art references

I was talking shop with an artist in the studio today and I shared this page from Andrew Loomis, which might be the single most valuable page I've ever encountered in a how-to-draw book. I can't BEGIN to say how many hours this "hanging figures on the horizon" technique has saved me.

(EDIT: Over on another site, someone said they didn’t understand how to read this pic, so maybe adding a second pic and some explanation will help?)

Let’s say I want to draw “Joe” standing further back. I need to know where to place him so he looks like he's the same height, even though he's further away. If I get it wrong, he’ll look giant or tiny.

I can do that by making sure that the horizon cuts thru Joe AT THE SAME HEIGHT, no matter how close or far away he is. In the original picture, it cuts thru the original Joe at the waist.

So let’s look at three different Joes.

A: Wrong. Horizon goes thru his knees. In this context, he’s a giant.

B: Correct. Horizon goes thru his waist, just like the original Joe!

C: Wrong. Horizon goes thru his head. In this context, he’s tiny.

“small thread on drawing plus sized characters!”

bird wing anatomy crash course, structure and function

extra addendum:

I'm an artist and medical student, and I use art to help me pay some bills.

I built a free, helpful tool because to help prevent other talented creatives from undercharging, as I really see this a lot online.

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Re: foreshortening a jaw that very intentionally stylistically ends in a point.

Unfortunately, sharp chins, especially the shorthand you see in most manga and anime, are a stylistic shorthand that don't naturally occur in real life. Even if they did, sharp chins are a rendering of the front of the lower mandible. For an upturned face, we are looking at and trying to believably convey the UNDERSIDE of that lower mandible, which is a completely different shape.

(Keep in mind that build and fat distributions add a bunch of variables that looking at bones don't account for.)

morpho books

figure drawing for all it's worth (+ creative illustration)

framed ink

will eisner comics and sequential art

will eisner graphic storytelling and visual narrative

understanding comics (+ making comics)

folder of various animation production art

burne hogarth drawing dynamic hands

perspective for comic book artists

michael mattesi force drawing

the animator's survival kit

color and light james gurney

I want you to T-pose. Turn your right thumb up and your left thumb doen and look at your right thumb. Move your arms up and down a bit until you feel a nerve running from your armpit to your palm. Now turn your right thumb down and your left thumb up, and look at your left thumb. Keep your chest facing forward and your shoulders back. Move your arms again until you feel that nerve again. Keep alternating between these two for a minute, or look at each thumb thirty times each.

Now sit down. Put your left hand firmly under your left buttock, palm down. Keep your shoulders back and put your right hand over the crown of your head, very gently pulling it to the right. Do this for thirty seconds, then do it again but with your right hand under your right buttock.

I had to go to occupational therapy a while back due to pain in my ulnar nerve (same nerve that acts as your 'funny bone'). It was getting compressed from jamming my elbow against hard plastic armrests that were in a too-tall fixed position on my cheap old office chair. I was having burning and tingling pain and numbness radiating from my elbow into my ring and pinky fingers. It sucked. Honestly, I found it worse than carpal tunnel, because a rigid elbow brace makes life way harder than a rigid wrist brace.

Anyways, the main exercise that my occupational therapist had me do was called a nerve glide. The stretches OP describes help improve flexibility, but the nerve gliding exercise helps move the nerve out of the pinched spot so it can move more freely.

Here's the best diagram I can find of it:

It's a little confusing, so have some extra description on the weird parts:

Step 3: thumb side moves down and towards the front.

Step 4: hand rotates out and around, pinky side first.

Step 5: nothing fancy here, just straighten your elbow.

Step 6 (not on diagram, but recommended by therapist): with arm in the same position, tilt your head towards the opposite side for a few second (works as a stretch).

It's easy to use, it has a few model options (with sliding scales for body type) and pose presets, and you can draw over it. I 100% recommend it to anyone in need of humanoid references. It's free.