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?

Actually, even I have found myself doing the same thing at least once in my life as a n00b (pardon my terminology for those who despise the word). But, for the life of me, I can’t remember why I labeled it that way.

But my question is “why?”

I doubt that it’s a crutch to make up for their inability to properly show age in their art.

Really, without much to work with, I wildly speculate two possibilities:

1. It may have something to do with the fact that most n00bs are kids, and that their personal identity, as well as the identity of personas they would create, would be defined by what they find most salient about themselves… especially at ages when every year difference is a big thing. or…
2. It might be a natural tendency towards making systematic lists, as in school systems. Maybe they tend towards making lists of characters complete with descriptive data that would belong in a personal file such as birthday, location, etc…

I dunno. Those are the ideas I have about that matter as of the moment. Either way, I figure it’s because of social influences that our culture presses on the budding artist.

Does it reflect their level of knowing a person? Only by their age and height and place of origin? I don’t want to lament over the signs of societal decline just yet, but it’s a thought, right?

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.

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.

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.

The inner part of the knee joint is where the thigh bone (the femur) and the larger lower leg bone (the tibia) meet. The femur and tibia are kept apart from each other by pads of fat and fluid but are attached to each other by ligaments and by the muscles that extend along the length of the thigh and the lower leg. The bones, the pads, the muscles and how they’re arranged in relation to each other all contribute to its shape:

1. The Quadriceps (picture) is a set of four muscles named according to their size and location: Vastus Lateralis, Vastus Intermedius, Vastus Medialis and the Rectus Femoris. They wrap around the front of the thigh and are attached to a shared tendon that wraps around the kneecap (patella) which then attaches to the front of the tibia. The Vastus Medialis, which can be found in the inner part, contributes to the bulk of the inner side of the knee.
2. Notice the two bulging ends at the bottom of the femur. These are called called epicondyles. (“epi” meaning “over”, and condyles referring to where two bones slide against/hinge with each other). Take a look at how the medial (inner) epicondyle is considerably larger than the lateral (outer) epicondyle. This relative size of the medial epicondyle of the femur also contributes to the bulk of the inner side of the knee.
3. The hamstring muscles are muscles at the back of the thigh (opposite to the Quadriceps in location and action). They’re made up of the Biceps Femoris on the outer side, and the semitendinosus and the semimembranosus on the inner side. The semitendinosus and semimembranosus on the inner side contribute to the buldge.
4. The thighs and knees (especially the inner side) are also places where fat deposits are abundant, especially in women, contributing to the bulge.

* – note that I’ve used the terms “inner” and “outer” to refer to the more anatomically accepted terms “medial” and “lateral”. Please refer to the anatomical terms of location page as I will use standard terms from now on in an effort to achieve clarity (and expand my readers’ vocabulary).

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 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.