What’s on the Figure Proportions poster
A 7-row table: Landmark · Heads from the top.
Measured in head heights. Adult averages, not rules.
- Chin — 1
- Nipple line — 2
- Navel — 3
- Crotch, roughly mid-height — 4
- Fingertips at rest — about 4.5
- Knee — 5.5
- Sole of the foot — 7.5
Real adults run about 7.5 heads. The eight-head figure is an illustrator's idealisation, not a measurement.
Questions about the Figure Proportions poster
- What’s on the Figure Proportions poster?
- A 7-row table: Landmark · Heads from the top. Measured in head heights. Adult averages, not rules. Chin — 1; Nipple line — 2; Navel — 3; Crotch, roughly mid-height — 4; Fingertips at rest — about 4.5; Knee — 5.5; Sole of the foot — 7.5. Real adults run about 7.5 heads. The eight-head figure is an illustrator's idealisation, not a measurement.
- Who is the Figure Proportions poster for?
- Figure Proportions belongs to the Art & Design section rather than to a school year, because design is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning drawing can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Figure Proportions poster?
- Use it as a check on an observed drawing, never as a substitute for measuring. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Figure Proportions belongs on the wall where that design work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Figure Proportions?
- Blocking In, Gesture & Contour and Cast Shadows sit alongside Figure Proportions in the Art & Design section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Blocking InGesture & ContourCast Shadows
- Is the Figure Proportions poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Figure Proportions downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Art & Design section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Figure Proportions poster print at?
- Figure Proportions is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Figure Proportions loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Figure Proportions on the same wall.
Browse every Art & Design poster, or start from the full catalogue.