Male and female differences

There are a number of differences between males and females. On average, men are about 15% bigger than women, and tend to be more robust, whereas women have rounder, more gracile forms. This series of articles is about drawing the head, so I’ll confine myself to that.

The observations here are generalisations. Artists have often followed ‘ideal’ standards designed to make men really ‘masculine’ and women really ‘feminine’ (e.g. in the American commercial art of the mid-20th century). In reality, people don’t fall neatly into two types. You will see ‘masculine’ features in women and vice versa. However if you’re trying to create a stronger impression of maleness or femaleness in your subject, these are the characteristics to work on.

Male and female heads in profile. Typically, men’s foreheads tend to slope more, whereas women’s are more vertical. The eyebrow ridge is heavier in the male, smoother in the female.

In general, the bone structure in men’s heads – the brow ridge, the jaw and the chin – are more prominent and angular. The woman’s bone structure is smoother and her face less blocky and more oval. A man’s features are larger and heavier, a woman’s smaller and more delicate.

A man’s eyebrows tend to be heavier, straighter and closer to the eyes. A woman’s eyebrows are thinner and arch upward, taking them further from the eyes.

In profile, the man’s wider, stronger neck is more vertical than the woman’s, which is longer and more graceful, with more of a forward slant.

When men get older their wrinkles tend to be deeper than those of women, who are finer-skinned with less prominent muscles. In the young, the sex differences are less well developed, but we will consider ageing separately.