This paper presents a method of sketch-based human body modeling, which allows users to rapidly construct human model by sketching human skeleton and contours separately. The are two main features of our method: firstly, a multi-layered cross-section based human template is used to construct the result model, and a distance-based descriptor is computed in the model retrieval process to find the template most consistent with user’s sketch; secondly, a parameter-driven method of 3D human body modeling is used, it matches the sketch contour features and template contour features to compute 3D deformation parameters, by which the result model is constructed. The experiment result proves that the proposed method can rapidly construct 3D human body model which consistent with user’s intent.