I’m assuming this is more geared towards my critter legs than the people legs, since… people legs are people legs. Let me know if I misunderstood!
I’m not sure I have a whole lot to say, but I can make a few notes about the types of things I usually draw the look from, but it’s a fairly simple point A-to-point B I think (though if anyone has specific questions, I’d be happy to answer)!
I use the same “lightning bolt” shape for basically all of my fantasy / anthro legs, because I’ve found this ends up being one of the more believable ways of melding bipedal plantigrade and quadrupedal digitigrade while still looking kind of animalish. This shape can be seen in the hind legs of most unguligrades very easily:
But you can see it in other tetrapods too, as long as you start at the hip and end at the toes:
But you might notice there’s different proportions to those, which have to do with the kind of locomotion the animal is adapted to. For example, the exaggeratedly long distance between ankle and toes in the deer, horse, ostrich are adaptations for a cursorial lifestyle. Playing with these proportions in your design influences how we may view a character. For example of my own, Marco (left) is a much more high-energy character than Alex (right), which I reflect in leg proportions, even with the same basic leg shape:
Those leg proportions also affect what the most natural default stance looks like. As in the above, the left has to have a much more dramatic bend to look natural than the right. A general rule of thumb is the higher the ankle, the more dramatic the resting bend in the knee. This isn’t a hard rule by any means, but it tends to help me make things look like they’re neither squatting nor about to fall over.
There’s a lot you can play with and I always like reading into things, so it may help to look up which muscles do what and what shapes come out of those. Look up plenty of critters and look at how their legs are set up, there’s a lot more base shapes to play with than my “lightning bolt”!
if you ever need a creative pickmeup remember that the administrator in tf2 was just this random disembodied old woman voice who announced match info in the game
but then a young lady did a fan design of her for kicks on her blog and da account full of fanart, and valve loved it so much that they bought the character design from her, and they eventually hired her to draw official tf2 comics for them, and now the administrator’s this big developed character through multiple oneoffs and arcs and stories in the canon and the fan is now an inhouse comic artist working ft for valve
you never know where your artistic and fandom passions will take you, if you love it and exercise your creativity in fun interesting ways, you never know what could come out of it
Out of curiosity, I went out to find Makani’s original fanart. Here it is:
And here’s her first official appearance in the comic, made only one year later:
Because when someone doesn’t want to date me because I’m poly it’s ‘understandable’ but when I don’t want to date someone because they are monogamous it’s ‘ridiculous.’
Because all relationship advice tells you that if you have feelings for someone else while you’re in a relationship you’re a bad person.
Because even feminists try to slut shame me.
Because when I tell people me and my partner have an open relationship they assume it’s because we’re going through a rough patch.
Because people equate ‘multiple partners’ with ‘predator’ and think everything I say is an attempt to get in their pants.
Because I am fed up of love triangles as easy plot devices in my media.
Because the LGBTQA+ movement are so desperate to show ‘allies’ they are ‘just like everyone else’ that they shit on everyone with a non-monogamous dynamic.
Because when a monogamous couple have sex with each other every night it’s having an active sex drive. When I have sex with a different partner every night I’m a nymphomaniac.
Because people think that monogamy = validity, always.
Because monogamous hetronormativity is so ingrained that I don’t even feel like I can dance with someone without telling them the complete logistics of my love life.
Because people genuinely believe that raising a child communally is damaging to development.
Because when I say ‘I could never be monogamous’ I get dirty looks.
Because too many people have tried to confide in me when they’re cheating because ‘I thought you, of all people, would understand.’
Because I can’t talk about my relationship troubles with my monogamous friends because ‘I always have something to fall back on.’ As if my relationships are meaningless.
(please reblog and add more if you like)
Let’s keep adding guys!
Because I frequently have people telling me to “save some for the rest of us” when I say someone is attractive.
Because I’m sick of people acting like polyamory and polygamy are the same exact thing. Hint: it’s fucking not.
Because I want to be able to openly talk about my multiple partners without people immediately assuming I’m monogamous and cheating on my partner.
Because I’m fucking sick of people assuming my relationship is falling apart because I have sex with one partner more than another.
Because I can’t fucking stand people thinking I don’t love my partners equally and assuming I have to love one more than the other(s).
Because my single friends complain when I mention I have a crush on someone new.
Because I’m comfortable with talking to all of my partners about each other and don’t feel like I’m cheating, because I’m not.
I’m seriously sick of the stigma behind being poly. There is a difference between cheating and being polyamorous. I talk to my partner(s) before I get involved in any way with another person or other people. If even one of them isn’t comfortable with it I back the fuck up and I let my partners know of the situation and remind them that I love them and care about them and respect their opinions. I don’t feel the need to force all of my partners into a “committed” relationship with me if they aren’t comfortable with it, especially if they don’t like long distance relationships.
Get rid of the negative stigma behind being polyamorous and make it fucking positive.
I thought of that, but my only TV is a 20 year old 28″ CRT with only coax and RCA inputs. It’s also a bit too deep to comfortably sit on my desk.
I’ve been poking on CL for both TVs and monitors for cheap, but everything’s either pocket-sized, 70″ monsters that cost $500, or perfect-sized ones that cost $400.
you might also try getting something that emulates the “spaces” feature of osx– basically i can hit alt+arrow key and i get a second “desktop” like so
you need to deliver a staff to enthir. what staff? who is enthir? it’s been so long since you were asked to deliver this staff. it remains in your inventory, though you do not remember where you got it. you know exactly where enthir is, though you do not remember his face.
the waterfalls have stopped working. you seem them in the distance, still, unmoving. you can hear the crashing of the water, but it is frozen in place. the locals do not notice.
you open a book. restoration increased to 100. you open another book. enchanting increased to 100. you spend only a few minutes in this library, and leave as an all-powerful being.
you realise that you have only ever heard the same five voices. everyone you meet starts to sound so alike. you have killed many people who screamed in your wife’s voice.
you have never seen a dunmer child. you have never seen any elf child, in fact. the only children here are nords. you soon realise that their faces look exactly alike. even the eyes, you notice. they are wide and afraid.
you have seen many dragons crash straight into mountains. you have seen fewer dragons emerge from the mountains.
you have forgotten the songs of your hometown. the melodies faded from your memory long ago. you try to ask the local bard to play your favourite childhood song. you try so hard. your memories escape you. you have only ever heard five songs. you ask him to play ragnar the red.
