Shockowaffel's Sketchbook

[Valyavande]

aw, what a cute style! and full of life. I like especially the scenes of the daily life that you have drawn. The one with the different scenes from the bus is so true. I'm one of people who are always sleeping XD
The red bull in pony style is cool too. Even if it is difficult to take him serious that way.

[shockowaffel]

New stuff !
Slice of life: You just needed to get the milk, you forgot the other day, but you have to stay in the line and it takes forever because of some old lady, picking her coins.

[shockowaffel]

I started with George B. Bridgman's "The human machine", but honestly, it doesnt help that much, maybe because many drawings are quite confusing or plainly wrong.
It helps to understand the function of the bones and muscles, though.
For precise muscle studies, you should look somewhere else.
I chose google and anatomical models.

Notes:
- Muscles always have to connect at least two bones, otherwise, they're useless.
- Muscles are attached to bones, they're not floating in the body.
- Muscles change their form when used.
- Muscles do not push/stretch, they can only contract/pull.

[Rain Walker]

there is something special about ur style .. it reminds me of my old school books.. they used to have these lovely sketchs.. but i guess u have a secret passion of Anime and manga... why dont u go crazy with anime ? and do like a short manga story ? u have the required skill to do .. ^_^

[shockowaffel]

there is something special about ur style .. it reminds me of my old school books.. they used to have these lovely sketchs.. but i guess u have a secret passion of Anime and manga... why dont u go crazy with anime ? and do like a short manga story ? u have the required skill to do .. ^_^

That's easily answered:
Because Manga totally doesnt sell on the german illustration market.
The children's book illustrations I posted in post#18 were already too manga-ish, so I was told on the Frankfurter Book Fair.
The latest illustrations are actually for a schoolbook portfolio, but I have never seen such a style in german schoolbooks. I can only remember cheap and boring semi realistic drawings.

[Misplacedhippos]

Those muscle diagrams are pretty helpful, good stuff. I'll have to try doing some like that.

[shockowaffel]

And part 2 of my arm studies:

[shockowaffel]

Part 3 of the arm studies are here.
I'm sorry it took so long.

[shockowaffel]

Heeey,
behold my new piece of study:
The torso / trunk or to be a little more precise:
The shoulders.
Most illustrations you will find in George B. Bridgman's "The Human Machine", but copying these will already improve your own skills. Once again, the book alione wont help much, you need to work deeper yourself and research other spources as well.
I was surprised how difficult it can be to find a good picture of a ribcage. The one above is not totally acurate.
The angle in the middle is too narrow, I think...or too round, maybe both.

If I got it right, the shoulder ring is rather stiff and moves like a balance.

Notes:
- The arm is attached to the shoulderblade, not the ribcage
- The shoulderblade is imbedded into the back, rather than attached to the ribcage or smth.
- There are 12 ribs, but only the first 6 are attached to the breast bone (sternum), the lower 5 are indirectly connected to it and the lowest rib has no connection at all.
- All ribs have a connection to the spine.

[shockowaffel]

The first part was about the bones of the torso, the ribcage and shoulders, to name them.

This one is about the muscles, as you can see.
In case you wonder, the red area shows rather flat zones, which is intersting when you have to add light and shadow.

So what's there to note ?

- The breast muscles are attached to the breast bone / collarbone on the one and to the upper arm on the other side.
-The abdominal muscles are not multiple muscles, but one big muscle band that is attached to the ribs/breastbone above and at the pelvis on the lower end.
-The saw shaped muscles (serratus anterior) are attached to the ribs and the shoulder blade.

ps:
Used George B. Bridgman's "The human machine", as well as google and wikipedia

[bobtail]

Ooh, awesome studies! You have a really cool style Very nice!!

[Valyavande]

I like your anatomy studies together with the notes a lot! I've never taken a look at Bridgman's Human Machine so far, makes me want to do it for my next studies!
And I wonder how much effort you put in your work to have a good looking sketchbook where even the sketches have nice backgrounds!

[shockowaffel]

@bobtail:
Thx, I'm trying to keep myself busy.

@Valyavande:
Bridgman alone wont get you far. I always need something else, more precise as addition...wikipedia or google for example, since this book is more like commented (rough) sketches which often expects you to know the muscles already (some drawings seem to be wrong as well)

On the sketches:
Well, I just noticed that it's not much fun to browse through black n white skribble sketchbooks, compared to the coloured pieces. So why not pimp the sketches a little so they look more interesting ? It's not much work, really and it's so much better than posting a scan.

[shockowaffel]

The backside of the torso.
It seems so flat and empty at first, but if you want to understand the muscles it's really difficult.
I didnt draw any of this without reference, some proportions might be off here and there, though.
It's good enough for a starting point.

The first detailed one is to get a feeling of the body's form, while the one on the right is more to shematically show the positioning of the back muscles.
1 - Trapezius Muscle
2 - Latissiums Dorsi (one muscle, not two)
3 - Shoulderblade

The 3 illustrations down there show the muscles of the shoulder, which is really tricky, but in rough it's just one big boulder of muscle, that acts as a landmark on the back.
The shematic sketch and the shoulders can be found in George B. Bridgman's "The human machine", the detailed one has a reference on google somewhere.

I have a better understanding of the shoulder and the back now, but I still dont quite understand how and when the shoulderblade moves. I have to check on this some more.

What's to note ?
- Like mentioned in an earlier piece, the shoulderblade is embedded into the back instead of attached to the ribcage. It's only connection is at the collarbone.
- The most prominent back muscles are the two thick strings left and right of the spine.
- The next is the shoulder / the muscles on the shoulderblade, which stretch or deform while moving the arm and are bordered/covered by the Latissimus Dorsi below and the Trapezius and the Deltoid above.

[shockowaffel]

I think the shoulderblade deserves a seperate study.
To be more precise, the movement of the shoulderblade.

1 - Relaxed
2 - Pulled back
3 - Pulled up
4 - Pulled up + Rotation because of the lifted arms
5 - Relaxed Sideview
6 - Pulled to the front

In an earlier piece, I quoted an illustration from G.B.Bridgeman that displayed the shoulder ring as a scale, that's not right though, I think. If it was like a scale, you wouldnt be able to pull up both your arms at the same time...or maybe I just miss a point. I guess it was to simplyfie the matter.

For this work, I checked several videos on youtube.
I recognized that the shoulderblade does move, but not as much as I thought before. I still dont have a clear vision of how the muscles deform while the shoulderblade moves, but that will hopefully come with more practise.

Notes:
- I got nothing this time ^^°

[JaneMag]

Sweet muscle studies! One can learn from those.

[shockowaffel]

The hip bones are difficult to grasp.
They have a really complex form and the drawings out there vary every time. I found a couch or something like that, which quite resembles the form we need.
In some darwings tutorials I've read to first draw the hip as a tilted box,...well, it kind of works.

On the side of the hips we have just a few muscles.
Gluteus Medius (between the upper edge of the hip and the leg bone)
a smaller muscle on the right side of the medius, which follows the same direction and
Gluteus Maximus (your sitting flesh, from the scrotum to the leg bone).

notes:
- The hip bone is like a cut in the body. There's no muscle stretching over it. they just start from it to the upper torso or to the legs.
- The lower end of the Gluteus Maximus is not on the same heigt as the lower end of the hip bone. The Maximus is lower.

[shockowaffel]

I think we have enough torso studies now.
It's time for some legs.

The thigh is build very similar to the arm.
On the front side is a triceps (tri = three), consisting of a bundle of three muscles, to straighten the leg.
The triceps on the back of your arm does exactly the same.

Of course the counterpart is the biceps (bi = two).
Logically it is placed on the opposite side of the leg / arm to pull on the bones so the joint forms an angle.
It's really simple.

About the illustration:
1: back view of the thigh
2: outer side view
3: front view
4: inner side view

The part that takes practise (as always) is to understand the forms in a threedimensional way.

[Whirly]

Hey shockowaffel, thanks for my SB comment .. Your work is fantastic! You have gained a fan. You have a great eye for colour.

You mentioned you are using Bridgman and always looking online for extra reference. May I recommend Michael Hampton's figure drawing book. Its the best simplification and communication of the muscles I have ever seen.

I really love those environment thumbs on page one! Id kill to be able to to do that.

[Star Eater]

I need to do more studies...yours are great! Fun sketchbook to go through.

[Rotor]

Thanks for dropping by.
Very thorough and solid studies, will be interesting to see them put to use.
Great characterful sketches aswell.
Keep it up.

[shockowaffel]

@Whirly:
Thanks, I checked on Hampton's book, but it seems to be really hard to get / expensive.
@Star Eater / Rotor:
Thanks a lot, both of you.

Here's some more:

While the back was a surprisingly difficult area to deal with, I knew that the knee would be hard. I never really knew why a knee looks the way it does, which made me quite uncomfortable drawing them.
Bridgeman's drawings are (once again) too sketchy and flat to get you far. Google wasnt that much of a help this time.
I really had to search to find drawings or photos that helped me.

The first line up there are rough sketches on how the knee works. The actually possible movments are really restricted.

1 - outer view of the knee
2 - front
3 - inner view
4 - back

I'm still unsure about the entire knee area, but my feeling got a little better. The anatomy in these drawings should be aproximately correct, but dont look onto proportions yet.
I didnt pay attention to it.

notes:
- with a straight leg you can imagine the knee as a box or square inside the leg
- the knee form you see, are the ends of the thigh- and the leg bone.
- the kneecap works as a landmark for the area, since many muscles of the thigh and the leg are attached to it.

[shockowaffel]

I'm not quite sure how this part of the leg is called in english.
I'll just go with "leg", although that feels quite unprecise.

The views are the same as in "study: the leg 2"

1 - outer view
2 - front
3 - inner view
4 - back

Once again I used "the human machine" by Bridgman and luckily this part of the body is really simple, so the doodles weren't that hard to decipher, this time.

notes:
- the ankles on the leg are different in height:
high on the inside, low on the outside.
- it's the other way around with the calf, which is basically consists of two muscles.

[el eiko one]

impressive! love the pony! ^^

[Forrest_I]

Fantastic studies Makes me want to start doin some ha. I love your cartoon style too, keep it up!

[MrFrenik]

Haven't been to your SB in a while, but man, it's looking great. The studies definitely are making me itch to get in there and do tons of them myself. By the way, where did you get the background image of the paper that you use to put your sketches onto? I'd love to use that as well, if you wouldn't mind.

PS - I have no idea in English what the lower portion of the leg is referred to, as well.

[shockowaffel]

@el eiko one : Thx, I love the show.
@Forrest_I: Dont stop yourself from doing anatomical studies, if you feel like it.
@MrFrenrik: Welcome back, buddy. I already answered in you sketchbook on that background paper.

Next one:

Finally, the foot !
Let me tell you one thing beforehand:

>> Nobody ever looks on the feet.

Just in case you still want to draw feet, let's go on:
The entire body rests on the two ends of your legs, more precisely, the ankle. From there on downwards, the weight is divided to the heel and the rest of the foot.
The ankle is the joint on which the food rotates and although it's quite flexible, it doesnt really move that much. Try it out yourself, how far in each direction can you actually move your foot ?

The upper left diagrams show bones and tendons etc.
The first one is too short though, the second one is better.
Remember that the foot is an arch, horizontally and vertically, check the figures in the middle.
According to Bridgman, the toes are not all the same when drawn roughly. The pinky (1) and the big toe (3) step downwards in lesser steps than the others.

[Eyecager]

Really boss studies!

[MrFrenik]

still enjoying the studies. I'll be sure to come back here often to compare mine to yours.

[T-BOY]

Very serious exercise, the cartoon style like