Anatomy Reference - Tumblr Posts
I‘m a furry artist so this doesn’t apply to me as much but I do draw people from time to time so this is good!! :3 I’ll use this when I need it ^^
fat bodies tutorial!
ALRIGHT SO my pal @kalreyno wanted help with drawing fat characters and as a fat artist i felt like i could give a bit of helpful insight on that. there’s also been a lot of complaining about “boo hoo fat characters are hard to draw so i can’t include them in my work Ever” goin on lately so if that’s your case then this is for you too!! and also just for anyone who would like help with fat bodies in general, ofc. anyway, let’s get this show on the road!!
let’s start with some common misconceptions. these are the two main attempts at chubby bodies i run into, so i’ll focus on them.
the Anime Chubby i see everywhere, and it’s just……so wrong in many ways. first of all, there is almost no additional body fat compared to your average thin character - except for where it’s added in “attractive” places (breasts, hips, thighs). the breasts are way too perky, and don’t have the realistic shape fat would give them (though how to draw accurate breasts is another tutorial all on its own lmao). there is still a thigh gap, which usually only happens in very thin people, and bones are still visible on the surface of the skin, which also rarely happens in fat people.
the Michelin Man is better in some ways, but still not that great. it’s a slightly better attempt, but basically all that’s done there is taking a thin character and blowing them up, while giving no thought to fat distribution. the thigh gap is usually still present, and they look a lot more hard than soft - and fat is very soft and pliable.
here’s a chart on how fat usually distributes (if you can’t read my messy writing, “1. next to no fat, 2. moderate amount, 3. most of the fat distribution”). basically, the more muscle an area has, the more prone it is to develop fat, such as the abdomen, thighs, and upper arms. it’s important to note that fat sits on top of muscle, and that it does distribute in different levels, and not evenly across the body as shown in the Michelin Man.
now, here’s an accurate fat body with all of that kept in mind!! notice how the fat isn’t only kept to aesthetically pleasing areas, and how it sits realistically on the character’s body. their breasts sag a lot more, which happens even in thin people with larger breasts, and the nipples are pointing more downwards than straight out. there is no thigh gap in sight, there are no bones in sight, and most importantly, they have fat rolls, which are very important in drawing a convincing fat character!! as far as i know i’ve never met a single person with no rolls at all, and everyone has them, whether thin or fat - they’re just more prominent and more consistently present in fat people. pay close attention to where they are and how they’re shaped.
here are a couple of drawings showing how fat is affected when sitting vs stretching. as seen in the first, the fat specifically on the stomach is distributed a lot more evenly and stretched out, so it becomes “flatter”. the love handles are still pretty visible, though, as well as the fat on the thighs and arms. the breasts are raised with the shoulders, and the fat on the shoulders and near the neck forms rolls as it’s being pushed together.
in the second, there is a lot less room for distribution, so the fat is all pushed together. the breasts sag and the stomach forms rolls and spills into the lap. a good analogy for the way fat works is to liken it to a water balloon, and thinking of how its shape would change when resting flat on a surface, hanging off of a ledge, held upright, etc.
here are a few extra tips i find a lot of people miss!
first on the top is the hip/pubic region. the first circle is showing the way the bellybutton is folded in fat people, as opposed to stretched out in thinner people. the second is the stomach fat spilling over onto the pubic region and creating a separation in the two areas, which is something that’s missing in a lot of art. in addition, the pubic mound also gains fat, making it round as seen in the profile drawing i did up there (i’ve heard people refer to it as fupa?). the last in the hip region is the lack of a thigh gap. i can’t stress this enough!!!! if you’re trying to draw a convincing fat character, make sure their thighs are pretty much always touching!! for reference, mine literally don’t separate until my feet are about 2ft from each other.
the bottom right is showing the double chin, which a lot of people are afraid to draw!! fat does distribute itself here too, and there’s nothing wrong with it, so don’t feel like you shouldn’t give fat characters a double chin in your work for fear of it looking like a caricature.
in the bottom middle, it’s showing how fat affects different types of breasts with the presence of more or less breast tissue.
lastly, at the very right are stretch marks with their usual locations and directions, which i also can’t stress enough!!!!! i sometimes forget to add them honestly, but they’re so important in accurately portraying fat characters, as they literally come from the skin being stretched from fat being gained (and they’re also just rlly neat lookin like why wouldn’t you lmao). some people have less and some people have more, feel free to experiment with them!
the last thing is body types!! there isn’t one single way for a person to be fat, so feel free to experiment with shapes once you’ve learned the basics!!
so there you have it, a tutorial on how to draw chubs!! now go forth and make some accurate fanart or some rad fat characters, because the world could always use more of both. hmu if you have any questions or concerns, and thanks for reading!!
EDIT: someone pointed out the bad wording in the tutorial. thank you for bringing it to my attention and sorry for offending anybody. i’ve updated the tut, so please reblog this one!
oughhhh yesss pls thank you so much
Hands Row 1 & 2 Row 3 Row 4 Row 5 & 6 Row 7
I don't know if anyone else will find this particularly useful, but Stanford University has a publicly available collection of pictures from human dissections!
They're sorted by part of the body, and from what I can tell, all the images are labeled. Just remember that these are dissection pictures, and may not be suitable for all audiences.
i know we joke about cis artists having the weirdest sense of anatomy, but also even when the anatomy is fine, no one seems to want to draw women doing normal things
some anatomy tips for drawing cat legs - works for big cats too
quick proportion tips
- eyeballs are an eyeball width apart - ears align with the top of your brows to the bottom of your nose, and are the center-point of a profile view - lip corners line up to the center of each eye - hands are roughly the size of your face - feet are the same size as your forearm - elbows are aligned with your belly-button - your hands reach down mid-length of your thighs - both upper and lower legs (individually) are roughly the same size as your torso (this is all rough estimates for proportion! feel free to add more to help others)
Rotatable 3D models for artists
Includes torso, head, foot, and various hand poses - select from menu on the right!
Ho would you draw shoulders from the side? I've always struggled with that.
I’ve been thinking about it too, and honestly it’s quite troublesome to think about. I never really thought about how I draw it, I just improvise until it looks believable. However, I did notice there is a trick for it…
Okay so here’s the body, right? Ignore the obvious anatomy errors, I’m lazy and tired at the moment, but the idea should be clear. Think of the shoulder as ball-jointed doll. Draw the circle in the motion of the body as the base and…
Bam! Put a teardrop around it! I love teardrops as guidelines so much. I don’t think I have to explain it, do I? I think it speaks for itself; rotate the teardrop and the shoulder should follow it. Use it as a guideline and eventually you won’t have to use it anymore, it’ll be there mentally. I do, however, reccomend you pose in front of the mirror to get more correct results on how the lines will bend with the muscles. Just stand in front of the mirror and move your shoulders around, notice what muscles follows and etc.
If you need any more help with this, let me know.
some people said I should do something like this. please excuse my bad handwriting. also this isn’t some much a step by step tutorial as it is a bunch of diagrams. let me know if you want more stuff like this.
Just an easy trick I learned a few years ago that I thought I’d share. May not work 100% all the time, but works well for simple hand/arm placement.
Tuesday Tips - WATCH YOUR BACK! A reminder to not forget the large muscle groups in the back. They add structure and clearly influence the silhouette in different positions. Of course, I used a very muscular character to show more clearly those groups, but every body types will have those muscle groups underneath. -n
Some notes I put together for my CDA Class. Just stuff that I use. Take with grain of salt.
Thanks for the ask! The truth is, I’m still really shaky on how to draw hands. But here’s a really short and simple tutorial on my approach.
Need some better/more in-depth hand tutorials? Check these ones out, they are all amazing: (link) (link) (link) (link)