Well! What i do is i look at animals that do the things this mythical animal do. Birds fly, what do their legs look like? Bats have cool functional wings, lemme just study that anatomy! Very much you're looking for animals that have similar traits to what the behaviors of your mythical animal are. which usually results in a more believable critter! Spoiler: Redline with base drawing underneath Spoiler: Redline by itself I used bats as a reference for the wings, took a look at a few hawks landing for leg and foot reference, and tried to mimic something similar with the head structure. Took a small cue from how cranes with long necks fly and land. I probably got the wings a bit too small but oh well. I extended the wing membranes, because an animal that has to fly needs very large surface area for the wings, and often mans extending that skin all the way down to the tail. I made the chest larger and deeper, and gave it a sort of keel to attach the wing muscles too, as flying animals have very large muscles attaching to the front of their chests. The tail is a bit more stiff, and was tempted to make it smaller but decided to leave it more like the original. I accidentally my neck revision a bit noodly, but I think I got the general idea going there. EDIT: ACTUALLY GIMME A SEC I FUCKED UP THE POSE MYSELF SO I AM FIXING IT AGAIN LMAO.
Spoiler: This is why you reference heavily children OKAY! Moved the hips forward a bit, extended the legs out. I realized it was probably trying to actually land and was a hell of a lot closer than I realized. So likely would have extended legs, stretched out feet. ended up actually shortening and thickening tail, adjusted the keel a bit, muddled with the base of the membrane. not all the toes are visible because side view but there are three on top, one on bottom, with little claws. Bird feet are nuts and I love them.
Thank you both so much, thank you, thank you! @Void that's really helpful! I have a question. I was trying for a sort of really skinny noodle-lizard-with-wings look, but it looks like the fixed anatomy is a lot bulkier. Is that because flying wingnoodles aren't realistic? (Also your fox critter is so cute! I love them so much!) @autopsyblue Thanks for all the detail! I'm confused about some things you said. Longer reply below. Yeah, it is kinda critical but it's so specific that instead of getting discouraged I know I can actually fix stuff. It's not just a nebulous "ugh your anatomy" so I'm actually really happy with your crit and I'm glad you like doing it! So this is just about my wrong skull shape? I think I understand what you're saying about the head, but I'm confused about the rest of this point. What "shows up a little" in the way I drew the clothes? I believe you that there's a problem with how I drew the clothes, but I did draw the body first so it's not the problem you're speculating about. Can you tell me more about what makes it look like I didn't? THANK YOU. I'm having trouble understanding what you mean. Is this it? Spoiler: maybe what you meant You're right about them being too small, thanks. But I think the mistake on the left foot is a different mistake from the one you're seeing. They are toe shoes and I based them kind of loosely off of Vibram FiveFingers toe shoes and the soles on those don't cover the arch. Your redline looks like the sole of a regular shoe, but a toe shoe sole gets really thin at the middle of the foot and a lot wider at the toes. It's shaped like a footprint. (If you google "vibram fivefingers" you can see what I mean. Some models don't do this as much, some do it a lot, but most of them have literally less than zero arch support.) I think I did a bad job of showing how the arch curves toward the sole. On the other hand I think the thicker soles look like they have some halfway-decent arch protection, so maybe basing these pirate naturalist toe shoes on the lighter versions that have no arches was a mistake, since my pirate naturalist would want the thicker, more protective versions. Can you explain what you mean by this? I don't understand. Thanks! Especially thanks for including positives. (See, that's another reason your crit makes me want to keep trying instead of curl up and cry.) One last thing. I think I must have done something really wrong with the proportions or something because you keep calling my pirate naturalist" she" and, I mean, I think I kind of have trouble drawing (cis) male characters? Every time I try to draw a "pretty boy" it just looks like a woman. And he isn't even AFAB! Why does this keep happening to me? Can you tell me why you read him as female?
Essentially yes. Skinny flying noodles wouldn't work realistically sadly, unless you had something like a gliding snake! or a gliding lizard. those could be a bit more noodly, but they would not look anything like the dragon you've got there in your drawing. But i mean if the animal is mostly like made of magic you could probably get away with something like the noodle dragons on flight rising. cuz then they aren't using their wings to fly.
yeah. usually flying requires some good amounts of muscle and less noodly aesthetic. maybe reference some cranes if you want something with a long neck though. they kinda have noodle necks. anyways here have last drawing of the night before i crash
It's... hm. It's hard to describe. It looks like you tried to make the scarf into the correct shape, but didn't register that it really should be the shape of the head underneath it. There's a disconnect between the way you've drawn the facial features and the way the scarf sits on the head. Probably has something to do with the looking-forward versus looking-up assumption. Yeah that looks about right. I'm also a bit confused as to where their hipbones are supposed to be. Hmm. Spoiler: Vibram Five Fingers ...They look like they cover the foot though? I can see what you mean about the arches but yes, the balls of the feet aren't wide enough by comparison to get the shape you're talking about. I don't think it's a mistake to have those shoes necessarily, the only reason I asked is because leatherwork for shoes with individual toes would be very hard to do, and maybe not all that practical. So you could have your pirate naturalist have shoes like that, but you should be aware it becomes an indication of setting. It's likely to be read as a fantasy with historical influences rather than a pirate out of the Renaissance or what have you. Also not sure leather is the best choice of materials, there would be a lot of seams around the toes which would make them pretty easy to rip if you scraped them in any way. Futuristic, leather-like cloth that can be easily molded the same way plastic can though? Yeah, that'd work. I mean you don't really have a crotch here? It's related to the problem with the hips, since I can't really tell which way they're turning and therefore how much & in what position you should see them. If you look closer at the redline drawing you'll see I've lowered the place the thigh facing us connects to the hips. Well good! I always try to include some positives because when you have someone going on and on about what you're doing wrong you can start thinking you're not doing anything right, and that's never true! Also crit is supposed to make you a better artist, not make you cry, and encouraging the good stuff is a part of that. *lies down* Sorryyyy. I really should know better. I think it's mainly that I had a hard time making sense of their chest and they're wearing what looks like a skirt. I drew in my best guess as to what I assumed was the position of the breasts, but there's a line for the ribcage there too. I get the feeling maybe you were going for something slightly more slumped than what I drew though. I kinda guessed at what you're going for and in this case got it terribly wrong. You're the best judge of what works though. It's not really a proportion issue, I don't think. Probably just a me issue.
goretober/inktober stuff beneath the cut!! im lazy and im doing both at the same time, so inked gore :D i would put this in the imperial radch thread because its entirely IR characters so far, but there's a great big notice of "RATS DONT LOOK" for spoilers at the very top courtesy of @bluefox, so :P i'll refrain from posting there for now, feel free to quote this post in there or s/t, otherwise ill do that once i read the newest book these image are super big!!! here's my tumblr tag for ease of viewing if you want lmao Spoiler
I think maybe I just started with a wrong-shaped skull. Yeah, those do. The version I saw in real life that I based the drawing on is more like these, though: Spoiler: different Vibrams And choosing that model as reference was probably a mistake since they're not very thick/protective. This character probably should have the other kind that does have the thing on the arch. Thanks for the fact-checking. I don't think it's just you. I draw a lot of kind of pretty, slim guys and people are always mistaking them for women. Since it happens so often I think it's me, not you. Thanks for telling me why you read it how you did.
Possible. Depends! You can actually build up the sole of your foot so that the skin will protect you from most anything, including sharp rocks. So if your naturalist has lived mostly without shoes or builds up a resistance to it by climbing trees, etc. it's possible that doesn't matter. I wish I could tell you more honestly, sorry about that. I think as you get more specific with things like bone & muscle structure it'll become easier to differentiate.
A couple of weeks ago I chatted with my knitter roommate about this project, and got her criteria from her: Must be only 2 colors, as the knitting will be double-sided, with one side the inverse of the other. Must be 21 x 32 pixels in size None of my original versions fit these criteria, so I needed to redesign! The size was the biggest concern, and the first thing I had to do was shrink down the cards' suit symbols to something consistent to design around. I got the symbols down to a nice 9 x 12, and realized afterwards that I could also use them for Homestuck purposes. Spoiler: Kamen Rider Blade colors, and Homestuck colors. After that I drew 21 x 32 boxes on grid paper, loosely sketched the symbols on it, and referenced my old pixel art for ideas on how exactly to get legs to curve and so on. For reference, here's what the cards officially look like: Spoiler: Minor spoilers for Kamen Rider Blade (They have to go in order of Hearts, Spade, Diamonds, Clubs, because that lineup keeps them least likely to fight... but it is Kamen Rider. They already resort to hitting each other for communication pretty often.) And here's my redux versions: Spoiler: Check out how snazzy they are.
yeah these are the first snakes i've drawn since like middle school, which everyone can probably tell here's some dumb stuff i did from the skype chats/fursona generator thanks to @Void : bright pink and yellow snail. its back is covered in candles which flicker ominously. it wears a mcdonalds uniform because it works at mcdonalds. and skeleton pigeon. it wears incredibly large and impractical sunglasses. it wears a crop top with the word OATMEAL in all caps (halfway through the pigeon i forgot it was supposed to be a skeleton but i liked the way it looked so much that i said fuckit and drew the skeleton over it. there's something about comically large sunglasses on a bird that makes me smile)
