Hi @birthday-cake-rockz! I hope its okay if I answer your questions here in a separate post. I definitely have some tips and thoughts for help with drawing Raph.
First of all, I recommend This free PDF of the book "Morpho - Fat and Skin Folds: Anatomy for Artist" for those who are interested in really getting familiar & comfortable with drawing larger/fat/thick body types. (Make sure you click the second link, the first one is broken)
Now for Raph specifically, I do have a one very important shape I use when I draw him that might be helpful:
A lot of people like to associate diamonds with Raph as much as squares, and I think that's accurate to his design, too! The boy has a lot of serious neck muscle going on, and so his trapezius muscles and those surround it are gonna be more visible. Which actually creates a diamond shape around his collarbone and upper body. If you follow along with the angles of his shell, you can create this shape to help give him that stronger upper body look!
As for his leg proportions, that's a bit tricky because unlike his brothers, Raph's lower limbs are disproportionate to his upper limbs. It's a case of "you have to understand the rules of anatomy in order to break them".
SO!! Real quick anatomy lesson that I learned in art school: the average adult body should be about 7 heads high. Because the boys are teenagers, theirs come up to be about 6 heads high, which I credit to their younger age. But as you can see by the red marked areas, everything is still in normal proportion.
Raph, on the other hand, is different.
Raph's arms are as long as his body is, and his legs are much shorter than his arms. Because of this, he's actually disproportionate to his brothers, since his height is only about 5 and a half heads tall, rather than 6 or 7. In particular, his thighs seem to be unequally shorter in length than the calves. I think its important to keep that in mind when draw him! Because even if you know he's made up of all these thick, blocky shapes, if you try to give him the normal proportions you would Leo or Donnie or Mikey, it might still not look right. He's a stocky lad, and his upper body strength is showcased by these design choices.
Hope all this was helpful for you guys. Now go be free and draw him to your hearts content! :)
Additionally, here are several other links to posts people have created that give references of Raph and the other turtles! I'm sure these will be a big help, too.
High Quality Reference Sheets of everyone, including April and Splinter
Turtle Side Profiles Specifically
Multi-Angle Ref Sheets
RAPH'S SHELL
MASTERPOSTS by @melancholic-rowen: RAPH | LEO | DONNIE | MIKEY | APRIL | CASEY | CASEY JUNIOR
383 notes
·
View notes
You know what, I just RL wanted to post anything today so why not share my struggle? I have multiple projects involving future Leo in the making and well... Peepaw is a struggle, so maybe my attempts at understanding him will help someone else too. Nothing here is mine, I traced everything from the show and this wonderful artwork from JJ Conway.
Oh wow you opened the read more thingy, you get a prize 🏆 you champ!
Lil sneak peak at my poor attempts at animating something in krita... I should learn toon boom or csp animation but learning is so scary...
If anyone has any tutorial or other programs recommendations feel free to drop them!!
385 notes
·
View notes
Attempting to adapt my hearing autistic home signs to turtle hands (for artists’ reference)
DISCLAIMER: This is for fanart/fanfiction use only and not education for the real world. If you are interested in genuinely learning ASL please learn from a qualified source, preferably Deaf/HoH/CODA identified, such as www.lifeprint.com or a class at your local community college.
(1/7) First (and most important): pizza.
(2/7) “Tired” arcs hands downward, flipping palms up. Tired body language helps (if signer is able): flop head and body forward, sigh, etc.
(3/7) A classic ASL sign is ILY (I Love You). My boyfriend and I sign it to each other casually, but I usually see it as an expression of platonic affection to friends/family/community, like as a greeting/farewell, and as a symbol of ASL/Deaf pride. So I could see the brothers and April signing ILY to each other in a sibling affection way (and maybe Splinter when he’s being heartfelt and not emotionally constipated). Unfortunately it doesn’t translate well to three fingers! So it may only be a “Y” held up for a second, or shaken side-to-side, with context. (Or maybe their hands are permanently fixed in an ILY lol)
More TMNT signs:
Father/Pain/Bullsh*t
Yes/No
61 notes
·
View notes
Hiya!! I noticed there weren’t many pictures of Mikey’s room to reference so I thought I’d make a reference based on some pics of the show. Changed some things that I couldn’t see very well like the art by his hammock. : D
Pictures from the show are episodes “the purple game” and “lair games”
149 notes
·
View notes
For reference, Raph is 6 feet tall in the series. That's the height of a standard doorframe!
Also, I think we're all assuming that Leo gets to be 6 feet tall or taller in the future. He's 5 foot 5 inches (my height!) in the series, but you also have to account for different growing rates.
Here's the official(?) height reference + the height difference between the two Leos by who I think is one of the people who worked on the series:
Plus RoboRaph
102 notes
·
View notes
Here's another version of Leo being Leo with a blonde wig
I do not thinl bay-leo id the type of guy who is used to long hairs like rottmnt Leo.
I will also do bay-mikey with rottmnt mikey hairs
Take two versions of this cus he also looks good with glasses 🫠
95 notes
·
View notes