How to draw feet in three-quarter view: the shorter foot, the toes and the heel

Halfway between the front and the side is where a foot most often goes wrong. Drawn at its full length from the side, it looks stretched; drawn with the toes in a row, it looks flat. This guide measures one bare standing foot from hands and feet, volume 1, turned 45 degrees from the front toward the inside, the big-toe side, with the camera level.

The plates of this foot are drawn at one size and have no perspective, so this view can be checked against how to draw feet from the front and how to draw feet from the side. Everything here is measured against the leg as you see it in this view, at its narrowest above the ankle, which we call a leg width.

The leg

The leg's width here is about halfway between its width from the front and its depth from the side. Turned halfway, you see some of both. Its front edge stands a little over a third of the way along the foot from the back of the heel, close to where it stands from the side.

The foot gets shorter

From the back of the heel to the farthest toe tip, the foot is about two and three quarter leg widths long on the page. That is about three quarters of its length from the side.

With the camera level and no perspective, any one point on the foot stays at the same height as the foot turns; only distances along the foot get shorter. In this drawing the ground and the bend at the front of the ankle, a little under two leg widths up, sit at the same height as from the side.

So the top of the foot drops over a shorter distance and looks steeper. Along its middle stretch it drops about two steps for every three forward, against about one for every two from the side; it is steeper near the leg and flatter toward the toes.

The toes show past the big toe

From the inside, the big toe hides the others. From the front, they sit side by side. At three-quarter view, the big toe is in front, and the other toes show past its tip as a stack of rounded tips, overlapping. In this drawing three tips show past it.

• The second toe's tip ends about a sixth of a leg width past the big toe's.
• The farthest tip ends about a quarter of a leg width past it.

The toes run across the foot as well as forward, so at this angle the smaller ones show past the big toe's tip; seen straight from the inside, they hide behind it.

The heel still shows

Turned toward the front, the heel doesn't disappear. The back of the leg curves in a little above the heel, and below that the heel bulges out past the line as a small bump, a little smaller than from the side. Its furthest point back is a little under two fifths of a leg width above the ground.

The underside: two lines

At three-quarter view, the bottom of the foot isn't one line.

The line from the bottom of the heel lifts a little under the middle of the foot, by less than a tenth of a leg width. Past the middle it runs on inside the foot, lighter, toward the small toes.

A second, lighter curve sits where the arch would be. It leaves the heel, rises to its top a little under a quarter of a leg width above the ground about a third of the way along, then drops, crosses the first line and becomes the bottom edge under the ball of the big toe. Its top is a little under half as high as the arch line in the side view. The two may not mark the same edge of the foot, so draw the low curve this view shows rather than the side view's arch.

How to draw feet in three-quarter view, step by step

1. Draw the leg coming straight down, a little wider than from the front and a little narrower than from the side. Mark its narrowest width as one leg width; you will measure with it.
2. Draw the ground line and mark the foot's length on it: about two and three quarter leg widths, with the front of the leg a little over a third of the way along from the heel.
3. Bend the front of the leg forward a little under two leg widths above the ground, and slope the top of the foot down to the toes: about two steps down for every three forward along its middle, flatter toward the toes.
4. Add the heel behind the leg as a small bump past the line of the tendon, its furthest point a little under two fifths of a leg width up.
5. Place the big toe's tip about a quarter of a leg width back from the end you marked, then stack the other toes past it, the farthest reaching that end.
6. Run a line from the bottom of the heel toward the small toes, lifting only a little under the middle, and add the low, light curve that crosses it and becomes the bottom edge under the ball of the big toe. Finish with the line down the back of the ankle, then the light lines inside the leg and foot.

Common mistakes

• Drawing the foot at its side length. Turned halfway, it is about three quarters as long.
• Lining the toes up in a row, or hiding them behind the big toe. Here they stack past the big toe's tip.
• Leaving out the heel because the foot faces you more. It still bulges past the tendon, a little less than from the side.
• Drawing the high arch from the side view. From here the curve along the bottom is low, a little under half as high.

What this does and does not cover

This is one drawing of one standing foot, turned 45 degrees from the front toward the inside 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. The low curve along the bottom could be the edge of the sole rather than the line drawn as the arch from the side, so the comparison between them compares two drawn lines, not a change in the arch. The toe tips past the big toe overlap, so the count of three is a read of overlapping curves. The comparisons with the front and side views rest on the plates sharing one size: the ground sits at the same height in each, and the leg's width here lands between its front width and its side depth. A foot turned toward the little-toe side, a camera above the foot, shoes and a walking foot aren't covered.

A short exercise

Prop a phone on the floor halfway between the front and the inside of one bare foot, its lens at ankle height. Count how many of your leg widths fit along the foot, and see how far your smaller toes reach past your big toe. Then draw the foot from what you see: the leg, the ground and the length, the sloped top, the heel bump, the toes past the big toe and the lines underneath. A phone close to the foot adds perspective, so your numbers can differ a little.

The foot in this guide is the standing foot from hands and feet, volume 1, drawn at sixteen angles, 22.5 degrees apart. Its back view is measured in how to draw feet from the back, 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.