Learn to Draw Butts with Just Five Simple Lines

You know what I say when some­one tells me they “can’t” draw?

Pshaw.

Even those who’ve yet to dis­cov­er the trans­for­ma­tive effects of Lyn­da Bar­ry’s won­der­ful­ly cor­rec­tive Pic­ture This know how to draw some­thing. Very few chil­dren make it to adult­hood with­out pick­ing up some sim­ple geo­met­ric for­mu­la by which a series of ovals, rec­tan­gles and lines can be con­fig­ured to resem­ble a dog­gie head or a brave astride his can­ter­ing pony.

A cou­ple thou­sand ren­der­ings lat­er, such mag­ic still sat­is­fies, but you might want to con­sid­er branch­ing out. May I rec­om­mend the teach­ings of artist and visu­al sto­ry­teller, Karl Gude? This laid-back for­mer Direc­tor of Infor­ma­tion Graph­ics at Newsweek can — and will! — teach you how to draw “great butts” with just five lines.

Gude’s com­mand of pos­te­ri­or essen­tials is down­right heady. (I say this as a for­mer artist’s mod­el whose rear end has been mis­rep­re­sent­ed on paper more times than I’d care to men­tion.) Who knew that cap­tur­ing this part of human anato­my could prove so sim­ple? Gude’s easy­go­ing online instruc­tion style may be trace­able to some sort of adult bev­er­age (I’m not cast­ing stones…), but his meth­ods are easy enough for a child to mas­ter.

Speak­ing of which, if you want to make a friend for life, share the above video with an actu­al child, prefer­ably one who claims he or she “can’t” draw. Put a Sharpie in his or her paw, and with­in five min­utes, Gude will have the lit­tle twerp crank­ing out butts of all shapes and sizes. After which, pride of accom­plish­ment may well lead to some of Gude’s more advanced tuto­ri­als, like the detailed human eye seen below.

If that proves too chal­leng­ing, there’s no shame in stick­ing with the glutes. To my way of think­ing, the mind­set that allows the artist to keep going when his pen­cil snaps mid-demon­stra­tion is les­son enough.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Join Car­toon­ist Lyn­da Bar­ry for a Uni­ver­si­ty-Lev­el Course on Doo­dling and Neu­ro­science

Saul Bass’ Advice for Design­ers: Learn to Draw, and Cre­ate Beau­ty Even If Nobody Else Cares

The Anatom­i­cal Draw­ings of Renais­sance Man, Leonar­do da Vin­ci

Clever Ani­ma­tion Brings Fig­ure Draw­ings to Life

Ayun Hal­l­i­day’s per­son­al mot­to is Dare to Be Heinie. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday