A few of my favorite boards I did for the web episode “A-Mazed” for the new Mattel series “Enchantimals”. I was contracted back in December by Neko Productions to board out the 4 minute show and though it was a very stressful three weeks (it was supposed to be one and a half week), I’m very happy with out the finished boards came out, especially after they were cleaned up by myself and two full-time Neko Production crew members. The episode came out of their website and official Youtube channel a few days ago. You can watch it here: Link
Enchantimals is cute and fun little series that those who are fans of Equestrian Girls and Monster High are sure to enjoy! I hope all my followers enjoy the episode!^^
BTW Flap the Peacock is my absolutely favorite and I loved boarding every scene with him. He is a coward and I love him.xD
When @thalinz and I visited Japan, the kind folks at Turner Japan gave me a drive full of Japanese Mighty Magiswords promos! You can check out new Mighty Magiswords episodes on @cartoonnetwork all this week and next week at 11:30 AM, two episodes in a row! In English, though.
Tuesday Tips - “Pick A Side”
To create appeal and clarity in your figure drawing (or any character drawing), try to simplify an overall side of the body and to keep the details (limbs sticking out, face profile, body compression) to the other side. Your posing will becoming much more dynamic and interesting to look at, creating an organic asymmetry to the overall silhouette of the body.
-Norm
by any chance could you do a lil tutorial/process of how you draw limbs in different poses? esp. legs/thighs, your legs always look so jaunty and charming i love it but i never know what to, ,, ,,, do with mine, like where to put them so
Okay! I’m going to try to answer this best I can, but before I do, please remember I am just a humble animation student and by no means a professional artist or a seasoned expert, so this might not be the correct way to do things or be extremely accurate. This is just how I do it, and a couple tips I’ve picked up from teachers at school.
First of all, getting familiar with the anatomy of legs helps a lot! (I know this is the dreaded answer to every art question) I don’t know too much about the muscles of the legs other than the basics, so I don’t talk about them here because I don’t want to look like an idiot. They’re very worth studying though, especially the muscles that form the inside of the thigh and back of the calf.
Those are some leg studies I did from life in class last year, with the key parts labelled.
Chances are you’ve tried to draw legs and??
Unless you’re going for a certain style, legs that look like straight tubes or 90 degree angles are gonna look a bit weird.
As you can see with the life drawings above, legs have certain natural curves and rhythms to them! None of the bones in the legs are straight or tubular, so your legs should not be either.
Sorry for the really mediocre pelvis it’s not my strong suit oh god. It’s easy to characterize the legs as something like this:
Remembering that the knee is a hinge joint and that it has a sort of curved offset from the upper leg to the lower leg really helps.
So when you keep that offset in mind and apply some curves over the muscle and fat layered on top of those BEAUTIFULLY RHYTHMIC bones, you get dynamic flow in your legs. The hip (trochanter), kneecap (patella) and ankle (fibula/tibia malleolus) are good landmarks to keep in mind.
So by applying some curves, you get a softer/more dynamic/rhythmic feel to the legs that makes your figure look a lot less static even if they are standing entirely still. It’s also worth noting most people shift their weight onto one hip or another, position their feet weirdly, etc etc.
