Drawing the Head of an Anthro
To be honest, it's difficult for me to explain the drawing process. Everyone tends to draw differently from each other. Some people are very structured. I am not. I have a rather intuitive approach to drawing. It works for me, but has many drawbacks, one of which is that it's difficult to describe how I get to the end-result.
The most important aspect of drawing anything is observation. Even if you're drawing something imaginary, there are many "real" things that can contribute to your understanding of what you are trying to create.
When trying to draw an anthro of a "real" animal, pay attention to details that make that animal reconizable for what it is. A tiger isn't a tiger just because of its stripes. Many animals have stripes. Tigers also have large round heads, smallish round ears and heavy paws. It's the secondary details that help mark your creation as more "real." Look at lots of pictures. Google is great for searching for pics on certain species. If you're really into hoofed animals, the best guide to them online is Ultimate Ungulate. Check it out.
Okay. I've got some examples as to how I construct heads. Not sure
how helpful it is to you, but since lots of folks have asked me what
I do, here it is.
This
is the basic premise of how I draw. I try to break things into very
basic shapes.
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I always start with a circle for the skull part of the head. |
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I add a sort of rectangle-ish shape for the muzzle. This is going to be more a profile pic of a generic dog/husky/canine thing. |
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I added a fluffy cheek-ruff to the left of the bottom of the muzzle and sort of smoothed out where the muzzle meets the head. |
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An eye and a suggestion of where the muzzle meets the face. |
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More details in the eye and I've added the beginning of a smile. |
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Notice that the ears aren't on top of the head? They're kind of behind the eyes. I added a nose and eyebrows, too. He's pretty much done. There are more details I could add to make him more interesting, but he's just a generic little canine guy. :) |
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Same
principal goes for a front view of the face. |
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I kind of center the features creating an equilateral triangle. |
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Here are all the features together. You can kind of imagine an "X" going through the face, creating features that are symmetrical. The more symmetry your character's face has, the more handsome/beautiful they will generally be. |
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See, here's the "X" at more of an angle. |
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The muzzle has dimension. Try to imagine the other side that you can't see. It helps draw the part that you can see. |
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See... the ears are more behind the eyes rather than at the top of the head (usually). |
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Here's a little skull.... It can help sometimes to remember the bone and muscle structure underneath. Personally, I don't rely on it too much... but sometimes it helps a lot! If you know that there is a bone somewhere, you'll draw the correct angle and put things where they belong correctly. |
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More of a narrow muzzle. I tend to use more of a human shape for my eyes. That's a personal preference. For me, anthros are a smooth blend of the human and the animal. But the eyes are human because I try to show a human-like intelligence. That's my personal preference. There are many kinds of intelligence in the world: some are animal, some "monster", some "angel"... some I'm sure I've never heard of before... |
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Horses are no mystery. They are like drawing canines, only the nose is blockier and longer. Looking at actual pictures of horses is very helpful. Horses are as different as humans in "face" structure. I tend to simplify things with my horses... whether this is right or wrong, I'm still not sure. I am still learning about drawing horses and how to capture their nature on paper. One tip I can definately pass on is to remember that horses often have very graceful, arched necks. It's part of what makes them so beautiful. |
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Kangaroos' and antelope's faces can be seen as sort of a cross between a horse and a canine. Many animals have these kinds of faces. I've already mentioned roos and antelopes... but llamas, camels, cows, deer and other long faced animals have similar looks to their faces. Some of them have larger, softer noses, some have fuzzy noses. It's good to take a look online at actual pictures. Memories are almost always faulty. |
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Large cats tend to have "heavy" faces with rounded features and shorter muzzles. |
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Muzzles can be stretched into points or beaks. It's the same principal as all the other creatures... only a triangle works in place of the rectangle I use to create the muzzle. |
Remember:
