Tips for anatomy

[hazy harbor]

So I’m trying to get the basic shapes for my anatomy practice but it looks off. I wanna be able to whatever I want from imagination (the art is in order from when I started to practice tonight to the last thing I drew a few minutes ago)

[timid spruce]

My best recommendation is to exaggerate the pose. This actually will make it way more lifelike oddly enough

[glad wave]

Okay to start off, I would ditch the cube for the head. My personal opinion is that it doesn’t represent the head very well, an oval would work better.

I’d also recommend the “beanbag method”, which is basically like drawing a bean-like shape to represent the torso and such. I can provide an example of how to use it below.

Specifically when you are drawing figures, try to be looser with your gestures or lines, it helps make it feel more organic and not so stiff.

I recommend that you start off in sections of the body— not going into the full body all at once. Start with the torso, then connect the legs after you study that, then the arms, then properly proportion the head to the body.

That being said, this is a good start, properly studying the human body will lead to more improvements 🖤

Okay this is a very quick drawing of the beanbag method, however I think it’s clear enough to see how the torso sorta mimics a bean like shape.

@ me if you have any questions about anything 😌

[hazy harbor]

Okay so b4 I saw this I drew this with the info I collected from practicing anatomy for like 30-40 mins. Is this better (btw I will be trying the beanbag method)

Omg wrong pic

[glad wave]

Okay, this looks a lot better imo. I think a struggle you had was too stiff of lines and proportions, specifically with the head. Overall it looks better compared to the other one

[hazy harbor]

I used the symmetry tool but when I didn't use it the anatomy looked very off for some reason 3:

Like its genuinely horrid and idk why

Idk what I did wrong

[glad wave]

Try flipping the canvas when drawing to make sure your character isn’t leaning one way too much if you’re just doing a standing pose.

Flipping the canvas helps reset your mind when drawing and helps identify issues with your piece

You’ll know if it’s good if it looks normal from both directions

[hazy harbor]

Ouu okay! Ill try that tmr!

Ill give an update tmr!

[glad wave]

Alright

[hazy harbor]

So I got some practice in at school and did a whole lotta basic shapes and shading and i even tried to draw dynamic poses and I improved hella

Ill see if I can draw smth on my phone rq since I don't have my ipad

[hazy harbor]

I didn't trace this time

[glad wave]

Aye ok this is decent for someone who’s starting out! Body looks nice and fluid.

Now what I recommend you doing is to do figure drawings like this for about a couple days to a week. Doing it consistently will result in better quality and improvement.

Another thing to note about the actual drawing itself, don’t forget that the human body is 3D, not just flat shapes. If you look and the reference, specifically the torso, you can see that the main front “panel” of the torso is slightly tilted, because of this, you can see the side of the torso. You can also see this where the arm is raised, showing the armpit underneath the arm. The way you drew it is similar but not exact which is important to note. I’d practice this by drawing boxes in perspective to understand depth, then moving on to studying how the torso moves in tandem with everything else.

When doing figures, adding a line of action to general body parts like the whole torso and the legs and arms will help you map out the location of parts better and more accurately in reference to your image.

I can quickly do a drawing of improvements I noted for a better visual representation ☺️

[glad wave]

Okay here’s a diagram of the notes or critiques I gave.