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Question for Artists

How did y'all learn anatomy? I've been getting stable diffusion to draw me headshots, and then I'm trying to draw those by sight alone (well, I started with tracing, but I can almost do it without tracing at this point).

I'm having a lot of trouble with the eyebrows. Is it just a matter of grinding until you can do it with your eyes closed (so to speak)?

O.O There's just so much variability to faces that I can't seem to learn a formula, which is what I need because I'm spatially challenged :|

Viewed:	26 times
Added:	5 days, 3 hrs ago 11 Dec 2024 08:02 CET

14 Comments on this Journal

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sandune

5 days, 3 hrs ago

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I study animated TV shows, read books on anatomy and perspectives, and even look at other artists' streams. I am always learning!

There are Facebook/IG pages based on this.

trickytherabbit

5 days, 2 hrs ago

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@ sandune

Regarding reading anatomy books - do you find they help with drawing anthro faces? Wouldn't most (all) books be on human anatomy, with maybe the odd dog thrown in?

sandune

5 days, 1 hr ago

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@ trickytherabbit

It's human (I think horses too). It helps when drawing anthro faces too--it's a way to broaden your talents.

HeartfeltHusky

4 days, 15 hrs ago

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If you're interested in anthro anatomy books, check out 'How to Draw Beastman' (Kemono no Kakikata) published by Genkosha. It does a decent job of breaking down the head shapes of various animals (wolf, tiger, bird, lizard, etc...), along with showing how to do facial expressions with each one. It also has some great examples of anthro hands an feet.
I believe the English version is digital only.

trickytherabbit

4 days, 11 hrs ago

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@ HeartfeltHusky

Siiiiiiiiiick <3 You're the best!

cerberus210

4 days, 11 hrs ago

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Not an artist myself but i think Tracy J Butler (creater of lackadaisy) has some tutorials on art stuff.

Expressions: https://lackadaisy.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=333
Construction: https://lackadaisy.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=356
Hats and clothes wrinkles: https://lackadaisy.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=494
Unhinged expressions: https://lackadaisy.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=574

I think most of the stuff is on her patreon but these are whats in her sites gallery.

trickytherabbit

4 days, 11 hrs ago

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@ cerberus210

What a gorgeous style <3

Many thanks :D :D :D

cerberus210

4 days, 11 hrs ago

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@ trickytherabbit

Tracy's quite a art vet, she used to work as an artist in the video game industry but decided since she was able to get liveable funding on patreon to do lackadaisy full time. The comics on hold at the moment since she's got a team together and are doing a short film with lackadaisy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vffu6FG4YP4 - the pilot episode has been out a while now but she's put a preview of episode 1 on her youtube 2 weeks ago.

I've always loved her art, it's so expressive and always seems to capture what she's trying to show perfectly.

Farrel

4 days, 9 hrs ago

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@ cerberus210

As an addendum to Tracy's bit on expressions... Selfies! Pull a weird face and snap a picture of it, the more extreme the expression, the easier it'll be to see what the important parts to capture are.

And at worst, you'll have some goofy pictures of yourself to giggle at later.

trickytherabbit

4 days, 9 hrs ago

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@ Farrel

Love it!

JManime

4 days, 4 hrs ago

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I'm not sure how helpful this will be but I always like to help other aspiring artists if I can. At the very least, I can maybe help you avoid some of the same mistakes I've made. When i was in high school, I mostly drew anime style characters. My art teacher disliked anime since he thought it was really overdone but he was always very supportive and wanted his students to follow what interested them. The thing I will always remember most is him telling me "you need to learn real anatomy before you try distorting it". I just ignored that and told myself I'd do my own thing and it would be fine. Now 20 years later I feel like I really haven't improved anywhere near as much as I would have if I'd followed his advice. >_<

At the very least, I'd recommend doing google searches for guides and refs made by artists who do have a good understanding of anatomy. I'm still stubborn about using refs but I've saved hundreds, if not thousands, of refs and tutorials that would be extremely helpful to both beginners and more experienced artists that are struggling with something specific. Keywords like "How to draw torsos", "anime (or furry) pose reference", "character expression sheet", "how to draw faces", etc will bring up a lot of great things. And like other people suggested, there are also many really great books that you can find at stores like Michael's. Muscle memory definitely plays a big role with art so a lot of it is trial and error until you get more comfortable with the shapes, positioning and proportions. Using guide lines and blocking out the pose with shapes and curves helps a lot too. Drawing guides over art that you like to basically reverse engineer them can be helpful too. Or tracing something and then trying to draw the same thing without tracing is helpful too. I hope some of these tips will be useful! ^__^

trickytherabbit

3 days, 18 hrs ago

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@ JManime

I'm definitely, definitely prioritizing good anatomy. The main reason I didn't learn to draw years ago is that I'm super spatially challenged. I've got pretty severe aphantasia, but I'm quite good with technical work. The only way I'll be able to learn to draw is by learning the structure :3 I've also got my good friend Stable Diffusion which can generate infinite references for me on the fly.

Thanks for your kind advice :D <3 <3 <3

billmurray

3 days, 20 hrs ago

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References! For every pose I'm unfamiliar with, i find a reference and try to draw from that. This is why i find clip studio's pose models so helpful. For an external program, there is design doll. For free web references, there is pose maniacs!

I know some artists fare better with hard and fast rules for anatomy but guidelines always worked better for me, with studying of refs filling the rest. For eyebrows specifically, try this trick. Draw a circle around the eye representing the eyebrow ridge (the socket). The brow probably lies at the top of that!

trickytherabbit

3 days, 18 hrs ago

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@ billmurray

XD I said to my mom the other day - there's a lot more to the eyebrow than just a hairy bit. She chuckled :P

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