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Bambs79 — Sketchbook: Arms Pg1

Published: 2010-01-04 10:41:10 +0000 UTC; Views: 34578; Favourites: 486; Downloads: 0
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Description I guess people are soon gonna start asking me, "dude, what is it with you and arms?" The thing is, arms are difficult to draw, especially well muscled arms as you've got to know where all the muscles lie and how they twist when the arm moves. Therefore my mantra at the moment is, 'draw enough of 'em and eventually you'll remember how they go!'

I don't know why but I've got this thing in my head at the moment about being too slow as an artist and I really want to speed up without the artwork suffering as a result. Therefore, in my head, I reason that if I practice enough it'll become second nature! Whether this idea works or not remains to be seen!

Oh yeah, there's a couple of legs on there too! Just for good measure.
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Comments: 41

StriderSoryu [2014-10-21 18:10:19 +0000 UTC]

Thanks, very helpful that you did these. I have the same trouble with arms, that its been messing with what poses I can put a character in.

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DirtWorship [2012-08-12 15:19:41 +0000 UTC]

I agree 100% on this...I've also been thinking the same thing recently, which I think has a lot to do with us getting older and thinking we're running out of time or not spending enough time drawing.

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Bambs79 In reply to DirtWorship [2012-08-13 21:31:24 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, I'm kinda obsessive when it comes to this sort of thing because I'm also a big believer in 'use it or lose it' too. I'm often so busy that I can go weeks without getting any drawing in and when I do get back to doing some I feel that I have to retrace my steps a lot of the time. It's also tough when you watch the pros getting better and better 'cos that's what they do all the time whilst you're trying to improve in literally whatever spare moment you can find!

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rg116 [2011-08-30 13:25:07 +0000 UTC]

Nice tutorial. This can help me, I have a character in my web comic that's a muscular female. Do you have anymore tutorials on muscular females.

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PoisonIvy-7 [2011-03-22 11:56:54 +0000 UTC]

Grazie, molto interessante e utile

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brokenglass16 [2011-02-14 23:00:49 +0000 UTC]

very helpful =] thanks.

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Bambs79 In reply to brokenglass16 [2011-02-28 18:16:39 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome! Hope they come in useful!

(Sorry this is a late reply btw)

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Danieltiger13 [2010-11-27 08:05:49 +0000 UTC]

saved for great justice...and future reference

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Bambs79 In reply to Danieltiger13 [2010-11-27 11:46:16 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for all the faves buddy!

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Germania9 [2010-11-12 13:55:21 +0000 UTC]

Hey, thanks for arm drawings.

Speaking of difficulty, I seem to have a problem drawing elbows when going from cylinders to fleshing out, when the arm is in bending position. When fleshing out the elbows, the elbow seems longer & larger than the intended proportion.

How do you fix that? (Besides the obvious "practise lots & lots of times" answer)

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Bambs79 In reply to Germania9 [2010-11-14 21:38:08 +0000 UTC]

No problem, hope they're useful.

It's difficult to answer your question without seeing an example/picture of what you mean but it sounds like the cylinders might be hampering you? The cylinder technique is ok but I find it's not totally true to the forearms, i.e, the wrists are skinnier than the upper forearm and sometimes the elbow gets pushed too far out.

I hate to say it but practice is certainly the best way. Copy from photographs and even other artists artwork, especially good comic artists. I certainly recommend checking out Ryan Ottley who pencils Invincible. His take on anatomy is awesome! His link is

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Germania9 In reply to Bambs79 [2010-11-18 11:44:43 +0000 UTC]

Is there any way I can e-mail you some drawing examples I've made?

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Bambs79 In reply to Germania9 [2010-11-27 11:41:16 +0000 UTC]

Sorry this is a late reply dude. Stick the drawings up on your deviant art page and let me know when you have and I'll have a look at them and let you know what I think and if I can help at all.

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KsNandS [2010-09-23 05:03:00 +0000 UTC]

THANK YOU! That damn deltoid! I see FULLY now how it's supposed to go (Slams head on desk) Thank you so much!

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Bambs79 In reply to KsNandS [2010-09-23 19:13:03 +0000 UTC]

Your welcome dude! Glad to be of help!

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KsNandS In reply to Bambs79 [2010-09-23 22:42:59 +0000 UTC]

I'll also be giving you credit and I'll also be showing you the drawing (Which is quite sexual. Lucky you ;3)

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Debido-San [2010-01-04 22:34:30 +0000 UTC]

The arms look great!

But enough arms! It's time to go back to the back!

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Bambs79 In reply to Debido-San [2010-01-13 19:16:14 +0000 UTC]

Sorry it's taken so long to reply to this dude! Cheers, glad you like the arms! Maybe sometime I'll get around to studying the back? It's probably one of the trickiest areas to draw and always needs practice! If I do, I'm sure it'll find it's way onto dA!

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Debido-San In reply to Bambs79 [2010-01-14 01:15:52 +0000 UTC]

XD no problem, keep it up!

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grumpygrimone [2010-01-04 19:12:40 +0000 UTC]

For those of us who are jazzed about reference to doing anatomy, thank you very much for these pages. I strongly agree that practicing more and more doing a body part in illustrating(or anything else) allows you to get that much better at that thing. With system still down I'll have enough time for that and then some. You take care dude, Talk to you later.

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Bambs79 In reply to grumpygrimone [2010-01-13 19:19:41 +0000 UTC]

Hey dude, sorry it's taken so long to reply to this comment! You're welcome to the pages man, I consider it an honour if anyone feels that they can learn from me! It's kinda strange/funny 'cos I'm still learning but in a way it's nice, if I can pass on what I've learned too.

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Foyled [2010-01-04 18:50:42 +0000 UTC]

awesome arms yo! it's important to practice, practice, practice and get the way the arms and everything else moves and where everything is supposed to be. getting those things burned into your brain makes drawing a lot faster, not spending so much time trying to figure out how the muscles moves and all that jazz. wow...i should take my own advise!

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Bambs79 In reply to Foyled [2010-01-04 19:25:02 +0000 UTC]

Thanks dude, cheers for the kind comments and glad you like them! Yeah, I've got a lot of comic style commishes coming up and I just wanna get the practice in so I can do them justice but without labouring over them so much. There's nothing wrong with taking your time I know but I don't like to keep folk waiting (and some customers have been VERY patient with me) so yeah, I'm looking to get much faster.

I think it's like a lot of things, being good at something is just being really familiar with it. If you do something over and over again, eventually it becomes second nature.

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Zeartist [2010-01-04 18:28:52 +0000 UTC]

All of the sketches are brilliant, but I especially love the bottom center bicep flex. Very strong and feminine.

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Bambs79 In reply to Zeartist [2010-01-04 18:42:46 +0000 UTC]

Thanks, you're too kind. Yeah, my main thing when drawing fbbs is to try and keep them feminine so I really appreciate your comment and glad that you think it's feminine. Thanks ever so much for the fave too, cheers!

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garanmad [2010-01-04 17:08:48 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for sharing, I like seeing your "behind the scenes"

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Lurker-Below [2010-01-04 16:02:33 +0000 UTC]

Beautiful sketches of biceps and calves. I'm not sure why you think you're too slow. You sure finished up my commission quickly enough.

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Bambs79 In reply to Lurker-Below [2010-01-04 19:39:17 +0000 UTC]

Thanks Greg, your comments always make me smile! Especially the 'nose' bit! Yeah, I guess I'm not too slow, it's just I think I could be faster and I'm always looking for ways to improve so I guess you could be right when you say that I'm my own worst critic.

I shall certainly check out more of Jack Kirby. I sometimes think that I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to Kirby 'cos he's old school now and I feel like he can't teach me anything modern but that's a very arrogant view I suppose. Will definitely check some more of his stuff out!

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Lurker-Below In reply to Bambs79 [2010-01-05 03:47:10 +0000 UTC]

I've always loved Jack Kirby, but every artist has a POV, and whether you like or dislike, agree or disagree with their vision, there's always that chance you'll spot something useful or see something through their eyes that you can use in your own stuff. It's like traveling. The more of the World you see, the more viewpoints you can use in your own life. But I wax philosophical. Just enjoy what you do because you're really good at it.

And you can combine what you've done in the past, like your wildlife stuff with your FM stuff. A naked female bodybuilder who's also a falconer (she should wear the heavy glove unless her skin is reinforced steel). That could be fun. Heck, go balls out and have her be The Huntrix, invulnerable and super-strong with a Roc or Phoenix for a hunting bird. Possible a pteranadon or teratornis (sic?). The sky's the limit.

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ayanamifan [2010-01-04 12:50:06 +0000 UTC]

It stings me if people who obviously are a hundret times faster and better than me say things like "im too slow"... but probalby id say the same

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Bambs79 In reply to ayanamifan [2010-01-04 19:50:21 +0000 UTC]

He he he Sorry, it's just when you're self employed as an artist/illustrator, the faster you work, the more work you can get done and therefore the more money you can make. Also, when you're a bit slower, the customers have to wait longer for their commissions and I don't like to keep people waiting if I can help it! Currently, some of my customers have been REALLY patient with me! So I feel that I need to speed up for their sake as well as my own!

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ayanamifan In reply to Bambs79 [2010-01-04 20:00:44 +0000 UTC]

Haha o.k. well your sketches look amazing. It made me try some sketching on my own.
Im now drawing for money, but i still strive to improve as much as i can

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Wolkenfels [2010-01-04 12:12:25 +0000 UTC]

What i really like on those sketching pages is that it shows even the great ones have to practice.
I really enjoy your sketches.
Keep going!

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Bambs79 In reply to Wolkenfels [2010-01-04 20:02:17 +0000 UTC]

Thanks man, although you do me too much of an honour! I'm humbled that you think of me as a great one but trust me, I'm honestly not! For each good drawing I do, there are probably 10 bad ones! Glad you like the sketches, hope you find them useful! Cheers!

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Wolkenfels In reply to Bambs79 [2010-01-05 07:58:12 +0000 UTC]

Well you have to understand my point of view. From my molehill position it is irrelevant if you are "only" the Sugarloaf Mountain in Brazil with 400 meter or if you are the Mount Everest with over 8000.

But nevertheless i enjoy your art (most of it) and i am glad you share it with us.
Am i correct, that your muscle arms would work for (power)women and men alike?
Where do you start when drawing an arm?

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YukiOshi [2010-01-04 11:42:44 +0000 UTC]

Grazie...
You draw more arms to improve yourself, and I use your training to improve myself!

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Bambs79 In reply to YukiOshi [2010-01-04 20:04:58 +0000 UTC]

Thanks, I'm glad that you find them useful, I'm very humbled by it. I should be the one saying 'Grazie!'

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BrianThomasX [2010-01-04 11:33:52 +0000 UTC]

Appreciate showing how the bewbs move in relation to the arm... also can be tricky.

BTX

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shadow116035 [2010-01-04 10:42:43 +0000 UTC]

simple... but I like.

pshhaa.. everyone will think they're awesome. XD better than I can do so blegghh.. and you're not too slow.. you're just a time taker, creating the awesome.

but meh.. who knows. trying new things is good they say eh ol chap? XD

either way..

nice arms! <3

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Bambs79 In reply to shadow116035 [2010-01-04 10:48:56 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much, you're too kind! Glad you like the arms!

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shadow116035 In reply to Bambs79 [2010-01-04 10:56:44 +0000 UTC]

lol nah I'm not too kind. good work deserves good comments..
or... comments in general lol.

they're an inspiration you could say,
as if they're shouting out to me,

"IF YOU WANT TO GET GOOD START DRAWING SOME DAMN GOOD ARMS."

ahh... how nice.

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