The Proportions of a Human Body

The human body proportions interested people back in the ancient times. They tried to standardize the body and measure it with different “tools.” For example, in Ancient Egypt, people used the “fist,” measured across the knuckles. So, a person’s height was the same as 18 fists from the ground to the hairline on the forehead.

Today, some ideas of body proportions are still the same, and others have changed. Together with 5-Minute Crafts, you will find out how exactly.

Body proportions

Today, the head is mostly used as a unit of measurement when creating the proportions of the human body.

So, the average relation of the head size to the height of the person is 1:7.5–1:8. But not every adult matches these proportions perfectly. It might vary from 1:6.5 to 1:8. The head size relative to the body changes with age: in babies, the head is much bigger but as the body grows, the head and body proportions change.

If the body height is 7.5 heads, then it’s possible to determine which body parts are at the distance of 2, 3, and 5 heads on the body.

• The nipple line is 2 heads from the top.
• The waistline and often the navel are 3 heads from the top. The navel might be a little lower in people with a belly.
• The pelvic bones are 4 heads from the top and the pubic bone is in the middle of the entire body.
• Legs are usually 3.5-heads long, and arms are around 3 heads long.
• The feet are 1/3 of a head and a palm is around the same as the height of the face.
• When a person is standing, their wrists should be at the same level as the widest part of the hips and the elbows — at the same level as the navel.

Also, the arm span should be about the same at the height of the body.

Head proportions

Leonardo da Vinci studied the head proportions carefully. He divided the head into sections and found some patterns:

• The eyes are in about the middle of the head.
• The central line of the eye, right where the pupil is, is at the same level as the lip corners.
• The upper line of the ears is at about the same level as the eyebrows.
• The lower line of the ears is on the same line as the lower part of the nose.

Also, there are these face proportions:

• You can place 5 eyes on the face on the line from one ear to the other.
• The nose is in the center of the face. Its width may vary a little but it’s generally as wide as the inside corners of the eyes.
• If you make a line going from the base of the ears to the bottom, the line of the neck will be at the same place. But female necks are sometimes a bit thinner than male necks.