Since we're in the middle of an anatomy course, I think it makes sense to do a Halloween special
that's somehow related to Anatomy. So in this episode I'll draw a zombie to show you how
you can use the information from my Anatomy course to design your own creatures. Make
sure to watch till the end for the giveaway!
I'll start with my Skelly App to figure out the pose I want. You can also draw some quick
gestural poses on paper, but since it's so much quicker and easier to do it with the
Skelly app, it just makes sense to start here. I messed around with a few different options,
but ultimately I decided on this pose.
Ok, let's start with a lay-in of the skeleton. Using the loomis method I'll construct the
position of the head. The head is rotated up and to the right, so I want to make sure
all these angles are in the right perspective.
I'll continue down the body making measurements for the placement and shape of the clavicles,
rib cage, pelvis, arms and legs. If you want to make any changes to the proportions, or
exaggerate the gesture, that's perfectly fine. You don't have to stick to the proportions
of Skelly. Skelly is an average male, so feel free to play around with the proportions to
make them represent your character better. I'm not changing too much in my drawing, but
I'm also not worried about getting it perfect. As long as the pose looks good I'm happy.
I definitely want to change the fingers to be more interesting and creepy.
Let's fix the perspective on this pelvis.
So, I'm happy with the general pose, but I want to open his jaw. Zombies usually have
their mouth open since they're always ready to eat. Zombies just eat things. That's all
they do. So, the mouth is pretty important in this drawing. I've opened it way past normal
limits and made it crooked as if one side is dislocated.
At this point I'm using my imagination more and sometimes referring back to the Skelly
App reference to help me keep things in perspective. I'm designing the features and also the light
and shadow patterns on the features. I've decided that the light source is coming from
the top right, so I'm imagining the 3d forms and adding shadows on the planes facing away
from the light.
Give him some messy hair. Or what's left of it... I'm guessing hair would fall out as
this guy decays. Adding some more details to the face.
Moving down to the neck muscles. Tracking the trapezius and sternocleidomastoid muscles
as they flow from the head to the torso. I'm gonna make this guy really lean. He's been
decaying for a long time and all his fat has been used up. So the clavicles are gonna be
exposed. In fact I think I'll take off his right deltoid and just expose the bones in
that shoulder.
The great thing about drawing zombies is you have a lot of room to play. You can choose
which muscles to put in and which to rip off. If an area looks cool as just bone, then you
can just leave that area as bone. You can also choose to put skin in some areas and
leave it off in other areas. Totally up to you. Think about the gesture and composition
of your drawing as you make these decisions.
On his left arm I'm going to draw all the muscles. No exposed bones. This is where knowledge
of anatomy pays off. If you have the bones drawn in, and If you know where the muscles
attach on the bones… Well, then it's just a matter of putting them in and designing
them to look interesting.
When drawing fingers, I just think of them as a series of cylinders. That helps me get
the perspective right. Making the nails really long to add some extra creepiness.
For the ribs, I'll start with the dark negative shape between the ribs and then clean up the
contours. Starting with a rough negative shape helps me get the placement correct. I know
that the pec ends at the 5th rib, so there will be 5 more visible ribs and 2 floating
ribs hidden in the back, for a total of 12!
As I put in the skin on the abdomen I'm thinking mainly about the gesture. The flow from the
torso to the legs is an S curve, so I'm designing the rhythms in here to work with that gesture.
As I'm figuring out where the shadows go, I'm not just trying to be accurate. I'm also
trying to design interesting shapes. Thinking about the light and dark pattern I'm creating.
It's not random. It's intentional. The dark shape of the lat helps to frame the light
shape of the pec and ribs.
Some dark holes in the abdomen will help to keep the eye flowing through here and strengthen
the gesture.
Continuing to refine some details. Designing the anatomy and always relating them to the
parts I've already established. Everything has to work together as one picture. A big
mistake I see people do is fragment their compositions. They focus on all the individual
parts, but not how they work together. If there's a part in the drawing that breaks
the gesture or takes away attention from the focal point, take it out! Play it down. Make
it less contrasty and less detailed and let the other parts of the drawing stand out.
For example that right arm ripping off is interesting, but I don't want it to jump out
too much. I prefer to emphasize the pecs and ribs. So, I darkened the arm to lower the
contrast and now in the pecs I'm adding a lot of small shadow shapes as the muscle fibers.
A lot of contrast and small details will bring the viewer's eye here.
Alright, now I'm actually gonna put some pants on this guy. He's lost so much weight that
his pants are falling off his waist. I think it'd be cool to have the belt looping over
the greater trochanter of his right leg and swinging across. Now, drapery is a whole nother
beast. Basically, you gotta think about where the tension points are. In this case the two
main areas of tension are the greater trochanter and his left knee. So, I'm designing the folds
to stretch between those two points.
I think it'll be weird if the torso has a bunch of muscles and then the legs are just
bone. This guy would be too top heavy. So, I'll add some of the adductors of the leg.
Let's get some shading in there. Again considering the light and dark pattern of the overall
composition. I've already established the logic of the folds, now I have to figure out
the shadow shapes on the 3d forms.
This whole back leg is gonna be in shadow, so I'll knock it back and keep it as a simple
dark shape.
And we need to connect him to the ground by adding a cast shadow. Remember the light is
coming from the top right, so the shadows are gonna cast down and slightly to the left.
Cleaning up some things in the torso… And let's attack this arm. It's pretty much the
only thing left. As I'm shading this deltoid I'm thinking of a basic sphere. They're both
rounded forms, so the shadows will be very similar.
Very thin, lean muscles on the rest of this arm.
Alright, on to the hard part. Everyone has a hard time with hands. Try to create a simple
shadow pattern. Don't over complicate it. Here I'm making the top planes of the fingers
light and the front planes shadow. If you're having trouble inventing it, take a photo
of your own hand and borrow information from it. It's perfectly fine to use reference.
That's how you learn how things should look. And you don't have to create everything from
imagination. The goal is to create a good drawing. If you need to use some photos to
help, then do it!
That's it! I hope you enjoyed this demonstration. If you want to polish up your anatomy skills
go to proko.com/anatomy and check out my lessons. And if you want to download the Skelly app
for your iphone or Android to use in your own drawings, go to proko.com/skellyapp.
Giveaway!
If you want to win a framed print of this drawing, subscribe to the proko newsletter
at proko.com/subscribe. I'll be choosing 5 winners from my list of newsletter subscribers.
If you're already getting email updates, sit back and relax, you're automatically entered
into the giveaway. I'll choose 5 winners on November 2nd.