Chuchu's (boring but necessary) Anatomy Workshop
Haha, late post is late. Anyway, hereby I shall post the advices&materials I've covered during the workshop. (Or should I make it as a tutorial later on?)
Also, it's kinda TL;DR, and it's more designed for an audience of beginner-medium artsy fellows.
Oh yeah, partial nudity is present too!
Agenda
- Advices
1. Copy Pasta
2. Importance of realism
3. Flipping of doom
- Stick Figure
- Human Skeleton
- Realistic vs. Manga proportion
- Armpits. YES, ARMPITS.
- Male vs. Female
- How to draw a (handsome like mine) face
- Stuffs you'll worship
Advice 1: Copy pasta is a shame.
Why do I say that? Because copy pasta does not make one an artist; it makes one a pro copycat at best. Beside, anatomy is something that one should learn for future application, therefore, copying is equal to copy a math homework from other peers without knowing the actual meaning behind the logical reasoning.
It should be noted that by copying I mean direct "INSPIRATION" from a certain work, style, artist, blah. Copying indeed makes you look pro for a second, but it's definitively not beneficial for a long term. Short term benefit vs. long term loss, your deal.
A direct example would be the infamous "Incarnated" by Nick Simmons, son of a member of KISS. I won't even explain further details, fellow otakus. The proof is in front of your own eyes.
(SON, I AM DISAPPOINT)
Advice 2: Start by learning realism.
Yep, you see it right: as a part of the anime club team, I am actually encouraging you to stay away from the world of manga anatomy. ESPECIALLY FOR BEGINNERS. Of course there is a reason behind this (there is always a reason hurr derp). Let's compare the art of anatomy to a cake. The techniques (featured in realistic drawings) are comparable to the base of the cake, while the style (mango, animu, cartoon, whatever) is more like the icing. There, what I'm trying to say is, you can't make a perfect cake without making a good base. The icing part however is completely up to your personal taste.
Second there is a benefit of doing realism first: it allows you to switch style more fluently. After all, despite the difference of style, they all have something in common, and that is the rulez of anatomy.
Advice 3: Flip over for your own benefit
And by writing this, I mean to flip your composition/art/whatever horizontally to erm, scare yourself. By doing so, you can instantly notice the errors that wouldn't normally be noticed(however they'll certainly make your drawing awkward). Be prepared though, this is also very discouraging. On the surface it's still pretty desu- but on the other side OMG UGLINESS AWAITS and you'll probably have great moment of struggles and incertitude on your artistic skills.
TL;DR: SEE THIS PICTURE.
On the left: hmm, one young lad right there. Looks awwright but there's something off that I can't tell.
On the right (flipped version): OMG I DON'T EVEN-; well, now we see that his torso line is in fact very off, and we probably have to adjust his chin too. Now I'm feeling horrible because I noticed how I suck at what I'm doing. Yep, that's the side effect. Very efficient though.
Stick Figure
So, fellows should already know that when we draw stuffs, we always start by planning out the structure. That's what the stick figure's for anatomy: it gives a general idea about the future body's position, pose, blablabla. This guideline helps the artist to build the body properly and instantly avoids some anatomical errors.
We can say that the "stick figure" is like the simplified skeleton of the upcoming body: JUST ADD MEAT AND HERE YOU HAVE A BODY! HURRAY! *claps claps claps*
Still wondering why stick figure is so necessary? Well, for instance, if you spend 9000+ hours drawing a super detailed figure, and the you just noticed that you ran out of space or the legs are really off. FFFF. Now you have to erase completely the problematic part and RESTART ALL OVER.
Also, AUTHORITY SOPHISM (hurray philosophy): ONLY VERY VERY FEWS ARTISTS ARE ABLE TO DRAW WITHOUT SKETCHING OUT THE PLAN. There.
Here goes an example about how I plan out my shizz before jumping into the action (it took me like, 1h doing the entire stuff? I hate digital linearting, such a pain in the ass.)
Human Skeleton
There, HERE YOU GOT TO LEARN MOAR. HAHAHURR.
Of course, art is all about creativity; however, ANATOMY COMES FROM LEARNING AND IS NEVER AND NEVER WILL BE AN INVENTION, MAN. Therefore, you cannot just randomly put some imaginary joints and claim that "Oh, thank you for your (harsh and unsupportable, weep) criticism, but this imaginary joint is totally justified; here, I even hold a brevet for that matter."
If you're drawing a human, learn the overall structure of human skeleton. Same thing goes for different creature.
Oh, two rules of thumbs: 1. hands always end below the pelvis. 2. the ratio between legs and torso+head is 1.2-1.4 to 1.
REALISTIC VS. MANGA PROPORTION
Realistic desu
Manga desu
What the heck man let's put a yukkuri
...What I'm trying to say is that in manga nobody cares. ONLY YOUR IMAGINATION IS THE LIMIT--
ARMPITS.
Do you want to draw firm and healthy boobies that will attract the gaze of many? Do you want them to come out alive instead of becoming two sacks of fat randomly attached to the chest?
OH WELL, THE MYSTERY IS BEHIND THE ARMPITS. BEHOLD, GENTLEMEN, FOR THE MYSTERY I AM GOING TO REVEAL-
So yeah. Boobs are attached to the armpits. Remember that.
Also, when males raise their arms, "wings" show up.
See that bumped up muscle below the armpit? That's the wing. Now ladies, the next time you draw sexy men please don't forget that in order to make em sexier.
Male vs. Female Anatomy
Male
More squarish, firm
Their muscle texture is comparable to tire
Width of shoulders=hips+arms, as they don't need a large pelvis to give birth lol
Female
Softer, curvy and skin is fatter
Their muscle texture is comparable to soft cushion
Width of shoulders=hips
Please remember that they also have more apparent waist. Apparently, now the waist is considered as the third sexiest region on female body: behind boobs and hips, of course.
How to draw (handsome) face
I'm just going over the basic here: everyone knows what organs they have on their face right? Good. Now let's move on.
Here goes a handsome face of mine. ADMIRE MY HANDSOMENESS.
Usually, we start sketching out the face by drawing a circle (representing the skull) then a triangle (depending on the head angle it's placement may vary, and here is a really useful tutorial on head at different angle:[link])
Then, draw the middle line and that line shall be the location of your nose.
The part where the circle touches the triangle is usually where you put the mouth
And don't forget eye level too; on a plain level the eye level is slightly higher than ears level.
Rule of thumbs
1- A palm should be big enough to cover most part of your face.
2- The nose should occupy no more than 1/3 of the character's face, otherwise we got the "anime mid-long face syndrome." DO NOT WANT.
STUFFS YOU'LL WORSHIP
1. www.posemaniacs.com A site with nekked-to-muscles 3D models in different poses and angle; very good for anyone willing to practice furthermore in anatomy.
2. ANDREW LOOMIS. PRAISE HIM LIKE THE SAVIOUR OF MANKIND. He is a dedicated artist who wrote various books for art students, and you can almost find all of them for free: [CLICK ME]
3. www.deviantart.com <- Internet community for arts of all mediums (though most of its population is young, anime-inspired artists), you can find TONS OF RESOURCES AND PEOPLE WILLING TO HELP YOU OUT.
Some names I suggest: Whitetrashpalace and Phitus
4. 3D modeling programs (if you're that willing), people on magazine, people IRL, or even nudists in yellow coat (YOU NEVER KNOW.)
Here, I've done my essay. Time