I'm drawing original people from skratch who have (somewhat) realistic facial and body portions.
A man:
A woman:
A man:
A woman:
Original Human Profiles.
- Thread starter TedShatner10
- Start date
Thanks for sharing.
Since you're working on characters with realistic proportions, I'll limit myself to this topic. You've got some of the proportions right on some of the figures, but on all of the full figures there's a least one thing off that throws the balance out of whack, but you're getting there.
If you'll allow me: a few pointers...
--Watch out for mis-sizing the head. If the head is around one sixth the height of the figure, it's too big and if close to one eighth, it's too small.
--the length of a person's inseam is typically roughly equivalent to the distance from a person's collarbone to their crotch. You got this right on the figure with the cane, but Catwoman's left leg looks too short (and if it's supposed to be bent at the knee away from us, it's not showing as such). It's better on the stongman.
--Hands and feet are bigger than a lot of people realize. When you draw hands bear in mind that a typical fist held under your nose would pretty much cover your lower face to your chin. Finger spread, you can cover your entire face up to at least the eyebrows. Most men's feet are about as long as their head is tall!
--I notice that when you draw eyes in profile the irises are drawn as half-circles, which isn't the case. Seen from the side, you'd see the curve of the eyeball, but the edge of the iris would appear as a straight line.
A good way to learn to draw eyes is to draw them independent of a face. Draw a circle, put an iris and pupil at some position not dead center or at the side, and then try to work on how the lid wraps around ths sphere.
Keep at it!
Since you're working on characters with realistic proportions, I'll limit myself to this topic. You've got some of the proportions right on some of the figures, but on all of the full figures there's a least one thing off that throws the balance out of whack, but you're getting there.
If you'll allow me: a few pointers...
--Watch out for mis-sizing the head. If the head is around one sixth the height of the figure, it's too big and if close to one eighth, it's too small.
--the length of a person's inseam is typically roughly equivalent to the distance from a person's collarbone to their crotch. You got this right on the figure with the cane, but Catwoman's left leg looks too short (and if it's supposed to be bent at the knee away from us, it's not showing as such). It's better on the stongman.
--Hands and feet are bigger than a lot of people realize. When you draw hands bear in mind that a typical fist held under your nose would pretty much cover your lower face to your chin. Finger spread, you can cover your entire face up to at least the eyebrows. Most men's feet are about as long as their head is tall!
--I notice that when you draw eyes in profile the irises are drawn as half-circles, which isn't the case. Seen from the side, you'd see the curve of the eyeball, but the edge of the iris would appear as a straight line.
A good way to learn to draw eyes is to draw them independent of a face. Draw a circle, put an iris and pupil at some position not dead center or at the side, and then try to work on how the lid wraps around ths sphere.
Keep at it!
I've used How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, The Art of Drawing Manga, and Anatomy for Artists (by Barrington Barber) as my guides.
You've got a good start, both in your references and your work. One thing that a pro artist friend of mine does, just to stay in practice, is what she calls "five minute sketches". Just as they sound, she works for five minutes on at least one new sketch, every day. That way, she only gets the basic shapes down, which is the hardest part. And, since she's currently working as a colorist at DC Comics, she must be doing something right...
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As an art student myself, I'd like to suggest that when you are going through material about drawing, try to stick with the stuff about realistic rendering as much as possible; such as Anatomy for Artists. I'd even go so far as to recommend that you shelve the comics and manga books until you hit your stride with the realistic stuff.
Mind you, I have nothing against manga or comics. Hell, I'm quite the anime geek actually. I only say that because I had made the mistake of starting to learn how to draw from things like comics and manga myself. In my case, the result was that I wound up learning the style rather than learning the skill of drawing. So when I took my first drawing class in college, I was basically back to square one. Furthermore, I've seen way too many of my fellow art students fall into that trap as well. They spent years just drawing manga or comics and they had allowed it to represent almost the entirety of their artistic scope. If you ask them to do something different, they couldn't. At least not well. Hence why I'm telling you to look at realistic anatomy books, or even draw from life as much as possible while you learn.
Another suggestion I'd make is to start playing around with shading. Line work is always good, but when you really examine features such as the nose, eyes, and mouth, you'll find that it's all alot more about shading than it is about line work. But you also need to be careful not to cover everything in a uniform shade. Shadow effects tend to utilize a very broad range of values.
Aside from that, all I can think to say is keep it up! If you get frustrated, always step back and take a breather and remember that achieving serious development takes time. And remember to really examine and measure the relationship of physical features, you'll be surprised as to how much you'll learn.
When it comes to figure drawing there's really no subsitute for a knowledge of basic anatomy and understanding anatomical construction as applies to drawing. It allows you to build figures in virtually any pose without necessarily requiring reference, and keeps you from making bodies do things they can't. For instance almost no one can turn their head for than 90 degrees to one side or the other, which means, at best you can turn your head to point at your shoulder, whereas in your Catwoman drawing he head is rotated well past the shoulder.
I'm a big fan of fast sketches. In fact, my drawing ability only really improved when I stoped being methodical and started quickly roughing out forms, as in finding the pose and the energy in very rough fast lines, and then once the whole composition is figured out, going in an noodling and refining the details.
I'm a big fan of fast sketches. In fact, my drawing ability only really improved when I stoped being methodical and started quickly roughing out forms, as in finding the pose and the energy in very rough fast lines, and then once the whole composition is figured out, going in an noodling and refining the details.
When it comes to figure drawing there's really no subsitute for a knowledge of basic anatomy and understanding anatomical construction as applies to drawing. It allows you to build figures in virtually any pose without necessarily requiring reference, and keeps you from making bodies do things they can't. For instance almost no one can turn their head for than 90 degrees to one side or the other, which means, at best you can turn your head to point at your shoulder, whereas in your Catwoman drawing he head is rotated well past the shoulder.
I'm a big fan of fast sketches. In fact, my drawing ability only really improved when I stoped being methodical and started quickly roughing out forms, as in finding the pose and the energy in very rough fast lines, and then once the whole composition is figured out, going in an noodling and refining the details.
I'm a big fan of fast sketches. In fact, my drawing ability only really improved when I stoped being methodical and started quickly roughing out forms, as in finding the pose and the energy in very rough fast lines, and then once the whole composition is figured out, going in an noodling and refining the details.
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