Structuring the Legs

As an amateur anime artist. when it comes to illustrating the legs, it difficult process for me, since the arrangement of the legs is very detailed and Anime is a Japanese cartoon, it is not as detailed as realism art. So in hopes to potential my skills for it, I have used a book that consists numerous instructions of steps on how to draw hands, arms, legs, and so on.

"Drawing People for the Absolute Beginner."

-- Mark and Mary Willenbrink

[Image above]

Legs -pg. 51

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Views and Poses:

"The upper leg has muscles surrounding the boner. The lower leg, however doesn't have have muscles covering the whole area." -pg. 51

This explains why the upper thigh is thicker than the lower legs, and this in fact helped me tremendously, because I have been drawing the upper thigh as thick as the lower 

legs--which rendered into abnormal legs.

1.

1. I quickly doodled a character, and made the legs parallel to each other. On both of the legs, I made their legs linear and slowly in-caving in downward, then drew in random shoes to fill in the place. Because after, I would just need to create curves on the sides of the lines, for the thighs and lower legs.

2.

"The knee has noticeable protrusions at the front. The kneecap, along with the ligament that connects it to the lower leg, is prominent when the leg is straight."

Views and Poses: 

Legs -pg. 51

2. As you can see, I have sketches the lines over the (erased) lines, and then erased it when I believe I drew the right proportion of the thighs and lower legs. I have also made some small details on the knee cap, since my character is stranding up straight.

3.

3. After feeling confident how it turned out, I have decided to create more minuscule details--to indicate the kneecaps is present and fixed a bit on the thighs and lower legs.

I have also drew in the thigh-high socks and flats for the additional attire.

This is the final result of the drawing. I feel very accomplished in myself, since I have finally drew legs that looked pretty-decent. I do believe I need to practice a lot more to enhance the structure of the legs. But overall, I am pretty happy how it turns out--even though there are some minor errors, it did not destroy the whole illustration.

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I would love to receive some constructive criticism!

What is one of the hardest body part for you to draw?