Cartoon Anatomy (Read Desc.)

There seems to be a few misconceptions floating around: Mainly, that if you draw in a cartoony style, you don't need to know anatomy, and that cartoons do not have anatomy.

      This is not true. 

You don't need to be a master at realism in order to successfully draw a cartoon, but you DO need to have a rudimentary understanding of anatomy in order to get anything to "look right". 
 

Even in the 30's, the time when rubber-hose animation and inkblot characters were the norm, there is still an underlying anatomy.
                   Go look at an animation from this time period, and if you pay close attention,you will notice that even with the simplistic style and limited animation, elbows still bend in the middle of the arm, eyes are in the middle of the face, the back of the characters' heads is bigger than the front (or in the case of snouted critters like wolves, is bigger than the front minus the snout) and that hands rest halfway down the hip when the arms are held at the side of the body- all of which are examples of correct anatomy.


Small things like that can make a big difference in the quality of your art.
    Another point in anatomy that can be of benefit to cartoonists is head height.

Head height is a method to properly gauge proportions.
Basically, if you stack a bunch of a character's heads on top of each other, the number of heads that totals their height is their head height.
             (Note: Don't count things like hair, ears, or horns when determining the height of the head- those WILL throw the proportions off.)
Head height can also be used to determine a characters width as well- the more heads that can fit in the torso side-by-side, the wider the character.
  Length can be determined in a similar manner.

               To get a better idea of how head height works, here are some icons as examples:

- This Carrot Cake icon is two heads tall, half a head wide, and most likely between one and one half heads long. This makes it clear that this is a baby pony as opposed to a small child or adult pony. The head is huge compared to the body, giving it a cute appearence.
 
 - This tiny Applejack is also two heads tall. However, she is most likely one head wide and clearly two heads long, making it clear that this is a chibi design rather than a baby Applejack. This is reinforced by Applejack having cute, but slightly more "mature" features, such as a less rounded face.
- This Fluttershy is roughly three heads tall and two heads long- very close to the in-show proportions of three heads tall, two heads tall, and one head wide for the "adult" ponies.  She is still quite cute, but is not as exaggerated as the previous two icons.
  - This Celestia is about six heads tall, between three to our heads long, and one head wide. This makes her appear very tall and graceful. In contrast to the other icons, Celestia has an elegant rather than cute design. Further, her proportions are closer to those of an actual horse, and she is drawn a bit more realistically than most ponies.


As you can (literally) see, a smaller head height makes a shorter, cuter, more exaggerated character, while taller head heights make taller, elegant, more realistic designs.

Besides affecting how a character looks, being able to determine head height makes it easier to successfully depict an existing character.
    You can easily determine the head height of literally any character in minutes, and knowing this piece of information can help you plan out the illustration more intelligently.
              (Actually knowing what you're doing saves time.)
Further, knowing the head height of your character will make keeping them consistent across drawings a lot easier.




Naturally, there are a lot of other anatomy things that help in cartooning, but I think I've taken up enough of your time already.  ^ ^;

Anyway, I hope you've learned something from this stamp. ^ ^



Stamp Base by WinglessButterfly55 wingless-butterfly55.deviantar…a