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”!
As much as teachers and writers recommend you never consult a thesaurus, there are times when you can’t quite get a hold of the word you’re searching for. Whether it’s a thesaurus or dictionary, you need to consult some sort of word-oriented book or site. So, to help you out, here’s a few that go beyond that:
Tip of My Tongue: – fairly thorough database (though not huge) – allows you to search for a word based on partial spelling content, partial definition, or certain letters involved -supplies only one definition per word, but helps narrow down your search
One Look: – a reverse dictionary; look up a word by its definition – supplies a four column list of up to 100 suggestions – now filterable by verb, adverb, adjective, or noun – each suggested word is a link to a page with all its definitions, linked to the site it was indexed from – might take a few searches to find what you’re looking for, but very helpful
RhymeZone: – a rhyming dictionary – supplies potential rhymes by number of syllable – has links to definitions of suggestions – simple and effective
And, for anyone who just needs another word than that one adjective they’ve already used a dozen times in the past 500 words, there’s always Thesaurus.com.
Finding the information you need as a writer shouldn’t be a chore. Luckily, there are plenty of search engines out there that are designed to help you at any stage of the process, from coming up with great ideas to finding a publisher to get your work into print. Both writers still in college and those on their way to professional success will appreciate this list of useful search applications that are great from making writing a little easier and more efficient.
Professional
Find other writers, publishers and ways to market your work through these searchable databases and search engines.
Litscene: Use this search engine to search through thousands of writers and literary projects, and add your own as well.
Thinkers.net: Get a boost in your creativity with some assistance from this site.
PoeWar: Whether you need help with your career or your writing, this site is full of great searchable articles.
Publisher’s Catalogues: Try out this site to search through the catalogs and names of thousands of publishers.
Edit Red: Through this site you can showcase your own work and search through work by others, as well as find helpful FAQ’s on writing.
Writersdock: Search through this site for help with your writing, find jobs and join other writers in discussions.
PoetrySoup: If you want to find some inspirational poetry, this site is a great resource.
Booksie.com: Here, you can search through a wide range of self-published books.
One Stop Write Shop: Use this tool to search through the writings of hundreds of other amateur writers.
Writer’s Cafe: Check out this online writer’s forum to find and share creative works.
Literary Marketplace: Need to know something about the publishing industry? Use this search tool to find the information you need now.
Writing
These helpful tools will help you along in the writing process.
WriteSearch: This search engine focuses exclusively on sites devoted to reading and writing to deliver its results.
