Don't Draw ANIMAL LEGS Like This!
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- Опубліковано 25 лип 2024
- How do you draw animal legs on people? What makes animal legs different from human legs? What are plantigrade and digitigrade feet? Learn the top tips for designing half-animal half-human characters, as well as biologically accurate ways to draw dog, kangaroo, and bird legs!
Winged Canvas art instructor Jessie Chang teaches us her personal techniques for thoughtful character design, and common mistakes beginner artists should avoid in this short art tutorial!
🕓 Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
0:05 - Common DOG LEG drawing mistakes
1:02 - How to draw ANIMAL LEGS on people
1:38 - ANIMAL LEGS vs HUMAN LEGS anatomy
2:58 - How to draw BIRD LEGS on people
4:54 - Play around with character proportions!
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Anatomy is always a tricky subject ✏
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At 2:34 you got the ostrich leg wrong, 1 is the shin, the femur is up in a squat position, most birds have their thighs hidden, to be fair
I feel like almost everyone who makes videos like these go into a rant about something inspecific, but your videos actually help and have taught me more than any of my art teachers :]
Agree, because it's could be someone's art style, they can draw what they would like to.
“Drawing it this way…” *loses subject and starts ranting about personal trauma*
@@anxia-tea5846 I didn't see this reply till now but literally yes, my teacher started ranting on why they started drawing and how they have a comfort style (which I completely agree me too-) but I'm just tryna learn - tell me personal stuff in free time..
@@anxia-tea5846 exactly
That's because everything is a rant that comes out here.
Zootopia does plantigrade legs. They don't get rid of the heel, they just move it to the floor. Also, you can look at real life cats. When cats stand up on their hind legs, they're temporarily "plantigrade". That's why I think the plantigrade legs are more realistic, because real animals choose to stand on their heels when they stand on two legs.
Aren't like the mlp ponies's feet plantigrade? I'm not very good at sketching while drawing and doing the lineart first instead of sketching. I want to make animation similar to mlp with my animal characters.
Yeah, that's what I was saying. If an animal is going to stand upright, technically it would have evolved into the plantigrade form. The heel isn't going anywhere, it's just in the same place ours is
Hey,Just discovered that if an human stands on four(in some specific ways,no,not that way,okay,both erotic and normal ways)it turns into an digitigrade,so,you're correct
@@MoonRaven21 I believe horses have a different thing going on. Which is unguligrade.They just basically walk on their toenails.
Sure, knowing horse leg anatomy can be useful for drawing ponies. But it's not a necessary thing to know.
Some people have a different way of drawing mlp pony legs. Like more horse-like. And some people just stay closer to the official mlp art.
That's just kind of an artstyle thing I guess.
@@batwolfy7044 I draw most of my animals platigrade half of the time except my dolphins/orcas, some of my birds, and Raptors/dinos. I'm not really a mlp fan but that's nice to know horses actually walk on their toenails. I have horse therapy and Its cool.
"legs should match the body they are attached to"
Not necessarily, my mom's dog is a really unluckily bred mutt who's got a super chonky barrel-like body, and basically toothpicks for legs. He does have issues with his joints.
Guess this is a Majority Rule. There are some exceptions with the depending factors.
It always depends on the context. If you make the conscious choice to draw the legs way too thin because you think it's more funny and/or because there actually are dogs like this, it's okay. But mostly, people draw legs just because they don't know any better which isn't good.
Well, in compensation I bet he's adorable
Fun fact: nature did not make dogs, humans did. That's why they're pretty much almost always fucked up in some way or another, because We Don't Know What We're Doing™️
You say "not necessarily" while also ignoring the word "should" in the original quote
I definitely think it's possible to make platigrade anthro legs work. I personally like drawing them this way, just don't ignore the heel ya know. You're basically changing out the toes for paws, not the whole foot. It weights the design more human whilst keeping animalistic features. However, if you want to weight the character more animal, go with the more animal leg proportions. I also feel like plantigrade works less for bird legs and hooved legs for some reason, maybe just cause I see it less I unno.
There are humans actually capable of walking on their toes, so my answer to this is probably ballet. Just copy a ballet dancer in flats on half-points, or straight up en pointe (modern pointe shoes with wide box e.g. Gaynor minden work amazing) , and then add fluffy toes.
I think paws are Similar to toes in a way since we are animals but I can be wrong.
@@MoonRaven21 toes and balls of feet iirc. Then the arch of the foot is stretched out for animals and the heel is up in the air
Funily nough I notece oposite problem in paleoart where someone drawing extinct animal that was plantigrade as digitigrade. Happens a lot with Amphicionids (aka beardogs) and Nimravids
Plantigrade feet rely on a wide "palm" of the foot to spread weight, rather than the toes, which digitigrade feet use.
Bird feet are mostly toes.
Hooves are as far from plantigrade as anatomy can get. Hooves are literally fingernails being walked on.
Question; would this technique apply to ducks? Just curious, no reason.
Edit: I'm slowly losing my sanity over how many people are talking about a "Duck-Army". I honestly didn't know something like that existed until now, but you know what? I suppose it's a thing now. Anyone who wants to join is automatically considered a member. Rise-up duck army.
*SEND ME WHATEVER CREATURE YOU MAKE I WANT A PRECIOUS HALF DUCK*
quack quack army
I wouldn’t mind joining said army
Let me join the duck army please
ducke army \o/
For plantigrade legs with paws you can extend the paw a bit so you can still have the heel, and then have the fluffy toes and toe beans. Ive seen ppl do it and it actually looks good if done right.
There are also non-human plantigrade mammals, like bears.
No but why was this, deadass, THE most informative video I have seen yet?? Like not only is the art style absolute eye candy, but the way you edited the video as you explained was possibly the best I've ever had _anything_ explained. Lord, if only school taught me like this... Truly astonished, well done ❤️
Eye candy 😌💅
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🔝🍀⏩🕐
@@bearythepanda6590candy ❤❤😂😂😂🎉🎉
This helps me a lot since I’m working on a humanoid species and most of em are built for running around doing violence and hunting, and the making the bird feet larger helps with one of the sub species I’m basing off of birds that dive after fish. Thank you.
Weird to point out I think, but in personal experience, furry art (especially art closer to realism) is a really good reference, since theres a pretty large range of animals you can find, and considering that many furries are digitigrade animals, and walk on their hind legs (usually), it’s good for reference! You could even find actual fursuits and reference real life pictures! =)
As someone who struggles with limbs (paws or legs especially), this is extremely helpful!
Nicely done! As a side note, bears and raccoons are also plantigrade, as are skunks.
While I don't draw, I do write, and it's important to know how the legs work when describing your character's movement.
Digitigrade legs are made for forward movement. It's a permanent runner's stance. Digitigrade legs are wonderful for speed and rapid changes of direction -- as long as you're moving forward. Their main issue is the limited load-bearing surface, since the heel is off the ground. Just watch a dog try to walk backward sometime. Running species, such as canines and felines, are digitigrade.
Plantigrade feet, on the other paw, are the best for supporting weight and gripping surfaces. Climbing species, from raccoons and bears to rats and squirrels, are plantigrade, as are birds to make use of their talons. (They're very talon-ted.)
There is a third one, however: Unguligrade, the hoofed mammals. Unguligrade takes digitigrade to its logical extreme, maximizing speed at the cost of flexibility )and thus balance) and grip.
So, realistically, both digitigrade and unguligrade bipeds will have a forward lean, due to the heel being off the ground. More realistic versions are likely to need mobility aids, such as canes or walkers.
Birds (like their ancestors the theropod dinosaurs) are generally digitigrade. There are some that are plantigrade because they're specialized swimmers and aren't that great at walking.
@@feuerlingittle note: the geese are digitigrade too. The webbed part is the toes, not the whole foot. Thing is, the legs are hidden in the body, so as plantigrades we see the foot and think that the heel is the leg and the webbed toes are the whole foot.
Could you possibly do a lesson on how to draw robots while still making them look cool? I keep trying to make it realistic (with their limbs being made of metal, not necessarily as flow-y looking as a human) but it keeps coming out just like stiff and bad looking :/. I think it might be good to draw it like a person wearing armor maybe? But i don’t really know how to draw that either…
Edit: Oh wow, thanks a bunch to all who commented helpful ideas/tips! Surprised by the amount of info y'all have. To anyone curious, my robots are looking much cooler :) TY!
Maybe start with the outline of a person then sort of section it off into like the metal plates or something?
If it looks stiff, then maybe it's just your gesture. Start off with only a gesture drawing, as if you're going to draw a human, so that you can find a nice flowy pose without getting distracted by detail, then start building from there. If you're making it like an android anyway, if you're making a robot that doesn't resemble a human - like, it's overall a more boxy shape without legs for example - then of course it's going to feel stiff. Robots are made of a stiff metal after all lol. The only flexibility is wherever you add the joints, just like a person in that regard. Maybe you could try looking up some inspiration of how professional artists - like game designers? Concept artists? - create robots and see how they might keep it from feeling stiff. :>
What helps me is to exaggerate size and shape to make it feel organic despite being mechanical. For example, extremely thin hydraulic limbs with large extremities or vise versa. Also, maybe try including more “joints”. There are plenty of examples of individually inflexible parts coming together to form something semi-flexible (think of the solid segments of a spine, prosthetic fingers, and hinges- although the parts of each are solid, they are connected in a way that allows flexibility). This can also lend to the illusion of organic movement. Hope this helps!
For person in armour it's good to look at historical reenactment. Like "How a man shall be armed XV century" and "the Knight" videos. I'm a larper and observing knights armour helped me to fix human anatomy and proportions, especially with legs, now that i draw knees as piramids on my sketches as it's seen in armour knee plates and that helps me to figure where the leg goes, same for elbows. Drawing breastplate the way it is is also a lot better for poses then just a square. Note that breastplate is as short as a riebcage, it's just visible. I dare say that trained knights in armour are anything but square robots, they move swiftly and smoothly and the outline of a good armour is beautifully curved. It lefts possibility for lots of movement. The perfect knight's body shape is male hourglass with wide shoulders, found breast and small waist, and then hips, that helps to distribute weight more evenly, so is the silouette of an armour. I saw people doing acrobatics in their early XVI century armour replica.
As my relatives work as space robot scientists, I actually dare say that knight in armour is totally not realistic robot portrayal at all. Actual robots don't have human anatomy and proportions. What robot hands do is that they have a lot of joints and form a beautiful chain arch shape while moving, and they're quite swift also. They typically bend in inhuman way. Real robots are closer to vehicles with long manipulators, then to humans, they're bulid on purpose.
I recommend looking at actual robots.
The second one you drew it literally one of my dogs. She's a huge fat round chonker, but her legs, instead of being fat, stretched out so now I call her "The Barrel on Toothpick Legs"
depends on preferences there is no incorrect standerds, but for anottomy sake you cleverly simplified it pretty much which is great for beginners. i know people are too hyper critical these days to tutorial artists who usually goes with titles of "dont do this" but im gald i found your channel cause you elaborate on what you did.
Finally!! After so many years of research... And painful ADHD limbo I can finally say I'm learning art from a video!!
I have finally found a channel that ACTUALLY teaches art and goes straight to the point!!!
I'm self taught... But I only draw humans... Yet your way of teaching anatomy is so handy and accurate, as if a teacher is teaching me without the need to shove unrelated topics. I'm so glad I found this channel. I'm basically taking classes with you!!
Thanks for your tips, you're a hero 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨
i just found this channel today but i love what you are doing!!! i love that you are helping artists and for FREE???? thank you so much!!!!!! please keep doing what you're doing!!!!!!!!
dude i just found this channel and there's already so much to look forward to
the worst animal legs i saw was one this christmas candy dish it had this statuette of a lady reindeer on it, she had digigrad legs but human feet so there was her knee joint, ankle joint, another ankle joint then the toes joint (it looked like she had a broken calf bone)
something it fell at some point and when i fixed it i took the chance to make her legs right because had been buging me for years
Incredibly cursed
I actually just found this channel today and the first video I watched was pretty neat so I am exited for this
SAMMEEE!!
Wonderful this is helpful because I draw odd humanoid creatures and could not get the legs right. Thanks!
can’t wait for this to premiere. not very good at this cuz i’ve never drawn an animal before.
Maned wolves are so disproportionate, they are amazing
Absolutely amazing. Your videos have helped me and many other artists alot. Very appreciated
You free art tips helped me SO MUCH and my art, THANK YOU!!
Thank you for always blessing us young artists, beginners, and lost one’s with these videos helping us reach our goal for drawing
i discovered this from looking at my dogs, and other's art, but its really nice to see someone else explain it
Valeu cara, você me ajudou bastante! :3 apesar que eu não entenda oque você diga exatamente. Achei sua ilustração incrível :33.
Mano, tenta usar as legendas automáticas do yt, já ajuda bastante.
THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!!! i just discovered ur channel and ur art is amazing :0 beautiful :]
Thank you I owe you so much and learned so much from you!! Best art teacher EVER!! It's genuine so kind and sweet of you to offer all of this great knowledge for free, so THANK YOU!!
so I've been recently trying to experiment with my art and omigods, this channel is a lifesaver
These kinds of videos are very valuable resource for all of us. Thanks a bunch! Truly fantastic work.
I appreciate how you are the only person that will ever explain anatomy to me and I won’t get bored. I love it so TYSMMMMMM
Perfect! Awesome! Amazing! Dazzlous! Stupendous! Now time to figure out how to draw digitally 😃
i discovered your channel and honestly i love it!!
This has been SUPER helpful, thank you! And thank you 10x more for using birds as your sample because I've been trying to find refs. for putting bird anatomy on humans and this has been so far the best I found!
Amazing video! Covered a lot of the basic things when it comes to digitigrade legs on a human figure. One note I have, for more depth, is looking into unguligrade legs(hooved feet, like pigs, horses, deer, etc)
Unguligrade is very similar to digitigrade, yet it also has the toes off the floor as well as the heel(they walk on their toenails/hoof instead of the toes)
But yes amazing video and brings up a lot of the ignored things when it comes to legs on characters
These are extremely helpful videos, thanks!
This video helped me alot when I tried to design a rabbit/frog cryptid type creature for my art class.
That was insightful and gave me an idea seeing the scaffolding approach for the avian feet ^.^
I draw digitigrade characters a lot, even tho I might mess up to proportions sometimes I still know that it's not "backwards knees" more like an exaggerated tiptoe. works well with mammalian and some reptilian chars but I've struggled with avian ones, thankfully this video gave me some insight regarding this.
Man I love this channel! 😌 the channel is making me better!
oh wow i remember seeing part of this on the video about horns and ears and snout (like above the canvas kind of cut off)
THANK U!!! i have a siren character that is half bird and i have been struggling with how to draw her legs this helps immensely
This helped alot, thank you!
aa thank you! You're a life saver, I'm never able to get the hang of drawing hind legs and your wings tutorial helped me so much too! ❤️
Boi this should be interesting
glad I found this channel
Thanks professor this will help a lot in the future
I just found your channel and I’m binging all of your videos they are so amazing TwT and helpful !!
Really nice job. I did so stuff with MIDI/DAW/soft banks wayyy back in like 99/00 in college and was ok at it. I bought soft soft last
I do feel like plantigrade vs digitigrade is a style difference, like it doesn't hurt to do it the scientifically wrong way
well, yeah! pretty sure this video is for people who care about more realistic proportions. if you want to do anything in a more stylised or cartooney way, go for it!!
@@bathnoodles2753 oh yeah, that makes a lot more sense, I do really like the videos on this channel, they helped me do snouts a lot better
However, if your goal is to have convincing forms that move in understandable ways, then keeping anatomy in mind is very important. I always always tell young artists that want to draw people/animals of any kind in any style, learn anatomy first. Learn to do it more realistically first, so you can understand how to make it stylized while still convincing. Making a character that works like a human in every way but their feet typically caused an uncanny valley of sorts. It's humanoid, but doesn't walk right, it's creepy. Like that one chupacabra alien movie with the backwards legs.
@@bathnoodles2753 Even if you do a cartoon style, it's best to still understand anatomy. So your characters look like they can move. And if they do, they move in ways that make sense. That way it isn't so uncanny to the viewer. Unless your goal is to creep out the audience by how the character either doesn't look like it could move, or that it's constantly in pain if it did.
I watched some cartoons where the movement of the characters was painful to watch, because either the story board artists or the animators didn't understand how human bodies moved. They didn't understand how arms move around a shoulder, or how the body should move when people walk, ect.
That's why I always tell young or aspiring artists to learn anatomy. If you want to draw something with anatomy, try to understand that anatomy first.
@@botarakutabi1199 if youre just a hobbyist u can really do whatever u want
Needed this to confirm. Thanks.
this is EXTREMELY helpful thank you so much
This was actually really helpful! Thank you!
I will be honest, I will probably never use this because I like to go by my own rules (😅), but this is certainly very informative and helpful for those who need it, and your art style is absolutely stunning!!!! 😊😊😊💖💖💖
I hope you learned the rules before breaking! I’m not trying to be mean, this advice just follows me now lol, first learn the rules of art before you break ‘em!
Short but super helpful thx man 😙
Now try draw half-arachnid humans, PLEASE, I saw WAY too many anatomy inaccuracies and I hope you'll be able to fix that.
This helped a whole lot! I had this man-bird hibrid character for some years now and I always struggled a lot on how to make his legs, because I just didn't know how to apply bird legs to a person
Will this video talk about 4-legged people not like centaurs like a spider?
Very helpful, thanks^^
This premiers at 1am for me and I’ve got school tomorrow so I’ll have to watch it when I wake up :< even sadder because I’ve got a few OC’s with animal (mostly bird) legs.
Thanks! This helped me a lot
Funfact: While bird bones are hollow, they are also denser. This means their weight actually equals out. Also, they aren't nearly as fragile as people think. Their bones are just designed for torsion forces experienced because of flight and not blunt force from direct impact.
I love how informational this is! I don't draw nor have I been watching any drawing videos so colour me surprised seeing this on my feed. Now I wanna try drawing...Specifically Drawing atomically correct Anthropomorphic Creatures.
sheesh love your clean lineart
Both plantigrade and digitigrade could anatomically function, depending on several factors. Neither is unrealistic (though obviously a drawing that literally removes the "foot"/"heel" is gonna have issues), it just depends on what exactly the creature/person is getting out of it.
Generally speaking, digitigrade legs are better for moving very fast- since they use the heel/foot as an extra point of leverage and push themselves with just the toes/paws. But that form of movement is alot less stable and energy efficient, making it not as good for long distance travel or endurance- plantigrade is much better for both of those things, as evidenced by our evolutionary specialization as endurance hunters. Kangaroos are weird because they get around by jumping, which is entirely different from both of those forms of movement. Though they stand plantigrade, when hopping around their legs are in a digitigrade position- in essence they are using the ludicrous leverage of their longass feet to push off as a digitigrade animal would, but at such high speed that they "stride" through the air and lose contact with the ground entirely since they do it with both legs at once.
But, when speaking in terms of fictional anthropomorphic animal people, just about any of these could work out anatomically. Whether its regular human-like plantigrade legs and feet- just with puffy clawed toebeans instead of toes- or more "realistic" digitigrade legs with the more pronounced heel/foot joint and heavier proportions.
I learned so much more from her channel then I do in science class, and almost any art class I’ve ever taken.
this really helped, considering my character is half deer i never really knew how to draw animal feet and legs, but this video helped alot
Glad to hear this video helped you! Let us know if there's any other content you'd like to see.
AAAAA I NEED THIS TO PREMIERE
Hey for your next video can you do how to draw hair I struggle so hard on how to draw hair many short hair on guys and girls and so far the videos that I have watched have helped a lot
Great video!
Awesome video thanks 😎
I learn alot to your video's so I thank you, for this lesson.
something i really like doing with avian legs is just exaggerating the joints in the heels a bunch. it makes them look a little daintier and its just kinda fun to do
I'm so glad I randomly found you on my home page!
Interesting, this is useful information
Such wisdom
To the art playlist you go! =D
very helpfull!
one of my friends suggested to watch this channel and I admit I had tons of dought about it but I was mistaken. these videos are good I've only seen 2 though
Thank you!
Thanks so much ♡
This was a very helpful tutorial, but I’m still having trouble drawing hooves and learning the anatomy. Can you do a tutorial branching from this one that explains the basics of hooves and paw pad proportions? And also one about how to add extra limbs to a anatomy, like extra arms on the body or legs?
Also, I love your tutorials! They explain a lot of the anatomy and proportions for what you are drawing/going off of.
You are good at this. Not even I am this good, and I am still learning.
Thanks I’ve needed help when making Animals legs
I was drawing these kind of legs in art class once for a character I had, it's fun drawing it like digitigrade. I wish my art class actually taught something though
Thanks so much I just happen to be drawing an anthro cartoon rabbit and was struggling with the legs
those "don't do" drawings are literally 20 times better and more proportional dogs than I can do
The fluffy boi, it’s so cute😭
this is awesome
2:51 Rabbits are also plantigrade! they follow similar body structure as kangaroos, but their front feet are more digitigrade but not by much as they often use them as hands/balancers then feet they will balance on their hands/paws to take a step
Hi! I would just like to say thank you for making these tutorials, I am so glad I found your channel! They have been super easy to digest and honestly more informative than a lot of my art lessons at school! I can’t wait to put what I’ve learnt to practice, I just have to finish my exams and get over art block first :”]
I always thought of plantigrade animal characters as just their foot was just shorter like humans are, so idk if I wouldn't say it would be removing a joint, more of shortening a part that's attached to the joint. Oh and I'm kinda curious about in regards to birds that don't have hollow bones, as there are some like penguins, loons, and puffins. And I now also am curious about other reptilian creatures like the crocodilian family or amphibians, lizards, etc, heck even arthropods(animals with exoskeletons).
@Winged Canvas can you maybe do hoof legs like for goats and sheep and rams cus in trying to draw a ram oc but idk how to draw hooves
I just wanna say that I truly love your videos and I appreciate all the time and effort you put into making these for us. As an inspiring artist, and just someone who likes to draw for fun. Having videos like that this that are easy to understand and can instantly help with the technicality of my art is suuuper helpful. You da best, thank you
Instantly subscribing you’re funny and educational
depends on the look you're going for, you can do the whole leg, but just the foot and stylize it, like I do, if it's bunny, big feet, if it's a dog, not so much, depends on the look you're going for
I needed this🙃
Second vud I'm watching. I already subbed and and I think ure now on of my favorite art tutorial ytbers. THE CONTENT IS SO GOOD AAAA
Fr I feel like I was the only one that didn’t do the straight legs in my class, though i still need practicing to actually be good at it. Thanks for the tips, ya earned a sub!