TRSE: How To Draw Tutorials:
Varying Body Proportions and Face
Features
It is not easy to get used to drawing the characters
with different body proportions and features because I have to pay attention
to how a body and a face should be shaped after being so used to drawing
the "Cloned Looks" of BSSailorMoon (and other Anime) characters.
The cloned looks of the characters are lot easier to draw, but they wouldn't
look natural. I even started giving each Sailor Senshi a different body
proportions while drawing my
BSSailorMoon fanfic mangas to help
myself be prepared for creating my own characters. ^_^; After having observed
so many real people out there, I just started playing with different features
of my own characters and I'm getting satisfactory results. All I need to
keep practicing to maintain the constant look of each character. Here's
my never-perfect pencil sketches. ^_^;
Since Daryl is slightly "chubby", I gave her very soft
features while giving Cinna harder features due to the fact that she's
underweight. I even gave Cinna the freckles and hawk-like nose as inspired
by a real woman with such features. Larima looks somewhat elf-like because
of her high cheeks and exotic eyes. I noticed that it's common for the
women of western civilizations to have protruding chins and soft cheeks.
The features of Muneca & Shelly are the results of that observation.
It's tricky to draw that kind of face, and that takes time to get used
to it. I drew Shelly's hair by accident, and it turned out that I liked
the way her hair is styled. ^_^ I have to give her more roles considering
the fact that we need more race diversity in the manga. Taffe has a somewhat
flat Japanese features which seem to be common along Japanese women and
Animanga female characters.
Allan has a typical boyish features that makes him seem
young and cheerful while I gave Bismun his Asiatic features with a very
pointy chin. Jeremy was inspired by a real person that I saw somewhere.
Tourmele has what may be considered a "classic handsome features" with
a scowl that makes him seem egoistic and determined. I gave Schorl a big
nose and bony features to make him seem very tough while Marco has the
lazy but sharp features.
I also paid attention to each character's height and
body proportions like how I gave Cinna a very slim body while giving Daryl
a "chubby" body. Larima has a very feminine body (hourglass shape) while
Taffe looks very tomboyish that she could disguise herself as a boy. As
for Muneca, well, she's very private person. ^_^; I did the same
for the male characters like how Bismun is taller with broader shoulders
than Allan.
Heh, I even give the girls different breasts sizes just
to make them look more natural. Larima has "C-Cup" breasts while Taffe
got only "A-Cup" breasts. I learned that a majority of women come with
"B to C-Cups" ignoring the effects of obesity or childbearing. Any sizes
beyond "D-Cup" are rare and very likely to be fake or artificially ballooned
up which I consider to be very absurd in my personal opinion.
It was fun to play with my own characters and you
might find it to be fun too when you create and play with your own characters,
and that can be a great asset with practicing your drawing skills. ^_^
So it never hurts to do a plenty of research on the real human anatomy
and do observations to give your own characters different body proportions
and features when you're ready/confident enough to go for them.
