Alright peeps, listen up! I've been having these concerns lately on how to draw a human being in several different poses than looking straight dead at the camera. As I expected at the beginning, I failed miserably in achieving this.

But recently, there's been a breakthrough, you see, as I kept drawing and drawing I began to be able to grasp the three-dimensional nature of the human body as I acquired more and more reference. Now, while I myself am proud to say 'Problem Solved' to myself, I was not quite sure on why I didn't get it earlier even though I was only trying to redraw the same picture over and over again. And now looking back at the old pictures (which is virtually everything I've drawn), I've found out that I never 'really' paid attention to them before and all of them looks like dismembered heads taped on a flat human 'body'.

So here's to all colorless artists, The Drawing is Three Dimensional. I guess most of you 'get' it and say, " Yeah, yeah, eterno. I get it. Look! My drawing's leaning towards the side!" but you guys probably don't and are having a lot of problem rotating your characters. The reason why this has to be said is because generally, I see that most of the artist's drawings here are quite flat (Just check this thread ) and you guys seem to need help regarding this issue but most of you aren't even aware of this.

So yeah, this is my first critic thread and I'm criticizing 'ALL' CL artists (including myself because even though I just bashed everyone here, I'm still among those who don't get it). The purpose of this thread is basically that we discuss on how to tackle this specific problem together.

Now, I've seen art forums where they recommend 'drawing from life' as the solution to all art problems but let me say this, not everyone has the luxury to have a model to pose for us or afford art schools, right? And also, just because you're going to an art school and draw from life every single day doesn't mean that you'll immediately grasp these concepts readily. Believe me, I went to an art school and the majority of them didn't grasp the concepts and just wanted to put charcoal on canvas, add values and be done with it and call themselves 'Illustrator', yeah right!

Next argument is that you're only doing this casually and you're not really serious about this whole 'art' thing. Well, wouldn't you like it to be good at your hobby? I, myself am only doing this casually as well and before anyone asks, yes, I want to draw cartoon/anime style and none of those realism stuff but I find it hard to draw that WELL without the basic principles of art.

Oh, sorry, am I venting? So yeah, tl;dr this thread is about trying to figure out the concepts in the title. What you can do to help is to report discoveries, tutorials, mindset or whatever that could help everyone figure this concept out. Keep in mind that posting tutorials randomly MIGHT be helpful but as a guy who collects tutorials myself, I find that tutorials on a flat screen about how this bloke screams and yells and tells you what you must and mustn't do isn't quite as helpful as real time coaching and this is what this thread is really about: COACHING.

So that's what we're gonna do here, this is an art class (just like what Jin-sama used to have). But rather than focusing on drawings in general, this topic is about 'Anatomy and Three-dimensionality' but because I have a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to art, I can't really be THE instructor and so everyone here can share anything they want as long as it's about 'Anatomy and Three-dimensionality'. Lastly, I'm going to thank everyone who are going to participate in advance because if you do, YOU ROCK!

Edit: Sorry, if this is unclear. I really don't know what to put so ask questions if you don't quite get what I'm saying, OK?

I'm not claiming to be the best artist, but I've got a decent enough grasp on the two main ideas of this thread to hopefully be able to help other artists along the path to understanding. I can help through text based breakdowns and redlining if people want that.
For those unfamiliar, redlining is where someone takes your drawing and goes over it in a high contrast colour (usually red) adjusting the anatomy issues and hopefully showing you where you went wrong so you know what to look out for next time around.

The first exercise, getting us to draw cubes, is a good one, but I think a little bit of critical thinking is needed to really help things start to fall into place. I hope you don't mind me adding this in Eterno.

I'd like those participating to think on these before opening the spoiler tags First question. Why are we doing this?

To draw more accurate looking images, we need to know more than just WHERE the shadows go, we need to know HOW they work.
This exercise is to start us on the path to thinking of how light reacts with objects. Both cubes and spheres are very simple objects, and let us see how light casts shadows and reflects off surfaces without diving too far in to strange shapes and other complications.

While working on the cube, you should keep asking yourself at every new part things like:

Why is it darker/lighter here than this other shaded area? Try to observe this on not just different sides of the cube but on parts of the same side This will help you with understanding both direct and reflecting light Why is the shadow so crisp near this part but so fuzzy in this other area? This should help you get a feel for light dispersion over distance

Another few things can be done with flashlights or other source of portable light but I think that's a good start to helping the understanding of light for right now

personal experience: no one give a shit in the art section of CL. hence why I've stopped updating my thread :P nice effort tho

for people who actually give a shit : practice drawing those simple shape like the picture above. square, sphere, triangle etc... UNDERSTAND them (like @Elegy said, understand how the light and shadow works) . because the human body r made of LOTS of those simple shapes.

I may do a tutorial explaining how the shadow and light work later. depend on how many people actually want to know.

@Jin_sama I would read it.

@Jin_sama At least I tried :(

Anyway, let's assume everyone has drown their cube. Awesome! I can't believe CL is filled with so much talent! <33333333

Next step is to draw awesomely is to get one of these:

Then draw that little fucker!

When you're done, post the result hereしてくださいいいいいいいXXXXX333333

P.S.: Of course you can use the picture silly <XP

@eterno its nice to meet you weve talked before and ummmm I think I could help with this alot ok If you still want this drawing anime people is my speciality and I know alot Im pretty young though and never been to an art school hek i didnt even know you could put charcoal on canvas but I can sure as hell use a pencil and pen and I know alot of these basics and If still want the help then I could maybe answer some of your qwestions or we could compare and see what we get oops sorry got to go talk later

@CloudVariasKira

Yeah, sure! What do have to show?

It's been a while since I draw anything worthwhile though. However I do have an old image that maybe we could use to compare.

cool so ! @eterno if you have them would it be cool to ask for three

my origanal idea was to ask for three and Ill post three to from you I was hopeing for: the drawing your most proud of then your second place winner and I wanted a more older pic before you started experimenting

I will post the same after you... to see If anything I got comes close first to see if their even compareable but I will follow the same guide lines Is that fine... sorry I know it sounds like work but this is important

oh and if you want more info backround whatever than just post here ok

Can you post some of your drawings on how you improved @eterno . I'm quite interested.

@eterno yeash did I bore you that bad sorry I geuss I blew it with that to earger crap somy bad I should rethink this I geuss you not interested In the work witch is cool so I suppose youre more into straight forward info fine thats cool to so Ill tell you what I know:

When it comes to people anime people or people people in drawing the baseics involveing the meshing of light and shadow is important and a bitch because saddly everything casts a shadow depending on the type of scene your setting the dummy and the shapes help with the learning of this element its hard to get down not to mention adding vaule now you must also consider size and for a real looking picture and that involves a sense of your depth preseption but these things are all pointless unless you know how to draw a human ....drawing a human is not the same as a building and I learned at an early age of 6 awww crap theres the bell Ill finish my report later sorry

@CloudVariasKira

I was about to post a really long reply but I lost it all and 30 minutes of my life.

Basically, I'm still interested... got no drawing that I'm proud of... Have some old picture but need to put some clothes on them... I'm working on something... and people need to understand that drawings are an illusion and anatomy is complicated but can be simplified.

Now, please wait overnight before anything close to calm have become my rage.

I also got pics but it would be out of context if I just randomly post them.

K i understand no prolb sorry for the impatience

you know i was about to say something to the simmilar effect but you beat me

anyway whats with cloths comment were you serious?

If so our beginnings may be more common than I first thought ummm sorry awkward subject

I will wait

@CloudVariasKira Ummm... I study anantomy.

So, I would draw people nekkid ; otherwise, it won't be an anatomy study.

(God, I wish I did't lose my post)

But if you don't mind naked bodies, I could post them here.

They're naked, flayed, castrated bodies though.

And they're anatomically incorrect and for their dignity, I have to veil their faces.

And, they're all MALE.

I did a couple of females but the sketchbook is miles away.

Well, if you want me to post them here then I will :)

They don't reflect my current skills though.

Anatomy dose not bother me you have know idea what ive been through to perfect my style hahahaha yeh .....awkward

but if you do that wont you have to put one of those adult taggs on here?

I must warn you I perfected my females I did what came natural you know

my men could use some work

whatever you want