Need Help with Foreshortening

[Sahariel]

I am working on a character design but I am having issues with the foreshortening of the arm with the hand on his face.

I am still learning foreshortening and I ordered a book on Amazon called An Atlas of Foreshortening which should arrive in a few days.

[GrumpyTom]

At 9/26/09 10:48 AM, Sahariel wrote: I am working on a character design but I am having issues with the foreshortening of the arm with the hand on his face.

But it looks fine...
There is no problem as far as i can see. If the action of having his hand to his face is meant to be significant then do a close up shot. Then we can talk about forshortening...

[J-qb]

At 9/26/09 10:48 AM, Sahariel wrote: I am working on a character design but I am having issues with the foreshortening of the arm with the hand on his face.

I am still learning foreshortening and I ordered a book on Amazon called An Atlas of Foreshortening which should arrive in a few days.

I think making his lower arm a bit fatter would help... its way to thin now

[Sahariel]

I see. Anyone else have any comments?

[PenguinKommando]

I think it looks fine the way it is now. I don't think any part of it needs foreshortening, really. You can always try it out though, to see if you think it looks better that way or not.

[PenguinKommando]

Sorry to doublepost, but I think I see where you want to use foreshortening, is it on the guy's right elbow area? That's the only area that looks kind of weird to me on it. I would try to change that angle of his arm, maybe, but again, you should try it to see if it looks right to you, I guess.

[CosmicDeath]

Hopefully I'm not overstepping the mark here by posting an image in response.

You could thicken the forearm on the left side of the image to help it look more proportionate, and as for foreshortening, the legs are the only thing that stood out as seeming a bit off with regards to perspective.

You're drawing is awesome though - well done! :D

[CypressDahlia]

Shift the arm to the left and down. It's not the foreshortening that looks awkward, it's the placement of the shoulder.

[Sahariel]

At 9/28/09 04:12 AM, CypressDahlia wrote: Shift the arm to the left and down. It's not the foreshortening that looks awkward, it's the placement of the shoulder.

I applied the corrections. Anything else?

I started on a rough sketch of the hair.

[CypressDahlia]

The abdominal area is somewhat long. Imagine if this character had abs--they would be absolutely huge. So shorten the abdomen just a tad. As a rule of thumb, the elbow and the human belly button are at the same height.

[Emerald-Mara85]

yeah, I think its also not foreshortening like other people said its more of merely adding shadows on that hand arm to show depth like the right knee.

The rest is more of my opinion...
Make the fingers a wee bit thicker to make him more 'manly' (the hand on his face)... and the rest bah, its difficult to type it in detail so I 'll show you. Basically I just make him more 'manly' and instead of more smoother lines, I use the opposite. This is so I don't make my men look like 'flab' or too feminine. Smooth lines are more used on girls. I also change his err...'man bits'...Because I felt it was a little strange...I guess its more super heroish,

(Redrawn parts in black)

[Sahariel]

At 9/28/09 12:50 PM, CypressDahlia wrote: The abdominal area is somewhat long. Imagine if this character had abs--they would be absolutely huge. So shorten the abdomen just a tad. As a rule of thumb, the elbow and the human belly button are at the same height.

How much should I shorten the abdominal area?

Great, I'm nineteen and you draw better than me...Did you have any formal art training or anything? I never did so that may be it...

[Emerald-Mara85]

Oh yeah,
Its is longer...
And I thought I was thinking too much!

I just think it of mostly 2 heads for the measurement (After head, Neck to stomach, a little below the belly button). For the bottom...
Its mostly about 2/3 of a head...But some like to use half a head and it does work well.
But if you're going for realistic and super hero, its 1 heads

[CypressDahlia]

Forgive the messy MS-Paint modifications.

- I drew in abs as a point of reference.

- I raised everything below the belly button (which was the overly long part) to the belly button, which sits right below the second set of abdominals. Now it's roughly even with the elbow.

- I also raised the crotch, because it was too far away from the belly button. The belly button is roughly halfway between the base of the ribcage and the lowest part of the pelvic bone. Of course, even in my edit, the crotch is slightly lower than what I described...this is to account...for...you know. Our anatomical situation.

- I aso redrew the crotch to be like a man's crotch. lol.

And lol, I'm 18 and a couple months--we're not too far apart. And I've never taken formal lessons, either. This is all learned from observation. I focused a lot on shading, anatomy and clothing folds since I began drawing seriously.

[Sahariel]

Okay, I made some more corrections. Still, something does not feel right...

[CypressDahlia]

That hip is really bulgy now, since I brought the waist up. Consider toning down the mass of muscle there. And there is a small bit of perspective difference between the legs and the torso. The torso seems slightly more twisted toward the viewer while the legs are twisted toward the left frame of the picture. The discrepancy makes the legs and crotch area seem rather narrow compared to the torso.

[CosmicDeath]

I'm starting to think this drawing will never get finished! haha

I don't want to give bad advice, but I would certainly get on with the drawing and add clothes or whatever on a new layer and see how it starts to shape up. Some of these issues might resolve themselves simply by continuing to fill in the image.

[CypressDahlia]

Well, actually, no, I agree.

Now that the major anatomy issues have been pretty much ironed out, you can go ahead and finish it at this point. I'm just being really anal about details since you did ask for advice and it's rare that a person of your skill level asks for advice--I honor the occasion. But TBH, it's almost purely aesthetic and preferential at this point. So go ahead and start moving on--you're pretty much ready.

[darkhydra1]

looks like its shaping up nicely cant wait to see it completed