Knight Crit - Anatomy first

[hobnobs]

Hi
Heres my knight he is 6ft muscular, does he look ok anatomy wise?

[TinyBird]

Well he's a gray blob so it's hard to say all about the anatomy but at a quick glance the proportions at least look okay. Though if he's six feet tall, maybe having him couple heads taller could work better to give him an air of tallness without having to state the height.
EDIT: Though I do wonder about his right side foot... http://eyecager.tumblr.com/post/1653...s-but-pros-and

[hobnobs]

Heres a new pose, I'm doing this for a challenge, do you think this pose is better and looks ok?

[hobnobs]

heres what Ive done so far for the armour design, What do you think? pink will be removed later, cheers

[ryansumo]

My first impulse is to say that he has a tiny chest. Or that his head's too big. The armor design seems a little all over the place thematically. In general I guess that's over but since you have some sort of lion head on his belt maybe develop the armor design around that?

Unfortunately there are a lot more issues here than the specifics I mentions above. Based on this image alone it seems like you're just randomly picking out a spot to render then moving on. That's okay of you're a really good artist . I would suggest sticking to some sort of procedure first to learn the ropes. For example I usually start out with a sketch, then cleaner lineart, then flat colors with some shading, then painting over the flat colors. Having a proper structure could really help you out.

[hobnobs]

Hi thanks Ryan, this is just a rough image to design the armour, I will redraw it later, and yes the head is probably too big, any one else want to crit? thanks guys

[Venger]

Just a quick one -
Get your forms right before you start detailing, work on your posture more, the anatomy seems off and its a very stiff.
Oh and get some ref! A good understanding of how actual armour works and fits together will help you loads, even if you go to an extreme…

[hobnobs]

yea, Ive been trying to design it so it works practically and looking at armour, is the any part of there suit that isn't practical then?

[StaticX]

I would suggest you take a look at Bridgeman anatomy. Your arm and leg, as mentioned, do not look funtional. Also, I would add a knee. Right now it doen't look like he/she has one. Thanks

[Barefoot]

He's looking very effeminate, which is cool, but if he's supposed to be big and manly, maybe that isn't such a great plan.
anatomy wise this isn't so great, there are a few books you could read, Loomis/Bridgeman is all very well and good, but in my experience, you need to work from reference PHOTOGRAPHS (I can't stress the need for photographs or life models enough, working from someone else's work just wont cut it), especially faces, because I think that's the part you're weakest on. Please don't take anything I've said as an insult, because I really don't mean it that way.

[hobnobs]

He's looking very effeminate, which is cool, but if he's supposed to be big and manly, maybe that isn't such a great plan.
anatomy wise this isn't so great, there are a few books you could read, Loomis/Bridgeman is all very well and good, but in my experience, you need to work from reference PHOTOGRAPHS (I can't stress the need for photographs or life models enough, working from someone else's work just wont cut it), especially faces, because I think that's the part you're weakest on. Please don't take anything I've said as an insult, because I really don't mean it that way.

the face was just a 2 min job just to put something there while I style the armour. This is the first rough.

Thanks, everyone I can try to improve him now, please keep the crit coming thought

[hobnobs]

If I buy the bridgmans anatomy book will that teach me all the muscles in the human body? Id rather learn from computer drawing too, rather than a pencil sketch, because bridgmans looks pencil sketch?

[hobnobs]

I have worked on the pose, does it look right anatomy wise? thanks

[EagleGrove]

If I buy the bridgmans anatomy book will that teach me all the muscles in the human body? Id rather learn from computer drawing too, rather than a pencil sketch, because bridgmans looks pencil sketch?

The basics are the same no matter if you draw digitally or with pencil. Anatomy doesn't change with the medium. You can, of course, get books on how to draw digitally, but that's not going to help you with fundamental stuff like anatomy, form, color and light.

[StaticX]

There is a complete work of bridgeman you can get at barns and noble or books a million. Yes it has the complete muscular and skeletal system. It also has facial features and folds and drappery. Your left side looks better. If you fish through the wiki here you will find all kinds of neat stuff. Thanks

[hobnobs]

Is the human machine the one to get? or Constructive Anatomy

should I get the hands one too?

[StaticX]

Hey, there is a complete works on bridgeman. With over a thousand illustrations. It has hands, feet, lips, hips, face, and well everything except the know know parts. It is awsome. I prefer him over hogarth or loomis.

[hobnobs]

Hi, I've been working on this a while now, pls can some people crit the design of the armour and the anatomy, the rest isn't finished yet, cheers

[arenhaus]

If I buy the bridgmans anatomy book will that teach me all the muscles in the human body? Id rather learn from computer drawing too, rather than a pencil sketch, because bridgmans looks pencil sketch?

Bridgman is not the best first choice. You're better off with Sheppard's "Drawing the Living Figure" and an atlas by Ellenberger.

As for pencil... do whatever you want, but sketching with a tablet is much, much harder than doing it with a pencil. I suppose if you absolutely hate pencils you can take the difficult route, but I don't see any real reason to do that.

In any case, being versatile and having experience with more than one medium is going to be good for you.

[hobnobs]

Thanks arenhaus, I brought Bridgman's book, its good but I find hard to work with his pencil drawings

[Venger]

Work on the anatomy - his proportions are off.
Again, go look at real armour - there are of pictures online or at the library.
At the moment your guy couldn't move.
Plate armour goes on in sections - this might help you…

http://steel-mastery.com/en/plate-ar...l-plate-armour

[dpaint]

Because Armor is shiny you really have to pay attention to the geometric plane changes. Round things have to look round and flat areas have to look flat. Lighting informs these shapes because of the high reflective properties.
Here is an example I painted from photo ref

[hobnobs]

Work on the anatomy - his proportions are off.
Again, go look at real armour - there are of pictures online or at the library.
At the moment your guy couldn't move.
Plate armour goes on in sections - this might help you…

http://steel-mastery.com/en/plate-ar...l-plate-armour

Thanks Venger, which proportion did you mean just so I can check? I think the chest looks big but the plate covering it would have to be big, can anyone point out specific things, I will try to adjust the armour to make it more practical. The chest plate is in one whole piece is that normal?

[hobnobs]

Hi, Here's the next stage I'm at. There are some unfinished bits and haven't decided on the background yet. Hopefully the anatomy is ok now? The metal effect is hard to do because it would probably be darker at the bottom of the figure but then it doesn't look so good. Feel free to crit me

[TinyBird]

Hmmm... How will he bend with that armor? Generally the breastplate only goes to your waist to allow the wearer to bend a bit and swivel their upper body around. Also the openings leave his sides rather unprotected from stabs and arrows if he raises his arms.

[Lightship69]

you could do a lot worse than look at the work of Angus McBride too for reference, he did hundreds of illustrations for the Osprey "Men at Arms" series of books. As I remember there were lots of poses along this line and a host of others too.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ang...w=1920&bih=965

I hope this helps you out in your quest for decent references matey

[hobnobs]

thanks guys, some good points

[Danilo]

http://gyazo.com/426277a6ab9e12df01bc88a2f47dae7a

[Venger]

Thanks Venger, which proportion did you mean just so I can check? I think the chest looks big but the plate covering it would have to be big, can anyone point out specific things, I will try to adjust the armour to make it more practical. The chest plate is in one whole piece is that normal?

The legs are too short and the rear leg is at the wrong perspective.
The head is also odd - eyes are usually in the middle of the skull, so yours has a long low face and almost no crown (though there are variants to this.)
He's also very stiff and flat (as in physically thin)
Also a more defined light source will help sell your shapes better.

Armour shouldn't restrict human movement, yours does in several places.
We've had a long time to figure out what works with armour design and it still applies today with modern armours.
You are going to need full arm and shoulder movement, your guy can't bring his arm across his chest.
Nor can he bend at the waist or bend his knees.
The plate stops weapon penetration but not the impact, thats why they wear layers of padding underneath.
Anything that you bend or need lots of movement is going to need articulated plates or flexible, less protective armour.

Something to think about - its not just to make things look cool, if say this was an actual piece of concept artwork there's no way a character animator could make this work (not without a large amount of clipping anyway)

While not trapping you, a good understanding of realistic armours will bring realism to fanciful designs…

[hobnobs]

Thanks for referring specific parts I do appreciate, I will look into that stuff, I have to say I do aim for good looks over practicality, but I do try to get it to work in reality, some armour in history is a bit stiff