Anatomy tips
I summarized all of my work on anatomy (specifically human, animal, and anthro anatomy), and here are my main four tips that I have learned and used that helped my anatomy and art over the years!
Anatomy art tips details
1. Tracing real life photos.
I always ensured that I NEVER traced another artist's work, so I practiced tracing photos instead. I also ONLY traced photos for practice, not for finished art pieces. That said, one of my favorite things is to take pictures of myself to trace for practice or to reference since all the photos will be from me.
For traditional art, I would trace images of people in magazines or photos I would print. This helped me understand the sizing of the face and proportions of the body better and taught me to make my drawings fit the page better instead of drawing too small or too big.
2. Using references.
I drew from references for a long time but encountered a problem as I realized I depended on references and couldn't draw well without one. I focused on why I needed the reference photo and tried to learn what I needed from it so the next time I drew a hand or specific pose, I wouldn't need a reference photo anymore. You want to ensure you learn from the reference instead of just tracing it with your eye so you can draw without it next time. (Also, do not be too picky when choosing a reference photo as it's best to have a storge of them saved to avoid wasting time looking for references.)
3. Practice drawing with no reference.
I later realized I didn't understand what I was drawing because I relied on references too much, so I challenged myself to hardly use reference photos for an entire year. Drawing that long without references was extreme, but it helped immensely. I am now much more confident in my drawing abilities, and when I went back to using references, everything was a breeze compared to before.
If you practice drawing with no reference, it forces you to pay attention to everything you are drawing, so the image will be coming from you instead of an outside source. I have much more creative freedom now that I don't depend on references as much since I am no longer confined to the pictures I am referencing. Limiting my use of references helped me create more original art and draw faster, as I can now instantly start drawing since I understand anatomy and my art style better!
4. Practice breaking down and memorizing the shapes of anatomy.
During all of these steps, I broke down the whole figure into large shapes while also staying focused on the shape of the entire figure so as not to mess up the proportions. I focused on the general shape of the whole figure before adding details, as this saves time not having to fix the structure after adding details and helps with placing details in the correct locations! (I can't tell you how many times I've drawn a good eye on a face, but it was in the wrong place, so I had to erase it. Drawing a rough outline of the entire drawing saves that time that would have been wasted). Once you know the general feel and shape of body parts and how they connect and move together, you can draw any pose or action shot you want!
Extra about art style
I worked for years on getting the feel of anatomy and placement, and I will always be working on them to continue to improve. The more that you draw, study or look at something, the easier it will be to remember it and then repeat it!
Also, for different styles, you can use a warp tool or just move lines to get the style you want and experiment with different proportions and looks. Cartoon styles are usually a lot more exaggerated than what is actually physically possible, but by starting with the core of anatomy and then just exaggerating the basics will make things a lot easier. The more you draw, the more you will get the feel for body movements and dynamic poses along with what is possible as far as how joints work and the curves of the body and how people or animals stand and move.
Developing my art style
I always liked really detailed, more realistic art, as it clicked for me. I started off drawing just animals and humans, with all of my characters being plain animals, but I always felt like my art and characters could be more. This dissatisfaction started my journey to find my style!
developing my art style
1. My first style
The first image is the first drawing I ever did of my OC Athanatos around March 2021. I did not use a reference to draw this, hoping that would help me find my style, but instead, I was frustrated as I could not draw how I wished. At this point, Athanatos was supposed to be just an average-looking cat, anatomy-wise. I knew I wanted to do something different and unique. I liked both animal and human anatomy, but I did not know how to execute the look I wanted and I had not figured out how I wanted my species for my book series, Plaster-Saints, to look yet.
2. My animal style
After a bit of work on my style, this was the following style I developed, and my next version of drawing Athanatos. I drew this around June of 2021. At this point, I decided to draw cats, making my characters as realistic as possible to real cats because I thought making my own species' anatomy would be too difficult. Once I achieved this, I still was not satisfied because I knew deep down I wanted to create something different, even if it would be much more difficult. That made me realize I wanted my characters to have human aspects, leading me down the road of studying anthropomorphic, humanoid, alien species looks.
3. My anthro style
I slowly started morphing my characters to look more human-like, as they were still cats, but they now stood on two legs, looking more like furry characters. This was my more anthropomorphic style as my characters still looked very animal-like as they did not have hair on their head like humans, were completely covered in fur, and had long muzzle-like faces. They did have more human-shaped bodies, but they were still very animal-looking. At this point, I was a lot happier, and I felt like I was finally heading in the direction I wanted to go. This drawing of Athanatos was from January 2022.
4. Finding my style
I continued studying furry and anthro styles and started developing my species for my book series, Plaster-Saints, more. All of my characters and planets are technically alien planets and humanoid species, so I realized I should make my species their own unique build and look since they are technically aliens. I then started trying to develop my own more alien look and species instead of drawing a more furry or anthro look. During this time, drawing my characters was very difficult as I knew I wanted them to look like a mix of animals and humans, but I did not know what ratio yet. I did not know what parts of the anatomy I wanted to keep more animal vs more human and I struggled to develop my style away from classic furry and anthro styles.
5. My humanoid style
I then noticed a scale, with Zootopia characters being more on the animal side of the spectrum as they are animals that stand on two legs, but aliens in Marvel are on the more human side as they look entirely human, just with green skin, a tail, and pointy ears. I finally realized where I wanted my species to fall on the spectrum, and after much work, my characters finally started looking how I wanted them to appear as I figured out their basic anatomy.
The lower half of all my humanoids is more animal-like, but the upper half is more human. My species have a human-looking torso with human arms and hands, a human-shaped head, and general proportions, but crazy legs. This includes goat legs, bent anthrocat legs with paws, pointed spider-like legs, and more.
But then... The face. This took me the longest to get right, and I am still working on it. They have a human-shaped skull and general proportions but a more animal-inspired tip to the nose, mouth details, and ears. All of my characters also have heads of hair like humans or something similar to hair on their heads.
6. My current style
I am still working on my art style for my characters, and I will always be working to improve. Still, I am definitely more confident and comfortable in my character's anatomy and species designs. Generally, the proportions are still very human, but I like getting creative, making my characters fit the fact that they are aliens from all across the universe. For example, my characters often have a short layer of fur or scales, exoskeletons, etc. (I also like giving characters multiple arms for bug creatures, wings, tails, etc. depending on their species).
Hard work and putting in the time and effort to study anatomy and art definitely helped me the most. I was constantly asking myself what I wanted my characters to look like and what I wanted my art to be, which helped me develop my characters into what I always dreamed for them to be.