Drawing Legs and Faces

[Shapes]

Sup,

Long time reader first time poster, hello everyone.

I'm sorta having problems drawing legs (all angles, front,back,side etc). Its not really a problem that i can't draw them at all its more like a luck situtaion. I draw a good looking leg (if I'm lucky) and then spend the next half hour trying to draw a matching second one. I can't keep consistent.

Same thing with faces. I can draw all the features but the shape of the face again is a thing of luck, never from a first or second try.

The thing is in the end (for the most part) they come out looking the way I want them to but it takes too long a time to get there. I've sat down and tried drawing shapes of faces and legs by themselves for days on end but still can't do it right every time or consistently, have to leave it to chance.


Any tips/advice would be extremely appreciated.

-Thanks

[BadMange]

There's a pretty good book called the "Atlas of Foreshortening." It's mostly b/w pics of men and women in tons of positions. You can find it at B&N.

-Bad Mange

[Galvatron]

... but the only guarenteed way I've found is to just keep on drawing them. Constantly. I draw on every scrap of paper in the house, margins of books, newspapers, envelopes, receipts. It's the kind of advice you'll read on every forum, but get a mirror and just study your face; pull faces, and pay attention to how the muscles and tendons behave under the skin. Anatomy books are helpful, but sometimes I find the sheer technicality of it all gets in the way; I know that at this angle when the mouth is the shape, the jawline will look like this, I don't really need to know the names of the muscles that do it, just what they do.
Have fun!

[trevor]

legs are simple when you take certain things into consideration.....
draw from the inside out, the shape of muscle in your legs depends on the bone positions. where do they come closest to the suface? hips knees and ankles
get a couple of george bridgeman anatomy books (about $7 bucks a piece and worth it) they show in great detail where muscles and tendons attatch and interact with the skeleton. knowing this can help in figuring out which muscle goes where when posing a character. of course nothing beats life drawing classes. if yer in the la area i give classes. so any questions let me know

[Shapes]

Thanks for all the great advice, damn the "no-short cut to get better" policy in art :D .

I went to Chapters but couldn't find any of Bridgemen's books. I did buy "Anatomy: A Complete Guide for Artists" by Joseph Shepard and so far its pretty damn good. Lots of detailed drawings and is conveniently divided into section (heads, legs etc). I saw the Atlus for Human Anatomy but not for foreshortneing, I'll be on the look-out for it for sure.

Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate it.


P.S. i apologize for the late reply (my internet connection went out of order).

[krayz]

Dynamic Figure Drawing by Burne Hogarth is a good one.

[van]

"Human anatomy made amazingly easy" by Christopher Hart is a good one.

[Hazzard]

I think what you should maybe try is using guidelines. Start your drawing out with a very fine and light shade of pencil, a high H grade should do the trick and set it out how you want it. Once youve got the general idea of what your piece looks like start going back over it in more and more detail with darker shades of pencil. With the guide lines in place it helps you keep track of where everything was. I personaly keep them in the drawing becuase i think it adds solidarity to the picture but if you prefer you can always go over it in a pen that wont smear and earse your guides lines. If you look at a lot of Doug Chang's work you will see he uses a type of indian ink to set his pictures out and goes back over them but these guides he uses realy add to the form of the picture when he doesnt remove them.

[twindragon]

you could also draw small thumbnails of your characters in a cylindrical form and then when you get the proportions right blow up the image to a bigger size and use a light table and start putting the muscles together by using a reference. A muscle magazine is good for this.

[Aranthulas]

Get a George Bridgman book, the guy has an awesome style. especially the legs/

[USER777]

yop, just bought bridgman's constructive anatomy and it's awesome.. really good anatomy sketches of every part of the body.. cool style, too!