(One day) Hot girls and appealing characters

[Pensword]

I have no idea how to come up with poses from pure imagination!
When I first look for some reference for the general idea for a pose, also for the balance of the whole body, where people put their hands etc., it turns out okayish,
but when trying to just come up with a scene or pose I have no idea how to place the characters!

My idea for a little sketch is the following:
3 girls on the left and 3 girls on the right and they are shouting angrily at each other.
Without looking for some poses from references I have no idea how to come up with 6 poses and also 6 angry facial expressions, that do not look all the same. (They are not twins or triplets, so all of them have to have a different face while at the same time all looking angry and having an angry pose.)

(also: I want to create a guy wearing a hoodie and just having a "cool", relaxed pose while having his hands in his hoodie-pockets. But without any reference! I cant come up with it, I dont know how to place him!)

How do you do that?

[ThereIsNoJustice]

The reality is that creating poses 'from imagination' is more like 'from memory' and 'from understanding'.

If an artist hasn't drawn an arm/leg/torso many times in a certain pose, then they will probably not be able to draw it without reference. The general shapes aren't in their memory. If an artist doesn't know what the bones, muscles, and fat are doing in that pose, they'll probably get things wrong, if only a little.

I'm certainly guilty of trying to draw from imagination too much, when I should have been drawing from reference. Nobody wants to be limited to using reference, but it's necessary.

I'm definitely in favor of trying to draw purely from imagination, but you have to be wary that you're getting a mix of practice with ref in there, too. You can't learn anatomy by guessing at it from imagination.

Also, there are a lot of 3D tools out there that can help somewhat. Clip Studio has 3D models built in. So you could either do a pose with the 3D model first and then draw from that, or do a sketch first and try to match the 3D model back to that pose. The issue here is that not even the best 3D models have correct anatomy in every position. They will help you get proportions and perspective correct, though, and that is certainly better than nothing.

[Pensword]

The reality is that creating poses 'from imagination' is more like 'from memory' and 'from understanding'.

If an artist hasn't drawn an arm/leg/torso many times in a certain pose, then they will probably not be able to draw it without reference. The general shapes aren't in their memory. If an artist doesn't know what the bones, muscles, and fat are doing in that pose, they'll probably get things wrong, if only a little.

I'm certainly guilty of trying to draw from imagination too much, when I should have been drawing from reference. Nobody wants to be limited to using reference, but it's necessary.

I'm definitely in favor of trying to draw purely from imagination, but you have to be wary that you're getting a mix of practice with ref in there, too. You can't learn anatomy by guessing at it from imagination.

Yes, you say true things. 'from understanding' is probably the best of all.
But even if you understand how something should anatomically be, you dont nessecarily know automatically how to simplify it in a good looking way - which my todays question will be about.



So, of course I would like to be able to just scribble something down on paper spontaneously without looking for any reference or anything.

Understanding is definitely the way to do that.
So I already studied the biggest muscle-groups and most basic anatomy.

I found this ohter Artist on Youtube, who did this in his video:




He starts with a blocky, boxy figure, like I do, too.
But then he just scribbles over it, simplifies things and all of the sudden has these really
feminine and even almost `attractive`-looking female characters drawn.

I did try to recreate exactly what he did and I am not able (yet) to simplify the female legs that nicely.

Does anybody know how he does that?

If I try to recreate this simplified, it looks kind of like this




If I go over all the muscles, over the skeleton and so on, it turns (of course) out very technically and over-detailled like this




But he didnt draw all the muscles! He also didnt just draw simplified cylinders.

Can anybody tell me, how to simplify the female legs in such a feminine and attractive-looking way,
that you dont just draw cylinders, but also that you dont draw all the single muscles,
but you just simplify it, and it is just simplified the right way?

What are the muscles that have to be shown explicitly and what is all the stuff that can be blended together and simplified?
(and what is the knowledge (anatomy and so on) that you have to have or what is the right way to train this, in order to simplify the legs in just the right way? I mean I could do 1000 life drawings, but still not be able to make a good looking anime-ish girl, for example.)

[JosephCow]

Maybe practice some gesture? Your figures don't have a ton of flow right now. It's really just gesture and decent proportions that made his figures work. How everything flows together to communicate the pose is probably more important than the actual anatomy. Also I'm gonna be honest, I think that focusing on what makes your drawings look hot or attractive is probably just getting in the way at this point. You might progress faster if you kind of stop worrying about that for a while. But I don't really know. I also don't draw anime so take it with a grain of salt.

[cgmythology]

I agree with Joseph Cow's comments, focusing on gesture will help improve your drawings. I suggest trying out Glen Vilppu's gesture techniques (you can find them on YouTube) and incorporate them in your works. Keep it up!

[VitorCardoso]

So, of course I would like to be able to just scribble something down on paper spontaneously without looking for any reference or anything.

Understanding is definitely the way to do that.
So I already studied the biggest muscle-groups and most basic anatomy.

It's not just about knowing anatomy; you need to be able to create a good sketch. This is your main problem here: you seem to focus too much on anatomy instead of conveying a good structure and gesture through your sketch





learn to control the pressure of the pencil to make light strokes and don't be afraid to make many lines on the paper, making a good sketch is not about making a precise line but rather finding the best line through the scribbles

What are the muscles that have to be shown explicitly and what is all the stuff that can be blended together and simplified?

At first focus on learning the landmarks of the human body

I mean I could do 1000 life drawings, but still not be able to make a good looking anime-ish girl, for example.

Anyone who already has a good level of drawing fundamentals can do it

[Pensword]

Ok, I had the suspicion, that adding more Gesture Drawing or getting more loose and adding more loose Lines
might move me exactly in the opposite direction that I was asking for, since the Gesture for example was already given in the case I was asking for.

But learning more Anatomy, getting a better feel for the figure, doing Gesture Drawing, doing loose scribbles do not exclude each other and each one will contribute to the skill all in all.

So I tried to honor your suggestions and added a lot of more Gesture Drawing.
(Thanks for making Suggestions.)
Also I tried to get a little into Digital.

(The Digital One is from complete Imagination [as you might see from the ridiculous poses :D ] .)

[one_two]

I think you have a good direction so far. You are trying to understand volumes, structure and overall construction which is great. The proportions aren't there yet, but it's just a question of time.