Sometimes you just want to get creative, do something relaxing in your free time, or both and don’t know where to start. That’s 100% normal – I feel this way when I’m trying to relax or make new art. Getting started on anything, whether that’s art or self-care can be overwhelming because there’s just so many great ideas out there. But let’s do both in this post & narrow it down to just one thing – drawing ideas of people 🙂
In this post, I’ll show you how to draw a simple person using only gesture, movement, and implying detail. I’ve listed some of my favorite ways and ideas of drawing people from life that anyone can do, regardless of your art experience.
So grab whatever writing tool you feel comfortable using, a drawing surface, and let’s have some fun!
5 Simple & Calming Drawing Ideas of People from Life
1. Gesture Drawing
You don’t need to draw the entire figure!
Focus on the main points of movement and gesture when drawing someone.You can draw just a pose or curves.
Your goal here is to capture movement. And that’s it! You can take as little time as you need to when capturing a gesture.
The above sketches took around 30s to 1 min.
And don’t worry about fine details in the face, hair, or even the hands or feet. Just try your best to glide and move your hand across the page in large movements!
*Capture only the largest shapes like hair, torso, and waist when you’re first trying this technique – leave out the small stuff like fingers.
The feeling of moving you arm helps relieve tension in your shoulders and arms and allows your mind to go with the flow making the way for instant relaxation with a feeling of weightlessness.
Gestural drawing is also a fantastic way for self expression because it captures how you personally interpret someone when drawing.
If you’re looking for more ways to express yourself creatively, check out these 10+ Expressive Art Therapy Activities to Try Now!
2. Make an Easy Sketch of a Person with an Outline
Instead of focusing on gesture, anatomy, and all of the complicated shapes that are needed to draw a realistic person, creating outlines is a fantastic and quick way to make a stunning human figure drawing with clothes.
And the great part about it, is it’s so easy!
All you need to do is focus on the silhouette of a person and just draw their outline. It doesn’t need to look super clean, as long as you capture their overall shape.
When drawing an outline of someone, make sure to include their clothes, if they’re wearing some.
Drawing a person with clothes helps you recognize and practice sketching large and unique shapes, such as a hat or backpack.
And guess what?
That’s it! You don’t even have to fill in the details 🙂
3. Drawing With One Continuous Line
Another popular way of drawing a person is to use one continuous line without lifting up your hand.
Learning how to draw a person sketch can be a little exhausting and time consuming if it’s your first time. But when you draw someone with a continuous line, you’re most likely spending a few minutes on the sketch instead of a few hours because you’re alert and focused, speeding up your concentration. Not to mention, it can be a bit uncomfortable having your hand in one spot for so long! So ,you have a reason to keep your hand moving.
Pick anywhere on the person to start drawing (it can be the hair, shoes, shoulders, etc.) but make sure to not lift up your hand once you put your pencil down!
It’s okay to redraw over lines you’ve made or make scribbles and abstract lines when making this type of easy sketch of a person. It makes way for happy accidents and a unique look that you might not have expected!
This method is relaxing for art therapy because it allows you to focus on the present moment , pulling you out of your thoughts and allowing your hand to glide on the paper.
It’s a wonderful mindfulness exercise to use when you’re feeling anxious, stressed, or just need something to focus on.
4. Using Your Non – Dominant Hand
Okay, okay.
I know this may not seem like it will be an easy sketch at first. But you’ll probably be surprised at the results once you try it.
I know I was.
All you need to do is draw the figure with your non-dominant writing hand. So if you write with your right hand, then you’ll draw with your left hand for this exercise. And if you’re left-handed like me, you’ll draw with your right hand.
Do your best to capture the person or figure with large and broad shapes, focusing only on the main areas. Don’t try to make your drawing look perfect. It doesn’t need to be!
If you feel like your hand is going every which-way on the paper and you can’t control it, you’re doing it right. 🙂
Just go with whatever marks you make on the page and do your best to draw the entire figure.
This is actually one of my favorite drawing ideas of people from life because it’s so unexpected and gestural.
With your lack of control of your non-dominant hand, you’re more likely to capture shapes, gestures, and even emotion in your sketches much better because it’s more sporadic than if you’re drawing with your dominant hand.
It’s also very relaxing because you’re sort of leaving where you’re pencil will land, up to chance and not worrying about making a perfect drawing.
5. Watercolors
On to the last in our list of easy human figure drawing ideas – watercolors.
You can make an easy sketch of a person with watercolors, just by using one color.
Take your brush and get as much of a color as you want and make sure the paint is moderately wet.
You can use one of the previous drawing ideas we went over, such as silhouettes. Create a silhouette with watercolors by filling in an area with the paint and slowly capturing the entire figure with a watercolor wash.
Another way of using watercolors is to just draw with it.
Try capturing the gesture of the person with a few simple paint strokes. You don’t even need to draw the entire figure.
Why Are Drawing Ideas of People A Great Place to Start?
Well, we interact with people daily. They speak to our emotions and being humans ourselves, are something we can all relate to. People are so fascinating from what they wear and do, to how they act, that it’s so easy to find something that inspires us simply from observing someone else! (Not to be creepy here, lol)
What’s something that you like paying attention to when you notice someone?
For me, I like admiring other people’s hairstyles and clothing a lot because it can say a lot about someone’s character and personality.
Learning how to draw hair whether it’s for a portrait, character design, or just practice is a completely different subject that takes further time and understanding. If you’d like to learn how to draw awesome hair buns quick, check out How to Draw Amazing Hair Buns for Male & Female Subjects in this step by step tutorial for beginners!
Exercises When Using the 5 Drawing Ideas of People
Can’t wait to get started?
Awesome!
Here are some quick exercises you can try right away with my 5 easy drawing ideas of people:
- If you have photos on your phone camera, flip through them randomly and find a picture of someone you’d like to draw and pick one idea mentioned above, to draw that person.
- Treat yourself to a little adventure outdoors and pick a place with a moderate amount of people, like a park on the weekends or a coffee shop. Choose a drawing idea above and start sketching!
- Set yourself a time limit of 10 minutes or less to draw an easy sketch of a person using one of the drawing techniques.
- Write all the drawing ideas of people down on small strips of paper and throw them into a small container. Randomly pick one out and use that to draw the person.
- Type the drawing ideas into an online randomizer and use whichever one pops up first.
More Related Drawing Guides, Art Therapy, & Inspiration
Check out some of these helpful resources for more drawing ideas of people, tips, and more:
- 6 Best Poses for Art Reference for Stunning Character Designs | Post
- How to Draw Awesome Hair Buns for Male and Female Characters | Post
- 9 Wacky & Unique Drawings of Hair Bun Types | Post
- Little Nightmares Fan Art: How to Draw the Cute Young Girl ‘Six‘ | Post
- 10 Simple Art Inspiration Ideas for Drawing to Get You Started Now | Post
- How to Start Drawing with No Art Experience | Post
- How to Get Back into Drawing After a Long Break | Post
- 10+ Relaxing Random Doodles to Draw When Bored | Post
- Expressive Art Therapy Activities to Try Now | Post
- Art Journal Therapy for Beginners | Post
- Download 9 Free Mood Boosting Art Therapy Anxiety Activities + Free Printable Drawing Sheets | Freebie
- 15 Simple Drawing Art Therapy Activities for Anxiety to Help You Feel Calm Now | Post
Other Resources for more easy drawing ideas of people for beginners:
- Quick Poses – A unique site of multiple drawing ideas of people based on artists’ sketches.
- Line of Action – Timed figure drawing sessions customized to you, with human figure drawing, animal drawing, expressions, & more.
Which of the drawing ideas of people mentioned above are you most excited to try? Leave your thought in the comments below!
Get drawing and see you in the next post!
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