Mentoring in Animal Anatomy and Creature Design -- Muscles, Part One

[Moai]

Kieran- Cool to see some concept skeletons from you.
The primate-like skeleton has some interesting features. In the hand, particularly, I notice that its metacarpals are very long, while its phalanges are very short. That's an interesting feature. The pelvis looks a little oversimplified, especially at the joint where it articulates with the femur. Overall, I think this design is too typical, too much like a regular monkey. Playing with its proportions and the shapes of its individual bones can fix this.
The second, more catlike skeleton is my favorite of these three. It has a nice gesture and proportions. The line of its spine and the large masses around its shoulders give it a very low, quick, powerful appearance. Also, it has a fantastic head. The skull is long with the eyes and face sort of pushed towards the front of the skull, which gives the skull interesting proportions. Its jaws also have a wonderful jagged quality that I quite enjoy. As far as crits go on this one, the angle of its ankle is far too severe. This is something I see fairly often in beginners' creature designs, and to me it just makes the hind legs seem strained. Look at poses of cats and you'll see that the angle of the foot is never that harsh. Also, I'd make the tail longer. This would emphasize the greater proportion of mass near the front of the body.
As for the bottom skeleton, I can see that you liked the claw-hoof combo that I gave our long-necked iguana creature.:D Anyway, I think this design has a lot of potential, but its individual elements aren't quite in harmony yet. This is most evident in the feet. The front feet are typical herbivore hooves, but the back feet have toes and look like carnivore feet. I'm not saying that there couldn't be a creature design that combines hooves and toes, but these feet really just don't seem to belong to the same creature. So, I'd find an intermediate between the two feet. Instead of having just one large hoof on the front feet, why not give it two or three hoof-like toes. Instead of having multiple small toes on the rear feet, why not give it a fewer number of hoof-like toes? That's not to say that the front and rear feet can't be different, just not so jarringly so. Just a suggestion. Also, the angles between the different joints of its legs seem slightly unnatural, but not as much as in your cat-like design. I'd also recommend that you take another look at the tarsals and metatarsals of the foot. I just think that the tarsals of this creature's feet are confined in too small of a clump, while the metacarpals are too long and straight. I like the claws coming out of its head, but I still think that you should add a more prominent calcaneus (heel bone).
Nice work, man. I'm eager to see more. Here's a idea for coming up with designs that you can try out if you want. Draw a number of skeletons, each with a different feature emphasized. Have one creature with a strange skull, another with an unusual neck, another with a strange backbone, another with a weird pelvis, etc. This is just to make sure that you practice with the different design possibilities of each part of the skeleton.

[realitychek]

Sorry it's been a while Moai, but here's the studies I did labeled with all the muscles I could see:
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f6/Pinto777/CA/Moai/facestudies-1.jpg

Yeah, got a bit much into the shading and everything even though I shouldn't have, but I'll remember that for next time!
I just downloaded OpenCanvas and would love to join in, but since it's for windows only I can only do it when I'm at my dad's (first three weekends of every month, every Wednesday...) and I'll probably start to borrow one of my art teacher's wacom tablets for it :)

[Me,Myself & Me again]

More concepts, i took your comments to heart moai and experimented on the spine a bit.
realitychek:- wicked studies mate

[realitychek]

Thanks Me, Myself :) I'm really liking some of your concept skeletons- love the skull on the bottom of the last one especially

[Moai]

Sweet work, mentees. I'll comment on them fully tomorrow. Homework and work are taking up all my time today!

[Jacob Kobryn]

You've spent over a year on skeletons man...

[Moai]

Yikes! Sorry for the delay, peeps. I've been both busy and forgetful.
Realitychek- Hey! Glad to see you again. I was a little worried. Anyway, great work labeling those heads. I really don't see anything to critique there. I'll get to work on the muscles of the neck right away.
Kieran- It's great to see some more of these from you. It looks like you're really getting creative and having fun. The top left skull, the primate-like one with tusks, has a nice ogre-ish feel to it. The four-eyed skull is very cool. Nice idea. Be sure to keep your perspective consistent when drawing these, especially with three-quarter views. I'm pretty sure we'd be able to see the farther tusk of the first skull, and the perspective on the face of the four-eyed guy just doesn't seem quite correct. Are you lightly sketching in the shapes before you draw in the harder lines? If you're not, you should be.
I really like the skeleton below the four-eyed skull. I like the juxtaposition of the somewhat horse-like skull with the low, slinking body. The posture of the hind legs seems a bit unnatural, though.
Four-horned skull also looks cool. I think you should try to integrate the horns more with your designs, though. They tend to seem just kinda pasted on. Make them more a part of the skull, and also make sure they flow harmoniously with the shapes and gestures of the rest of the design.
The horned skull beneath the slinky horse skeleton is kind of confusing me. Is that shape below its eye socket another horn, or a huge tooth? In any case, the shape of the lower jaw is somewhat too lumpy for my taste. I think it could flow better with the shape of the upper jaw and snout.
The big-eyed, sharp-toothed primate skull below that is a decent design, but it doesn't really capture my interest. How well I'd end up liking it would depend on what kind of body it was paired up with.
You're definitely playing with the line of the spine, I can see that. The high hindquarters and low front legs of the lower left skeleton are an interesting feature. Definitely a lot of potential for some neat designs in that. I like the mouthful of big, blocky teeth you gave the skull, but the skull itself isn't too interesting. Many of your skulls tend to be rather short and rounded or blocky, with large brain cases. Try to get some more variety in the shapes and proportions of the skulls as you sketch.
The lowest skeleton is very cool. The long skull and clawed feet give it a sinister personality. Very nice. Because of the long skull, though, I think the length of the spine should also be emphasized. Make the space between the shoulders and pelvis longer, and possibly lengthen the tail (though the contrast of a long midsection and a short tail might also be interesting). Nice job getting a natural posture in the hind legs. Another thing to remember, animals' spines are usually not simple tubes. Don't forget that the spinous processes sticking out of the tops of the vertebrae can also contribute to the curve of the spine and the creature's silhouette.
Looking good, man.

Jake Kobrin- Yeah, well, it was an inefficient year, fraught with delays and changes in the student body, and often inactive for weeks at a time. One of my mentees has moved on to the muscles though.
So, how are you doing?

Micaiah Nelson- What's up? Your deadline was Friday. Did I give you too much work and not enough time?

Anyway, I'll be free pretty much all day tomorrow, if anyone would like to play on Open Canvas with me. Just post here if you'll be available.

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Thanx for the crit moai! :)
Yes i do lightly sketch the shapes before the heavier lines, and i have noticed the lack of difference between skulls. I'll experient on that aswell.
As for open canvas i am definatly free tomorrow, just pm the I.p address and i'll be there :D its too much fun not to.

[realitychek]

Thanks Moai :)
I'll be able to be on open canvas tomorrow from around 6-7 PM eastern, maybe later, but I'll stop in and see if anything's going on (could you PM me the info for how to do the whole IP address thing though?)

[Moai]

Well, it was another fun day on Open Canvas. Here's what we made today.

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Here's what I did. The second one down on the left is a beetle rhinoceros, as opposed to a rhinoceros beetle. The hand/moose/chicken exclaiming "BEANS!" in the middle is part of a larger sequence of absurdity, involving disembodied claws from the beyond, Homer Simpson, lasers, and of course a proper reverence for all things beany. Below that, Stanley is part bobcat, part hyenapotamus, but to spare his feelings, we let him think that he is a Labrador retriever and a lawyer. The drawing at the lower right is a design of Kierans, to which I added some muscles, and some little chewy guys.

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Here's what Kieran did.

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And last but not least, here's realitychek taking a more painterly approach.

Some Photobucket links to the full-size images.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/metalukesurfer/nov-13-open-canvas-moai.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/metalukesurfer/nov-13-open-canvas-kieran.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/metalukesurfer/nov-13-open-canvas-reality.jpg

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Yay thanks moai!

[realitychek]

That's some pretty sweet stuff you guys came up with before I got on, well done! :)

[Me,Myself & Me again]

more concept skeletons, i also experimented on flipping the ribcage round.

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Have to share this with the class, this game looks amazing ^.^
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eUA-uTPpD_A

[Jacob Kobryn]

Well I'm... alright I guess. I started a new SB if you want to check it out. I'm still interested in creatures even if I haven't done one in a while.

[Moai]

I'm sorry for the lack of activity in this thread, mentees. It's almost the end of the semester, so school is busy, and as we get into the holiday season, work is getting busy too. My last assignments are due this week, though, so hopefully I'll be able to resume being your mentor.
I'm especially sorry for waiting so long to critique those skeletons, Kieran. I didn't even see them last time I looked at this thread. There's some really neat stuff going on there.
Again, sorry for the delay. I'll be able to do something next week.

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Moai dont worry about it mate, ive had lots of school work to catch up on aswell so technically your absence was good for a while. But now me work is finished and i'll be waitin for you when you get back :)
Again don't worry about mate!

[bharat]

nice work man...gre8 carrector design n amasing studdy, visit me n coment on pls.

[Moai]

Hey, mentees. I regret to say that I'm really not finding the time to do any mentoring right now (as my long absence from this thread would make obvious), so this thread will be going on haitus. Maybe for a few months, maybe forever.
I'm sorry. You've all been great.

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Fair enough matey, i know how a lack of time can get the best of people. Hope you find your time back sooner or later, its been an fun and an honour being your mentee. I've learnt alot from you and will be carrying on animal anatomy on my sketchbook.
Hope to here again from you soon!
:)

[realitychek]

That's ok Cory :) You've kept up with this for over a year, and I've learned a LOT from you, I can't thank you enough for all you've done :)
Thanks again and hope you find some time for yourself again :yayca:

[peter_john]

Hey Moai! I found my way in here looking for a ferret skeleton via google image search. I didn't know you were doing animal anatomy / creature mentoring! Good on you dude.

[Moai]

Thanks, Pete! I've actually seen a few images from this thread on Google myself, believe it or not. This thread died at the beginning of the year, though.

[birdmanyong]

i wanna join :3 and here is my first assignment donehttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/_us6g1l4aXNY/SB_ZvzUJqnI/AAAAAAAAArk/xK4vmDSMAwI/s400/Nocturna-sm.jpg

[Diarum]

....this thread stopped over a year ago....

[birdmanyong]

AWWW man :c

[Moai]

Yeah, sorry! I'm busier now than I've ever been in my life, so this won't be starting again any time soon! Thanks for the interest, though, and good luck in your own creature studies.