincing actor does.

I’ll also add that the “classification” of the emotions found here, as well as their labeling, are not rules
that are cast in stone. To use the color wheel simile again, you can classify the primary colors (ma-
genta, cyan, yellow), but the moment you start mixing them, there are no more lines, only gradations
between them. I arranged them for the sake of convenience, in a way that made sense to me, but I can
think of other ways of doing it. As for the labels, they are best understood in context, as relative values,
because different people will not only express emotions differently, they’ll also interpret them differ-
ently depending on experience and culture. The emotion I label as “angry” may look “furious” to you,
or maybe your character is so stoic that his anger would only look “upset” on my diagram. That’s fine.
The important thing is that “angry” is stronger than “upset” and weaker than “furious”. Use your own
sensitivity to make the necessary adjustments in your mind. Here’s a useful fact though: Studies indicate
that the facial expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, and interest are universal
across cultures.

One last note: My aim in writing this is expressing emotion with the fewest lines possible. I strip a face
from all details until all that remains is the facial expression and nothing else. But the more realistic a
portrait, the less details would be stripped from the face. Inversely, you can simplify these even more.
The important thing is: the amount of detail put into an expression must be proportional to the com-
plexity of the style used.

38
Let’s have a look at the individual features of the face and how they can show what we feel:

II. EYES

Much can be done with the eyes alone. The interplay of eyelid, iris position and pupil size creates subtle
but immediately perceptible differences in expression, as the eyes are the main point of focus in a face.
They dominate the whole expression, so make sure you have the eyes right before focusing on the rest. In
the emotions tree I use my own terms to describe the state of the eye [opening], pupil and sometimes the
iris. They are defined in the figure below:

Sleepy eye: par- Relaxed eye: Alert eye: Wide eye: big
tially covered by regular opening, regular opening, rounded opening
eyelid. eyelid marked. eyelid omitted

Half-covered pupil Tangent pupil: Free pupil: touches

and iris: only a semi- just touches the neither edge.
circle can be seen top edge.

By alert I mean the eyes in their natural state when we are active. They don’t have to be more open than
relaxed eyes, but the eyelids should not be drawn because they give a “non-alert” clue to the viewer (un-
less working in a style so detailed the eyelids would not particularly stand out).

The iris also has 3 sizes: regular, dilated, contracted.

This does not happen with This does not happen with a
an alert or wide eye. relaxed or sleepy eye.
Note: Light eyes always look wider than dark eyes, and inversely, dark eyes always look more relaxed than
light eyes. Adjustment of the 3 factors one way or the other is always necessary to make them look right.
Because I need to show the pupil, my diagrams all have light eyes.

III. EYEBROWS

Eyebrows are very subtle. I find that the least change brought to the eyebrows can change the
expression I’m drawing. For our purposes we can divide the eyebrow into two parts that can
move semi-independently: the head and the curve. I say semi- because the one always ends up pull-
ing the other a bit.
They can both be at rest, raised or
lowered, and the combination of Head At rest Raised Lowered
these two contractions achieve Curve (frown)
expression as shown in this table:

Note that there are besides various degrees of inten- At rest

sity for each contraction, which also affect the overall
shape (and create furrows above the nose and on the
forehead), so we end up with many very subtle varia- Raised
tions that can’t really be rationalized. Use instinct and
observation skills. The Emotion Graph shows a good
range of examples. Lowered
39
IV. LIPS & MOUTH

The mouth area is second only to the eye area for expression. While I’ll leave the details of lip positions to
the Emotion Graph, a note on mouth shapes. The curve of each lip makes a meaningful difference:

Both lips curve up: grin, generic happy Upper lip curves down, lower curves up,
(open) mouth shape but this time the upper part is larger: jaw
drop. All is slack.

Upper lip curves down, lower curves up: Lips look like they want to join in the mid-
extra happy – the mouth is more open dle: caused by the corners, which are lifted
than usual, perhaps to shout. into a snarl: this is the angry open mouth.

Both lips curve down: dismay, fear (the

corners are relaxed but the lower lip push-
es up in anguish).

Again, see details in the Graph, because there are additional expressive features, such a dimples, teeth
showing, etc.

V. NOSE

The nose isn’t the most expressive feature, but it does flare under certain emotions (anger, crying, disgust,
arousal) and even wrinkles at the base during extreme anger and disgust.

VI. HANDS

Our hands also speak. Well-known but worth reminding (and using):
- Anger: hands ball into fists, ready to attack.
- Fear: hands clutching something hard, making tendons stand out.
- Start: Fingers splayed wide for a split second.

Note also:

Palm-up gesture: Palm-down gesture:

A non aggressive, congenial speaking An aggressive or at least dominant speaking ges-
gesture appealing to the listener as an ture asserting authority over the listener. Often
ally. Also extends to humility, uncertain- accompanies angry speech. At its least aggres-
ty, begging and general vulnerability. sive it expresses confidence in one’s words.

40
VI. BODY POSTURE

We rarely express our feelings through our face alone: the whole body is the seat of unconscious gestures.
Using them will make your characters look less stiff and much more natural. Here are some common and
conspicuous ones illustrators are sure to use:

Hand on hips (akimbo):

In Malaysia
and the Philippines,
Palms on the hips, elbows bowed outward: standing akimbo is a sign
- Classic sign of confidence of anger and seething rage.
- Shows the body is ready to step into action, get to work African-American females
use it to show anger, dis-
- Enlarges the upper body, making one look more powerful
gust, and disagree-
and threatening in a confrontation (or when grounding kids) ment.
- When the thumbs are forward, the posture is more feminine
and signals uncertainty rather than aggressiveness (it is sometimes
adopted by gay men, leading other men to avoid it)
- Also means “Keep away from me, I’m feeling anti-social.”

Arm-cross:
- Classic defensive stance
- Disagreement, closing oneself to input, arrogance, dislike. Women don’t
use it around men they like.
- Self-comforting posture used to alleviate anxiety and social stress.
- Arms and elbows pulled tightly into the body: acute nervousness.

Touching oneself:
In Japan an
embarrassed or
We unconsciously touch our bodies to comfort or release apologetic person will
stress. Perplexity, disagreement, frustration, uncertainty sometimes scratch the
manifest in the fingers touching the lips, hand scratching back of his or her head,
the head, holding the neck, grabbing an earlobe, rubbing the raising the elbow high
in the process.
cheek, massaging the other hand, etc. Self manipulations in-
crease with stress and disapproval
It is particularly effective to show repressed anger through these
cues, as they are often a way of displacing the aggressiveness.
In young children the hand behind the head can express jealousy.

VIII. CLOTHING

This is largely off topic, but I wanted to say a few words about it. It’s true that in real life clothing does not
always reflect your mood (you can’t predict, when you get dressed in the morning, that you’re going to get
surprised/angry/amused today) but it can and does show “long-term” emotions: when you’re depressed,
you wear whatever’s convenient and don’t bother to look nice or groomed; when you’re worried, your
clothes can show untidiness due to distraction or rush; exhaustion shows in your hair, stubble (for men)
and disarrayed dress; happiness/seduction in flattering clothes and for girls, accessories, make-up and
carefully done hair... Shyness is expressed in nondescript clothing while confidence shows in bold prints
or funky outfits.
In illustration, clothing is once again the subject of exaggeration, especially for single-frame scenes (as
opposed to comics where the clothes first and foremost need to make sense in the sequence). If you’re
representing a gloomy scene, don’t dress the weeping character in pink. Whenever it makes sense, let
dress support the desired mood.
41
IX. THE EMOTION GRAPH

BLANK
The face has no expression
but is not slack. In reality a blank face
is not necessarily neutral or expressionless,
due to the shape of the individual facial features.

Eyebrows
neutral

Eyes alert Lips closed

but can be and neutral,
relaxed for but some
a blank and people have
unfocused a naturally
look downturned
mouth so
Pupil
their blank
tangent
face looks
angry.
SSMM
ILIEL
E

SMILE
The smile known as po-
lite, intentional, weak or “false”, is
betrayed by two signs:
Not to be
The lower eye- confused
lids don’t con- with a slight
tract, creating but genuine
no crow’s-feet smile, such
at the corners of as the one in
the eyes. “peaceful”!

In some cul-
tures such as in South-
East Asia, such a smile can The lip corners
signal embarrassment or even stretch to the
polite refusal. Japanese learn to side instead of
mask negative facial expres- curling up.
sions with smiles, and to
display less facial expres-
sions overall.

HOPEFUL REAL SMILE

Today’s hardship and to- A heartfelt (also known as zygomat-
morrow’s better days reflected together. ic) smile is a reflex that cannot be faked.

The lower eye-

Eyes look up as lids contract,
Sad eyebrows: if to imagine crinkling
“poor me” the future or the eyes,
plead for it often creating
crow’s-feet
lines

The corners of
the mouth
Slight smile
curve upward

42
 ECSTATIC
EXCITED
The dam has burst and the face
This emotion wants to come out,
freely pours forth joy and excitement.
so the features, though still contracted,
open up.

Eyebrows
Eyes wide but round and
you can still see high Rounded
the contraction Eyebrows eyes; iris can
of the lower lid lifted be free

The grinning
mouth opens
– it’s hard to
Huge keep quiet in
grin this state

GRIN
A “Real smile” that has
picked up so much intensity the
lips are forced to part and reveal teeth.

Eyes are the

same or more
crinkled

SEDUCTIVE
This varies with the personality,
but this is an example combining some
constants.

This triangular Sexual attrac-

Corners more
flash of teeth Head tilted forward as tion dilates
evident,
is a powerful if bowing, a submissive the pupils
pointing to
happy signal. Bedroom eyes cue showing approach- and tints the
nose wings
ability cheeks red.

Lips everted
in a pout
to signal
harmlessness
and availability
(both sexes) Renais-
– cf. Brad sance women
TENDER Pitt and
Looking at one’s child, at a loved used belladonna ex-
Angelina tract to dilate their pupils.
one, or in response to cuteness. Jolie! Men unconsciously picked
up on the message and found
Head tilted
them more attractive. As for
sideways and a
the rosy cheeks, they are
bit forward
simulated by applying
blush.
More
tips about
Soft eyes: courting/seductive
relaxed, with behavior:
the lower lid - Courting couples look
pushing up down a lot when speaking.
slightly, pu- - Both men and women
pils covered. Gentle tilt their heads as a
smile flirting cue.

43
 INNOCENT PROUD
Another comics-born expression: Here taken as a neutral emotion;
“I have no idea what you’re talking about”. for negative associations see “Haughty”
Someone who seriously wanted to look innocent and “Arrogant”.
would keep a neutral face and a level gaze.
Eyes closed
Eyebrows Eyes stare up or and relaxed,
rounded away with exag- contemplat-
and high, as geration. ing one’s own
if in surprise: achievement
“who, me?”

The mouth can

be any of a
whole range
of expressions, Smug smile
from a purse to
a grin. Chin high

PLEASED AMUSED
Satisfaction or gloating “Oops! That’s funny.”
kept private out of politeness.
Eyebrows
Eyes closed lifted, can also
an crinkled, pull inwards
as if not to Eyes par- in (mock)
show too ticularly alert, commisera-
much self- pupil a bit tion with the
satisfaction. contracted object of
amusement.
Broad real
smile but
the mouth is
pinched at the Smile curls
Lower lid same time, up much but
pushes up again to hush is pinched in
the gloating; repression
this creates
more lines.

LAUGHING (1) LAUGHING (1)

Bursting into laughter: the head Laughter is a violent reaction: after
suddenly tilts back. All the contraction is in a while, the stress starts to show as more
the lower face, the eye region is released for now. parts of the face contract.
Head and
Eyebrows body nod
Eyebrows be-
Eyes shut but high and back and
come knotted
can be relaxed rounded forth
or frown
Nose
Tears!
wrinkles
Nostrils Eyes
Mouth wide flared contract
open, upper Nostrils
lip near flat flared
and lower lip Mouth still
Teeth and wide open
describing tongue show
a generous but there’s
parabolic an effort to
curve. force it shut.

44
 SU
RP
CURIOUS

RI
SE
Interest is expressed in the eye
region. The rest of the face keeps its prior
expression.

Eyebrows lift;
one may lift Eyes become
more than alert and
the other for focused
emphasis.

Rais-
ing the
eyebrows while Mouth might
speaking also indi- open slightly
cates conviction in as if to take in
one’s words. more

SURPRISED PUZZLED
Usually the head is simultaneously “I can’t make sense of this...”
jerked back.

Wide, (Optionally)
rounded raised in worry
eyes and Frowning (”Am I going to
eyebrows in focus figure it out?”
Mouth puck-
ers; this is
more a stylis-
Iris nearly tic effect than
free a real reaction,
Lips pursed Eyes squinting a
reducing the
in reflection bit as if staring
mouth to
Mouth can be bring all the at the prob-
slightly open focus on the lem, looking
as an alter- When downwards
wide eyes. perplexed, men
native.
rub their chins with
their hand, tug at the lobes of
their ears, or rub their forehead/
cheeks/back of the neck. Women
on the other hand put a finger
on their lower front teeth with
the mouth slightly open or
pose a finger under the
chin.

IMPRESSED SHOCKED
Tends to come with a forward tilt “Surprised” on a much more in-
of the head which means the eyes have to tense scale, utter disbelief.
actually look up to whatever is impressive (or the
idea of it). This optional
Eyebrows line illus-
lift a lot trates the idea
of eyes pop-
Eyes are wide, Eyes at their ping out of
but eyebrows widest, iris their orbits
neither round- free
ed nor lifted Jaw drops
(the reverse of (goes slack);
“curious”) this actu-
ally means it
remains narrow
Jaw and doesn’t open
Lips don’t wide, as that
drops a curl, so
bit would require
teeth don’t muscular effort
show. (as in fear).

45
 RE
LA
XA
TI
ON PEACEFUL
RELAXED Inner peace and serenity
In reality this would be the same reflected in the absence of any ten-
as the blank face, but on paper we need to sion in facial features.
emphasize the feeling of relaxation.
Eyebrows
Eyebrows droop a little
Turn the neutral when the eye-
mouth slight- Only difference lid shuts.
ly up. The with “relaxed”:
smile is almost Relaxed eyes, closed eyes as
if to listen Eyes that
impercep- pupil covered
to the inner are shut
tible (”Buddha and comfort-
harmony and relaxed
smile”) but ably dilated.
and/or in are smooth
makes it clear and the
this is a trust of the
outside lower eyelid
pleasant curves up.
feeling. world.

DRAINED
No energy left, everything slumps.

Head droops
More plain- noticeably
tive, painful Eyes can
eyebrows barely stay
open

Emphasized
pockets Jaw relaxed
enough to
drop slightly

SLEEPY
GROGGY Nodding off: A different kind of tired-
“Huh? What?... Where’s my coffee?” ness, not due to overexertion, so that strain
doesn’t show (unless one is both tired and sleepy).

Trying to force The head nods for-

Eyes unfo- an eye to stay The other eye
ward and very likely
cused and Bewildered
open, straining also tilts to one side and eyebrow
bleary eyebrows
the eyebrow on are totally
that side relaxed as if
asleep

Confused Neutral
mouth mouth

46
 REFRESHED PLEASURED
“Aahhhh...” The face that sells “Mmmm...” Sensuous pleasure in
cleansing products and pleasant smells. the sense of savoring something that please
our senses of hearing, taste, smell and/or touch.
Note that the
The head tilts
stimulus is
back as the
Only difference subtle, other-
chin is raised
with “Peace- wise you get the
– moving away
ful”: the smile “Pleased” face.
from worldly
widens and things to better
lips part in Smile
focus on the
an instinctive widens,
feeling.
reaction to corners are
something compressed,
that pleases dimples may
appear. Eyes still
the senses.
closed for the
same reason

TIRED LAZY
The loss of tonus is now despite The heavy eyelids and smile betray
oneself, due to spent energy. the fact this person is not only “relaxed”,
but fully intends to do nothing.

Head droops Sleepy eyes,

forward a bit pupils at least
Plaintive Even the half-covered:
eyebrows Sleepy eyes eyebrows the tonus in
are flatter the eyelids is
than usual less than the
normal wak-
ing state.
Pockets
start to
show
under
the eyes Slight smile
– less effort!

BORED
All the features are hori-
zontal, seeking to be more blank
than a blank face.

Eyebrows at
their flattest and
low on the eyes. Sleepy eyes

Mouth
slightly
turned down,
not enough to
look like there
is an effort
involved.

47
 AN
GE
R
FROWN UPSET
A light frown can mean someone No ambiguity here: it’s milder than
is starting to get ticked off, but it also shows anger, but it’s clearly ticked off.
focus, doubt, trying to remember something. A
very slight frown makes a smile look determined and Eyebrow
less vacant. Eyebrows start heads move
knotting, cre- down with
ating a vertical little to no
Eyes alert, furrow curving back
Aside from up as that
receiving
the frown would add a
information. Eyes alert
the face is still tinge of pain.
blank. It is a
receptive (lis-
When tening/ watch-
Jaw tensed to This line is a
thinking, the ing/ thinking)
biting posture, furrow where
eyes look diagonally face: “I’m
pushing lower the eyebrow
up and away from the gathering data
lip forward and ends.
person one is facing, as before I decide
if to emphasise, “Excuse how I feel.” making mouth
me for a moment curve down.
while I ponder
this.”

SKEPTICAL
VINDICTIVE
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Just you wait”...
Turn the mouth up into a corner smile and
the expression becomes cynical.
Eyes narrow
The single as if to aim Lower
raised eyebrow eyelids close
is a universal more than
Frown
sign of skepti- upper, creat-
is upset and
cism ing visible
low but no
pouch and
Blank look more, saving
making the
(sleepy eyes the anger for
eyes turn
with straight the opportune
down.
horizontal moment.
lids, pupil half
covered) confirm Mouth turns Mouth puck-
boredom and down just ered and
disbelief (see enough to not pinched looks
“Curious” for be amused. hardly wider
alert eyes). than nose.

POUT
“I am not happy with this, but I
can’t/won’t get confrontational about it.”
Most often seen in children, but a mild pout is an
involuntary reflex when disagreeing.
GRUMPY
This expression isn’t innate but was
born and bred in the comic world. It has a
“comic relief ” effect that makes it unsuitable for
some purposes.

Head tilts Frown at-

Accusing eyes:
forward with tenuated by
staring from
involuntary sleepy eyes
underneath a
submission and half-
frown.
covered pu-
pils: “I am not
The pout: really angry Mouth curved
Lower lip or hurt.” down, but
pushes up, twisted, also
looking thicker signals that
and turning the When it’s not to be
mouth down; the pout be- taken too
chin is comes a pucker, seriously.
knotted. it means outright
disagreement.

48
 One
of the first ANGRY FURIOUS
signs of anger is Anger causes one to stare fixedly, Emotions can’t be contained any
an uncontrollable a very basic behavior aiming to make the more and the mouth opens to yell. The
reddening of the other stand down without a fight. head tilts forward, like a bull ready to charge
ears.
Nostrils flare, Eyebrows at
their lowest, Snarl lines
making these
Eyebrows low on the nose,
lines show overshadow-
on the eyes adding
proportion- ing the eyes
and clearly horizontal
ately to the Tension
knotted. More furrows to the
loathing felt around the
furrows vertical
towards the eyes
object of
Snarl makes
anger Nostrils flare
Mouth is upper corners
even more,
compressed stretch up more
lines clear from
into a line In Italy, while lower lip is
wing of nose
with hard anger is expressed still pushed up,
to corner of
descending with the “forefinger resulting in
mouth
lines at the bite” (the knuckle of this mouth
corners the bent forefinger shape. Canines may show
is symbolically in corner
bitten).

Other
signs of anger ENRAGED
SNEERING are an erect body, Complete reversion to blind ani-
In response to something dominant display mal fury. What happens to the face can be
despised, be it physical (bad smell...) (hands on hips, hands observed point by point in a furious lion or wolf.
or moral (cheating...) balled into fists, palm-
Eyebrows Veins be-
down beating
both knotted come visible
gestures.
Head is tilted back, and arched, on temple as
looking down the creating lines arterial ten-
nose. in the forehead. sion rises
Eyes alert but Wide open eyes Mouth and
narrowed with pinprick nose area
Nostrils
rise, mak- pupil look mad push Fury to
ing this and blinded an extreme,
Mouth cor- by rage exposing
line promi-
ners pulled more teeth
nent and Upper nose
sideways, and the
pulling lip wrinkled by
making it tongue
into a curl snarl
wider
on one or
both sides. Drool or spittle
Lower lip pushes likely!
up, curving mouth
down

HAUGHTY ARROGANT
It’s a sneer, but void of intensity: Not only believes he’s superior, but
cold disdain. The object of contempt is just is also quite smug about it.
too insignificant to cause an emotional reaction.
The eyes
may roll up
scornfully. Head is tilted back,
Head is tilted back, Eyebrows Eyebrows lower looking down the
looking down the slightly lifted in a more pro- nose.
Eyes nose. in disdain, nounced frown
relaxed, barely frown-
pupils ing
covered
Corner
Smug smile: pushed up,
a fake smile joining with
Mouth just
Sneer with the center sneer adds
curved
pushed up by deviousness and
down
the lower lip superiority

49
 SA
DN
DISGUSTED
All

ES
All features reject the subject of

S
this branch
disgust by constricting (eyes, nose) or
shows a slump
pushing out (mouth). UPSET
of the shoul-
Eyebrows ders. No ambiguity here: it’s milder than
quite knotted Head is tilted anger, but it’s clearly ticked off.
forward, looking These lines
Eyes narrowed from under deeply etched
or half-shut eyebrows and at their
longest One corner
Nose
Eyebrows of the mouth
wrinkled
Nostrils neutral pressed, as if a
Face is longer rise so high smile had been
the nose tip Eyes relaxed, attempted and
Upper lip slack, is distorted pupil tangent. failed.
lower lip turned
Tongue mim-
out and pushing
icking retch-
up, resulting
ing action
in this mouth
fills much of
shape.
Chin the mouth
wrinkled

BLUE
See “Sad”: The main difference is in
the eyes, which are still sad but now relaxed
in resignation. This is what sadness turns into af-
ter a while, as the pain is dulled but not relieved.

Eyebrows can PAIN

Consequently, droop a little or This is the adult response to pain;
the iris is wider a lot. for children see “Crying”.
and at least
tangent.
Eyebrows
Nose
press down
wrinkled
on the eyes,
the heads
curling up
in pain

Upper lip raised

Eyes closed
or narrowed
Exclusive lines

DEPRESSED
One step beyond “Blue”, there is no Lower lip pushes up while corners are
energy left to even be sad. The resignation strongly pulled down, revealing the
has turned to hopeless indifference. clenched teeth and even the lower gum

Eyebrows
can be al-
Eyes down- Head bowed to most neutral,
cast and hanging. as if it took
sleepy, iris too much en-
barely visible, ergy to keep
pupil dilated. them in the
Eyes can “sad” posi-
be closed, tion.
shutting the
world out.

50
 SAD DISAPPOINTED
Or “pained” : the cause of the sad- In children disappointment would
ness is still fresh in the mind. All features be pure sadness, but in adults that is tinted
droop down on the outside. by a touch of anger, so it is also reproachful.

Eyebrow Eyebrows are a

heads rise and The eyes are
varying mix
come closer alert (to the
of sad and
together, but no fresh hurt)
frowning
visible tension but the upper Lips pinched
here yet: this is eyelids slant (to hold back
pure sadness downwards reproaches),
without fear and can show mouth may
Eyes alert,
or anger. a fold empha- move side-
pupils
sizing this. ways, as if
tangent.
Pupils free. to hide the
“Silent tears”
may roll pinching.
down the Mouth
cheeks. curves
down.

FRUSTRATED
DISTRESSED Anger and a desire to cry combined.
Both hurt and in turmoil: no res-
ignation here but a desperate desire to re-
verse the cause of hurt.
Eyebrow
Eyebrows Pupil
heads try to
heads rise so free as eyes
frown and
much they widen in
rise at the
create tension. fear (of not
same time,
reversing the
knotting and
Tears very hurt) The mouth is
forcing the
likely eyebrows into pouty but the
Corners curl tension is con-
down and nearly straight
lines. centrated in the
Lips part lower lip eyebrows as the
as if the pushes up in brain is in over-
In
pain was an involuntary drive seeking a
Spain, holding
too strong but irresistible solution
a single hair between
to be con- pre-cry muscle
the thumb and forefinger,
tained. reaction.
and lifting it vertically above
the head is a female sign of
intense frustration, sym-
bolically ‘tearing one’s
hair out’
CRYING STRESSED
Crushed to the point of heavy, sob- When too many things assail the
bing tears; maximum facial distortion of mind, the whole face contracts as if to keep
this branch. them all inside, or maybe block out the world
Tension cre- while figuring out how to deal with them.
Eyes forced
shut or very ates horizon- Nose wrinkled
Eyebrows press
nearly as tal creases in as the face
down on the
the eyebrow the forehead. crunches upon
eyes, full frown
pucker push- Tears so but the heads itself, even
es down abundant they curl slightly the tip turns
and the flow from both up to retain a slightly up.
lower eyelid corners of the trace of pain.
pushes up. eyes The wavy
Eye slant
mouth shows
Face flushes now follows
Same muscle uncertainty
frown, inside
spasm as in (”Where to
Nostrils flare corners
“distressed”, start? how
dropping.
Chin but worse. to deal
quivers Lips pinched push- with this?”
ing mouth up

51
 WORRIED SHY
Close to “Frustrated”, but with less Also mild embarrassment, as op-
anger and more fear. posed to the extreme under “Ashamed”

Eyebrow
heads as in Head tilted forward
“Frustrated”, and pulled into
but the curves shoulders as if to
rise as well, cre- hide like a turtle Blush (face,
Forced
ating furrows in ears and
grin of embar-
the forehead neck)
rassment: the
corners are
stretched side-
ways instead
of up
Young
children
show shyness
by tilting the head
towards a shoulder
while raising the
shoulders.

SCARED GUILTY
“Deer in the headlights.” Expressed by trying not to express it.

Widened Eyebrow Gazing down

eyes with heads rise and often
contracted away; the
pupils are head is likely
the centre of to turn away
the action,
staring at
the threat Expression-
less face,
Mouth trying to at-
nervously tract as little
contracted attention as Features
possible. seem to
shrink.

TERRIFIED EMBARRASSED
All features open, skin goes pale, “Oh God, please hide me.” The
hair stands on end. Past the first moment, emotional high is expressed in the eyes,
pupils dilate to see better. This creates the eerie while the rest of the face is still trying to go un-
look of deepest panic. noticed.
Eyebrows
high and Round bulging
Eyes very eyes stare down
knotted
round, pin- and away; the
prick pupil head is certain to
turn, likely to the
point of turning
Scream of the face com-
horror that pletely away.
Lines from curls the
nose wings to lower lip
mouth corners down, Lower lip
revealing pushes up
the lower in dismay
teeth

52
 AGING THE FACE AND BODY
First a disclaimer: Since everyone ages differ-
ently (more on this below), there is no question
of applying the following info to the letter. If the
characters you draw look their intended age, then
you don’t need this guide, even if you deviate a lot
from its guidelines. This will be most beneficial to
people who occasionally or often find themselves
sweating over a drawing, wondering, “Why can’t I
make this person look 40? What am I missing?” If
you’re one of these people, then you’ll find in this
section the telltale signs of age, from birth to very
old age. You will not need to use all these signs in
your character – as a matter of fact, unless your
style is very realistic, you might want to use the
fewest possible, just what is enough to make their
age clear.
The stages used here (Newborn, Baby, Child...)
are a compromise between the “official” division
(which for instance groups 13- and 20-year-olds
together under “adolescent”) and the way I feel
they can be classified visually. Up to adolescence,
children change very quickly, but I can’t do a dia-
gram for each passing year so I condensed them
into as few stages as possible. Evidently, though, a
5-year-old doesn’t look the same as a 10-year-old,
so these portraits are snapshots of a continuous
transformation.
As I said above, we all age differently. The child-
hood stages are somewhat uniform, but once we
reach adulthood, the changes to our appearance,
whether in the face or the figure, are subject to a
bewildering array of factors. Genetics, race, living
conditions, work/life habits, health, exposure to
sunlight and wind, exercize or lack thereof, usage
of cosmetics or surgery... People in poor countries
have a shorter life expectancy and no access to
health care, let alone beauty products, all of which
may make them look very old by the time they’re
middle-aged, while in developed countries we are
getting increasingly accustomed to women keep-
53
ing their smooth skin and fitness well into their
50’s (but this remains linked with being able to af-
ford skin care products, the healthiest diets and
plenty of exercise time, not to mention not doing
work that wears the body). In those same coun-
tries, in centuries past, middle age was old age and
brought with it blackened or fallen teeth, a failing
body and stained skin. Exposure to the elements
will line even a young face: in Viêt Nam I met a
woman who worked outdoors in a very windy
place, and thought she was in her forties due to the
many fine lines on her face, but she turned out to
be just 20. Inversely, the Japanese famously keep
their smooth skin for years and years, and I was
shocked to meet a “teenager” who turned out to
be a married woman in her thirties. Traumatizing
events can also accelerate aging, visible particu-
larly in worry lines and hair that goes prematurely
white (this is debated by scientists, but empirically
we can stil observe it.)
With all this in mind, it is best to look at the stages
below not as fixed values but as steps that are rela-
tive to each other. The exact age is less important
than the differences between a stage and another.
You’ll notice I only provide separate male and
female diagrams for some age categories. This is
simply because up until puberty, boys and girls
are not very differentiated. They are recognizable
mostly through socially created factors such as
haircut and clothing. Isolate a young child’s face
and it may be very hard for you to figure out its
gender. Adolescence marks the beginning of seri-
ous differences in face and body, and that’s when
the separate diagrams begin. Then, after meno-
pause, women start losing their differentiating
factors again. As they get older, men and women
become once more increasingly similar in the face,
save for the fact women’s hair never recedes quite
as much, and women very rarely go bald.
 NEWBORN
(0-1 month)
The first week, the head is
elongated. This is called mold-
Merest hint of eyebrows,
ing and it is due to the passage
very high
through the birth canal, which
makes the bones of the skull Upper eyelid fold may not exist yet.
overlap. C-sections don’t result At this stage eyes are only opened
in molding. for brief spells and tend to squint.
Many newborns have
a full head of fine, dark Eye slits look very wide.
hair, but they can also Same with the mouth.
be quite bald.
This line is noticeable
Ear flat Nostrils very evident
against head in tiny button nose.

No neck
No chin
Mongolian spots are blue
or purple-colored splotches
on the baby’s lower back
Body length = 2.5 heads (legs not counted) and buttocks (they can
cover them entirely or be
just a small spot). Over 80
percent of dark-skinned or
Asian babies are born with
“Mongolian spots”, blue or
purple splotches on the lower
back and buttocks due to a
concentration of pigmented
cells. They disappear in the
first 4 years.

Note how short the legs are – remem-

Newborns can only lie on their belly,
ber that in adults the knee reaches the
retaining the foetal position with
shoulder in this position.
limbs folded against their body.
Newborn hands
The eyes of newborns only take their final hue between 6 months remain curled
and 1 year. The skin also has an original coloration that soon into loose fists for
changes. Roughly, for different types these birth colors are: a while.

Fingers don’t
lack daintiness,
Caucasian types: African types: Asian types: but the palm is
Dark blue-grey eyes, Dark grey-brown eyes, Dark grey-brown wider than it is
pink to reddish skin reddish-black skin eyes, tea rose skin long and is very
(strong vascularity) padded, hence
the charac-
teristic “baby
Chubbiness leading hands” look.
to deep folds
54
 t

Little hair, very fine, can

be lighter and then get
darker as baby grows. Eyes wider apart
than an adult’s

Ear starts Eyebrow ridge is

sticking out hardly present, very
gentle curve

Features less No cheekbone either,

crumpled than a but a round cheek
newborn’s, appear
very open to drink
in the world.
Lips become more visible,
drawing a tiny mouth.
A baby’s eyeballs are near their adult
size, but the eye slits are not, so the iris
appears much larger than an adult’s.
Around 3 months old:
Body length closer to 3 heads (legs not counted)

10 months
Height= 4-5 heads

Although the proportions have barely changed,

the body and limbs are noticeably chubbier.

- At 2 months, a baby can lift its

Chubbier than a newborn,
each fold very marked.
head halfway;
- At 3 it can hold an object;
- At 4 it can lift its head and chest
when lying down;
- At 6 it can hold its head steady
and sit with help;
- At 7 it can sit and stand unsup-
ported, and tries to put its foot in
its mouth;
- At 11 it can stand up alone;
- Around 1 year it starts walking
unsupported.

55
 Height= 5 heads

TODDLER Hair is thicker,

(1-4 years) darker and now Beginning
hides the head. of a neck

The body begins

Eyebrows reach maybe
to slim down a bit,
50% of their final value
losing the rounded
(so they’ll still be very
tummy, but re-
light in fair children).
tains an endearing
clumsiness.
Cheeks full and
often pink
- The adult height
Mouth small can be roughly pre-
and puckered, dicted by doubling
looking pouty the height of the
child at age 2.
Double chin Short legs - At 4, a child’s height
Toddlers still have their baby is at least double his
fat, especially in the face. or her birth length.

7-9 years
CHILD Height=6 heads
(5-11 years)
The neck grows out of an almost
horizontal shoulder line (instead of
the trapezius of adults) because the
The face occupies a
sternomastoids are not developed.
smaller area of the
head than an adult’s.

Eyebrows The face contours

still high start to appear but
are still soft.

Nose bridge
gains dimension
Ear grows
Nose looks short because
before other
it’s still upturned
features so it
looks large for Chin becomes
a while. defined, but not
Thin neck
yet strong.

All baby fat is gone, but muscles are

infantile, so the body is skinny.

56
 ADOLESCENT
(12-17 years)

Eyebrows full and

lower on eyes
The most noticeable
difference with adult
faces at this point is
the size of the eyes,
which are still large.

The bone struc-

Eyelashes im-
ture is in place
mediately make a
but still softerned
female face look
by a full face.
adult, so leave
As the nose take them out to con-
Neck thicker, its adult shape, it Neck remains vey adolescence.
Adam’s apple looks longer. slender, NO
appears Adam’s apple in
women.

Height= 6.5-7 heads

(Males taller)

Shoulders Females actually begin The breasts’ development

broaden puberty between 8 and 13 is the first sign of puber-
years of age, then males ty, but they don’t reach
between 9.5 and 14 years. their full size until adult-
hood. First the breasts
Hair ap-
Feet, arms, legs form small mounds, then
pears on
and hands may the areola gets larger.
the body,
grow faster than The breast keeps growing
legs, arms
the rest of the from there.
and face
body, leading to
the gangly look The waist gets smaller
and feeling of and the hips get wider.
clumsiness.

Fat may increase

in the buttocks,
legs and stomach.

57
 YOUNG ADULT
(18 years to thirties)
Many women style their eye-
brows into shapes that “color” the
Ear size stabilizes expression with anything from
at the measure It is entirely possible for the hair of young adults to innocence to confidence.
between the top of already start being flecked with grey, even though
the eyes and the most (especially women) will remove or dye them.
tip of the nose
Eyelashes now
emphasized
Eyelids become more
visible, toning down
the gaze and convey-
ing maturity.

Eyes look slightly

smaller.

Line of
the nose is
chiselled.

Face contours
now show more
bone and muscle
Strong structure than
squared jaw soft flesh. Lips at their most fleshy
(and frequently look much
Dark-haired men often have a
redder or contrasted, due
shadow around the jaw even
to the use of cosmetics)
when they’re shaved. At this age,
facial hair would be at its stron-
gest if grown.
Height= 7-8 heads

Narrow shoul- Broad shoulders,

ders, broad hips, narrow hips,
hourglass waist straight waist

Growth stops, this The body achieves matu-

is the tallest one rity, with fully developed
gets in one’s life. muscles, and in women’s
case breasts.

58
 MIDDLE AGE
(forties and fifties)
Hair shows more sign
of aging, the “salt and
pepper” look.
Lines may also
Man’s hairline
appear at the root
is likely to start
of the nose
receding.
Eyelids become
heavier

Crow’s feet be-

gin to appear

A downward fold
shows up at the cor-
ners of the mouth,
giving a bit of a wry
expression

Show more ex-

pression lines

The body doesn’t change

all that much but muscle
density decreases.
Breasts
start losing
firmness

Underarms

Belly
The back of
the elbow,
the knee caps
show wrinkles

Buttocks
and thighs

The tendency to ac-

cumulate fat increases.
Men and women store
it in different places,
shown in blue.

59
 EARLY OLD AGE Menopause happens in a woman’s Bones lose density
(sixties) fifties. The drop in oestrogen levels so the body starts
Hair turns decid- has visible effects on the body and getting shorter.
edly grey. It thins and its face. The face in general starts los-
Hairline recedes to a ing feminity.
varying, but notice- growth is now limited, so
able degree. women wear it shorter.
Eyelashes no longer
Worry and prominent
frown lines be-
come permanent
Breasts
Eyebrows may
dry up
stay dark longer
than hair (if they
were dark in the
first place) but
grow sparser.

Pockets un- Weight gain is

der the eyes redistributed to
the abdominal
Smile lines
area, so waist
become per-
starts disap-
manent Lips get pearing.
Skin loses elasticity and starts hanging at thinner
the jaws, resulting in a less firm jawline.

MIDDLE OLD AGE

(seventies) Thin wispy Skin becomes In men, hairline recedes
hair, almost thinner, showing considerably or all hair
transparent as veins, blemishes is lost. Women’s hairline
The upper eyelid may droop to and age spots. recedes little: this is the main
all pigment is
permanently cover the outer cor- difference between male and
gone
ner of the eye, giving it a triangular female faces at this stage.
shape. This happens to populations
of Western and Northern Europe
and to people heavily exposed to
the elements. Sparse or
scraggy
eyebrows

Eyes become watery

and their iris less
intense in color.
Earlobe droops Loss of cartilage makes
nose tip droop
Skin adheres to bone,
The lips lose color, with
hollowing the cheeks
vertical lines running up
and down from them.
Jowl effect as
skin on the If there is any facial
cheeks sags. hair, it’s getting sparser
and weaker.
Corners of the Folds join chin
mouth run down to neck pit
60
 People who keep exercizing into
old age keep a younger body
Slumping
longer, and may not slump or lose
makes neck
much muscle mass.
look shorter,
arms fall lower

Pectorals
droops

VERY OLD AGE

(eighties and up)
More age spots The appearance of car-
rying the burdens of the
Lines deepen
world that old people
usually have is mostly due
Eyes sink back, to the physical changs of
letting the orbits their face – the “sad” eyes
show through (shaped this way by the
the skin. drooping eyelid in Cau-
casian types), permanent
“worry” and frown” lines,
Crow’s feet corners of the mouth
can become drooping... We read these
Mouth puckers
really long and as expression lines even
in if lost teeth
abundant. though at that time of life,
are not replaced
by dental work they are just always there.
People who
(only affordable When drawing an elderly
spent their lives
or available to face, we need to be aware
exposed to the
a portion of the of the expressive power of
elements can
industrialized these lines and balance or
have abundant Loss of
world) attenuate them according
lines on the jaw line to the facial expression we
cheeks as well.
Double chin wish to convey.

61
 CATALOG OF HUMAN FEATURES
1. BODY TYPES

There are 8 basic body types, or somatotypes, 3 of which are primary (and rare in real life) while the rest
are combinations of them. These body types apply mostly to men; women tend to be in the centre as their
physiques are much less extreme, and they are more endomorphic than mesomorphic. See the second
diagram for female body types. Please note: “body types” here refers to the body’s structure (bones) and
not to muscles and/or fat that may be gained in addition.

Mesomorph: Large bones

and defined muscles for a
square, hard effect. Chest area
dominates and tapers to nar-
row low waist (strong shoul- Endomorphic mesomorph:
der-hips contrast). Well-de- Abdomen less massive and
veloped arms and legs. shoulders bulkier than in Me-
somorph, creating a rectangu-
lar silhouette: bull-like.
Ectomorph: Delicate phy-
sique with light bones and Ectomorphic mesomorph:
weak muscles. Shoulders Muscular but less heavily
small and drooping, flat chest, built.
long limbs (linear type), vis-
Mesomorphic ectomorph:
ible ribs, long neck.
Thin and muscular, small
Endomorph: Round soft joints.
body with a dominant ab- Ectomorphic endomorph:
dominal area, high waist and Balance between round and
no projecting bones. Short, elongated, but not muscular.
tapering arms and legs, small
hands and feet, thighs and
upper arms more developed
than lower legs and arms.
Large head.

The diagram below, based on the shoulder-waist-hips ratio, is more helpful for female body shapes. Here we’re talk-
ing about total appearance and not just bone structure. These shapes are found in both slim and heavy women.
Pear/Bell/Spoon/Tri- Apple/Diamond: Hourglass: Hips and shoul- Inverted Triangle: Shoulders
angle: Weight in the Like Oval but bust is ders almost equal, waist and bust are proportionately
bottom, slimmer waist slimmer, so weight just narrower. The Western ideal larger than waist and hips, so
and shoulders. around waist. for a female body. upper body looks heavier.

Apple/Oval: Rounded with weight in Banana/Stick figure/Rectangle: Almost Figure Eight: An hourglass
the middle due to broad waist and bust, equal measures so very little curve, the figure where hips are broader
slimming down in legs and arms. most masculine of the female body shapes. than shoulders.
62
2. BREAST SHAPES

he following are considered aesthetic Some natural shapes (not consid-

by modern Western standards. The ered aesthetic, but not difform)
dotted line shows the form contour.

Swooping

Round Teardrop

Saggy or hanging

Triangular Pear-shaped

Flat

3. EYE SHAPES

Almond Hooded Deep-set

(Upswept lift at the (Natural crease in the eye- (Eyelid crease is set back
corners) lid is not very visible) so that upper eyelid is hid-
den in shadow)

Round Sleepy Downturned

(Droopy eyelids) (Eyelids curve down at
outside corners)
63
4. FACE SHAPES

Sometimes the shape of the hairline affects the perceived face shape, and I indicate it when it’s the case.

Oval Ellipse Broad ellipse Triangular

(Narrowest at bottom, (Long, width almost (Like Ellipsis but (Narrowest at bottom,
widest in middle) even) broader) pointed chin widest at
top, straight hairline)

Heart-shaped Round Square Rectangular

(Like Triangular but (Equal length and (Equal height and (Also Long or Oblong,
with widow’s peak) width, rounded jaw line width, squared jaw line, like Square but longer
and hairline) straight hairline) than it is wide)

Pentagonal Diamond Pear-shaped

(Like Rectangular but (Narrow chin and fore- (Or Trapezoid, widest at
narrower chin makes head, face widest in the the chin and narrowest
face look more angular) middle) at the forehead, very full
jaw line)

64
5. NOSE SHAPES

Hooked Droopy Aquiline Roman Grecian nose

(Broken profile) (Tip very low, an (”Eagle-like”, (slightly aquiline) (Drops straight down
effect of aging) convex) from the forehead)

Button Button Upturned Snub Funnel

(Rounded and (Child version, (Concave) (aka Blunt or Pug: (African nose, where
small, tip turns up found in babies and short and upturned, nostrils pass over to
so slightly nostrils children before nose often found in Asians) the bridge)
aren’t visible yet) takes it adult shape)

6. LIP SHAPES

Natural shapes and shapes popular in make-up. Children’s lips are

thinner, less textured, and closer to the skin tone than adults’.

Natural Pointy natural Thin Cupid’s bow

(It’s common for the upper (Exaggerated feminine
lip alone to be thin, but the shape)
reverse is very rare)

Uni-lip Beestung Smear Glamour

(Peakless) (Narrow and very full, (Wide, spaced peaks, (Upper lip fuller)
early 20’s ) 40’s)

65
7. HAIR TYPES

Straight Wavy
Can be fine or thick, Sticks close to the head,
soft or coarse. can be fine, medium or
thick.

Low wave High wave

Curly
Loopy S pattern, soft and fine,
less shiny than straight or wavy
hair because its surface is not as
smooth.

Loose Tight

Frizzy
Very tight wiry curls, fine but densely packed. Shown below in its natural state (it is
not normally worn loose this way): tends to grow out or up. Sheen rather than shine.

S-type Z-type Peppercorn

Like very small curls Not curling so much as Tightly curled spiral tufts that form into
zigzagging cones with naked skin visible between them.
If this hair is allowed to grow, it mats.
66
8. HAIR PIGMENT NO RED PIGMENT RED PIGMENT
(ASHEN) (RUFOUS or GOLDEN)
To put things simply, all hair color is the re-
sult of two factors:
- Lightness or darkness (lighter=blonds,

BLONDS
darker=browns)
- Presence or absence of red pigment (its Platinum blonde
presence creates the golden, reddish and
warm brown hues, while its absence results
in desaturated or “ashen” hues). To distin-
guish “red hair” from “hair that has red pig-
ment”, I use the word “rufous” for the latter. Ash blonde Golden blonde
- To this we can add blue-black, meaning
black hair with bluish highlights, as a sepa-
rate hue.

The table on the right summarizes this. When

Dark Ash blonde Dark Golden blonde
in the Guide I give one hue as characteristic (Strawberry)
of an ethnotype, that usually means you can
also find the neighboring hues in that eth-
notype, as long as they’re in the same col-
REDS

umn. For instance if the hair color of type A

is given as Ash Brown, then Medium Brown
Red
is sure to exist as well in lesser proportions,
but it doesn’t mean Golden Brown exists in
that type.
BROWNS

The terminology for hair color is very dis-

Ash brown Golden brown
parate so don’t take the names used here as
a universal convention. There’s a bigger hair
color chart here:
http://www.dosfordonts.com/haircolor.html
Medium brown Rufous brown

Auburn

Dark brown Dark auburn

(Chestnut)

Black Brown-black
BLUE-BLACK

67
9. EYEBROW
SHAPES Thin
Tapered tail
Female eyebrow
Arched shape

Basic shape
Arch Curved Angled Soft angled Rounded Flat

Low

High

Full
Blunt tail
Male eyebrow
Full shape

Angled Rounded Flat

10. HAIRLINE SHAPES

Men

Straight Rounded Regular

Widow’s peak Receding Receding

Women

68
11. EYE COLOR
Light Gray

LIGHT
(Looks nearly
Eyes are basically either brown or blue, white)
with green as a third, rarer type. Gray
is a variant of the blue pigment; most
colors are produced by combinations of
the above with sometimes the addition Gray
(Usually tinted: green-
of a yellow or russet pigment. This table ish gray, bluish gray...)
shows basic hues and some incidental
ones, arranged similarly to the hair ta-
ble above. “Special effects” such as rings
around the pupil or iris, speckles etc are Blue
not included as they’re not relevant to (Can be pale)
this study. Some of the terms used in the
Guide to Human types:

LIGHT-MIXED
Light eyes: any of the blue and gray
hues Violet
Light-mixed: any combination of the (Very rare, blue eye
above, such as gray-blue, gray-green. where red blood vessels
Dark: a shade of brown. show through)
Dark-mixed: combination with brown,
i.e. gray-brown or green-brown.
Blue-green
(Very rare, blue eyes with a
green ring around the pupil)
GREEN/YELLOW

Green
(Rare, not to be confused with
hazel or gray-tinted-green)

Amber
(Strong yellow and
russet with pale green
produces this effect)

Hazel
DARK-MIXED

(Elements of green
and brown)

Brown
(Can be light or dark)

“Black”
(Really a dark brown; eyes
DARK

are never completely black,

in direct light the iris color-
ation shows)
69
12. SKIN TONES

Pinpointing exact skin tones is an exercise in futility, since it varies not only within a group but on individuals as well. Skin tans
or burns, and because it is translucent, its hue is affected by the blood that flows through it, and that tends towards red or blue
depending on health and temperature. There are parts of the body that are always pale and others that are constantly exposed
to sunlight and are therefore much darker, making it even more complicated to decide on what that actual color of the skin
is. For our purposes, I present skin tones corresponding to exposed, but not particularly tanned, skin. To achieve pallor, use a
lighter shade of the tone you need; for a tan, darken it (see below). Generally, feel free to tweak the colors a bit, to warm them
up, cool them down, darken/lighten them, etc, because there is always a range of variation in reality anyway.

I do not divide the skin tones into Caucasian, Asian, African and Pacifid because the groups often overlap. The brown range
for instance is found both in Caucasians and Asians. Broadly speaking, White through Reddish Brown are found in Cauca-
sians, Chocolate through Blue-Black in Africans and Pacifids, and Greyish Yellow through Copper in Asians (which include
Amerindians). By the way, the names I use for the skin tones are not scientific. I worked out this terminology for simplicity
and easy evocation. You’ll notice there are “families” of tones (such as the browns, the ochers...) and “singled-out” tones (white,
amrani...). This implies that if a type is said to have a skin tone that’s part of a family, it is very likely that other members of the
family are also present in that type, in small amounts. For a pale or tanned skin, go lighter or darker within the same family. If
the skin is naturally very dark, it is likely not to tan any further.
Note that the ocher and sienna families are for Asian skins: I use the word ocher for “brown with a yellow undertone” and
sienna for “brown with a red undertone” (coppery skins).

The CMYK values of the colors I used for the skin tones are indicated.

Additional notes:

- Women are always, on average, lighter-skinned than the men of their own type. There’s a biological reason for this: they need
to allow extra sunlight in to produce more vitamins for childbearing.
- I sometimes mention vascularity: it is the skin’s tendency to turn red when exposed to the air or the sun. This is what gives
pale-skinned people red cheeks, which wouldn’t occur with darker-skinned people.

White Ivory Fair Light brown

(The skin is so unpigmented
and thin the blood shows
through, so it actually looks
pinkish. Vascular. Doesn’t tan
but turns brick-red.)
C3M13Y11
(Lighter version of fair, (Brown pigment starts
almost as light as white to appear but skin still
but less pink) more likely to burn than
C4M14Y15 to tan)
C6M20Y21K1
(”Brunette-white” or
“honey”, starts being
suitable for tanning)
C12M30Y43K3

Medium brown Dark brown Very dark brown Olive Dark olive Grey olive
C10M37Y44K2 C21M59Y65K7 C35M64Y69K31 (A yellow tint to C34M50Y55K26 C33M37Y48K15
the brown gives it a
greenish cast in com-
parison to the more
pink browns)
C22M37Y60K9
70
 Chocolate Reddish brown Amrani San brown Khoi brown
C35M77Y82K32 (Medium brown with (peculiar to Somali and (Yellow undertone (Yellow undertone
reddish undertone) mixed Tuaregs) makes it look like a red- makes it look like a very
C17M43Y40K5 C30M52Y68K20 dish olive) dark olive)
C30M60Y78K21 C38M59Y66K37

Coffee Brown-black Blue-black Greyish yellow Reddish Gold Gold

C40M65Y67K47 C45M69Y56K58 C76M58Y49K60 C7M20Y29K1 C5M36Y54K1 C9M35Y62K1
(In these very dark hues including Khoi, the shadow tone
dominates the skin, the main hue functioning like a high-
light. This makes the skin look glossy)

Pale ocher Light ocher Medium ocher Dark ocher Brown ocher
C10M21Y34K2 C13M30Y48K3 C23M47Y64K9 C30M51Y61K19 C18M40Y43K6

Light sienna Medium sienna Dark sienna Olive sienna Copper

C6M35Y44K1 C14M42Y38K3 C29M48Y60K7 (Medium brown with C20M57Y73K6
olive undertone)
C21M41Y49K7

71
 HUMAN TYPES
A good knowledge of anatomy is indispensable to draw the hu-
man figure, but it is only the beginning. Left to our own devices,
we instinctively draw people like ourselves, or to use a word
that’s almost taboo, people of our own race. The serious artist or
illustrator, though, sooner or later finds him/herself confronted
to the anatomy and physiognomy of other races – and the need
to know how to portray them. The word “race” has acquired a
detestable aura, and for this reason I use “human type” or eth-
notype instead. What it denotes, however, is something we il-
lustrators cannot hide from. To avoid perpetrating grotesque
cultural errors such as ran amuck in the days of colonialism,
we need to know what physically defines the populations of dif-
ferent parts of the world. As my work often deals with ethnic
themes, I searched high and low for some kind of guide but
found none. So I put this one together for anyone who aspires to
create characters true to nature and not draw Africans that look
like Europeans with dark skin.
This, however, is not an essay in anthropology. This is not only
an incredibly complex subject, it is also a much debated one.
So I haven’t picked and stuck to one model, but instead simpli-
fied those I researched, sometimes substituting more layman-
friendly names, with one guideline in mind: “If I needed to draw
someone from this specific part of the world, what would I need
to know about his or her physical characteristics?”
What I show here is either the average model for each type,
or a representative example. Not all Chinese will have exactly
the same build, facial traits, skin color etc as my diagram, but
they will all tend to it to various degrees. Looking at photos will
greatly expand your capacity to create individual, unique faces
based on the average one and giving characters different body
types. This isn’t an exact science and the closer groups are, the
blurrier the lines between them, sometimes with overlaps, al-
though they themselves can usually tell each other apart at a
glance. So there are always telltale signs that make a character’s
type identifiable with a few pencil strokes
You may ask: What’s the point of being anthropologically cor-
rect when the world is such a mixed place and so many people
have a mixed heritage? Three points:
1. Being familiar with the “original Brachycephal
models” can only help and not hurt.
2. Period art and ethnic art demand
such information. 3. Even if you’re
not trying to draw someone from a
specific group, this “catalogue” as it The head is
were provides ideas to draw differ- as long as it is
ent people. Very useful if you often wide, round
find yourself drawing the same body head
types or noses or whatnot.
Important note: In the following pages, I list some places or ethnicities under each ethnotype. These should be read as: “The
origins and/or most important concentrations of this type can be found in...” They should NOT be read as “The following
countries fall under this type.” It should go without saying that no country falls entirely under a single type! The best way to know
what other types exist in a country is to look up their history for migrations and invasions.
72
The point of this guide is to establish a sort of primary
palette of humankind, which an artist can admix as freely
as people marry across types. For this reason, and because
their characteristics are not sharply defined, mixed types
(Philipinos, African Americans, Latin Americans, etc.) are
not treated here. Instead I gather some general info about
some of them on a page at the end of the guide.
I also don’t give diagrams for both male and female faces
because that’s often redundant. I’ll assume you know how
to make a face look more masculine or feminine at will,
but if in doubt refer to earlier chapters for characteristics
of face and body. In some cases I simply couldn’t find the
relevant info for average size or other details. Please make
do by filling in with the equivalent details from the type’s
closest neighbors.
Finally, the occasional snippets in maroon provide infor-
mation about a population’s beauty standards (in the past
or nowadays). I believe awareness of these is really impor-
tant to really faithful depictions of other cultures.
Average height: Please note that this changes all the time.
Several centimeters can be acquired in a mere decade.
The heights I include are as current as I could find them,
but they wouldn’t apply for earlier periods of history. You
will probably not often need to be that accurate, but here’s
the general guideline for modifying a population’s height:
the more prosperous, the taller, and the more impover-
ished, the shorter. For instance the Dutch today are the
tallest Europeans but 2 centuries ago they were the short-
est, while the Vietnamese on the contrary are shorter now
than they were at the peak of their culture.
Skull shapes: The shape of the head is one of the basic “ra-
cial” identifiers. It’s most obvious seen from the top, which
is not a perspective we often use, but it is still prominent in
profiles. Rather than redraw the skull shape for each type,
I’ll simply mention it, and you should refer to this diagram
to look it up:
Mesocephal Dolichocephal
The head is
longer than
Intermediate
it is wide,
length.
long narrow
head.
I. GENERAL ASIAN
Here are some characteristics found in all the Asia-inhabiting groups presented on the right. Amerindians are placed alongside
them because they are related, but they almost all lack the epicantic fold and have much more prominent noses.

Body type Nose

The nose is typically small, nasal

Beard and bridges are low, and nasal projection
Medium
body hair are is minimal.
tall, compact
meager
stature
Hands
Because
legs are Hands are relatively short and
Forearm short, stubby with nails that cover most of
shorter than torso the end of their finger. Finger tips
upper arm appears are thin (seen from the side, they
longer taper as opposed to being padded)

Hair
Women are
petite with
small breasts
Lower leg and hips
shorter than
thigh

Small narrow feet Coarse and

straight

Eyes
The best-known identifier of Asian types is the epicanthal fold
(aka epicanthic fold or epicanthus). This is a skin fold of the
upper eyelid, from the nose to the inner side of the eyebrow, that
covers the inner corner of the eye. As a result the inner corner
looks lower, making the eye look slanted (aka almond-shaped).
Shape of the face
There are two variations on the Asian eye. One is known as dou-
ble-eyelid: the eyelid is creased like in Western eyes, but closer
to the eyelashes. In the other, known as single-eyelid, there is no
crease at all, only smooth “padded” skin over the eye.

Double-eyelid Double-eyelid
Fold can be
(no eyelid line)
more or less
pronounced

Eyelashes
downwards The cheekbones are prominent and project
Corner covered to various degrees sideways, which results in a round flat face.
Compare with a Caucasian skull, where
Closed eyes cheekbones recede and so the face looks nar-
rower. From profile, the combination of this
and a lower nosebridge make the eyes appear
much more forward.
Asian types also tend to have more body fat
in the cheeks, so there is little chance of hav-
Curves down noticeably ing a chiselled or angular face.
73
 Classic Mongoloid Japanese

The “classic” Asian; Mongolia, Korea, Japan, Siberia Alongside Mongoloid in Japan. For Okinawan see p96

Less hairy and more slen-

1.73 S. Korea der than Mongoloid
1.61 Mongolia 1.65 N. Korea men
1.57 women 1.61women 1.55-1.71
1.53-1.57 women
In North China
Traditional beauty stan- During the Heian
and Korea hair
dards for Korean women: period:
can be thick
round face like full moon - Men sported a
and wavy
(health), small smil- small pointed beard Traditionally the em-
ing eyes, single-eyelids at the tip of the phasis is on a woman’s
like the crescent moon chin. face, neck and hair
(friendly impression), - Men and women (the back of the neck
small red lips like ripe powdered their is sexy). The figure
cherries (refinement), Relatively faces white. is hidden as much as
chubby cheeks pink like hairy bod- - Women shaved possible by the ki-
roses (wealth), mod- ies and facial their eyebrows to mono. The preference
est height (shorter than features as redraw finer ones is to having no body
man), black straight soft compared to in the centre of the hair at all.
hair, narrow shoulders other Asian forehead.
(make men feel protective types - Women blackened “Banana” body
over them), thin waist but their teeth, because shape very com-
plump hips (childbear- white “blinds and mon in women.
ing), small delicate hands (skill) and feet. uglifies” (this up to the Meiji period).
Today, pale skin and double eyelids are a sign of status. - A young woman was deemed particularly beautiful if her
hair was longer than she was tall.

Brachycephal Surface between eyes and

Low nose root “Pointy” profile, eyebrows is not flat but has
thrusting forward depth, with protruding eye-
Long nose brows and sunken eyes (eyes
bridge are actually placed deeper
inside the skull)

Long face
Big eyes are
Wings can be large in
considered
relation to the nose
more beautiful
Longer chin
small sharp features face longer and
eyes very narrow thinner than other
eyes even Asian types
tall
about 70% though epi-
forehead
have single- canthic fold
eyelids may be mild single-eyelid
can be noteably
prominent puffy under the
cheekbones eye, especially
high, thin,
wide face when smiling
small nose,
tending to
small longer in men
square on the
mouth
bottom wide mouth
Some Mongolians but thin lips
and Central Asians
have grey or even “Black”
“Black” blue eyes
Dark
brown overall
can lighter than
occur other Asians

Light ocher Medium ocher Black Black Pale ocher Light ocher
74
 North Chinese South Chinese

Northern and central China, Manchuria Central and Southern China

1.75 men today 1.69 today

1.62 women 1.68 historically 1.64
historically

Body and facial Tiny feet were a standard Minimal

structures heavier of beauty required for all facial hair
than the typical women who could afford
European reduced mobility. Noble
women bound their feet
from childhood to keep
them small: the ideal
size was 7 cm. Manchu-
rian women however did
not do this, being from a
horse-riding culture.

Mesocephal to
Strongly Dolichocephal Steep, prominent forehead
receding
Brachycephal Almost flat facial
forehead
structure around
eyes and eyebrows
Weak brow-
ridges The face appears flat
because the nose doesn’t
protrude and the cheek
bones are broad
Strong jaw Sometimes
Weaker jaw and chin
and chin prognathy
than North Chinese
Broad-long face
About 70% have
Round, flat, clear double-
short face eyelids
prominent
cheekbones
Nose moderately
broad
strong jaws Compressed jaw
Narrow,
often rather Thin lips, with the
high nose Wide to very lower lip thicker
thin lips wide mouth

The ideal Chinese woman has an egg-shaped

face, willow-leaf eyebrows, almond-shaped eyes
In China’s culture today there is real
(”Phoenix eyes”) and cherry-blossom lips (think
pressure to be taller, to the point that it
Disney’s Mulan).
is becoming increasingly common for
women to stretch their legs through
surgery (although many Chinese find
this very disturbing).

“Black” Reddish gold Gold Light ocher Black

75
 Southeast Asian Indonesian

South and eastern coast of China, Thailand, Việt Indonesia, Malaysia

Nam, Myanmar (Burma), Indonesia, Okinawa
1.67 Thai
1.67 Indonesian 1.70 Malaysian
1.63 Việt Nam
1.57 women 1.60 women 1.58 Malay
1.50 women

Wavy hair
In Indonesia, the taller a
person is the higher their sta-
tus. Nowadays it’s at least as
important to be tall as it is to Broad faces with receding
have a light skin, especially foreheads and flat noses
for males. were sought after, and some
peoples in Malaysia and
Indonesia compressed their
Less hairy and babies’ skulls to achieve this
more slender physique. The Minahasa of
than Mongoloid Celebes even restricted such
binding to the nobility.

Mesocephal Mesocephal

The Cambodi- lower-

ans are the most bridged nose
Indian-looking than other
people in Southeast short nose Less face fat,
Asians
Asia while the Bur- more likely for
mese are the most cheekbones
Mongoloid looking. to show even
Thai and Lao are though they Southeast Asian charac-
intermediate. don’t jut out ters present but faint.
Thai have a
marked angle in small heart-
larger eyes shaped face
than previ- the eyebrows
ous Asians well-defined
outer fold eyebrows
curls up
noticeably for
distinctive more promi-
Lao eyebrows look nent eyelids
are broad but so
Fuller lips sparse and faint
they’re almost
absent flat nose small but full
mouth, upper lip
Today light skin is con- gentle contours almost thicker
sidered more beautiful, than lower
“Black” but in the past the dark-
est skin was the most
esteemed.
“Black”

Medium ocher Dark brown Black Dark ocher Black Blue-black

76
 Tibetan Turkic

Tibet, Sikkim, Bhutan Western China, Turkestan; Tatars, Uzbeks, Uy-

ghurs, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs; can still be seen although
nearly entirely diluted in today’s Turks and Azeris.
1.68 1.65

Hair is somewhat Due to extreme admix- Straight

wavy and can even ture, manyTurkic people hair, scant
be curly, but often today look Mediterra- or no
braided finely. nean: refer to Mediter- beard
Traditionally women ranean and Levantine
braid it in 108 braids. for modern Turks. Middle-sized,
Men have full mous- However, we know from square-built,
taches but sparse depictions that the early inclined to
beards they pluck out. Ottomans were clearly stoutness
Mongoloid, so they
belong in this section.
Very small
hands and feet

Brachycephal
Features are
chiseled, which
doesn’t usually Frequently
occur in Asian have light skin,
faces hair and eyes
with a Mon-
golian facial
high cheekbones structure.

high cheekbones

nose has a broad Bushy eyebrows

convex bridge that tend to meet
broad
that is very no- in the middle
features
ticeable

sparse little- single or

defined eye- double
clear
brows double-
flat nose
eyelids
small
mouth very rounded
cheekbones face contour
prominent long face
squaring at
the bottom Brown or
“black”
Some have very
light hazel or green Blue or grey can also occur
eyes due to Mongol
heritage
Dark or
lighter
brown

Medium brown Dark brown Blue-black Black Dark brown Light ocher Brown ocher
77
 Ainu Pacific Amerind

Aboriginal population of Northern Japan West Canadian coast, eastern Alaska (Tlinkit,
Chinook), outskirts in northwestern U.S.A. and
on the Rio Grande (Navajo, Apache)
1.67
1.58

Stocky build. Medium to tall, Straight or

Overall they look Thick wavy hair and robust build slightly wavy
distinctly non- the world’s biggest Little hair
Asian but rather beards. The Ainu’s to no
like heavy-fea- developed pilosity is body
tured Caucasians. what distinguishes hair
them the most
immediately from
Japanese.

Body build
rather massive

Mesocephal Receding forehead

Brachycephal
much dimen-
sionality here,
Look like deep-set eyes
Striking nose
they have with straight
Asian eyes higher-bridge or slightly
and nose on a nose than convex bridge
Western face Japanese
structure
Large ears
full eyelids

men’s eyebrows
full eyelids quite bushy cheekbones slightly
medium
emphasized
broad
nose can be nose
broad strong
cheek- marked
bones folds
chiselled jaw broad mouth
full lips broad rectan-
with thin lips
gular face
Men’s lower face is usually hidden be-
hind a thick beard and mustache

“Black” “Black”

Blue-black
Ash brown to black
Dark sienna
Medium brown
78
 Silvid Amerind Margid Amerind

Wood region from middle to eastern Canada, Appalaches California, Sonara, scattered remains in Mexico,
(Mohicans, Delawares, Iroquois), prairie region of the the Rocky Mountains (Shoshone), Florida and the
“Middle West” (Sioux = Dakota)
1.68-1.75 eastern coast area up to Newfoundland
Taller than Pacific, ?
broad, robust build,
mostly mesomorph Much weaker Medium
but tend to obesity facial hair stature, robust
when exposed to a growth bone structure
European diet.

When excessive
weight is gained, it is
carried around the
midsection, in the
Women have
belly rather than in
wide hips, broad
the legs or rear.
shoulders equal
Overpronation of to hips, and
the feet and knock- commonly an
knees are a com- hourglass figure.
mon problem since
the introduction of
hard-soled shoes. Mesocephal to Slanting forehead
Receding forehead
dolichocephal with emphasis of
the bulge above
the eyes
Striking
narrow to
Mesocephal medium nose
with convex Clearly retract-
or hooked ed nose root
bridge and straight or
concave bridge
Strong chin
Slightly receding chin

Very high
hairline epicanthal fold,
more often in Broad
women and face
Sparse faint children Small
eyebrows eyelid slit

Rectangular Moderately Medium to

face full lips broad nose
Broad mouth

“Black” Copper “Black” Very dark brown

Blue-black Blue-black

79
 Central Amerind Amazonian

Southwestern U.S. (Hopi), eastern and southern Jungle of the Amazon basin (Yanomami) and
Mexico (Maya, Azteks descendants), Central adjacent highlands, coast areas of Brazil, Ven-
America, western Columbia ezuela and Guayana, Caribbean
classic Maya
today’s Maya 1.62
1.55 women men
1.52 1.50
1.45 women women
1.40
Straight or
Medium or Straight or
slightly wavy
small build, No body slightly wavy breast
hair Females are
stocky hair hair shape
plump with
Small a strongly
The Mayan ideal of beau- build, curved
ty: high cheekbones, thin short lower back,
lips, and an aquiline nose. stature but small
Cross-eyes were attractive. bottoms
Newborns’ heads were
bound between boards to No body Little to
achieve an angle of 180° or facial no waist
or more between the nose hair in either
and forehead (elongating gender
the head to resemble an
ear of corn).
Steep, broad
Very brachycephal forehead
Steep, but
Mesocephal
narrow Projecting
forehead or concave
nose with
Straight high root
or slightly
convex nose Face projects
bridge forward more
strongly
Slightly receding chin Chin tends to recede
Oval face
Rectangular with soft
Lower face features
face Medium to
than most
broad nose
North Am-
erinds
Relatively
Slightly delicate
emphasized features Medium to
cheekbones
broad nose
(quite salient Thicker lips
in Maya) Broad mouth line,
moderately full lips

“Black” “Black”

Blue-black Blue-black Brown-black

Dark sienna Medium ocher
80
 Andid Inuit

Andes (Quechua or Inca, Araucanians), coast of Arctic circle

Ecuador, Peru, northern Chile

1.58-1.65
1.55-1.60

More body fat for

protection against
the cold

Very small hands

Peruvian tribes con- Traditionally a very and feet
sider an hourglass round face with
figure looks ill and narrow angled eyes
prefer an ‘apple’ type is considered beau-
figure on women, tiful (it can be seen
where the waist is in traditional art),
not very pinched in. as well as a tall lean
build for men.

Mesocephal to Dolichocephal
Brachycephal Clearly sloped or Mesocephal Somewhat flat
forehead
profile

Projecting
nose with
high root
Nose closer
and straight
to mongol-
or convex
oid
bridge

Longish oval Strong

Round
face, plump in “Indian Strong
cheeks red-
women fold” “Indian
dened by
fold”
cold
Medium
Clear emphasis broad
of the cheek- Rounded Strong jaw
bones face, can look
Medium to chubby Nose can be
Moderately broad mouth much broader
full lips

“Black” “Black”

Blue-black Blue-black
Olive sienna Light sienna
81
II. GENERAL CAUCASIAN
Caucasian types are distributed from Western Europe and North Africa all the way to India. Needless to say they vary quite a bit
in almost all aspects, but they do share some fundamental features that set them apart from other types.

Body type Nose

Stature varies, but the artistic ideal of the body height = 7 to 8 heads was The nose is the most distinctive Cauca-
based on this type of body, hence these general proportions. sian feature as it projects well forward
of the eyes. It has a high root and bridge
This is the hairiest type for both beard and body hair. with wings usually pressed-in. While
Asian noses show the nostrils from the
This type has the lightest skin tones, but also has dark ones. Note that front, Caucasian noses more frequently
women generally have lighter skin than men. show them from the sides if at all.

Shape of the face

Forearm
and upper
arm are
equal

Lower leg Women’s The cheekbones are compressed, cre-

and thigh breasts and ating a narrower face than Asian types
are equal hips are fully where cheekbones project sideways.
developed

In Medieval Europe people went to great

Eyes
As far as the color of the European eye is concerned, keep this in mind: the
continent is so mixed that you can find both light and dark eyes (and hair)
in all populations. I adhere to conservative descriptions because we need
to know how the peoples looked before getting so mixed, but don’t feel too
restricted by them if your representation is contemporary.
The eye looks bigger than Asian eyes but that’s simply due to the absence of
the epicanthal fold. We can broadly say that the further North you go, the
smaller the eyes are, while around the Mediterranean they are large enough
to look feminine.
In Western and Northern Europe there can
be an external fold over the eyes that makes
them look droopy. At the very least it shows
up in old age. This coincides with severe
wrinkling brought by age while other re-
gions age more smoothly (unless there’s
heavy exposure to sun and wind).
Corner External
always
exposed
82
lengths to keep their skin pale as that im-
plied a high status that spared them from
working outdoors. A fatter physique sig-
nifying wealthy idleness was similarly
preferred to the muscular figure of a field
worker.
Today, for the same socioeconomic rea-
sons, people seek a tan, which implies
travel (and wealth) and leisure time (do
note that pinkish-white skins just don’t
tan, though). Toned bodies are favored
as they imply someone takes care of their
body and health – and have the money and
self-discipline to do so. Excessive muscles
however are perceived as unattractive or
aggressive.
Hands
Hands are relatively short and stubby
with nails that cover most of the end of
their finger. Finger tips are thin (seen
fold from the side, they taper as opposed to
being padded)
 Saami (Lapp) Nordic
Norway, Sweden, Iceland, North Germany, Netherlands, Bel-
Arctic Scandinavia and Finland gium (and to a lesser degree all Northern Europe)
Norway/Sweden Denmark 1.84 Netherlands
Thick straight hair, beard 1.80 1.77
Short stature
merely a few hairs 1.68 women 1.65 women
1.63 men 1.63 Belgium
women Hair: Moderate
1.51
Narrow low beard and A legend in the Edda
shoulders wave body hair describes the aristocrat-
Proportionately
and hips No hair ic class as being “tall,
large head
on chest Long lean men with blond
Long legs, hair and hard, cold,
or belly
arms Long trunk short snakelike eyes” while
arms the intermediate class
Short legs, Small delicate of smiths and crafts-
especially in hands and feet men was red-haired
the lower leg Tall, can be
and big-muscled, and
Limb proportions, In the 19th heavily built
the lower class was
sparseness of body c. the Dutch or slender.
short and dark-haired
Legs often hair, small jaw and were the Icelanders are
(imported from central
bowed nose combine to give shortest Euro- thicker-set.
Europe).
a child-like look. peans

Brachycephal Mesocephal or Retreating forehead,

dolichocephal parallel to nose

Back of the head Weakly

Nose straight or developed
is compact: up-
concave, low root browridges
per neck shows
above collar Transition
Snubbed up- before this curve from nose
turned tip bone to
cartilage is
Nostrils more marked
Weak chin
visible from side Thin cheeks,
Narrow fore- than front Straight nose
clear chin
head: seen from Eyes widely
above the head is Long narrow face, looks bony and sharp
separated
a short egg shape Thin eyebrows Narrow fore-
head
External fold can
Very short appear with age Nose thin and
face is a defin- steep-sided
ing character- Compressed at
temples Eye slit hori-
Low child- istic, due to
zontal but may
like nose reduced jaw
Thin tip, com- droop outside
pressed wings. A
Skin is thin so the
lot of Norwegians
The less mixed the person, the line between the na-
have a round “ball”
darker the eyes and hair–  light sal bones can often
at the nose tip
hues come from mixture with Small mouth be seen
Norwegians or Finns. Medium brown to ash blond
“Black”, light blue Icelanders
are on the
darker end of
this spectrum
and also have
some black
and rufous
Grayish yellow to
hair due to
medium brown
Irish strain. Belgian and Norwegians Swedes more
Dutch mostly more ash than golden than
Ash blonde Dark brown Brown-black Pinkish white light brown golden ash
83
 British Islanders Baltic
British Isles (English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh), North-West Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Russia,
France, North-West Spain (Galicia). The Cornish are more Germany, to some extent in Scandinavia
Euro-Mediterranean.
men 1.80 Germ., Fin. 1.76
Hair fine, mostly 1.75
1.69 women
straight, but Irish hair
1.61 women
has a low wave Stocky and broad, Moderate mus-
The Irish are Irish head is one of the but the Letts are tache but faint
broad-built and Mod- largest in Europe slenderer beard
Body
large boned, the erate
Scots and Irish are Short hair is Broad
rest lighter in beard
tallest, then English, arms faint shoulders
stature and
body then Welsh.
hair Straight hair but
Short arms
Trunk is half the Scanty wavy beard
The Celts had rufous hair total height arm and
but bleached it as blond leg hair Short and heavy
Hips narrow relatively
was the beauty ideal. legs, hands and feet
to shoulders
They had a long upper Some of the most
face, a sloping forehead, Irish characterized by famous cases of
and a prominent nose. upturned nose, convex giantism came
upper lip, and promi- from Finland
nent chin.
In the 1500s, Eng- Forehead slopes
lish women applied only slightly or
sulphur powder and British have Brachycephal not at all
saffron to their hair Mesocephal unusually
to create a fashion- long heads
able red tint. In the High
Convex or root
17th c. lead combs straight
were used to turn Short arms Straight
wet hair black. In the Nose or slightly
Renaissance, Euro- promi- concave
peans, especially the nent but
English, blackened pinched
their teeth to show Lines of the chin
Longish nar- Irish have charac-
they could afford Face looks large nearly at right angle
row face teristically thick
sugar, known to rot Broad forehead
the teeth. eyebrows Eye slits
Small widely horizontal but
Broad forehead Eyebrows can
spaced eyes can rise at the
and jaw: the be paler than
sides of the face (light) hair, so outer corner,
parallel pale as to vanish Prominent especially in
cheekbones women
Medium wings
External fold can Nostrils visible Frequent
Thin to me-
appear with age from the front external
dium lips
Irish chin is square fold
and often cleft Medium to Heavy jaw,
20-30% of darker
thin lips wide chin
eyes for all except
the Irish, who Light eyes, with blue commoner than gray
Blue, light-mixed, have almost only
some green blue or green eyes, Lithuanians: Finns: blue can be so
no gray or dark. usually mixed pale they’re known as
blue-gray eyes “white-eyed Finns”
Fair, tends to Irish:
freckling and pinkish-
vascularity white
Blue eyes usu-
Scots: dark to light ally go with
brown. Irish: mostly brown hair,
red shades, especially
Ivory but not gray eyes with
(dark) browns; no ash-
The whole range of rufous hues necessarily ash blond.
en hues. Welsh: darker
vascular, can
English: the lightest-haired in this type, brown and black; have
look greyish Medium brown Ash blonde
more light brown and golden blonds the most pure red.
84
 Slavic Alpine

Somewhat hybrid of Nordic and Baltic; Poland, Russia, France, South Germany, Switzerland, Austria, North Italy, the
Ukraine, East Germany, Czech, Slovakia, Serbia Tyrol, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland; some in Czech and Slovakia,
1.78 Poland 1.76 Russia, Ukraine 1.78 Czech 1.75 France, Italy (men)
Thick-set to Straight to wavy hair 1.66 It. women
1.62 Fr. women
medium built, Short, stocky,
corpulence Beard fairer than square-built Short
common head hair neck
(especially in
Light beard and Scanty
women) body Hair stiff
body hair
hair and thick,
Broad shoul- beard on the
ders and hips thin side
Long arms and
trunk compared
to legs
Woman’s hips
Russian women don’t like Polish patriotic epics Short squat narrower than
to have a thigh sweep around the 16th c. de- legs, thick other Europeans
or even calves: the leg is scribe the ideal Slavic calves
preferred as a continuous beauty as slightly cor- Short broad hands and feet
tapering cylinder. pulent, broad-hipped
(to give birth to 10
children), a long braid Brachycephal,
sometimes hyper- Nose often
Brachycephal of thick hair the color
of wheat (one heroine brachycephal short with
was said to be able to bulbous end
Short nose
wrap herself and her Only juts
husband 3 times with back a little
her long braid), and
eyebrows so dark one
would think she dark- Very little neck
ened them with khol. to be seen above
collar
Germans have a
Short head, characteristically
Tip horizontal, slightly
Eyebrows and eye- broad face large head
turned up, sometimes
lashes are dark even if
snubbed
hair is light Eyes low and wide-
ly spaced giving
Round face Medium- Seen from
childlike quality
and plump broad root front, ears
cheeks are protrude more
typical, and Medium- because they’re
Often red- sized nose
characterise turned forward
cheeked due
the women
to vascularity
of this type. French: medium to dark brown
France: from light in the NW
to dark in the SE (strains hair, usually rufous.
other than Alpine) Czech: medium brown to
In 19th-century Germany, being overweight was attractive lighter shades that are more
(showed wealth). Young men duelled to gain facial scars, Germany: light or mixed eyes golden than ashen.
which were a sign of masculinity. (strains other than Alpine) German: varies from golden
blonds to rufous browns.
Hungarians are too mixed to
really be classified but they
Dark have the highest proportion
Light-mixed, gray shades brown of green eyes in the world
rare in
Poland

Medium to dark brown, dark ash-blond

White to light brown Platinum blond happens All shades of brown Light brown The whole range of rufous hues
85
 Euro-Mediterranean Greek
Mediterranean Europe: Italy, South France, Spain, Portugal,
Bulgaria, the Balkans, Croatia, Montenegro; also Cornwall Ancient and modern Greece, Anatolia
Hair straight or wavy,
1.80 Croatia 1.77 Greek sometimes curly, me-
1.74 Spain, Portugal 1.71 Bulgaria 1.73 Turk
Slender dium to fine texture.
1.62 women
gracile 1.58 women Thicker beard than the rest of
stature, but Hair often wavy, with heavy Europe, abundant pilosity
can also be beard and body hair.
broad and Greeks today show much physical continu-
rugged Basques have narrow hips ity with those of Antiquity. We can guess
and broad shoulders so their the complexions of the Ancient Greeks
thorax looks conical from their familiarity with brown, gray, blue
Long legs, and “olive leaf ” eyes; “golden”, rufous and
short body The early Romans were not black hair; rosy white, “honey”-colored and
Women have very tall but often heavily brownish skin. Women bleached their hair
broad hips built, with skulls flat on top to attain a blond ideal. A pale complexion was
and rounded on the sides. A admired as a sign of an enviable life of leisure
Italian women meso- to brachycephalic head and wealth – women regularly used powdered
used Belladonna, white lead as make-up to look even paler. On
form was admired. Their hair
eyedrops to enlarge
was on the dark end of the the other hand, all the bad guys or grotesque
their pupils and look
more beautiful. In ashen spectrum. The “Roman characters in mythology are described as broad-
16th c. Venice they nose” is aquiline. faced, snub-nosed and heavily bearded.
applied caustic soda
to their hair and sat
in the sun to turn it Mesocephal Varies, can be con- Brachycephal
red-gold. vex or concave, but Forehead slopes
always short. only barely
Bulgarians:
Except for
dolichocephal
Bulgar- the nose, Shallow here
ians: mostly modern
Back of head straight nose Straight “Gre-
Turks are
projects cian” nose almost
very similar
Rounded chin parallel with the
In 17th-century Turkey face, thick tip
Basques: straight broad forehead, weak browridges, thin
the ideal woman
nose that can be aquiline, with thin tip, narrow mid-face, was bold-faced, with Forehead looks
slender jaw, pointed chin. Italians: prominent Roman nose. precisely delineated very wide
Rounded forehead features and a gener-
Large eyes, can be ously proportioned Thick eyebrows,
almond-shaped Thick dark figure with curved usually meet in
and quite femi- eyebrows hips. She would pluck the middle
nine compared to her eyebrows into an
other Europeans Face tends to elongated line and use
be full rather kohl to join them in a
Medium to
than bony continuous sweep over broad root
the bridge of the nose.
Lips thicker than Wings rather
Slight blue tinge The eyes would be
other Europeans outlined into a almond
flaring
to the lips makes 80% dark
Face and jaw shape with extended Turks have
them more lines at the outer brown,
narrower than cherry-colored some black jaw wider than
Alpines corners, and the mouth
than red or lighter forehead
rouged neatly. brown
Spain: brown to “black”.
Basques: medium, but also South Italy: mostly
light or dark. brown, some of it
Bulgaria: dark or mixed. rufous, and black.
Spain/Portugal: dark
Italy: dark-mixed (especially
brown to black. Pure dark
green-brown) or dark. Basque: 77% brown,
otherwise light brown
Spain: darkest skins are in to blond.
the South (Moorish influ- Bulgaria: dark brown,
ence). Andalusia: “honey- either ashen or rufous,
skinned” (light brown). but 50% of beards dis- Light brown Turks: also olive
Light brown to olive Galicia: Light skin and proportionately light Ashen browns to black to dark brown
eyes are common.
86
 Armenian Levantine

Armenians in Armenia and the diaspora Natives of Mount Lebanon (Druze, Maronites, Mutawa-
li, Alaouites), to a lesser extent Palestine, Syria, Jordan
1.76 1.76
Hair wavy or curly
Medium stature, Hair: low wave
Medium stature (especially in Pales-
varies from tinians), heavy beard
heavy to tall in-between
and body hair.
Very heavy Greek and Arab
beard and body
hair: hairiness is Lebanese
a distinguishing Incline to cor- women are
The Armenians feature. pulence when petite
say that when God occupation is
gave the peoples sedentary Phoenicians were
of the world noses, dolicho- to mesoce-
they got the one at phal but otherwise
the bottom of the share the convex
bag, that was the nose and the aver-
biggest and oddest-
age height that this
looking!
group had until this
century (1.60m).

Root and bridge Brachycephal

Brachycephal
very high, can start
from forehead Palestinians: back Moderate
of the head is very browridges
flat, almost no curve.
Very long Forehead tends to be
High broad
nose, char- flat and sloping.
bridge, often
acteristical-
convex
ly convex
Lebanese women
have a reputation for
beauty partially due
to the extreme care
they take of their Medium to
Heavy eyelids appearance. They broad root
Nose consis- pluck their eyebrows
tently broad into a thin high arch, Large eyes
Large eyes
from root shadow their eyes
to tip with a heavy dark
Medium to outline stretched into Wings not
flaring wings an almond shape, and compressed
Thin lips outline their lips with
Prominent, a hue darker than
the lipstick used. In Medium lips
cleft chin
Jordan and Lebanon Over 80% pure
many bleach their brown eyes,
hair, and all body hair most of the rest
is removed. green-brown
mixes, some
pure blue
Dark, light and Light to medium brown – the Lebanese:
mixed-brown “whitest Middle Easterners” Dark brown
and black in
equal measure,
Dark brown, but also lighter
also black or browns and
medium The Phoenicians’ skin color dark blonds.
Light to medium brown was comparable to a “ripe Palestinian:
80% black.
date” or a “bay horse”.
87
 Arab Mesopotamian

A distinction must be made between the “pure” or historic Iraq (direct lineage from ancient Mesopotamian and
type, that survives in Yemen, and today’s “typical” Arab: the Sumerians)
Gulf Arab, who shows a heavy admixture of African features.
1.74 Saudi 1.76 today
1.68 historically
1.64 historically
Hair wavy or curly Hair: low wave
Slight build, lean,
never broad with wide, open
ringlets, medium Taller, darker- Thick head hair,
texture. skinned,
Narrow strong beard hair,
longer-faced, beard much heavi-
shoulders straighter-
Beard often slight, er than Arabs.
doesn’t cover the en- haired than
Body hair mod- Arabs
tire lower face; bare
erate, and often
patches between end
absent.
of mustache and Heavy body
chin beard. hair, often
excessive
Long legs,
linear build
Long
legs

High narrow
Dolichocephal root Dolichocephal Nose longer
and broader
Convex than Arab
or straight nose
nose

Narrow Straight nose,

Outer corner can oblique sometimes
slope up nostrils convex
Narrow
face
Narrow bridge
and tip Rectangular face
Upper face
Compressed is high
wings
Big eyes
Thick tip
Lips slight-
ly turned Fuller lips
out: seam Today’s Gulf
is visible Arab looks more
like this:

Dark brown
Patch of hair but 25% of
under lip is very light-mixed
common Bigger nose, nostrils
can be visible

Medium brown

Dark browns and

mixed (especially Light olive Today: olive
green-brown) but tanned to dark olive Brown-black Dark brown Black
88
 Egyptian Berber
Ancient and modern Egypt (Ancient coexisted with Nilotid
North Africa from the Western Sahara to Lybia
types, modern coexist with Arab types; Copts are the best
representatives today of the Ancient type)
1.75 today 1.72
1.66 historically
1.57 women Hair straight
In Ancient Egypt both women or wavy
and men took much care of their Scanty beard
looks. Women wore lipstick and body hair.
and blush made from red ochre,
green eye shadow from mala-
chite, black eyeliner and mas-
cara; they dyed their skin with
In Mauritania,
henna. Women of high status
women should be as
wore red nail polish and coated
big and pale as pos-
their nipples with gold. Shiny
Hair: Mostly sible. Until recently
black hair was the ideal, and a
curly with formula of juniper berry juice
12 and 13 year-old
spirals of girls would be sent
kept it from turning gray. The
small ringlets, to “wife-fattening
hair must also be thick, so hair
fine texture farms”.
extensions and wigs were used. A
muscular physique was consid-
ered the natural state of the male
body and therefore attractive, but fat was even more attrac- Browridges
tive, as it meant one could afford to eat much and work little. Brachycephal often promi-
For beauty standards today see Levantine. nent

Sloping Straight to
Dolichocephal aquiline nose
forehead

Nose often Pointed chin

aquiline, not frequently
high rooted receding

Prominent Eyebrows
chin typically
Very long eye medium in
Narrow face slits create thickness
characteristic and very
shape extended
laterally
Narrow nose
Slender jaw

Rufous hair
sometimes
occurred in Dark to light brown Dark brown
ancient Egypt,
and could be In Morocco half the Ber-
Dark to light brown,
quite red, but bers have mixed (green-
many mixed patterns
it was regard- brown, gray-brown, or
ed as a mark blue-brown) or light
of the evil god eyes, and unmatched
Black or very eyes are common.
Seth.
dark brown,
Light brown to dark brown beard sometimes
as one goes South lighter Black
89
 Tuareg Irano-Afghan

Specialised nomadic Berber group of North Africa Iran, Afghanistan, Punjab, Kurds

1.74 1.78 Kurds

Very tall 1.68-1.70
Hair straight, Medium to
and lean wavy or curly tall
Narrow with ringlets Hair straight
shoulders or wavy
and hips Hands and feet Long legs,
long and very short body Heavy beard
Seen from narrow, fingers and body hair
the side long and thin,
the chest is very fine wrists
narrow as and ankles The Persian ideal of
well beauty for a woman: a
Mixed forms (lower broad moon faces, bold
Long arms classes) have a lower black arched eyebrows ex-
and legs stature, broader shoul- tended to go down either
ders, a broader face side of the nose, slanting
(like example below). eyes, a red mouth and
long black hair

Dolichocephal
Nose convex Dolichocephal
Large head or straight Usually con-
vex, salient
Ideal to which
nose
many belong:
diamond-shaped Jaw frequently
face, with narrow deeper and
high forehead, no In reality Tu- heavier than Receding
browridges, promi- areg men are among Arabs chin
nent mid-face, never seen
narrow jaw and unveiled. Sharp features
pointed chin. Long face
as opposed to
Mesopotamians
Large eyes
Small wings

Long Characteris-
Thin to me- narrow tically long
dium lips nose upper face

Strong bony relief

The Pashtun of Afghani-
stan have such a high
Dark
brown proportion of green eyes
they are often called
“Hare Ankheian Vaale”:
Uniformly: the green-eyed people.
pure dark
brown Black
Persistent
minority of
blondism
Medium to dark brown

Natural color: medium Actual color:

brown (pure) to amrani stained by the in-
(African admixture) digo of their clothes
Dark brown Black
90
 Rom North Indian

Nomadic group spread all over the world Pakistan, northern India
(commonly known as Gypsies)

1.69
1.62

Short, get Straight hair, Small Straight or

taller when fine in texture stature wavy hair
mixed (wavy only
when mixed)

Dolichocephal

Straight or
Straight nose upturned
nose

Curved
features

Elliptical face

Large eyes Large eyes

Often
marked Mediterra- Rounded tip
cheekbones Medium to
nean facial
full lips
features

Dark brown to “black”

“Black”, but light
for the majority
eyes frequent
enough to be a
beauty ideal

Noticeably dark; yellowish Black Black Brown-black

brown to very dark brown
Reddish brown to very dark brown
91
 South Indian Vedda

Southern India, Sri Lanka, Tamil Aboriginal population of Sri Lanka (highland forests)

1.58 1.55
women
1.48
Small Small
stature Curly or stature Curly or
wavy hair wavy hair
Marco Polo reported that
the Dravidians of South
India anointed newborns
with sesame oil to turn
their skin darker, as darker
skin was held in much
higher regard (as a mat-
ter of fact gods and heroes
were depicted with black
skin while demons had
white skin).
Nowadays the tendency has
reversed and, throughout
India, fair skin and light
eyes are sought after.

Rounded Slight prog-

forehead nathism

Receding
chin
Non-prominent chin Round face
Face is large,
Large eyes making the head
Large eyes deep-set and look small
Eyebrows in
widely spaced
rounded arch
Nose somewhat
Prominent flat but small
cheekbones

Oval Full lips

Average nose face Pointed chin

Very dark Dark olive Grey olive

brown

“Black” Very dark brown

“Black” Black Brown-black Black

92
 III. GENERAL AFRICAN
Body type Hands
This is the group where body types vary the most spectacularly, as it The hands are long, with nails
contains both the tallest and the shortest people on Earth. Except for that cover most of the end of
those very short types, the stature is mostly tall. the finger. Seen from the side,
the finger tips taper rather than
being padded.
Beard and
body hair are
meager
Forearm
longer
than up-
per arm

Women’s shoul- Hair

Lower ders tend to be
leg lon- broader than African hair is mostly frizzy. Left to its own
ger than their hips. devices it would grow out and up as below,
thigh but traditional African societies always
shape, cut or shave it. When representing
Flat feet a native culture it is essential to look up its
distinguishing hairdo(s).

Ears

Ears are characteristically small, with a soldered lobe

and an excessive roll to the helix. They rarely slant, usu-
ally their axis is perfectly vertical.

S-type
Like very small curls

Caucasian African

Nose

The funnel nose is specific to African types, but not all

of them have it. It is broad and flat with flaring wings
that pass over to the nose.

Bottom

Nose tip and nostrils Z-type

form one piece Not curling so much as zigzagging
93
 Sudanid Central African
The extreme of African types, where all the characters are
found in their purest form. From Senegal to Sudan; Mand- Central jungle region: Congo, Guinea...
ingues, Hausa, Wolof, Bambara... Plump stocky build, tendency to
1.75 men amass fat, especially in women
1.65 women Frizzy hair
1.63-1.66
Broad
Breasts Robust
shoulders
conical or longer Hanging
No hanging upper breasts
body body
hair
Body hair
and beard
stronger
than in
other
Tall,
Africans
strongly Women
built have a Short
narrow arms
pelvis and legs
Long
legs

The Baule (Ivory Coast) notion of Strong arching of the

Dolichocephal
Steep narrow ideal beauty: an elaborate coiffure, lower back, vaulted
Long well-defined facial features, a long stomach, plump bottom
forehead
narrow neck with hor-
Root of nose izontal “beauty Steep narrow forehead
skull
is flat lines”, muscles Mesocephal
Back of head Rounded tip for men, high Low straight bridge,
projects strongly breasts for blunt tip, upturned
Clear women, mus-
Small gracile ear in women
prognathy cular calves,
Slim strong neck and beauty
Soft chin, some- scarification.
Clear prognathy
times receding Short neck
Face big and Receding chin
Cheekbones Broad face
quite long can project to squared in men, Low face
the sides, giv- rounded in Root of the
Low, broad, women
ing the face nose very flat
bulky nose
a diamond Funnel nose but and broad
bridge
shape less broad than Cheekbones
Nostrils broad Sudanid
Very bulging project a bit;
and inflated,
lips, turned out, Lips turned out and well-padded
funnel nose
big mouth thick, but less than in women
Sudanid, big mouth Blue-reddish lips
Scarification is a highly “Plump is beautiful” – in
important beautification many tribes women are In Congo and among the Asante of Ghana the
practice for men and fattened with special food heads of newborns are massaged to create the
women in many tribes. before marriage. beauty ideal of a large, flattened forehead and
The patterns differ from elongated head. Also desired are rings of fat
culture to culture so around the neck (wealth, health and beauty) and
research is needed. a small mouth (quiet and calm).

“Black” Very dark brown “Black”

Very dark brown to brown-black Brown-black but can be lighter Brown-black

94
 Nilotid Bantu
Mixed types defined less by what they have in common
Northeast Africa in the Nile area; Dinka, Shillouk,
than by how they contrast with other Africans. South
Kalenjin, Luo, Maasai, Nuer, Turkana
Africa: Mozambique, Angola, lower East Africa, Zulu in
1.80 but easily reach 2m
South Africa, Herero in Namibia
Weak 1.64-1.70
Small 1.62 Turkana Men have broad
beard
head Body type shoulders and
relative similar to strong muscles
No Half-ball
to body body Sudanese Beard
breasts with Women can have
hair but not as can be
Very long very small long trunks
extreme quite
forearms nipples strong
Smaller but no Very arched
height and body lower back
Slim hair
shorter arms and vaulted
Gaunt, very straight
and legs than hanging stom-
long legs profile
Nilotids, but ach in men
not as plump and women
and stocky Legs
Almost Thin
as Central often
calf-less calfs
Africans short
lower legs
A full figure
Narrow head that in women is
Browridges a symbol of
projects back hardly Long high prosperity
marked head and status.

Small Straight nar- Small short

ears row nose flat nose,
rounded tip
Strong chin but
no prognathy
The Wodaabe beauty ideal: Chin weak, but recedes
lithe sinewy body, broad The Maasai beauty ideal: only in women
forehead, smooth complex- cleanliness, care for one’s
ion, oval face, straight nose, appearance, beaded jewelry
bright eyes, delicate lips, (seen as part of the body), Men’s face tends
white teeth white teeth, short hair, tall to square, wom-
stature, elongated ear lobes. en’s to round or
chubby-oval, Strongly
Long face due to cheek- inflated
bones that proj- nostrils
High narrow
Men tend to have ect sideways
root
angular coarse and front
facial bones while
women have a soft Close-set eyes
full rounding of
Narrow nose but
features
flaring nostrils
Lips thick but in a
toned-down way
Basically
chocolate,
but can vary
greatly
“Black”
Brown-black to blue-black,
the darkest Africans of all “Black”
Brown-black
Maasai can be chocolate Brown-black to blue-black
95
 Ethiopid

Ancient mix of African and Arab. Ethiopia (Abyssinia, Somaliland, Eritrea); Amharas, Gallas, Sidamos, Somalis

Galla, Somali
1.74
Weak 1.67 Amhara 1.64 Sidamo
Slim tall
stature beard

Long Scant “Banana” body Curly to frizzy hair; Somalis

Slim shape very com- tend to curly and some have
legs, body High, straight
short hair narrow mon in women. straight hair
profile
arms angular
shoulders Somali women have grace-
Slim
hands, fully built bodies with small
long conical breasts; Amhara/
Hips narrower
fingers Galla breasts tend to hang.
than shoulders
Despite their slender figure, the Somalis value
Thin steatopygia, so a rich young man looking for
arms Difference be-
tween male and a wife will have the girls stand in a line and
and choose the one who projects furthest behind.
calves female is slight

Small feet

Browridges slight
Dolichocephal Narrow head, High forehead,
or absent in Galla/
long face wider than jaws
Sidamo, moderate
in Amhara, heavy Amhara and So-
Ears slant Big eyes
in Somali mali have thicker,
character-
High root Galla and Si- more concurrent
istically
damo can have eyebrows
Sidamo nose is
Strong chin more African inner fold like in Narrow tip
Asian eyes and
but no prog- Straight nose, Thick lips
oblique eye slits
nathy. sometimes bent.
Jaw narrowness reaches
Somali chin Somali can
look beaky
a world extreme in the
however is Somalis
receding

Amhara, Galla: dark Sidamo, Somali: Occasional green-

and mixed brown dark brown and brown or grey-
“black” brown mixture

Ethiopians divide
themselves into 4
different skin colors: Amhara:
yellow, yellow-red, dark to very
red and black dark brown
Galla: Somali: am- Sidamo:
chocolate to rani, pecu- dark brown,
dark brown liar to them brown-black
Brown-black

96
 Khoisan Pigmy

Aboriginal inhabitants of South Africa, today mostly in Rain forests of equatorial Africa; Mbuti in Zaire, Biaka
Namibia and Botswana; Khoi (aka Bushmen), San (aka in North Congo, Baka in Cameroon, Twa in Uganda,
Hottentots) Rwanda, South Congo...

1.44-1.60 men Can be as short as 1.20m

women 1.53 men 1.55-1.60 Twa
1.50
Weak Skin very 1.44 women
beard Muscular Head looks Curly hair,
wrinkled stature
No big in relation strongish
body to body pilosity
Long
hair
broad Angular
trunk shoulders
on
short
legs
Steatopygia Lower back
can reach strongly
spectacular
arched
proportions
in women

Steep low
Mesocephal forehead
Small
skull
Round
nose tip

Pointed chin Short neck Receding

chin

Peppercorn hair Pygmies file their teeth

to a point, something
they find much more
aesthetic.
Jutting Eye folds
Cheekbones
cheek-
Broad nose project a bit
bones
Inflated
Relatively nostrils
Proportionately,
thin lips the biggest nose Moderately
of humankind thick lips
Broad lower jaw

“Black”

“Black”

Brown-black Brown-black Twa: blue-

Very dark brown Twa: brown- black
Khoi San
black

97
 IV. PACIFIC TYPES
Also known as Australoids, these are types that don’t fit the other 3 but are not necessarily related to each other. What they
have in common is a dark skin, dark hair, and moderate height.

Australian Aboriginal Melanesian

Aboriginals of Northern and Central Australia; South- Papua, New Guinea, Fiji, islands northeast of Australia.
ern Aboriginals are different in the ways listed below.
Abundant wavy Abundant wavy
1.60 or curly hair or curly hair
Broad 1.55
shoulders Thickset and Large head
Robust Moderate
stature massive body Moderate
to strong
with a tendency to strong
beard
to corpulence beard

Heavier than
Southern: Micronesians or
lighter hair Polynesians
and skin,
finer features, Obesity is a sign
are a little of affluence and
shorter and well-being
lankier.

Very Receding
dolichocephal Very elongated
Prominent forehead
cranium
The hair of brow arches
elderly Aborigi- Prominent
Root of the brow arches
nals often has
nose is not
dark grey roots
flat, unlike Projecting
while turn-
African noses straight nose,
ing white as it
can be beak-
grows out.
shaped

Deep-set eyes,
pretty much
always in Convex nose Large face
shadow wide at the
nostrils and
Rough bony narrow at the
features root Nose very
Wide lower jaw wide but
Lips very full but not high
not turned out
Thick lips

“Black” Brown-black

Southern: very dark

brown or coffee
Brown-black Blue-black
“Black” Coffee Brown-black Blue-black
Ash blond dominates in parts of Centre and of the South.
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 Polynesian Negrito

Islands of the Central and eastern Pacific: Hawaii, New Philippines to New Guinea
Zealand, Tahiti, Bali, Bora Bora, Samoa, Easter Island
“Asian pygmies” Well-proportioned de-
1.72 Stature tends
spite their small size
Wavy hair to massive
1.48 men
Range from relatively 1.37 women
Head is par-
Weak light skinned with
ticularly big
pilosity almost caucasian No
in Maori
features to darker- facial
skinned and Asian- or body
looking (Tahiti) hair
In Vanuatu babies’
Stout body, heads are bound to
short legs produce an elongated
shape of the head Long
that makes a person legs
Maori men look more intelligent, Steatopygia is
are known for higher in status and Feet common
the warrior closer to the world of slightly
tattoos on spirits (not to mention inward
their face and more beautiful).
body. Brachycephal
high forehead

Large Broad
straight straight
nose nose
Rounded Maori profile.
jaw-line Prognathy
Other Polynesians
have more prog-
nathy and a nose Weak chin
that projects less Peppercorn hair
Broad and
Broad face Root
heavy face,
broad
especially in
and flat
Maori Large
eyes Epicanthic
full lips fold frequent
Occasional
presence of epi- Maori have Lips full Prominent
canthic fold thinner lips but not cheek bones
turned out
The islands of Micronesia are
home to a physically hetero-
geneous population that is
smaller than the Polynesians, Dark brown Maori: me-
with hair that varies from dium brown
straight to spirally, skin from Brown to dark brown
medium brown to chocolate,
and the occasional presence
of epicanthal fold. So dark it
Micronesians consider large, can take on
full-bodied women more at- bluish tinge
tractive than thin ones. Blue-black “Black” Coffee Brown-black Brown-black
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V. NOTES ON MIXED TYPES
The following are notes about the mixed populations that
are not treated as primary types. Note that I qualify the
groups so they are not confused with a country’s general,
contemporary demographics. For instance “White Cana-
dian” (i.e. the white population of Canada that has been
settled long enough to consider Canada as their country
of origin) as opposed to “Canadian” (which would include
other ethnic groups both old, such as the First Nations,
and new, such as the Chinese, both of which are treated
under their respective types.)
Okinawan: Not a mixed type proper, Okinawans con-
sider themselves closer to Southeast Asia and China in
terms of racial and cultural heritage. Differences with
mainland Japanese include:
- Abundant body hair
- Much shorter in size, although today’s eating habits
have boosted the average;
- Larger and rounder eyes, occasionally with very long
eyelashes;
- Much darker skin to the point of it being a stereotype
in japanese minds (even though the dark skin is more
due to the climate than to a difference in pigmenta-
tion);
- Pronounced cheekbones – in other parts of the world
Okinawans are frequently mistaken for Filipinos or
Native Americans.
Filipino: An important mixed type including Negrito,
Malay (Southeast Asian), Indian, and Spanish among its
components. One can only evoke broad characteristics:
faces tend to be round and not squared (“moon faces”),
skin is in the lighter range of this part of the world, eyes
are large, nose rather flat, lips full.
Average heights: 1.63 cm for men, 1.52 for women
Latin American: These countries feature descendants
of all of the following ethnic groups: Euro-Mediterra-
nean (mostly Spanish and Portuguese), Amerindian
(respective to location), [West] African, Mestizo (mixed
European and Amerindian: they have the basic struc-
ture of the former with the darker skin and broader
facial features of the latter.). The proportions of these
groups vary, however, giving each country a particular
demographic feel:
Euro-Mediterraneans are the majority in: Argentina,
Uruguay and Chile
Mestizos in: Mexico (followed by indigenous people),
Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador
Andids (Quechua, Aymara) in: Peru and Bolivia
Indians in: form the largest ethnic groups in Guyana
and Suriname.
Africans are significantly presenty in: Guyana, Brazil,
Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname and Ecuador.
Brazil is the most diverse country in South America,
100
with large populations of the above as well as commu-
nities of Levantine and Chinese origin. Brown or hazel
eyes are the most common for people of Iberic, Indian,
African origin.
Average heights:
Argentina: 1.74 for men, 1.61 for women
Brazil: 1.69 for men, 1.58 for women
Cuba: 174.0 cm
Chile: 1.69 for men, 1.55 for women
Colombia: 1.70 for men, 1.58 for women
Jamaica: 1.72 for men, 1.61 for women
Mexico: 1.67 for men, 1.55 for women
Mexican-Americans: 1.70 for men, 1.58 for women
Peru: 1.74
Paraguay: 1.73
Uruguay: 1.74 cm
White American: They run the gamut of all the Old
World types that have migrated to the US and there’s no
common feature to pin down. Note however that these
types are rarely if ever found in their “primary” state,
and that the watering down of features leads to them
getting evened out – in other words, Americans tend
not to have extreme facial features. See history and de-
mographics for details of how much of which ethnicities
moved there and when.
Excess weight is more common in the US than anywhere
else in the world.
Average heights: 1.79 for men, 1.65 for women
White Canadian: They descend from early European
settlers who were mostly British, French, Scottish and
Irish. See history and demographics of both countries
for details of how much of which ethnicities moved
there and when. Again, for details, see history.
Average heights: 1.74 for men, 1.61 for women
Black American: This group is overwhelmingly of
Western African descent (Sudanid type) and presents its
characteristics in a watered down way. The dilution can
be every pronounced, so that many African-Americans
retain African features but have only light dark skin.
Studies estimate the average African-American is 20%
European or more.
Average heights: 1.78 for men, 1.64 for women
Afrikaner: The European population in South Africa is
mainly descended from Dutch and British settlers of the
17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
Average heights: 1.69 for men, 1.59 for women
White Australian: That population is mainly of Brit-
ish and Irish descent. Average heights:
Australia: 1.75 for men, 1.61 for women
New Zealand: 1.77 for men, 1.65 for women
 Bibliography
Most of the research presented in this book comes personal observation or from isolated facts
pieced together from literally hundreds of sources both in print or online. I list here only those
sources that offered a significant amount of material.

Publications:

Drawing the Head and Figure, Jack Hamm

Le dessin anatomique facile, Burne Hogarth
Bodytalk, Desmond Morris
The Racial Elements of European History, Hans F. K. Gûnther
The Races of Europe, Carleton Stevens Coon
[The last two sources, used for the Human Types chapter, are of questionable ideology or used to serve
equally questionable agendas. I adhere to neither and did my best to cross-check the material with
neutral sources.]

Online resources:
The following websites were still up as of December ‘09. Many that I sourced are unfortunately no
longer online.

Center for Nonverbal Studies, http://center-for-nonverbal-studies.org/

The Andamanese, http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/text-group-BodyChapters.htm
University of California, Human Development 19: Life Cycles, Kinship and Growth in Human Popu-
lations, Lecture 6, http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/courses/hde19/lecture6.html
Darken & Shape your Eyebrows, http://www.eyebrowz.com
Pointe Shoe Quick Fit Chart, http://www15.plala.or.jp/miagolare/Eng_Fitting_Chart.html

Finally, I gathered a lot of anthropological info through the now-defunct DODONA: Human Biodi-
versity Discussion Forum http://dodona.proboards.com/index.cgi

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