#if you want to imitate someone's artstyle- proportions like these are essential to get the right feel

[originalaccountname]

Oooh the anatomy lesson from all the soukoku height different posts have been very interesting! Do you have some tips on how much leg people have? I feel like bones always gives Chuuya longer legs which throws me off a bit??

A bit of observation of real people:

(2nd set from pose reference archive AdorkaStuck)

There are three interesting things here to look at: where the crotch is compared to the halfway point of the body, how many heads can "fit" on a body, and how tall any given head is.

Notice how the shorter someone is, the lower their crotch is compared to the midpoint of their bodies. The taller they are, the closer it gets to a perfect half. That means the lower body is less and less than half the full body as someone gets shorter (hip placement is another issue you can try figuring out yourself).

The taller someone is, the more heads fit in their total height. For our real people here, that ranges from 6 to a bit more than 8 heads, with the most common being 7-something.

You can also see that the height of everyone's heads (on the same picture) do not vary THAT much on average. On an adult person, there is little variation.

(take this with a grain of salt because of head angles, pixel precision, etc)

If you're not trying to draw hyper-realistic people, it's still useful to keep those proportions in mind to be aware of where you're cheating and how. It can prevent you from wondering why your short characters look like children, or why they just look like you scaled them down or up awkwardly. It's also useful to keep in mind when using a photo reference that doesn't match you character's proportions.

It's among a long list of shortcuts you learn as you draw frequently, like the wrist/crotch trick to know how long to make the arms compared to your character's body, or that a foot is as long as a forearm (try it).

There's always variations in human bodies so don't worry too much about it, especially if you're going for something very stylized. Learn the rules so you know how to cheat and trouble-shoot when things don't work out. For example, my standard character-drawing proportions range more often between 6½ to 7½ heads tall. If you go ask ancient Greece, they might say 9 heads are the ideal proportions.

Another fun fact, mannequins you see in stores are modelled on real people sculpted by someone to create the molds. The thing is, they usually add a bit more leg length than the model has, and very often make them stand on the ball of their feet, just so they give off the impression of even longer legs. Runway models wear high heels for the same effect.

#hopefully this is helpful! #if you want to imitate someone's artstyle- proportions like these are essential to get the right feel #it's like a signature #it's also probably a solid part of what makes people say their art style is inconsistant because it's really hard to stick to them when- #-you're not used to staying on model #ask answered #apparently i talk sometimes