A few days ago, I had a talk with Stephen Silver over skype, which was pretty life changing.
For many years I have struggled with drawing humans, maybe because we all know what a human is supposed to look like. And if we can't recreate that from memory, we get discouraged. I always drew animals cause I enjoyed the shape and form, and I sort of connected with them easier than people.
Stephen told me that I easily could do the same with humans. What suprised me the most was when he said he didn't really know anatomy. I said "what?" really confused. I thought you HAD to know all the muscles and bones in order to be a successful character designer. But that wasn't the case. Only the shape and form would do, as long as you at least knew the basics of the human body.
I got so relieved hearing that.
Then a thought stuck me; I don't know animal anatomy either! I don't know the names of the muscles or bones or what even drives the animals. I only observed their shape and had some fun with them. Then Stephen gave me the difficult task of drawing humans only, for 2 weeks. And I took that very seriously.
So that's exactly what I am going to do!