#leg tutorial

Hi, anon! I’ll certainly try to help you as best as I can. Draenei legs are definitely tricky and a pain to draw, but I’ll break it down as simply as possible to help you get a decent base on your legs. I’ll just be doing side view, because I still can’t draw a good front view leg for the life of me, sorry. I’m in no way an expert, I still avoid drawing them when I can, but I’ll do what I can to help you out.

We’re going to be drawing half of a normal leg here in comparison to a human leg. Draw the upper thigh like you normally would, it doesn’t have to be at any kind of crazy angle, just a normal leg position for a thigh.

Next, simply bend the knee and draw the calf like you would for a regular leg. Don’t extend it all the way to the ankle, stop a little past the midway point of the shin. It should look like a regular bent knee at this point. The angle you bend it at is up to you, depending on how extreme you want the joint to be, just be warned, if you go a full 90 degree corner, it’s going to look awkward and unbalanced. This method works for milder joint angles as well.

Now this is where you’re probably going to want a reference, because from here on down we’re following either horse or goat anatomy. We’re going to extend the leg down into a hoof, making the end of the normal shin and calf into a hock, and ending the hoof where a normal foot would be. It’s important that you position the hoof directly under the knee. If it ends in front of the knee or too far behind the knee, they’re going to look imbalanced and not grounded. Definitely grab references of the leg look you want from whatever hoofed animal you like for this part. They’ll help you much more than I can for this step.

Now that you have your base, it’s detail time! Fix any joints that look a little odd, bulk or thicken it up, or slim it down, you can do anything you like now that you have a solid base to draw on top of. References for human and animal legs help in adding anatomy details during this part.

And you’re done! Here’s the finished leg in comparison to the human one.

This should help you in any angle you try, but they get much more difficult past a side view. If you can do a normal leg and calf for the first half, finding references for bent knees, and then a reference of a hind leg in a similar angle, it’s going to make your life so much easier until you get them down. Here’s a few other examples using this method.

I hope this helps, and good luck on your Draenei legs!

Two main tips: 

Hey friends!