[nsfw] female anatomy study

[DatMuffinMan]

I decided to practice some figure drawing (very much inspired by 32's recent work )

Here's what I've got so far, though I think the head is too big and something bothers me about the chest and legs too :



reference - http://i.imgur.com/edUKY1A.png

[lachrymose]

Things I can see right of the bat, is that her right arm is too short.
In regards to her torso I think it could be a bit longer, and the curve that it makes a bit longer as well.

EDIT: A quick edit. Used my laptop touchpad to draw, which was a bad idea, but you should be able to see what I mean I hope.

[Friend]

are you going for an equal pose?  Your version is a bit less active; in recline.  I think youre right that it is the leg (her left) and chest that are affecting the pose.  The left leg should come more towards the viewer and be more forshortened, the thigh muscles coming in at an angle (bottom of thigh is coming at an angle, just barely in the light as shown in the ref), rather than being separated as if you're seeing the whole thigh from the side.

This also affects the torso, which is why I think you ended up depicting a less stretched torso-It fit with how you drew the left leg.  If you made the left leg more active by making her contract it towards us, she would also stretch her torso to stabilize her contracted leg.  So, activate left leg, and stretch the torso to stabilize.

Also I think the maxilla/mandible is so strong it takes on a very unrealistic style compared to the body.  Sharp jawlines are attractive, and many females have them but the jaw bones still have a certain shape and proportion that are undeniably feminine, as shown in your reference.  I'd say not to be afraid to make what would *seem* like more radical changes, since I think these are the kinds of changes that we struggle to be bold enough to achieve the look we are going for.

The arm proportions are also a problem compared to the ref.  I'd say the entire arms need to be taken down a somewhat considerable size percentage.  Women seem to have a dainty look to the arms in that they have thicker legs but thinner arms, so the arms look thin and svelte, and I don't think you captured that.  her biceps are too thick.  The elbow of her right arm is not visible at this angle, which is why the arm looks a bit broken at the elbow.  Wrists should taper more.  Maybe more attention is needed in the left shoulder area, so that she is not so much flexing her left arm, but more of simply extending her arm out with her clavicle.  Paying more attention to this could also make the torso work more, since perhaps how you've done the arm would require more compacted abs (bicep flex)

Just my noobie 2 cents.  32 has been pretty inspiring, and I find your study to be as well   

[32]

Glad to inspire hope we see more of this stuff around cause it's one of my favourite subjects. Looking pretty good so far, interested to see where you go with the colour. Very ambitious size.


Quick edit from me, not 100% accurate but hopefully it helps. Also didn't really pay much attention to the pink so it's still kinda just in there haha. Too much changed to list it all but just flick between them and you'll get the idea.

Easiest way to translate an image or object is to try to imagine the 2d shapes which make it up. The negative spaces (the bright white gaps essentially) are really easy to observe and if you replicate those you're half way there already. You also want to try to imagine the body parts in the same way, as flat shapes, this is especially useful when there's foreshortening involved.

Also comparing angles is really handy, just hold up your pen or a straight object and line it up to the angle in the reference image (or object if you happen to be drawing from life) and shift it over to the same line in your image. You can do the same thing to check whether say the head is lined up with the foot correctly. Another handy one is to check the vertical or horizontal alignment of parts, so say take the top of the knee and draw a horizontal line from it and ask which parts of the image fall on that line. Pretty much the whole exercise is fact checking everything against everything else. Good Luck

[DatMuffinMan]

Thanks all for your feedback. I worked more on matching the drawing to the reference pic, and started paying closer attention to the lighting and shadows (now the pink isn't random, but instead is the 2nd light source). The legs in the reference are darker than my medium tones but lighter than my darks, so I think I need to add a few more colors to balance it out more. Here's what I've got -

[Friend]

I love the new rendering.  It looks like she is made of glass or ice! So cool!  I think the torso needs more work.  She's still slouching in that area.  32 did a really good job with the torso

[Night]

Wanted to post this edit earlier, but I was away.

(with the frames separated, so you can see the changes more clearly)
Spoiler

In any case; some problems still remain.
The biggest issue I see is the front femur being ridiculously over-sized, with the one in the back being displaced a bit too far from the pelvis, and in addition being a tiny bit too short.
The head, as you noted, is too big; but that's an easy fix.
The chest's flatness still exists and is due to the shape you've created there, with one solid colour dominating over the whole breast and with lines around it to imply light - this creates the illusion that the surface is flat in the middle and has slight curvature on the outlines of it. In reality the transition is smooth and soft. Also on a side note with the breast; it (the breast) actually comes under the pectoral muscle, not in-line with it or from it.

Another issue that is quite apparent in my eyes is the rotation of the pelvis, in your picture it implies that the pelvis is in a sitting position (as if the buttocks were flat on the surface beneath it) and that it faces the right. While in reality it is actually slightly facing the viewer and all of it does not touch the surface beneath it.

[32]

Good progress. Definitely watch that leg length as night pointed out. Also watch the concave line on her torso, people are bulgy. Watch the distance from her knee to the shoulder also, it's a bit too big which is forcing you to pus her head out too far. Mostly I just wanted to drop in and say there's a higher resolution image of your reference available which will come in handy when you start rendering in full.

[DatMuffinMan]

@Night - wow, that's a huge help, thanks so much

The main problem is that the femur/pelvis problems, at least to me, do not look completely solved in the actual reference picture. I understand how they 'should' look, equal length/rotation and all, but without the skeleton drawing underneath I don't think I would've seen it at all. The pelvis-to-femur connection still needs to be fixed a bit, but I think I fixed some of the major stuff -



@32 - thanks for that!

also, what do you think of the current palette? The colors seem to work alright together but I'm not sure if it's readable enough as a living human.