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This is a weblog of one person's multi-year quest to write, draw, and publish a graphic novel. This is my story: my trials, tribulations, successes and failures. -- Robert Stradley, Weekend Artist

2006  Anatomy

Don’t confuse Manga and Realistic Anatomy
OMG.  Don’t ever do what I did.  Never ever ever confuse Manga anatomy with reality.  I spent a month studying and drawing anatomy from the Manga books before I discovered that they don’t match anything else. Even the skeletons are modified to fit the style of Manga.  Legs are half again as long or even double what is real. Even heads and torsos are out of scale.  Aaaaargh!

Looking back, I see that even the Marvel, DC, and Wizard books are stylized for superheroes.  I guarantee that 8 heads tall is the exception, that the average muscles for a male superhero in comics would bind him up to immobility, and that the wasp-waisted  large breasted superheroines’ figures with supershero strength and agility are figments of adolescent male fantasies. 

As for the twisted Hogarthian positions in which current artists place their characters, well, all I can say is: “Give me strength.”  Bruce Lee would have laughed himself silly at an opponent in some of those fighting positions—then cold cock the idiot. 

If you are serious about anatomy, go to the originals:  Bridgeman’s Guide if you can get a copy.  Loomis if you are short cash, since his 5 books are free on-line.   If you want different cultural body types look at Allen [English], Bammes [German], and Zrzavy [Slavic]. 

After studying them I was able to answer the following questions: 

1. How wide is an average neck and where does it really connect to the skull?
2. Where are the ears really located in profile and front view, and how do they rotate as the head is raised or lowered? 
3. What the heck are all the different lines drawn on bodies, nominally showing muscles, but none of them the same? 
4. How tall is the average person and how long are the legs of anyone who is not a supermodel? 
5. How does a character age in face and body from child to adult to old age? 

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Zen and the Art of Comics
I referred to Zen state in an earlier post.  What is it and why am I babbling about it? 

The best description of it is by Betty Edwards in “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.”  [The book is a bit out of date on neuroscience, but it has great descriptions of what actually happens when artists do art.]  Basically, over the centuries there were a great many inscrutable statements made by artists about what they are doing.  Examples such as “the mind’s eye,”  “stream of consciousness,” “the artist’s eye,” or the ever popular art teacher’s comment: “are you getting it?”  All of which I’ve encountered.

The short version is that, when doing art, many artists drop into Zen state.  The scientific explanation is that artists work primarily in the right side of the brain, with the analytical left side temporarily blocked by some unknown control mechanism of the corpus callosum.  For comics creation, the ability to draw in Zen state greatly enhanced my ability to work without interruption, analysis, or the need to correct.  Basically it allowed me to draw what I see, not what I know.  [I’ve gone inscrutable, let me try again.]   

Zen state allowed me to see clearly what I am drawing, bypassing the symbologies inherent in my grammar school art education.  This was particularly true when I attempted to draw faces – the left brained symbologies of eye, nose, ear, and hair continually inhibited me from drawing what was real.  I was stuck in the 1970’s here’s-the-shortcut-symbol used by Marvel artists for an eye, and I couldn’t actually draw the darn thing. 

If you find yourself “phasing out” while you are drawing, and you don’t respond to Mom/Wife/Significant Other calling you to take out the trash, you’re probably in Zen state.  This is a Good Thing, not a Bad Thing.  Enjoy it, use it, and if you can, get control of it.  It is a powerful tool in the Artist’s arsenal.  

Friends, lend me your ears
I have reached a tentative conclusion:  one can be a Friend or one can be an Artist, but not both at the same time. 

For me it went something like this: 
The Weekend Artist:  I’m designing a character and I’m using you as my inspiration. 
Friend:  Oh wonderful.  Let me see your sketches. 
Former Friend: [screams of agony.] I look like that? You unprintable  obscenity.  [stalks out in a huff.]

It appears that Artists rarely have close friends.  When we are drawing, we see clearly.  We see what is there, not what a person sees as himself.  Large butt, small chest, skinny arms, big nose, floppy ears or whatever. 

A few examples:

• My wonderful wife and Kelly McGillis have the same facial structure.  Does she see it?  No.
• Your brother looks like George Kennedy.  If he fancies himself as a tough guy, he’ll be pleased.  If thinks he’s Adonis, he’ll slug you. 
• If your sister looks like George Kennedy, DO NOT TELL HER SO! 

So if you are using your friends as action models, tell them it is just to help in laying out the pages and for expressions.  [It does help, by the way.  Use the light table or put them on a separate layer on your computer for sketching.]  If you are going to draw your friends into the series make sure you draw them as the most beautiful/handsome, strong, intelligent superheroes on the planet.   Or be prepared to spend a lot of time alone. 

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