(One day) Hot girls and appealing characters

[Pensword]

Step 1 for me: 
Try to make characters, that look "cool", which means somehow appealing.
Obviously first of all, improve my Anatomy-knowledge and also get a bit better at drawing form.

I'll just start drawing and then always improve one thing and add it onto them.

[Pensword]

[Pensword]

This is mostly Life Drawing to get a better feeling for how it is supposed to look like.

[Lillen]

Nice poses! Just wanted to share my tip about drawing feet. From the front view, you can sometimes use a triangle shape to simplify them. (Example) Also, simple shapes. (Example) They also have some anatomy / pose tutorials. Hope it helps.

[darktiste]

Have fun with that.Foot should be simple at first they are tricky.They are not that flat in reality.The are pretty asymetical and you realize that the mass is more important on one side then the other the mass being more important toward the body.

But enough with foot let see some hand if you going to make your character hold item LEGO hand must go.

[Pensword]

drawing feet.

some hand

Hands and Feet were not at all, what I was intending to start with, but since it is pretty much inevitable to do at some point, I just did it.

[darktiste]

Don't wait to long for head keep working the figure all around this way avoid weak spot.The head is a complex subject matter but can still be simplified until you are ready to level up the overal complexity of the human form toward more organic shape.

[Pensword]

[Pensword]

Nice poses! Just wanted to share my tip about drawing feet. From the front view, you can sometimes use a triangle shape to simplify them. (Example) Also, simple shapes. (Example) They also have some anatomy / pose tutorials. Hope it helps.

Maybe could you post some Screenshots of what you wanted to show? I dont access those sites.
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[Pensword]

Even if drawn as female, my figures look quite androgynous right now.

I noticed myself that the feet are too clunky and I found an Artist, who was able to draw really female-looking feet.

Nobody would ever think, that that's a male foot, it is so very clearly female-looking.
He makes more curved lines and he makes the toes more slim and rounded
but
I looked at photos of male and female feet then, and noticed, that in reality they are not even that different!

The toes of the females are not noticably more rounded or anything, they look almost the same!

So, how is it possible to stylize stuff in this way, where the drawing looks even better and brings across the point even better than reality!?
What are the rules to that, what else can be done in this way? Could you use this for every bodypart?
Make them unrealistic, but still look better (or more sexy) than a real person??



Now I am looking at Disney Stuff / Cartoons  and how they are making completely unrealistic or heavily stylized characters look as if they are "hot girls".

Example 1:    The Character "Malina" from Kuzco

This series and their characters are so stylized, everything is completely unrealistic.
But still this character looks as if she is "a really hot girl".

There are other women in the show, who do not look like they are "a hot girl":

So what are the characteristics from real life, that the Disney-People exxagerated here?
What did they take from reality that makes a girl beautiful or hot?
(they did not even show big boobs or anything like that!)



The other example is the character "Lola Bunny" from a bugs bunny movie:

She clearly is "the hot girl" of the movie, but she is a rabbit! How can a rabbit be hot?
Same question: What did they take from reality that makes a girl beautiful or hot?



Do you know Artists, Mentors, Books, Videos etc. that explain this very well?
Please post them.


Can anybody show me the elements that make Malina and Lola Bunny "hot", but on real life people?
Show me real life people, who have those characteristics, that were exxagerated, if you can, please.
(and how to do it, maybe)

[ThereIsNoJustice]

Here's one blog post for you: http://babelab.blogspot.com/2010/03/firs...varga.html

There's lots of stuff out there about drawing idealized faces and figures. If you look up drawing tutorials about drawing heads and faces from imagination the artist will usually mention these idealized proportions. You can also look up actors and actresses who are generally considered very attractive and see how their faces are proportioned.

Looking at your sketchbook so far, though, the thing I think is missing is some serious accuracy training. Like meticulously measuring things out and training your eye. You can measure with your pencil, a proportional divider, or a grid. I think they all lead to the same place, because they all force you to confront the inaccuracies in your drawings and you will learn to be more observant.

Most people haven't heard of a proportional divider but it's useful if you want to draw something slightly larger/smaller:



I see you are doing construction drawing, and that's great too. Keep doing that as well. Add some measuring in there and get both going, and you'll see your skills start to improve more.

[darktiste]

It hard to go toward stylize anatomy because you have to make decision but to make decision you have to have a logic otherwise that an uninform decision.

When you have a base in realism well you understand the difference between sex you no longer say well ''this is similar'' you see the difference. This is why your able to pick certain aspect and avoid the androgynous quality because the difference is anchor in realism which state no body is the same .For you women and men feet are similar this is an observation i reject. My suggestion would be to look more into real anatomy and actually taking the time to ask the question to yourself what is difference between A and B and you will start to pick on the difference. For that you need to see a lot of same subject to get those question answers but the good new is your not the first to go down that path you just need to find those resource that compare women and men anatomy. Loomis come to mind if you don't know is book well it time you find out who he is.

Yes we have all the same body part ''mostly'' but proportion wise that uninformed observation to say that some part are similar yes similar as you can say both are foot but how similar? It not a question that will be answers without a lot a careful observation and the right resource to point you as to what kind of observation you can make.

The problem is if it was easy to get any of those two thing everyone would be an artist so you need a good deal of persistence to get those question answers and resource that dissect the difference between A and B.

Also when you talk about lola bunny what your referring to is what call the idealize body there realistic proportion(medical average) and idealize proportion which is base on fashion and aesthetic. Golden era comic is very familiar with the idealize body. Cartoon don't generally go for ''hot'' here it was for comedic effect so it always stylization with intention.

I think what ThereIsNoJustice is hinting at is that you might be need to step back from construction and learn proportion because i think what going on is your not really yet understanding the role of proportion but if you develop the observational skill and technical skill to figure the distance between point in space you get better stylization because you understand how to bend in to line and shape to fit your intent.

I don't know if that make sense... to you. It not necessarily about physically measuring but spatially measuring but you would be better to physically start to measure first and then develop an intuitive and more cognitively driven spacial measuring observational capacity overtime as you get more knowledgeable about the proportion of different subject matter.

[VitorCardoso]

Now I am looking at Disney Stuff / Cartoons  and how they are making completely unrealistic or heavily stylized characters look as if they are "hot girls".

First of all, let's define what makes a woman in real life look "hot"—this is totally tied to beauty standards. They usually have slightly bigger eyes than men, higher and more arched eyebrows, and long eyelashes. As for the body, they have a narrow waist and wide hips, creating those nice curves, a thin neck, and long, smooth transitions.

What did they take from reality that makes a girl beautiful or hot?

Here’s a good general explanation of the standard shapes of women and men. You can exaggerate this as much as you want, as long as these characteristics remain recognizable. It’s not about having large breasts, as you mentioned.

So, how is it possible to stylize stuff in this way, where the drawing looks even better and brings across the point even better than reality!?

Yes, absolutely. The artist's role when creating a design is precisely that: to arrange the elements in a way that the viewer's brain associates everything harmoniously.

What are the rules to that, what else can be done in this way? Could you use this for every bodypart?

There are various design tools to achieve this; they aren't exactly rules. Yes, you can apply this to all parts of the body, but everything has to remain consistent. Your entire drawing needs to belong to the same universe. If you stylize the head in a certain way, the hands, for example, have to follow the same direction. In the ones you mentioned about Malina, notice that the face, hair, clothes, and hands all follow the same design logic.

In stylization, there are no rules about which shapes to use, as long as your drawing supports the shapes and stylization you choose. There are character designers who create amazing things with shapes and lines that I could never have imagined using.


Here are some examples with different levels of stylization and aesthetics:






I hope my response makes sense to you. This is a topic I've been studying for a while because a friend of mine took an entire course on it and shared a lot of what he learned with me. So, there are many aspects of design and style that are difficult to explain without demonstrating.

[Pensword]

There's lots of stuff out there about drawing idealized faces and figures. If you look up drawing tutorials about drawing heads and faces from imagination the artist will usually mention these idealized proportions.

Also when you talk about lola bunny what your referring to is what call the idealize body there realistic proportion(medical average) and idealize proportion which is base on fashion and aesthetic.

First of all, let's define what makes a woman in real life look "hot"—this is totally tied to beauty standards. They usually have slightly bigger eyes than men, higher and more arched eyebrows, and long eyelashes. As for the body, they have a narrow waist and wide hips, creating those nice curves, a thin neck, and long, smooth transitions.


Here are some examples with different levels of stylization and aesthetics:


I hope my response makes sense to you. This is a topic I've been studying for a while because a friend of mine took an entire course on it and shared a lot of what he learned with me. So, there are many aspects of design and style that are difficult to explain without demonstrating.

Thanks Thereisnojustice, Darktiste and VitorCardoso for your replies.

First I will jump on what VitorCardoso said. The things you listed where exactly what I was asking for!
I will try to play around with these characteristics you listed.


But I have to study more Anatomy and Faces for that.


(I wanted to test around with Hips and Waist, but some Life Models had so many Bumps in their anatomy on the side, that I was confused. Seems I have to take a closer look on those Muscles and Bones in that area more, first of all.)

[JosephCow]

Honestly seems like you're making good progress with your figure drawing basics and drawing with form. I'd say just keep drawing, keep picking up anatomy stuff. I'd recommend Sinix's anatomy quick tips actually if you want to take a break and just watch an entertaining anatomy video. They aren't super technical with the actual musculature, and he doesn't paint in a way that I really want to emulate, but he breaks shapes down in interesting ways that are good for stylized work. It might help you get into the form mindset and also give ideas as to how to stylize effectively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGBvbYEt...Qd&index=5

I do think you probably don't need to worry too much about stylization right now though. As Vitor pointed out there's lots of different ways you could stylize something. I would just keep practicing drawing the body at different angles, simple construction. They don't really need to look hot....yet!

[TrashPanda]

Yo keep up the studies! It is daunting in the beginning but over time it starts to become a routine.
I think stylization comes from "seeing" well and understanding different shape designs, pattern, flows
, structure etc. Here is something you can try do for fun during these normal studies.
Pick up a artist a you like and break down their sketches in how they use straight lines to curved lines, how they visualize overlaps and foreshortening, how they visualize weight distribution etc.
You then can try to use this knowledge to your figure drawings and apply it.
Here are some artists recommendations you can look up:

Yoh Yoshinari
https://characterdesignreferences.com/ar...-yoshinari

Paul Richards
https://babelab.blogspot.com/

Nico Wright
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/A44N5

[Pensword]

Honestly seems like you're making good progress with your figure drawing basics and drawing with form. I'd say just keep drawing, keep picking up anatomy stuff. I'd recommend Sinix's anatomy quick tips actually if you want to take a break and just watch an entertaining anatomy video.

Thanks, JosephCow for the feedback.
I know Sinix Videos and sometimes I am watching some of them.
I am under the impression, that his Videos are good, once you already know the stuff, but sometimes not so much to initially learn it.
He seems to be so good, that he just casually mentions things in a sentence and moves onto the next thing, while I would have to study it for 30 minutes before moving on. So he seems very advanced to me.
(I have seen that He can do really cool-looking stuff!)

Paul Richards
https://babelab.blogspot.com/

Thanks, TrashPanda for the links.
Its interesting, that a blog exists, that is called "Babelab". This sounds like exactly a very fitting ressource!
A bit annoying, that one has to register to look at the site!
But since someone else also had mentioned that blog before, probably it is really good, so I will do it.

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Now, man! , anatomy is so complex and so much! I have studied a lot anatomy and now I am through the basics of everything from top to bottom and around the body.

You could go more into depth everywhere and also one could study all little details, more muscles, tendons etc.,
but I guess most of it, you dont need or will forget again.
But also, everytime, when doing something now, and discovering a little detail, it gets added onto the basis knowledge.

Right now it is the basis for drawing a figure at all.


(If you see big mistakes, please make me aware, so I dont repeat the same mistake for the rest of my life, but also, dont be too nitpicky! Some things dont need to be very very exact in order for a character just too look good enough.)

[darktiste]

Who are you referring for those drawing? Why is there no reference in here your drawing anatomy. I know you might want to keep this sketchbook short but we don't know what material your using and if it useable for study. We don't know if your doing invention or study of real subject matter.

I personally see just the mistake of approaching drawing to quickly the body as a complex form you want a basic understanding of how to build basic geometric mannequin into space you want to draw your from not like flat shape but like transparent object to understand thickness of object.

Doing around 100 of those mannequin should be a good start to help you study proportion and give a sense of solidity to your form you can also add a box around the figure to build a sense of weight and balance to the figure the box also act as the ground plane so the feet should be relatively 


Once you master different pose you can start to bend the figure give it more dynamism and all that will you try to maintain proportion. Drawing sitting position, sitting on the floor, dancing, sleeping position,swimming,jumping,picking up object on the floor or elsewhere etc.

I think the issue with your proportion right now is your using realistic proportion i personally never use those and your into stylization so i suggest the 8 head approch instead of the 7 1/2 head approach. It more likely that you will use the 8 head approach if you do any work that is not realistic so atleast to me it seem abit like a incorrect model to study for you. Anyways stylization use the idea of head pretty loosely so maybe you want semi realistic looking figure or you want cartoonish proportion it up to you to determine if the 7 1/2 head start or the more idealize 8 head approch as more benefit then negative.

So anyway before you go to deep into real anatomy of the body i suggest you explore more stylize proportion.

[ThereIsNoJustice]

I think you've got the right idea with your anatomy studies. Only thing I would say is to make sure you do some larger drawings, too.

[Pensword]

Why is there no reference in here your drawing anatomy. I know you might want to keep this sketchbook short but we don't know what material your using and if it useable for study. We don't know if your doing invention or study of real subject matter.

That is okay, you don't have to.
I was learning the biggest muscle-groups, since when you don't know what those muscles are, you can not make figures that look correct and also could never stylize anything.
It is just basic knowledge that is necessary.

those mannequin should be a good start to help you study proportion and give a sense of solidity to your form
you can also add a box around the figure

I might mix in some boxes here and there and put figures into them.
How to set up the ground plane of the box the person stands in would be a good info.

I think you've got the right idea with your anatomy studies. Only thing I would say is to make sure you do some larger drawings, too.

Thanks, yes, I think so too.


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I not only want to make characters, but also put them into a scenery.
The first "piece" that I want to make will be a large, empty graslands-landscape filling the whole area towards the horizon.

I have some photos here and also an Artwork by another artist, that I found and that has the kind of "energy" I am intending. (of course my characters would be different and do something else, and mine will not have a walking house in it. But the scenery gives off that kind of feeling and the level of the artwork is all-in-all good.)

Spoiler

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So I just made first attempts of thumbnails based on those inspirations:




What I noticed already, is, that it is beneficial to make the horizon line low, because the more you see the sky in your picture, the more it gives the feeling of vastness and "openess" of that world.
If you make big mountains without the sky be seen much, then it looks like being caught and locked up.




And then I was playing around with simple shapes of female bodies, a first bit with clothing (very brief)
and now I am trying to make the figures as simple as possible, so that it is reeally simple and quick to set them up.
For that I was now trying out the famous so-called beanshape plus cylinders for the arms and legs, as a basis for figures.