Thinking About Compression From A Side View

“Thinking about compression from a side view”

Source: Anime Private School on Twitter

Q: How do you do anatomy? / tips?

For those having a hard time sketching bodies, I suggest drawing stick figures to begin with, then building on from that! Get the hang of where joints should be and fill in the rest with shapes. Try and think in 3d.

This is how I tend to cut up my anatomy. The same goes for my more smol and squishy style. Just much rounder and less complex!

When sketching I usually rough out the head, shoulders, chest and waist since those often lead where the drawing will go and will probably be some of the focusing areas when it's finished.

I have drawn a lot and it was all a learning process, but one thing I think that really helped with my anatomy was drawing real people from photos! Be it reference or perhaps models or an idol you like. Drawing photos in your style is a great way to understand and build up your skill at drawing anatomy!

Here are some accounts that have great references for learning art!

1. @ EtheringtonBros

2. @ taco1704

3. @ Mitch Leeuwe

3. @ JookpubStock (real person photo pose reference)

4. @ kamitokatachi (3d model pose reference)

5. @ KawaiiSensei_jp

6. @ kato_anatomy

7. @ start_furuike

A majority of these are in other languages, but they do give good visual examples! (Also sorry that they are all on Twitter >_< that's where I found them over time...I'll try to find some of their IG if I can!)

I hope this was somewhat helpful! Good luck and keep at it everyone! You can do it!! ^^ 💞

Part 1 of big "how to chibi-fy this flower????" guide is here!!! 🥰

Wing tutorial~

Since it has been asked, I made a little breakdown on how to draw wings.

So, first thing to understand is wing anatomy. I used a swan wing as reference for my artwork. Divide the wing into blocks of feathers. There's sort of three layers to the feathers outlined in the second picture, and these divided along the top joint of the wing where it folds. See the second image. Make sure you bring in these nice, flowy shapes here!

Now that you have these big shapes, you can cut into them and make the individual shapes of the primary and secondary feathers (layer 3.) also make sure they overlap correctly depending on if you are drawing the wing from the front or the back. make sure you stick with a nice rythm and have the feathers get gradually bigger as you get closer to the tip. Like this:

when you go ahead and draw that layer 2 of coverts, make sure that every feather you drew for the bottom layer has (approximately) a feather overlapping it (so you have pretty much the same number of feathers in each layer) and that they line up nicely. But you can also make them a bit more ruffled. Like this:

Other than the flight feathers, the very top part of the wing is very smooth, with shorter, more rounded feathers (almost half-circles!). They can lie very flat or also look a lot more fluffy. think of them almost like overlapping scales. There is also the Alula at the top of the wing, a sort of extra feathery bit that sticks out over the primaries. also don't forget the scapulars which cover over the shoulder blade and are on top when the wing is folded. The Scapulars also have two layers of feathers. (see first graphic).

From there, it's only a matter of lineart and shading or however you want to finish your artwork. Hope this helps with the structure! Drawing wings folded together is a whole other story that I'm not going to get into here... lol.

TL:DR: understand the structure of wings and use references to get it right, work from big shapes to small shapes.

Edit: I demand to be tagged in the results, I desperately need to see more wing art. ÒwÓ

I made some tips on how to draw eyes in a side profile. I am not a professional artist.