[faB]

How about an anatomy thread, I'd like to see how you handle different parts of the body, how you draw heads, hands, bones etc how do you draw a character head to toe?

here's a sketch without reference, the hardest for me to draw yet is the waist and the legs


hopefully we can share some critique nd improve
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"I'm not a shrimp, I'm a KING PRAWN !" -- Pepe.
selfportraits & stuff

[faB]

here's another

-faB.
_________________
"I'm not a shrimp, I'm a KING PRAWN !" -- Pepe.
selfportraits & stuff

[faB]

_________________
"I'm not a shrimp, I'm a KING PRAWN !" -- Pepe.
selfportraits & stuff

[Herb]

Well this is my first post here of work that I've done (I've been viewing of the marvelous work here for a while, though). It's also my first attempt at digital painting. I've CGed stuff and what not, but never tried to "paint" digitally. I didn't think this deserved a whole topic, so it looks like it'd fit fine here . So enjoy the Venus de Milo for your anatomical needs! (although I know I screwed up some anatomy on this ...)

I still need to become more fluent with value and contrast in black and white, before I try color .
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"So...remember, whenya put down one mutha, you puttun down muthas all ovah da worhl." - Mr. T

[ZippZopp]

wow, thats pretty good stuff faB. how long you been drawing? looks like you've been reading Loomis. i've just started reading his books. i'm getting kinda frustrated cause i have no much trouble drawing from my head, i can't pose characters that well, i get really confused and things don't look right. i guess i just gotta keep cracking at it......

[faB]

I havent been drawing characters for long, or they never looked very good. They are still pretty basic now. However I've been improving lately as I am focusing on just that and it's slowly transforming from work to pleasure.

For drawing the complete figure I still find the 8 divisions complicated. When I draw the head and I place down ticks for the other divisions I thend to place each divisions smaller and smaller

For this,I really like the 3 divisions that Loomis showon page 53 of 'figure drawing for all it's worth'. From the head to the waist, just at the end of the ribcage, to the end of the knees, to the feet. It also correspond to 3 large body parts you can orientate together. For ecample, fromn the waist up, if you rotate the body, the shoulders & arms & head more or less follow, but not the legs necessarily. I'm looking to simplify and with the 3 divisions it really helps.

I have found drawing the skeleton, and then the silhouette of the skin around it to be useful, then you can gray out the parts of skin around the bones, I found it helped me to be better aware of where the masses of 'meat' are , foir example inside the thighs, at the waist , ettc. On that drawing you can also become better aware of where the bone defines the silhouette as Loomis shows on page 56.

Now on a side note.. I'm now taking 'graphic novel' evening studies and my teacher here in Belgium was laughing off of Loomis books. Basically, I think it's true that Loomis drew all his women and men the way it was selling at the time for advertisement and such. They are very stereotypical, bulky guys with square jaws etc Also my teacher thought that the method to draw the head was complicated. Personally I think hard work pays off.

I once spent a week drawing the plates with the head sfrom the 'heads n hands' book roughly pages 21 to 30 , it was really boring and tedious but after a week I could definitely see improvement when drawing a head from imagination.. really helps become aware of the mass of the head and its volume.

~faB
_________________
"I'm not a shrimp, I'm a KING PRAWN !" -- Pepe.
selfportraits & stuff

[ZippZopp]

thanks faB! i've found the loomis books to be pretty good, but i can see them being stereotypical. just after reading a bit through Figure Drawing for all its Worth and Drawing heads and hands, i've found that i'm improving a little bit...but like everything, it'll just take some time! i actually thought the way he sets up drawing a head is pretty good. i found it easy to follow .

thanks

[Matthew]

Hello.

Nice stuff you got there faB, anatomy is the most difficult to get right,
at least that is what I think.
I am having trouble with all the anatomy but mostly the muscles on characters. I�ll throw in a picture here and then you can tell me where the
worst problem is. It is a standard character.



thank you
Matthew

[Snakebyte]

Why I'm replying I dont know, but I personally never really was able to get anatamy right without referances (poser, porn , my own work...) I usually make a bunch of scribbles and several misspelled notes and see what can be done in poser then redraw that, fixing the many problems in the poser model.
(The render isnt done....)


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Kevin Moore
www.darkesthorizons.com

[faB]

Matthew that's pretty decent actually, overall the proportions are good, you got the legs right, I tend to draw legstoo short the main problem with it I think is that the figure is distorted slighly. It looks like the upper body part is not above the feet, so the character is not on balance and would fall backwards.

Looking at the head I assume that you need to think more 3d. Keep working on anatomy like drawing figures from the side, front, back, and study the volume.. I have the same problem still and its something I m still working a lot on. The way I understand it is we think first of the shape or silhouette, we draw it paying attention to the outline, and we end up we something a little flat. And the pose often is unbalanced.

Have you tried drawing a mannekin ? Imagine you slice through the legs and arms and chest and draw the slices so you can see through the volume, that'll probably help to be more aware of the position of the character in space. Also draw volumes instead of shapes, for excample cylinders for legs and arms, boxes for chest etc.

Snakebyte some nice artwork over at your site. I know what you mean. today at the evening course there was a guy who told us he had been drawing from _LIFE_ naked models for _2_ years, EVERY DAY, and he's about the same level as me when it comes to draw from memory.

It all depends what work you want to do I guess. I'd like to be a character artist or modeler in about a year's time,. For example to model a complete character you really need a good understanding of the volume and the anatomy. For making semi-realistic looking comics I would assume it's the same since oyu can't have a live model all the time for all the poses.

Although when you draw from life you dont always have the time to finish a pose or sometimes you only want part of the live model, and part imagination.. in those times anatomy can be quite useful as well.

Btw do you mean you paint over the Poser models ?
_________________
"I'm not a shrimp, I'm a KING PRAWN !" -- Pepe.
selfportraits & stuff

[Matthew]

Thanks for the feedback.

I have actually a wooden mannikin but the proportions were all wrong
on it and that sucked big time.
When sketching this model that I posted here I used some Manga tecnique
to get it down, I guess they like these taller leg thing. Actually I do too

One thing about life reference, isn�t that a little bit overrated? I mean
Life reference tends to differ in size and shape but mainly it is good for drawing muscles I assume?

Have you guys tried inking? Sometimes I have a decent sketch but then when inking it gets kind of screwed up. inking is tough. dunno why
I wrote that in this anatomy section, I guess I have to write the inking problem off.

Some thought and stuff from me:
Matthew
have a nice day

[Snakebyte]

Well FaB, I dont actually paint over them, I just use the poser model to get my basic outline. I usually just use nude poser models (except male models ) and trace just the outline, once I have the outline I usually delete the poser layer and then fix posers mistakes and erace the head making my own and dress if nessisary.
Basiclly like this guy http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?t=30091 only not as good as he.


In this case many things needed to change, all small.

Im not quite sure if this was the same poser model I used (there was a half duzen of them) but it's close enough...
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Kevin Moore
www.darkesthorizons.com

[osku - - -]

These aren't really anatomy constructions, but live model drawings. I've been also practicing this geometric anatomy drawing, and I try to work more with that later. Well, here are couple of my drawings;




And two more of those, not as good:
http://voima.dyndns.org/~osku/pic/nude3.jpg
http://voima.dyndns.org/~osku/pic/nude4.jpg

_/_____ _
/ Osku