happy bday, tomura :)

Any advice on drawing McCoy? I’m not used to drawing ancient wrinkley bastards (affectionate) and it’s surprisingly tough v-v

FOR SURE lmao i made. a diagram. just a warning that i am going to be irritating and long winded because u just hit a topic i really like sorry lmao

so first off i did some traces just to show whats there vs redraws to show my interpretation

ive said this on other asks but again jsyk, tracing isnt bad!! its a tool. theres some stuff with intellectual property and whatnot but using tracing to study shapes and forms is a really valuable practice.

also just taking some time to learn facial structures and anatomy is super useful, reading what bones and muscles are where and how they interact with one another. taking this info and staring in the mirror and moving your face around and thinking about it. just really furthers understanding of how the face works. trying to sound normal about this but i love anatomy and motion and physics and whatever

anyways im going to go through all the numbered points so there's no confusion. 1. forehead lines - self explanatory. more prominent when brows are raised 2. crows feet - at the outer corners of the eyes, more prominent when smiling or squinting 3. nasolabial folds - the folds that go from the corners of the nose to the corners of the mouth. more prominent when the mouth is wide, like smiling 4. brow furrow - self explanatory, most prominent when brows are furrowed. mccoy tends to have two right next to his eyebrows, kirk has one in the middle. everyones face works different lmao 5. chin crease - caused by how the chin and lower lip interact. 6. nasojugal groove - start from the inner corners of the eye and can extent over the cheeks. everyone has these and idk why people dont like them i think theyre really cool!!!! but Society. i guess. :/ 7. eye bags - caused by the skin sagging beneath the eyes. mccoy isnt even that old in tos i think hes meant to be mid 40s by the end of the 5 year mission, hes just got really prominent eye bags lmao 8. idk what the name is for these, but when the mouth is wide and pushes the skin to the sides, these folds sometimes form outside of the nasolabial folds 9. philtrum - the groove above the upper lip. i dont usually draw this but mccoy's struck me as prominent enough that i usually draw it on him 10. masseter - the muscle that moves the jaw up and down. its a pretty rugged muscle and while i wouldnt say mccoy's is especially prominent, it kind of extends that nasojugal groove from certain angles/positions 11. orbicularis oris - mouth muscle, usually easier to see when lips are pursed or frowns are pulled. mccoy's is pretty prominent from 3/4ths or side, his mouth tends to protrude in profile 12. this isnt a muscle but more of a line defining the planes of the face, but since i drew it i felt i should explain lmao

a few points:

im an animator i tend to exaggerate and emphasize certain things so i usually make him more square.

i like to combine eyebags and crows feet for brevity/flow, same with nasojugal grooves, eyebags, and masseter lines. my approach is always subject to change based on pose, expression, reference image, etc.

i take out details that i deem redundant or cluttering and keep what details i need to make things feel Right

all this info is applicable to any character of any age, its just in how you apply it and facial proportions that willl change how old a character is perceived to be

there's a lot more with drawing a Character rather than an Actor, just because the features are there doesnt necessarily mean things will feel correct? its very much in the mannerisms and poses and expressions

i only went over my approach to his likeness but not really body type or posing or anything idk if u want that i could always try to answer that later haha

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anyways all that info kind of exists nebulously in my brain while i draw its not like im sitting there thinking Must Draw. Nasolabial Fold...... i jsut do what feels right with the visual info i have. also i love specificity in faces.... i dont like to be a hater but when every character is drawn the same it pisses me off a little lmao. so

also dont take my word as The Only Way to do anything i just draw how i like to draw and no one should feel like these are things that Must be done to be a good artist or anything do whatever the hell u wanna do

Save me! I just lied to my friend's mum saying that she's staying at my house for the weekend but in reality she's at a different person's house! I don't know why I did it! I'm dying of anxiety right now! - your friendly neighbourhood idiot

omg ANON IM SORRY I DDIDNT LOOK THROUGH MY ASKS LAST WEEK BUT I HOPE EVERYTHING WENT OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FRIEND WHY IS SHE AT A DIFFERENT HOUSE …

MORE ASKS UNDER THE CUT

1) I THINK flow is very important, and to think of the body as a whole rather than a bunch of parts? I’ve found that it helps me a lot when drawing say AN ARM, to think about how the hand is connected to the forearm and how the forearm is connected to the arm and how that connects to the shoulder + torso, rather than just the arm itself. Always think about things in relation to other things, and that not only helps with remembering how they fit, but also with proportions! It also helps to try and think of it as a 3 dimensional form, rather than a flat picture in order to figure out how it might look in different angles. My personal approach to anatomy is basically to think about how things work i.e. OBSERVE PEOPLE/PICTURES and find common curves and bony points and then figure out what muscles/ bones form them. FOR EXAMPLE THE SHOULDER:

If you look at examples, you’ll see that there’s a muscle that forms the curve down to the arm called the deltoid, and that attaches to the collarbone AND THERE YOU HAVE YOUR LANDMARKS to start off on:

I’M NOT RLY SURE IF THAT WOULD MAKE SENSE but that’s basically how i breakdown and work around anatomy! A BOOK THAT I’VE FOUND TO BE RLY GOOD WITH THIS Is anatomy for sculptors!!! I also have a bunch of brief tutorial like things here if you are looking for something more specific in terms of anatomy? I HOPE THAT HELPS YOU OUT A BIT!!!

2) DO YOU MEAN THE MEL who drew my icon? I’m not sure if she’s still active on tumblr but she’s been around on twitter!!! IDK IF SHE WANTS TO GIVE OUT HER TWITTER THOUGH 

1) DON’T CRY ANON IM GLAD YOU LOVE THE GAY BOYS THANK YOU FOR YOUR SWEET WORDS

2) IM IN THE UTC+10:00 TIMEZONE!!! I HAVE BEEN BUSY AND TIRED BUT I AM DOING GOOD ATM!!! I hope you are doing well too!!!!!!!!! 

1) THANK YOU!!

2) OH it’s COMPLICATED but it’s essentially tyler with a lot of feelings and not wanting to confess bc he doesn’t know if Jc feels the same THEY ARE GOOD FRIENDS IN THE RP THOUGH LIKE CLIMBS INTO YOUR ROOM AT 3AM TO HANG OUT BC I CANT SLEEP KIND OF FRIENDS

3) I THINK ABOUT IT SOMETIMES HAHAHA but I’ve never really found voices that would fit them?? Fay would have a medium pitch, monotone sorta voice I think!

NO I HAVEN’T I looked it up and it looks rly good though!!! I’ll pick it up the next time I go to the bookstore! THANK YOU FOR THE RECOMMENDATION

ANON HAHAHA NO IT’S FINE I RLY DONT MIND PEOPLE SHIPPING MY OCS IN ANY WAY i actually think they are rly cute heh

1) OMFG ANON FKSMLKGJGLGJ HE IS A SAD PUPPY WHO RUNS AWAY FROM RELATIONSHIPS

2) THANK YOU ANON YOU ARE VERY KIND!!!!!!!!!

LOL ANON YEAH IT’S BEEN A WHILE HAHA THOUGH THEY’VE never technically been together!! I was stressed out about some stuff related to it, and I didn’t rly know how to handle it for a while. I guess the best way to put it is they are a ship that I’ve always thought were rly cute together + they will always be good friends that are there for each other but other things happened and I think it works out better this way?? I personally feel they fit better with these characters!