Spines tutorial PART TWO
The human spine, while an unusual thing to focus on when it comes to art tutorials on the internet, is nevertheless...
Oh, fuck it. Pay attention, y'all, 'cause this shit's important, got it?
So if you were paying attention to the last tutorial I made on the subject, you'd know that the spine is curved, flexible, and pretty much lets your character do stuff. Let's get into physical construction and a simple method of putting a basic body together using the spine as your (haha) backbone point of reference.
YOU GUYS HAVE TAKEN BIOLOGY, YES? They probably talked about ATP a lot and not your bone structure. Well, here's the basic lowdown on the spine:
As you probably know (and if you don't, then you are sadly uneducated and should rectify this immediately with Google), your spine is made up of vertebrae with cartilage in between and a shitload of nerves running through it all. The vertebrae have been separated into four different bits called the cervical spine (your neck), the thoracic spine (your upper back), the lumbar spine (your lower back), and the tailbone, or sacrum (the upper portion) and coccyx (the very end). BEHOLD:
I want you to stare at that picture good and hard for a bit. Notice how the spine curves? The neck vertebrae tilt forward ever so slightly so your head can be centered. The thoracic curves back a bit, and then swoops into the lumbar before ending in a little curly tailbone.
"Why are we looking at this?" you wonder. After all, the spine can't be seen unless the sucker's anorexic or their back's been laid open or something.
WRONG. Read on.
The spine on a relatively thin person outlines the back of their entire torso and dictates their posture. This is especially apparent with the thoracic and lumbar, though not so much for the tailbone. You may not be able to count vertebrae, but if you reach round and touch your back right now while sitting up straight, you'll be able to feel a long indentation going all the way down to your butt. If you go all the way up to your neck, you can probably feel a little bump just before it rises above your trapezoid (ahem, shoulders for those of you who have not attended PE).
So now you're probably going, "Why are we covering this?" Well, because I feel like it. The above image illustrates my previous point. The reason the spine is curved this way is a physical adaptation borne of our upright posture. It's a given fact that curved objects will absorb shock more easily than straight objects. If you had a straight spine, you would find walking around doing every day things an unbearable agony and we'd all be showing up to the hospital to get our cracked vertebrae looked at.
Okay, now that you've been enlightened as to the shape and function of your spine, let's move on. The spine determines posture, as mentioned before, so we will be constructing a human torso in three parts, speedy-like.
Leaving the neck out of the equation, we have the CHEST (thoracic), ABDOMEN (lumbar), and HIPS (tailbone).
The CHEST is relatively inflexible, as the thoracic is bracing the ribcage and any bending there will squish vital organs like, say, your heart. It tilts and bends as a SINGLE UNIT. This is an important distinction.
The ABDOMEN is the most flexible portion. The lumbar bends in all directions to a certain extent, and its regular position is bulging toward the front and going down a bit. It does not bend or tilt as a single unit. Contortionists, when putting their heads between their legs, will bend at the top of the lumbar.
The HIPS are about as flexible but are bulkier thanks to the pelvic bones. While they can go back and forth, they're commonly seen tilting about like a see-saw as the character's weight shifts from foot to foot as they move. This is called the S-curve, or contrapposto, the potential for movement. Contrapposto was first done by the ancient Greeks and later revived in the Renaissance when everyone got tired of floppy Byzantine Christian feet.
Those are the three parts. How do you start poses? No, you don't start with the spine. I know that's kind of surprising, since that's what I've been yapping about. What you actually start with is weight distribution. Where is most of the weight being put? If the character is standing, that will dictate how you construct the hips and lumbar.
After you've determined weight distribution and contrapposto, it's time for the abdomen and chest. The abdomen is often a connecting piece of sorts, and may be best drawn after the chest has been done. Don't be afraid of redrawing over your initial strokes to correct something. I recommend not wasting time with the eraser until you're about to go over it with the final layer.
After you've done the torso, you can move on to the arms and the legs. After that, you can go for the head.
"Great," you think. "This is all good advice but I'll never be that good."
//SLAP//
STOP BEING SO FATALISTIC AND JUST DRAW, GODDAMMIT. YOU AREN'T GOING TO GET BETTER OVERNIGHT, SO JUST SUCK IT UP AND WORK FOR IT.
But to help you along, here are some exercises you can try if you don't have access to an art model/class:
DRAW THE FOLLOWING...
* Someone standing with their hands on their hips
* Someone standing, relaxed
* Someone standing, tense
* Someone on a swing pushing backward with their feet
* Someone sitting with their feet in front of them
* Someone stretching
* Someone bent over something, working
* Someone laying down, relaxed
* Someone laying down, upset
WHEN YOU GO OUT IN PUBLIC WITH A SKETCHBOOK, DRAW FROM LIFE...
* A person sitting down somewhere
* A group of people standing around and talking
* A distressed person being walked by their large dog
* Your friends on a day out
* Anything that strikes you
For the love of God and social graces, don't stare at whoever you're drawing or turn to face them. Keep your body and sketchbook turned to the side and snatch glances at them from the corner of your eye, especially if you're drawing someone six feet tall and three hundred pounds with a scowl on their faces.
That's about it for now since I'm too lazy to go into the whole "HERE'S HOW TO TWIST THE TORSO" and other important things. ANY QUESTIONS?
Oh, fuck it. Pay attention, y'all, 'cause this shit's important, got it?
So if you were paying attention to the last tutorial I made on the subject, you'd know that the spine is curved, flexible, and pretty much lets your character do stuff. Let's get into physical construction and a simple method of putting a basic body together using the spine as your (haha) backbone point of reference.
YOU GUYS HAVE TAKEN BIOLOGY, YES? They probably talked about ATP a lot and not your bone structure. Well, here's the basic lowdown on the spine:
As you probably know (and if you don't, then you are sadly uneducated and should rectify this immediately with Google), your spine is made up of vertebrae with cartilage in between and a shitload of nerves running through it all. The vertebrae have been separated into four different bits called the cervical spine (your neck), the thoracic spine (your upper back), the lumbar spine (your lower back), and the tailbone, or sacrum (the upper portion) and coccyx (the very end). BEHOLD:
I want you to stare at that picture good and hard for a bit. Notice how the spine curves? The neck vertebrae tilt forward ever so slightly so your head can be centered. The thoracic curves back a bit, and then swoops into the lumbar before ending in a little curly tailbone.
"Why are we looking at this?" you wonder. After all, the spine can't be seen unless the sucker's anorexic or their back's been laid open or something.
WRONG. Read on.
The spine on a relatively thin person outlines the back of their entire torso and dictates their posture. This is especially apparent with the thoracic and lumbar, though not so much for the tailbone. You may not be able to count vertebrae, but if you reach round and touch your back right now while sitting up straight, you'll be able to feel a long indentation going all the way down to your butt. If you go all the way up to your neck, you can probably feel a little bump just before it rises above your trapezoid (ahem, shoulders for those of you who have not attended PE).
So now you're probably going, "Why are we covering this?" Well, because I feel like it. The above image illustrates my previous point. The reason the spine is curved this way is a physical adaptation borne of our upright posture. It's a given fact that curved objects will absorb shock more easily than straight objects. If you had a straight spine, you would find walking around doing every day things an unbearable agony and we'd all be showing up to the hospital to get our cracked vertebrae looked at.
Okay, now that you've been enlightened as to the shape and function of your spine, let's move on. The spine determines posture, as mentioned before, so we will be constructing a human torso in three parts, speedy-like.
Leaving the neck out of the equation, we have the CHEST (thoracic), ABDOMEN (lumbar), and HIPS (tailbone).
The CHEST is relatively inflexible, as the thoracic is bracing the ribcage and any bending there will squish vital organs like, say, your heart. It tilts and bends as a SINGLE UNIT. This is an important distinction.
The ABDOMEN is the most flexible portion. The lumbar bends in all directions to a certain extent, and its regular position is bulging toward the front and going down a bit. It does not bend or tilt as a single unit. Contortionists, when putting their heads between their legs, will bend at the top of the lumbar.
The HIPS are about as flexible but are bulkier thanks to the pelvic bones. While they can go back and forth, they're commonly seen tilting about like a see-saw as the character's weight shifts from foot to foot as they move. This is called the S-curve, or contrapposto, the potential for movement. Contrapposto was first done by the ancient Greeks and later revived in the Renaissance when everyone got tired of floppy Byzantine Christian feet.
Those are the three parts. How do you start poses? No, you don't start with the spine. I know that's kind of surprising, since that's what I've been yapping about. What you actually start with is weight distribution. Where is most of the weight being put? If the character is standing, that will dictate how you construct the hips and lumbar.
After you've determined weight distribution and contrapposto, it's time for the abdomen and chest. The abdomen is often a connecting piece of sorts, and may be best drawn after the chest has been done. Don't be afraid of redrawing over your initial strokes to correct something. I recommend not wasting time with the eraser until you're about to go over it with the final layer.
After you've done the torso, you can move on to the arms and the legs. After that, you can go for the head.
"Great," you think. "This is all good advice but I'll never be that good."
//SLAP//
STOP BEING SO FATALISTIC AND JUST DRAW, GODDAMMIT. YOU AREN'T GOING TO GET BETTER OVERNIGHT, SO JUST SUCK IT UP AND WORK FOR IT.
But to help you along, here are some exercises you can try if you don't have access to an art model/class:
DRAW THE FOLLOWING...
* Someone standing with their hands on their hips
* Someone standing, relaxed
* Someone standing, tense
* Someone on a swing pushing backward with their feet
* Someone sitting with their feet in front of them
* Someone stretching
* Someone bent over something, working
* Someone laying down, relaxed
* Someone laying down, upset
WHEN YOU GO OUT IN PUBLIC WITH A SKETCHBOOK, DRAW FROM LIFE...
* A person sitting down somewhere
* A group of people standing around and talking
* A distressed person being walked by their large dog
* Your friends on a day out
* Anything that strikes you
For the love of God and social graces, don't stare at whoever you're drawing or turn to face them. Keep your body and sketchbook turned to the side and snatch glances at them from the corner of your eye, especially if you're drawing someone six feet tall and three hundred pounds with a scowl on their faces.
That's about it for now since I'm too lazy to go into the whole "HERE'S HOW TO TWIST THE TORSO" and other important things. ANY QUESTIONS?