Oh, and give me a PM so that I can add you to view the layers in my drawing, if you keep these instructions open while surfing through the layers, it will make a whole lot more sense...
1. Start with a circle.
2. divide the circle into two even parts vertically (you can continue down the body if you wish, but it only works when the character is facing you directly), then make a horizontal line to indicate the position of the eyes, this is important and will make both drawing the eyes and making the shape of the face easier. The higher up you place this line, the older it will look (if you place it lower, the face will look more chibi).
3. The shape of the face is one of the first things you draw, and one of the most important, the size of the head is one of the things that most artists use to make sure their proportions are all correct, so make sure that your face is done correctly. One thing to note is that the chubbier/shorter face seems younger, while longer faces with higher cheek bones seem older. Next draw the neck, the distance between the 'eye line' and the top of the head should be the approximate length of the neck. Then draw a quadrilateral-like shape to define the ribcage/chest area*, make sure the top is curved downwards and the sides point inwards towards the bottom. Draw a circle under this shape - only just peeking out, as if it's tucked into the ribcage, this will act as the stomach of your character, make sure that it does not protrude out of the line the rib cage has made or your character will look fat. Continuing downwards, make a flattened circle - and oval - which is the beginning of the hip, imagine that a circle has been cut in half, and the hemisphere's flat side is facing up. If this confuses you just draw a horizontal line. The legs are just ovals which grow slightly thinner the more downwards it is.
(MALE) The and shoulder area is wider, more muscles being located there. If the chest is thinner, it will end up looking younger/more slender, which may or may not be a good thing. Some people will just draw a rectangular shape for the torso (including me in the past), but it's better if your guidelines start out with a general idea of where the muscles will be, so instead of a box, make a hexagon-like shape. The legs will have some curve to them - slightly inwards, but only slightly. In fact, you can just keep them strait at this stage.
(FEMALE) The shoulder area is small, and it barely even stretches wider then the head does. The chest does not just randomly start concaving extremely hard, there is only a curve inwards, no slant just going inwards randomly. A small circle in order to determine the pivoting of the body is need to (will be important in the future, it's the best way to pivot the body in leaning/slanting positions) the hips should protrude outwards instead of strait down as the man's does, this outwards motion should continue downwards onto the thighs. The female's legs have a lot more curves in them, mainly inwards, as compared to the male's. In all, make sure that the figure flows.
4. Now draw the arms, make two circles half-poking out from the sides. The size/diameter of the circles will determine how thick your arm is. Make sure that it's the right size, if it's too big, it will make your character look like it's wearing shoulder pads and/or have fat arms. You don't want your character to have fat arms. Plus, you can always add muscles later, but for now, just make sure it's a decent size.
(FEMALE) Make sure that the arm isn't too thin/bulky. Make it slenderish. By practicing enough you will get a feel for how thick to make the arms.
5. Now is the step to add other details you want to include (detailed muscle structure, hair, eyes, clothing) DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE AFTER DETAILING ANYTHING!!! Plan out the shape of anything you might need that isn't on there yet! (I didn't only because I didn't really care about anything other then the anatomy
)(FEMALES) This is where you figure out how you want the chest to look like. PM me for more tips on that.
(MALES) this is where you plan out the muscles if you want him to be bare chested. PM me for more tips on that.
6.Flesh it out. DO NOT DRAW THE MUSCLES IF YOU ARE GOING TO PUT A SHIRT ON TOP OF IT! It will mess up the drawing since you will want your shirt to 'cling' on every protruding surface you see, as shirts don't actually do that, don't draw the torso muscles.
(MALES) If you do want to know how to draw the upper body male muscles, PM me and I'll explain.
7. PRACTICE!! ONLY BY PRACTICING WILL YOU EVER GET BETTER, NO MATTER HOW MANY TUTORIALS YOU SEE, NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES IT'S EXPLAINED TO YOU, IF YOU DON'T PRACTICE AND ACT ON HAND EYE CORDINATION, YOU WON'T BE TOO GOOD AT IT! And not everything that I said is true, use your own judgment in your own drawings, just keep other people's suggestions in the back of your mind to act on when you are drawing.
Happy drawing!
ʏᴏᴜ ☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ
ʏᴏᴜ ☾