Anatomy is hard

[Random_Guy]

What part of human/animal anatomy do you struggle the most with?
Personally, I always have difficulty with the head.

I can just never seem to get the shape and shading right.

[vothnthorvaldson]

Hands. And it's not only because they are technically a difficult part. It's also because for some reason, I struggle imagining hands positions. I can imagine how, let's say, a nose will look at weird angles, or how a leg will look if it's coming front etc but I have difficulty imagining hands in positions that make sense.
I always end up having to look at mine (which explain why all my characters have brachydactyly because I have the conditon).

[phoenixrenaissance]

It's my goal to learn how legs attach to waists this year and the general crotchal region. You'd think I'd have figured it out after drawing 18+ art for years now but I still feel clueless.

[Random_Guy]

It is way harder than it looks, I know.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

It's my goal to learn how legs attach to waists this year and the general crotchal region. You'd think I'd have figured it out after drawing 18+ art for years now but I still feel clueless.

Oh, what always helps me with that is just sketching people in "bathing suits". I'm not really sure why...probably the line connecting the outside of the hips to the inner thigh, I guess? Somehow it guides my eye better.

Anyway, personally I'm pretty comfortable with human anatomy...but since the OP mentioned animals, horse legs are driving me up the wall currently. I haven't actually gotten a lot of practice time in yet, though...^^;

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Where the shoulders and neck connect, and the hips and legs connect are my two biggest problem areas.

[Iris-Grimoire]

Horse, more than most anatomy, needs to be reduced to 3D shapes to really get. It's not just about proportions, but learning where the elongated wrists and forearms actually connect to each other and all the strange bends the legs do is just too time consuming through photo study alone.

I have a lot of little problems honestly. Sometimes it's hands, sometimes it's heads, most of the time it's the crotch but from not having much practice; but my biggest problem is always body parts seen from above. Haven't been able to make a head looking up be in any way enjoyable to look at.

[IndigoShirtProd]

Drawing the muscles just right and feet are my biggest struggle right now. Feet look deceptively easy to draw, but are a little more complicated than that. And placing the muscles correctly and know where to exaggerate them is a lofty task.

[Random_Guy]

Right, here we go:

I took a bit of a shot, it definitely needs improvement but I'm working on it.

[phoenixrenaissance]

That... makes so much sense. I'll give it a try. Thanks.

[Cavechan]

I want to get better at drawing masculine bodies and muscles... MUSCLES.

Maybe I shouldn't have spent all my time sketching naked women.

[Random_Guy]

I think it looks... okay? He's not even really meant to be muscular but I'm a dumb#ss.
Any thoughts on that stupid head?

[kurakart]

Bruh, the head's fine. Stop overthinking this.

[kurakart]

Time to spend all your time drawing naked musclebois!

[kitschensyngk]

Hands are the hardest things for me to draw, as I'm sure they are for most everyone else here.

I've learned a tip to drawing them, however:

Using your fingers, measure the distance from the chin to the tip of your nose. That is about the same length from your wrist to where your fingers begin. The whole hand is almost twice that length.

[unknown_user]

Feet... and, suddenly, intimate parts.

Besides, sometimes I struggle to make a face of the character to keep the same features, when I draw it from different angle. From some angles, it looks like a face of different person, and I don't know how to fix it.

[AbelDraws]

Most parts of the body give me trouble more often than not but, seriously, I never get to draw the breasts right. I don't mean boobs in naked bodies (which I can't get right either shdjkgkh), I mean boobs in any drawing, with casual clothes or whatever. I always have to spend extra time getting them more or less right, I'm the most useless lesbian to ever be.

I've taken a look at many tutorials, but they still don't look decent until I've redrawn the whole chest a couple times. I think I'll just need to stop being a lazy butt and get to practice by doing nude studies x'D.

I also need to learn proper anatomy and study at least a bit of how the muscles/bone structures in our bodies work together. Do you guys recommend any books about this that's easy to follow?

[darthmongoose]

I also need to learn proper anatomy and study at least a bit of how the muscles/bone structures in our bodies work together. Do you guys recommend any books about this that's easy to follow?

Figure Drawing for All its Worth by Loomis is a very well-respected book on the subject, even though it's a little old fashioned and...err... leans a teeny bit sexist here and there... It's free because it's so old and you can grab a PDF.

I've always found that there are a lot of really good tutorials on Pinterest and Tumblr too, and they're cool because you can see loads of different approaches and find what works for you. I like stuff like this one:

Pin by Katherine Holden on Painting Tutorials and Reference | Drawing tips,...

And the nice thing with Pinterest is you'll probably find more good ones in the "similar images" under it too.

[Pandastrophic]

Just making bodies look natural and not stiff/awkward and getting everything in proportion... an ongoing issue with my art is that I always draw the head too big, when I scan my pencil lineart I notice it! I don't notice most anatomy mistakes it at all when I'm drawing on paper.

I've been trying to dedicate a few hours every week for anatomy drawing, although it's hard to be consistent with it, it's one of the things I've very self-conscious about because I've been drawing for so long and I should be better at anatomy than I am right now.

[AbelDraws]

Thanks a lot I'll take a look at it tonight