2D Toolkit - Anatomy Recap (18/10/24)

Proportion

• Each person's height is measured in heads ( a head is an arbitrary unit).
• Average person is 6 - 7 heads but you can change this depending on the character you draw. For example, hobbits would be around 4 - 5 heads.
• Hips are in the middle.
• Legs are half the figure.
• Elbow goes to the bottom of the ribs/ top of pelvis.
• Hands go to the middle of the thigh.

These rules can be broken when designing certain characters such as monsters. A lot of the time monsters use inspiration from animal anatomy as well as human anatomy to make them seem more beast like.

Contrapposto

• Contrapposto means 'counter opposed'
• Hips and shoulders oppose each other to create dynamic poses.
• Make sure to think about what side the weight is on.

Observational drawing

use life models/ people in public + photo reference

It's important to use life models/ people in public as well as photo reference when drawing a character.

Benefit of drawing people in public/ models:

• Depth perception tells you the 3 dimensionality.
• You can move around the model and see them for different angles/ perspectives.

Benefit of photo references:

• They don't move. This is easier for dynamic poses such as someone mid drop kick. You can get a more dynamic range of motion as a result.

To draw from imagination you need a good understanding of dynamic posture. To get this you need to constantly practice and improve your visual library.

Digital vs Traditional

Digital

• There's no lines left or damage done to the paper when you erase.
• You can use layers.
• Useful tools such as transform and lasso. This makes it easier to improve a drawing as you can select the arm and move it or liquify it to improve the drawing. Be careful not to become to reliant on these tools as they won't help you build up your muscle memory.

Traditional

• Traditional skills can be transferred to digital. This doesn't always work when it comes to the other way around.
• It's more difficult. Drawing in pen can help you build more confident lines as you're unable to erase them. This can help build up your muscle memory.

Useful tracing

Tracing and references are important when it comes to improving your visual library.

• Don't trace for projects or important work. Keep it for personal practice to build up your muscle memory and visual library.
• Focus on the main 3 masses = head, chest and pelvis.
• Look for the contrapposto.
• Find the Sternum and collar bone.
• Use a simple shape for the pelvis (the pants shape), this will help you understand the 3 dimensionality.
• Find where the femur attached to the pelvis.
• Once, you've found the gesture, then you can start to stylize it.
• Find where the arm connects to the sternum and hand.
• Find the kneecap! It tells you the angle of the femur.
• Imagine legs as cylinders
• Think about contouring. Instead of guessing the cylinder, use elements of the drawing/ reference to find the contour lines.
• The next step after tracing is to merge the layers, shrink it and use the traced lines as the reference.

Following the notes and advice written above, I put these skills into practice.

I first used this image from Beetlejuice (Warner Brothers, 1988). I traced over it (the red and blue drawing on top) and then hid the reference. I then used my traced line to draw the lines on the right. For recording purposes, I unhid the main reference image and moved it to the bottom left to show in this blog.

Since my first drawing was only from the knees up, I decided to try challenge myself by using a more dynamic reference that showed the entire body. The image in the top left is the traced lines I used to draw the image on the right. Again for recording purposes, I unhid the main reference image and moved it to the bottom left. This reference image is from a scene in Venom (Sony Pictures, 2018).

Extension

We were then challenged to apply the same techniques on a reference image involving 2 characters. Using the same techniques, I traced the lines of both figures (top left) and hid the reference image. I then started off by drawing the figure on the left. I then used the left figure to help me draw the figure on the right. I then unhid the reference image and moved it to the bottom right. This image is a fight scene in Deadpool and Wolverine (Marvel Studios, 2024).

Overall, I really enjoyed this lesson. It introduced me to new techniques (contouring) that helped me to draw the images above. My skills definitely need improving as I don't think my masses are accurate enough (this is very evident with the torso and pelvis in the second and third drawing). I'm still extremely proud of my attempts though and I plan on using these techniques to help me draw characters in the future.

Reference List:

Beetlejuice, 1988. [Film]. Tim Burton. California: Warner Brothers. [Accessed 18 October 2024].

Deadpool and Wolverine, 2024. [Film]. Shawn Levy. California: Marvel Studios. [Accessed 18 October 2024].

Venom, 2018. [Film]. Ruben Fleischer. California: Sony Pictures. [Accessed 18 October 2024].