How to draw feet from the back: the heel, the tendon and the ankle

From behind, a foot is easy to draw as a leg on a rounded lump with nothing inside the outline. The standing foot measured here shows more. Two lines draw together down the back of the leg into the tendon, a V-shaped line marks the back of each ankle bump, the heel is a rounded block with an arched top, and the front of the foot bulges out on both sides of it. This guide measures one bare standing foot from hands and feet, volume 1, seen straight from behind.

The drawing has no perspective, so the outline from the back is the outline from the front, flipped, so its widths are the ones measured in how to draw feet from the front, with the big-toe and little-toe sides swapped. This guide is about what sits inside that outline.

Everything is measured against the foot itself: the leg's width where it is narrowest above the ankle, and the foot's width across the toes, which we call a foot-width. The leg is a little under two thirds of a foot-width.

The standing foot from behind. The red bars cross the leg where it is narrowest, the tendon where it is narrowest and the rounded back of the heel. The blue dots mark the top of the heel and the tips of the two ankle lines. The green bars show how far the front of the foot sticks out past the heel on each side. The dashed line runs straight down from the middle of the leg; the heel sits a little to one side of it. The big-toe side is on the right.

The tendon

Two lines come down the back of the leg and draw together. At the top of the drawing, the gap between them is about two thirds of the leg's narrowest width. Lower down they close in to about a third of the leg's width, and that narrow band is the tendon. It sits in the middle of the leg and is narrowest at about the height of the lower ankle bump, the one on the little-toe side.

Under that, the two lines open out again into the sides of the top of the heel, so the tendon is a band that narrows and then flares.

The ankle from behind

On each side of the tendon, a V-shaped line points in toward it. These lines mark the back edges of the ankle bumps.

Each V's tip sits a little below the ankle bump on its side: a little over halfway in from the outline to the tendon on the little-toe side, about two thirds of the way in on the big-toe side.
The V on the big-toe side sits higher, by about a tenth of a foot-width, just as the ankle bump on that side sits higher than the one on the little-toe side.
From the bottom of each V, the lower arm runs down and out to the outline, and a short line runs back in from there to the top corner of the heel.

The heel

The top of the heel is a rounded arch, a little under two thirds of a foot-width above the ground. That puts it well below both ankle bumps: about a fifth of a foot-width below the lower one.

The rounded back of the heel runs from that arch down to the ground. It is a little narrower than the leg at its narrowest, a little taller than it is wide, and its bottom corners curve into the ground line.

The heel's outline sits outside that rounded back. It carries the leg's outline down past the ankle and is about as wide as the leg at its narrowest. The two sides don't match: on the little-toe side it drops almost straight, and on the big-toe side it slants in toward the bottom.

The heel isn't centered under the leg. Its middle sits toward the little-toe side, by about an eighth of the leg's width. A line from the middle of the leg leans down through the middle of the heel.

The front of the foot, past the heel

From behind, the front of the foot bulges out on both sides of the heel. It leaves the heel a little under half a foot-width above the ground on the little-toe side, and about a third on the big-toe side.

On the little-toe side, the foot sticks out about a fifth of a foot-width past the heel.
On the big-toe side, it sticks out about a sixth of a foot-width. From the front this side looked almost straight; from behind, the heel slants in on this side, so the foot shows past it here too.

Near the bottom of each bulge, a short curve about a tenth of a foot-width above the ground marks the edge of the sole. The bottom of the outline, under the heel and both bulges, is almost flat.

How to draw feet from the back, step by step

New lines and guides red, earlier lines grey, earlier guides blue-grey; 8 is finished, guides erased.

Draw the outline from how to draw feet from the front, flipped, on a flat ground line, with the ankle bump on the big-toe side higher. Here the big-toe side is on the right. Mark the middle of the leg at its narrowest and run a light line straight down to the ground.
Draw the tendon: two lines down the back of the leg, narrowing to about a third of the leg's width at the height of the lower ankle bump.
Add the top of the heel as an arch a little under two thirds of a foot-width above the ground, with the tendon lines opening into its sides.
Draw the rounded back of the heel down from that arch to the ground, a little narrower than the leg, its middle a little toward the little-toe side; the line down the middle leans to it.
Run the heel's outline down from the ankle on each side: almost straight on the little-toe side, slanting in on the big-toe side.
Add the ankle Vs, each tip a little below its ankle bump, the big-toe side higher.
Check the bulges already in the outline: about a fifth of a foot-width past the heel on the little-toe side and a sixth on the big-toe side. Add the short curves of the sole edge near the bottom.

Common mistakes

Drawing the tendon as a straight column the whole way down. It narrows to about a third of the leg, then flares into the heel.
Putting the top of the heel up at the ankle bumps. It sits well below them, a little under two thirds of a foot-width up.
Centering the heel under the leg. Here it sits a little toward the little-toe side.
Making the two sides of the heel match. The little-toe side drops straight; the big-toe side slants in.

What this does and does not cover

This is one drawing of one standing foot, seen straight from behind with the camera level; other feet have other proportions. The drawing is a line redraw of a render of one 3D foot, and what each inside line stands for is read from where it runs. A camera above or to one side moves the ankle Vs, the top of the heel and the heel's offset. The V and the upper heel outline on the little-toe side are faint lines, so those reads are a little less certain. The leg is cut off above the ankle, so the tendon's top width is where the drawing starts, not the calf. Feet in shoes, on tiptoe or with a raised heel aren't covered.

A short exercise

Look at the back of a bare standing foot with your eye about level with the ankle: a phone propped up behind the foot, its lens at ankle height, works. Follow the tendon down to where it flares into the heel. Is the top of the heel lower than both ankle bumps? Then draw it from behind, step by step.

The foot in this guide is the standing foot from hands and feet, volume 1, drawn at sixteen angles, 22.5 degrees apart. Its two side views are measured in how to draw feet from the side, the turn halfway between the front and the side in how to draw feet in three-quarter view, and the same foot turning through every angle is in how to draw feet at different angles. For the same way of measuring applied to the head, start with how to draw the head at any angle.