Don't Draw ANIMAL CHARACTERS Like This!
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 28. 06. 2024
- How do you draw animal ears on a human head? Where do you place horns? What is the correct way to draw a snout? Learn the top tips for designing half-animal half-human characters, as well as biologically accurate ways to draw animal features!
Winged Canvas art instructor Jessie Chang teaches us her personal techniques for thoughtful character design, and common mistakes beginner artists should avoid in this short art tutorial!
đ Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
0:05 - How to draw animal SNOUTS
1:58 - How to draw CAT EARS on people
4:30 - How to draw HORSE EARS on people
5:39 - How to draw HORNS on people
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0:17 "disproportionate, this is not in perspective"
- talking avatar with mouth on the side of face
I think that kind of thing works with very cartoony reasons.
had no right to call them out like that LMFAOO đđ
it's an over simplified cartoon avatar so it works
My thoughts exactly!
@@bbew2914 ok but what if the person was drawing a cartoony animal like that? It sounds like they're calling it out whatever situation it is đ
I really enjoy making demon characters with fairly large horns and never really noticed that I always kept their horns to the front! The amount of variation horns can carry is such a fun idea to play with.
Halo horns thar connect at the top in a point is always an interesting idea to play with too
Think about what personality the character has too, that could apply to how dainty or masculine they look.
@@spacecowboy7148 OOH THAT FIRST IDEA! And yup!! Iâm gonna use my character April as an example. Sheâs usually sort of strict and work oriented, and has a fairly feminine appearance. Her horns are sort of like that from more classic depictions of demons, fairly straight with a slight curve.
I wonder how heavy the horns are tho
@@AlicornHana depends on the person's build i'd think.
Horns are often made out of the same thing as hooves and nails so they're not that weighted unless they're spiraled or overly large.
i always wonder how they sleep with those
The animal ears thing is such a good point! The cat girl anime thing is cute until you think about how weird they would look in a ponytail. I feel like the most common mistake i see with horns/ ears ect is that they look like theyâre attached to the hair rather than the skull.
Yeah, youâre right when I think about it
Ngl I place the ears directly where human ears would be, idk it just feels more natural to me yk?
If anyoneâs wondering to make sure that ears/horns donât look tacked onto the hair, itâs always better to draw them as youâre drawing your characterâs head before you add hair
@@Mystery-Wolf same, I always try to make the ear connect to the original ear canal in some way to make it look better.
I also make the ears the same color as the hair, but thats because i'd assume if they were an actual animal, they'd have the same coloration as the hair. The only time I don't is when the hair is colored lol
I originally started doing it because Iâd end up in a conflict about the human ears if I didnât draw them connected
I love how you made the point about snouts being angled wrong, and to think of them like boxes. I wish I had learned this when I had started drawing lol-
like this video :)
Some famous art youtuber: DON'T DRAW BOXES
People who uses them and it makes their art better: you sure bout that
(Also, i don't draw boxes, instead cylinders if its rounded, but im not stopping you for using boxes, so many ways to draw that you should find your own way)
@@AlicornHana i use mostly cylinders and such with arms and legs but with snouts being so boxy its super useful. However box shapes rarely occur in real life. Its a balance of knowing where boxes should and shouldn't go :)
I remember a while back I saw a video giving out advice for proper character designs and such. Their character had the side ways snout. âą_âą
I wish
Yeah drawing a snout is harder than it sounds. I neede a lot of redraws to get a snout right cuse it was slighty tilted
I personally am a fan of floating horns. They're just hovering over the character's head. Maybe they're magic, who knows? They certainly defy physics.
one of my main characters i write has floating horns lol, they're so cool
I love when people make actually useful drawing videos.
I like the different perspectives you gave about where to locate ears and horn/antlers on a more human like character. Fun fact, there may be a reason why you like forehead horns. Biologically speaking animals that have horns or antlers growing from their skulls actually grow them on the part of the skull right above the eyes, which compared to a humanâs skull is the forehead bones.
There are reptiles that are able to grow âhornsâ around their heads in other places, but those are considered fake horns since they donât have a true bony structure underneath.
I learned this in my Mammology class, and I understand that information may have changed however I though it could potentially add to the conversation.
Very nice video. :)
I'm glad the weight thing was brought up, because different animals actually have different skull thicknesses at varying locations. The side of a human's head is the thinnest, if I remember right, about around the ears and slightly up or kind of to the side of the eyes ish. Whereas on a horse it's more down the nose between the eyes. Almost forehead level. But that area is decent on humans, even if not the thickest point of a human skull. So the section mentioned in the video would have the best structural support for bigger horns, as well as the best foundation to have some actual bone to grow from.
Both my husband and I like unique horns, but while some designs are FASCINATING to me I still prefer to have something with a BIT of believability based off of actual anatomy. For example, if you want horns on the face they'd have to follow the cheekbones...probably up along the apex...or the jawbone line. Also, many things with horns and antlers, (not fond she called them 'horns' for deer, but enh), is that they're usually for defense and use. So the animals that have them have specialized skulls and muscles and fat deposits to handle the shock and cushioning needed to handle such regular blunt force trauma. Sooo, if you've got weight on your cheekbones how is that going to pull and affect the rest of your face? Even if not for fighting, cuz placement, can still be grabbed and whatnot.
yeah.
I have a faun oc that has the lower part deer legs, deer antlers and ears, but his antlers are actually white/golden flowers trees and for anatomy I always make sure the ears align right, he also has a deer type nose so his face structure almost resembles the Naâvi
Ooh, cherry blossom wood? I wonder how its texture is like(i never touched cherry blossoms before so-)
He sounds very pretty! đ„°
that sounds adorable, I'll be sure to use that for future inspiration
sounds like the offspring of a satyr and a druid
Me obsessing over everyone's awesome ocs:
I often slap the animalistic-ears right where the ears actually would be cuz I thought itâd make sense, but this is a pretty cool concept! :0
That only works with deer-like ears and the ones that are look liek it so-
Cause then the ear goes into the brain if it on top like that tho
@@AlicornHana spop 2019 did it with catra lol
@@AlicornHana it works with all ears, ya just gotta do it right
@@AlicornHana its all about angling. Sure, cat ears as they are on a cat don't work, but if they're angled to the side they do. Same with dogs, the flip on ears would just happen further down instead of straight up and down.
as a horse owner i would like to say - some types of horses do have very fluffy ears compaired to most! such as a brumby, but it all depends on the location from where theyre all from, the season, ect :DD
this is just for the people who like the small details tbh
The age old dnd character design wisdom when it comes to horns is something like this: âWhat side of their head does your character sleep on?â
What would you say about drawing fish people? (I love dnd and oc making in general, so how would you go about it? From a dnd perspective: merfolk, tritons, etc. Not typically mermaids as they tend to have half fish body.)
You Will love starbound and hylotl race
Hello fellow starbound player
We actually have a video on drawing fish people that may give you some ideas! czcams.com/video/_9gpFTyTjpI/video.html
Very good explanation!
I never thought about the functionality of animal ears
can't wait for more ^^
im that person who loves to doodle little animal ears onto every character i make, so this is very helpful for me!! tysm :DD
I personally like how you draw animal features on a human like person! Itâs cute.
I am so jealous of how easily you can draw a side profile đđ
my favourite kind of horns to draw are on the sides of the head and wrap to the top, because it gives me an excuse to move the ear canals, and because it feels like the weight of the horn balances itself on their skull rather than away from the head!
One of my characters, his horns come out from the back/base of his skull and wrap around just above his ears then go up. Probably my favorite horns
I already knew all of this XD but tbh it was really nice to refresh and also how you talk about it is so respectful and nice, it was just chill to watch and listen to you explain
i feel like horns work pretty well when their mass is concentrated a bit further towards the back of the head, it somewhat helps balance the naturally uneven weight distribution on human heads, because the pivot is about as far back as it can be.
the heads of most animals are front heavy but with humans its more subtle,
our heads are still a little front heavy so we also have very small neck muscles compared to other animals of our size to counter act.
i would say any weight distribution on a human head works if its counteracted by the right posture and neck muscle mass
does drawing characters with animal features make you a furry? Or does it have to be fully anthropomorphic animals?
I think it's neither. I mean I like drawing anthropomorphic animals, but I have no desire to be one
@@tas4940 being a furry simply means being a fanatic of anthropomorphic animals, not wearing a fursuit or wanting to be an animal.
@@daenite2480 oh, well I'm still not a furry. That's mor of a choice than anything. Also I'm pretty sure a good amount of furries have fursuits
@@tas4940 tiny amount. The internet is very stereotypical, you should know that by now.
@@daenite2480 I know. Btw you shouldn't assume anything
You literally saved my life with drawing 3/4 animal head views, they always look like the first Version you drew, I never knew how to fix that problem and this really helped me figure it out and learn how to do it properly! Cant wait to apply these tips and tricks to my own drawings ^^
I love the sideways snout as a dorky little style thing
Never drawn them before, but they always look so derpy and it makes me smile :)
I appreciate that horses get something of a pass if only to avoid being mistaken for fawns XD Honestly though I really liked this video and it has nice points as well as examples (and I love me examples!). My favorite part was especially horns and the weight of them.
I like the functional ear placement more than the aesthetic ear placement
As a furry artist I approve of all of these tips (not that you needed my approval but w/e), took me a lot of trial and error to figure all of these out on my own đ
Also, here's just one of my personally hard-earned "art hacks": If you ever get hung up on the shape of the muzzle, you try and try but it always ends up either too long or to short or doesn't go where you want it to, and already have the eyes sorta in the right position (or just roughed in where they'll go), just squint a bit and imagine where the nose should go and work backwards from there. This sounds stupid when I say it like that, but just, like, put down the nose, then draw the upper lip, the lower lip into the chin, the jawline and finish up connecting the nose to the brow. I don't know why but for some reason that's like my get-out-of-jail-free card when all my construction sketching doesn't look right. YMMV, but I hope it helps somebody
It makes sense :3
You are right and that makes sense-
WOAHHH ILL TRY THIS
Starting with the nose is so helpful I do this as well,
When I work with digital art I don't really think about this but now I realize how this would actually really help me.
I love the follow along presentation style with plenty of references! It really helped me visualize everything. I'm always a big fan of making my characters and drawings somewhat realistic, so this was very helpful.
I love the look of your characters in the example pictures, the way theyâre mostly human, how their animal features look like a natural extension of them instead of cosplay like anime catgirls, it makes them look like magical forest spirits. I'd love more videos about creating that look! :)
I follow more of a simple and chibi artstyle. So the first one doesnât really work with me however the rest of them work well with my artstyle
I have this half-dragon OC that has full control where her draconic features appear on her human body. Because of this, I've already come to terms with animalistic features will tend to shift your center of balance. Whenever she needs to lay low and hide her horns/tail/wings, she's always incredibly off balance and complaining about it.
Oh this is very well put together I wasn't sure what to expect from the title when this video was recommended but you've explained your point really well. I'm glad you acknowledged functional vs realistic as I to often hear that as a way to dunk on character designs. Ie (you cannot do that in a fantasy game because it's not realistic etc.)
I absolutely love the idea of bringing the ears down- especially since it doesn't give me as much of a crisis as I slowly start thinking about whether or not my character has 2 sets of ears or not because I think it looks funky with the ears on top
Tbh in my own opinion
The donât do works just as fine as the do
When coming to art tips.
Depending on what art style your working with tho.
I draw characters with all different types of ear placement. Like I have some with animal ears on top of the head, connecting to the ears and canine-like ones sticking right out like elf ears.
Same with horns, I have characters with all different types of horns in different placements.
OMG THANK YOU!! Iâve been saying the animal ear thing for so long but now one ever listened to me, hell I think it looks cuter when they ears go all the way down
I really like that you don't ramble on for 10 minutes before getting to the actual tutorial. Your videos are fast-paced and to the point, I like that!
Omg what is this channel
It's literally the first video I've ever seen and it has a lot of interesting stuff I been looking for lately
Definitely will watch other videos after this!!!
What I do with small ears is just make a cartilage? I think it's called in english that makes them appear "up", I still experiment though to be aesthetically pleasing and functional
Cartilage is like bone but not bone
I literally get jumpscared every time the "don't" and "do's" sfx is played LOL
Anyhow amazing video! Keep it up :D
This really helped a lot. I really like how you kind of did a step by step or the footage wasnât sped up.
I feel like subconsciously I knew and was already doing the ear thing but I never really thought about the logistics of how an animal person could hear with it until now
Amazing and incredibly helpful tutorial! i personally think this is the best channel tutorials i have ever seen! thank you for your content
i feel like this also would go hand in hand with cosplay and such, as far as positioning the ears and horns go
Oh i remember watching this live! It feels nice getting a refresher on stuff like these especially with my poor memory nowadays.
5:02 now this is something i think we can all appreciate! its so adorable :D man i love it
The ear thing! That's actually something I've thought of and sorta implemented myself in my worldbuilding! I like that this is being talked about, ty I learned so much
I already kind of did the "Come up from the side and up top" thing mentioned on the second section, nice to hear it validated!
This is the thing I need as I now feel happy for my creative endeavors of character designs
Finally Iâve been looking everywhere for something like this!
Also can you do a part two on the body of antro characters like the legs cuz I cannot draw legs đ
Yes! Drawing Legs on antro characters is our video premiere for this week, premiering Tuesday at 12pm ET :) czcams.com/video/JIeB9SqrXxY/video.html
@@Wingedcanvas thx
I always have this personal "pet peeve" about the placement of functional non-human ears on humanoids, because I see many artists treating the animals ears like they are a pair of horns which they aren't. I'm glad that you mention those tips in the video.
3:50 or they can be completely on the side, coming out horizontally from where your ears would be, Makes really good droopy ears
This is short but really well explained and understandable, thank youu!
The notes on the ears and horns are great! I just drew a Teifling character to go along with my player characterâs back story, and I knew I wanted him to have horns from an animal that would live in the same biome IRL. What I did with the horn placement was observe the placement on the reference animal and used that to help map the placement on the characterâs head so that the looked balanced. Oh! also made sure he didnât have a skinny neck since since the muscles would need to accommodate the weight of the horns as well đ
Just what I needed for the horns! I'm thinking about making at for my best friend, and I didn't know how to place the horns TwT
Low key needed this video for some perspectives. Thank you đđ
There's something about asking ourselves if our character would be okay with our design choices that I find wonderful. Great video!
Very useful and entertaining! I will be watching more of your videos!
also what i like to do is just LOOK AT ANIMALS MORE and see where their ear canals are in relation to the skull. you could adjust the humanoid cranial shape to lend more towards ears ontop of the head. you get some real weird-lookin' characters and it's a lot of fun, looks really unique!
The ears just make so much sense and they look good. Thank you!
finally someone pointed out the ears-at-the-top! I've always thought it weird with the function and stuff. Love the video!
I think it's funny that you talked about the horn balance but then said how you like the horns coming straight out of the forehead which is only balanced if they go back over the head, not balanced in many cases. Though I mean in the end besides the beginning part this video is entirely opinion based not fact based and that's fine, I just thought that that was a little funny
I thought the same đ As little nubbins they work, but longer horns on the forehead look too heavy!
4:51 kind of depends on the season - generally yes they will be skinlike with very short velvety fur, but during the winter (or even other seasons if you live in a cold area or just have a very hairy horse) they can become very fluffy both on the insides and the top of the ear :) I had a horse as a kid / teen and his ears were very fluffy inside and outside during all seasons except summer where they were only fluffy towards the bottom of the ear
Yep, I'm adopting the lower-bigger ear model, thanks for the idea ^^
I love that while you are teaching us the correct places and proportions of human/animal mixs i notice the disproportional image of you on the side. Anyways, this helps a lot. I never really drew animal people cause i didn't know how to go about it
issue with big ears is that if you make them too big they don't seem like the proper proportion to be cat ears. start lookin' like mice or elephants or somethin'. it's just kind of assumed that if someone has the anime cat ears that the earholes are moved (or sometimes they have both ears in which case it's definitely aesthetic, or they have 4 functional ears)
The ram one with the horns on the back of the head looked fine to me, but that's probably because the character looked a little hunched over, balancing out the imbalance you mentioned.
So yeah if you're going for an imposing character or something with good posture, you should put them more in the front.
You explain stuff in a rlly good and simple way!
i love this channel, i could be in the deepest pits of art block and even then it stands no chance whenever i watch one of these videos â€
You mentioned bear ears and I have always struggled to make a more "accurate" version of it and just do an aesthetic version. Do you or anyone have any tips? Thank you
3:16 FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT. I thought I was the only one who did this!
I have multiple animal hybrid ocs, and I also like drawing characters who have ram horns, so this is incredibly helpful! Thank you!
I am so glad I have been recommended to this video. I have been trouble with my own drawing when it's up to human animal in a away.
4:15 I DONT KNOW WHAT ANIMAL THIS IS BUT GAIA THAT IS SO CUTE-
6:53 for the record, deer have antlers, not horns. Great video! This was really helpful â€đđ
I do the smaller horn straight from the forehead only to really small ones or like somewhat small ones It's really cool you mentioned it!
I remember my art teacher put this video on the class tv and we watched it I'm so glad he did cause now I can watch your videos and be inspired! :)
i love this video tysm!! i do have questions for aquatic features though, since i want to make an accurate-ish mermaic character :,D
they have another video on mermaids on the channel! i would post the link but idk if youtube is gonna delete the comment, but its one of the most recent one they have posted, shouldn't be difficult to find
you dont need their permission to design a character lol
@@Sputterbugz ???? They were asking for advice, not permission lol
@@cottonballbats tysm for telling me đđ
Hey there, you're welcome -- glad it was helpful! Here is our video on drawing fish people ;) czcams.com/video/_9gpFTyTjpI/video.html
Honestly, when drawing ears, Iâve noticed many characters I see have 4 ears, and everyone knows how weird it would look if cat ears stuck out of the head, so I made the ears larger, the base starting at the human hear canal, and then make the ears connect more to the sides of the head, glad to see that youâve pointed it out.
I've never noticed that i usually draw horns in the frontal area/forehead! Design wise it feels so much more balanced, and I especially like when the horn kind of wraps around the head!
This actually really really helps me!!! Thank u!!!!
Oh Iâm so excited for this one!
OooooOOOooooohh furries are going to have fun with this one
Oh yes indeed we are!
I am so happy this video exists as it's hard to find references on human-animal anatomy for more realistic? fantasy worlds.
I appreciate you explaining that there really is no right or wrong way to draw these kinds of things. It's all about how much you want to exaggerate and how much you want to keep it realistic. This is extremely under-recognised in tutorials and teaching.
Very interesting video BUT
4:10 - idk if you noticed, but arknights characters have both human AND animal ears! There are even some theories that use that as a significant thing after some events since it is consistent over most characters... At least all that don't have the ears covered by hair or smt.
That was not relevant to the video at all. Just a fun fact I wanted to share.
me with my horrible depth preception:
uh oh
this is exactly the thing i have a really hard time with, thanks a ton for this!! :D
YOUR VIDEOS HELP ME SO MUCHHHH
what about hybrid characters like a jackalope character
how and where do you place the antlers and where to you place the bunny ears
or like a horned griffin character. placement of the feather and horns
or for a chimera character
Usually Jackalopes have deer horns that go up so I imagine the horn is up, so It would have a space difference or height difference between the ears and horn i think?
1:36 as an equestrian, I just wanna add that horses have like a triangle for the bridge of their nose from the side, and then for the tip its circle, while this is better than what I was drawing, I feel its more accurate to view the middle part of their nose as prism, and the end like a sphere that is slightly lower than the middle
how short or long, and how thin or thick the prism is depnds on the horse, and how much lower the sphere is also depends, for example in Standardbreds, they have long thick face and a sphere very low, for Arabians, they have a short thin face and a sphere almost parrel due to their huge nostrils
This also depends on if the equine is a draft horse, a light horse, a pony, a miniature horse, a foal, etc
draft horses usually have thick droopy faces, they almost have a scythe shape but not nearly as curved
In light horses usually have thinner, triangular faces
Ponies usually have very triangular faces, and their sphere is almost even and more locally due to big nostrils
Miniature horses are the same as ponies except they have very thicc noses, tho rarely they have literally look like a light horse, but most are just tiny ponies with a Taiga tsundere personality
Foals tend to look like the adult version of their parents/need, however their features are thinner and look more fragile (bcuz they are) than an adult horse's
As always, use a reference, especially if your horse is specific breed, then it really takes a load off, also when looking at refs, be aware many purebred horses look different, and alot of what google shows you is horses who where bred for that breeders imaginary beauty pageant, and (side tangent) we do sadly have nose issues with Arabs where they bred them to have thing noses the that make it diffucult to breathe (which is the exact opposite of what you want, arabs are designed to be the GOD of breathing well among horses, short nose so it takes less time for air to get to the lungs, big nostrils, bigger lungs and ribcage... Theyre designed to breathe better than other horses)
Huh thats another good note... If you a drawing a specific breed, know what they where bred for! Standbreds speedy cart pulling, Arabs speed, draft horses pulling heavy things and cart pulling, Morgan's all purpose, Quarter horses herding livestock, miniature horses to be tiny draft horses (originally) and being cute (nowadays), etc etc
I hope this helps, I still suck at drawing but if there is anything I know abt it, its horse body shape, when I started I could draw horse stuff from memory
Sry ik this is long af, horses are like an entirely different world lmao
this is awesome! thank you for the help and advice and lovely art!
The animal ears one really helped me and I like how it looks when I draw it!
What about reptilian features? I always see mammalian features and never see any other type of animal
Like?
Wolves, foxes, dogs, and cats are rather popular among animal characters. Humans with dragon features as well, but they have more going for them. This is because they have large protrusions.
Reptiles are a little more "bland" (probably one of the reasons they are not often paired with human characters), they don't have a lot going on with their heads most of the time. (Their ears are holes and don't stick out, which isn't very appealing.)
Some reptiles have scutes or spines, but they are typically short and don't sit on the head.
The most interesting reptiles are those with frills, as most of the time frills sit on the neck. (Whether be on the sides, or on the front.)
Remember your artstyle can be whatever you like!! This is just tips on how to improve if youâd like and more realistic!
I actually been drawing my ears like that for a long time I always liked it better đ„°
I needed this Iâm like actually taking notes and drawing the doodles cause I have been struggling with drawing animals basically all my life
When i read manga or comics with those features i always pay attention on this, if they did just the same as always or if it's well made to be on the more "realistic" way. And one of my favorite manga with it, have the ears drawn just like this, perfect. Idk, it's more satisfactory to see it on the most realistic way than the most used one, it gives more details and make it more beautiful
"You can't tell me what to do!! đĄ" lol jokes aside, I already do all of this and am strangely a little proud of myself for that xD
Thank you for this. It really helped me figure out some character design stuff, since I'm drawing a lot of hybrid animals recently.
10/10 tips thank you soooo much, sent this to all me friends and they all agree!