TEXT: Master the proportions, poses, 
  bones and muscles of animals
  From 
  head 
  to Foot
  How to draw and connect the simple 
  shapes that make up the human body
  Learn practical drawing skills and 
  techniques from professional artists 
  Learn how to 
  transform your 
  sketch into a 
  digital image
  Discover how you can 
  draw and pose ﬁgures 
  in proportion
  85 
  pages of 
  workshops
  Volume 1
  P r e s e n t s
  how to draw and Paint
    
  
    
  
  Claire Howlett, Editor
  claire@imaginefx.com
  If you’re reading this, the chances 
  are you’re an aspiring artist on 
  a journey of self-improvement. 
  Whether you’re at college, hoping 
  to become a professional artist or 
  just want to create art for yourself, 
  you’ve come to the right place. 
  The following pages in this 
  special edition of ImagineFX are 
  filled to bursting point with the best anatomy advice around. Every 
  page is packed with easy to follow, step-by-step guidance on how to 
  create better human and creature figures, written and illustrated by 
  professional artists. Essentially, it’s years of attending art college 
  distilled into one magazine. 
  Interactive links throughout the issue provide you with an 
  opportunity to get closer to the annotated sketches, watch videos of 
  anatomy drawing in action, and see high-resolution digital art files to 
  help you learn how to take your sketches into digital art software. 
  For those of you who are new to the world of ImagineFX, turn to 
  page 97 to see just a fraction of the digital art workshops that we 
  feature every month in ImagineFX. And if you have any questions or 
  comments about this special issue, please get in touch with me at the 
  email address below. It’d be lovely to hear from you! 
  From the makers of
  We’re the only magazine 
  dedicated to fantasy and sci-fi 
  art. Our aim is to help artists to 
  improve both their traditional 
  and digital art skills.
  Visit www.imaginefx.com 
  to find out more!
    
  
  4
  Presents Anatomy
  Contents
  16	 Basic	forms
  Improve the way you draw ﬁgures 
  with easy ways to establish the 
  underlying structure of the body
  22	 The	torso
  With the ﬁgure framework in place, 
  it’s time to set your focus on the core 
  of the human body
  28	 The	legs
  Master your depiction of the limbs 
  that support the body and drive it 
  forward into action
  34	 The	feet
  Discover how to use form to create 
  solid-looking feet – and why you 
  shouldn’t draw too much detail
  38	 The	shoulders
  Don’t allow the complex interaction 
  of muscles here distract you from 
  the guiding principles of anatomy
  44	 The	forearms
  It may seem like a simple area of 
  the body, but the forearm is more 
  sophisticated than you suspect
  50	 The	hands
  Many artists fear this part of the 
  body, but apply the principles here 
  and you’ll see how easy it can be
  54	 The	head
  Discover how to break the skull and 
  facial features into simple forms to 
  get the proportions spot-on
  6	 Art	spectacular!
  A feast of great ﬁgure-
  based images – and the 
  artists behind them
  22
  54
  38
  Human anatomy
  Practical advice from head to toe… 
  The ﬁnest artists in the world offer you the best 
  guidance and to share their techniques and 
  inspiration in our ﬁgure-drawing workshops
  Now you read the digital version of ImagineFX  
  on a range of devices! Find out more on page 27
    
  
  Digital art skills
  Help and advice from figure artists Artist Q&A
  Real-world issues solved
  Animal anatomy
  Your complete guide to creatures…
  5
  Volume 1
  Presents Anatomy
  60	 Basic	forms
  Begin your exploration of creature 
  anatomy by seeing the shapes 
  beneath the skin and fur
  66	 The	torso
  Find out how the core of the animal 
  body operates and how you can use 
  it to bring life to your animal art
  72	 The	hind	legs
  Explore the rear-wheel drive of 
  animals, and how this part of the 
  body can propel your art forward
  78	 The	forelegs
  Use your observation, skills and 
  knowledge to build the pillars of 
  balance and grip in animals
  84	 The	neck	and	head
  Discover what part of the animal 
  body tells you about the creature – 
  and the traits all animals share
  90	 Animal	faces
  Find out what animal faces have in 
  common with human faces, and the 
  crucial ways in which they differ
  98	 Creature	features
  Combine human and animal 
  anatomy to create a ﬁne-art portrait 
  of a monster with Justin Gerard
  102	Top	ten	fantasy	poses
  Whether you’re drawing a hero or 
  a villain, we’ve got the gestures and 
  silhouettes to help you out
  104	Strike	a	pose
  Warren Louw explains how to ﬁll 
  your characters with energy by 
  learning the art of posing
  108	 Quick	guides	
  Our artist panel helps you to…
  • Paint realistic hands
  • Draw a screaming face
  • Avoid static lgures
  • Master heroic proportions
  • Draw realistic eyes
  •  Give characters mass 
  and weight
  •  Draw expressions that show 
  the right emotions
  • Pose lgures in motion
  • Shade faces better
  90
  78
  72
  109
  60	
    
  
  1 
  Drakar och Demoner 
  15x22in, watercolour on paper 
  Paul revels in the chance to paint rocks, 
  stones and water, and these guys in a 
  boat were a great opportunity. This 
  piece was painted for Riotminds.
  © Riotminds
  1
   Paul Bonner
  LocaTIon: Denmark
  WeB: www.paulbonner.net
  emaIL: bonner@mail.dk
  meDIa USeD: Watercolour
  “Most of what I do stems 
  from a childhood passion 
  for fairytales, myths and 
  legends,” says Paul. “They 
  sparked a myriad images 
  and incessant scribbling, trying to draw 
  my own versions.” 
  Since then, with the help of brushes 
  and tubes of watercolours, Paul has 
  been continuing along that same path. 
  “Always knowing what I wanted to do 
  made it an easy path to follow,” he says. 
  Paul has made a successful career for 
  himself that’s at least partially a result of 
  his stubborn self-direction.
  Apart from the need to try and empty 
  a cluttered imagination, Paul’s driving 
  force is the basic thrill of creating 
  something out of nothing. Obviously 
  this nothing is not absolute: “It’s made 
  up of a myriad influences that seep in 
  over the years.” Books, films, other 
  artists, music and nature are all-
  important ingredients.
  The challenge is to make something 
  believable. “I deal in myths and 
  legends,” says Paul, “and if I can get 
  people to suspend disbelief and accept 
  the reality of what I’m painting although 
  they know otherwise… Well, then, I’m a 
  happy guy.”
  6
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  2 
  eLD och SoT 
  15x22in, watercolour on paper 
  “Dwarves, trolls, stones carved into 
  figures or runes,” says Paul of this piece 
  for Swedish RPG makers Riotminds. 
  “That just about sums it all up really.”
  4 
  confronTaTIon 
  27x16in, watercolour on paper 
  Paul admits that this piece, painted for 
  miniatures company Rackham, was a 
  nightmare to draw, given all the figures. 
  “But it was fun trying to give so many 
  individuals good reasons to be there.”
  © Riotminds
  © Rackham
  © Riotminds
  3 
  TrUDvangS STIgar 
  13x25in, watercolour on paper 
  This dwarf is in a bit of trouble: he’s been 
  captured by some trolls. But this piece 
  for Riotminds gave Paul a chance to 
  paint one of his favourite things: “Nature 
  again… stones and roots.”
  2
  4
  3
  7
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  © Harper Collins 2001
  2 
  reInDeer exPreSS 
  13x28in, oil on panel 
  If you receive Christmas cards from 
  Tom, you’ll already be familiar with this 
  image. “As I painted it, I came up with a 
  children’s book idea to go with it,” he 
  says. “It’s an attempt to rationally 
  explain Santa Claus, but as the story 
  goes on it, becomes quite convoluted 
  and even less plausible.”
  1
  2
   Tom kidd
  LocaTIon: US
  WeB: www.spellcaster.com
  emaIL: tkidd@snet.net 
  meDIa USeD: Oil on panel
  Tom realised he could draw 
  when he was very young. 
  Anything he set his mind 
  to, he could copy – but he 
  quickly realised that could 
  be accomplished by robots or machines. 
  To differentiate himself from the Xerox, 
  Tom began making things up to draw, 
  and so a career was born.
  Tom’s role models as he grew as a 
  person and an artist included Chesley 
  Bonestell and Norman Rockwell. Taking 
  on their influence, Tom began working 
  towards the goal of becoming a fantasy 
  illustrator. He won a scholarship to 
  Syracuse University, but dropped out 
  after two years and moved to New York, 
  intent on making a career for himself. 
  After a short while, he began to see 
  success in his chosen path.
  Tom has worked for a number of 
  publishers, Baen Books, Tor and Marvel 
  among them. He’s won a World Fantasy 
  Award (Best Artist 2004) and seven 
  Chesley Awards. He’s also busy with a 
  personal project, which he describes as 
  “my favourite and most time-consuming 
  obsession.” Called Gnemo: Airships, 
  Adventure, Exploration, you can see lots 
  of art for this project on Tom’s website.
  1 
  hercULeS vS The hyDra  
  16x20in, oil on panel 
  Part of a mythology series Tom painted. 
  The other characters he painted are 
  Odysseus, Theseus and Perseus.
  8
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Duc Truong huyen
  LocaTIon: Vietnam
  WeB: fxevo.deviantart.com 
  emaIL: truong.huyenduc@gmail.com 
  SofTWare USeD: Photoshop
  Although Duc has studied 
  at Ho Chi Minh City’s 
  University of Architecture, 
  he had never drawn 
  anything seriously until 
  senior year in high school, when he 
  finally picked up a pencil in a bid to 
  improve his chances of being accepted 
  to study architecture.
  “At first, drawing was my hobby,” 
  says Duc. “That was until I saw Ryan 
  Church, Dylan Cole and Daniel Dociu’s 
  masterpieces.” The result was profound 
  and immediate. “I was in awe, and 
  decided to buy an Intuos 3. This decision 
  has completely changed my life.”
  Although he’s self-taught, Duc says 
  he’s had some help along the way. 
  “Thanks to ImagineFX, DeviantART and 
  CGTalk, I have many sources to study 
  and improve my skills, not to mention 
  my knowledge from architecture.”
  1 
  enTrance of covereD  
  Illustration for a personal project. 
  “It’s about a girl who owns a fairy tale 
  book, which is actually a gate to connect 
  two worlds together.”
  2 
  aDera 
  All Duc wanted was a playful 
  portrait “with strong warm and cool 
  colour values to present my character, 
  the Seeker of Balance”.
  1
  2
  9
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Sophia kolokouri
  LocaTIon: Luxembourg
  WeB: http://mysideworld.com 
  emaIL: mysideworld@yahoo.com     
  SofTWare USeD: Photoshop
  After studying animation 
  and design at Gobelins in 
  Paris, Sophia started 
  working at Walt Disney 
  films. In 2007, having 
  worked as an animation producer and 
  art director, Sophia returned to her 
  personal work: “And I’m now working as 
  a digital hand painter and designer.”
  Sophia would like to combine her 
  animation skills with a photo-realist 
  aesthetic: “This is something I wish to 
  explore much more and push forward 
  my technique. I am still learning.” 
  Sophia is keen to work with 3D 
  software that gives photo-realistic 
  results for humans, and there’s a book of 
  painted fairytales on the drawing board.
  2 
  The LaDyBIrD 
  “The challenge here,” explains 
  Sophia, “was to find a balance between 
  the bird and the human.” So, keeping 
  focused on the flamingo-inspired 
  creature, “I tried to bring a fantasy and 
  romantic touch to the scene, while keep 
  the pose elegant.”
  1 
  moTher naTUre 
  It’s a sad fact, says Sophia, that 
  humanity is its own worst enemy. 
  “Humanity commits suicide by 
  destroying its lungs, its health, its 
  inheritance. Mother Nature is praying for 
  us. She is praying for our sake, hoping 
  one day we will finally succeed in living 
  in harmony with our environment before 
  it’s too late.”
  1
  2
  10
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Walter o’neal III 
  LocaTIon: US
  WeB: no-sign-of-sanity.deviantart.com
  emaIL: w.onealiii@att.net
  meDIa USeD: Acrylics
  As a kid, Walter always had 
  his nose in a comic book, 
  immediately in love with 
  anything that dealt with 
  fantasy or the supernatural. 
  Superheroes, vampires, aliens, demons: 
  “Any subject that deals with beings 
  endowed with fantastic abilities or dark 
  powers,” he laughs, “and I’m sold!”
  When it comes to his own work, he 
  says it’s all about the detail: “I try to 
  pack as much as I possibly can into a 
  piece. I want you to forget that you’re 
  looking at a painting.” Crucial to that is 
  the rendering: “I shoot for a kind of 
  stylised realism.” 
  1 
  oL’ ScraTch  
  11x16in, acrylic on illustration board  
  Walter was commissioned by the 
  fantasy sculpting duo The Shiflett 
  Brothers for this portrait of their Ol’ 
  Scratch character. “Brandon and Jarrod 
  Shiflett are such great guys,” he says. 
  2 
  meDUSa’S DaUghTer  
  11x16in, pencil and gouache on paper  
  “This shows Medusa’s Daughter (for 
  Narrative Ink) making a futile attempt  
  to tie down her wild hair using some 
  makeshift straitjackets,” says Walter.
  2
  1
  © Shiﬂett Brothers Originals
  © Narrative Ink
  11
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Lucas graciano
  LocaTIon: US
  WeB: www.lucasgraciano.com  
  emaIL: lucasgraciano@yahoo.com 
  meDIa USeD: Oil 
  Lucas grew up with the 
  works of great fantasy 
  artists such as Frank 
  Frazetta and Boris Vallejo. 
  Straight from high school, 
  he started his art career as a caricature 
  artist at theme parks and special events.  
  Later, having attended the Watts 
  Atelier of the Arts in Southern California, 
  he started work on storyboarding and 
  concept design in the games industry. 
  Working mostly digitally at that time, 
  Lucas wanted to attain the foundation 
  skills that come with working in a 
  traditional medium. He soon fell in love 
  with the traditional process and has 
  nearly completely switched over. 
  Lucas continued his training at the 
  Atelier and was soon asked to teach. 
  After developing his skills further, he 
  moved into fantasy illustration and 
  began freelancing while he taught. He 
  landed his first illustration job on the 
  very first set of the World of Warcraft 
  card game, and has since worked for 
  companies such as Sony, Wizards of 
  the Coast and White Wolf.
  2 
  vaLe maIDenS
  20x24in, oil on hardboard
  “I like doing work for Sony,” says Lucas, 
  “because they give me a free reign.” The 
  only description on this assignment was 
  ‘six or seven female dryads guarding a 
  tree.’ “They will often hand me their 
  low-res, in-game models as reference 
  and say ‘Make this look cool!’ I think 
  that’s the kind of thing almost every 
  artist wants to hear!”
  1 
  PSychoPomP
  16x12in, oil on hardboard
  This piece was done for the book 
  Drawing and Painting the Undead. As 
  simple as it is, Lucas thinks it’s one of  
  his stronger pieces. “Its strong graphic 
  read helped it get on the cover of the UK 
  version of the book.”
  © 2008 Quarto Publishing
  © 2008 Sony Online Entertainment
  1
  2
  12
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Every issue of ImagineFX features 
  a selection of fantastic artwork 
  from talented artists – and you 
  could join them. For a chance to 
  see your artwork included in 
  ImagineFX, send your work to us, 
  along with an explanation of your 
  techniques, the title of each piece, 
  a photo of yourself and your 
  contact details.
  You can email your work to 
  fxpose@imaginefx.com. Bear in 
  mind that attachments must be no 
  more than 5MB in total, or we 
  won’t receive them. You can also 
  send images on CD or DVD to: 
  fxPosé
  Imaginefx
  30 monmouth St
  Bath, Ba1 2BW 
  Uk 
  We prefer 300dpi TIFF or JPEG 
  ﬁles if possible. All artwork is 
  submitted on the basis granting 
  Future Publishing a non-exclusive 
  worldwide licence to publish, both 
  in print and electronically.
  SEND US YOUR 
  ARTWORK!
  3 
   WorD of PaIn
  24x18in, oil on hardboard
  “I like to keep my fantasy work more 
  grounded,” Lucas says. “I’ve never been 
  a big fan of the bright flashy colours of 
  magic, so I try and imply it in more 
  subtle ways.”
  4 
   kaLaDIm WIzarD
  12x16in, oil on hardboard
  Lucas is a huge Tolkien fan. “Any chance  
  I get to paint an epic battle scene with 
  armoured dwarves, I’m very happy!” 
  He’s even got a small collection of 
  armour that he “slaps onto some  
  willing friends for photo reference”.
  © 2008 Sony Online Entertainment
  © 2008 Sony Online Entertainment
  3
  4
  13
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Human anatomy
  A complete workshop on bringing 
  your body drawings to life
  14
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  16	 Basic	forms
  Improve the way you draw ﬁgures 
  with easy ways to establish the 
  underlying structure of the body
  22	 The	torso
  With the ﬁgure framework in place, 
  it’s time to set your focus on the core 
  of the human body
  28	 The	legs
  Master your depiction of the limbs 
  that support the body and drive it 
  forward into action
  34	 The	feet
  Discover how to use form to create 
  solid-looking feet – and why you 
  shouldn’t draw too much detail
  38	 The	shoulders
  Don’t allow the complex interaction 
  of muscles here distract you from 
  the guiding principles of anatomy
  44	 The	forearms
  It may seem like a simple area of 
  the body, but the forearm is more 
  sophisticated than you suspect
  50	 The	hands
  Many artists fear this part of the 
  body, but apply the principles here 
  and you’ll see how easy it can be
  54	 The	head
  Discover how to break the skull and 
  facial features into simple forms to 
  get the proportions spot-on
  Workshops
  Explore the body in eight parts
  Your human 
  anatomy expert
  Ron Lemen has worked 
  in the entertainment and 
  illustration industries for 
  over 16 years. With his 
  wife Vanessa, he runs 
  the Studio 2nd Street art 
  school and is in demand 
  as an art instructor at 
  drawing and painting 
  classes across California.
  www.studio2ndstreet.com
   The more knowledge you have, 
  the easier it will be to reach clear-cut 
  solutions for any drawing you make 
  Ron Lemen on drawing the body, page 16
  15
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  f you want to illustrate stories 
  or book covers, design 
  conceptually for games or 
  draw storyboards, it’s vital to 
  grasp the foundations of representational 
  art. With most stories you’ll come across 
  involving people, it’s important to 
  understand how to draw the human 
  figure, both in a static pose and in action. 
  There are several techniques for drawing 
  the human body, all leading to  
  a similar goal: a three-dimensional, 
  realistic figure. While it’s not necessary to 
  be an expert on anatomy to produce 
  illustrations, the more knowledge you 
  have, the easier it will be to solve 
  problems and reach clear-cut solutions 
  for any drawing you make. 
  What you lack in the foundations of your 
  knowledge will show up in your work – in 
  other words, the lack of understanding of 
  certain key principles will be all too 
  apparent in your finished piece. An artist’s 
  style can be reflective of their lack of 
  understanding just as much as it can be 
  a showcase for the total sum of their 
  knowledge. Avoid that trap.
  I
  16
  Presents Anatomy
  CreatIng  
  basIC forms
  Improve the way you draw figures by learning easy ways 
  to establish the underlying structure of the human body
  PART 1
    
  
  Formulaic ﬁgure drawing systems 
  involve using abstract rhythms or, as 
  shown above, interlocking shapes, to 
  construct the human body. Those 
  shapes can then be built upon and 
  ﬂeshed out for a full human ﬁgure.
  Figuring it out: 
  two ways to draw
  Learning to draw the human form can 
  be a daunting prospect for any fledgling 
  artist. Therefore, it’s important to know 
  what methods are available to you. The 
  two approaches to figure drawing that 
  I feel to be distinct are the observational 
  approach and the formulaic approach.
  Observational drawing has its origins in 
  the sight-size methodology, which trains 
  the eye to view a subject with accuracy, 
  placing the object and the drawing side by 
  side for comparative analysis. Plumb lines, 
  levels, a fixed point and a measuring line 
  are used to help the artist in understanding 
  dimensional and spatial measuring. 
  Observational drawing is a complex 
  process that requires a great deal of 
  reference material to accompany the words 
  to be fully explained. In this part of our 
  anatomy workshop, I’m going to take a 
  detailed look at two of my favoured 
  methods of formulaic drawing.
  Formulaic figure drawing uses abstract 
  rhythms or interlocking shapes – basically 
  design concepts – to build on. Once these 
  formulas are memorised by drawing from 
  life, you have a set of tools to recall, 
  enabling you to design from your 
  imagination if you wish.   
  It’s important to have a solid 
  understanding of both approaches if 
  you truly want to be free as an 
  artist. Observational 
  drawing sharpens the eye 
  and mind to capturing a 
  likeness without using 
  abstract concepts; 
  formulaic drawing gives 
  you a set of tools to 
  develop both from life 
  and, more importantly, 
  from your mind’s eye.
  Observational drawing in 
  practice, using a pencil to 
  measure the body’s dimensions.
  There are two distinct approaches to figure drawing: 
  observational and formulaic. It pays to master both…
  ron 
  Lemen
  Country: US
  See more of Ron’s work 
  at his website. 
  www.studio2ndstreet.com
  17
  Part 1 Basic forms
  Presents Anatomy
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/abasicf
  watch this!
  http://ifxm.ag/ﬁg-drawing
    
  
   Frank Reilly’s figure drawing approach is a 
  linear one, starting with the structure of the 
  figure and advancing on to the anatomy 
  There are as many ways to construct a 
  human figure as there are artists, but two 
  systems in particular form the basis of 
  many artists’ working practices. Over the 
  page, you’ll explore the Industrial 
  Design method; but first, let’s 
  look at the Reilly method.
  Frank Reilly was an illustrator 
  and instructor in the early- and 
  mid-20th century. He created a 
  system of teaching that enabled 
  students to quickly and easily digest 
  the problems of drawing and painting, 
  giving abstract concepts labels and 
  definable schematics, and building a 
  noteworthy step-by-step course of action  
  to create figure drawings. His system  
   
  American art schools of his day. His figure 
  drawing approach is a linear one, starting 
  with the structure of the figure before 
  advancing on to the anatomy, then shading 
  and finally detailing. His approach started 
  with the core of the figure: the torso. 
  Capturing the action of the pose is 
  probably the most important concern. The 
  action begins with the head and radiates 
  through the spine into the limbs. To start 
  the drawing, you need to make six lines: 
  the head; the centre of the 
  head and neck; the shoulder 
  line; the spine; the line 
  relating the shoulders to the 
  base of the pelvis; and, finally, 
  the line showing the neck and hip 
  relationship. These lines design 
  and define the core of the pose.   
  Arms and legs
  Once the core of the pose is 
  established, the arms and legs are 
  attached to complete the action. 
  This simple construction creates 
  the structure of the pose. The 
  reIlly’s sIx lInes To The Torso
  Capturing the action of the character’s pose 
  should be foremost in your mind. The action 
  begins with the head and radiates from there.
  came from several sources, starting with 
  Dean Cornwell and Frank Brangwyn, as 
  well as George Bridgeman (one of Reilly’s 
  teachers) and Frank Vincent DuMond. 
  Frank Reilly’s system became a 
  fashionable method in most of the 
  exploring the reilly 
  method for figures
  In this drawing system, you build a framework of 
  overlapping lines to create the basis of your figure
  Once you’ve learned the Reilly method, you 
  can go on to create ﬁgures in a range of 
  different poses. In this sketch of a kneeling 
  woman, you can still see the construction 
  lines, based on the sequence above.
  Here’s an illustrated guide to the Reilly 
  method of drawing the human torso. 
  Starting with the head, lines are 
  systematically added to build a template 
  that forms the basis of your ﬁgure.
  18
  Human anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Use landmarks To FInd yoUr 
  way aroUnd The hUman body
  once you’ve learned the reilly 
  method of creating a figure, you 
  can move on to creating more 
  flexible figures and poses from 
  different angles. here, I point out 
  a few anatomical landmarks to 
  help. see my three videos on 
  creating a figure from various 
  viewpoints: the front torso, the 
  back and the side.
  anatomy is then depicted within  
  the structure you’ve created. 
  Muscles are woven like a fabric  
  to the skeleton, connected to the  
  bones with tendons – rope-like 
  attachments. The point where the tendon 
  attaches to the bone is defined as the 
  insertion point. The figure abstraction 
  helps place the major muscle groups  
  into an organised and fluid pattern, 
  making it quite simple to invent complex, 
  realistic-looking figures.   
  The head has its own set of abstractions 
  that requires a workshop of its own to fully 
  understand.  We look at techniques for 
  drawing the head on page 54.
  Beyond Reilly
  The fundamentals of the Reilly method 
  are easy to grasp, but it’s flexible enough to 
  adapt as your drawing skills develop. 
  Once you properly understand the figure 
  abstraction underpinning the system, you’ll 
  find that you’ll constantly change and 
  rearrange lines to suit every pose and every 
  situation. The standard set of lines you start 
  with are charts for learning – they’re just 
  one set of possibilities, a stock vocabulary 
  that will constantly flex, grow and reinvent 
  itself with each new image you create. 
  I cannot stress enough that this is just 
  a system to learn from. All systems of 
  drawing are designed for teaching and 
  should be left behind as soon as 
  they’re mastered, like stabilisers on 
  a bicycle. Too many carefully 
  followed rules can lead to pictorial 
  sterility. It’s very important that 
  you train and practise as much as 
  possible until the rules become 
  background noise, so that when 
  we perform, we can do so with 
  total clarity and focus on the more 
  important aspects of making a  
  picture – the story content and the 
  pictorial intent. 
  If you want to do some additional 
  research on the Reilly method, I 
  recommend that you look up the work 
  of Andrew Loomis, a famous mid-20th 
  century American illustrator who covers 
  some of these principles in his figure 
  drawing manuals, and offers a great many 
  useful techniques besides.
   It’s important to practise as 
  much as possible, so that you 
  can perform with clarity 
  As you construct your ﬁgure, try to use long, 
  ﬂowing lines so that the drawing starts to feel 
  alive, even at this early stage.
  The body’s anatomy is 
  designed into the 
  structure you create, 
  weaving in muscles and 
  tendons and gradually 
  building up details.
  The large dots in this sketch are anatomical 
  landmarks. If you study your own body in 
  the mirror, you’ll see that these are the 
  bones that show through the skin.
  Use the anatomical points 
  along with the video on 
  creating the perfect back view.
  watch this!
  http://ifxm.ag/sshapeﬁg
  19
  Part 1 Basic forms
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Here, I’m going to look at a second 
  abstract approach to figure drawing: 
  the Industrial Design method. Its  
  origins are age-old, but it was  
  perfected at the Art Center of Pasadena  
  in the 1950s. 
  I find Industrial Design the most 
  practical technique to use when creating 
  the figure for any purpose. It makes it easy 
  to control the pose and achieve convincing 
  foreshortening painlessly. 
  First, you need to sort the head, neck and 
  shoulders. These provide a starting point to 
  build the figure gesture from. Viewed from 
  the front, the head is an oval shape, while 
  in profile or side view, it’s a bloated 
  triangular form. The corners of the triangle 
  depict the tilt of the head.  
  The panel below shows some examples 
  of cylinder figures in gesture poses, which 
  is what you have to find next. The gesture of 
  the pose is a fluid, flowing line: it’s the big 
  sweeping movement that’s made between 
  the upper and the lower halves of the body. 
  It should be graceful, and is ideally 
  established in one or two curvy lines.
  Add to your first line a second line, 
  which describes the width of the pose. This 
  helps establish the overall volume of the 
  figure – heavy or lean. These two lines 
  should mirror each other, moving in 
  relationship to one another. Line three is 
  the centre line of the pose, attached to the 
  pit of the neck.  
  With a centre line drawn, you can now 
  draw an ellipse or oval. This describes the 
  depth of the form. The centre line gives you 
  another point you can now convincingly 
  attach the oval to, turning your three lines 
  into an active cylindrical form.
  Cylinders are easier to draw than a cube 
  form, as you need to know perspective to 
  make cubes look convincing. Cylinders, 
  if drawn correctly in perspective, give the 
  viewer a strong sense of position in space. 
  The shoulders are the top point of the 
  cylinder, the pelvis its bottom. The pelvis 
  varies in shape depending on what 
  character you’re drawing. It can be drawn as 
  a soft, sphere-like shape – think of it as a 
  marshmallow – or can be more defined.  
  Your subject’s gender determines the 
  pelvis shape. Female pelvises are more bell- 
  or skirt-shaped; male pelvises are more 
  box-shaped. The front of the pelvis 
  terminates in a bullet-like shape. This is 
  drawn inside the body cylinder shape, 
  exploring the 
  Industrial design 
  drawing method
  Use basic geometric shapes to make your 
  figures feel solid and three-dimensional
  This cartoon character is fully realised using the 
  shape design approach from life drawing. The 
  technique can be used for any ﬁgure.
  Here the ﬁgure is rendered with hatch lines, 
  creating an immediate illusion of form. The lines 
  crossing over the form are crossing in the short 
  stroke direction.
  Use cylindrical 
  forms to start every 
  ﬁgure if you can. 
  Cylinders are easy 
  to draw and can 
  easily be broken 
  down into three- 
  dimensional forms. 
  In extremely 
  foreshortened 
  poses, overlapping 
  ovals representing 
  the lengthier forms 
  will work.
  drawIng cylInder 
  FIgUres In gesTUre poses
  watch this!
  http://ifxm.ag/cylindricalf
  20
  Human anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  cutting in on either side to show the hip 
  bones, the iliac crests.
  Now draw an egg shape to indicate the 
  ribcage, attaching it to the shoulder line 
  and only breaching the cylinder form if 
  the body is compressed or twisting. The 
  rest of the torso is built up using ellipses 
  or traversing lines across the centre line, 
  to square up the two halves of the torso 
  and pelvis.
  The important landmarks to indicate 
  are the nipples, the tenth ribs, the iliac 
  crests, the navel and the armpits. If your 
  figure’s back is visible, the scapulae, the 
  dimples of the sacrum, the obliques and 
  the base of the pelvis are also helpful to 
  use as landmarks.
  If the figure is twisting or turning, 
  you can easily depict this movement 
  in the cylinder by pinching one 
  side, or by creating an accordion-
  like relationship between the 
  ribcage and pelvis masses. 
  The obliques play a role in 
  shaping the cylinder: they are the 
  third bulge on the compressed side 
  of the cylinder. These bulges are 
  described using S-curved lines (see the 
  panel to the right), the only line type 
  in drawing that can generate 
  perspective in its own waviness. The 
  S-curve starts against the outside of one 
  shape, then swings over and completes its 
  circuit below on the next succeeding 
  shape. Each S-curve generates a more 
  convincing illusion of overlapping forms.
  You should switch often between 
  gesture and structure to strike a balance 
  of form and movement, hopefully in a 
  similar dynamic to Michelangelo or 
  Rubens – but with a modern flair, like 
  that of Claire Wendling or Bruce Timm.
  Once the structure is defined, move 
  into gesture again, drawing the cylinders 
  of the arms and the legs. When your 
  limbs are drawn in, move back into 
  structure and define the muscles, then 
  gesture again to describe the movement 
  of the shadow patterns over the muscles, 
  then structure to tighten them up. 
   If a figure is twisting or turning, 
  you can easily depict this movement in 
  the cylinder by pinching one side 
  Draw the ribcage as if looking 
  up at it, with lines arching 
  upward. Draw the pelvis with 
  lines arching down. This keeps 
  the forms tilted correctly to the 
  viewer from straight-on. 
  The FIgUre as 
  an s-shape 
  These drawings are 
  ﬂeshing out the dynamic 
  movement in each pose. 
  Using cylinders and 
  dividing each segment of 
  the cylinders into thirds, 
  the scaffolding of the body 
  is ready for muscles to be 
  laid over them. The cross- 
  contour lines help guide 
  the muscles correctly 
  around the form.
  You can map shadows to the shapes 
  you design on the scaffolding of the 
  ﬁgure, with the patterns falling 
  appropriately over the shapes you’ve 
  drawn rather than drawing exactly what 
  you see. The illusion of the drawing can 
  suffer if you stick too rigidly to what you 
  see without really thinking about how 
  the forms are functioning in 3D space.
  watch this!
  http://ifxm.ag/sshapeﬁg
  21
  Part 1 Basic forms
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Ron 
  Lemen
  countRy: US
  See more of Ron’s work 
  at his website. 
  www.studio2ndstreet.com
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/a-torso
  22
  Presents Anatomy
  DRawing  
   the toRso
  he torso is the core of the body: 
  the complex centre from 
  which all our dangly parts 
  originate. Our physical 
  actions also originate from this core – 
  therefore, you typically start with the 
  torso in figure drawing to work out the 
  dynamics of your pose.
  The head is the ruler that you measure 
  the body from; the body is the primary 
  essence of the pose. Both are important 
  to draw from the start, but the head can 
  stiffen up quickly with no reference to the 
  body. If you design the body first, the 
  head has more chance of complementing 
  the action of the body. 
  First, you need to find the action of the 
  pose. This step is called the gesture. Using 
  the Industrial Design method, as 
  described on page 20, you can find this 
  action in three lines: the gesture, the 
  width and the depth. Once the gesture  
  or action of the pose has been established, 
  the limbs are then attached to 
  complement the twist, turn or swivel of 
  the torso. With the head attached, you can 
  measure off the height and width of the 
  torso more appropriately, or adjust the 
  t
  When you draw a torso, you 
  should take into account not 
  only the muscle tone, but the 
  age of the subject too.
  With the figure framework in place, it’s time 
  to focus on the core of the human body
  drawing to a more correct scale 
  throughout the pose. 
  Next, draw a centre line through the 
  middle of the torso. (Simply put, the 
  centre line of the back is the spine.) The 
  front of the body is divided through the 
  centre of the chest, or the sternum, and 
  continues through the line that splits the 
  abdominal muscles down to the pelvis. 
  The centre line is very important to 
  draw. It finds the middle of the visible 
  surface to match and align the forms on 
  either side of it, and it’s also an anchor 
  and apex for matching rhythmical lines 
  PART 2
    
  
  23
  Part 2 The torso
  Presents Anatomy
  The pectoralis muscle sits on the upper half of the ribcage, and inserts 
  onto the upper arm bone, or humerus, around the upper third division of 
  its length. The muscle wraps underneath the humerus towards the back 
  of the arm, and is a ﬁve-sided shape. 
  Its striations, or muscle ﬁbre divisions, 
  radiate in a fan-like shape, with the 
  clavicular portion sitting on top of the 
  mass. The female breast sits on top of 
  the pectoralis, roughly between the 
  seventh and eighth rib. It has a 
  comma-like shape, tapering back under 
  the arm toward the scapula.
  GettinG the pectoralis muscle riGht
  The trapezius muscle is a back  
  muscle, but sits atop the shoulders and 
  connects to the back of the neck. The 
  visible portion on either side of the neck 
  creates a coathanger-like rhythm, which 
  goes from the acromium processes at the 
  shoulders to above the seventh cervical 
  vertebrae, along the clavicles and 
  across the sternal notch. From 
  three-quarter view to proﬁle, the 
  trapezius muscle is a ramp, 
  taking up about half the space 
  of the top plane of the torso. 
  The ramp varies in height 
  depending upon athletic build.
  from either side of the body. Neglecting 
  to draw the centre line in your structure 
  is like forgetting to bring the manager 
  along to the big game.
  If you don’t use boxes to design the pelvis 
  and the ribcage, the next step is to find the 
  three-quarter line of the figure, or where 
  the figure turns from the frontal planes to 
  the side of the body. In many poses, this 
  landmark can be as important as the centre 
  line: it’s a major breaking point in form, 
  critical to both the perspective and the 
  alignment of the limbs from the left side to 
  the right side of the figure.
  Torso muscles
  The front of the body is made up  
  of six major visible muscle groups:  
  the pectoralis muscles, the abdominal 
  muscles, the obliques, the serratus muscles, 
  the trapezius muscles and the lattisimus 
  muscles, which you can see if the arms are 
  lifted. Unfortunately, two of these muscle 
  groups have multiple heads to them, but 
  are well organised, so rendering them is 
  just a matter of finding the larger shape 
  that keeps the smaller ones organised 
  and harmonised.
  The body wedges down from the 
  acromium processes – the bumps at the 
  shoulders – and tapers to the base of the 
  crotch. The wedge forms the true front 
  plane of the body; the masses on either side 
  of the wedge taper at a sharp angle, and 
  become a part of the side planes of the 
  figure. The wedge form passes through 
  the coathanGer method  
  
  24
  Human anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  the obliques, or what we usually call 
  the spare tyre muscles. These muscles are 
  the soft mass between the ribcage and the 
  pelvis. They taper in narrowly at the ribcage 
  and widen at the hips, resting atop the iliac 
  crest. This wedge can be linked to the two 
  lines that form the neck in a rhythmical 
  relationship that helps keep the oblique 
  muscles from becoming too unusual in 
  their shape design. The obliques form true 
  side walls – perpendicular planes to the 
  front and back planes of the body – and 
  blend with the angular sides of the ribcage.
  The torso is extremely pliable between 
  the ribcage and pelvis. The further you 
  push the rhythm between these two 
  shapes, the more convincing the action 
  design will feel. The muscles on the front 
  of the body are very pliable and can be 
  stretched and twisted as much as needed 
  to help enhance the gesture of the pose. 
  It’s very important to start the pose with 
  the gesture first, to seize the moment and 
  the action. Then you can proceed to the 
  structure of the pose, and finally the design 
  and articulation of the muscle groups in 
  the body.
  If the gesture is dynamic, the muscles 
  must follow that dynamic. Don’t stiffen up 
  the design at this point in the drawing. 
  Everything is pliable, no matter how 
  geometrically you might draw your 
  pictures, and the shapes you design for  
  the muscles must not stiffen up in the 
  dynamic gesture you’ve created. Many 
  comic book images show this latter trait, 
  especially comics from the 80s and 90s. If 
  you can find a few examples, they serve 
  Here are a few ways to start the torso. The ﬁrst is 
  angular, the second box-like, the third spherical. 
  There is no right or wrong set of shapes, but there 
  may be confusion in the structural design if there 
  are too many shapes to start with. A more 
  harmonious way is to maintain a shape design 
  consistency throughout. These shapes are 
  ﬂexible, bending on the spinal axis.
  Here’s how to build up a complete ﬁgure, 
  starting with the core. Use a rhythmical cylinder 
  form to start the pose (A), then ﬁnd the ribcage 
  and pelvis forms within the rhythm lines; look for 
  key bony points to keep the shapes squared up 
  from top to bottom, and to ﬁnd the compression 
  between them. Then the perspective is designed 
  (B) with the three-quarter line drawn into the 
  ﬁgure to help keep the muscle forms from 
  drifting too close to the right arm. The muscle 
  rhythm lines are then added to ﬁll out the 
  anatomy structure (C). All this should be done 
  lightly so it can be easily removed when the ﬁnal 
  rendering takes form. When everything is 
  ﬁnished, most of the anatomy will not be visible 
  (D), but the bumps and little dark markings 
  drawn in the pose will have a more visual 
  believability and more accurate design to them.
  draWinG the 
  human fiGure: a 
  four-step Guide
  GettinG the torso started
   Neglecting to draw in the 
  centre line is like forgetting  
  to bring the manager along  
  to the big game 
  a
  B
  c
  D
    
  
  25
  Part 2 The torso
  Presents Anatomy
  a pinch here, a 
  stretch there
  All the abs stacked up on each other have a 
  rhythmical relationship to one another, as all the 
  head divisions can be connected together at a 
  point to the side of the body. This relationship 
  keeps all the muscle heads organised in the 
  architecture of the bones of the torso.
  WorkinG the six-pack
  The serratus muscles 
  connect the scapula to the 
  ribcage from beneath the 
  scapula. The muscle heads 
  originate along the inside 
  edge of the scapulae on the 
  back, closest to the spine,  
  and terminate halfway 
  along the ﬁrst nine ribs. 
  These muscles insert snugly 
  into the obliques, and 
  radiate in an arc on the side 
  of the body, with all the 
  muscles fanning out from 
  top to bottom.
  Seen from proﬁle, the abdominal muscles  
  each have a different type of contour. The  
  top two muscles are angular: the top heads 
  predominantly face up over the ribcage  
  and the second set of heads face downward. 
  The middle heads face ﬂat forward and  
  the lower abs bulge at the top in a rounded 
  taper towards the base of the pelvis. The 
  muscles have this structural design to help  
  when the body leans forward. 
  The ﬁgure on the far right has been  
  drawn using construction forms to keep 
  the anatomy geometric, planar and simple. 
  The right side is pinching or bending in; as  
  a result, the shapes on the right proﬁle  
  all take on a bulging appearance from 
  compression. The left side of the ﬁgure is 
  stretched out, and the shapes relate to this.
  sortinG out  
  the connections   
  
  26
  Human anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  as a good lesson in what not to do 
  when anatomy meets gesture.
  As always with anatomy, no matter 
  how much you know, there’s always more 
  to learn. Remember: the key is to practise, 
  practise and practise some more – and to 
  have fun doing it. 
   The muscles on the front of the 
  body are very pliable and can be 
  stretched and twisted as much as 
  needed to help enhance the pose 
  makinG 
  it fit
  The drawing is never 
  correct until the whole 
  has been established. 
  This means that to 
  understand the 
  relationships of the 
  parts, you must see them 
  all assembled together.  
  Don’t become critical  
  of one drawn line; try  
  to draw the entire pose 
  quickly, then assess as a 
  whole what can be fixed 
  or altered to create  
  a stronger, more 
  convincing pose.
  hoW the torso rotates
  The obliques are the big muscles that bend and rotate the torso of the body. The ﬂank portion of the 
  muscle sits between the ribcage and pelvis on the sides of the body. The ﬂank drapes over the iliac crest, 
  giving the pelvis what looks like a downturn on the tops, rather than the upturn of the bones’ design. 
  They have three distinct visible planes from the side of the torso. The rest of the oblique travels up the 
  ribcage and laces together with the serratus muscles, and blends to the abdominal appaneurosis. 
    
  
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  Presents Anatomy
  27
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  Presents Anatomy
  PART 3
  Human anatomy
  Drawing
   the legs
  he legs provide support for the 
  body and power much of its 
  movement. Like the arm, the 
  leg has groups of muscles that 
  oppose one another in their action. For 
  example, the quadriceps at the front of the 
  body are used to extend the leg, with the 
  bicep femoris, semi membranosis and 
  tendonosis acting as flexors. Both the arms 
  and the legs start wide at the torso and 
  taper to about half that width at the wrists 
  and ankles. The biggest structural 
  difference is the organisation of muscles 
  around the kneecap, which differs to the 
  ridge or rotator muscles in the elbow. 
  Now, without getting too caught up in 
  the names, let’s get down to discussing the 
  shapes and rhythms in a leg, breaking the 
  drawing down into easy steps.
  You should start with a simple gesture: 
  a line connected to the hips will do. The 
  hips are the pivot point for the legs, and act 
  as an axle. Remember that both sides of 
  the hips are fused together, unlike the 
  shoulders, which float independently of 
  each other. The tilt of the hips opposes the 
  angle of the shoulders, meaning that the 
  action at the top of the body is counter-
  balanced by the position of the lower body, 
  which creates stability. The hips can be 
  drawn as one of several different masses, 
  depending on your preferred drawing 
  methodology, but they all serve the same 
  function: volume and construction.
  Leg bones and muscles
  The pelvis is a narrow shape funnelling 
  inward towards its base. The wide point of 
  the hips is created by the femur and the hip 
  muscles, which are mostly responsible for 
  connecting the leg to the body, and fill in 
  the space between the pelvis and femur. 
  These hip muscles flair out in an A shape 
  and act in a broadly similar way to the 
  t
  Master your depiction of the limbs 
  that drive the rest of the body
  In a typical standing pose, unless the legs are 
  spread, one foot always sits directly below the 
  skull for balance at the two polar extremes of the 
  body. Notice how the hips move to 
  compensate for the tilt of the 
  shoulders. If the legs are spread, 
  they maintain an A-shape, 
  distributing the weight of the 
  ﬁgure evenly across the ground.
  28
  The relaTionship beTween 
  hips and shoulders in poses
  ron 
  lemen
  country: US
  See more of Ron’s work 
  at his website. 
  www.studio2ndstreet.com
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/a-legs
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  29
  Part 3 The legs
  Finding The big relaTional shapes in 
  poses where The Figure isn’T sTanding
  For compressed or seated poses, I like to start the gesture 
  of the pose by ﬁnding the big shapes – or, in this case, the 
  shape – that both legs create together. This abstraction 
  helps to strengthen the relationship between the 
  limbs, as well as keeping the legs relating to each 
  other dynamically and proportionately.
  shoulder muscles, which we look at in more 
  detail on page 38.
  Moving down the legs, the femurs both 
  taper inward, forming a semi-V shape 
  between them. The figure looks knock-
  kneed at this stage, but that’s normal until 
  we place muscles over the bones. In a 
  standing position, the knees are almost 
  directly below the iliac crests of the pelvis. 
  The thigh is divided into three major 
  masses: the front mass, which consists 
  mostly of the quadriceps and sartorius 
  muscles; the inside of the thigh, or adductor 
  muscles; and the back of the thigh, or the 
  bicep mass. All of these muscle groups start 
  out large – the muscle heads account for 
  about two thirds of the length of the leg 
  and taper around the knee as the muscles 
  terminate in tendons, exposing more bone 
  than they cover.
  Drawing arcs between all the joints and key 
  features relates the left and right sides 
  of the pose. Understanding ﬁgure 
  proportions related to skull size can 
  help you to interpret these arcs 
  with much greater clarity.
  draw arcs To 
  connecT key 
  areas TogeTher
   Remember that 
  both sides of the 
  hips are fused 
  together, unlike 
  the shoulders, 
  which float 
  independently of 
  each other 
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  30
  Human anatomy
  The kneecap itself is a small free-
  floating bone that hovers over the head of 
  the femur and is attached to the leg by 
  tendons coming from above and below the 
  cap. The most prominent of these tendons 
  is the large rope-like cord that extends 
  below the kneecap to the forward 
  protuberance of the tibia, or shin bone.
  The kneecap or patella is shaped 
  somewhat like a pentagon. When the 
  knee is bent, the larger shape of the leg 
  mass between the femur and the shin 
  bones echoes the shape of the 
  patella with a five-sided form. In 
  this position, the side walls are 
  more flat than angled.
  The lower leg is more 
  triangular than cylindrical in its 
  cross-section. The shin bones form a 
  wedge, with the sharp edge facing 
  forward and the wide side as the calf 
  muscles. The lower half of the 
  leg is about two thirds muscle 
  mass, tapering to a block 
  form at the ankles, with the inside of 
  the ankle higher than the outside. The 
  lower leg forms a bowling pin shape, 
  similar to the forearm, and the foot fits 
  When drawing the leg, keep in mind that the muscles spiral over the 
  form in an S-like rhythm. This rhythm is universal throughout the body, 
  but it’s particularly noticeable in the arm and leg muscles, so it’s good 
  to bear that in mind while drawing these areas. Rhythm keeps any 
  form from getting too stiff in its design. One of these S-curves is the 
  sartorius muscle, which is attached to the iliac crest and spirals down 
  and around the inner wall of the leg. It acts as a major landmark, 
  dividing muscle masses and surfaces like a fence between two 
  gardens. The iliotibial band does the same thing on the outside of the 
  leg. These divisions are usually where the strongest shadow patterns 
  are formed on the legs, regardless of how active the pose is.
  s-ForMs in leg Muscles
  The arm and leg have quite 
  similar proportions with 
  regard to tendon mass 
  versus muscle mass; even 
  the upper and lower 
  portions of the limbs have 
  similar divisions. The 
  upper two thirds of each 
  segment is muscle mass, 
  the upper third usually 
  contains the largest bulk of 
  muscle and the lower third 
  is mostly made up of bone 
  and tendon. The upper 
  part of each segment is 
  rounded like a cylinder, 
  and the lower parts (wrists 
  and ankles) terminate with 
  a block form.
  The knee can be 
  designed with three 
  vertical planes and three 
  horizontal planes, looking 
  like the top of a diamond. 
  Structuring the knee in 
  this way makes it much 
  easier to map the 
  undulating furrows of 
  the bones.
  S-curves are found  
  all over the body,  
  and the legs are no 
  exception. Here, the 
  S-curve is found not 
  only in large muscle 
  rhythms, but also in 
  the bones and their 
  connections. The 
  bones through the 
  knee into the shin 
  bone, and the smaller 
  bones around the 
  kneecap, hips and 
  ankles exemplify this.
  coMparing leg Muscles To 
  The arM sTrucTure, and 
  Mapping ouT The knee
  Notice how the leg and the arm are 
  similar to one another in their 
  physical structure. The biggest 
  differences between them are at 
  the joints, but the majority of 
  muscle masses resemble each 
  other in their structure.   
  
  Presents Anatomy
  31
  Part 3 The legs
  Although the legs are independent limbs, the muscles of both share 
  rhythms harmoniously. There are common rhythms that can be 
  found easily, but look deeper – the more the two legs can be 
  related, the more harmonious and ﬂuid the entire pose feels.
  Here you can see how the sartorius on the 
  inside of the leg splits the barrel shape into 
  two parts, while the iliotibial band on the 
  outside of the leg divides the front from the 
  back. These two prominent separations are 
  usually visible, so don’t ignore them.
  As bony as it looks, the shin is surrounded with 
  muscles. The outside surface has the most intricate 
  complexity to it, with a repetitious, organised pattern 
  of piston-shaped muscles.
  use pisTon shapes To capTure 
  The regulariTy oF The shin  
  
  Presents Anatomy
  32
  Human anatomy
  in neatly at the base of the pin.
  When developing the legs, stick to 
  the muscle groups rather than focusing in 
  on individual muscles. Only the muscles 
  that are being used should show more 
  detail, expanding as their fibres bunch 
  together. If unused or not fully taut, the 
  muscles blend into their respective groups 
  or, if really relaxed, back into their biggest 
  basic shape.
  One important point: remember that 
  legs come in pairs. Be sure to relate the two 
  legs to each other throughout the early 
  stages of the drawing, making sure that the 
  action doesn’t destroy the proportions and 
  balance of the pose. If the legs look off from 
  each other, then the entire pose feels off. 
  Balance starts from the bottom up, so if you 
  start the drawing with simple forms and 
  sound placement, the rest practically takes 
  care of itself. 
   Stick to muscle groups rather than 
  individual muscles. Only the muscles 
  that are being used show more detail, 
  expanding as their fibres bunch 
  build up leg MusculaTure in Three siMple sTages
  Start the pose off with cylinders: they’re 
  simple enough for anyone to draw. Once 
  the cylinders are placed and you’ve found 
  their centres, divide them into planes. 
  Beginning with simple surfaces is much 
  easier than trying to start with the 
  muscles, and the legs look more 
  organised as a result.
  Using the simple rules of form and function, you 
  should soon be able to work yourself up a pretty 
  ﬁne pair of legs. Just don’t forget to take 
  proportion and muscle use into account.
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
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  33
    
  
  Discover how to use form to create solid-looking feet – and 
  why you shouldn’t use too much detail when you draw them
  Drawing feet
  et’s clear the air about feet – 
  the ugly cousins to the hands 
  and a part of the body that 
  many artists dread to draw. 
  They’re bony, they’re complex and, let’s 
  face it, they’re not the nicest things to look 
  at. But anyone who’s serious about figure 
  drawing is going to have to tackle feet at 
  L
  some point. Even if you intend to only 
  ever draw characters who have shoes on, 
  your drawings will only be convincing if 
  you have a good grasp of how to structure 
  the feet inside the shoes.
  Storyboards, pin-ups, covers, character 
  designs, movie posters, comic books…  
  all of these are instances when you might 
  want to draw a full figure from head to 
  toe. This means that you have to put feet 
  on the legs. As painful as this can be to 
  master, it is a must-do, must-learn 
  situation. Here are some helpful hints and 
  solutions to tackling these little beauties, 
  helping you on your way to achieving the 
  sweetest feet. 
  ron 
  Lemen
  country: US
  See more of Ron’s work 
  at his website. 
  www.studio2ndstreet.com
  PART 4
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/a-feet
  34
  Human anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Let’s start by looking at size. The typical 
  foot is between 10 and 12 inches in 
  length. Roughly speaking, that’s about 
  as long as the entire skull from top to 
  chin. The foot’s width is a bit less than 
  half the width of the head, or about the 
  same width as the hand’s four fingers 
  (excluding the thumb). You can readily 
  see these measures for yourself with 
  your own hand and foot. 
  To start a full-figure drawing or even 
  a three-quarter drawing of a figure, it 
  would be wise to begin with the ground 
  plane to work out the correct perspective 
  in the shot, relating the figure to the rest 
  of the environment so it feels truly 
  planted in the world. The perspective will 
  help keep the foot in correct scale to how 
  you see the action, to the character’s head, 
  and to the viewer, as well as keeping it at 
  the correct skew – if there is any – from 
  camera distortion.
  I begin by drawing footprints on the 
  floor (or steps, or slope; wherever the foot 
  is to be located). This can make it easier to 
  draw the legs with the right foreshortened 
  look to them and with the correct action 
  to the pose.
  Boots and shoes usually cover the feet, 
  but I recommend that you start with the 
  foot without a cover over it, so there’s a 
  proper scale of foot size to the figure 
  before any distortion created by the shoe 
  design occurs. Feet are sometimes drawn 
  oversized for weighting or stylistic 
  reasons, but I would still draw the foot 
  bare before covering it with a  
  big shoe design, so that the foot 
  relates back to the scale of the rest 
  of the character.
  Toes are bulbous at the end, 
  which means they’re rounded like a 
  bubble, but squish flat when pressed 
  against a surface. When this happens, the 
  toe mass spreads out a bit further than the 
  toe’s actual size, usually joining toes 
  where they come together. If this is the 
  case, don’t draw lines in between each 
  toe: this has the visual effect of spreading 
  Get a foothold: 
  drawing perfect feet
  Put feet into perspective and start with footprints 
  as the foundation for the correct overall pose
  Be careful not to over-render the foot,  
  or it can draw too much attention.
  them apart from each other. Use simple 
  tones or light gradations to join the mass 
  and separate the toes.
  Toes step downward like stairs from the 
  metatarsal bone to the toe’s tip. There are 
  many little complex surfaces, from bone 
  top to knuckles and nails, that can be 
  rendered or shaded to give the feet more 
  dimension and complexity. 
  Defining the toes
  Be careful not to add too much detail to 
  the toes if the foot is small in the 
  illustration: too much rendering in such 
  concentrated spaces can force the rest of 
  the illustration towards a direction of 
  over-rendering. It can also push the focus 
  to the bottom of the picture in the same 
  way as under-scaling the feet, unless you 
  catch the mistake early enough.
  The bottom of the foot has an arch on 
  the inside and two separate pads that 
  squish to whatever they press against, 
  creating a straight line. The toes bend 
  about a third of the way back behind the 
  ball of the foot. When the toes spread, the 
  biggest separation occurs between the big 
  toe and the second toe. The little toe is 
  usually drawn as a bulbous shape. It 
  typically floats a bit more off the 
  The footprint is as long as the entire skull from top to 
  bottom – the same way the hand is the same length as 
  the face from hairline to chin.
  Drawing the footprint ﬁrst helps you ground 
  the foot to the surface it’s connected with.
  As the ﬁgure’s leg lifts, the toes on the 
  ground spread out – one of the few times 
  they can be drawn separated.
  The toes bend behind the ball of 
  the foot, not in front of it.
   Begin with the ground 
  plane to work out the correct 
  perspective in the shot 
  35
  Part 4 The feet
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Feet From the GrounD uP: usinG Form anD PersPective
  Whether they’re drawn from head to toe 
  or cropped, all figures have a better 
  chance of looking convincing if they 
  are related to a ground plane. 
  Everything in space is related 
  to perspective: the figure is 
  no exception. Once the 
  ground plane is established, 
  stamp out the footprints on it and draw 
  your figure to meet them, or draw up 
  from them to complete the figure 
  pose. This also applies to feet 
  elevated from the ground plane. 
  Determine where the figure is in 
  relatinG a FiGure  
  to the GrounD 
  Draw the foot with straight lines 
  along the surface it’s pressed 
  against, rather than drawing  
  it rounded, the way you 
  know it to be. This will 
  create a stronger-
  looking connection 
  with the surface it 
  is active with.
  terms of the ground plane 
  to help elevate the foot 
  correctly, in relationship to 
  the surrounding space and to 
  the viewer. Drawing from 
  the footprint to the torso 
  sometimes helps solve tough 
  foreshortening problems.
  Relating your ﬁgures to footprints drawn along a 
  ground plane will help maintain a sense of perspective 
  and make characters more believable.
  36
  Human anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  connectinG  
  the Foot to the 
  leGs oF your 
  character
  ground when the foot is arched up, 
  but with the toes still making contact 
  with the ground plane. The big toe points 
  in towards the other four toes, and these 
  toes bend towards the big toe. 
  Don’t forget that the foot is a full 
  shape with six sides, like a block, with 
  corresponding shading planes. Draw 
  through the form to generate a more 
  solid-looking and  dimensional form.
  When you’ve perfected your feet, 
  you’ll want to add them to the rest of the 
  character. Now’s the time to consider 
  ankles and legs. See in my diagrams 
  above how I’ve drawn the right foot and 
  started to attach it to the right leg. I’ve 
  shown the connection from a front 
  perspective in these examples.
  The ankles connect the feet to the 
  legs. For easier ankle drawing, it helps 
  to think of them as a stirrup-like 
  shape. The inside anklebone is more 
  elevated than the outside one. 
  Feet have typically been the bane of 
  many artists. Some illustrators hide them 
  with smoke, push them into silhouettes 
  and shadows or even crop the image to 
  avoid drawing them. But when an artist 
  can draw them correctly, how much 
  character they add to the image! The 
  hands and feet can say just as much as 
  a convincing facial expression. 
  Because of their complexity and gesture 
  or action, feet usually become a secondary 
  or tertiary focus in a figure drawing. It’s a 
  good idea to tackle these difficult issues 
  early on and ideally make it second nature 
  to design them convincingly. You would 
  be surprised how many people will 
  comment on how well feet are drawn if 
  they really are; it’s not every day that you 
  find an artist with a real understanding of 
  the ground they stand upon. 
  Overlap the toes when the 
  foot is not drawn straight on. 
  This will avoid the ‘clump of 
  bananas’ look, and help the 
  foot look less cartoony.
  Like the foot itself, the toes are 
  block-like. Start with simple 
  shapes to achieve a sense of 
  mass and dimensionality, then 
  create more bulbous forms. 
   Start without boots or shoes to get 
  a proper scale of foot size that relates 
  to the rest of the character 
  The ankles can be thought of as a stirrup shape 
  to help relate them to one another. The inside 
  anklebone (maleolus) is higher in elevation than 
  the outside ankle bone.
  To achieve a more solid 
  dimensional form, bear in 
  mind that the foot is a full 
  shape with six sides.
  37
  Part 4 The feet
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Don’t allow the complex interaction of muscles in this area 
  to distract you from anatomy’s guiding principles
  Drawing The 
  ShoulDer anD 
  upper arm
  o far we’ve seen how to define 
  the armature of the figure 
  and its underlying gesture, 
  before starting to flesh our 
  figure out with the torso and legs. We 
  continue our journey with the upper part 
  of the arms and the way they connect to 
  S
  the shoulder, one of the more complicated 
  spots on the body to draw. The place to 
  start is at the skeletal structure. 
  Understand the shape of the scapula and 
  humerus, especially the edges of the 
  scapula and the ends of the humerus. 
  Without knowing the bones and their 
  shapes, the muscles have nowhere to start 
  or terminate. Keep in mind that the 
  diagrams I have drawn are mostly fleshed 
  over, so the points where the muscles 
  attach are covered – but the shapes are 
  solid and directional, because of where 
  the muscles attach to the bones. 
  PART 5
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/ashoulders
  38
  Human anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  ron 
  lemen
  counTry: US
  See more of Ron’s work 
  at his website. 
  www.studio2ndstreet.com
    
  
  Drawing this part of the body begins 
  much like any other part. First gesture in 
  the pose, then accent the lines you feel 
  good about using for the final pose before 
  starting to define the body masses in 
  more detail.
  When drawing the figure, a clear 
  understanding not just of the muscles, 
  but what the skeleton looks like beneath 
  all the muscle masses is needed to draw 
  muscles with any believable visual action 
  to them. Without this understanding and 
  observation, the muscles can end up 
  drawn as bubble shapes that are lifeless, 
  weightless or competing against the 
  action you want to depict.
  Shoulder structure
  The shoulder floats over the ribcage, with 
  only the clavicle at the sternum on the 
  ribcage acting as an anchor for the entire 
  arm. This means that the arm has  
  a lot of free motion over the ribcage.
  When drawing the arm connected to 
  the body, you need to first find the correct 
  action of the shoulder to avoid a stiff-
  looking drawing. For example, if the 
  arm is winding up to throw a ball, the 
  Learning the relationships 
  between muscle and bone
  Drawing the shoulders to complement 
  the action of the upper arm muscles
  This drawing is all about the shoulders and the upper arms. Note how the shape and 
  form of the forward-pointing left arm is entirely different to the right. Think about 
  how the muscles and bones are moving and interacting with the skin and the light.
  The shoulder has quite a bit of 
  movement around the ribcage. Here 
  you can see three positions of the 
  arm. The ﬁrst is forward, moving the 
  attachment of the deltoid forward and 
  stretching the shoulder muscles. The 
  second is in a reference position, by the 
  side of the ribcage. More of the back 
  of the arm and shoulder show when 
  the arm is relaxed in this position. 
  Meanwhile, for the third position, the 
  shoulder is pitched back behind the 
  body. The shoulder is now behind the 
  ribcage, stretching the pectoralis 
  muscles and serratus muscles.
  Here we see the shoulder from 
  behind the ribcage. Line A of 
  the ﬁrst ribcage represents the 
  rhomboid and trapezius muscles, 
  bunched up between the spine 
  and the spine of the scapula. Line 
  B represents the crease under the 
  scapula that follows the serratus 
  muscles. Line C splits around 
  halfway between the shoulder 
  muscles perpendicularly.
   Don’t memorise the muscle chart. 
  Memorise the muscle insertions and 
  connections to the bones 
  three principAL 
  stAges of Arm 
  movement
  39
  Part 5 Shoulders & upper arms
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  shoulder will be towards the back of 
  the ribcage. If the arm has released the 
  ball in the throw, the shoulder will be 
  more forward over the ribcage. If the 
  hands are held high above the head, the 
  shoulders are closer to the ears.  
  Each set of muscles crosses over from 
  one bone to another. For example, the 
  shoulder starts in the torso, connects to 
  the clavicle and the scapula, and 
  terminates at (or crosses over and inserts 
  onto) the upper arm bone, known more 
  formally as the humerus. 
  The muscles of the upper arm originate 
  both on the humerus and on the scapula, 
  and terminate on the two forearm bones, 
  known as the ulna and the radius. The 
  hands and feet are a few places on the 
  body where the muscles are referred to as 
  intrinsic: they stay within the bone mass. 
  Otherwise, muscles connect two or more 
  different bone groups together.
  The scapula floats over the serratus 
  muscles, which we see as little bump 
  muscles on the ribcage under each arm, 
  or the ‘superhero muscles’. The shoulder 
  muscles all start on the spine edge of the 
  scapula, and cross over to the top or the 
  upper third of the humerus. These four 
  muscles help rotate the upper arm rotate 
  out and in from our body – when you 
  hold both your arms out like a cross, 
   When drawing the arm connected to the body,  
  we need to first find the correct action of the 
  shoulder in order to avoid a stiff looking drawing 
  Here are the two approaches previously described to start the ﬁgure drawing: the abstraction 
  method, and the shape-ﬁnding or Industrial Design method. Both methods lead to very similar 
  conclusions. Remember: the most important concept you can get from both is that it’s only about 
  starting the ﬁgure to get it set up for the ﬁnish, where the drawing really counts.
  These lines represent the rhythm lines, or  
  the abstraction lines that ﬂow between the 
  muscles once the architecture has been 
  designed. These lines help harmonise the 
  muscle forms to create a seamless rhythmical 
  movement of muscles, bones and ligaments.
  foLLowing 
  the rhythm 
  of muscLes
  perspective AnD DynAmism in muscLe Design
  40
  Human anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Draw muscles with simple geometry to understand and memorise them, 
  or to turn them into something that you can remember easily. Here are 
  the four muscles inside the scapula. Each muscle is drawn individually 
  to help you understand the shape, where it starts – or where it’s connected 
  – and where it goes to. This is important information to remember, because all 
  the lumps, bumps, dark spots and highlights you see on the back only show up 
  when the arm is active. 
  the geometry of the humAn form
  41
  Part 5 Shoulders & upper arms
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  for example, or when you put both 
  hands behind your back, as if handcuffed.
  The deltoid covers part of these muscles 
  and wraps around the top of the arm. It 
  functions as a swivel muscle, or the 
  muscle that enables you to swing your 
  arm round like a wheel. Then we have the 
  biceps and triceps. These muscles cross 
  over to the forearm bones at the top third 
  of the the humerus. The triceps extend or 
  straighten out the arm; the biceps flex it 
  or draw it into the body.
  I urge caution in learning and drawing 
  muscle distribution. Don’t memorise a 
  muscle chart. Memorise the muscle 
  insertions and connections to the 
  bones, or where the muscles originate 
  from and where they end on the 
  skeleton. Learn their function and 
  action and group them so you are 
  not drawing every muscle.
  Shoulder structure
  Let’s now have a look at the 
  anatomy of the upper arm and 
  shoulder. These muscles in particular 
  should be drawn only when active, not 
  charted and shaded like a muscle 
  diagram: most humans don’t normally 
  look this way, even when well developed. 
  Body-builders create a Living Human 
  Anatomy Chart with their bodies, and we 
  should thank them to some degree – but 
  keep in mind that these muscles are 
  developed to their limits, and are not 
  the shapes we easily identify with.
  The muscle charts you see in an anatomy 
  book are based on medically ideal bodies. 
  In reality, the size and scale of each 
  muscle vary from person to person, based 
  on their personal activity, diet and other 
  factors. The anatomy books start us at an 
  ideal point of reference. To accommodate 
  all possible body types, you will have to 
  veer away from these and use your eye 
  and guiding principles instead. Art rules 
  are a starting point, only meant to 
   The muscles should be drawn  
  only when active, not charted and 
  shaded like a muscle diagram 
  Here, the arm is pulled behind 
  the body, causing several 
  creases to occur. These 
  creases run perpendicular to 
  the muscle striations of the 
  muscle heads. The three 
  creases here are along the 
  base of the oblique; under the 
  serratus muscles and through 
  the lattisimus and the 
  rhomboid; and under the 
  scapulas base edge.
  how muscLes connect, move AnD interAct
  42
  Human anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  be altered with care to enhance our 
  individual ways of working, which are 
  as unique as we are to one another.
  By examining not only the limb, but 
  each and every part of the limb, you will 
  have a better understanding of what to 
  draw and how to make the actions 
  look convincing. Studying the 
  limbs one section at a 
  time makes learning 
  and memorising the 
  information much 
  easier to digest.
  Anatomy is a large 
  subject to tackle, but it 
  needn’t be difﬁcult once you conquer the 
  basics. Breaking each limb down into 
  sections not only helps you take in the 
  information quicker, but also helps to 
  isolate the importance of each part of the 
  body and the important individual 
  characteristics related to those regions. 
  Practise ’til it hurts, then practise some 
  more. Mileage is the key to artistic 
  progress. Enjoy! 
  Anatomy books and live models are 
  very different to look at. Here are a few 
  points to help make studying easier. 
  First, anatomy books have no skin. A 
  quarter-inch of volume, if not more, 
  needs to be added to the muscle mass. 
  Think of it as a blanket resting on the 
  muscles. This brings up the second 
  point: skin is a cover. When the arm is 
  pulled behind the body, the skin creases 
  vertically through the shoulder instead 
  of following the muscles horizontally 
  across the back. The muscle fibres go 
  one way; the skin creases perpendicular 
  to them. This occurs everywhere on the 
  body. Finally, more important than 
  memorising the muscles is 
  knowing when to draw 
  them. A chart shows you 
  how the human 
  machine works, 
  but muscles 
  are only 
  clearly 
  visible 
  when active. 
  At rest, the muscles 
  blend into a more 
  generic, simpler shape, 
  similar to the visual 
  metaphors you’re using to 
  decipher drawing the body.
  sheAthing 
  over the 
  muscLe mAss
  reLAtionships with the skin
  Here we see the shoulders in two positions: forward and behind. The left image 
  shows the vertical striations over the muscles where the skin should fold (line A over 
  the shoulder blade, and line B where the rhomboid meets the shoulder blade). The 
  right image shows the muscles from the scapula stretching with the action.
  This version of the shoulders shows the arms from in front and below the ﬁgure.  
  Note how the muscles of the deltoids, pectoralis, serratus and, eventually, the abs 
  and obliques all ﬂow seamlessly together in their striations, and radiate from the 
  shoulders through to the pelvis on either side of the body, using the shoulder as the 
  point of radiation. The deltoid muscles are draped over the arms, seen both from in 
  front and behind. Think of the muscle draped like a towel over the shoulder.
  43
  Part 5 Shoulders & upper arms
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  Drawing the 
  Forearms
  n the previous 
  section, I went 
  over the actions 
  of the upper arm, 
  starting with the shoulder 
  blade. This time we’ll touch on 
  the rest of the arm, from the 
  elbow down to the wrist. 
  Before discussing the specific 
  anatomy, however, I want to 
  mention something about 
  function. Each segment of the 
  body operates the next one down the 
  chain. For example, the muscles of the 
  shoulder function to lift the arm, the 
  biceps and triceps operate the forearm, 
  and the forearm muscles dictate the 
  actions of the hand. This rule is important 
  to remember when drawing: it helps you 
  to avoid stiffness in your composition by 
  making you think not so much of 
  individual segments, but of the action as 
  a whole. This is something we can think 
  about another time, but it’s important to 
  i
  It may seem like a simple area of the body, 
  but the forearm is more sophisticated – 
  and elegant – than you suspect
  PART 6
  44
  Human anatomy
  ron 
  Lemen
  country: US
  See more of Ron’s work 
  at his website. 
  www.studio2ndstreet.com
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/aforearms
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  know and consider when learning how 
  to dictate human anatomy.
  A function unique to the arm is the 
  work of the rotator muscles, also known 
  as the ridge or supinator muscles. In 
  opposition to this group of muscles is  
  the pronator teres – a muscle that’s on the 
  inside of the arm below the biceps. This 
  group of muscles occupies the upper third 
  of the forearm. The supinators originate 
  about a third of the way down the 
  Muscle segMents as lInks of a chaIn
  The muscles on this cast are over-developed to 
  emphasise their artistic shape and construction. 
  The slightly rounder forms also lend themselves  
  to more dynamic and ﬂuid rhythm lines.
  Muscle MoveMent
   The muscles of the  
  shoulder function to lift the  
  arm; the biceps and triceps 
  operate the forearm 
  This diagram shows the way the muscles cross over the 
  bones, or spiral from one side of the arm to the other.  
  The muscles as a group are all attached in roughly the 
  same location, then spread across the wrist before 
  terminating in the hand or at the ﬁngertips.
  45
  Part 6 The forearms
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  humerus and split the biceps and 
  triceps. These muscles rotate the hand left 
  and right, and flex or extend it. Now, 
  contrary to what I see drawn a lot, the 
  ridge muscles don’t have a crease  
  in them when the arm is bent. The crease 
  you see is skin folding, not the 
  muscle. Think of the muscle as a 
  cable or a piston – neither of these 
  objects fold over on themselves. 
  Instead, they go slack. As a rule, 
  skin folds perpendicular to 
  muscle fibres, and this is what’s 
  taking place in this region. The 
  skin folds, the muscle stays 
  the same shape – just 
  compressed a little bit more.
  When the hand is 
  pronated, the ridge muscles 
  cross over from the outside 
  to the inside edge of the 
  arm. The ridge muscles 
  attach just below the thumb 
  so, as a rule of thumb (sorry, 
  couldn’t help it), wherever 
  the thumb is, the ridge 
  muscles are  
  pointing to it. The ridge 
  muscles break up the even 
  symmetry between the arm’s 
  outside and inside edges.
  One way to remember where 
  and how all these muscles work 
  together is to think of the arm as a series 
  of chain links. Each link alternates 
  direction, and that’s what the arm does 
  from shoulder to hand. For the arm to 
  fold in on itself, or flex, the muscles have 
  to be positioned to interlock with each 
  other to prevent any conflict of space 
  between all the mechanical parts 
  within the arm mass. Examples on 
  page 45 show this further.
  Ridge muscles
  The ridge muscles share in the profile 
  of the flexors and the extensors, 
  blending into both sides in the upper 
  third of the forearm. The inside of the 
  arm seats the flexor group – the set of 
  muscles that flexes the hand toward the 
  body. The brachioradialis – the 
  biggest muscle of the group – 
  overlaps onto the inside surface of 
  the arm, the opposing mass to the 
  flexor group and pronator teres. Both 
  these sets of muscles funnel together 
  Muscles involved in a particular 
  activity will tense – or the 
  muscle form will accentuate – 
  more than the muscles not 
  directly related to the action. 
  The body shouldn’t be drawn 
  like a muscle chart, or it won’t 
  look convincing. Use the 
  anatomy you learn only to fix 
  problems in a drawing or to simplify 
  complex posing. Use your 
  knowledge in moderation related to 
  the action of the pose – otherwise 
  you should leave it out.
  notIng how Muscles 
  change wIth actIvIty
  This arm was drawn from a photo of a body- 
  builder, so the muscles are more visible in their 
  construction than in the average person. 
  Weightlifters idealise their bodies, sculpting 
  the muscles to perfection under the the skin, 
  like walking anatomy charts. 
  Here is an arm drawn from the underside, with  
  the ulnar crest over-emphasised to show where 
  it is and how it separates the ﬂexor and extensor 
  muscle groups. This bone ridge is over-
  emphasised to show how the bone travels  
  from the elbow to the wrist.
  exaggerate 
  the bone 
  structure
   Contrary to what I see drawn a lot, the ridge 
  muscles do not have a crease in them. The crease 
  you see is the skin folding, not the muscle 
  46
  Human anatomy
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  If the muscles are grouped together, they can all be paired to make drawing them easier to 
  manage. The forearm is drawn foreshortened to show the relationship between the generic 
  shape design and the signiﬁcant anatomy underneath. The anatomy design is missing the 
  pronator muscle to show how the ﬂexors and extensors are separated by the bone structure.
  fIttIng the Muscles together
  47
  Part 6 The forearms
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  below the bicep to form the pocket it 
  sits inside of when the arm is bent. The 
  extensor carpi muscles – two more 
  muscles belonging to the ridge group – 
  blend in with the extensors at the elbow 
  and then across the top of the arm. On 
  the other side of the arm, the extensors 
  and flexors are separated by the ulna 
  bone – a split in the muscles known as 
  the ulna crest.  
  The flexors originate at the elbow on 
  the inside bump (known as the medial 
  epicondyle) of the humerus, the bone that 
  connects the arm to the shoulder (also 
  often known as the upper arm). The 
  muscles cross over the two bones of the 
  forearm – the ulna and radius. Most 
  flexors terminate at the fingertips, while 
  a few terminate in the palm of the hand. 
  There are many layers of flexor muscles. 
  Because the flexing of the hand – for 
  gripping, holding and so on – is its 
  primary functions, more muscles are 
  assigned to assist these actions.
  The extensors originate from the 
  outside bump of the arm (the lateral 
  epicondyle) and cross over the two bones 
  of the forearm, spreading out across the 
  topside of the arm and terminating at the 
  fingertips. These muscles are responsible 
  for opening the hand and pulling back in 
  a halt position – the opposing functions 
  of the flexor group, in other words. The 
  extensor group is the most active of the 
  forearm muscles. If you’re drawing 
   As flexing, gripping, holding and so on are the 
  primary functions of the hand, more muscles are 
  attributed to assist in these actions 
  understandIng how Muscles work beneath the skIn
  Study anatomy from every book you 
  can ﬁnd, including muscle magazines 
  and ﬁtness books. Don’t just copy the 
  drawings: examine the construction, 
  memorise the names and the bones. 
  Then practise whenever you can, 
  redraw the charts and label them from 
  your head. Drawing the chart once or 
  twice is not enough to memorise them. 
  Drawing from memory helps you reﬂect 
  on how much has been absorbed.
  48
  Human anatomy
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  superheroes or some other idealised 
  body form, the inside of the arm 
  (flexors) is a big ball-type shape, while 
  the extensors are a series of pipes 
  radiating from the elbow.  
  All of the forearm muscle tendons are 
  protected as they pass over the wrist by 
  the retinaculum. This might look like a 
  wrist band, but it attaches separately to 
  both the top and the bottom of the hand. 
  This keeps the tendons from popping out 
  any old way from the arm.
  When drawing the arm, you should 
  keep in mind that grouping the muscles 
  together is a better way to begin than 
  drawing the individual shapes. Drawing 
  the figure one muscle at a time is painful 
  and more than likely going to grow into 
  its own unique shape – one that doesn’t 
  necessarily resemble a real figure. The 
  visual symbols in the images here should 
  help make some sense of what I mean by 
  this. Study the muscles as one exercise, 
  buIldIng up the arM 
  In four sIMple stages
  but learn to consolidate them into groups 
  as another exercise – and as a mantra for 
  your work.
  Drawing is not about parts: drawing is 
  about suspension of disbelief, fooling the 
  eye into believing what is seen. We study 
  parts to identify them as a function, only 
  to throw them back into the pile of tools 
  called intuition. 
  Figure 1 locates the arm in space and its 
  action. Figure 1b then describes the simple 
  cylinder forms ﬂeshed over the action lines. 
  Figure 2 is a simple version of what the muscle 
  shapes might look like as other shapes. Figure 
  3 is the anatomically ﬂeshed out version of the 
  arm. The next step (not shown here) would be 
  to ﬂesh out the rendering and lose most of the 
  anatomy chart to light and shade.
  49
  Part 6 The forearms
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  50
  Human anatomy
  Many artists fear drawing this part of the body, but apply 
  the principles you’ve learned and learn the anatomy, and 
  you’ll find the process much easier
  Drawing  
  the hanDs
  efore diving into further 
  drawing advice, let’s think 
  about a few concepts to help 
  make the process of drawing 
  a complex shape such as the hand easier. 
  The hand actually has very few muscles 
  in it: its mechanics are guided by the 
  forearm, and its design is based mostly 
  on bone and fatty tissue. The thumb is a 
  distinct shape rooted to the hand mass 
  and should be drawn into the image after 
  the bigger mass has been designed. The 
  four main fingers all radiate toward a 
  common point: the index finger and the 
  pinkie curve toward each other, and the 
  other two fingers fit somewhere between 
  them. The fingers are not parallel with 
  each other, although some actions may 
  make it seem that way. Fingernails and 
  knuckles are details: leave them until last. 
  It’s important to keep steps in their 
  particular order while you absorb the 
  process behind them: whether the 
  drawing you’re making is simple or 
  complex, if something falls apart, it’s 
  easier to detect where it went wrong in the 
  process. Once you’re confident and well-
  trained in your craft, it’s up to you to find 
  your own way of working, and you may 
  well deviate from the academic or school-
  taught way. This is where you will find 
  your independent style – not in copying 
  B
  others, but in reassessing your working 
  order. Learn it right, then break the rules 
  and tools if you choose, and find your 
  own voice. 
  Hands can be convincingly drawn 
  interacting with objects or surfaces. I can’t 
  stress enough that learning from life is the 
  key to understanding everything you’ll 
  ever need to know in art. While art books 
  might give a cool trick for getting a certain 
  look or appearance, solving the problem 
  dimensionally or from every angle will 
  give so much more wisdom and insight. 
  If you can’t take an art class, use a mirror. 
  You can use yourself to study from, and 
  you don’t have to pay a model fee.
  Starting with the 
  overall gesture 
  of a pose helps 
  you design 
  realistic hands.
  PART 7
  ron 
  Lemen
  country: US
  See more of Ron’s work 
  at his website. 
  www.studio2ndstreet.com
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/a-hands
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  51
  Part 7 The hands
  Anatomy is important – but more so to 
  a doctor than to an artist. The part of 
  anatomy you should be first concerned 
  with is the shape design, and how can you 
  simplify your thinking and drawing down 
  to the core essence of these shapes. 
  Finger bones have a particular design to 
  them. The fingers are more than 60 per cent 
  visible bone shapes defining what we see, 
  so understanding the finger bone or knuckle 
  shapes is key in making a more convincing 
  drawing. The finger joints are spool-shaped, 
  depressed slightly in the middles for the 
  tendons of the extensor muscles of the 
  forearm. The metacarpal knuckle – the big 
  one the finger is attached to – is barrel-
  shaped, not totally spherical, and the 
  tendons that sit in the grooves of the spool 
  shapes on our fingers sit on top of the 
  barrel-shaped knuckle. As research, look at 
  Norman Rockwell’s hands in his paintings. 
  He did it better than almost any other 
  illustrator out there.
  The hand has a squishy side and a firm 
  side. The squishy side – the palm – is where 
  the majority of muscles of the hand are 
  located. The other visible soft spot is 
  between the thumb and index finger on 
  the hand’s back, or dorsal, side. These soft 
  areas are the points on the hand that flex 
  and change shape when active with an 
  object or surface. The hand then conforms 
  to the shape of the object it holds. This 
  last detail can really throw off the best of 
  us at times – unless you remind yourself 
  of a few basic concepts of construction 
  that you can fall back on.
  Mechanics of anatomy
  Different hands can look like they are 
  different shapes – babies’ hands, for 
  example, are chubbier than old people’s. 
  But we are built similarly, our hands 
  included. The hand is blocky by nature: it 
  has mass, a top, a bottom, sides, a front 
  and a back. The hand is also circular, as it 
  swivels and pivots in the wrist.
  When the fingers are pressed together, 
  the hand looks like a spade. This is where 
  you want to start drawing the hand.
  Imagining the hand as a soft, blocky 
  form, something akin to a sponge in 
  texture, helps you to remember what 
  you’re drawing is a physical object.
  Bone shapes
  Now ﬂesh out the 
  forms. This means 
  adding dimension to the 
  shapes by giving them planes.  
  To locate the ﬁnger segments, ﬁnd  
  the arcing lines: these segments arc  
  more than 90 per cent of the time. The arcs 
  determine the relationship of each particular 
  band of knuckles – proximal, middle or distal – from 
  ﬁnger to ﬁnger. Knuckles are knobby; either round 
  or blocky. However, you may ﬁnd that stylising will 
  change this blocky appearance. 
  soft spots
  hand holding 
  a Ball
  Start with the object to be held (the ball, 
  top). Next, add the arm rhythms and the ball 
  shape for the palm of the hand, then attach the 
  ﬁnger wires to the ball mass, These wires should 
  represent the absolute middle proﬁle contour, the 
  middle of the ﬁnger mass.
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  52
  Human anatomy
  If you can’t remember the anatomy, 
  remember the concepts: they’ll get you 
  through any doubts you have about what 
  you’re drawing.
  The fingers are roughly the same length 
  as the hand mass. Remembering this is a 
  good check-and-balance to make sure your 
  drawing’s proportions are right, even when 
  the fingers are folded and the hand is 
  foreshortened. Proportions have a way of 
  being understood even when obscured. 
  The ﬁnger wires are about  
  the same length as the  
  palm of the hand.
  Wire hand designs
  The hand is connected to the wrist, and so to the 
  rest of the body – so you can begin by sketching 
  an overall pose to ensure you pick the right hand 
  design. (Don’t take too long: it’s just a sketch.)
  draW an overall pose
  relative to the pose of my character, I can 
  work out the rest of the action.
  Interactive hands
  Another way of establishing the hand’s 
  interaction with an object would be to draw 
  the object, draw a hand print on the object 
  so you know where to define the details, 
  then build up off of the hand print all the 
  One method of 
  drawing the hand 
  interacting with an 
  object is to draw 
  the hand print on 
  the object ﬁrst.
  The hand is attached to the arm, and the 
  arm is an extension of the torso, so starting 
  with an overall gesture of the pose ensures 
  that the design you pick for the final hand 
  is correct. The hand position is relative to 
  the rotation of the arm (or its pronation or 
  supination). The sketch hopefully solves 
  the dilemma of how to start the design of 
  the hand. I sometimes think of designing 
  the hand in action by drawing the object 
  first. Once I know where the object is, 
  watch this!
  http://ifxm.ag/hand-ball
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  53
  Part 7 The hands
  The hand is spade-  
  or diamond-shaped 
  when the ﬁngers are 
  closed together.
  ConstruCting a hand
  Begin with the central part of the 
  hand. The lines indicate movement 
  and thumb position. 
  The different-coloured lines here indicate 
  the gesture of the hand and the character, 
  showing how the object sits in relation to 
  the character.
  Next, it’s time to sub-divide surfaces. Here, 
  I’m using the plane structure method to 
  chart values and tones across the surfaces, 
  working up from ﬂat values. 
  Only when all of this is done do I begin to 
  shade and detail the hand. Once I have the 
  hand shape rendered, I can then add 
  details such as creases, ﬁngernails and 
  knuckles to make it look realistic.
  draWing gripping hands
  Drawing the object ﬁrst helps you when drawing 
  the hand in action. Here, I’ve begun with the 
  object before using the weld line (shown in blue) 
  to connect the hand and object correctly.
  No matter how 
  much you see a little 
  space between the 
  joints, don’t make 
  them important.  
  Use the weld lines.
   Details sit better on the fingers 
  when they are well designed 
  dimensionally. Draw them last 
  formal shapes, the hand block, the finger 
  masses, and so on.
  The line that shows the connection with 
  the object is the weld line. Press it firmly 
  against the object, showing off the object’s 
  form more than the hand. No matter how 
  much you see a little space between the 
  joints, don’t make them important. Make 
  the weld line show off the action. 
  Draw details – fingernails, knuckles, 
  wrinkles – last. They sit better on the 
  fingers when they are well designed 
  dimensionally. Before this, render the 
  surfaces: find the shadow patterns, and 
  use planes to chart values across the 
  surfaces. This is what it means to render 
  a form; making a stronger visible shape, 
  not adding details. 
  watch this!
  http://ifxm.ag/handcircle
  watch this!
  http://ifxm.ag/hand-gun
  watch this!
  http://ifxm.ag/handglass  
  
  Break the skull and features into simple 
  forms to get the proportions right
  Drawing 
  the heaD
  The head is one of the most important parts of the 
  body to draw, so practise as much as you can.
  PART 8
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  ron 
  Lemen
  country: US
  See more of Ron’s work 
  at his website. 
  www.studio2ndstreet.com
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/a1-head
  55
  Part 8 The head
  hen drawing the human body, 
  one thing that’s essential to 
  perfect is your method for 
  drawing the head. The skull 
  is the traditional academic measuring 
  stick of the human form: formulae have 
  been created that enable artists to use the 
  skull as a tool from which to draw the rest 
  of the figure with confidence, helping you 
  to maintain the correct proportions and 
  scale for the figure as a whole.
  Here, I’m going to talk you through 
  my basic process for creating well-drawn 
  heads. The theory is important and can 
  offer a certain degree of freedom from 
  reference – but, as I’ve said before, 
  nothing beats hands-on practice. Get a 
  friend or family member to model for  
  you at every opportunity, hire a model 
  or, with the help of a mirror or photos, 
  draw yourself. Theory alone cannot give 
  you enough experience as an artist to 
  work through every problem you’ll 
  encounter in your career.
  w
  Below is my sketch of a head in front 
  and side profiles, split into three 
  roughly even sections. Measuring the 
  skull from the side (including the nose) 
  it fits roughly into a square box (as you 
  can see to the right). From the front but 
  excluding the ears, it’s about two-thirds 
  the width of that box at its widest point.
  When children draw a head, they 
  usually start with a vaguely oval or ‘egg’ 
  front to the side of the head, and 
  proportion, direction of gaze and 
  symmetry all fall out of alignment.
  Now draw a centre line. This helps keep 
  the features squared up on the face plane 
  and is especially necessary when the head 
  is tipped or tilted. 
  Draw perpendicular lines attached to 
  the top and bottom of the centre line 
  shape. The head is really neither an oval 
  nor a block, of course, but thinking about 
  both while designing the skull will help 
  you achieve realistic dimensions. 
  So, like a child, begin with an oval. 
  Draw a line to find the inside corner of 
  the face, or the change of plane from the 
  front to the side. This is usually where 
  portraits fall apart: without a three-
  quarter line, the features drift from the 
  Shape up: basic 
  head forms
  Put your head in a box to ensure that 
  you’ve got the correct dimensions
  The ﬁrst centre line 
  helps to keep the 
  features squared 
  up on the face. You 
  can then add 
  centre lines for 
  speciﬁc features, 
  such as the nose.
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  56
  Human anatomy
  to forehead and chin. The skull shape 
  should now be divided into three visible 
  surfaces; this will help get the proportions 
  more accurate for the smaller shapes. 
  Draw a second, more organic, centre line 
  to define the centres of the extruded 
  features – the lifted brow, nose, tooth 
  cylinder and chin. 
  The first feature to start with is the split 
  between the eyes: this is known as the 
  glabella. Typically, it’s a wedge shape 
  between the eyebrows, just above the 
  bridge of the nose. I choose to begin here 
  because the glabella establishes an overall 
  width for all the rest of the features. Next, 
  attach a horizontal line to the top of the 
  glabella wedge to establish the tilt of the 
  eye sockets in relation to the centre line  
  (a perpendicular relationship).  
  Drawing the nose
  Drawing the nose is tricky, but good 
  organisation will make it a whole lot 
  easier. Start with a tall triangle, flat 
  against the face plane as though you’ve 
  shaved off the nose. The top of the 
  triangle overlaps the glabella and creates 
  the interior line of the eye sockets. 
  Knowing the perspective of the head 
  makes it easy to draw the perspective of 
  the nose. Extrude the bridge in the same 
  direction as the side plane of the head. 
  This ensures that the nose stays centred 
  between the eyes correctly. 
  The bottoms of the eye sockets are next 
  to draw: make these parallel to the top 
  line, intersecting the nose about halfway 
  down its length. Extend the top line 
  around to the side planes, keeping it at 
  the same elevation to the top of the head. 
  The eye sockets should look somewhat 
  like sunglasses in their design. Take the 
  bottom line and do the same thing you 
  did with the top one. Both of these lines 
  frame where the ear should be placed on 
  the side plane in correct elevation to the 
  top and bottom of the head. 
  Cheeks and teeth
  The cheeks and tooth cylinder can be 
  drawn together in a rhythm, starting with 
  an arc that crosses through the face plane 
  from cheek to cheek. From directly in 
  front, this rhythm can be drawn as a 
  circle; more work is needed from the side 
  view, since the cheek shares its rhythm 
  with both the front and side planes. The 
  ears are used to help design the cheeks 
  (see the diagram to the right). 
  The tooth cylinder is connected to this 
  cheek and drops down toward the chin, 
  arcing across the centre line and up the 
  CheekS and earS
  The TooTh Cylinder relaTive To The noSe
  The noSe and eye SoCkeTS
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  57
  Part 8 The head
  head and ShoulderS
  Unless you’re drawing a disembodied head, there will come a time 
  when you’ll want to attach it to the rest of the body, which means 
  adding the neck, ribcage and shoulders.
  Attaching the neck and shoulders to the head can be a tricky 
  business. If you’re drawing the head first, it’s at this point that the 
  rest of the pose is about to be drawn. This connection will help 
  you to develop and define the shapes of that pose, ensuring that it 
  fits correctly with the head you’ve already got. 
  Attach the head (ball) to the neck (cylinder), then attach the 
  cylinder to the ribcage (ball). The shoulders float over the ribcage. 
  The only point where two bones connect together is at the pit of 
  the neck, where the clavicle connects to the ribcage. Therefore, the 
  ribcage is the most important structure after the head and neck.
  other side, leaving enough space for the 
  ball of the chin.
  The mouth extends from the face like a 
  mound. Often, it is more cylindrical than 
  rounded, which is why it’s commonly 
  known as the tooth cylinder in life-
  drawing manuals.
  The top of the skull, while rounded, can 
  actually be drawn as a block. When 
  drawing the hair on to the head, thinking 
  about the skull as a block can add extra 
  dimension to the hair mass. 
  The best way to draw the hair is to start 
  with the hairline. I do this as follows 
  (refer to my sketch below to help): draw 
   When drawing anything organic, it’s 
  best to think about the shapes with 
  edges and corners first. The top of the 
  skull can be drawn as a block 
  the head as a basic shape, and attach the 
  face like a mask, with the hairline framing 
  the upper half of the mask shape.
  It’s just as important to see the hairline 
  as a geometric shape as it is any of the 
  other features. Visualising the hairline as 
  part of the facemask can help attach the 
  hair correctly to the skull and keep 
  everything lined up around the head.
  When drawing anything organic, think 
  about the shapes with edges and corners 
  first. The perspective of a form is found 
  much more easily if there are points to 
  use as landmarks, and a straightish line 
  connecting them. 
  It’s important to see the hairline as a geometric 
  shape. Visualise it as part of the facemask (above) 
  to help you position it correctly on the skull.
  While the top of the skull is rounded, 
  it can be drawn as a block. Thinking 
  of it this way helps give extra 
  dimension when it comes to  
  adding the hairline.
  adding The hairline, and uSing 
  BloCk ShaPeS for dimenSion  
  
  Animal anatomy
  A complete guide to drawing and 
  imagining creature forms
  58
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  60	 Basic	forms
  Begin your exploration of creature 
  anatomy by seeing the shapes 
  beneath the skin and fur
  66	 The	torso
  Find out how the core of the animal 
  body operates and how you can use 
  it to bring life to your animal art
  72	 The	hind	legs
  Explore the real-wheel drive of 
  animals, and how this part of the 
  body can propel your art forward
  78	 The	forelegs
  Use your observation, skills and 
  knowledge to build the pillars of 
  balance and grip in animals
  84	 The	neck	and	head
  Discover what part of the animal 
  body tells you about the creature – 
  and the traits all animals share
  90	 Animal	faces
  Find out what animal faces have in 
  common with human faces, and the 
  crucial ways in which they differ
  Workshops
  Explore animals in six parts
   Whether you draw or paint, knowledge 
  of anatomy and form will enable you 
  to get your ideas into images 
  Marshall Vandruff on animals, page 60
  Your animal 
  anatomy expert
  Marshall Vandruff is 
  a freelance illustrator 
  who’s worked for 
  Warner Bros, Hanna-
  Barbera and Dark Horse 
  among many others. 
  Marshall has trained 
  professional artists and 
  students in Southern 
  California since 1984.
  www.marshallart.com
  59
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Basic forms
  nimals are something I love 
  to draw, especially from 
  imagination. For years, I had 
  no idea how animators, 
  comic-book artists and old masters could 
  not only draw animals without copying 
  what they saw, but actually make animals 
  look thicker, stronger, funnier and more 
  alive than anything they could see. Then I 
  a
  I drew the skeleton from real 
  American Lion bones at the Page 
  Museum in Los Angeles. The form 
  analysis (right) is an exercise in 
  applying perspective to anatomy. The 
  pencil rendering of the head is a 
  speculation of how the ﬂeshed 
  creature may have looked.
  marshall 
  Vandruff
  country: US
  Take a trip to Marshall’s 
  website for more info 
  www.marshallart.com
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/anbasic
  PART 1
  Begin your exploration of creature anatomy by 
  seeing the shapes beneath the skin and fur
  learned that there are secrets to animal 
  anatomy – old secrets, well-known to a 
  few. These workshops reveal the secrets of 
  inventing animals. Whether you draw, 
  paint, sculpt, model or animate, basic 
  knowledge of anatomy and form will 
  enable you to get your ideas into images. 
  When you can create any animal you see 
  in your mind’s eye, that’s mastery. 
  60
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  Mammals, reptiles and birds share most 
  of the same bones and muscles, but at 
  different sizes and ratios. That’s why you 
  should study proportion. When you look 
  at two-legged beasts (bipeds) like 
  humans, or other plantigrades that plant 
  feet on the ground, you can begin with 
  front views. But creatures who run around 
  on four legs (quadrupeds) don’t take to 
  being studied from the front. It’s 
  like trying to judge the length of 
  a ship by looking down one end. 
  Proportions reveal what an 
  animal does. Our bones show 
  that people are designed to 
  stand up: we have long legs, 
  shallow ribcages, shoulder 
  blades on our backs, and 
  arms that are good for playing 
  instruments, drawing and 
  hugging, but not made to 
  support our weight. Four-legged 
  animals have deep ribcages 
  with shoulder blades on the 
  sides, and arms that act as 
  legs. Different functions, 
  different forms.
  Homework
  Assignment
  master 
  proportion
  Diagram an animal from 
  the side. Measure a box 
  that fits the big parts of 
  the torso: this trains you 
  to see big things first. 
  By reducing heads, hind
  legs and ribcages into
  boxes, triangles and 
  eggs, you learn to see 
  complex components 
  as simple shapes. That’s 
  the underlying secret to 
  mastering proportion. 
  ProPortions
  undersTAndIng The sIMILArITIes And dIfferences wIThIn bone 
  grouPs cAn LeAd To greATer AnAToMIcAL AwAreness…
  61
  Part 1 Basic forms
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  BonEs as 
  founDation
  bones don’T bend or sTreTch – They sTAy As 
  consTAnT As rock. so sTudy TheM fIrsT…
  Over-complicated anatomical charts full 
  of ribs and gnarls can confuse the more 
  delicate learner students. The diagrams 
  below leave out the more exacting details 
  and hidden bumps, and simplify the 
  hard-surface architecture that artists can 
  use. There’s plenty of time to get into the 
  details later. 
  For now, compare the colour coding on 
  the diagrams to see the analogies between 
  human and animal bones. They are often 
  quite striking.
  Homework
  Assignment
  Draw stick-
  figure animals
  Draw skeletons as stick 
  figures. Keep them 
  simple: details and 
  textures don’t help, 
  length and positions do. 
  Artists often do best 
  when they begin with 
  loose lines to get 
  proportions and rhythms
  right – like an author 
  brainstorming an idea, 
  then writing it out.
  Wrist & Hand
  Ankle & Foot
  Sesamoids
  Scapula (shoulder blade)
  Pelvis (hip bone)
  Humerus (upper arm)
  Femur (upper leg)
  Tibia & Fibula (lower leg bones) 
  fused together on hoofed animals
  Radius & Ulna (forearm bones) 
  fused together on hoofed animals 
  Pisiform
  notice the similarities between a 
  quatroped’s shoulders and hips – 
  they are practically 
  mirrored.
  62
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  muscLEs & 
  tEnDons
  how They ATTAch, And how 
  They reLATe To eAch oTher…
  Muscle charts are more confusing than 
  bone charts – not just because there are 
  more muscles, but because muscles are 
  layered. Surface muscles can be so thin 
  that they disappear on a fleshed creature, 
  while buried-deep muscles can show as 
  large bumps on the surface.
  Let’s start proceedings with some 
  general observations:
  •  Muscles anchor close to the trunk 
  (proximally), and insert distant from 
  the trunk (distally) to move the limbs.
  •  Muscles are thick near the trunk, lean as 
  they move away. On hoofed animals, 
  the distal limbs look like shrink-
  wrapped bones. 
  •  Muscles can be simplified by grouping 
  them. Several extensors with hard-to-
  remember Latin names can make a 
  single easy-to-remember egg shape.
  •  Muscles work in pairs that pull against 
  each other, shown in the illustrations 
  using complementary colours. 
  We’ll study specifics later. First, look at 
  these images to see how they work. 
  Ligaments hold the head; muscles 
  pull it back. Throat muscles are 
  thin, as gravity does most 
  of the work.
  Toes, ﬁngers, claws & hooves have 
  no muscles – they receive 
  the ﬁnal tendons.
  63
  Part 1 Basic forms
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  forEsHortEninG
  how To keeP ProPorTIons correcT when drAwIng 
  AnIMALs froM dIfferenT AngLes…
  The longest measurement of anything – a bone, a limb,  
  or an entire animal – is its major axis. When you look 
  along something, its length appears to collapse until you 
  can’t tell how long it is. Artists keep track of this so that 
  they can tip, swivel and roll objects around, yet keep them 
  looking true.
  Homework
  Assignment
  Learning the fundamentals of 
  foreshortenening is vital to creating 
  dynamic animal images.
  Learn from the rabbit
  Look at a side view of an animal. Now draw it
  as if swivelled into a three-quarter foreshortened
  position. It’s difficult, but not impossible. 
  Remember to reduce complex forms to simple  
  ones to help you visualise the perspective.
  64
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  forms
  sIMPLIfy AnIMAL AnAToMy 
  InTo bAsIc sTrucTures… 
  Mastering classic animal drawing enables 
  you to invent as well as observe. The 
  secret is to learn simple forms – cylinders, 
  blocks, and spheres that are based on 
  anatomy – then assemble them into 
  complex beasts. After all, what are 
  animals but 3D creatures in a 3D world? 
  You can build them from 3D forms – any 
  way you like! 
  65
  Part 1 Basic forms
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  PART 2
  66
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  the animal torso
  Find out how the core of the animal body operates and 
  how you can use it to bring life to your animal artwork
  hen I first saw a famous art 
  teacher’s approach to figure 
  drawing – human torsos with 
  no limbs, strange-looking 
  bean-bodies twisted and floating – it 
  baffled me. It took me years to 
  understand the value of that approach. 
  There are several sound ways to draw 
  the figure, but beginning with a solid 
  torso is a good one that’s shared by 
  Michelangelo, Rubens, Tintoretto and 
  scores of other masters. It puts the big 
  parts of anatomy first – which is the best 
  place to start. This approach should be 
  applied not only to human figures, but to 
  animals. They have torsos much like ours, 
  but are different in ways that enable them 
  to run faster, jump higher, kick harder, 
  and have trouble standing up or sitting in 
  chairs. Here, I approach them simply, 
  naming the basic parts, helping you to 
  learn their structure and understand their 
  functions. In later lessons, I’ll get to the 
  limbs, but let’s begin with the big parts.
  w
  Just as 3D programs need three 
  views to invent, so do artists. You’ll 
  understand anatomy best by drawing 
  from different views, looking along, 
  up and down at an animal.
  marshall 
  Vandruff
  Country: US
  Take a trip to Marshall’s 
  website for more info 
  www.marshallart.com
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/antorso
    
  
  67
  Part 2 The torso
  Presents Anatomy
  Vertebrate animals grow out from the 
  spine, which runs from the base of the 
  head to the tail, connecting the ribcage 
  (thorax) and pelvis (hip 
  bone). Study these 
  parts generally: 
  Homework
  Assignment
  see the spine
  Draw a series of animals 
  with a single line – the 
  spine. It’s easiest from 
  the side view, but don’t 
  forget to see the 
  convexity of the curve 
  – and don’t expect it to 
  impress anyone. It’s an 
  exercise to develop the 
  X-ray vision of artists 
  who know anatomy. 
  When it gets easy, make 
  it tougher by adding the 
  ribcage and pelvis. 
  torso Bones
  Start with the core of the boDY: the ribcage anD 
  pelviS, anD the Spine that connectS them…
  ignore the little bumps on the pelvis that 
  are mostly hidden and the individual 
  ribs that do you no good until you’ve 
  established the simplified ribcage. Here 
  are some observations about animal 
  torsos to set you off.
    
  
  torso musCles
  boneS Don’t move unDer their own power – 
  theY move bY the tenSion of hiDDen corDS…
  We have muscles in our backs, bellies and 
  haunches to hold us upright. Four-legged 
  animals have the same muscles, but in 
  different proportions and for different 
  reasons. They are made to move forward 
  more efficiently than we are. 
  Torso muscles include thin layers that 
  don’t show on the surface. I’ll focus here 
  on the core functional set of three. 
  Straight muscles, like those on the back 
  and belly, simply pull to straighten or 
  bend the torso. But spiral or oblique 
  muscles, like those on the side, pull to 
  spin or twist the torso, allowing it to lean 
  and turn. These muscles can barely be 
  seen on a fleshed animal, but study them 
  to know what goes on under the surface, 
  so you can exaggerate convincingly.
  Unlike bones, muscles change shape. 
  Think of them as rubber straps. They 
  either stretch and get thinner, or squash 
  and get thicker. 
  Homework
  Assignment
  mix movement 
  and angles
  Try drawing variations of 
  the pitch, yaw and roll 
  motion diagrams from 
  different angles: above, 
  at eye-level, below, and 
  in various foreshortened 
  positions. If you use 
  photo reference, see if 
  you can catch glimpses 
  of the torso muscles at 
  work. They’re subtle and
  usually covered with fur, 
  but they occasionally 
  show up in extremely 
  well-cut short-haired 
  animals, like racehorses. 
  we use them as prototypes to build 
  fast-moving objects: cars, 
  motorcycles, missiles, even 
  darts...
  PitCh, yaw & roll
  As animals travel, they adjust their 
  movement in the same three ways as 
  aeroplanes. Pitching describes the 
  forward and back movement – the 
  back and belly muscles at work. Yaw 
  means heading to the left or right, 
  muscles on one side pull the torso toward 
  that side. Rolling (also called banking) 
  happens when muscles on each side pull to twist 
  68
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  torso Forms
  unDerStanDing multiple viewS anD builDing from 
  Simple componentS…
  Studying side views isn’t enough – they only give us two dimensions  
  of a three-dimensional animal. We need another view to see width 
  measurements, as witnessed in the examples above.
  human
  lion
  horse
  there’s no one correct form 
  metaphor in constructing 
  an animal’s torso, but 
  some are more useful than 
  others. use whatever forms 
  you need to create their 
  structures and place our 
  points-of-view. choose what 
  works for you, however 
  strange it may appear.
  69
  Part 2 The torso
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  more torso 
  Forms
  learn to Draw the complicateD 
  thingS bY making them Simple…
  Look for the basic structure that simplifies 
  bone and muscle into a single form. It can 
  be a big bean from which appendages 
  emerge, or any invented form that helps 
  you twist or add body to the spine.
  The important thing to remember is 
  that torsos are complex, so you must 
  simplify them enough so that they  
  can be drawn in any position you  
  care to choose.
  Homework
  Assignment
  sort out the 
  big things first
  Analyse reference of 
  horses and cats. You’ll 
  find that horse torsos fit 
  into a single box because 
  their spines are quite 
  rigid. Cats however twist 
  around, so you’ll need 
  separate forms for the 
  pelvis and thorax. Solve 
  those big forms before 
  you concern yourself 
  with limbs or textures.
  70
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  my student Stephen gunawan did 
  this exaggerated analysis of a sloth 
  skeleton, treating bones as robot 
  parts, and understanding their 
  mechanical functions – a 
  great way to learn.
  torsos are the source of the other parts. 
  the hindlegs, forelegs, neck and head 
  emerge from it. in the next two workshops, 
  we’ll study the limbs of four-legged 
  animals and compare them to our own, 
  beginning with hindlegs.
  71
  Part 2 The torso
  Presents Anatomy
  torso FunCtions
  we’ve Done our technical homework – now let’S 
  take a freSh look at whY we StuDY torSoS firSt…
  A torso serves several functions: as a core for the body; a 
  hub for the limbs; a trunk from which branches emerge; a 
  chassis to support a craning neck. A ribcage is a cage to 
  contain soft parts and protect them. A spine is a spring 
  (especially with cats), or a bridge, or a flatbed truck that 
  can carry a load. A bird’s sternum is both a boat’s keel and 
  an anchor for muscles… 
    
  
  PART 3
  72
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  the hIND LeGS
  Explore the rear-wheel drive of animals, and how you can 
  use this part of the body to propel your artwork forward
  hen the first artists drew 
  animals, they drew the way 
  all children still draw, with 
  outlines around the shapes 
  they could see. That’s the foundation of 
  drawing: charming and primitive. As 
  drawing evolved, artists worked to make 
  their illusions seem real, as if the picture 
  was a window into a world of animals 
  with meat on their bones.
  Look at an animal’s hind leg, and you’ll 
  see a shape. Cartoonists capitalise on that. 
  You’ll also see a surface with colour and 
  texture: short hair, long hair, rough skin, 
  smooth skin, mottled, groomed, light, 
  dark… Painters and photographers care 
  deeply about such surfaces. 
  However, I’ll begin with bones and 
  muscles. I’ll explain how these affect the 
  living animal’s rear-wheel drive system: 
  its hind legs.
  w
  Drawing, like any artistic discipline, 
  requires contradictory skills. We draw 
  slowly and carefully to learn the 
  structures. We draw quickly and wildly to 
  get beyond stiffness. Our goal is to fuse 
  accuracy and freedom: the whole thing 
  and the small parts.
  Marshall 
  Vandruff
  CouNtry: US
  Take a trip to Marshall’s 
  website for more info 
  www.marshallart.com
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/an-legs
    
  
  73
  Part 3 The hind legs
  Presents Anatomy
  Whichever names you choose to use to 
  refer to the bones in the leg – femur, 
  fibula, tibia, tarsal mass, or others – they 
  still have the same job: to support and 
  propel the animal, and, occasionally, to 
  enable it to kick out at an aggressor. 
  In most animals, there are two bones 
  in the lower leg. The bigger one is the 
  tibia; the smaller one is the fibula. This is 
  different in hooved animals, however. A 
  horse’s fibula fuses 
  right into the 
  tibia, and so 
  it can hardly 
  be thought of as 
  a separate bone. Artistically, 
  however, you are less 
  concerned with the number of 
  hIND LeG BoNeS
  BONE MACHINERY: UNDER ALL THAT FLESH IS A 
  MECHANISM OF SOCKETS, HINGES, LEVERS AND SPOOLS...
  bones in the lower leg, and more 
  concerned with the fact that hooved 
  animals don’t wiggle their toes or retract 
  their claws. This means that they don’t 
  need a wide lower leg to anchor those 
  extra muscles. 
  The hip is the pelvis. The femur is the 
  upper leg. The knee joint is often referred to 
  as the stiﬂe. The ankle and heel, on horses, 
  is called the hock.
  Foot bones
  You can study between 10 and 20 
  bones in a foot, but it’s easier to group 
  them. The most important are the 
  heel (calcaneus) and ankle (talus) 
  bones, coloured here to show their 
  placement and function.
  Plantigrades plant their feet on the 
  ground. We call their feet, feet. 
  Digitigrades walk on their digits; we call 
  their feet paws. Ungulates walk on a 
  toenail or two, which we call hooves.
  Leg mechanics
  The best way to understand bones is by their 
  function. Try to see them as perfectly designed 
  mechanical assemblies. 
  Knee bones
  The knee is a hinge joint, but it isn’t ﬁxed like a door hinge. 
  The kneecap (patella) pulls on a strap to lift the lower leg.
  The femur has a ball at its 
  top. The pelvis has a socket. 
  These form a perfect union 
  for getting around.
  The ball-and-socket joint 
  of the hip enables the upper 
  leg to swing and swivel, 
  kicking out to the side.
  As with all hinges, when 
  the limb swings, the  
  X lines stay consistent 
  throughout the arc.
    
  
  74
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  MuSCLe GroupS
  HUMAN AND ANIMAL LEGS BOTH MOVE BY THE SAME 
  SOURCE – THE PULL OF MUSCLES…
  There are over 16 muscles in the hind leg that artists can study – but 
  even if you came to know every one of them, it would help you less 
  than knowledge of their groups and functions. Here are the simplified 
  structures for understanding hind legs.
  Homework
  assignment
  target the 
  muscles
  Once you understand 
  the basic groups, you 
  can separate them into 
  individual muscles. For 
  example, the hamstrings 
  are divided into two 
  parts: the medial (inner) 
  and lateral (outer) sets. 
  The medial set actually
  divides into two more: 
  the semitendinosus and 
  semimembranosus. 
  Names like that can put 
  off delicate learners, but  
  note that, on a horse, the 
  semimembranosus 
  muscle alone is larger 
  than a human’s entire 
  upper leg. 
  A smaller pair
  The calf and extensor groups insert into the feet. 
  They are leaner than the thigh muscles because 
  they have less mass to move.
  The calf group 
  pulls an animal 
  up onto its toes, 
  and propels it. 
  The extensor group lifts a foot, and pulls 
  toes back. The tendons of the extensors 
  cover most of the small muscles in the foot.  
  The heel of the horse, like any hooved animal, is high in the air.  
  The proportion is very different from a human leg, but it has many 
  analogous parts. Remember that muscles are bulkier near the torso 
  and leaner as they move down the limbs.
  A big pair
  Q uadriceps and hamstrings are the main 
  group of the upper leg. The quadriceps (red) on 
  the front of the thigh pull on the kneecap to 
  straighten the lower leg. The hamstrings 
  (green) on the back of the thigh pull on the 
  lower leg bones to bend the leg. 
  Compare the colour maps of the 
  human muscle groups to those of 
  the horse and the bear.
  Q uadruped muscle charts 
  use different names for 
  the variations, but there 
  are two consistent groups: 
  the big pair on the upper 
  leg, and the smaller pair  
  on the lower leg.
  A bear’s hind leg is remarkably similar 
  to a human’s, mainly because bears also 
  plant their feet on the ground. 
    
  
  75
  Part 3 The hind legs
  Presents Anatomy
  INterNAL StruCture
  THE SURFACE OF AN ANIMAL IS DETERMINED BY THE SUBSTANCE 
  INSIDE, SO DEVELOP X-RAY VISION TO DRAW WITH AUTHORITY…
  Study animal anatomy from books, and 
  you’ll find that four books may use four 
  names for the same part. The part that I’ve 
  labelled pelvic crest on this cat can be 
  found in any book – but it may be called 
  the pelvic point, the tuberosity of the iliac 
  crest, the tuber coxae or the anterior 
  superior iliac spine. If you’re trying to 
  impress people, you should learn all the 
  names. But if you’re trying to master 
  drawing, any name will do. Your concern 
  isn’t the name, but that it’s the wide point 
  of an animal’s haunch. Pelvic crest is fine. 
  Most names, however, are consistent. 
  The ischium is the ischium – there’s no 
  need to distinguish it as the ischial 
  tuberosity. But you do need to know that 
  it’s the back-most part of an animal’s 
  haunch, and always narrower (on the X 
  measurement) than the pelvic crest.
  Homework
  assignment
  exercise your 
  X-ray vision
  Choose your favourite 
  photographs of animals 
  in various positions. 
  Place vellum or tracing 
  paper over them, or 
  make a layer in 
  Photoshop, and try to 
  draw the pelvis, femur, 
  patella, tibia, fibula, and 
  ankle bones in their 
  proper positions. You 
  may find it tough, but the 
  attempt will help you to 
  see the substance under 
  the surface.  
  Sausage legs
  Crocodiles don’t have kneecaps, so the knee doesn’t have the 
  crisp plane-break that we see on a dog or a deer. But they 
  have the same basic bones as other four-legged animals. 
  Since their quadriceps tendons connect directly to the 
  tibia like a belt-strap, they have quick 
  leverage and can move very fast.
  Knee clarity
  Knees have several points that 
  alternate for attention. The 
  patella (knee-cap) is 
  the most prominent 
  point, but it connects 
  to the nose of the 
  tibia, which is a 
  ﬁxed bump on the 
  lower leg. The outer swell on 
  the femur, and the fat pad 
  that covers the patella 
  when a horse is relaxed, 
  can all seem like the knee. 
  repositioning
  When you get good at 
  visualising the underlying 
  bones, try repositioning the 
  legs and redrawing them.
  Naming parts
  Every detail gets a name. Names let us point things 
  out and talk about them.
    
  
  76
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  hIND LeG 
  ForMS
  FORMS LET YOU INVENT LEGS THAT DON’T 
  EXIST – UNTIL YOU CREATE THEM...
  When we dream, or daydream, we imagine 
  realistic images. The trick is to get those images 
  onto paper. There’s no better way to master this 
  than to use wireframe structures based on simple 
  forms. Anatomy is complex – but if you can see 
  the bulk of the upper leg as an egg, the calf 
  as a bowling pin and the foot as a stick 
  and ball, then you simplify your task 
  and turn the leg into 
  something real.
  Homework
  assignment
  wired forms
  Get out those favourite 
  photographs that you 
  used to exercise your 
  X-ray vision (page 75). 
  Instead of looking for the 
  bones inside the legs, try 
  to wrap wires around the 
  legs. If you find it tough, 
  treat each part of the leg 
  as a bar or a block, and 
  visualise a rubber band 
  around it. From there, it 
  begins to take on form.
  round it out
  Hind legs don’t face forward in unison: they splay 
  out. Here’s a way to solve it… See how the entire body 
  of the hindquarters ﬁts into a cylinder.
  Segmentation
  The full form of the body 
  takes shape if you segment 
  it and work on each part 
  as a separate block.
  Block it up
  Block forms force you into speciﬁc 
  choices about plane breaks, and help 
  you chisel the form into crispness. 
  Note also that from behind, you 
  can see the legs facing out at a 
  30-40 degree angle.
    
  
  77
  Part 3 The hind legs
  Presents Anatomy
  the FuNCtIoN 
  oF hIND LeGS
  THEY JUMP, THEY WALK, THEY RUN, THEY KICK…
  Once you know how they’re made and 
  how they’re shaped, you can go back to 
  the reason legs exist. Legs help support an 
  animal. They get it moving to find food, 
  or to keep it from becoming food. In the 
  blink of an, eye they can become a 
  weapon. A lever. A catapult. A spring. Rear 
  wheels. Or a bludgeon. Seeing legs 
  through their functions reminds us why 
  they’re worth studying. 
  Forelimb fandango
  We stand on our hind legs and 
  use our arms and hands to 
  perform delicate tasks 
  and manipulate the 
  world. Q uadrupeds stand 
  on their arms. The 
  differences between 
  arms and forelimbs 
  are greater than 
  those between legs 
  and hind legs. In 
  the next chapter, 
  we’ll study the 
  forelimbs: arms 
  as legs.  
  Spontaneous art
  The only way to master drawing is to draw, 
  draw and draw – but not always carefully. 
  Q uick, gestural studies with pen and ink 
  don’t allow you to get fussy, erase and ﬁx, and 
  they protect you from creating belaboured work 
  that looks dead – what Joe Weatherly calls 
  “taxidermy”. You’ll sharpen your skills by 
  drawing immediately from life, unpredictable 
  and wild as it may be.
  ron’s robot
  My student Ron Green invented this 
  contraption. It’s strange, but useful for 
  understanding how an animal leaps from its 
  hind legs. Try your own, based on anatomy.
  Artists must simplify to understand. Study 
  Ron’s drawings and you’ll see that he is 
  ﬁguring out two problems: where the joints 
  are, and how this half-quadruped leaps and 
  bounces to get about.
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  PART 4
  78
  Animal anatomy
  The FOReLeGS
  Use your knowledge and observation to build the pillars of 
  balance and grip for the animal kingdom
  ometimes you have to take 
  things apart if you want to 
  know how they work. With 
  animals, that gets messy. 
  Beatrix Potter and her brother dissected 
  dead animals together, which served her 
  well as an illustrator. But dissection is not 
  an easy business: you can end up smelly 
  and confused.
  There are better ways to study animal 
  anatomy. One is to observe museum 
  skeletons from varying angles to be sure 
  of their forms and connections. But 
  assembled skeletons are often poorly put 
  together and locked into a single position 
  that teaches you next to nothing about 
  how bones move. Another solution is to 
  assemble bones on your own. I’ve 
  assembled a horse’s leg bones with glue 
  and rubber bands. It’s full-sized, it’s real 
  and it impresses friends and family, but I 
  could never have done it without at least a 
  reasonable amount of book knowledge.
  The lessons that follow will help you 
  understand bones and muscles enough  
  to look at living animals and see their 
  structure, so you can exaggerate 
  proportions, make planes crisp and 
  invent your own animals – imaginary 
  beasts with real legs to stand on.
  Let’s have a look at how forelegs are 
  made, and how they work.
  S
  We strip away the surface of an animal 
  to see what makes it work. Artistic 
  anatomy begins with the skeleton.  
  The more familiar you are with the 
  framework, the easier it is to build the 
  body around the bones.
  Marshall 
  Vandruff
  COunTRy: US
  Take a trip to Marshall’s 
  website for more info 
  www.marshallart.com
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/anﬂegs
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  79
  Part 4 The forelegs
  FOReLeG BOneS
  ANIMALS HAVE SHOULDERS AND ARMS LIKE US, BUT  
  WITH A DIFFERENCE: THEY WALK ON THEM…
  We have shoulder blades on our backs; 
  quadrupeds have them on their sides. The 
  shoulder blade (scapula) connects to the 
  upper arm bone (humerus). This is 
  obvious in a bone diagram, but on a 
  not all is bone: cartilage happens
  Horses and other hoofed animals (ungulates) have cartilage at the top 
  of their shoulder blades. Cartilage wears away, so museum horse skeletons 
  may appear to have the top part of the scapula chopped off. Living horses 
  have larger shoulder blades than their dead relatives. 
  Legs, limbs and arms
  Animal forelegs vary more than hind 
  legs. Primates and the ancient 
  ground sloth below have arms and 
  hands. We’ll look at arm mechanics 
  on the next page – but ﬁrst, 
  notice that there are two bones in 
  the forearm. The ulna is the big 
  bump at the elbow that tapers 
  to a small bump at the 
  little-ﬁnger side of the 
  hand. The radius is a small 
  spinning button inside the 
  elbow, which swells to hold the 
  wrist bones at the thumb side 
  of the hand. 
  Hands usually have 27 bones. 
  Several of them in the wrist make 
  a simple form called the carpal mass.
  Hoofed animals have much simpler 
  structures. Their radius and ulna are 
  fused together into a single forearm, 
  but we still distinguish the elbow 
  portion as the ulna, and the wrist 
  portion as the radius. 
  fleshed animal, the upper arm is buried 
  in the side of the body. That means you 
  may mistake the lower arm bones (radius 
  or ulna) for an upper arm unless you can 
  see through the surface.
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  80
  Animal anatomy
  BOne MeChAnICS
  FORELEGS ARE FOR WALKING. IF THEY ALSO HAVE TO 
  SPIN OR GRIP, THEY NEED MORE COMPLEX STRUCTURES...
  Homework
  assignment
  Stick-bone 
  forelegs
  Draw a series of arms 
  or forelimbs by
  constructing them from 
  simple stick-bones. It’s 
  usually best to draw the 
  ulna before the radius, 
  because the radius 
  doesn’t affect the ulna’s 
  position. Keep it simple. 
  Don’t try to learn 
  foreleg anatomy by 
  drawing forelegs: rather, 
  learn by drawing their 
  simple components.
  Shoulders and elbows
  The ball and socket joint of the shoulder allows 
  some rotation for an arm to spin or reach out 
  to the side, as well as forward and back. 
  Of the two forearm bones, the ulna is 
  only a hinge. Animals with hands 
  also have a radius that spins.
  Arm mechanics 
  Some forearms spin around. Some spin a bit. 
  Some are ﬁxed in a forward position.
  Q uadrupeds vary in 
  their ability to spin their 
  hands. Cats do it quite 
  well; dogs not as well. 
  Hoofed animals can’t 
  spin their forelegs at all. 
  Their radius bone is 
  fused into the ulna, 
  locked so that they can 
  run, but not reach out 
  with an upraised palm.
  Just as lower legs have two bones, so do lower arms. The difference is that we 
  support ourselves with our legs, but use our arms to grasp and manipulate.
  The ulna doesn’t spin: all it can do is bend and straighten the arm. The 
  radius is separate and revolves around the ulna to spin the hand. When it’s 
  parallel to the ulna, with the thumbs out to the side, it’s supine. When the 
  radius crosses over the ulna, carrying the thumb toward the body, it’s prone.
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  81
  Part 4 The forelegs
  FOReLeG MuSCLeS
  THE MUSCLES IN FORELEGS ARE SIMILAR FOR ALL ANIMALS, 
  BUT THE VARIATIONS ARE MANY…
  What arms do to hands
  Extensors pull on the back side of the hand. 
  Flexors pull on the palm side. Clench your 
  ﬁst, and you’ll feel the ﬂexors on your inside 
  forearm harden. 
  On most animals, the ﬂexors are tucked 
  under the inside of their forearms, barely 
  visible on the outside.
  Simplify complexity
  Supinators are a group of two 
  muscles. Extensors are a group of 
  three. Flexors can be separated 
  into ﬁve or more, but that’s too 
  much information. They work as 
  groups, so simplify.
  Chest muscle
  The pectoralis major anchors on the chest and inserts into the humerus to 
  pull the upper arm down and lift the body. It’s the same muscle you use in 
  doing pushups. It shows on the surface as two varying egg forms on either 
  side of the centre line of the chest.
  On the horse, notice the rhythm of convex and concave lines. The outer 
  contours tend to be more convex. The inner limbs from the front view have 
  noticeably more concavity.
  Muscles pull bones. The major muscle forms 
  of a horse’s shoulder are the triceps and 
  deltoid. Here we see that they both anchor 
  on the scapula. The deltoid pulls the 
  foreleg away from the body. The triceps 
  extend the foreleg. Even though horses 
  can’t spin their arms, they have a slightly 
  helix-shaped group at the ridge like we do.
  The trapezius and latissimus dorsi appear 
  large on anatomical plates, but have little 
  effect on the forms of animals. The 
  trapezius is thin and sits over the top of 
  deeper neck muscles. The latissimus usually 
  disappears as it hugs the torso, but it can 
  show up as a convex sliver on the side. 
  By the time we get to the metacarpal on 
  an ungulate (analogous to our hand), the 
  muscles are so deep and thin that artists 
  don’t study them. The bones, wrapped in 
  ligament and skin, create the form.
  Human arms and animal forelimbs have 
  many, but not all, muscles in common. 
  Not only do our upper arms extend out 
  from our bodies, but they reach above our 
  heads. It takes a deltoid, anchored to 
  clavicles and scapulae, to lift our arms. 
  Quadrupeds have smaller and simpler 
  deltoids than humans and apes.
  Our lower arms spin partly from the 
  pull of two special muscles called 
  supinators, which make up the ridge of 
  the extensor group. 
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  82
  Animal anatomy
  Homework
  assignment
  horse legs
  Collect a dozen 
  photographs of horses 
  that include their 
  shoulders and forelimbs. 
  The images can be low-
  resolution – in fact, that’s 
  an advantage, as it will 
  keep you from being 
  tempted to copy 
  surfaces. Try to draw 
  the wedge form of the 
  shoulders, the block 
  form of the carpal mass, 
  and the ball-and-shaft 
  fetlock joint. When you 
  can do it successfully, 
  move to the next great 
  challenge – draw the 
  shoulders and forelegs in 
  a new, unseen position. 
  To master forelegs, you 
  master their forms. 
  Breaking down knees
  Horse knees are very boxy because the carpal bones are 
  assembled in two breakable rows that directly affect the 
  form. Note that the fetlock joints are quite spherical.
  The problem with cats
  Cats are so ﬂexible that you can’t use the 
  simple wedge form you use for horse shoulders. 
  It’s difﬁcult to simplify such ﬂuid animals 
  into box forms – they are more organic, and 
  a greater challenge. You must see through to 
  their bones, but you can do this with simple 
  stick ﬁgures. For three-quarter views, turn 
  the sticks into poles, drape some ﬂesh onto  
  the poles, and add cross-contours to be sure  
  of the thickness.
  From form to function
  A cat’s paw has texture and surface that is easy to see, but you must learn 
  to see the form. Anatomy helps, but it may get unnecessarily complex. A 
  paw is a simple block, convex to the front, like a whisky ﬂask. Now you have 
  a comparison that helps you see the form, memorise, and draw it. 
  The relationship of whisky ﬂasks to a cat’s paw ends there: they have very 
  different functions. Cats have claws to survive through violence. Even your 
  housecat, whose only reason for not eating you is that you’re too large, can do 
  you serious damage.
  For function, it may be better to see a cat’s paw as a stapler, switchblade 
  or mousetrap. Two of those are made to pierce. Two of them are spring-
  loaded. All three remind us of what a claw does.
  The scapula and humerus create the point 
  of the shoulder. The scapula hugs closely 
  to the centre line at the top and spreads 
  out to the sides as it goes down… but that 
  gets complex. When you construct a 
  horse, it helps to simplify by seeing a 
  wedge form, which is true enough to the 
  anatomy of horse shoulders, but simple 
  enough to master from memory.  
  FOReLeG FORMS
  ANATOMY FOR ARTISTS IS USELESS UNLESS  
  THE ARTIST GIVES IT FORM…
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  83
  Part 4 The forelegs
  The piercing
  Claws spring out of paws to pierce prey. But if 
  muscles can only pull, how can they project a 
  claw out and away from the body? It takes 
  both extensors (to pull back the phalanx, or 
  ﬁnger bone) and ﬂexors (to pull down the 
  claw) working together to reach and grip.  
  This diagram shows how it’s done.
  Once you know how a cat claw works, you 
  can forget it and design as you like. But you 
  mustn't forget the function: a claw is a set of 
  knives to impale, or a spade to dig, or a hook...
  FOReLeG 
  FunCTIOnS
  FORELEGS SUPPORT, CUSHION A FALL,  
  WALK, SPRING, SCRATCH, POUND...
  A strong support  
  for shoulders
  The ﬁrst Greek columns had no pedestals: 
  they just went straight into the base. As 
  they evolved, they were given feet. 
  From pillars to spokes
  Pillars stay put. Spokes revolve and provide a consistent strong 
  support for a turning wheel – the same as a straight foreleg in 
  an animal galloping at high speed. 
  Your job is not to copy what you see, but to 
  understand what you see – and to use your 
  skills to create whatever you choose.
  Forelegs have functions: pillars, spokes, hooks, 
  knives, blades and spades, wrenches and 
  pliers, clamps, vices, weapons, shields, paddles, 
  cups and bowls... 
  Long before Greek columns, 
  animal forelegs were pillars 
  for a practical reason – 
  more than 60 per cent of 
  the beast’s weight rests on 
  the forelegs, and pillars are 
  notoriously strong. 
  When you see a hoof as a form, you can draw 
  it with spatial credibility. When you see it as a 
  shoe or a cleat or a spike or a sledgehammer, 
  though, you can exaggerate it with meaning.
    
  
  PART 5
  84
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  Necks aNd Heads
  Discover what this part of the animal body tells you 
  about the creature – and the traits all animals share
  e try to make animal anatomy 
  easier by comparing animals 
  to humans. Unfortunately, 
  many artists barely know 
  human anatomy. Robert Beverly Hale 
  pointed out that an artist who knows 
  human anatomy can learn animals 
  relatively easily. Part of the emphasis 
  should be on ‘relatively’: it’s still 
  something of a task. But the most efficient 
  and fun way is indeed to see creatures as 
  people who run around on all limbs, 
  noses forward, fast and strong.
  You can tell a lot about an animal by 
  the position and proportion of its skull. 
  Human heads rest on our necks because 
  we stand upright, and we have large 
  craniums because we rely on our brains. 
  Apes have smaller brains and greater jaws; 
  and because they lean forward on their 
  knuckles, their skulls sit slightly forward 
  from their necks. Quadrupeds are 
  horizontal – their skulls extend from 
  their bodies.
  From these basic conditions, skulls 
  vary according to an animal’s need to 
  survive and thrive. Cats, for example, 
  have alarming eyes and teeth. Wolves 
  have incredible noses and teeth. But the 
  big differences between animal and 
  human heads are that animals have a 
  snout that leads, and their brains, rather 
  than being on top of their heads, are more 
  towards the back. They hunt and run. 
  They graze. They don’t read magazines or 
  draw pictures or concoct fantasy worlds 
  and write them down to enchant others. 
  In this chapter, you’ll study head 
  structure – but we begin with how necks 
  emerge from the torso, and hold heads 
  that face the world. 
  w
  In these lessons, you draw to make a ﬂat 
  surface look like a window into a world 
  of real animals. This means learning 
  bones and ﬂesh through careful analysis 
  and reckless abandon. 
  Marshall 
  Vandruff
  couNtry: US
  Take a trip to Marshall’s 
  website for more info. 
  www.marshallart.com
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/anneck
    
  
  85
  Part 5 Necks & heads
  Presents Anatomy
  Mice have seven neck bones. So do 
  giraffes. So do humans. So do almost all 
  mammals. They’re called cervical 
  vertebrae. In a human, the top one 
  (that’s C1, for Cervical 1) is so deep it 
  can’t be seen, but in many animals 
  it spreads out near the head and 
  can be felt on the side, behind the 
  ears. It’s also known as the Atlas 
  bone. It’s wide, and may even look 
  like part of the head.
  tHe Neck boNes
  MosT neck bones are deep and hIdden, buT They 
  affecT The surface when anIMals Move…
  the  
  stretching neck
  a little movement between each 
  neck bone adds up to a lot of 
  movement for the whole neck, 
  but rocking motion happens at 
  the atlas bone.
  taking the head to the ground
  Grazing animals have necks that reach the ground. an internal 
  ligament goes from the spine into the back of the head like a 
  large, ﬂexible rubber band, enabling tall animals to stretch 
  down to the grass to feed. 
  even a ﬂexible neck would never reach the ground on a 
  horse if the vertebrae began at the top. They begin low, 
  almost halfway down the front of the shoulders.
  Homework
  Assignment
  Get familiar 
  with the neck
  Treat the neck bones as 
  a simple line, beginning 
  low, usually with a bit of 
  an ÔSÕ to the curve. When 
  you can see the core of 
  the neck, you know what 
  parts of the flesh squash, 
  and which parts stretch.
    
  
  86
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  aNatoMy aNd forM 
  of tHe Neck
  leave coMplex neck anaToMy To The veTerInarIan – arTIsTs 
  can sIMplIfy neck forMs for The InforMaTIon They need…
  Neck muscles have inconsistent 
  names because the structures 
  vary. The muscle that goes from 
  your collar bone to the bump 
  behind your ear is the 
  sterno-cleido mastoid. 
  Cleido refers to the part that 
  connects to your clavicle – but most 
  animals don’t have clavicles, so that 
  muscle may be called the sterno-mastoid 
  (sternum into mastoid process) or the 
  cephalo humeral (from head to humerus) 
  or other variations.
  The names must not bog you down 
  from your concerns. Let’s look at what 
  animal necks have in common that artists 
  need to know.
  a shoulder base
  The torso is the foundation 
  of the neck, which means 
  that it’s usually best to begin 
  with the forms of the shoulder to create 
  a neck. necks are usually a bit thicker 
  toward the base in cross-section: they are 
  mostly tissue (ligament, muscle and 
  fat), so gravity pulls them into 
  a slightly teardrop-looking shape.
  a rotator set and a throat network
  There are many neck muscles that overlay each other. The most assertive is 
  the group (with varying names) that spirals from behind the ear into 
  the shoulder point. The throat is made up of muscle, tendon, ligament, 
  cartilage, and even a ﬂoating bone, but it’s wisest to simplify here. 
  The throat is a passageway, a hose or, better still, a funnel. It inserts 
  between the spiralling neck group.
  squash  
  and stretch
  you can see the animator’s 
  principle of squash and 
  stretch most obviously at 
  the neck. when a horse 
  turns its head to look 
  behind itself, one set of 
  side muscles contracts, 
  while the other side relaxes.
  a core of bones
  as with all anatomy, don’t worry 
  about hidden details unless you’re 
  doing research. seek the 
  simplicity of the neck core. That 
  comes ﬁrst, then muscles.  
  
  87
  Part 5 Necks & heads
  Presents Anatomy
  Homework
  Assignment
  turn skeletons 
  to architecture
  You can almost guess 
  this assignment, as 
  I recommend it all the
  time: reduce animal
  skeletons to architecture,
  like Carli did in the
  sample on this page. It’s
  the great challenge of
  draftsmanship, and will 
  help you understand 
  hidden neck anatomy.  
  A twisted pipe is a useful 
  analogy for animals with 
  flexible necks that can 
  look behind themselves.
  cat confusion
  cats may appear to have 
  assertive neck vertebrae at 
  the peak where the shoulder 
  and neck meet. watch it 
  move, though, and you’ll 
  see that it’s not a neck 
  vertebrae, but a scapula. 
  cats have shoulder blades 
  that crest higher than 
  their spines.
  twisting necks
  If you ﬁnd it difﬁcult to twist a 
  form, begin by placing two or three 
  box forms. connect the proper corners, 
  and you’ll solve the complexity one step 
  at a time.
  carli’s cat
  My student carli squitieri did this analysis of 
  a smilodon at the la natural history Museum. 
  carli approaches this complex ﬁgure not by 
  copying, but by understanding the forms 
  and working on their connections. with 
  this knowledge, she can change the 
  position of its head without a model.
    
  
  88
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  Skulls have many parts, so you must 
  simplify. The cranium is the brain case. 
  It’s egg-shaped, which is obvious in 
  human and ape skulls, but not in many 
  animals because it can’t be seen. It’s very 
  small, buried under a cranial ridge, and 
  covered with a large muscle (the 
  temporalis) on the side of the 
  head. The eye sockets 
  (orbits) face forward on most predators, 
  and to the side on most prey animals.  
  The upper jaw is made up of the long 
  protruding nasal bone and the maxilla, 
  which simply holds the teeth. The lower 
  jaw (mandible) is the only moving part 
  on a skull. It has its hinge, the temporal-
  mandibular joint, just below and in front 
  of the ear. 
  Multiple views reveal forms
  The skull provides the structure for the head, so study that before you 
  study the features it houses. as usual, you need multiple views.
  you can’t see the width of a head from a side view: you need a top 
  view to show that the widest point on this lion’s head is the cheekbone 
  (z ygomatic arch). you can’t see the width of the teeth from the side 
  view: you need a front view to show that the upper canines are wider 
  than the lower canines. and you can’t tell the height of the cranial 
  ridge from a top view: you need a side view for that. Multiple views 
  enable you to draw a head in space and keep track of the proportions.
  aNatoMy aNd forM 
  of tHe Head
  anIMal heads have Many varIaTIons, a few coMMonalITIes –  
  and Three dIMensIons In every case…
    
  
  89
  Part 5 Necks & heads
  Presents Anatomy
  It’s tricky to tip
  Tipping one of these multiple views in space can get mind-freezingly complex. The 
  solution is to reduce the head to big forms before placing small parts. Get your head 
  around this, and you’re well on your way to mastering head movement.
  Placing eyes
  The eyes on prey animals look out to the side – sort of. If it 
  was that simple, a cylinder across the skull would solve their 
  placement. on most prey animals, the eyes are not completely out 
  to the side, but aimed slightly forward. If you place a centre point and 
  create two cones diverging from that centre, you have a structure 
  in which to place eyeballs.
  relying on X
  notice that whether a creature’s mouth is 
  open or closed, the x lines (shown here in 
  orange) always stay consistent. That can 
  help you when you’re working on a ﬂeshed 
  creature’s head and you need to locate the 
  distant canine.
  take the antidote
  all this analytical work is necessary for 
  mastery, but it’s not the end of it. when 
  you’ve studied anatomy enough to control 
  the forms you create, don’t forget to take 
  the antidote for ﬁnickiness. draw fast; 
  draw recklessly; draw for fun. you may 
  do your best work when you let go of your 
  intellect and follow your impulses.
    
  
  PART 6
  90
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  animal faces
  Find out what animal faces have in common with human 
  faces, and the crucial ways in which they differ
  e began this animal workshop 
  with basic forms, then 
  worked from the torso to the 
  hind legs, forelegs, neck and 
  head. We now finish with the the most 
  emotive and expressive entity in life: the 
  face. When William Blake wrote:
  Tyger! Tyger! burning bright 
  In the forests of the night, 
  What immortal hand or eye 
  Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? 
  ...He put into words a mystery that has 
  haunted people ever since we began 
  observing the world – the fact that living 
  phenomena come to us in mirrored 
  halves. Faces are essentially symmetrical. 
  If they were simply flat, artists would still 
  need perspective to represent them in 
  three-quarter views tipped away from us. 
  But they are far from flat: they are made 
  of several 3D components, like a puzzle 
  of sculpture. 
  To draw faces from any position other 
  than head-on, and even to draw them 
  head-on if you want them to look 
  credibly solid, reduce them to 
  W
  This is a pencil drawing of a face 
  that bothered me for a few weeks. 
  Now it’s safely imprisoned on paper, 
  and gives me little trouble. 
  Draw from life
  Short of a model or volunteer for a life 
  drawing session? Visit a zoo or wildlife park 
  with your sketchbook, and you’ll ﬁnd plenty of 
  willing subjects. Mix spontaneous scribbles with 
  more in-depth studies.
  marshall 
  Vandruff
  country: US
  Take a trip to Marshall’s 
  website for more info 
  www.marshallart.com
  simple forms based on anatomy. Then, 
  when you have a solid structure, find 
  expression: glorious, fearful, attractive or 
  amusing symmetry. 
  As in previous chapters, we begin here 
  with technical lessons – including how 
  perspective applies to the structure of a 
  skull and how features themselves are 
  made of three-dimensional forms – but 
  we are heading toward a common artistic 
  purpose: to create pictures that channel 
  feeling. Heads display faces – our final 
  study of animal anatomy.
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/anfaces
    
  
  91
  Part 6 Faces
  Presents Anatomy
  unDerlyinG 
  structure
  NECKS HOLD HEADS, AND HEADS HOLD FACES.  
  LET’S REVIEW BASIC STRUCTURES…
  forms first
  Pay all the attention you like to bumps and 
  gnarls and details. It’ll mean that your 
  drawings will impress people, but it may 
  distract you from the basic structure that 
  you must master ﬁrst. If considering a head 
  as a box, a ball or an egg seems too simple, 
  wait until you try: it’s a difﬁcult but 
  rewarding task. Difﬁcult because the 
  mastery of basic forms may take months  
  of study; rewarding because the hidden 
  structure of skull forms affects the position 
  of every detail on an animal’s head.
  useful reductions
  Here are simpliﬁcations of monkey, human and chimp skulls. Reducing 
  them to their structural foundations enables you to tilt a head into 
  many new positions, where reference is locked into a single position.
  Homework
  Assignment
  Box clever to 
  carve a head
  Choose two views of an 
  animal head. Draw the 
  simplest box into which 
  each will fit. Then try 
  carving out sections to 
  leave the remaining form 
  of the head.
  Homework
  Assignment
  eggs, boxes 
  and cylinders
  Using the same heads as 
  above for reference, 
  draw the cranium as an 
  egg, the facial structure 
  as a box or cylinder, and 
  the eye sockets as 
  cylinders or cones. All 
  of this is preparation for 
  features. Always build 
  the house before you 
  start hanging curtains...
  thinking inside the box
  Skulls are complex; boxes are simple. Placing 
  a complex form into a box helps you keep 
  track of width and depth lines. A box is 
  scaffolding for precise construction, and 
  tracking the lines can make your quick 
  sketching more accurate.
  Bones provide the hidden structure of 
  the body – most obviously with the 
  head, where the skull makes most of the 
  form. There are many small and 
  interesting parts on an animal’s head, 
  but no matter how perfectly a nose, 
  an eye or even an expression is 
  drawn, it looks awkward if it doesn’t 
  fit onto the skull. So we’ll begin with 
  simplifications that enable you to place 
  features where they belong.   
  
  92
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  tHe form of 
  features
  EYES, EARS, NOSES AND MOUTHS HAVE REMARKABLE 
  VARIETY, AND A COMMON SOLIDITY…
  Features are not painted on like colours or textures. They have their 
  own shapes and thicknesses. Here are some observations to help you 
  see them not as surfaces, but as smaller forms within bigger forms.
  thick, not flat
  When eyes are on a ﬂat 
  plane, as they (almost) are 
  on humans and apes, that 
  simpliﬁes foreshortening. 
  But on animals with 
  round heads, the distant 
  eye wraps around the 
  roundness of the skull.
  making sense of ears
  Ears are made of varying kinds of skin, cartilage, fat 
  and (for those ears that move) several muscles. But for 
  artists, an ear is made of one piece – a modiﬁed horn 
  that is used to gather sound.
  curved surface
  Even though most of the 
  eyeball rests in the socket, 
  the surface is still curved. 
  Get this curve pegged 
  before rendering.
  eye as ball
  All eyeballs are spheres.  
  The lid is a sheath, usually 
  rather thick, that wraps 
  around the ball.
    
  
  93
  Part 6 Faces
  Presents Anatomy
  snouts stick out
  Our noses are measly compared to most beasts – the muzzle of an 
  animal’s nose and mouth projects forward. It helps to see it as a 
  cylinder or a box. When a muzzle is in a three-quarter position, the 
  planes with details, like jowls or nostrils, will give you a three-
  dimensional map to help you conform the details to the structure.
  trunks and boxes
  An elephant’s nose is a trunk, which can change direction. Here’s an analysis of how to 
  understand the bending form. The boxes are colour-coded to help you keep track of the 
  disappearing planes. The folds and wrinkles on the ﬂeshy trunk act as cross-contours – 
  perspective lines that deﬁne the thickness all along.
  Jaws as hinges
  Jaws are simple from the side: they’re 
  hinge joints. From other angles, they 
  may appear quite triangular – wider 
  at the back and narrow at the front. 
  You must ﬁnd an area where the side 
  and front of the mouth meet to make 
  a change of planes. In three- quarter 
  views, canines make a convenient break, 
  acting as front corners of the jaw.
  When nostrils flare
  Horse nostrils, like their eyes, face somewhere between forward 
  and to-the-side. Two cones can help you foreshorten that complex 
  arrangement, but in some extreme conditions when a horse is 
  running, their nostrils may aim forward like shotgun barrels.
    
  
  94
  Animal anatomy
  Presents Anatomy
  Socially, it might not be a good idea to 
  compare your friends and family with 
  animals. Artistically, it’s a very good idea 
  if you want to understand facial features. 
  There are so many variations of animal 
  features that it could take a career to learn 
  them all. Comparisons are the most 
  efficient shortcut, and the most fun – 
  as long as they don’t end up in hurt 
  feelings or violent responses.
  These metamorphoses, courtesy of 
  www.banedarkart.com, make the point. 
  animals as PeoPle
  HUMANS AND BEASTS HAVE THE SAME PARTS IN VARYING 
  PROPORTIONS. LET’S COMPARE…
  Homework
  Assignment
  compare  
  and contrast
  Gather reference of
  animal faces, and draw 
  them as people. The 
  most common surprise 
  is how small human 
  muzzles seem compared 
  to animals. Seeing the 
  difference helps you 
  notice the forms.
  Homework
  Assignment
  morphing 
  magic
  Try painting a morph 
  between an animal and a 
  human face, like Bane 
  has in his studies on this 
  page. The challenge – 
  and the learning – 
  happens during that 
  transition stage in the 
  middle illustration.
  Precious piglet
  Sometimes a human face inspires an 
  animal: a monkey, a mouse, a kitten, 
  a cub, a weasel, a chimpanzee. After all, 
  what is a child but a talking animal?
  Big bear 
  aspirations
  If you lack for ideas when 
  creating characters, or if 
  you ﬁnd yourself in a rut 
  creating the same human 
  character over and over, 
  try using animal faces for 
  inspiration. They can 
  prompt universal and 
  unique people-types.
    
  
  95
  Part 6 Faces
  Presents Anatomy
  It doesnÕt take a trained artist to draw an 
  animal face. Children do pretty well Ð 
  not because of their skill, but because  
  of their emotional connections to faces. 
  Most children, however, hope to have  
  the grown-up skills that weÕve studied  
  in these six workshops.
  Technical skill helps you understand 
  anatomy, so that you can keep the bones 
  hard when the flesh stretches. Technical 
  skill helps you understand forms so you 
  can point a snout toward or away from 
  you, or exaggerate a creature into 
  absurdity, yet keep it looking real. 
  Technical skill is useful for anyone who 
  makes a living at creating animals, but itÕs 
  only the structure Ð the heart and arteries. 
  By itself, itÕs dead. Emotion is the blood. 
  Animal faces evoke feelings. Their 
  mystery, strangeness, terror and 
  splendour are more marvellous than we 
  could ever imagine on our own. The more 
  you feed your imagination, the more you 
  can reflect their power in your work.
  I hope these pages have helped you to 
  draw animals, and inspired you to give 
  your viewers the best you have to offer! 
  eXPression is tHe  
  key to tHe face
  THE FACE IS THE CROWNING COUNTENANCE, SO GETTING THE 
  ExPRESSION RIGHT WILL GIVE YOUR DRAWING LIFE AND MEANING…
  Get to it!
  With all the variety of 
  animals to invent, a 
  lifetime doesn’t seem  
  quite long enough...
  Draw stuff you like
  Whatever talent you have, you can only bring it  
  out with practice. The more enjoyable the practice 
  is, the more likely it is that you’ll keep at it. 
  Pencil head
  I love to draw: it’s an 
  outlet for feelings and  
  a playground for ideas.
    
  
  96
  Presents Anatomy
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  98	 Creature	features
  Combine human and animal 
  anatomy to create a ﬁne-art portrait 
  of a monster with Justin Gerard
  102	Top	ten	fantasy	poses
  Whether you’re drawing a hero or 
  a villain, we’ve got the gestures and 
  silhouettes to help you out
  104	Strike	a	pose
  Warren Louw explains how to ﬁll 
  your characters with energy by 
  learning the art of posing
  108	Artist	Q&A
  Our artist panel solves real-world 
  anatomy issues, including painting 
  realistic hands and drawing eyes
   It extends 
  and energises  
  your character’s 
  personality 
  Warren Louw 
  on posing 
  figures: page 104
  Workshops
  The sort of advice you’ll find  
  in every issue of ImagineFX…
  Expert advice from professional 
  artists, written especially for you
  Digital 
  art skills
  108
  98
  97
  Presents Anatomy
    
  
  98
  Digital art skills
  Presents Anatomy
  Creature 
  features
  Combine human and animal anatomy to create a 
  fine-art portrait of a monster with Justin Gerard
  etÕs assume that youÕve been 
  approached by a wealthy 
  monster who wants to 
  commission you to paint its 
  portrait. (Unlikely, perhaps, but IÕve had 
  stranger requests.) LetÕs say that he feels 
  heÕs been misrepresented in film and 
  literature, and unjustly categorised on the 
  whole. He wants to commission you to 
  execute his portrait, to show the world 
  that he is really a civilised and noble 
  creature at heart.
  The following demonstration in 
  watercolour and digital will help you deal 
  with just such an event. After all, it pays 
  to be prepared, just in case.
  IÕll be doing an underpainting in 
  watercolour and scanning the image onto 
  the computer, where IÕll add the colours, 
  refine the lighting and work on the final 
  details in Photoshop.
  L
  1 Drawing from life
  Before I begin working on my 
  monster, I warm up by doing studies from 
  life. In this case, IÕll be using pictures of 
  wild animals as reference.
  The goal of these studies is to form 
  a better understanding of the elements 
  and characteristics of my subject matter. 
  Wild animals are excellent reference for 
  monsters, because they personify human 
  characteristics taken to extremes.
  I donÕt spend too long on any one 
  study. The goal is to commit the forms 
  and details of these creatures to memory, 
  so that I can work from my imagination 
  without the aid of reference.
  2 Thumbnails and 
  exploratory work
  Now I throw out all of my reference and 
  burn my studies, and start drawing 
  completely from my head. IÕll use my 
  reference later, but for the time being, 
  I want to work completely from my 
  memory and imagination.
  I work quickly, using either ballpoint 
  pen or a 0.7mm HB (number 2) pencil. 
  This drawing is often the most fun for me. 
  The possibilities of what could be are 
  almost always more interesting than what 
  is, and I try to get down as many ideas as 
  I can. Eventually there are 20 or so two- 
  or three- inch monsters to pull from.
  3 Tight sketch 
  This particular monster looks promising. I now do a more 
  careful, detailed drawing using a GeneralÕs 2B pencil. I spend as much 
  time as is necessary on this step to arrive at the right look. The drawing 
  is the most essential element if an illustration is to succeed. There are 
  ways to finish an illustration from a poor drawing, but it would be like 
  wrestling a baboon into a lunchbox.
  Justin Gerard
  Country: US
  Justin Gerard 
  is an illustrator 
  who enjoys 
  story-driven 
  illustration. 
  His work has been 
  featured in Spectrum, 
  Society of Illustrators 
  and Exposé, and he is 
  currently art director for
  Portland Studio. 
  www.justingerard.com
  98
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/a-creat
    
  
  Monster portrait
    
  
  100
  Digital art skills
  Presents Anatomy
  4 Adjusting proportions
  Now that I have a sketch that I’m 
  pleased with, I’m ready to transfer it to my 
  watercolour paper. Before doing this, 
  there’s one devilish little trick that I use 
  that has totally reinvented my work. I 
  scan the drawing into Photoshop, mirror 
  it and adjust it before I print it back out 
  and transfer it to paper. This minor 
  readjustment often spells the difference 
  between glorious success and miserable, 
  shivering failure. Before adding this step, 
  all my pieces had an odd tendency 
  towards disproportion and unbalanced 
  composition. So after I mirror the image, 
  I select areas that don’t look right and, 
  using the Transform function, alter them 
  until they look right, before flipping back.
  Layer flair
  Keep your layers 
  organised. Some layer 
  types can be merged 
  together without 
  negatively affecting the 
  image. Several Multiply 
  or Screen layers can be 
  merged. Try to keep your 
  PSD file clean, so that if 
  you find later that you 
  need to add more 
  shadows to an area, you 
  can create a new Multiply 
  layer, add your shadows 
  and merge this into 
  your existing Multiply 
  layer. This will save you 
  headaches later on.
  5 Setting up the 
  watercolour
  Now I leave the computer and turn to 
  setting up my watercolour. For this 
  illustration, I’ll be using Strathmore 500- 
  series Bristol and working at 8.5 x 9.5in. 
  This Bristol is an excellent paper that can 
  take a lot of abuse, and enables precise 
  linework. For this piece, I want to tone my 
  canvas before I transfer my sketch to it. 
  One of the strengths of working digitally 
  over a watercolour is the wonderful 
  texture that watercolour lends to a digital 
  piece: it responds beautifully to dodging 
  and burning. For the wash, I mix up burnt 
  sienna and Prussian blue. As it’s drying, 
  I fleck water over the surface to create 
  blossoms on the surface for the interesting 
  patterns they create in the background.
  6 Transferring the drawing
  There are dozens of ways to transfer a drawing to paper: light tables, graphite 
  transfer, Artograph, freehand and even methods of printing directly from a computer 
  onto watercolour paper. Any of these methods are good, but I usually go with the ever-
  dependable Artograph. Whenever I’m transferring a drawing, I spend only as much 
  time as is required to establish the basic shapes and outlines. Then I finish as much of it 
  as possible freehand: drawings that rely too heavily on the transfer tend to lose their 
  soul. After I’ve transferred the basic outlines to my watercolour, I begin working 
  freehand. I first focus on refining the forms and doing a more accurate drawing.
  7 Working in sepia
  I’m not concerned with adding 
  colours at this particular stage, because 
  I’m effectively treating this watercolour 
  as an underpainting. I’ll add the final 
  colours and effects later in Photoshop; for 
  now, establishing the forms within the 
  composition through value is the most 
  important task.
  I could add the colours in watercolour 
  as well if I wanted to, but I want to play to 
  the strengths of each medium for this 
  portrait. Digital painting is great for 
  bright, intense colours, but it can tend 
  towards looking plastic, for reasons I’ll 
  touch on later. Watercolour, on the other 
  hand, struggles with achieving bright 
  colours but can generate beautiful 
  textures as the water dries on the surface, 
  and gives linework a wonderful variety.
  8 Opaque highlights
  Once I’ve established the shadows, I use a white watercolour 
  or gouache to add opaque details and highlights. This opaque 
  highlighting step could also be done on the computer, but I enjoy 
  the feel of a natural brush a little more than a Wacom tablet’s pen.  
  (One day, when Wacom in its wisdom releases a digital brush with 
  fibre-optic hairs that works like a traditional brush, I will happy to 
  do this on my computer.)
  9 Scan and adjust
  Now that I’ve arrived at a watercolour underpainting that I’m 
  satisfied with, I’m ready to scan it. After it’s scanned, I use a Curves 
  layer to pull back some of the depth that was lost in the scan. 
  Next, I add a host of layers to get the image to look correct before 
  moving on. The key issue is to make sure that no areas on the image at 
  this point are absolute darks or absolute lights. I want the image to 
  occupy a midtone range. To do this, I create a Lighten layer filled with 
  a midtone ochre colour and set it to a lower opacity. This Lighten layer 
  helps to scale back some dark pencil work that’s too intense.
  Featured book: The Encyclopaedia of Mammals by David MacDonald
    
  
  101
  Monster portrait
  Presents Anatomy
  Minor details
  Don’t worry about 
  detailing every single 
  bit of your illustration. 
  While this level of detail 
  may be impressive on its 
  own, it doesn’t always 
  help the image overall. 
  When you focus on all 
  the minor details of an 
  image you lose a sense 
  of the whole; and if you 
  try to focus on the whole 
  of an image, you lose 
  your sense of the details. 
  A successful illustration 
  must reconcile the two.
  PhotoshoP 
  CustoM brush: Monsterbrush no.1
  brush tIP shaPe
  Diameter: 100%
  roundness: 100%
  spacing: 49%
  shaPe DynaMICs
  angle Jitter: 38%
  Control: Direction
  CoLour DynaMICs
  foreground/background Jitter: 3%
  other DynaMICs
  opacity Jitter: Pen Pressure
  flow Jitter: Pen Pressure
  I use this brush for shading and blending. Its
  texture allows for the blending powers of
  the airbrush, but without the synthetic look 
  that so often accompanies it. 
  10 Shadows
  Once the image has been adjusted, 
  IÕm ready to begin laying in the shadows. 
  I want them to be deep, with the sense of 
  a classical Edwardian-era portrait. I want 
  the scene and the image itself to feel as 
  though it were lit by a candle, so I can 
  make a natural focal point of our 
  monsterÕs face through lighting.
  Often I work with dozens of layers to 
  arrive at the final Multiply layer. I work 
  using a textured, soft-edged brush or an 
  airbrush, and I erase out areas that arenÕt 
  to be affected. I then take down the layerÕs 
  opacity until it looks correct, and begin 
  again on a new layer. This process gets 
  repeated dozens of times.
  11 To colour a monster
  There are many methods of applying colours. For this 
  illustration, IÕm going to use layers of Soft Light. I like working with 
  Soft Light because it approximates the feel of colour glazing in oils, and 
  I want to maintain the look of classical portraiture. I build slowly, 
  using as many layers as necessary. Often IÕll paint an area, take the 
  layerÕs opacity down to 15 or 20 per cent, and repeat the process.
  12 Stage lighting
  Now itÕs time to make the monster 
  glow. In many ways, this stage is the 
  inverse of the Multiply/Shadow stage, and 
  itÕs where the watercolourÕs texture really 
  shows its worth.
  Using Colour Dodge layers and a dark 
  grey, I work in much the same way as I did 
  on the Multiply layers, brushing in and 
  erasing out on several different layers 
  until the image looks right. Colour Dodge 
  reacts wonderfully with watercolour, 
  pulling up the contrast on the texture and 
  the grain.
  I use the effect sparingly, and only in 
  areas to which I want to direct the viewerÕs 
  attention. If you use this all over the 
  image, the illustration will lack focus.
  13 The hairy details
  I now begin to work in my final 
  hairy details. I paint using Screen and 
  Normal layers. I work on the basis that 
  shadows are to be painted transparently, 
  and highlights are to be painted opaque. 
  This helps maintain which areas are to be 
  focal points, and which are to recede into 
  the background. I try not to use too much 
  Normal layering. If I work too opaque in 
  Photoshop, the piece takes on the plastic 
  look thatÕs the bane of most digital art. 
  Yet there are some details that absolutely 
  need to be sharp and opaque: the 
  highlights on metal or teeth, the rim of 
  a horn, the areas around the eyes.
  Along with using Normal to sharpen 
  details in the eyes, I use it in subtle glazes 
  to diminish areas where the texture is too 
  obvious. In the background, IÕve laid in a 
  thin layer of darks.
  14 Colour balancing
  At the end, I colour-balance the 
  image. I try not to use too many colour-
  balancing effects: if they are used too 
  much, they burn out an image, scorching 
  the texture and exaggerating the 
  highlights. This too is a bane of digital 
  painting, and one to be careful of. I use it 
  very sparingly at this stage of a painting. 
  Here IÕve used it to pull the painting into a 
  slightly warmer and darker range, and IÕve 
  turned the opacity on the layer down to 
  50 per cent. 
  Now weÕre finished. ItÕs time to take the 
  image to the printer, and hope that the 
  client doesnÕt eat me. 
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  102
  Digital art skills
  Whether you’re drawing a hero or 
  a villain, we’ve got the gestures and 
  silhouettes to help you out…
  Fantasy art
   Poses
   9  
  Warrior
  This is a beautifully balanced and elegant pose. 
  The extended leg is long and straight, and is at 
  a right angle to the staff, giving the character added 
  balance and strength. The right arm balances the 
  body as it leans forwards, while the slope of the 
  shoulders creates a diagonal almost parallel with 
  the line of the leg. The staff is gripped with a 
  strong hand, giving the pose a focal point.
  10 
  Villain making 
  plans
  With sloping 
  shoulders and the head 
  angled slightly down, this 
  pose is closed and still – full 
  of calculating malice. One ﬁst 
  grasps the other, causing the 
  muscles of the arms to bulge, 
  and the feet are planted ﬁrmly 
  on the ground.
   8 
  Flying
  The leading arm is 
  outstretched, indicating 
  powerful momentum. 
  The other arm is streamlined, 
  held close to the side. 
  Just after the moment 
  of lift-off, the right 
  leg is still bent 
  for balance.
  toP
  The face is lifted slightly 
  and looks in the direction 
  of the leading leg.
  The stomach 
  muscles are relaxed 
  but slightly twisted 
  to the side.
  The staff is held 
  ready, giving a sense 
  of impending action.
  With the arm muscles tensed, 
  this pose hints at power that’s 
  yet to be unleashed.
  The arm is straight and at a 
  right angle to the line of the 
  eyes, adding stability and 
  strength to the composition. 
  7 
  slayer
  The shoulders are thrust 
  back, the chest pushes 
  forwards, and the slim waist 
  leads to the ﬂare of the hips 
  and a strong balanced stance. 
  Compositionally, the 
  weapon creates a clean 
  line with the back leg, 
  giving the pose a  
  degree of equilibrium.
  The leg is straight and powerful, 
  planted firmly on the ground and 
  defining the direction of the 
  character’s gaze.
    
  
  Presents Anatomy
  Chest and shoulder 
  muscles bulge with the 
  effort of supporting the 
  character’s body weight.
  103
  Top ten fantasy poses
  Fingers are 
  arched and 
  tense as they 
  grip the wall.
   3 
  scaling a wall
  Viewed from above, we see 
  the gripping hands and arm 
  muscles taut with the strain 
  of clinging to the wall. The raised left 
  leg balances the leading right arm. 
  The upturned face and concentrated 
  stare hint at a sense of purpose and also 
  help create the illusion of height, as the 
  character looks to his destination.
  6 
  preparing 
  to strike
  The extended 
  arms stretch the chest 
  and stomach, and the 
  muscles are clearly 
  deﬁned as a result. The 
  raised leg counterbalances 
  the sword held behind the 
  body. It follows that as the 
  sword falls, the leg will drop 
  down and back in response, 
  feeding more power into the 
  attacking action.
   2 
  Villain 
  creePing
  Keeping low, the 
  torso is held 
  parallel to the ground. The 
  arms are ready to lurch 
  forwards and grasp the prey.
  1 
  Victory
  Successful in battle 
  once again, the mighty 
  hero raises his muscled arms 
  and shouts his victory to the 
  heavens. The straight limbs 
  create a X-shaped silhouette 
  that adds dynamism. 
   5 
  eVil sorceress
  The arms are raised in 
  twin claws of menace 
  and evil intent, while 
  the face is impassive and 
  coolly confident. This pose 
  suggests an imminent strike.
  4 
  Walker in 
  the Woods
  Both the left arm and 
  the left leg extend forward to 
  suggest stillness (motion is 
  represented by simultaneous 
  movement of opposing 
  arms and legs), creating 
  a diagonal hip line and 
  strong leg shape. The 
  right arm pulls back, 
  causing the shoulders to 
  pull together.
  These poses come 
  from the book 
  Anatomy for 
  Fantasy Artists 
  by Glenn Fabry. 
  www.davidand 
  charles.co.uk
  Fantasy 
  anatomy
  The face is intent and 
  focused, locking a steely 
  gaze upon the victim.
    
  
  104
  Digital art skills
  Presents Anatomy
  1 state your intention
  Before you even pick up a pencil, the 
  most important thing to consider is 
  intention – visualising and knowing 
  what you want to achieve. You have to 
  be very specific about what you want, 
  you have to believe you can do it, and 
  you must expect it to manifest. Aim 
  the highest you possibly can, higher 
  than anything that’s ever been achieved 
  in the history of mankind on Planet 
  Earth. This way you charge the process 
  with positivity, and you’ll be sure to get 
  things off to a great start.
  Strike a poSe
  Warren Louw explains how to fill your characters with 
  energy and dynamism by learning the art of posing…
  hat I’m about to tell you are the 
  crucial basics, the foundations 
  of your characters. If you’re 
  not getting this right, don’t 
  expect too much else to get better. Posing 
  greatly extends and energises the 
  personality of your character, giving you 
  the control you need to deepen the 
  relationship that they have with the 
  viewers. This is where you give your 
  characters life. This is where it begins.
  Be very specific about what you want 
  and what you like. Study it, understand 
  it, make it a part of you and 
  expand with it. Nothing 
  is random. Everything 
  has a purpose. Aim 
  high. Aim beyond 
  what’s ever been 
  achieved in art. Learn from other artists around you. 
  Art is about self-expression and reaching new 
  undiscovered levels within yourself. 
  Find your own style. We are all unique expressions 
  of infinite possibilities, so we all have the potential. 
  Make sure that you’re loving the experience that art is 
  bringing to your life, and you will only move forward. 
  When you have all the ingredients in place, you can 
  think about your characters in terms of their spatial 
  relationship to the world.
  W
  Warren Louw
  Country: South Africa
  Warren is a 
  professional 
  illustrator 
  who spends 
  his spare time 
  reverse-engineering 
  feminine beauty. 
  http://ifxm.ag/w-louw
  Direct link for 
  workshop files
  http://ifxm.ag/a-pose
    
  
  105
  Character pose tips
  Presents Anatomy
  4 understanding 
  exactly what  
  you’re dealing with
  What needs to happen early on is 
  for you to become familiar with 
  the shapes and forms that you’ll be 
  working with. You’ll need to pay 
  attention to all the curves, joints 
  and body parts, and understand 
  where they need to be in relation 
  to each other. Finding the hidden 
  lines and patterns where certain 
  points meet and join will be your 
  guide to work from. Just 
  remember: every tiny line you 
  draw has a purpose and is 
  designed to work as one with the 
  rest. You’ll notice that if one thing 
  is out, then others will follow.
  6 the angle effect
  When giving your figure an attractive, confident and sexy 
  pose, you have to adjust the angles of the head, torso, hips 
  and legs. To draw it, you need to understand it. This pose is 
  achieved by the legs shifting, pushing the channelling of 
  the body’s weight to the right side. Now the right hip is 
  confidently exposing itself, and with the legs wider apart, 
  both legs are taking a good portion of her weight.
  7 experiment with a different style
  Amazingly, you can learn a lot from using a different style. 
  Working from a different perspective on how to approach 
  things can give you a fresh viewpoint. It will only expand 
  your understanding about posing and anatomy in general. 
  I find my skills spontaneously upgrade themselves after 
  I’ve been working with a range of alternate styles, so this is 
  highly recommended to all. 
  3 let’s rectangle 
  Foreshortening and perspective 
  can be quite the cow for all of us 
  artists – don’t think the pros are 
  excluded from this difficulty. So 
  here’s a good starting point. If you 
  know how to give perspective to a 
  box, or even a rectangle, this 
  should help you give perspective 
  to your figures, since both have a 
  front, sides and a back. Yes, the 
  human form is far more complex 
  than that, with many other things 
  to consider. But if you can keep 
  the proportions within the 
  rectangle guidelines, things will 
  come much easier. Notice the 
  consistency of the centre point 
  throughout both boxes.
  2 male Vs female
  If you can master the feminine, the 
  masculine will be pretty easy. They 
  share many of the same basic 
  characteristics. When dealing with 
  the male, it’s just a matter of 
  adjusting a few things here and 
  there. I don’t draw males much, 
  but I can do it very effectively 
  because of my work with the 
  female figure. Those who focus 
  primarily on males will have a far 
  greater difficulty achieving 
  feminine beauty and sexiness.
  5 FLoW
  Everything has a flow. With a bit of attention to anatomy 
  and its rhythm, this will soon become clear. The best way  
  to help your poses have flow is to think of an S shape, as  
  this will be the flow leading your eye through the pose,  
  and will even help with your overall composition.
   I find my skills spontaneously 
  upgrade themselves after I’ve worked 
  with a range of alternate styles…  
    
  
  106
  Digital art skills
  Presents Anatomy
  11 Balancing that weight
  I’m sure you have been left frustrated sometimes – all 
  you’re trying to do is get a simple pose, right? This is 
  normally a result of being oblivious to the physics of 
  balancing and centring weight. The solution is pretty basic: 
  the leg that’s the most upright and straightest is the one 
  that takes most of the weight. So keep your footing 
  balanced in relation to your character’s centre, also 
  keeping in mind where the focus of the weight lies.
  10 the FoCuS you need
  Breaking it down to a simpler scale will give you the 
  focus you need to concentrate on the essentials 
  without all the details confusing you. Loosen up your 
  technique and just flow with it. When you think too 
  much, you’re acknowledging that you don’t already 
  know it all. You know more than you think, so don’t let 
  thought obstruct you.
  13 leVel of the eye
  Eye level is really important in creating a 
  dynamic pose. Using a low view can make a 
  character seem dominant, heroic or just plain 
  huge. The point from which you view it plays 
  a critical role in creating a pose, because this 
  is essentially how you want the world to see it. 
  So when deciding on a pose, consider where 
  you want the eye level to be, as this can make 
  even a simple pose appear very dramatic. 
  12 silhouetting
  A great way to check if your pose 
  is eye-catching or dynamic is to 
  fill it in with black or a darker 
  colour and reduce it to a 
  silhouette. This enables you to 
  see if your pose has flow and 
  impact, and still conveys the same 
  essence that you originally 
  intended. Your focus is being 
  centred on the actual form, with 
  no internal affairs to distract you.
  9 Visualise a  
  Vanishing point
  You first need to establish the 
  eye level: you’ll be looking up at 
  everything above it. Try to keep 
  the symmetry of the body running 
  on the lines. Refer back to the 
  figure’s front design to see which 
  areas and elements run parallel 
  with each other.
  8 add emotion
  Emotion and mood are vital 
  elements when creating a piece  
  of artwork. A pose in itself can 
  convey many emotions without 
  using things like facial expressions. 
  Real emotion is always expressed 
  throughout the rest of your body 
  as well. There are no exceptions: it 
  just depends on intensity. So just 
  be aware of body language.
    
  
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  108
  Digital art skills
  Presents Anatomy
  Marek Okon
  Marek is an experienced sci-fi 
  and fantasy artist, though he 
  started out as a web designer. 
  He has worked as a digital 
  illustrator for two years.
  omen2501.deviantart.com
  Frazer Irving
  Top comic artist Frazer 
  spends lots of time drawing 
  horrid-looking things on his 
  Wacom Cintiq. He’s worked 
  for 2000 AD and DC Comics.
  www.frazerirving.com
  Mélanie Delon
  Mélanie is a freelance 
  illustrator who specialises in 
  fantasy portraits. Her most 
  recent book cover is for the 
  ebook of A Crown of Swords.
  www.melaniedelon.com
  Jonny Duddle
  Jonny is a freelance illustrator. 
  He’s working on a top-secret 
  project for Aardman, and 
  released the picture book 
  The Pirate Cruncher last year.
  www.duddlebug.com
  Andy Park
  Andy is a talented concept 
  artist who works for Sony. 
  Among the games he has 
  worked on is the popular God 
  of War for PlayStation 2.
  www.andyparkart.com
  Bobby Chiu
  Bobby Chiu is an independent 
  artist from Toronto, Canada. 
  Part of the Imaginism outfit, 
  he’s involved primarily in film 
  and TV production.
  www.imaginismstudios.com
  Jim Pavelec
  Jim Pavelec lives in a world 
  surrounded by demons, 
  monsters and devils. He’s the 
  author of the how-to monster 
  book Hell Beasts.
  www.jimpavelec.com
  Question
  How can I make the hands I 
  paint appear more realistic?
  Answer
  Mélanie replies 
  Hands are one of the most 
  difﬁcult parts of a character to 
  paint. You should bear in 
  mind that they have soft, 
  round edges, and also that they are a 
  powerful way of conveying emotions.
  When you begin a hand, think about 
  the construction lines (they all come from 
  the wrist): don’t hesitate to use your own 
  hands as a model. In general, ﬁngers are 
  halfway along the hand, and they are 
  more like cylinders than boxes.
  When you’re satisﬁed with your sketch, 
  start shading. Try to smooth as best as you 
  can here. Use a basic Hard Round brush 
  tip for the base and a speckled one for the 
  ﬁnal blending. The light is stronger and 
  redder at the joints, because the skin is 
  thinner there. 
  The next step is texturing. This stage is 
  the most decisive one. I use a basic Hard 
  Round tip with Hardness set to 70% and 
  Shape Dynamics set Size Jitter Control set 
  to Pen Pressure. I add a few thin lines and 
  folds on the skin, and some light dots on 
  another layer. 
  Adding little details, 
  such as veins or the 
  skin fold between 
  ﬁngers, will increase 
  the realistic look of 
  your hand.
  Learn from the professionals as our panel of 
  experts tackle real-world anatomy issues
  The colour scheme 
  for a hand is the same 
  as for the character, 
  except for the 
  extremities of the 
  ﬁngers and the joints, 
  which are redder.
  Our panel
  Direct link for Q&A files
  http://ifxm.ag/a-qanda
    
  
  109
  Presents Anatomy
  1
  4
  2
  Question
  What’s the best way to draw  
  a screaming face?
  Step-by-step: The perfect scream
   
  I start with a rather basic 
  sketch. This drawing is 
  loose and rough, to effectively 
  capture and reflect the raw 
  energy thatÕs needed to drive 
  the rest of the art. I always find 
  that the initial stage of a 
  drawing Ð whatever the tone, 
  style or subject matter Ð 
  provides the fuel for the final 
  image. You mustnÕt hold back 
  at all at this point if you want to 
  capture that scream.
  3  
  The next stage in the 
  process is to block in some 
  shadows on the subjectÕs face. 
  Extreme, dramatic lighting can 
  be an incredibly valuable tool 
  when youÕre trying to create 
  a particular mood, and is 
  especially useful when defining 
  dramatic lines on the face. 
  Here, I choose to use quite 
  strong side lighting, to imply 
  the conflict of emotion within 
  the character.
   
  The wrinkles stemming out 
  from the eyes are very 
  important in depicting strong 
  expressions. Here I exaggerate 
  the lines on the forehead a little 
  to enhance the anguish, as well  
  as darkening the bridge of the 
  nose to show tension. These 
  features capture the basics of 
  the scream: after this, all you 
  need is the right colour palette 
  and a well-chosen background 
  to set it off perfectly.
  Answer
  Frazer replies
  All the way from Edvard Munch 
  to Jack Kirby, every artist has 
  their own way of depicting 
  screams. The type of scream can 
  vary a great deal depending on the emotion 
  that drives this reaction: as an artist, you 
  need to know the differences between a 
  scream of fear as opposed to a scream of 
  anger, or perhaps of pain. It’s not 
  uncommon for a lazy artist to use the 
  wrong expression for an illustration and 
  cause much confusion in the onlooker, 
  especially in comics.
  What I’ll do here is take you through the 
  process of how I construct an angry scream 
  for a comic, which is all about the scream 
  and the power behind it. 
  To do this, I employ standard drawing 
  techniques next to graphic elements, in 
  much the same way that Munch used swirls 
  to enhance his Scream painting. 
  Remember, though, that even the most 
  detailed-looking image is really still 
  composed of the most basic elements. The 
  trick is to identify which aspects of the face 
  convey the idea most effectively.
   
  Next, I trace over the 
  sketch on a new layer. 
  These lines refine the basic 
  shape and the main features, 
  framing the mouth with a 
  beard and making sure that it 
  reads as simply as possible. A 
  lot of the raw energy from the 
  original sketch is lost at this 
  stage, because of the simplicity 
  of the black line Ð but this will 
  all return as I progress to the 
  final piece.
  Flip check in photoshop
  every artist leans to one side. Use edit > 
  transform > Flip horizontal to ﬂip your 
  drawing and check that the lean isn’t 
  too extreme. A little’s ﬁne, but you can 
  spot major errors this way.
  Artist’s secret
    
  
  110
  Digital art skills
  Presents Anatomy
  Question
  My ﬁgures always look static in 
  my paintings. How can I give 
  them more of a sense of motion 
  and dynamism?
  In this painting, I use various tricks to suggest movement, such as adjusting shadows 
  to place vehicles in mid-air, rough brush marks and ﬂowing fur and ﬂags.
  Answer
  Jonny replies 
  It’s common to find that the 
  more you work on an image, 
  the more static the end result 
  becomes. I often find myself 
  rendering a successful character sketch, 
  with lots of movement and dynamism, 
  into something dull and lifeless. But 
  there are ways of keeping a character 
  looking dynamic.
  The most obvious place to start is the 
  character’s pose. To properly convey 
  character, you need to paint figures in 
  poses that suggest their personality and 
  movement. For example, an aggressive 
  character could be hunched over with 
  clenched fists and taut neck muscles. 
  Sketch the figure, then revise it with a 
  more exaggerated pose. Keep pushing 
  a pose: it will often gain more and more 
  personality. Use layout paper to trace 
  parts of the previous 
  drawing, or sketch 
  digitally and save 
  different versions. You 
  can use Photoshop’s 
  Transform tools to 
  stretch, scale and distort 
  particular parts of a 
  figure’s anatomy.
  Reference is important. 
  Look at photographs of 
  figures in motion. 
  Analysing some of the 
  incredible photography 
  online or in magazines, 
  can reap benefits when 
  drawing dynamic figures. 
  Skateboarding shots are  
  a good example: they do  
  a great job of showing 
  the human figure in 
  movement and under 
  lots of tension and stress.
  Lastly, look at artists 
  and art reference  
  books for tips, tricks  
  and techniques. There 
  are some wonderful 
  artists, such as Phil  
  Hale and Jon Foster,  
  who are masters  
  of dynamic figure 
  painting. Look closely  
  at how they use 
  composition, 
  perspective, figure 
  drawing and mark-
  making to add 
  dynamism to images.
  Sketch your character, then revise him with a 
  more exaggerated pose. Real-life action shots of 
  skateboarders are a good source for seeing the 
  human ﬁgure in movement and under tension.
  Answer
  Jim replies
  Heroic proportions are 
  important when working 
  in comic books or fantasy 
  illustration. A common 
  unit of measure when drawing the 
  human body is head height and width. 
  At eye level, the typical human being is 
  roughly six-and-a-half to seven heads 
  tall, and three heads across at the 
  Question
  What does the term ‘heroic proportions’ 
  mean in the context of character design? 
  Now take a look at our hero. At between eight 
  and nine heads high and a shoulder span of about 
  four heads, he’s the guy you want on your side.
  This image shows the proportions of the 
  average human male, and the musculature 
  and skeletal structure beneath the skin.
  shoulders – the body’s widest point. But 
  you don’t want your superhero looking 
  average, so design them based on the 
  principle of heroic proportions.
  A hero should stand anywhere between 
  eight and nine heads high, with a 
  shoulder width of four heads across. 
  The hero’s waist is kept the same as the 
  average person’s, to help accentuate the 
  width of their shoulders and the sweep of 
  their crushing thighs.
  Answer
  Andy replies  
  The key to drawing or 
  painting an eye is to think of 
  it in three dimensions. 
  Although we instinctively 
  think of eyes as almond-shaped, they’re 
  Question
  I’ve learned how to paint an eye head-on, 
  but there seem to be no workshops on 
  how to paint one from the side. I’ve tried 
  and failed. What could I be doing wrong? 
  of course spherical, with only about 
  a quarter of the sphere visible. The eyeball 
  is basically a sphere with lids that wrap 
  around it. Keeping these things in mind 
  will help you when you have to illustrate 
  the eye from different angles – even from 
  a direct front-on view.
    
  
  111
  Artist Q&A
  Presents Anatomy
  Question
  How do I put realistic mass and weight 
  into my character designs?
  BAlAnce
  in the image below, the monk’s centre of gravity  
  is behind him. if he wasn’t trying to lift the 
  monster, he would fall over: the further back the 
  monk leans, the more weight must be in front  
  of him to counterbalance him. therefore, the 
  degree of lean in his body also indicates how 
  heavy the monster is.
  Artist’s secret
  Answer
  Bobby replies 
  ‘Weight’ is really 
  gravity acting upon  
  a mass. Therefore,  
  the best ‘weighted’ 
  character designs accurately 
  reflect how gravity affects a body. 
  Looking around you, you can 
  gauge this in a couple of different 
  ways: by looking at the body, and 
  by looking at how the body 
  affects the environment.
  In a soft mass such as a pot 
  belly, where gravity is strong and 
  the forces holding up the fat are 
  weak, the greater the weight is, 
  the lower the soft tissue will 
  droop or hang down.
  Furthermore, consider how 
  weight might have an effect on 
  your subject’s surroundings. For 
  example, if your character is 
  heavy, they might sink into the 
  mud or cause the bridge or branch 
  that they’re standing on to bend 
  noticeably. If they’re being lifted 
  (strenuously) off the ground, the 
  vertical forces associated with the 
  action should be tense and taut, 
  to demonstrate how difficult it is 
  to overcome the gravitational 
  forces trying to pull the body back 
  to earth.
  In a magical environment, 
  you could guide expectations by 
  making your heavy character 
  appear to be made of stone or 
  something else that’s very dense. 
  Your viewer will understand from 
  association that stone is heavy, 
  therefore your character must be 
  very heavy as well.
  In this later version of the 
  same image, the weight of the 
  monster is shown by the monk’s 
  reaction: there’s strain on his 
  face, and his back and legs are 
  stretched with tension.
  The initial sketch to capture 
  the idea and establish 
  forces. The monk  
  is straining to lift the 
  monster, but the monster 
  does not budge.
  1
  2
  3
   
  Here’s a quick sketch of someone’s 
  right eye. As you can see, there is a 
  circle faintly drawn in, which represents 
  the sphere that makes up the eyeball. 
  There are two lids that wrap around the 
  eyeball and, in 
  doing so, cover 
  the majority of it. 
  Take note of the 
  way in which the 
  bottom lid wraps 
  under the top lid 
  on the side.
   
  This is the same eye, seen from the 
  side instead of the front. I’ve rendered 
  out the sphere that makes up the eyeball 
  within the eyelids to help to illustrate the 
  three-dimensionality of the form. Again, 
  note how the top 
  lid goes above 
  the bottom lid on 
  the side. It’s really 
  important to get 
  the eyes right, or 
  else the picture 
  can distort.
   
  Here’s the final rendering of the eye. 
  There are a few things that are worth 
  noting here. Because the eye is moist, you 
  need to capture its reflective nature; 
  there’s a shadow that the top lid creates 
  on the eyeball; 
  and the whites of 
  the eyes are not 
  solely white – 
  they too need to 
  show elements 
  of form and 
  shadow.
  Step-by-step: Painting eyeballs side-on
    
  
  112
  Digital art skills
  Presents Anatomy
  Artist’s secret
  Answer
  Jonny replies 
  If you’re painting 
  ﬁgures, drawing 
  cartoons or rendering 
  3D characters, you 
  need to make them interesting to 
  look at. Whether it’s evil, sad, 
  happy or deadpan, their facial 
  expression could be vital in 
  communicating the story or 
  message in your work. 
  However different people may 
  look, everyone’s faces are made up 
  of the same set of bones and 
  muscles. By becoming familiar 
  with the basic anatomy of the face, 
  it can be easier to paint more 
  believable expressions. You don’t 
  need to name every muscle or 
  identify every component of the 
  skull, but with practice, you can get 
  to know the main building blocks 
  of the face and how they ﬁt together. 
  Use reference to practise drawing 
  faces. Reference can be anything 
  from photographs you’ve taken or 
  in books and magazines, DVD stills 
  or old-master paintings. While 
  drawing, try to identify the main 
  Question
  How do I draw facial expressions that convey the 
  right emotion and don’t feel stiff or forced?
  shapes in the face and how they 
  distort and move with different 
  facial expressions. Also try 
  exaggerating the size of particular 
  features to see how subtle 
  modiﬁcations can affect the mood. 
  Try big noses, heavy brows or high 
  foreheads. Small changes can make 
  a big difference.
  It’s also worth bearing in mind 
  that facial expressions work in 
  conjunction with body language, so 
  in most cases you’ll need to ensure 
  the face matches the body.
  It’s a good exercise to draw different facial 
  expressions, whether you try drawing the 
  same character or a variety of different faces 
  from reference.
  Don’t be shy: draw yourself! (If I look a little 
  wonky, that’s because I am...)
  Use A Mirror! 
  this may sound obvious, or even a little 
  embarrassing, but keeping a mirror on your desk 
  can be a great help in painting believable 
  expressions. take some time out to sketch yourself  
  so you get familiar with the movement of facial 
  muscles while pulling faces, and use these sketches 
  to inform your work.
  Answer
  Bobby replies 
  When you show bodies in 
  motion, you must consider 
  physics. What are the effects 
  of gravity on the pose? What 
  about inertia or momentum? Which 
  way is the body moving? All of these 
  considerations tell you which forces are 
  acting on our ﬁgure, and how much 
  strain the body should undergo to do 
  what it wants to do.
  Next, consider the restrictions 
  imposed by anatomy. Bodies are 
  limited in the ways that they can bend, 
  twist, stretch and rotate. Artistically 
  speaking, it’s acceptable for you to 
  exaggerate these limits, but not to 
  ignore them altogether. Take a leaping 
  ﬁgure: when a body is 
  airborne, gravity pulls it 
  down, led by the trunk of 
  the ﬁgure. Inertia dictates that 
  the limbs will tend to trail 
  behind the torso. 
  With these points in mind, I 
  sketch out my ﬁgure accordingly. 
  If I’m unsure about how to position 
  certain parts of the body, I will attempt 
  to recreate that part of the pose 
  myself, so that I can see how far back 
  an arm or a leg can extend behind 
  the moving body without it starting 
  to feel uncomfortable. 
  Try some experimentation. 
  The trunks of the bodies 
  do not change; I only 
  adjust the limbs and props 
  to a position that I like.
  Question
  I have trouble posing ﬁgures 
  realistically, particularly when they’re  
  in mid-action. How can I make my 
  moving ﬁgures better?
  Even though this body is upright, we 
  understand that the ﬁgure is airborne 
  through the posing of the limbs relative 
  to the body.
    
  
  113
  Presents Anatomy
  1
  2
  4
  3
  Question
  How can I be more true to life 
  when I paint the shading on  
  my character’s faces?
  Step-by-step: Add shading detail to a plain face
  Answer
  Marek replies 
  When I was younger, I always 
  wondered why artists practised 
  light and shadows on such 
  simple objects as spheres, cylinders or boxes 
  instead of on cool robots. Now I know that 
  the simplicity of those objects enable an 
  artist to fully understand how light casts 
  shadow and then to transform this 
  knowledge to more complex shapes.
  Let’s take the head, for example. It’s a 
  complex object with different planes to 
  consider, which can be really tricky to 
  shade properly. But if you break it down 
  into basic shapes like spheres and cubes, 
  it’s much easier to grasp it  in your mind.
  In much the same way, divide complex 
  scenes or objects into familiar shapes, and 
  detail them after basic shading is properly 
  done. This will help you greatly in your 
  efforts to master the art of shading. 
   
  Start with a basic shape – 
  ideally a roundish cylinder 
  (the head), attached to another 
  cylinder (the neck) attached to 
  another roundish cylinder (the 
  body). Just to make this easier 
  to understand, let’s put a 
  simple grid on our shapes and 
  add some basic shading.  
   
  Now it’s time for the basic 
  features. The nose is 
  basically a triangle sticking out 
  in the middle of the face, while 
  the eye sockets are those two 
  symmetrical depressions.  
  I usually paint these with a 
  simple single brush stroke.
   
  Let’s shape this face more 
  correctly. Here, I’ve split 
  the surface of my head into 
  shapes that can be shaded 
  more carefully. All of those 
  features are parts of spheres 
  and cylinders that are fairly 
  easy to shade. Just check out 
  the eye area: it looks like I put 
  another sphere into the middle 
  of my eye socket.
   
  The next phase is to blend 
  the borders between these 
  shapes, then add some muscle 
  and skin structure to make the 
  face fuller. Don’t forget to stick 
  to the shading you did before; 
  it’s a good base for complex 
  detailing. Finally, you add in 
  all the details you need. With 
  good base shading, this head 
  should look pretty convincing 
  by now.
  Contrary to initial 
  impression, the human 
  face is an exceedingly 
  complex object, 
  especially when it 
  comes to an accurate 
  portrayal of natural 
  lighting and shadow.
  In every issue of ImagineFX, our panel solve real-world creative problems with helpful techniques. Email your 
  question to help@imaginefx.com or write to Artist Q&A, ImagineFX, 30 Monmouth St, Bath, BA1 2BW, UK.
    
  
  114
  Website
  Presents Anatomy
  Editorial 
  ClairE HowlEtt editor 
  claire.howlett@futurenet.com
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  Contributions 
  Bobby chiu, Mélanie delon, Jonny duddle, 
  Justin gerard, Frazer irving, ron Lemen, 
  Warren Louw, Marek okon, andy Park, 
  Jim Pavelec, Marshall vandruff
  PHotograPHy Future photography studio
  dan olivEr editor-in-chief
  stEvE gotobEd group senior art editor
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Crafts/Design/Digital/ImagineFX Presents - How to Draw and Paint Anatomy UK.pdf