Human Proportions

[ysabetwordsmith]

I found this awesome website today, Human Ideal Proportion Calculator for Artists.  It lets you use height to calculate numerous other body proportions.  There are settings for both sexes and multiple ages.  Sadly it gives only an average body type; I'd love to see this add a "skinny, average, muscular, fat" menu.  I found this really useful for estimating not just other proportions, but also relative  heights.  Frex, knowing that one character is 6' tall and the top of someone else's head comes to his shoulder means that she is about 4'9.

Here is an artistic discussion of human proportions.  This one has more detailed instructions for drawing human frameworks, and a little comparison of body variations in shoulders.  This set compares normal, idealistic, fashion, and heroic models.  This artist discusses advanced proportions varying across sex, age, ethnicity, and other factors.

I found one proportion study of a full-figured person.  This tutorial explains how to draw big & curvy girls using circles.

Faces come in different shapes too.