fat bodies, fat anatomy, and how body fat tends to work should be taught as standardly as skinny anatomy and how muscles work in art courses. fat bodies are not an outlier. fat bodies are not a minority and theyre not abnormal or wrong. fat bodies are normal and they belong in art teaching spaces as commonly as other anatomy, because fat bodies ARE normal anatomy. people have diverse bodies and there will never be a single body type that encompasses the “normal body type”
tldr; fat anatomy should be taught as a staple in art courses just like any other anatomy. this is fact <3
ive gathered various links to refs so that people who see this can actually access helpful info on how to draw fat people. first and foremost though, using references will always be the biggest help :)
Everyone says NEVER TRACE!! THAT’S ART THEFT! Ok but we can do a little crime in the name of Learning.
Trace to learn, not to earn.
I like to take my own photos, but you can study whatever you want. Link back to original photos, and don’t post copied artwork unless the artist is dead, cool with it, or both.
As always with learning, start every sketch with the intent to throw it away (trash for paper, quitting without saving for digital) This takes the pressure off and lets you make Bad Art, which is very important.
So let’s make Bad Art of a Deer because I happen to have one handy
Start with a photo of your subject in a nice/neutral pose with all four feet visible. (so not like me)
Freehand copy it. Try not to stylize, focusing instead of matching proportions and pose. Don’t get too detailed!
It’s ok if your art looks terrible and has broken legs. I’ve drawn LOTS of deer so I have a leg up. Everyone’s art sucks in their own eyes and here’s where mine went wrong:
Either lasso-distort (recommended for beginners) or redraw a copy of your first sketch with your reference behind it (scaled to match the main body of your sketch)
Put the original and modified sketches together and compare the differences. Write it down if you want. This shows you where your eyes saw things the wrong size, so you can correct for that next time.
After learning about both deer and yourself, try freehand copying again.
Marvel at your newfound knowledge and skill!
but there’s always room for improvement
You can stop here and move on to your real drawing, Or do another freehand-fix-compare cycle. I actually overcorrected my “draws heads too big” and veered into “heads too small.”
Another note on tracing: Learning HOW to trace is more important than anything you could learn By tracing. Draw the Anatomy, not the outline. In real life, things don’t have outlines, they have bones.
These are from the same shoot which is extra useful for consistency. The lines are minimal and follow where the animals joints are, and only important parts are drawn.
You won’t know what Important Parts means right off the bat, which is where in-depth study comes in. You need to do learn the hard parts to do the easy parts right.
Next up: how to study bones and muscles.
How to study Bones and Muscles
“Study the anatomy study the anatomy” but they never tell you HOW. It’s not “read a book,” It’s more like flailing around wildly and crashing your browser from too many tabs.
This is going to be about How to Makea bones and muscle chart. Because even if your art sucks, you learn so much more by doing than by seeing.
Get Set up. Get a photo, like above, but it doesn’t have to be the same photo. And now… gather reference.
We’ll start with bones. Search up “[animal] skeleton” and get photos or super scientific illustration. Add in things like “top view” to spice it up.
Next, search “[animal] skeleton sketchfab.” This pulls up 3D models that you can rotate in your browser. Remember that these are art and the anatomy is only as good as the artist, so pick a good one.
Time for bone!
The spine is the most important, and in a lot of animals it will surprise you. Draw it in over your photo and then add spikes because skeletons are punk. These are not scientific and I didn’t count them because their number doesn’t matter to art. So you better be referencing from scientists and not me!
The rest of the bones and some notes. These are my notes to myself about things I want to remember. My personal discoveries in anatomy that made my art better. You can make the same notes but also make sure you have your own thoughts on there as well. that’s how you help yourself the best. Be as detailed or vague as you want.
Same deal with muscle. Here are my personal notes to myself. Label stuff that is important to you. I actually grouped a bunch of muscles together based on what is visible from the outside. Muscles are way more complicated than this, but Baby’s First Anatomy Chart gets to be simple.
This is good enough for me because I have intimate knowledge of the other muscles working under and over these ones. Feel free to add as many or as few muscles as you like. You chart your own course.
This is very VERY much not an anatomical chart. I’m sure there’s nerds out there pulling their hair out looking at this. But listen, it works for art!
And you know the wildest part about this?
I don’t need to look at it to use it. The act of making your own anatomy chart puts that knowledge in your brain. Like how you can make “cheat sheets” even for tests that don’t allow them - the act of making the sheet helps you remember what you struggle with most.
And after all that complexity? Your simplification will be based on Real Knowledge and you’ll put those random circles in the right spots.
Look at all this hard work you’ve done. Eventually this will be second nature to you.
Show me what you make! I’d love to see what creatures yall make anatomy charts of.
Photo Reference Packs
I put together some photo packs and uploaded them to my gumroad. You can use them and this guide to study! So far there’s only a Doe and a Fawn pack, but if I get sales I will put in the effort to do more for deer, horses, cats, birds, and anything else I can point my camera at.
Anonymous said: I know you’ve shown how you draw faces from different angles very briefly before, but I was wondering if you’d ever go more in depth? For example, I always struggle with drawing the eyes at a ¾ angle…
Ok, I get this question so many times that I decided to do something about it. I’ve already made a tutorial about drawing eyes and tbh it should help with drawing eyes from any angle, the tricky part is to understand the human face, its anatomy. If you see the face/head as a three dimentional object you’ll be able to draw it, I can’t say it enough, 3D thinking is important. Also, references are important, drawing from life is important because then you have a 3D model of the head right in a front of you. All you need to do is observe and understand.
I know you mean early homonids but my brain saw the word ‘primitive’ and went “man sacrificed his dick bone to the gods for knowledge of bronze working and the written word”.
So, what you’re saying is it wasn’t a rib God took from Adam, huh?
Biologist Scott Gilbert and Biblical scholar Ziony Zevit have argued precisely that Adam’s rib was, in fact, Adam’s penis bone
For all questions, as well as for the purchase of photo prints and about the collaboration, please write to my mail: [email protected]
do NOT edit photos, cut, change colours, do not use as avatars, blog headings and other things like that. If you want to make a post with my photos, please include the authors name or a link to my page.
