Please critique the anatomy of my character draft

[ZekeDraws]

Hi everybody. I have been doing some character design work for a personal project and using it as a reason to learn anatomy. Below is a sketch I've been working on; it's still pretty rough, but I wanted to get some opinions about the anatomy before I get too much farther along. The end goal is to try out some different outfits on the character but I would still like the underlying anatomy to be correct. Any input you all could give would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[str3tch]

Hi Zeke!
Your work looks pretty good so far! Your arms look good as well as the hands.

There are some things that do stand out that I think would help you immediately.

Your facial construction is pretty good so far. Good shapes all around. However, i think you may have drawn his facial features abit too high. If you study some sources like Andrew Loomis and his "ideal" facial proportions. He places the eyebrows around the mid-line, or roughly the same level as the top of the ears.
I've attached his reference below as well as edited your image if you don't mind.

Your Chest anatomy looks fine, but some things that could really help the image in terms of depth and perspective would be to understand the underlying forms of the rib-cage as well as the origins and insertion points of the Pectoralis. As currently the pecs on your character look a lil flat (as in they dont describe the egg-like form of the rib-cage) . A bit further into that study and you would notice that the muscles could be used as cross-contours to help describe the main mass of the torso.

Other than that, his feet be looking sick too (The good kind) albeit the feet seem to be of different sizes judging by the difference in the height of the ankles

Somethings that seem like they would help is to first develop a strong Gesture then add form via mannequinisation of the character.

Side note:
Do gather more critique rather than just from my message as its good to develop a large library of critic and from there decide what works for you and what doesn't
Happy travels! I hope to see more from you soon!

[snakker]

Hey there, looks pretty good

The curve and angle of the right brachioradialis looks off; also I’m not sure if its just a stylistic thing where the realistic body contrasts with the face or if its something else, but the face feels a bit off

[ZekeDraws]

I really appreciate the comments (and the visual examples you've given). I'm sorry it took so long to reply; I've been busy all weekend. I too thought the face needed some work; I feel like I have an entire sketchbook just of this guy's face and I still have a hard time drawing it the same way more than once . I think you're right about the chest too. As for the feet, the more I look at them, I think the problem is that the right calf is shorter (and thicker?) than the left one, though the right foot itself might need a slight resize as well. When I get the chance to implement these suggestions, I'll post the update drawing to this forum thread. Thanks again!

[ZekeDraws]

Thank you for the feedback! The face does need some work (the proportions are wrong), but the aesthetic is sort of inspired by anime and manga, so the final form will still be more stylized than the rest of the anatomy (though that won't be entirely realistic either).

As for the right arm (I assume you meant the character's right and not the right of the drawing ), is this more like what it should look like?:

Once I get the chance to implement the suggestions I've received, I'll post the new version to this forum thread. Thanks again!

[snakker]

Hey there, yeah that’s exactly what I meant, looking good

[ZekeDraws]

Okay, here's the latest version with everyone's suggestions implemented. I also tried to clean it up slightly (I fear I may have overworked the torso a bit, but maybe it's okay). Please let me know what you think.

[snakker]

Awesome, I think it looks better with the torso further developed like this, also it has more implied lines and I think that adds certain depth to it that it didn't have before

[ZekeDraws]

I should probably make a WIP thread for this. Here is the line art I drew over the sketch; I tried to be more thoughtful about where I put solid outlines since I intend for the final shading to reveal the forms of many of the underlying shapes (implied lines like snakker mentioned). My initial sketch was very sketchy, so hopefully I didn't lose too much information when transitioning to the cleaner lines.

The first image is the pure line art:

The second image is the line art with an additional line weight layer on top of it; I watched a tutorial about line weight by comic artist David Finch (here is a link to it) the other day and thought I would try it out. Both images have a (crudely drawn ) arrow showing the direction of the light source; I tried placing the thicker line weights on surfaces facing away from the light:

Please let me know what you all think! And thanks again for all of the help!

[snakker]

Awesome results, it’s already conveying a much better sense of volume just by playing with the line weight

[000_peanut]

Hey zeke, i'll keep it simple, these are small details so yeah.. His physique is more lean than muscular I think...

note: you don't need to redraw the latest post. It is good as it is at the moment. I just want you to take note of this next time you draw them or discard them if you like.

1. The torso
2. The neck
3. The legs
4. The perspective of hips
5. The face, i know it is stylize but still, always keep in mind the proportion
6. HANDS ARE FEET ARE REALLY AMAZING!!!
7. Always use reference

This is how I draw it in my style and I hope you pick a thing or two to improve your anatomy.

This is kinda rush since im at work rn and I also know that there are errors here so I apologize for that

[ZekeDraws]

I'm sorry it took so long to reply. I appreciate the feedback. You're right about him looking more lean than muscular, which wasn't quite my intention; I had imagined him to be athletic, and therefore somewhat muscular, though not overly bulky. I wanted his physique to be somewhere in between spiderman and superman (if that makes sense). In particular, his arms are looking skinnier than I had wanted (you seem to have noticed this too). I know you said not to redraw anything, and the inked drawing is unchanged, but this project is a much about learning for me as having fun, so I did take another pass on his arms:

The previous version is on the left and the update is on the right; I feel like I'm still not getting the anatomy right, so some more feedback would be greatly appreciated. There will be more to come (I've been a little busy lately). Thanks again!

[ZekeDraws]

Hey everybody! It's been a while since I've responded to this thread; I've been pretty busy but I also wanted to have some substantial work to show you before I posted again. Here is the current version of the character, colored and shaded, with three costumes:

It's still not perfect, but I've been on this project for over a month now and I think I'm ready to take what I've learned and move on to something else (though it will likely be related to this character). I'd still like any feedback you might have, though. Thanks again!