Feet Drawing References For Character Drawings

Why Are Feet Such a Big Deal?

Feet can be annoying to draw. So annoying that one of the biggest artists in 90s comics would often hide or obscure feet in some comical ways. But what is it about feet that makes them so tricky? They’re not technically more complex than the hands if we are talking about anatomy. They have a lot of similarities.

While we don’t necessarily have an answer to why people struggle to draw feet, we have some tips and examples to help make the process a little easier.

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Understanding Foot Anatomy

The best way to understand foot anatomy, which will help you develop as an artist, is to combine anatomical guides with foot reference pictures. You can practice drawing feet by referencing these things for a few seconds at a time as you draw them out. It is a lot like applying life-drawing skills. Any figuring drawing class will give you the fundamentals of observational drawing.

There is plenty of medical and anatomical documentation out there you can use to understand the foot on a mechanical level. It’s not hard to dig up such references. Compared to other anatomy, such as the legs, there aren’t as many obvious muscles to account for either. In many spots on the foot, the distance between tissue and bone is quite minimal. Just feel your toes and you’ll see what I mean.

Because we don’t have much muscle that defines the shape of the foot, we rely more on the skeletal structure, of which there is plenty we can reference.

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The most obvious thing about the shape of the foot, based on the skeleton, is that there is a noticeable arch to consider, specifically between the calcaneus, along the metatarsals, and ending at the phalanges.

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Another defining shape is that the toes, or phalanges, have an arch of their own. The innermost toes appear the longest, and the outermost are the shortest. However, the bones tell a different story. In any case, if looking at the toes, the toe next to distal appears to extend the furthest.

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With these ideas in mind, let’s consider how to apply shapes to drawing consistent feet.

Foot Drawing Tips

Shape-based drawing is something we turn to a lot here on the blog because shapes are fundamental in character design. As long as there are discernable shapes in a form, it leads to overall more consistent character drawings - which also applies to character anatomy. That, of course, includes the anatomy of the foot. 

Let’s break this down in two ways.

One way to consider breaking down the shape of a foot is in the form of rectangles and triangles. Observing these shapes in the structure of a foot means that you can use those shapes and proportions to quickly generate the general appearance of a foot which can be detailed later.

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Triangles and Rectangles: From Heel To Toe

When drawing the side of the foot, it is clear that a largely triangular shape involved; this triangle being a scalene triangle with no equal sides. But you cannot just draw a triangle and call it a day. After all, there is a notable arch, which also looks like a scalene triangle as well. Funny how that works.

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Generally speaking, you can draw feet from most angles with a collection of triangles, as you can see below. This helps create a general shape that can be refined further. As we’ve seen with other anatomy here on the blog, understanding how basic shapes apply to anatomy can be a huge help.

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However, this isn’t always the case. If you are drawing the foot at an angle that shows the top or the bottom of the foot, then you turn toward a more rectangular shape. This is not a perfect rectangle, as the toe-end tends to taper outward in most human feet.

As for toes, treat them more like stubby finger joints. I tend to use rectangular shapes as a base.

Free Shaping the Feet

When you have a general familiarity with the shapes of feet, which comes from drawing a lot of them, then you can move away from building around underlying shapes and move into free drawing. Free drawing elements of the anatomy comes with having enough experience drawing the anatomy and understanding the underlying three-dimensional form that comes with that understanding.

Feet of Other Kinds

We’ve more or less just covered the structure of a basic, bare human foot. There are many variations beyond that. For example, if you draw anthro art, there are hosts of other considerations as animal feet can vary greatly. That’s not even accounting for fictional animals, either.

Additionally, the simplicity of iconic feet used in cartooning can result in feet that seem easier to draw but have more riding on them. For example, how can you convince someone a foot is a foot if you’re not drawing toes? Yet cartoons have managed that for a century. Heck, just look at Hubert.

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We’ve not even covered shoes and boots, either. However, a lot of the principles of shape established earlier apply here as well. Ultimately though, to learn to draw different kinds of feet, in shoes or not, you need to reference them.

As you can see with some of my OCs, shoes go a long way toward making feet easier to draw.

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Foot References for Artists

Googling pictures of feet, in general, may seem a little sus and something you would be hesitant to have in your search history. We get it. However, reference images are hugely important to artists and it’s understandable why you might have a folder of feet pictures.

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Part of finding references is a level of specificity. For example, if you are trying to emulate a famous anime style, it may just make more sense to build the references yourself through screenshots from episodes. You can also take scans and clippings from comics and manga to help build your archive. Ultimately the types of references you need are based on what you wish to draw. So doing the footwork here, pun intended, is the best option.

And, I can’t stress this enough… if you are trying to find images of anime and cartoon character feet by searching the internet instead of clipping the references yourself, you’re gonna find a lot of weird links. Trust me on this.

With that said, let us take some of the burden from you with a collection of foot references that might prove useful. Here are some pictures of feet chosen not for creepy purposes, but rather the value they offer in drawing feet. Here are even more.

As always, Posemaniacs is an excellent resource for anatomy. The 3D models make for great references.

Starting off on the right foot with CharacterHub

While we’re not going to pitch that you join CharacterHub just to show off pictures of your OC’s feet, we do want to emphasize that the fact you can do that makes CharacterHub a great resource.

CharacterHub’s detailed and flexible profile options allow you to provide the most important and interesting information about your characters you want. And who knows, maybe that includes information about their feet. Beyond that, extensive image galleries and options allow you to tailor your collected OC art as you see fit.

It all comes down to the freedom and tools to showcase your OCs as you see fit, and CharacterHub is just what you are looking for to follow the growth and evolution of your OCs. And yes, that includes showing how much better you draw their feet year after year.