Name and Age here

This is my first non-drawing article.

True, I’m a little interested in manga as an artform, though I haven’t actually found myself reading any manga in a long time except for those moments when Lan recommended me some manga to read.

I’ve been wondering: I’ve seen a lot of people draw manga characters. Some of them are n00bs. Totally. But beyond n00b bashing about how badly they draw, I notice that they love to make drawings of certain characters (sometimes characters from the little seeds of stories that they make up) and then label their drawing with the character’s name and age.

As a psychologist, I wonder. Why do they do that?

That leg: how long is it?

I was browsing through my deviant watches today when I saw this one drawing (beautifully CGed) but I noticed that while it might have been aesthetically pleasing to some people, the leg length was kind of disturbing to me.

Sure, the trend might be that long legs are beautiful, but there’s a certain point where it starts to look unnatural and weird.

Then an idea struck me; a way to possibly quickly determine the approximately proportionate-looking length of legs.

In hindsight, it has kind of a right-under-your-nose obviousness to it, but by all means, this is the first time I’ve actually thought of it this way:

Given a pose, if one were to imagine the leg hinging upward parallel to the upright torso (hinging shown in orange), on average, the knee would be near the top of the arm but would not shoot past the shoulder.

I’m sure this can vary from person to person. I’m not in any position to give exact measurements… but I suspect that this is a pretty reliable and easy method to check for realistically plausible leg length when drawing poses that aren’t too heavily foreshortened.

It goes without saying that this doesn’t apply to the styles that intentionally distort limb proportions.

Happy New Year Yes

It’s a new year… and I’ve come to realize that it’s almost completely useless in most cases to say that the thumb reaches halfway past the long bone of the index finger… since… well, most hand positions would have its alignment too different to show its actual length in the flat position..

A little Wikipedia for your thoughts

I’ve spent a number of years drawing with a manga-spirited style virtually exclusively and while I continue my journey towards flexibility, I have also spent a considerable amount of time trying to study real proportions, sometimes reaching a point where I gather a collection of pictures and make the measurements myself.

I think I’m not alone when I say that I have never thought to look in Wikipedia.
But wouldn’t you know it? It has a neat little list right there.

At the time of posting though, it seems that the article is still being debated upon. No citations. Nothing in-depth. But I can attest that the proportions placed there are consistent with what I’ve read in many books.

Da Vinci’s Virtuvian Man might prove to be something more authoritative though possibly less accurate in realistic terms.

That inner thigh bulge

I really don’t mean to sound like a creepy perv… but on a number of observations on several occasions, I’ve always noticed this one bulge a little above the knee. It’s more visible from behind and it’s located on the inner part of the thigh. (I think I might have drawn it a little too high) It’s even visible when you’re looking at the leg from an outward angle from behind.

I’m still not sure if it’s just a muscle or has some bone and fat involved. One thing’s for sure, it’s a very prominent feature of the leg.

Loomis seems to identify it as the sartorius, but from what I recall from comparative anatomy, and what I read from Wikipedia, the sartorius is a very thin strap of muscle. It couldn’t possibly cause a bulge like that. If anything, the sartorius probably wraps around whatever it really is.

I have a hunch that it’s mostly just the vastus medialis… but it might not be as simple as that. Or it might not be it at all. Anyway, the point is that it’s there. I’ll update this post when I find out what this is.

Double Edit (2/27/2010), (6/15/2010):

After over a year and some thorough studying of human anatomy, I think I’m a bit more qualified to identify what causes this bulge.

Of course, from the perspective of a person concerned with only a little more than how this “inner thigh bulge” looks, it might be enough to measure it across different people and get its typical size, shape, proportion and location.

For other people still, it might suffice to know that it’s there so you can begin to pay attention to it. Knowing that it’s there at all can go a long way in helping you study it yourself.

As for the people who are interested, allow me to explain in the most concise way possible:

Legs, much like arms, are comprised of many structures: bone, muscle, fat, connective tissue and the necessary vessels and nerves to sustain their structure and activity.

Of tibiae and fibulae

I was in a line with this one girl in front of me yesterday. She was skinny and she wore pants that ran down only until her calves.

Nerdy thought.

I noticed the inner protuberances near the ankle (since I was looking downward after all) were more forward than the outer protuberances.

UPDATE:

Apparently, the inner protuberance, also called the medial malleolus,  is the lower edge of the tibia (shin bone), which is largely located in front of the leg;

while the outer protuberance, also called the lateral malleolus, is the lower edge of the fibula which is buried a little deeper in the leg muscles but is nearer the back and the outer edge of the leg.

You’ll notice here that the inner protuberance is also lower than the outer. This is also what’s normally noted in art books.

The female thorax

The ribcage greatly defines the size and shape of the thorax of the human figure.

The ribcage has two main openings. The larger opening at the bottom is called the outlet. The smaller opening around the top is called the inlet.

The opening of the inlet kinda slopes downward as it goes forward… so if you look at the ribcage from the front, you could see the back part of the inside… kinda like the collar of a V-neck shirt.

According to accomplished portrait painter John Raynes, “In females, the thorax is generally smaller, actually and proportionately, to the rest of the body, and the slope of the inlet is greater.“

I wonder if this has any bearing on how low the clavicle is in the human figure. I’ll have to update you guys on that in the future.