Who else avoids feet?

[dglisson]

Hey everyone! I was reading a lot of the webcomics on my list and I realized, there is a real shortage of legs and feet in webcomics! It seems like artists pick the poses and angles that have the least chance of showing legs and feet pretty consistently, I looked back at my own work and realized that I certainly fall into that category.

Of course, I could use a lot of excuses, not a lot of exciting foot action going on in my comics, etc., but of course the real reason that I avoid all those angles so much is, well, I suck at drawing feet.

So just curious if there's any other creators out there who are willing to step forward and admit that, "Yes, I have a problem, I fear feet and that's why I don't draw them".

There's no shame in it! Welcome to Feet Anonymous!

[Koffyhouse]

seeing this just makes me realize how often i draw my protagonist's feet. haha he is always jumping, laying or sitting on something

[nattbear]

Well I don't avoid drawing it, but I admit I'm a little uncomfortable doing feet. I always must dig for good photos of shoes and angles and etc... I didint have the chance to do a looot o feet yet, but maybe when I draw some action scenes....

[AnnaLandin]

I don't fear feet, and I try to make sure to draw full-body shots (including all limbs and irksome toes) at least every couple of pages - it's just that a lot of the time my shots are focused on people's faces and what they're doing with their hands. It would take some serious contortionism to get the feet in there too. XD

[dglisson]

See that's awesome if you don't suffer from this problem and create varied angles! You get a cookie.

[keii4ii]

While avoiding feet is bad, forcing them in there at the expense of composition is one of my pet peeves. It's one of the reasons why I hated doing full body commissions so much. Some pictures naturally come out full body; others really work much better if you cut it off at mid-thigh, etc.

[dglisson]

I definitely agree! I want to make sure I'm clear, I'm not talking about "Hey, let's swing the pendulum the other way and make weird contortions!" I'm talking about going through entire chapters without a single shot (even if there's action) that shows full body or lower body, I think that can be a sure sign of foot-phobia

For an example of what I would consider to be well-balanced, I went through an Image comic I've been reading lately and in one issue, I found 26 panels where a character's feet were visible. I'd say it was about 25% of the comic and I never thought they were shoe-horned in, it as just the artist making sure that they used all sorts of exciting and awesome angles to show action and to spice up characters walking up and down the halls and talking.

[TrustyShamrock]

yeah i dont got a problem with them. but now that i think about it i dont think i draw them tooo much. probably just cuz theres no reason i gotta do a full body shot tho.
but sometimes when i do a full body shot i cut it off in the middle of the shin cuz if i drew the feet then id hafta draw what theyre standing on so id hafta add a backround and its a whole can of worms that im not always up for haha

[ConradComics]

I'll admit it: I have a problem with drawing feet, especially shod feet. Our feet grow wider as you move toward the toes, yet we have pointed-toe shoes. It's madness!

With that said, I challenge myself to include a panel of feet, shod or bare, every episode. I will eventually overcome this problem.

So, yes, I have a problem, I fear feet, but that's why I draw them on purpose.

[Koffyhouse]

Yay i get cookies! Haha

[dglisson]

I admire you! You admit you have a problem and you're trying to fix it.

You get a cookie too!

[Shanny8]

Within the last year I began liking the (bare)feet that I draw. I dont have issues drawing feet- like Anna said, I just dont do many layouts that include feet(especially in weird positions). It might be a subconscious thing...but I dont draw them unless the scene requires it.

[nessiefynn]

I actually really enjoy drawing legs and feet! I actually like drawing full bodies, but doing so usually required drawing backgrounds and coming up with an interesting pose for the character, which I'm not very good at. I once heard that you should try to show feet at least once per page so that you don't have only head shots and upper bodies, so I try to follow that rule!

[dglisson]

That is a great rule, I hadn't heard that before! I am going to have to take you up on that challenge and start doing that for my own comic!

[60Six]

It's funny because the page that I'm working on right now literally has a panel of just a characters feet as he's walking forward. It occurred to me while working on it I've only drawn this characters feet one other time in the entirety of my comic (I have other art of him with his feet, but not in the comic). I haven't been AVOIDING them, but as the tallest guy in my comic, i guess it never really fits for him to be seen below the knees often in pages! Other characters though, I've drawn their feet plenty including even close ups of them putting on their shoes.

[NickRowler]

I wonder how much of it is "scared to/can't" vs. how much of it is "never thought about it."

I do believe that there are some people who avoid full body shots on purpose in order to avoid things that are difficult but I think there are also people out there who mainly use medium shots and close ups because that is the basic format for most basic comics. If you consider that we usually don't see Jon's legs in the comic Garfield, let alone a good number of American newspaper comics.

I wonder if part of it is not being taught about various shots...I dunno. I tend to have a varied composition in order to avoid the whole "copy and paste" look, which means I do have feet showing from time to time.

[dglisson]

Hmmm, that's a very interesting point. You think it's people maybe not thinking about switching up the composition of their shots as much as it is having to do with anatomy? I think you may be on to something there. If people think that medium shots and close-ups are enough, and don't think about what other out-of-the-box cool camera angles they could use, that may be a totally different issue.
On another note, although I agree with you that American newspaper comics do not show anyone from the waist down usually, I don't know how good that analogy is when it comes to the American graphic novel and Japanese manga inspired webcomic artists that populate Tap...

[TristanJensen]

I don't have a problem drawing feet, it actually comes pretty easily to me at times (and other times not so much). I just never have a real reason to have them in frame 90% of the time.
Shoes on the other hand I've never gotten right, I don't know why but for some reason it's really hard for me...

[carloswebcomic]

Screw feet!
I don't like them and they don't like me. We only work together when we need to but I totally dread it!

[Kura]

I like drawing feet more than I like drawing hands, but I draw hands a hell of a lot more than feet in my comic. In fact most pictures I draw outside of the comic are full body images, because I just have a habit of wanting to finish drawing the whole body. (It's actually a habit I have to actively force/remind myself to break because it's often not good composition wise depending on the effect / focal point your going for in a picture) When it comes to comics though the majority of panels are not going to require a full body drawing.

It's not an issue of avoiding drawing them, it's an issue of people usually wearing shoes/socks (depending on if you literally mean feet or are just talking about the foot area in general) and 'why the **** would feet be in this panel??'

Because of the nature of narrative focus and what you want your readers to be looking at / perceiving the image, feet usually only show up extreme zoom outs, angled perspective poses, very specific poses that take the feet off the floor and bring them closer to the upper body, and deliberate close ups. A lot of these things something you don't want to saturate your comic with when they're not needed else your scene when you want it to show up will lose it's dynamic visual impact. Also keep in mind that feet are character trait, and not even all panels are going to have characters in them.

This happens because comics are driven by a combination of dialog, visual actions and ques, and because feet are not a tool humans often utilize to convey normal person to person conversation and expression like faces or hands, it's natural that you're going to see them less and pretty much only when it's necessary to create a panel featuring the circumstances mentioned above. There's not shoe/feet quota artists are trying to fill, or some underlying fear of drawing feet artists are unaware they have (for the most part anyway, some artists may very well do this) it's just that well flowing dialog, conversations and events that the readers can easily follow on the pages and panels without getting confused with what happening or going on that is our top concern (or at least is one of the things that should be)

What I DO find weird and often off putting is when artists avoid drawing hands and actively try to keep them out of the panels.