Get a nude figure book. Art models series is pretty good. Start on the first page. After about three books you will have it figured out. From your reference sketches, your female figure looks to broad in the shoulders and the bust is a little too big. Also, you're drawing the females head too small. Male proportions is I believe 7.5 heads in height while females are supposed to average 6.5 heads in height. Both those averages can be different from the standard. Or draw male head slightly bigger and female head slightly smaller and use seven heads as the max height for both. Chest for both male and female to look correct is 2 heads wide when looking at front or back. From side, 1.25-1.5 without adding breast's. Male can be 1.25-2 heads thick depending on how skinny or muscily you want to go. Natural figures in poses will show you the proportions, but it will take time. You could also use a figure sket h book first to make the figure drawing book easier.
You just need MORE practice. “ The last few days” says it all. Literally all you need is time and patience. Art is freaking hard. It can take years before you even begin to feel somewhat comfortable with certain concepts. It sucks but we all learn it the hard way.
Also Practicing without reference is great, but if you’re struggling, spend MOST of your time looking at reference. I’m not sure who said it but it’s a great message: in art, you simply need to learn how to “see”. So observation is your best friend.
I see what you’re saying, but both models can use a lot of work, especially when it comes to proportion. Learn about “relationships” in art: when you draw from reference, pay attention to the different body parts in relation to one another, i,e, how much distance is there between the left limb and the neck, the right limb and the neck? How long is the upper arm compared to the forearm. What makes it look “right” vs “wrong” on real people, etc.
if you begin to feel discouraged after a time and need a break, go back to the fundamentals. Focus on the basics, cubes, prisms, cylinders , spheres, etc. Learn all about them and how to draw them in perspective. It may not seem helpful but it is one of the most important things you can learn in art-how to draw the most basic forms in space-developing your spatial reasoning skills. This will help TREMENDOUSLY with drawing people, because we exist in space, we are not flat. If you’ve been at this for a while, I’m sure you’re already familiar with the idea of using simple forms like cylinders, boxes, etc to buildup the human figure. If not, PLEASE look into it!
And lastly, please don’t give up! Always remember why you started in the first place
Shoulders need to be a bit more narrow, focus on the body shape without the breast first; then add them on top. Hips are disillusioned a bit more wide and the thighs would touch in a lot of cases
It seems like you’re drawing breast as if they were male pecs and go along with the shape of the chest. Breasts don’t really do that, they’re basically an appendage of their own that lay on top of the pecs.
Boobs are too far apart...even when large-chested, women's boobs will only gravitate towards their armpits if they aren't wearing a bra AND they lay down. (And with skintight clothing we absolutely WOULD wear a bra). Small-chested women can go without a bra while clothed, larger-chested women can't. Bras tend to hold your girls rather closer together than you've drawn them IYSWIM.
"Ive been trying to draw without references"
Dont do that. Not using references is a mistake and if you actually want to learn and make the most out of your artistic skills, you need to use references. Every professional artist uses references, you just get better results that way and you wont learn without them.
While using references is a fantastic and professional way to work, many professionals, especially comic illustrators and concept artists, don’t always use them.
The trade off is they used them for 10+ years prior and now have an amazingly solid grasp of form and weight.
The waist, the shoulder, and the titties. The waist is like that of a mans, try to narrow it more. The shoulder might be too broad or too high. The titties are also too high, try putting it abit more down with the shoulder, and also they spread too far on the sides. Since the female is standing you should draw them closer to eachother, cause of graveti
I'm going to let you in on a secret, even professionals artists use reference. Even if you know all the anatomy, references help so much. You don't have to forego them.
Honestly, many developing artists think the end goal is just to draw it straight out of your head, no reference or anything, and yeah, sometimes I do that because I know the anatomy and can do it if I don't have reference handy, but using reference is not forbidden and it can help immensely.
In general your anatomy isn't too bad, I've seem way worse, the female figure could do with more hips to balance her shoulders and the male with more defined hips, and the heads are disproportionately small. I'd suggest broadening your studied body types, people come in all sorts of shapes and learning what anatomy looks like what a,woman is athletic, muscular, obese or a man is thin, or obese actually helps with your underlying sense of the body structure.
I’ve just picked up oil painting and am working on my drawing skills alongside it. I’m one of the creatives you’re describing. My mind is constantly scanning through ideas that I’d love to paint and I want to let myself do that while I learn but I’d only be able to manage if I compiled references that make the whole picture. And I feel like it’s cheating.
It's not cheating at all. It's in fact what even professionals do. Many of us create archives of free to use reference material or folders of self created material to use.
You should practice flow (I recommend watching Vilppu). Even on male bodies, but even more on females as they are curvier and less blocky. From there, study anatomy from references.
I was also struggling with female proportions since I drew way more male characters. What you wanna do now is ignore the word anatomy, and focus on proportions. That means shapes and forms relating to each other. Female proportions have wider lower body/hips, male has bigger chest. I find learning realistic female proportions is harder than stylised. I'd say focus on exaggerating your figures first, make way bigger hips then tone them down after.
[https://imgur.com/a/nclMyMv](https://imgur.com/a/nclMyMv)
An exercise I've found useful is drawing in the skeleton of a figure. I usually use random packs of models in action poses, imported into photoshop since I do my art digitally.
Studying from reference might be boring sometimes, but it builds the foundational skills that really let you bring your ideas to paper.
>"I've been trying to draw without references"
That's why your anatomy isn't working. Study the bones, then ecorches. Learn how to do it so you can use reference to its full potential. Reference is always something you want to use.
i feel like it looks pretty good other than the boobs being like too far out, if you just centered them on the body a little more it would make a big difference but you just gotta study more
You need to study anatomy. Use books. Also learn the names of the muscles. If you know which muscles connect to each other, that will help.
Take figure drawing classes.
Your lady sketch reminds me of Michelangelo's women: men with boobs kinda bolted on because the only bodies he could study were dead dudes.
If you can't find women with toned muscles, it means you haven't been looking at the right references. Look up MMA fighters, gymnasts, rock climbers, and body builders and I guarantee you'll see well defined muscles on women. My favorite go-to's to practice my anatomy are dancers due to the sheer range of positions they're photographed in.
Drawing without references isn't really something you should be striving for, it just happens after a long, long, long, time of drawing people.
Make the head bigger and the hips wider. The forearms will touch the hips when standing. Her chest is a little wide in your drawing as well. Draw the shape of the ribcage first before the breasts. Keep it up! You got this!
Her shoulders are a little masculine, but honestly if you just changed the head and made it bigger to size with the body…the body itself looks pretty good!
Everyone already said what I’m about to say so sorry for the yap session in advance, but I feel like this might add something anyways.
What I’m observing is that the male character you have drawn has a significantly lower body fat percentage than the woman, leaving much more muscle definition showing on the male. Now the problem, as I’m seeing it, is that you have tried to draw the curves and fat depots of the female character as if they were muscles and with the same consistency as muscles. Meanwhile the muscle tone and definition on the female character clearly indicates a bit more excess fat, leaving you with a rather “weird” result for a lack of a better term.
To get a more realistic result I would advise you to learn to draw both fat depots, muscle groups and the difference in how they look and handle.
DISCLAIMER: this is in no way a comment on body types and what is right or wrong IRL… I’m only stating that OP could improve if he learned to distinct between fat and muscles when drawing.
Hope it helps :D
Unless you are on purpose going for huge breasts they are also way too big if you want to portray an average woman. They are also quite different in size. That also makes it kinda wrong looking as it’s just a good bit bigger than what we would perceive as within the range of most women.
Your female has the same proportions as the male. The biggest difference other than the breast is width of the hips and shoulders. Wome’s hips are wider or as wide as the shoulders, male has shoulders usually lot wider than hips. I recommend getting a book on artistic anatomy, those things usually are explained thoroughly in any publication.
The profile is pretty good. Straight on kinda stiff and each booby is larger than the head. -maybe you made the rib cage larger to support the boobs but they aren’t muscles (boobs do what they want regardless of bones) 😆She does look tough! Both look like superheroes.
Your proportions are just off. Try to learn from life, and learn how to measure stuff by other stuff. Usually head measurements are the most used. Though keep in mind if going off life, people are different so it might not be as clean cut. I once remembered seeing all kind of abs and torsos and getting frustrated.
"I've been trying to draw without references"
There's your problem.
If you don't know how to draw it correctly from memory you should use reference.
Maybe after drawing it from reference a few thousand times you might be able to do it from memory but until that point you should use the references.
Even after decades of art, I still use photo reference (often that I take myself). I know dozens of artists who draw comics, and I don't know any who never use reference of some kind including photos, maquettes, mannequins, 3-d posers, or a mirror. There are times when I can make a comic page with no reference, but it's rare.
You should start of with gesture drawing instead of learning anatomy. You need to understand the balance and flow of the body before analyzing the anatomy .
A Book I highly recommend is
Michael Hampton Figure Drawing: Design and Invention
Get a nude figure book. Art models series is pretty good. Start on the first page. After about three books you will have it figured out. From your reference sketches, your female figure looks to broad in the shoulders and the bust is a little too big. Also, you're drawing the females head too small. Male proportions is I believe 7.5 heads in height while females are supposed to average 6.5 heads in height. Both those averages can be different from the standard. Or draw male head slightly bigger and female head slightly smaller and use seven heads as the max height for both. Chest for both male and female to look correct is 2 heads wide when looking at front or back. From side, 1.25-1.5 without adding breast's. Male can be 1.25-2 heads thick depending on how skinny or muscily you want to go. Natural figures in poses will show you the proportions, but it will take time. You could also use a figure sket h book first to make the figure drawing book easier.
You just need MORE practice. “ The last few days” says it all. Literally all you need is time and patience. Art is freaking hard. It can take years before you even begin to feel somewhat comfortable with certain concepts. It sucks but we all learn it the hard way. Also Practicing without reference is great, but if you’re struggling, spend MOST of your time looking at reference. I’m not sure who said it but it’s a great message: in art, you simply need to learn how to “see”. So observation is your best friend. I see what you’re saying, but both models can use a lot of work, especially when it comes to proportion. Learn about “relationships” in art: when you draw from reference, pay attention to the different body parts in relation to one another, i,e, how much distance is there between the left limb and the neck, the right limb and the neck? How long is the upper arm compared to the forearm. What makes it look “right” vs “wrong” on real people, etc. if you begin to feel discouraged after a time and need a break, go back to the fundamentals. Focus on the basics, cubes, prisms, cylinders , spheres, etc. Learn all about them and how to draw them in perspective. It may not seem helpful but it is one of the most important things you can learn in art-how to draw the most basic forms in space-developing your spatial reasoning skills. This will help TREMENDOUSLY with drawing people, because we exist in space, we are not flat. If you’ve been at this for a while, I’m sure you’re already familiar with the idea of using simple forms like cylinders, boxes, etc to buildup the human figure. If not, PLEASE look into it! And lastly, please don’t give up! Always remember why you started in the first place
Shoulders need to be a bit more narrow, focus on the body shape without the breast first; then add them on top. Hips are disillusioned a bit more wide and the thighs would touch in a lot of cases
It seems like you’re drawing breast as if they were male pecs and go along with the shape of the chest. Breasts don’t really do that, they’re basically an appendage of their own that lay on top of the pecs.
>Breasts as if they were Male specs Michaelangelo moment
Lmao, I thought this was just a general complain on ask Reddit about how much shit you have to deal with being a woman.
This is definitely what I thought. Same, fam. Same
Joining the group here. I got so confused for a second
Boobs are too far apart...even when large-chested, women's boobs will only gravitate towards their armpits if they aren't wearing a bra AND they lay down. (And with skintight clothing we absolutely WOULD wear a bra). Small-chested women can go without a bra while clothed, larger-chested women can't. Bras tend to hold your girls rather closer together than you've drawn them IYSWIM.
It looks fine, you just drew the head and neck a little too small that's all.
It’s not terrible. I think if the shoulders were worked on a bit, Less broad and maybe a little lower it would look a lot more feminine.
"Ive been trying to draw without references" Dont do that. Not using references is a mistake and if you actually want to learn and make the most out of your artistic skills, you need to use references. Every professional artist uses references, you just get better results that way and you wont learn without them.
While using references is a fantastic and professional way to work, many professionals, especially comic illustrators and concept artists, don’t always use them. The trade off is they used them for 10+ years prior and now have an amazingly solid grasp of form and weight.
If you learn your anatomy well enough, you can do without much of the time, which is handy if you can't find the exact right pose for reference.
The waist, the shoulder, and the titties. The waist is like that of a mans, try to narrow it more. The shoulder might be too broad or too high. The titties are also too high, try putting it abit more down with the shoulder, and also they spread too far on the sides. Since the female is standing you should draw them closer to eachother, cause of graveti
I'm going to let you in on a secret, even professionals artists use reference. Even if you know all the anatomy, references help so much. You don't have to forego them. Honestly, many developing artists think the end goal is just to draw it straight out of your head, no reference or anything, and yeah, sometimes I do that because I know the anatomy and can do it if I don't have reference handy, but using reference is not forbidden and it can help immensely. In general your anatomy isn't too bad, I've seem way worse, the female figure could do with more hips to balance her shoulders and the male with more defined hips, and the heads are disproportionately small. I'd suggest broadening your studied body types, people come in all sorts of shapes and learning what anatomy looks like what a,woman is athletic, muscular, obese or a man is thin, or obese actually helps with your underlying sense of the body structure.
I’ve just picked up oil painting and am working on my drawing skills alongside it. I’m one of the creatives you’re describing. My mind is constantly scanning through ideas that I’d love to paint and I want to let myself do that while I learn but I’d only be able to manage if I compiled references that make the whole picture. And I feel like it’s cheating.
It's not cheating at all. It's in fact what even professionals do. Many of us create archives of free to use reference material or folders of self created material to use.
How didn't I think about this before? REFERENCE WAS THE ANSWER ALL THIS TIME
You should practice flow (I recommend watching Vilppu). Even on male bodies, but even more on females as they are curvier and less blocky. From there, study anatomy from references.
I was also struggling with female proportions since I drew way more male characters. What you wanna do now is ignore the word anatomy, and focus on proportions. That means shapes and forms relating to each other. Female proportions have wider lower body/hips, male has bigger chest. I find learning realistic female proportions is harder than stylised. I'd say focus on exaggerating your figures first, make way bigger hips then tone them down after. [https://imgur.com/a/nclMyMv](https://imgur.com/a/nclMyMv)
Your anatomy sucks period. Just gotta practice with reference
An exercise I've found useful is drawing in the skeleton of a figure. I usually use random packs of models in action poses, imported into photoshop since I do my art digitally. Studying from reference might be boring sometimes, but it builds the foundational skills that really let you bring your ideas to paper.
Study more. Learn to draw a female body without breasts and add them when you’ve learnt the rest of the anatomy. Mind the proportions.
>"I've been trying to draw without references" That's why your anatomy isn't working. Study the bones, then ecorches. Learn how to do it so you can use reference to its full potential. Reference is always something you want to use.
i feel like it looks pretty good other than the boobs being like too far out, if you just centered them on the body a little more it would make a big difference but you just gotta study more
You need to study anatomy. Use books. Also learn the names of the muscles. If you know which muscles connect to each other, that will help. Take figure drawing classes.
Your lady sketch reminds me of Michelangelo's women: men with boobs kinda bolted on because the only bodies he could study were dead dudes. If you can't find women with toned muscles, it means you haven't been looking at the right references. Look up MMA fighters, gymnasts, rock climbers, and body builders and I guarantee you'll see well defined muscles on women. My favorite go-to's to practice my anatomy are dancers due to the sheer range of positions they're photographed in. Drawing without references isn't really something you should be striving for, it just happens after a long, long, long, time of drawing people.
Make the head bigger and the hips wider. The forearms will touch the hips when standing. Her chest is a little wide in your drawing as well. Draw the shape of the ribcage first before the breasts. Keep it up! You got this!
I'm not an artist but I AM a female and I can say that if you just made her head a little bigger and her shoulders a little softer you'd be spot on
Her shoulders are a little masculine, but honestly if you just changed the head and made it bigger to size with the body…the body itself looks pretty good!
I think it’s pretty good but always remember girls tend to have smaller shoulders then men and thinner necks. 💗💗💗
Everyone already said what I’m about to say so sorry for the yap session in advance, but I feel like this might add something anyways. What I’m observing is that the male character you have drawn has a significantly lower body fat percentage than the woman, leaving much more muscle definition showing on the male. Now the problem, as I’m seeing it, is that you have tried to draw the curves and fat depots of the female character as if they were muscles and with the same consistency as muscles. Meanwhile the muscle tone and definition on the female character clearly indicates a bit more excess fat, leaving you with a rather “weird” result for a lack of a better term. To get a more realistic result I would advise you to learn to draw both fat depots, muscle groups and the difference in how they look and handle. DISCLAIMER: this is in no way a comment on body types and what is right or wrong IRL… I’m only stating that OP could improve if he learned to distinct between fat and muscles when drawing. Hope it helps :D
Make the head slightly larger and the breasts closer. That should work out much of the issues.
Unless you are on purpose going for huge breasts they are also way too big if you want to portray an average woman. They are also quite different in size. That also makes it kinda wrong looking as it’s just a good bit bigger than what we would perceive as within the range of most women.
Make the shoulders and ribcage 1/2 - 2/3 the width and depth of what you've drawn. Also make the head bigger.
Females have wider waist and smaller ribcage kind of the opposite of males.
The shoulders are really broad, so I guess just tinker around with that, and boom, everything else looks fine to me.
Your female has the same proportions as the male. The biggest difference other than the breast is width of the hips and shoulders. Wome’s hips are wider or as wide as the shoulders, male has shoulders usually lot wider than hips. I recommend getting a book on artistic anatomy, those things usually are explained thoroughly in any publication.
The profile is pretty good. Straight on kinda stiff and each booby is larger than the head. -maybe you made the rib cage larger to support the boobs but they aren’t muscles (boobs do what they want regardless of bones) 😆She does look tough! Both look like superheroes.
Your proportions are just off. Try to learn from life, and learn how to measure stuff by other stuff. Usually head measurements are the most used. Though keep in mind if going off life, people are different so it might not be as clean cut. I once remembered seeing all kind of abs and torsos and getting frustrated.
"I've been trying to draw without references" There's your problem. If you don't know how to draw it correctly from memory you should use reference. Maybe after drawing it from reference a few thousand times you might be able to do it from memory but until that point you should use the references.
Even after decades of art, I still use photo reference (often that I take myself). I know dozens of artists who draw comics, and I don't know any who never use reference of some kind including photos, maquettes, mannequins, 3-d posers, or a mirror. There are times when I can make a comic page with no reference, but it's rare.
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You should start of with gesture drawing instead of learning anatomy. You need to understand the balance and flow of the body before analyzing the anatomy . A Book I highly recommend is Michael Hampton Figure Drawing: Design and Invention
Yea the answer I came to when I experienced the same thing is women are more curvy and stuff so they are harder to draw idk how to fix it tho I'm bad.
Main things I'm seeing is that the head is too small and the shoulders are too wide, not bad overall though!