How to Draw Male Arms

Anime arms tend to be a challenge for people only because of the fact that people tend to make the arms too straight. Arms have muscles and they should be somewhat exaggerated, especially on males. You can’t make the muscles too exaggerated because that will only make the lines look unnatural. Before you begin, you need to think about how you want your character’s arms to bend. You need to figure out what the arm is going to look like. You can draw simple lines to get the basic shape of the arm, and after that you can start with your ovals and finish the arm.

Just as you would begin drawing a female’s arm, begin with long ovals, but make the male’s ovals wider to make room for the muscles. Use circles to show where the elbow will be, and make sure to add in the right angle you want for the arm. Make sure to make definite curves and indents for the male’s muscles. Draw the arm thicker near the shoulder and add in the muscles. As you taper down to the elbow, be sure you don’t forget any of the muscles. After the elbow, you will want to widen the arm so that the forearm muscles are present. The arm will taper down again as it closer to the wrist. From the wrist you can draw a rectangle for the hands. To make the fingers, draw three lines to make the four fingers. Make another rectangle for the thumb.

Now that you have created an arm for your character, repeat the process for the second arm. Making the arms crossed is indeed more difficult than drawing arms lying limp at the character’s side. Simply draw one arm bent at a ninety-degree angle using the ovals for the upper and forearms and a circle for the elbow. Draw the upper arm but hide most of the forearm behind the first arm. Add shading to help with the depth and giving the crossed arms dimension. Use these methods to create any position you can think of, just keep in mind proportion, depth, and dimension when drawing your character’s arms.