Today was an anatomical practice on Ruby, for Red Hood Rider. Which means, yes, I did draw her nude, but I figured I might as well hang a lampshade when doing so. (In a sense, she pointed out the rule 34ness of it. Ruby would generally prefer to be clothed, of course, but she's not the type to make a deal out of being naked, no matter the circumstances. So instead, she just points out in her own snarky way why it's incredibly improbable for it to happen and her to be naked; it'd almost never transpire because her powers basically allow her to materialize clothing as she sees fit, a secondary superpower that all Riders have but which she has stronger thanks to her vampire powers.)
I'm generally not that comfortable drawing my main characters naked just for the sake of drawing them naked, but clothing can and does get in the way of artistic growth sometimes, so I'm glad I did. In particular, while I did need a few reference images, I mostly free-formed it, going improvised. While I used my eraser a lot, I still took only about an hour or so to finish the sketch, which is ridiculously fast for me to finish a work...and I think I basically, within the reason of my chosen art style, nailed her anatomy, too!
The post she's in is a bit of a stretch, but not unrealistic. I figured out one of the main issues in my art, too! The shoulders. This is true for guys as well to a lesser extent, but ESPECIALLY for girls, I've been drawing the shoulders too large. With the shoulders too large, the arms and the torso get thrown off, which throws the proportions for the legs and especially the hips off, and it all originates from that one spot.
I was noticing I was failing to achieve my anatomy one moment, then I looked at the shoulders, thought they looked fine at first, then I decided to try shrinking them and otherwise maintaining the proportions I had, redrawing as necessary to make the connections, and...it just kinda clicked together.
Admittedly, it's not absolutely perfect. I got lazy on the hands and feet, I'm not quite sure I nailed the breasts (especially her left one), and I think the neck's still slightly too long even for animesque work, and maybe I slightly misplaced her ears/eyes/nose to be slightly too high (or maybe not, I dunno, they could be fine), but that's nitpicky details.
I basically think it's my best work ever. So while I still owe an apology to Ruby for making her go through with that (it's kinda undignified--remember, to me, my characters are alive, so if I draw them nude it's like me exposing a real person naked to the whole world in a youtube video or something like that), ultimately, I think it was worth it.
I'm generally not that comfortable drawing my main characters naked just for the sake of drawing them naked, but clothing can and does get in the way of artistic growth sometimes, so I'm glad I did. In particular, while I did need a few reference images, I mostly free-formed it, going improvised. While I used my eraser a lot, I still took only about an hour or so to finish the sketch, which is ridiculously fast for me to finish a work...and I think I basically, within the reason of my chosen art style, nailed her anatomy, too!
The post she's in is a bit of a stretch, but not unrealistic. I figured out one of the main issues in my art, too! The shoulders. This is true for guys as well to a lesser extent, but ESPECIALLY for girls, I've been drawing the shoulders too large. With the shoulders too large, the arms and the torso get thrown off, which throws the proportions for the legs and especially the hips off, and it all originates from that one spot.
I was noticing I was failing to achieve my anatomy one moment, then I looked at the shoulders, thought they looked fine at first, then I decided to try shrinking them and otherwise maintaining the proportions I had, redrawing as necessary to make the connections, and...it just kinda clicked together.
Admittedly, it's not absolutely perfect. I got lazy on the hands and feet, I'm not quite sure I nailed the breasts (especially her left one), and I think the neck's still slightly too long even for animesque work, and maybe I slightly misplaced her ears/eyes/nose to be slightly too high (or maybe not, I dunno, they could be fine), but that's nitpicky details.
I basically think it's my best work ever. So while I still owe an apology to Ruby for making her go through with that (it's kinda undignified--remember, to me, my characters are alive, so if I draw them nude it's like me exposing a real person naked to the whole world in a youtube video or something like that), ultimately, I think it was worth it.
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