Comic Style Proportions

[kmblackbear06]

Alright, I took the advice of those who responded last time and looked over my human proprotions a lot and also looked at some comic books. These 3 dudes are comic style characters to work on proportion. A very plain and standard pose, but I plan on working with these in 3D later. I feel that i struggle with hands the most right now. Please Crits encouraged.

http://www.kylemitchelldesigns.com/assets/cssimg/trad/sketch/3.jpg

You guys are the pros, what do I need to work on as far as the proportions? I plan to do some life drawing soon, as well as some more stylish comic characters.

[Piranha]

Bloke on far right needs bigger arm muscles. Looks like he's been doing too many sit ups and not enough weights!

[OSU_Samurai]

Although some comics are exaggerated to an extent, it is best to keep figures pretty close to eight heads high like you did with the middle one, that is if you want them to stay "human," otherwise they will seem off or feel like something else. For lifelike figures, comic books are always the best of references, you should check out some figure drawing books and look for some bodily relationships.

If you struggle with hands, just draw hands.

Leave some more room between the guys thights for his junk.

[Rizla]

I dunno how helpful this will be but a few years ago I had problems drawing hands real bad too. What I did was I switched from an A4 sized sketchbook to an A3 sketchbook, which evidentally ment I drew bigger. Point is, hands contain so many different lines with different angles and curves which needs to be drawn to look right and if you draw too small you won't be able to include these small details that make up for it. So point is just up the size! By the way, by drawing it bigger a lot of things became increasingly and rapidly better and easier... nose and feet being two more.

Otherwise if you have limited space and the character needs to be really small I suggest you stick with outline sketches and simplified definition boxes instead of beating yourself up with trying to detail ever single finger on the hand.

[kmblackbear06]

Thanks for the comments, crits, and suggestions... I have been drawing from chris harts book recently (the start of the book he has the scale which I have done here, plus 2 larger characters) The largest character is titled antihero, then from there it leads to Brute 12 heads and Giant at 15/16 heads. A neat idea, but rarely seen I guess. I was just testing it out for now. Also,good point on the Junk area...

As for upping my size/sketchpad... Sounds like a great idea. My biggest problem... I have to get over the STUPID fear of making a bad drawing... Anyone else encounter this feeling? Where everything has to be good/your best/no mistakes? Anyway, thank you all, what about the rest of this figures? Are they okay? proportions/size/weight etc etc.

[Rhubix]

I was one of thoes people who felt that all of my drawings had to be great and finished until I met my life drawing teacher. he pretty much beat into me that not every drawing has to be "a drawing" - if you think about it, who really cares if your drawing comes out crap - do another one, do another 3 or 10 or 50 if they all turn out bad, you have 50 different learning experiences, why is the picture bad? what could have made it better?
I used to tear pages out of my sketch book if I thought they were going bad, I ended up with a very skinny sketchbook, now I swallow my pride and keep all the bad ones too- and when I look back at them, they weren't as bad as I thought they were at the time, and they give me insite on things I do consistantly wrong, and things I need to work at.

[Grendel Grack]

Perhaps it would be easier to focus on one style at a time. While comic books are a great reference tool, they can be quite abstract and exaggerated in regards to anatomy. If this is an interest to you, then comics are the way to go. If, however, you would like to learn acurate human anatomy then figure studies and life drawing are the appropriate study aid. Once you have a feel for the human figure, changing it to meet your imagery is much easier

[yousir]

good start here. i have several suggestions;

- while i havent read hart's book, i've seen work by other artists who have on a few occasions, and there is an error in that book that a lot of people are picking up: the abdominal muscles- the sixpack- go all the way up to the sternum, hart draws a sort of blank space between the pectorals and the abdominals that does not exist. get out of that habit sooner than later.

- look at your own body carefully, notice how its put together. you are a walking anatomical reference.

- comics are, in my opinion, a terrible anatomical reference. this is a generalisation of course, and by 'comics' it appears you mean superhero comics, so thats what i refer to as well. aside from the fact that they are drawn factory-style, and contain masses of sloppy errors, they don't deal with realistic human forms most of the time. especially the female figure.

- drawing successfully in a realistic vein is every bit as much about the way you think about what you're drawing as the way you draw it. you need to try and understand how the body fits together, and how the pieces relate. this is what i see as the major problem with the examples you've posted. each piece of the body is drawn pretty well, but the pieces dont fit together properly. you've painted the house without putting up the foundation.

- i say drop that book and go do life drawing. draw real people and you will learn far more. if you learn to understand anatomy in a real-life context, you will have no problem cranking out muscle-men as easily as you can draw a saggy civil-servant or a starving child. and learn to draw women at the same time as you learn to draw men, its sad how often that is overlooked.

your first drawing is by far the most successful. i can see personal style in it, it has feeling and character. the others are sterile in comparison.
i really think comics are a tricky thing to learn from. comics are all about stylising the subject, and effective stylising is acheived by carefully considered reduction of elements. so build up a strong vocabulary before developing your shorthand.

i hope i dont sound like a know-it-all, i'm far from a master myself. and i dont want to bash comics either, while i dont have much love for superhero books, i love comics. i just dont think they're a great way to learn to draw.

you're doing well, keep at it.