How to draw feet at different angles

Feet get drawn as flat outlines because we mostly see them from above. A foot that stands on the ground is a solid, and once you build it as one simple shape you can draw it from any side.

How to draw a foot in four steps

Start with the inside of the foot, the side the big toe is on.

Draw the leg as a cylinder coming straight down to the ankle.
From the front of the ankle, slope a line down to the toes. That slope is the top of the foot, and with the ground line under it you have a long wedge, high at the ankle and low at the toes.
Add the heel as a rounded block behind and under the ankle. It sticks out a little behind the leg, and with the flat underside it makes the foot read as standing.
Lift the middle of the inside edge into an arch, so the foot touches the ground at the heel and the ball and less in between. Then add the big toe at the end of the wedge.

The inside of the foot at 90 degrees. The top slopes from the ankle to the toes, the heel sits behind the leg and the big toe hides the others.

From this side the big toe stands in front of the other four and hides them. If you can see every toe from the inside, the foot has turned. How to draw feet from the side measures this view and the outside: how long the foot is, where the leg stands and how high the arch rises.

Turn it to the front

From the front the wedge is seen end on. The ankle sits narrow at the top, and the foot spreads out below it into the toes.

The foot from the front at 0 degrees. It is narrow at the ankle and widest across the toes, with the big toe the largest of the row.

The tips of the toes do not line up straight. They step back from the big toe or second toe to the little toe, so the front of the foot is a slanted curve, not a flat edge. Draw that curve first and fit the toes into it. How to draw feet from the front measures this view: how wide the toes spread, where the ankle bumps sit and how each toe steps down.

In between, at a three-quarter view, the slope of the top of the foot shortens and the toes start to overlap. Keep the wedge and the heel block, and the turn reads on its own. How to draw feet in three-quarter view measures this view: how much shorter the foot gets, how far the smaller toes show past the big toe, and where the heel and the arch sit.

At 45 degrees the top of the foot shortens and the toes overlap, while the heel still shows behind the ankle.

The outside of the foot

The outside of the foot is lower and flatter than the inside: the outline is the same, but the line along the bottom stays low. The outer edge rests on the ground along most of its length, and you see the small toes one behind another instead of the big toe alone. The outer ankle bone also sits lower than the inner one, which is the quickest way to tell the two sides apart.

The outside of the foot at 270 degrees. The outer edge sits flat on the ground and the small toes show one behind another.

Draw it from behind

From the back, the heel is a rounded block at the bottom of the leg, and the tendon above it runs straight up the middle. The front of the foot almost disappears, showing only at the sides. How to draw feet from the back measures this view: where the tendon narrows, how high the heel's top sits and how far the foot shows past the heel.

The back of the foot at 180 degrees. The heel is the rounded block at the bottom, the front of the foot shows only at its sides and the tendon rises from the heel.

Practice it

Draw one foot at four angles: inside, front, outside and back. Start each with the cylinder, the wedge and the heel block, and add the toes only after the wedge reads as turned. Five minutes a drawing is enough, so the four take twenty.

The figures in this guide come from hands and feet, volume 1: a standing foot, an open hand and both of Lincoln's hands from Leonard Volk's casts, each drawn at sixteen angles, 22.5 degrees apart. For the hands, see how to draw hands at different angles, and for the same approach on the head, how to draw the head at any angle.