SQUATTING POSE & BENT KNEE Leg Mapping (How To Draw)

artwork critiques photoshop files and

reference sheets are all available on my

patreon hey there guys and girls i hope

you're doing well my name's mikey

welcome back to my room it's time for

another tutorial and today we're going

to be taking a look at how to draw your

own anime and manga characters down low

in a squatting position we're going to

use some basic shapes to put this

together just enough that it's going to

look correct without being overly

complicated but because this is

essentially structuring anatomy this is

also going to be useful for any forms of

life study or general illustration so

i'm just going to go ahead and get

cracking with a spare piece of paper to

rest my hand on and a super cheap

disposable mechanical pencil i'm just

using printer paper here with a number

of sheets and the very first thing that

i just want to talk through is going to

be weight that is when you've got a

character who's squatting down low their

body weight is essentially going to be

sitting down through the headline

and if they're resting down on the back

of their heels that's going to go all

the way down to the feet so i'm just

doing a very vague rough line here i'm

going to essentially start working a lot

more firmly than i usually do and i'm

going to try to keep things

relatively quick but it does mean they

might come out relatively rough as well

and we're going to start off with a

character where we're looking just a

little bit behind but i just want to

show you how i think about that body

weight now this is going to be

essentially part one perhaps of a

two-part tutorial series where we talk

about squatting characters in this

example i'm going to be keeping uh the

knees together the legs essentially

closed in low squats and kneeling

positions just so that everything is

relatively safe for work feeling and

we'll take a look at wider splits and

what's going on with the anatomy on the

inside of the flies and so on in another

tutorial further down the line

not to mention as well we've already

covered uh a in-depth how to draw legs

tutorial where we actually go over the

musculature and the structure of what's

going on around the legs especially how

to break things down and keep it simple

for the knees of your characters that's

available probably with a little pop-up

in the corner of your screen there so

i'm going to assume that you know a

little bit of that just so that we can

break down the rest of what's going on

into hopefully a relatively easy process

so what i'm going to do here is i'm

going gonna think about the curve of the

spine and sweep a little bit in

just here as i come down from my

neckline and then i'm gonna pop out

relatively generously as we go into the

lower part of the torso

and i'm still using some very quick

simple basic building blocks for this as

we look just behind this character's

shoulder line again when it comes to the

building blocks of torsos and how to

break down how to draw bodies in nice

big simple shapes we've covered all of

this before in a whole load of tutorials

playlist hopefully available somewhere

on the right and of course everything

that we do here today i will make a copy

of everything we draw available over for

the patrons on patreon where you can get

the entire pack of all the references

for just a dollar

so here i've got

a very basic back situation i might

imagine that we've got a bit of bum

curve going down around about here

into this part of the hip bucket area

and the middle of the spine just going

to adjust that to go a little bit

further up there and then the shoulder

line that's going to be popping one

circle off around about there

this shoulder circle is going to be

sitting a bit more forward

somewhere

over here i'm going to be focusing

really around the legs hips all the way

down to the feet because that's the area

that's doing some very interesting

things when we draw our characters

squatting down especially if you're

trying to

maybe depict an anime or manga character

who is out on the dance floor or maybe

with a partner doing something more

private in a bedroom and they're really

just bringing all of that business all

right down and low on the whole

situation so let's just kind of work out

what's going there i'm just going to get

some very basic arms out of the way as

well i go down to around about the

bottom of the

chest sphere that we're kind of working

on that elliptical shape to bring it all

together

but i just want to focus on these legs

now i've got this weight line now that

goes down the middle of this character

and i want that weight to sit on the

back of the heels so i'm going to

imagine that we've got

a very vague circle here or one of the

feet the heel part of that might just be

sectioned off loosely here again i'm

working a little bit more firmly than i

usually do

usually i'd work very lightly when it

comes to these slightly more interesting

poses because we like to explore with

some test lines all over the place and

then you can firm up for ones that seem

to be working get rid of ones that don't

seem to be doing the job

i'm also just going to show here the

side

of the bucket of the hips as we come

down there just slowly building up and

adding to the definition of these shapes

there we go and with this foot here i'm

just going to come down and imagine that

it's balancing on the toes on the front

so although we might have this large

generous vaguely triangular shape that

comes down here it's actually just going

to pop at about 90 degrees

if you've got the toe section going off

there this isn't how to draw feet

tutorial which is my excuse for saying

this will not be perfect but hopefully

it's going to be just right enough to

give you an idea of what's going on so

i've got that weight resting down on

that foot haven't even worried about the

legs yet i'm going to go ahead and just

get another one right about here as well

coming down on that edge let's just make

that the under part of the heel now

whether you're drawing shoes or this is

going to be bare feet use these building

blocks as a starting point and you can

build up from there to see what you like

and now if i imagine that right we've

got our level character level shoulders

there's not much contrapostel going on

they've got level hips as well and the

joint's going to come out of this kind

of bucket hip area and pop out for the

legs

now depending on how you kind of measure

out the legs for your character and so

on i just like to make sure that the

entire leg section is going to be at

least about the entire body section so i

might just imagine that halfway we'll

take things from about the middle of the

hip and we'll work our way down and

around so at half of this distance going

up here might be how far i'm going to

pop out here but i'm going to fall

shorten it a little bit i'm going to go

about this far out

and then i'm going to just take it easy

from there because we're going to block

everything back

and i've got a straight line here to

indicate the direction of the leg and i

usually drop a circle right on the end

for that to be our kneecap but when legs

bend and again do check out my how to

draw strong legs tutorial we talk all

about this um things start to move

around so my kneecap circle

is actually going to be around about

here i've gone lower and then when i

come and follow a line back to this part

of the leg i'm coming off the bottom of

that circle line instead of meeting both

of them perfectly in the middle

now i'm still thinking about a big

generous cylindrical shape that's going

to be the top part of the legs and the

thighs and so on but i'm going to

squeeze it a little bit as well so it's

starting to flatten out so let's start

off with a big cylinder that's coming

forward here just a guideline simple

basic shape that's going out over the

calf muscles quite nicely before

sweeping down depending on how generous

you're making your characters i might

just come in a little bit lower in fact

and again don't be scared to have loads

of test lines until you find out what

you do and don't like don't be overly

beholden to any of your initial guides

they're here to help you not here to

hinder you or lock you into place i'm

going to sweep down towards that knee

area

and then just generously curve out

because it's a cylinder remember

and then i might just have a line that's

just a guide

very lightly coming up there because

we're gonna change that shape in just a

moment then in a very similar way okay

let's come up from here we've got the

hard shin bone

it should take us to the bottom of this

circle round about there

but actually i'm going to imagine that

the calf muscle which we often draw is a

kind of teardrop coming down or this is

getting really squeezed now

so i'm going to

draw this kind of

big

squeezing slightly eggish lump around

about here just like so and i'm not

coming all the way down the leg i'm just

bringing it to around about there and

i'm going to now imagine that okay

because this part of the muscle is

popping up and squeezing here

we're following this line to show how

these two sections of the leg interact

as they meet back on each other and then

maybe that's going to squeeze down and

the top part of the leg that sits on top

is going to cover a bit more of this

area especially as the bum

sinks down

over the back of that foot

so i've got a curve here where i'm

actually bumping up into that area to

represent that section of the calf then

i can just firm my way up along this

line here and you'll notice i'm rotating

my hand all the way around the place if

it helps to give me a gentler better

curving line but i'm enjoying a bit more

to get a smooth flow of things

and then as we go up to the knee here

you can kind of imagine because of the

way the muscles are bulging and we're

going to talk about this

a little bit more on the side of the

knee i'm actually just imagining a faint

squeeze there

and then the kneecap almost separately

with its own series of ligaments and

bits and interesting shapes that are

going on is then popping out beyond that

with a slightly flatter tip

just like so

so i might not draw this line shape here

depending on how i'm shading but i'm

going to certainly show that things are

projecting

out past there just like that and in

terms of this torso and top area well

we've covered that a lot before i will

come in on a little bit of time lapse

and clean all of that up in just a

moment but let's focus on what's going

on down here this is where the action

seems to be we've got then the rest of

our bum area here i'm going to sweep

around for the other cheek which is

a bit like a golden ratio we start off

shallow and then we get that curve going

tighter and tighter before we squeeze

into the underside of the bum

just like so

and then again down onto those feet or

heels or depending what's going on with

shoes or barefoot so that's what i'm

imagining here just imagine for that

squeezing away from us

just like so and the musculature

is squeezing out the side so i'm just

putting this little surface line show it

as a second bit of extra bump there

and then squeezing out on that calf

muscle there

before we aim back down towards the shin

line

so that's what's going on in terms of

how i like to think about the weight i

like to actually go right through the

spine line and then sink things right

over the feet if this character is

putting all of their body weight down on

the feet accordingly

and let's take a look at a slightly more

sort of front and open angle and this is

where we're kind of going to enter into

the territory where we're using these

basic shapes but also working around

these forms and trying to get these nice

organic squeezes and squishy feelings in

certain areas but hopefully we can break

that down i'm going to start off with a

line then or the hips let's go

across

here

like so

and then if you imagine that this is my

hip line i've just got that kind of

elliptical shape on its side that helps

me very loosely guide out what's going

to be the bucket area of the hips

themselves again i'm trying to go quick

and firmly

also guys whilst we are putting this

together thank you so much as ever for

subscribing to the channel and i said

we'd do this a while ago we certainly

will be i'm going to do a proper thank

you video for over a million subscribers

it's absolutely amazing and i really do

appreciate it but i do just love the

fact that um you guys are trying to get

into drawing now we're doing closed leg

uh squatting positions today i will do a

further video on wide leg stuff uh which

is a little bit less salubrious but this

is just going to be nice and family

friendly for the moment um but yeah i'm

not afraid to use boobs to try to

convince you guys to get into drawing

because i find it very therapeutic it

can take your mind off of life struggles

you don't have to love it but i do want

you to try it because you might really

like it so there you go thank you very

much for following along

now

i'm just going to imagine right i've got

the bone of the hip here and i'm going

to bring this a little bit further out

on this side as well

and then the front center line might be

just the lower part of the abdominal

wall we've got a little bit of front

tummy there

maybe we've got the belly button

somewhere in his cross zone now i'm just

going to come out and sweep down

before popping down to the bottom part

of the torso and private sphere and then

i'm just going to sweep in just about

the arc that we like to do and again

this is all just part of my guide to

help me in just a moment where i come

down here and inversely with a more

concave line pop up over on this side as

well so these are our bony areas of the

hips here which aren't going to flex

just up here

and just over here everything else might

be squishing around and having a lot

more fun

so if i want to kind of work out how to

evenly keep things going i've got my

line that's going right across here and

i'm going to keep things at that lateral

feeling so i might have my legs popping

out

right over to here if the knee is

sticking out accordingly but that line

is still

parallel to this one

and i could just draw a little

box shape to help guide how i'm just

filling in that particular zone but

remember everything's going to come back

right down on this center line of weight

so i know if i'm going to be popping the

feet somewhere vaguely around about here

and i'm just going to put a little box

to be the back parts of the feet just

like we've got here and maybe just

something that might indicate where the

toes are going this is just a very loose

guide to help me i might put these feet

a little further apart um but let's see

what's going on here

i'm going to pop all the way out

from this joint i'm going to imagine a

nice round circle to be our kneecap area

here

i'm just popping

this here

to help guide what i'm going to connect

later being very generous with the size

of that circle and actually let me just

firm that up you a little bit further

and then a very similar thing over here

let's imagine this legs popping out on

that side just going to

get a nice generous guide circle going

to bring my hand just a touch further

down the length for the pencil there

just so we've got that in place a tiny

bit more accurately whenever i sketch

very loosely i put my hand quite fab far

back up this pencil to loosely guard

around and then i try to bring it back

down and then when we're cracking on

and now again i'm going to think firstly

just about those squashed cylinders

let's imagine that we start off around

about here where the knee is

there's a kind of circular shape the end

of that cylinder i'm going to just curve

and sweep that up

and around and down

towards where we meet back in over here

to what might be a hip flexor around

about this point and i'm going to get

very generous around the outside edge

because now this cylinder is describing

a squeeze outward of all of the thigh

muscle as it leads its way around to the

side of the bum so even though we've got

this shape coming down here in the hip

guide the cylinder

might sweep all the way around here and

i'm being a bit

more straight with this curve a bit more

shallow as it curves around and then

coming a little bit thicker and deeper

and then back up as we reach our way

around the bottom part

just like so

and from where it tucks right into the

body here i'm just going to imagine okay

let's get a little surface line to help

describe

where that part is leg before it gets

into hip and meets around the side of

the bottom and then i'm going to do a

similar thing over here are a little bit

more

side on to the inside edge of this one

i'm still going to keep the shapes

relatively the same that is

cylinder is a little bit smaller at this

end and it's a little bit larger as it

meets in this end and it's not a perfect

circle getting flattened into an ellipse

and as it meets into the body here this

is probably gonna just curve here

on this side in

before it starts to go down and then

just like i've got here let's sweep

nice and generously

up and around like so

we're meeting towards this knee circle

joint but we're going to talk about that

in just a quick sec

up down and around and then in a very

similar way i'm going not down too far

relatively levelly in and this is as a

guide because again we're going to

squeeze things around in just a moment

so there's those both legs going

forwards now let's get down on the

underside

now when it comes to the calf muscles as

they squeeze in these guys squeeze right

out and what i actually think of doing

as we make our way back towards the legs

fair is i'm just gonna travel back a

little bit in this direction underneath

this leg because we're looking at a

three-quarters view on top of things and

i'm just going to actually start to draw

an ellipse right around under here

very shallow

just like so

like this

getting that shape in there

that's going to help me map around all

this squeeze i'm going to do a similar

thing here i'm coming back in towards

the body from underneath the circle but

i'm already thinking about this

elliptical

squeeze shape

just like so

okay slowly getting there and then this

is going to follow back again to the

back of the foot so um this heel might

all be hidden away from us as this legs

down here you can see already i'm

building past my guidelines which is

absolutely fine as long as it feels

overall it's okay with its mass and its

weight you're going to be just fine

and then i'm going to come down and just

put a foot that's heading straight

down-ish like so

and then i'm just going to

imagine we've got a little part of that

section that's a

big toe around about here

the rest of it's coming in over there

again i'll just decide exactly how much

i want to work around that when i drop

into some time lapse and then this leg

as well is still coming back in and

under here

i'm curving that back through i'm still

imagining that just like we had up here

and up here there's a separate line

popping back down through there but i'm

not drawing it in because it's going to

over confuse what's going on with our

line work and because it's a lot of

organic shapes which are squishing at

the moment we can get a way of just

squishing out this calf before we make

our way right back down past here

get the other foot in so i'm going to go

back down around about here

and imagine again

that foot's coming out

around about there it might come out in

the form of one big toe

separated

with all of the smaller ones into a foot

that's a paddle shape going up there

slightly better version of what i've

just been doing on this side so let's

just clean that up

very quickly

just like so

and then pop back down again with that

guide let's get back in under there

excuse me

and get a nice front toe area bit more

confidently there just these larger

shapes it will work with and expand out

from

so what's going on with the knees

because this is the area that usually

catches people out and it certainly did

me

i'm imagining the kneecap

still as a hinge more than a sphere

so i might be imagining a shape that's

popping out here

but isn't as wide and thick as that

circle

just a little semi-circle hinge shape

there and then a similar one here a

semi-circle hinge a little bit shallower

shape

here and this is the main mass of the

knee which is protruding out from us

the rest is going to sweep down here

and meet into the underside as it curves

back in

and the muscles of the leg are coming

down and then slightly flattening out

just before they meet into there

because they're kind of building into

the top part of the joint not right over

the tip

and the bit that i just want to have a

quick look at is that squish we've got

this calf muscle here squishing outwards

okay great let's remember that this part

is going to be all part of our squished

line as it comes out and around

it sticks out here

and it also bulges up around here on the

top part of the leg remember this is

creating an extra bit of squeeze here

and an extra bit of squeeze there that

normally wouldn't be in place when

you're standing up with your character

and in a similar vein over here i'm just

going to

come up to around about here on the

inside of the leg not putting all of

that outside calf muscle in i'm meeting

this one a bit more halfway we're still

yeah

getting this extra internal squish of

all the muscle here and this extra

squish off the calf as they're pressing

with all that body weight onto each

other

but this part of the leg is going to go

down here

and even there

and then again just imagine that squish

is bulging here

and bulging there and everything else is

going a bit more flatly

over

top

come down there

and the rest sweeps under so there we've

got that line and over here very loosely

describe our calf line here

squish squish and then back under

nothing too crazy i'm just going to get