Head-to-body ratio types in art

[amymadison182]

Head-to-body ratios in visual art depends on the art style and bodies in visual art are different depending on the art style, Human adults are 7 heads to 7 1/2 heads in real life, regular 7 heads tall human adults have large heads and 6 heads tall human adults have large heads too, in art head-to-body ratios depends on the art style and characters range any head-to-body ratio from 2 heads tall to 9 heads tall. Stylized art have characters head-to-body ratios that range from 2 to 6 heads tall, stylized art have characters 7 heads tall as well, along with realistic art styles and semi-realistic art styles with the characters being 7 heads tall. Not every character is 7 heads tall like a real adult or teenager and 6 heads tall like a real child, head-to-body ratios depend on the style, What are types of head-to-body ratios used in different art styles?

[JoshRaed]

I normally go with a 6 or seven head high character.

[amymadison182]

Same here, I also go with 5 heads high characters too, although I don't draw that much.

[ThunderChicken]

Comics tend to exaggerate the head size, and within the head they tend to exaggerate feature size (nose, eyes, etc).

My current drawings tend to stick to the standard human proportions except that eyes are slightly larger, but I'm not drawing a comic, I'm illustrating a novel. When I do decide to do a comic adaptation I will very likely make the characters more cartoon like, both for ease of drawing and to make them more visually appealing.

In comics you can even vary the ratios greatly within the same story. My favourite comic character ever, Asterix, actually has a torso the same size as his head:

But his sidekick Obelix has a head-to-body-height ratio much closer to real people (though his torso shape is comically fat and his legs are tiny). Note that his nose is the same size as Asterix's.

[Mallory]

My default seems to be between 3 to 5 (I mostly draw child MCs so the kiddos are closer to the 3 range, while their adults are between 3.5 - 5, depending on the build. Sometimes they're 5.5 if they're really tall.

...I also draw a lot of gridiron football players, who are absolute giants, and I generally try to keep to more realistic proportions. The reason I draw them is because I find that they're such exaggerated humans in every way - long limbs, huge muscles. It's almost like drawing a stylized character, except in real life, so I wanna stay true to that. But I wouldn't want to draw a whole comic that way.