Article Response: "7 Tips For Drawing Realistic Humans"

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    If you're someone like me who doesn't know anything about anatomy, physics, or drawing realistic people, well, you should probably consider learning, as it's something that's rather critical in the character creation world of animation. However, if you're just starting out, this article should be rather helpful, as it contains simple tips that are geared towards people who don't know much about anatomy.

    The first pointer takes the line of action into consideration, which can give a character life and make their pose appear more natural, instead of looking stiff. Drawing the line of action first can help you build the character around it, allowing you to indicate the emotion you're trying to convey. Next, consider the height of your character, and remember that their legs should be about the same length as the torso. A simple way to keep track of this is by using the character's head as your outline for how long the torso and legs should be, for instance, "For a tall, stereotypical hero, this could mean drawing the body 8 heads high. So, 4 heads for the torso and an additional 4 heads for the legs." This technique can also be used for the shoulder width of the character.

    The fourth tip explains the structure of the face and forehead, and how you should be leaving a bit of space for the forehead, instead of drawing the eyes too close to the hairline. Also, you should keep in mind that necks flow diagonally to your shoulders, instead of straight down (because anatomy just isn't that simple). For the sixth tip, they talk about drawing mouths, and specifically, smiles. Sometimes people will draw open-mouthed smiles in the shape of a banana, however, the corners of your mouth can only move sideways, not upwards towards your ears. Lastly, you can easily use gridded boxes to sketch out a head. This way, it can be easier to visualize a character's head from different perspectives. 

    I found this article to be rather helpful, especially for someone like me who really only doodles for fun instead of learning more about it for a future job or career. Also, I do like that they included pictures to further explain what they're talking about, instead of just having us assume we know what they mean, as I'm much more of a visual learner than anything. All in all, definitely a very helpful resource for anyone looking for simple and quick drawing tips!