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DrawingFiguresEntry 4,812

Stick figure

This entry is about the drawing. For figures made of actual sticks, see Scarecrow.

A stick figure is about the simplest drawing of a person anyone can make: a circle for the head and a handful of straight lines for the body, arms and legs.[1] Children draw them before they can write, and designers still use them when a message has to be understood at a glance.

Because the form carries almost no detail, it reads the same way across languages and ages. That is why it shows up on road signs, restroom doors, safety labels and instruction sheets, where there is no time to stop and read.[2] It is widely held to be the only art form in which most people peak at the age of six.[citation needed]

  • Blue crossing sign showing a walking figure.
    Road signs
  • Door with a plaque showing two figures, one of them in a skirt.
    Restroom doors
  • Yellow wet-floor stand showing a figure slipping.
    Safety labels
  • Instruction sheet, step one: a figure pushing a box.
    Instruction sheets
Revision 1,204

1History

Rock painting of three figures with spears chasing a horned animal, beside a sun and a hand stencil.
Simple human shapes appear in rock art on several continents. The animal on the right has not been identified.

Simplified human shapes are far older than writing. They turn up in cave paintings and rock carvings, usually showing people hunting, dancing or travelling.[3] Early writing systems borrowed the same idea, using small figures to stand for words about people and actions.

The first artists worked in ochre and charcoal on whatever wall was nearby, and their figures already had the essentials: a head, a body, and limbs that are busy doing something. Nobody signed the work and nobody added eyelashes.

In the twentieth century the figure became a tool for public information. Standard sets of pictograms were designed for airports, stations and large sporting events, so visitors could find their way without sharing a language.[4] Warning signs added a useful refinement: the figure has the accident first, so that the reader does not have to.

2Anatomy

Six panels building a stick figure one stroke at a time: head, torso, two arms, two legs.
Construction sequence, with the newest stroke in blue. Most people finish in under four seconds.

This section may contain more detail than its subject.

The standard figure has six parts: one circle and five lines. The circle is the head, one line is the torso, two are arms and two are legs. There is no neck, and the hands and feet are implied by the lines coming to an end.[5]

Proportions are forgiving. A large head reads as friendly and a small one as tall. Animators often add elbows and knees, which brings the count to nine lines and lets the figure sit down, climb stairs and run without looking like a pair of compasses.[6]

Faces are optional and risky. Two dots and a curve give the figure a mood, but it is then stuck with that mood for good, which is why public signs leave the head empty.

Common variants
VariantLinesCirclesUsually foundNotes
Standard51Whiteboards, notebook marginsThe reference form.
Jointed91Animation, flip booksHas elbows and knees. Can sit down.
Skirted51Restroom doorsAdds one triangle, which does a lot of work.
Faced51Greeting cardsTwo dots and a curve. Permanently pleased.
Solid01Airports, liftsMade of filled shapes. Not strictly sticks.
Overworked20+1Art classesNo longer counts as a stick figure.[by whom?]

3Animation and games

A stick figure standing on a page of text, shooting at a picture that is breaking into squares.
A figure that has left its frame. The paragraph underneath did not survive.

Home computers and free animation software gave the stick figure a second life. It is quick to draw and easy to move, so hobbyists used it for fight scenes, short films and browser games that spread widely online.[7]

Eight frames of a stick figure running.
An eight-frame run cycle. Played in a loop, the figure runs forever and arrives nowhere.

The appeal has not changed: a few lines are enough for the viewer to fill in the rest. A stick figure can run, fall, aim and explode, and nobody needs it explained.

Modern web games push the joke further by letting the figure climb out of its frame and attack the page around it, turning text and pictures into loose objects.[8] Encyclopedia entries are considered especially at risk, since they are made almost entirely of words.

4See also

  • SmileyA circle that took a different career path.
  • PictogramThe stick figure in formal dress.
  • Flip bookAnimation for people with thumbs.
  • DoodleWhat meetings are for.
  • ScarecrowA figure made of actual sticks.
  • LineSee also: Lines, five.

5References

  1. 1Encil, P. (1998). Drawing People Without Really Trying. Blunt Pencil Press. p. 5.
  2. 2Halt, S. “Signs for people in a hurry.” Journal of Hasty Communication 12 (3): 44–51.
  3. 3Ochre, R.; Flint, T. (1987). A Survey of Things Drawn on Cave Walls, vol. 2. Torch and Wall Publishing.
  4. 4Committee on Not Getting Lost (1974). Standard Figures for Stations and Airports. Office of Wayfinding.
  5. 5Raser, E. (2003). “Where did the neck go?” Proceedings of the Society for Minimal Anatomy 7: 3–9.
  6. 6Hinge, J. (2011). Elbows and Knees: An Animator’s Complaint. Twelve Frames Press.
  7. 7“A short history of very thin fighters.” The Browser Game Almanac. Retrieved 30 February 2021.
  8. 8Rubble, W. (2026). “Notes on a page that fell down.” Loose Objects Quarterly 1: 1–2.

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