Pinging Art #0.2: A Study Drawing Man-Chest

I've never been good at drawing man-chest. You can tell from some of my earlier work I haven't any godly idea how to depict that very um... vital part of attractive men without it looking grotesque. Since I constantly complain about men who can't draw women's breasts right without looking like a pair of helium balloons, it's only fair I learn to draw men's chest properly too. So today I decided to sit down and explore the secret of man-chest.

The first thing any reasonable artist does when learning a new topic is get some reference. A friend of mine recommended this website for sexy hunk wallpapers, of which there's plenty of man-chest on display without it actually being porn. If you want more detailed erm... reference, Google Image Search is your friend. I'd recommend googling something like "simple nude male" but be warned you'll be likely to get lots of porn results mixed in them.

I picked the picture of this guy from the wallpapers website, because his posture is relatively natural and unobscured. Then I make a study of the chest by sketching it:



This is a very quick, very basic copy-sketch of the original picture. You can see where I used the construction lines to keep it aligned.

Next I do some shading in. This will help me understand the form of the muscles by studying the shadows and protrusions.



This is vitally important as I learn the geometric shapes that I will need to be able to memorise the overall form.



It's also good to study the symmetry lines so I know where to plonk the muscles the next time I draw wihout reference.



Okay we've done the study. Now to see if it pays off...

The position I chose to draw my next subject is slightly to the side. This is where the symmetry framework becomes important, sincei t allows me to be able to work out where all those muscles go when mapped out from a different angle:



Here's me loosely adding the muscles into the frame. It's not exactly accurate, but once the muscles are more or less in place, you can guess where to tweak.



The end result. I'm not too happy with the result as the body seems too muscular for the guy's slimmish face. I'd really put more flesh onto the guy's cheek if he's that buff, really. Also, his shoulders look too narrow, making him look rather awful.



Note to self: Exaggerate shoulders for better effect.



So let's try this again. This time with a slightly less ambitious posture...





I'm happy to say the second try came out much better, with the very broad shoulders working well to give this guy the "sculpted from marble" look of of a hardened warrior. I forgot to draw the nipples this time around, but for some reason missing nipples seem to be considered acceptable on men. However, since I whine about comic book women having no nipples, I won't be hypocritical and will make a mental note not to forget them in the future.

Now comes the REAL challenge, a not-overly muscly man-chest.



I'm quickly discovering that getting the frame in the right place is by far the most important factor in making the body look right.



Adding the memorized mucles and adjusting them to fit the posture. Drawing a less muscly build turns out to be the process of simplification. Instead of individually drawing the muscles, use suggestive lines to give the overall curves of the muscle masses (if you look at the earlier study-charts, they're the lines in red.)

Of course I quickly realise that unless the guy is fat, he doesn't have voluminious breasts and thus they should not sag as much as you'd expect with women. A little correction is in order:



Another interesting thing I never noticed before undertaking this study was that there is a little depression in the center of the chest. A cute little touch that gives balance to the belly button, IMHO.

Edit: Smight of Soulgrind Squeezebox pointed out that "Something you might consider though is that when the shoulders move in certain ways the pectorals stretch to follow the arm a bit more so that the defining lines benieth them should be thinner and sharper on chest disappearing near the center of the chest."

And he's right. This looks more right than my last attempt before this, I think... and handily solves my problem of "Man-boobs" on "man-chests".




At this point I'm quite happy with my new-found knowledge of drawing man-chest, and with good fortune, I should be able to draw better-looking men in the future. I hope you enjoyed this study/tutorial, and found it helpful. Any comments, questions, and suggestions for improvements are welcome.

Stay tuned for the next entry to my art journal and thanks for reading!

Pinging Art #0.1: Mission Statement and Index

So what is this, exactly?

I've decided to keep a journal... but it's an art journal. This is an attempt by me to replace my old Art Tutorials, with hope it'll make me easier to keep records of my art progress and write tutorials at the same time.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Ping Teo. I do a couple of several online comics. I'm more well known for the Graphic Smash Series The Jaded, although I have more fun experimenting with my free Comic Genesis Comic The Longest Sojourn. I'm also involved in other comic projects such as the round-robin style comic Golden and parody How Not To Run a Comic on a on-off basis.

I don't consider myself a fantastic artist by any means. I'm still learning, which is why I thought keeping a journal might help me improve since I tend to forget stuff I've already learnt repeatedly.

Hopefully you'll find the rest of this interesting as well.

Oh Here We Go With the Goddamn Helicopters Again.

I woke up to the sound of helicopters again. And this time around I didn't pay them as much attention, as they've been flying over quite regularly since the London Bombings a couple of weeks ago.

But just as I was about to set off, I got a call from my sister, and heard that some wanker bombed Warren Street station. (I'm told it was a nail bomb, not as serious as the last one)

I live in the Euston Towers area. My nearest tube station IS Warren Street. I pass that every day, I take that quite frequently, and would have been passing there if I had left a bit earlier. I suppose it was my guardian angel who was telling me I ought to have some breakfast before I go, which was what delayed me today.

Now the entire area is covered in police tape, I couldn't leave the building if I wanted to, and police, emergency services and reporters are effing everywhere. They just arrested some guy outside my hall.

Geez. Living in Central London sure ain't boring, is it?

Stopover at The Green Avenger: There's Something About Abby

(Holy Crap! An actual Webcomics Find Post! Who'd have thought?!)

There are many reasons I like hanging around the Keenspace/ComicGenesis forums. The main one is I get to see all the budding talent first-hand, as most people start off at Keenspace and go indie when/if they get successful. Personally I think that's a great system.

Eric Burns wrote this long snark about the School of Keen a few months ago. Personally I always thought there was more learning to be done in Keenspace than Keenspot, because Keenspot is more of a business propostion, and Keenspace is there for well... starting out, experimenting, and making a comic for the hell of it.

Back to the topic, here's on of my finds discovered from hanging around Keenspace:



I think I've often mentioned I've not a devotee of superhero comics, so I wasn't sure what exactly attracted me to this comic. It might have been the art, there's something uniquely characteristic in the art style. Or that it gave off a different aura from what I expected from a typical superhero comic. I'm getting to be quite good at detecting those kind of auras.

So I checked out Green Avenger, and was amply rewarded for it. Green Avenger is an interesting hybrid superhero comic. There seem to be two kinds of comics, the story comics and the unrelated semi-autobiographical slice-of-life comics (which are usually sandwiched between the story comics, and are light bits of humour or commentary strips).

As far as I can tell, the story is about Abby, a girl who moonlights as the Green Avenger. How she got her powers and what exactly she's avenging isn't exactly clear. In fact I have a theory that she's not avenging anything, and calls herself the Green Avenger just for kicks, and doesn't really have a clue about superheroing. She also has a telepathic ex-superhero friend called the "The Purple Lavender Fey" who seems like sardonic and serious foil for the happy-go-lucky Green Avenger.

Back to the story, this seems to be a "how superheroes deal with real-life" kind of comics. The amount of humanization the characters are given makes The Green Avenger stand out from the rest. I'm pretty sure the following scenario rarely happens in the run-of-the-mill Marvel comic, for example:



The story seems to be taking a dark and more serious twist recently, but remains intriguing. A definite plus is that the creator is colouring the more recent strips, which makes all the difference in the world. Especially since the comic is called the Green Avenger, after all. There is something endearing and quirky about this comic that I can't quite name, but whatever it is, it's really growing on me, and I can safely say The Green Avenger is one comic that I'll be definitely watching in the future.

By the way, is it ok for me to spaz out happily over this? I remember reading Argon Zark when I was a little kid of twelve or thirteen, and getting a mention is just undeniably cool, even if it's so many more years later down the line!

In other news, I'm almost finished with moving house again. Maybe staying put for a couple of months will result in more blogging from me as I get back into the mood for more Webcomic Finding again.

The Helicopters are the Harbringers of Doom

After a late night out with a friend watching Kung Fu Shuffle Hustle, I woke up this morning to the sound of helicopters circling.

It took me about half an hour of the constant noise to make me realise something was wrong. Logging on to BBC's website, I quickly found out that it was due to a series of Tube 'explosions' on the London Underground.

But the enormity of the situation didn't sink in until we had reports of an explosion on a bus in Tavistock Square. That really gave me a chill.

You see, Tavistock Square is ten minutes walk from where I am.

Now they're talking about more blasts and terrorist attacks taking advantage of the timing, right after London Olympics bid.

So yes, it's kinda freaky to be living where I am right now.

U2 Cardiff 2005

Star Sailor. The Killers. U2. OMG. Absolutely amazing.

I might talk about the full thing later, but that was just mind-blowingly fantastic.

Whoo!


Edit: Mos has a report on the concert here.

Being Irresponsible Again

I forget to mention that I'm currently being very very very irresponsible regarding my online projects. Not only is my The Jaded buffer at an all-time low (I'm so sorry T. Please don't kill me!) I haven't been particularly active with blogging either. And I still have a half-completed review that I haven't the heart to just bang out haphazardly because I dont't want to produce some half-assed review so I can run away and go play in the sunshine.

I'm also currently up in Cardiff, Wales at the moment, visiting MosHunter. We're going for the U2 concert in Millenium Stadium, and the fact that their supporting act is The Killers (which is another band that rocks my socks off) makes this a not-to-be-missed-no-not-even-for-webcomics experience.

Add to the fact I'm graduating, I have to see to a hundred and one things. (My God. My graduation gown makes me look like I'm about to enroll into Hogwarts!)

However, for distraction value, check out the latest issue of Comixpedia for the latest The Essence Of... Full credit for the golden-haired virgins goes to my friend Alan.

Speaking of Golden... damnit, it's still my turn. It never rains but it pours.