Where to start?

[Kjesta]

Hi there!

I've been drawing for almost two years now, mostly manga style. (Please, no discussions now about how manga is not real art or not individual enough or something, I hate everyone bashing manga in "real" art boards.) I wouldn't say I'm really talented or something, but lately I really want to do more than just stylised things and start out to learn drawing realistic, starting out with humans.

Since manga is still following some basic rules of human anatomy, I'm not completely clueless about how a body, muscle, bones and everything works. I feel slightly overwhelmed, though, looking at studies of human bodies with muscles and all. Where do I start out? What's the best way to learn how everything works?

At the moment I'm reading the book "Anatomie für Künstler", which is the German version of "The human figure - An anatomy for artists" by David K. Rubins. Right now I'm copying the pictures of legs (with skin and all, not the bones and muscles only) into my sketchbook and try to memorize all the places and such of everything, how prominent every muscle is seen in relationship to the others and stuff like that.

Is there any way that makes it easier to remember everything and how it works? Some trick maybe? (I know there's no trick to start drawing like Da Vinci at once, you have to work hard for it, but maybe there's something that helps memorizing or stuff.)

I'm sorry for asking such stupid questions *feels like a stupid n00b*

~*Kjesta*~

[Hyskoa]

- Sign up for modeldrawing night classes.
- Buy bridgman anatomy book, copy it, copy it some more, now do the same sketches out of your head.
- Sketch at least an hour every day.(doesn't matter what, if you run out of subjects, just browse some photo's and start).
- And you wanne know the trick? Keep it very hush hush and on the low low okay? Because if this got out, everybody would try it out and would see that it actually works.... keep trying. That's the big secret.

[foggle]

well, I'm in the same situation as you, or at least was a couple of years back. You say that you're starting by drawing the legs, skin and all - that'll work, eventually, but i find/found its better to be methodical. Start from a particular area of the body and work up/down/outwards.

Rather than trying to get it down stragiht away with skin and all, take a look at how the old masters did it (especially Da Vinci actually) and go from the bones upwards. This allows you to fully understand why the body looks like it does; for example, the way the shoulder doesn't just follow a smooth curve, but has a sort of protruding angle just before it starts to curve, is due to the collarbone poking out slightly. Of course, you can just learn this, but its a lot easier in the long run to understand exactly why. I also found that rather than having to learn each part separately, things just sort of fall into place. Once you know how the bones work, you can sort of rember from life experience how the muscles are likely to lie over them. Its very satisfying to learn it like this, and I'd advise trying it.

[dose]

You might want to check out Nicolaides's "The Natural Way to Draw". I think that's probably the best place to start for self-learning. Thought not perfect- and would never be as good from learning from a good teacher firsthand, it does a better job than any other book I've seen of getting the beginner to the point where he can see and feel the form in a way that is conducive to drawing.

That, and draw from life as much as you can.