How to draw feet from the side: the length, the arch and the toes

From the side, a foot can easily be drawn too short, with the leg planted in the middle of it and the arch scooped out of the bottom. This guide measures the bare standing foot from hands and feet, volume 1, seen straight from the inside (the big-toe side) and straight from the outside (the little-toe side). The same foot from the front is measured in how to draw feet from the front.

Two things do the measuring: the foot's length, from the back of the heel to the tip of the big toe, and the leg's thickness seen from the side, front to back, where it is narrowest above the ankle, which we call a leg depth; it is about a third more than the leg's width seen from the front.

From the inside: length, leg and heel

From the inside. The top bar is one leg depth. The bar under the foot runs from heel to toe tip, with ticks under the front of the leg and under the notch where the big toe comes free of the sole. The short bar rises to the top of the arch line (blue dot). The dashed line joins the bend at the front of the leg to the big toe.

The foot is a little over three leg depths long. Draw the leg first, then step its depth along the ground three times and a little more.

The leg stands over the back third. The front of the leg, where it is narrowest, sits a third of the way from the back of the heel to the tip of the big toe.

The heel sticks out only a little. The back of the leg curves in slightly above the ankle, and the heel bulges out past the deepest point of that curve by less than a tenth of a leg depth. Its furthest point back sits about two fifths of a leg depth above the ground, so the back of the leg and the heel make one long, gentle curve rather than a step.

The underside and the arch

The outline under the foot touches the ground in two places: under the heel, about half a leg depth in from its back, and under the ball, a little over two thirds of the way along. Between them it lifts by only about 2 percent of the foot's length, less than a tenth of a leg depth.

The arch is a line inside the shape. On the inside of the foot, a curved line runs from the back of the heel to the big toe and rises to about half a leg depth above the ground, about two fifths of the way from the heel. It reads as the inside edge of the sole lifting off the ground, with the underside of the foot below it, while the outline under it stays low. Draw the arch as that inner curve and leave the bottom of the outline almost flat; carving the arch out of the outline lifts the whole foot off the ground.

The top of the foot and the big toe

The front of the leg comes straight down and bends forward into the top of the foot. From that bend to the big toe, the top drops on average about one step for every two it runs forward, steeper near the leg and flatter toward the toes. Halfway along the foot, the top is a little under one leg depth above the ground; over the big toe it flattens out a little under a third of a leg depth up.

The big toe comes free of the sole at a small notch under the foot, and from there to its tip is a little over a sixth of the foot's length.

From the outside: the same outline, different lines inside

From the outside. The bar across the leg is one leg depth; the dashed line from its middle drops to just beside the outer ankle bone's lower point (blue dot), and the bar under the dot is its height. The inset enlarges the toes in the small frame, with a red tick at each of the five tips.

Turn the foot around and the outline simply flips: seen straight from either side, a foot has the same outline, mirrored. The length, the leg over the back third, the small heel bulge and the slope of the top all carry over. What changes is inside the outline:

There is no high arch line. The matching light line along the bottom rises only about a quarter of a leg depth, about half as high as the arch line on the inside, and stays low along most of the foot.
The outer ankle bone shows. Its lower point sits about three quarters of a leg depth above the ground, just in front of a line down the middle of the leg.
You see all five toes. The second toe's tip sits just behind the big toe's, and each step after that is two to three times as long as that first one. The little toe's tip ends a little under half a leg depth behind the big toe's, about half as high off the ground.

How to draw feet from the side, step by step

New lines red, earlier grey; 8 shows the outside. Erase bars, dots and dashed guides last.

Draw the leg and mark one leg depth where it is narrowest.
Draw the ground line from just behind the leg and mark the foot's length: a little over three leg depths.
Place the leg over the back third, its front edge a third of the way from the back of the heel.
Run the back of the leg down into the heel as one curve, bulging out only a little.
Bend the front of the leg forward and slope the top down to the toes, about one step down for every two forward, flattening over the big toe.
Keep the outline under the foot almost flat, touching the ground under the heel and the ball.
On the inside, add the arch line, half a leg depth up two fifths along, the lines into it, and the big toe, a little over a sixth of the length.
On the outside, put the ankle bone three quarters of a leg depth up, just in front of the middle of the leg, and step the toe tips back from the big toe to the little toe.

Common mistakes

Drawing the foot too short. It is a little over three leg depths long.
Planting the leg in the middle of the foot. It stands over the back third.
Cutting the arch out of the outline. The arch is a line inside the shape; the underside barely lifts.
Lining up the toe tips from the outside. They step back toward the little toe.

What this does and does not cover

This is one drawing of one standing foot, made from a 3D model, so take the numbers as a description of this drawing; other feet have other proportions and arches. The leg is cut off above the ankle, so its depth is taken where the drawn leg is narrowest, and heights are measured from the lowest point of the outline. The big toe's length is read from the notch under it, a softer landmark than the outline. The arch line is read as the edge of the sole; like the light line on the outside, it could instead mark a change of plane. The two views share one outline, so they do not check each other. The drawing does not clearly mark the inner ankle bone from the inside, so the two ankle bones are compared only in the front view, where the outer one sits lower. Shoes, a raised heel and a walking foot are not covered.

A short exercise

Prop a phone up beside one bare foot, its lens at ankle height, and take a picture from the inside and one from the outside. Count how many of your leg depths fit along your foot, and see where the front of your shin stands along it. Draw the foot from both sides, then check how high your arch lifts off the floor against one leg depth.

The foot is the standing foot from hands and feet, volume 1, drawn at sixteen angles, 22.5 degrees apart, with an open hand and both of Lincoln's hands from Leonard Volk's casts. The same foot at other angles is in how to draw feet at different angles, its back in how to draw feet from the back, the turn halfway to the front in how to draw feet in three-quarter view, and the hand seen this way is in how to draw a hand from the side. For the same way of measuring applied to the head, start with how to draw the head at any angle.