I've been doing the same with my character Donovan, although not for the same reasons. In fact, he's gotten smaller only because I've actually been moving *back* in character-time for him, to about a year after he first changed.
(Donovan Findley is the main character of my animation series I'm developing. In his world, a sort of cross or midpoint, flavor/tone-wise, between Gargoyles and WoD, characters 'awaken' a genetic heritage, turning into elves, goblins, werecreatures, demons, etc. In his case, he's the focus of an experimental accident to make a dragon-version.)
Specifically, he's 'currently' standing at about 6'7", give or take due to digitigrade feet, and maybe 250 lbs, but fast-forwarding two years will put him at about 9', and somewhere around 900 lbs, plus wings. Pure off-scale-speaking, tho, in the later form, he's about the size you have in the '06 pic, maybe a little bigger, while his current size is about the same as your '08 pic.
(On the other hand, I've been reading bodybuilder-workout magazines for reference for something around 10 years, so I'd guess I've got a better handle on the range of musculature-sizes than most artists. Diana's mentioned that the bigger-sized folks are probably one of the areas where I've got an advantage over most of the other artists she's seen.)
Greetings. It's interesting when I find out folks are watching me and I never knew. ^.^
I've collected plenty of body-builder and health magazines over the years for reference (though I tend to notice that there may only be one or two useful images in most of them since I'd really love to see the guys NOT flexing all of the time, or dehydrated and rippled... I'd much rather see powerlifters for bulk muscle references, and the gymnist-physiques rarely get much coverage in the mags either.)
I'm pretty picky about my "How To Draw" books and reference books, but I've found that some of the "Cutting Edge" books have some good tutorials and suggestions/examples of the style of muscle I enjoy. Fantasy and Comics is where my original styles come from, so I think it shows in my own style (not manga, or cartoon, or naturalist.) But truth be told... I usually have no references with me when I'm drawing... anatomy, animal, landscape or otherwise. When my muse strikes I'm usually out somewhere where I don't have space for it, even if I were carrying it with me. ^.^ If you'd ever like to check out my multitude of sketches, I have several hundred on my website.
Oh yeah, I've had you on my list for a year or two now, I think, since shortly after I first met you at GenCon. (I'm actually in Grand Rapids, now, going to Kendall.) (You never noticed me on your friends/friends-of list?)
I can agree on the limited use, although I'd say I get more good ref out of studying the structure, and being able to combine the shapes on paper over my own pose's bones.
For actual appearances sake, it'll sound kinda wierd, but look up videos of muscle guys on youtube. Some of them go a *little* off from where I would prefer to see (watch out for unexpected porn), but because they're generally moving around, and because these guys are amatuers rather than pros, you see a lot more casual poses and less 'ripped' guys.
My style started with animation, then went into comics as the obvious available angle. I tried anime, but while I can do it pretty well, I don't get as much out of it as the other styles, though I often have my characters hairstyles pegged as anime-inspired.. (Is it my fault any kind of front-bangs with body are considered anime?)
I've been styicting with an animation-inspired style of late, lots of strong shapes and angles. (that's been true for a long time, tho. My early material that I can honestly repect was multi-angle-shots, so I developed a strong sense of 3-dimensional space early.) The muscles part has been evolved from that, in that mostly, I'm figuring out how to break a bodypart into major constituent muscle groups, which I can then illustrate or ignore as required by the detail of the subject, and wrap them around the bonestructure of the character.
Two really good books on the subject I've recently found are Simplified Anatomy for the Comic Book Artist, by Chris Hart, and Action! Cartooning, by Ben Caldwell. (You might also like his second book, Fantasy Cartooning. In the later author's case, he give really good reference, but the principles as he applies them stick with you in a more mature fashion.
I recently found another book that I thought was his, very similar style, but not in the art section of Barnes&Noble, but rather, in the film section! Creating Characters with Personality, by Tom Bancroft. It's this whole book on principles of character design, and while it's using Animation as a source-reference, the whole thing is so.. maturely written, it can apply almost anywhere, art-wise. (If I was ever teaching a class on animation, these two books would be, if not required, major suggested sources, just because they articulate so much character design ethic.)
Maybe I'm blowing these books out of proportion, but for me, they've just hit the perfect spots to really push my personal art style forward.
I've been doing the same with my character Donovan, although not for the same reasons. In fact, he's gotten smaller only because I've actually been moving *back* in character-time for him, to about a year after he first changed.
(Donovan Findley is the main character of my animation series I'm developing. In his world, a sort of cross or midpoint, flavor/tone-wise, between Gargoyles and WoD, characters 'awaken' a genetic heritage, turning into elves, goblins, werecreatures, demons, etc. In his case, he's the focus of an experimental accident to make a dragon-version.)
Specifically, he's 'currently' standing at about 6'7", give or take due to digitigrade feet, and maybe 250 lbs, but fast-forwarding two years will put him at about 9', and somewhere around 900 lbs, plus wings. Pure off-scale-speaking, tho, in the later form, he's about the size you have in the '06 pic, maybe a little bigger, while his current size is about the same as your '08 pic.
(On the other hand, I've been reading bodybuilder-workout magazines for reference for something around 10 years, so I'd guess I've got a better handle on the range of musculature-sizes than most artists. Diana's mentioned that the bigger-sized folks are probably one of the areas where I've got an advantage over most of the other artists she's seen.)
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I've collected plenty of body-builder and health magazines over the years for reference (though I tend to notice that there may only be one or two useful images in most of them since I'd really love to see the guys NOT flexing all of the time, or dehydrated and rippled... I'd much rather see powerlifters for bulk muscle references, and the gymnist-physiques rarely get much coverage in the mags either.)
I'm pretty picky about my "How To Draw" books and reference books, but I've found that some of the "Cutting Edge" books have some good tutorials and suggestions/examples of the style of muscle I enjoy. Fantasy and Comics is where my original styles come from, so I think it shows in my own style (not manga, or cartoon, or naturalist.) But truth be told... I usually have no references with me when I'm drawing... anatomy, animal, landscape or otherwise. When my muse strikes I'm usually out somewhere where I don't have space for it, even if I were carrying it with me. ^.^
If you'd ever like to check out my multitude of sketches, I have several hundred on my website.
Reply
I can agree on the limited use, although I'd say I get more good ref out of studying the structure, and being able to combine the shapes on paper over my own pose's bones.
For actual appearances sake, it'll sound kinda wierd, but look up videos of muscle guys on youtube. Some of them go a *little* off from where I would prefer to see (watch out for unexpected porn), but because they're generally moving around, and because these guys are amatuers rather than pros, you see a lot more casual poses and less 'ripped' guys.
My style started with animation, then went into comics as the obvious available angle. I tried anime, but while I can do it pretty well, I don't get as much out of it as the other styles, though I often have my characters hairstyles pegged as anime-inspired.. (Is it my fault any kind of front-bangs with body are considered anime?)
I've been styicting with an animation-inspired style of late, lots of strong shapes and angles. (that's been true for a long time, tho. My early material that I can honestly repect was multi-angle-shots, so I developed a strong sense of 3-dimensional space early.) The muscles part has been evolved from that, in that mostly, I'm figuring out how to break a bodypart into major constituent muscle groups, which I can then illustrate or ignore as required by the detail of the subject, and wrap them around the bonestructure of the character.
Two really good books on the subject I've recently found are Simplified Anatomy for the Comic Book Artist, by Chris Hart, and Action! Cartooning, by Ben Caldwell. (You might also like his second book, Fantasy Cartooning. In the later author's case, he give really good reference, but the principles as he applies them stick with you in a more mature fashion.
I recently found another book that I thought was his, very similar style, but not in the art section of Barnes&Noble, but rather, in the film section! Creating Characters with Personality, by Tom Bancroft. It's this whole book on principles of character design, and while it's using Animation as a source-reference, the whole thing is so.. maturely written, it can apply almost anywhere, art-wise. (If I was ever teaching a class on animation, these two books would be, if not required, major suggested sources, just because they articulate so much character design ethic.)
Maybe I'm blowing these books out of proportion, but for me, they've just hit the perfect spots to really push my personal art style forward.
Anyhoo..
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