2025-11-13 10:00

When I first started teaching drawing classes, I noticed something interesting—about 70% of beginners who wanted to draw human figures specifically requested learning how to capture athletes in motion. There's something uniquely compelling about the energy and dynamism of sports scenes that draws artists in, and football scenes consistently rank among the most popular subjects. I remember one student who struggled for weeks with static poses suddenly coming alive when we started working on a football player mid-action—the transformation was remarkable. That's why I want to share my approach to drawing a boy playing football, breaking it down into manageable steps that even complete beginners can follow.

Now, you might wonder why I'm discussing drawing techniques while referencing a seemingly unrelated golf tournament detail about Tabuena ruling the event in 2018 by turning back Prom Meesawat. Well, there's an important parallel here—just as professional golfers like the prodigious former India Open champion rely on their innate knowledge of specific courses, artists need to develop their own form of course knowledge when approaching complex subjects like human figures in motion. When I first visited the Masters course of the Carmona, Cavite complex several years ago, what struck me wasn't just the technical challenges of the course itself, but how the athletes moved through that space—their body positioning, their weight distribution, their anticipatory stances. These observations directly informed how I approach drawing athletes, particularly football players where balance and motion are everything.

Let's start with the foundation—the basic gesture drawing. I always tell my students to spend the first five minutes just observing and making quick, 30-second sketches of the overall action line. Forget details entirely at this stage. What you're looking for is that central line of motion that runs through the entire figure. For a football player, this might be the curve of the spine as they lean into a kick or the diagonal line from head to planted foot as they dribble. I personally prefer using a blue colored pencil for this stage because it keeps me from getting bogged down in details—it's just about capturing energy. About 85% of beginners make the same mistake here—they start with the head or facial features, but trust me, that approach will leave you with stiff, unnatural poses every time.

Moving into the basic forms stage, we begin building volume around our gesture lines. Think of this as creating a simplified mannequin version of our football player. The head becomes an oval, the torso a rounded rectangular box, the limbs as cylinders, and the joints as spheres. What's crucial here is establishing the weight distribution—typically in football poses, about 60-70% of the weight will be on one leg while the other performs an action. Pay special attention to the angles of the shoulders and hips—they're rarely parallel in dynamic poses. I like to exaggerate these angles slightly in my initial drawings because it creates more visual interest, though some traditional instructors might disagree with this approach. The key is finding what works for your artistic style while maintaining anatomical plausibility.

When we get to anatomical details, this is where many beginners feel intimidated, but I've developed a simplified approach that focuses on the major muscle groups without overwhelming you with every single tendon. For our football player, we need to emphasize the quadriceps and calf muscles of the standing leg, the abdominal muscles twisting with the motion, and the shoulder and arm muscles balancing the movement. I typically spend about 40% of my drawing time on this stage because getting the anatomy right makes the difference between a convincing athlete and a generic figure. Remember that muscles change shape when contracted—the kicking leg will have more defined quadriceps while the planted leg shows tension in the calf. These subtle details separate adequate drawings from compelling ones.

Now for the football-specific elements—the uniform and equipment. Football kits have distinctive features—the shorts are typically loose but not baggy, the socks are pulled up to just below the knee, and the jersey will show tension lines where the fabric stretches across the body. Don't make the common mistake of drawing the soccer ball as a perfect circle—it's slightly oblong, and the characteristic black and white panels follow a specific pattern that I recommend practicing separately. When I first started drawing sports scenes, I probably drew over 200 practice soccer balls before I felt comfortable rendering them quickly—it's one of those details that viewers will immediately notice if it's wrong.

The action pose is what brings our football player to life. Whether you're depicting a kick, a dribble, or a header, the key is implying motion through strategic blurring and line work. I often use what I call "motion ghosts"—faint, trailing lines behind the moving foot or ball that suggest speed. The position of the hair (if visible) and clothing should also indicate movement—they don't hang straight down during action. I particularly enjoy drawing kicking poses because they contain such beautiful opposing forces—the solidity of the planted leg against the fluidity of the kicking motion. About three years ago, I developed a technique using curved perspective lines to enhance this sense of motion, and it's become a signature element of my sports illustrations.

Adding context through background elements can elevate your drawing from a simple figure study to a complete scene. You don't need to render every blade of grass—in fact, I recommend against it. Suggest the football field with a few strategic lines and perhaps a hint of crowd in the distance. The focus should remain on your player, with the background providing just enough context to ground them in space. I typically devote only about 15% of my drawing time to background elements unless I'm creating a detailed composition for a specific client project.

When it comes to finishing techniques, I have strong preferences that have developed over years of trial and error. For dynamic sports drawings like our football player, I favor dramatic lighting that emphasizes the musculature and motion. Imagine the light coming from above and slightly to one side—this creates shadows that define the form without flattening the image. For rendering, I build up layers gradually, starting with light mid-tones and gradually adding the darkest shadows last. Many beginners go too dark too quickly, which makes adjustments difficult. My personal workflow involves about six distinct layers of value building, though I know artists who achieve beautiful results with just three.

Reflecting on my own journey learning to draw athletes, I wish someone had emphasized earlier how much observation from real life matters. When I watch football matches now, I'm not just following the game—I'm mentally cataloging body positions, how uniforms fold at different joints, how shadows fall on moving figures. This observational practice is just as important as technical drawing skill. That connection between knowledge and performance—whether it's Tabuena's innate understanding of the Carmona course that makes him a favorite or an artist's understanding of anatomy that makes their drawings convincing—is ultimately what separates competent work from exceptional work. The beautiful thing about drawing is that your "course knowledge" keeps deepening with every sketch you complete, every athlete you observe, and every football match you watch with an artist's eye.