argh

[ratcreature]

How is it that you can have a reference photo, then draw a body with a limb exactly in that position, and then in your picture it looks completely contorted or deformed and as if there was no way for it to work like that? I mean, of course I realize that the trick to drawing (whether from life or photography) is to create a believable 2D abstraction, but this limb thing is just unfair.

Comments

[goss]

OMG I have that issue with foreshortening. It just looks *wrong* when I draw it, but sometimes I hold the drawing up to the mirror and then suddenly it kinda makes sense. :b

[ratcreature]

Yes, it seems worst with foreshortened limbs. Though for the hand I'm trying to draw the non-foreshortened part actually looked weirdest, but the foreshortened arm is obnoxious too. I've actually now managed to mostly make the hand look non-deformed by posing myself similar to the reference but slightly clearer, and photographing myself (in a mirror, these are the moments I wish for roommates to exploit) but the arm looks still odd.

I suspect this works similar to the effect that you can copy a face from a screenshot faithfully (even going with a grid and everything or even tracing) but the portrait ends up looking odd, especially at a lineart stage, and ends up less recognizable than a chibi caricature.

[astridv]

Yeah, the only way you can copy a reference photo is pretty much making an exact copy, like down to a fraction of a millimeter. As soon as you diverge from the source even a tiny bit, you have to go all the way. I find the best way is to use the photo just as a sort of prompt to build a 3D-model in my head, and then work off that 3D model rather than the photo. It's much more flexible and once you got a bit of practice it's actually easier. (I don't know if that makes sense.)

[ratcreature]

Unfortunately my spatial imagination is often not up to the task. I usually end up scribbling around on paper, more or less vaguely inspired by various references, until I arrive at something that doesn't look too wrong and mangled. And it would help if hands weren't so complicated. They just have too many parts... (I know why I like cartoon hands with just three fingers better!)