Table Of ContentYOU'LL LEARN:
anatomy: how to
• where to start
• construction
draw heads
• how to apply
by mitch leeuwe
Copyright © 2019 by Mitch Leeuwe
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof anatomy: how to
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
draw heads
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
For personal use only
mitchleeuwe.nl
by mitch leeuwe
Printed in the Netherlands
First Printing, 2020
Graphic design: Harmke Leeuwe
harmke.com
Copy editor: Yessica Claire Baeten
yessicabaeten.com
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Hi there!
Let me introduce myself. I’m Mitch Leeuwe and am parts. But after a while I noticed I forgot a lot of their
an illustrator from the Netherlands.Thank you for names and in the end, I always had to look it up for
purchasing my book about anatomy. Back in the days reference.
when I wanted to learn about anatomy, I found it very
overwhelming. So, my goal with this book is to make That’s when I started to look for tutorials about
learning anatomy understandable and accessible for anatomy for animation. I found examples where
you. the anatomy was simplified and broken down in
understandable formulas and shapes. This made it
I started out by trying to learn every muscle and bone way more fun and easier to learn. So, I started making
and I really began to memorize all those different this book with the idea of putting everything together.
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how to use
You can use this book to learn from or use it for reference to learn anatomy, so don’t get discouraged if it takes a
this book when you are drawing a difficult pose. If you are just while to get the hang of it.
starting out, the best way to learn is to take small steps.
I mostly draw cartoon characters, It’s okay to start by copying the drawings in this book and Be patient, try to have fun and enjoy the process. Start by
which are not hyper realistic. And try to examine all different body parts. doing thirty minutes every day, instead of doing a couple
because of that I’m always focused of hours in one go and get frustrated with it. Doing a bit
on simple shapes first. But even if Once you get comfortable with copying these drawings, every day will make a big difference after some period
you want to draw realistic anatomy, you could start looking for photos of people in which you of time. When you have difficulty drawing shapes, start
I think this book can be very helpful. can see the structure of their muscles. Like a photo from a practicing drawing cubes, spheres and cylinders. When
Because these simple shapes will boxer or a ballerina in a strong pose. Draw the characters you can comfortably draw shapes on paper in 3D, you
form a solid foundation before adding first, then add muscles on top, try to see how the muscles can basically draw anything. By mixing up those shapes
all details and muscles on top. work and where they are connected. It takes a lot of time you can build any object you want.
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The basics
Construction, line of action
and combining them
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construction
study tips
Construction is like the foundation of your character. With
a good construction you can create a strong and solid Fill a page with different shapes,
character. To get started, follow these steps: try to see their direction. Now add
perspective lines, is the direction
1. For drawing, I always use three kind of shapes. A more clear now?
sphere, a cylinder and cube. I use these shapes
because you can build anything with them and they
are easy to rotate in 3D. You can stretch and distort Here I’m going more in-depth about
these shapes or combine them to make variations. drawing the basic shapes. Spheres
2. When I draw characters I always use a line of action. are great to build your character
You could also call this the character’s gesture. Here with, but without perspective lines
you can also see the benefit of using 3D shapes when you can’t see the direction. With
you allow them to follow an action line. This is also a a cylinder, you can see direction
great way to practice it. First draw a line shaped like like this helps you to understand how it moves the because it has three surfaces.
an S and let the shape follow the action line. This 3D world. When you first draw your character like this With a cube it’s really clear what
way you get a nice sense of flow and depth in your you can add its anatomy on top of it. Starting like this the direction is, because it has six
characters. is way easier and lets you focus first on getting the surfaces. If the direction and the
3. Here you can see how I use spheres, cylinders and basices right, like pose, overlap and depth, before you volume of a shape aren’t clear, you
cubes to draw a character. Drawing your character start adding the details. could add perspective guides.
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Line of action
& gesture
The line of action is a tool to give your character
a strong pose. It’s an imaginary line you can draw
through your character. Without it, your character
looks stiff. So, whenever your character’s pose looks
stiff, check the line of action first.
A line of action gives your character force, makes
study tips
it more readable and it will look more dynamic.
When I start drawing a character I always start by Look up some photos of people
deciding what I want to draw. The story behind the doing sports or people in other types
drawing. For example: a baseball player is going of motion. Practise to catch their
to hit the ball. Based on that one sentence you can pose by drawing one single line. This
make different action lines that depict the desired is called the action line.
movement in the most fundamental way.
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Here, I’m showing an example of
how to practice drawing shapes
that follow a line of action. This study tips
exercise will help you understand Draw a swirling line and draw shapes
the relationship between lines of that follow that line. This gives the
action and construction. With this, shapes a flowing direction and
you give shapes a gesture. When interconnects them.
you don’t use a line of action, your
characters will look stiff and when
you aren’t using construction,
your characters won’t look solid.
If you want to learn more about this, look for gesture drawing classes or tutorials. Doing gesture drawings is a great
warm-up. In short: gesture drawing is making figure drawings by focusing on the gesture of the pose.
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It can be hard to see Creates more depth When your characters
Drawing fundamentals
the direction or angle in your drawing look flat they don’t
of an object, using and gives it a more have volume. Volume
There are a bunch of rules you could apply to improve your drawings. Of course, these are rules and you can decide these lines can help dynamic feeling. adds depth to your
for yourself if you want to follow them or not. I do assess my drawings occasionally by these rules to see if I can find make that clearer. characters.
something to improve. This book is about anatomy and not so much about drawing principles as such, but they can help
you with drawing anatomy. Therefore, I wanted to include them in this book. An object farther
An object that is bigger aways lays higher on By overlapping
feels closer by than an the surface than an different objects you
Avoid parallel lines by Give your drawings Try to see water object that is smaller. object closer to the create depth.
mixing straight and more contrast and flowing through your viewer.
curved lines. This will guide the eye. The character, or a ball
make your drawing level of detail attracts bouncing between Due to perspective Tangents don’t often A strong silhouette,
look more organic and the eye. the walls. Find the you can create the occur in nature and with a nice balance
dynamic. right rythm for a flow. illusion of one end of in your drawing, between negative and
an object appearing they attract the eye positive space, makes
bigger or smaller intentionally. your character better
If you use a varied Use contrast in You can combine the compared to the other. readable and clear.
combination of S C and sizes. Contrast leads main types of shapes
I shaped line types, it the eye and makes (circle, triangle and Avoid parallel lines By adding a twist to
will make your drawing your drawing more rectangle) to make to create a rhythm Symmetry looks man- your design, it will look
look more dynamic interesting. anything you want. and direction in your made and can make more dynamic and
drawing. your drawings look stiff. interesting.
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Head construction
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