How to Sketch a Soccer Player – 30 Minute Drawing Exercise

How to Draw a Soccer Player

In this drawing challenge and timed exercise, we’ll draw a soccer or football player in 30 minutes. The finished result is a sketch and should not be considered as a “finished piece of art”. But this isn’t the point of an exercise like this. Our goal is to practice and improve our drawing skills by using the same observational skills that we would with a longer drawing.

The time constraint simply makes the drawing exercise a little more exciting and also helps us realize that there is a starting time and stopping time. Even if we go over a bit, we at least get started. For some of us, getting started is the hardest part. So if we know that we’re only going to spend a few minutes on the drawing, we’re more likely to get started and finish the exercise.

With this soccer player, we’ll approach the drawing in the same manner if we were to complete the drawing in a more finished manner. We’ll begin with looser marks and progressively get more precise as the drawing develops.

Drawing the human figure is challenging. Every person is different and body shapes vary greatly. Although there isn’t a formula for drawing the human figure that works for everyone, we can still take a structured approach to drawing the figure with some accuracy.

Before we get into the step by step approach, I’ll remind you that regular sketching practice should be a part of your artistic development. By spending just a few minutes each day with your sketchbook, you’ll notice improvement in your drawing skills. Drawing is a skill that can be learned by anyone, but it does require a commitment to learning and practice.

Gettin’ Sketchy is designed to provide you with a little drawing instruction through a fun drawing challenge. If you missed the previous episodes of Gettin’ Sketchy, you can check out the last three episodes here…

• Gettin’ Sketchy – Sketching a Rose
• Gettin’ Sketchy – Sketching a Boat on the Water
• Gettin’ Sketchy – Sketching a Crab

Here’s the step by step process for drawing the soccer player…

• We begin with a line from the head to the feet. This will ensure that we get the entire figure within the picture plane.
• Next, we’ll draw a couple of loose lines – one for the shoulders and another for the waist. In this case, these lines are at a slight diagonal.
• Using these guidelines, we can draw the bone structure. If it helps, you can think of this as a “stick figure”. For the hands, feet, and head, we’ll draw basic shapes.
• With the bone structure in place, we can thicken things up by drawing the contours of the arms, legs, and torso.

See also: Gesture Drawing – How to Draw the Human Figure Quickly

Since this is a simple sketch, we’ll only use basic drawing supplies – a graphite pencil and a sketchpad is sufficient.

The photo reference for this drawing exercise comes from Pixabay.com. The original image was in color, but the color was removed to make recognizing shapes of value a little easier. Here’s a look at the reference image…

Here’s a look at the finished sketch of the soccer player with graphite pencil…

“Gettin’ Sketchy” a semi-regular event. We broadcast live on YouTube (whenever possible) on Wednesday evenings somewhere between 8:00 PM EST to 8:30 PM EST.

Make sure that you’re a subscriber to the YouTube channel so that you won’t miss an episode. You can subscribe here.

If you’re thinking of taking your drawing skills to the next level, you may want to check out our membership program or one of our courses. You may consider starting with the “25 Days to Better Drawings” video course. You can check out this course by clicking on the link below…