I'm trying to draw a really buff lady knight and I'm having the WORST TIME trying to get her to hold her helmet under her arm (that's the big blob floating on the righthand side XD). Partly because foreshortening is hard and partly because some of the arm is inevitably going to end up behind the helmet and I can't figure it out.

It's also been hard to find references of people holding knight helmets. I came up with these two. Halp?

Please feel free to even draw on top of this drawing if you need to! And of course any other suggestions on the anatomy would be awesome, just keep in mind this is an undersketch for a drawing so it's not meant to be anywhere near complete XD



#ag #agcritique

I think the issue right now is that the helmet looks like its floating in front of her rather than resting between the side of her chest and arm. Even if you don't have a helmet, find something similar in shape (a basketball or bowling ball or something) and try holding it yourself and taking some pics. That always helps for me.

Alrighty, so I ended up fiddling and modifying the pose (the one I had didn't seem right for this character somehow in the end). This is the preliminary lineart, so it's missing any fancy shading or intricate details. I MAY also change up/clean up her face a bit. I'm undecided on clean or bushy eyebrows XD

Please give your feedback, I would really appreciate it so that I can improve!

Pbbbbt, I just realized that I forgot to add the rest of her awesome, long ponytail braid. Juuuuuust imagine that it's there okay XD

>>; bump?

I think your lineart is pretty solid! I'm not seeing any big anatomy failures. Beyond just the body, I was wondering if you looked at any armor in detail before you drew this. Or is this just a simpler armor design you're going for right now? And going back to your fist post describing what you were trying to go for here, the armor is kind of diminishing her buffness. It fits her form so much that it makes her look less large. Maybe make her armor bulkier with parts sticking out a little so she looks bigger and more muscular even if you can't directly see her body under the plating.

Thanks JTC!

That was definitely a problem I was having with the armor! When I looked up references, realistic armor kind of blots out body shapes so it's a bit difficult to tell what the person underneath looks like physically @_@ (like so) I wasn't really sure how to incorporate that bit unless I went with fantasy armor that REALLY does conform to body shapes (like this) but I really wanted something realistic. I was ALSO thinking about maybe leaving some openings in the armor since some does have that, but then when I looked at royal armor, it really lacks any uncovered areas (the perks of being royal, I guess, lol). So in the end I think I may just leave it as is unless you have any ideas bc I'm kind of at a loss there XD

A lot of the detail is going to come in with the coloring. I found some really cool references to engraved armor (like this) so I think the real fine detailing is going to be some cool engravings and colors. I definitely want her to have a super cool shield symbol (I'm thinking maybe a rose?).

Thank you for critiquing my work and let me know what you think of those ideas!