Anatomy Quick Tips: Hips

Hey, everyone.
Sinix here.

It's time for another another
Anatomy Quick Tips.

Today, we'll be focusing on

the beacon of honesty
that is the hips.

Yes, that will include some butts,

and some thighs, and all
sorts of salacious curves.

Don't get too mesmerized, though,

hips are actually the
most important cornerstone

for making good poses and gestures.

As always, if you're new
to Anatomy Quick Tips,

these videos are designed to offer

a shorthand anatomy for design
and illustration purposes,

more so than fine arts.

So, bear in mind,
there will be a focus

on simplification and stylization.

In that spirit, every single thing
you'll see in this video

was done without ever
looking at reference,

so, please, excuse any
wobbles inaccuracy.

Alright, let's get in there
and bake some cakes.

Starting off with structure--

the skeletal side of things
can seem fairly complex.

The pelvic bones have all sorts
of movements and shapes,

but, luckily, most of
that is fairly hidden.

So, we can skip to just
the important parts.

The overall feeling can be looked
at as something like a bowl

that holds a bunch of your
lower internal organs.

The large upper
sides of that bowl

are what I might commonly
refer to as the hip bone,

technically, the iliac crest.

While the connection of
the femur into the pelvis,

and, specifically, that part
sticking out to the side--

the greater trochanter,

is what I will commonly
just call the hip joint.

So, hip bone and hip joint,

AKA iliac crest and
greater trochanter.

That's all we really care
about for our purposes,

and, for even greater simplicity,

we're really just going to be using

the most forward angle
of the iliac crest

as our de facto hip bone.

Moving on to muscles,

we don't need to stress out
over too many names,

but we can fill in
that gap on the side

between our hip
bones and hip joints

with some tensor fasciae muscles.

Of course, the quad muscles
are quite important;

some connect straight to the femur,

but the most superficial
parts of the rectus femoris

come all the way up to
that front of the hip bone.

And, don't stress out over
these complex names,

you don't need to know them,

they're just for reference purposes.

Now, on the inner thigh area,

we have some other
muscles and adductors

that form a different
flow of movement

toward the center of the pelvis.

These can be more
visible or less visible

depending on angles and movements.

Altogether, these give
us enough substance

to draw what we need to draw.

On the back side of things,

of course, we mostly have
to worry about the butt.

You might be aware of
the gluteus maximus

as the main muscle
that makes up the butt,

but let's not forget about the
gluteus medius at the top,

which does swoop in and
add a lot of subtle shape

toward the top of the butt.

Back to the gluteus maximus,

you can notice how
it swings outward

towards the lateral
muscles on the legs

and, stretching downward
from under that muscle,

you get the hamstrings and
some other minor muscle groups.

We can also take note of how

the gluteus maximus
and medius muscles

can be flexed in order
to form a dimple shape

on the side of the butt.

Overall, that might feel like a lot

of anatomical stuff
to keep track of,

but, luckily, I'm
going to break down

some very simple reductions

that will make it all a lot easier.

The starting point for everything

will be the classic
Superman underwear.

These undies will represent

our hip structure
in most situations.

Practice drawing them comfortably

from various subtle angles.

The hip joints are
actually just going

to be visualized
as two floating dots,

level with the
bottom of our undies,

but even further off to each side.

Now, translating this into
a side view can be tricky.

If we just do a pure
side view of the undies,

it gives us some useful information,

but still feels a bit lacking.

How can we make this more useful

and have it include the butt?

Well, we're going to introduce
another shape for this side view.

Looks a bit like a stubby cannon,

but we're going to call
it the "tilted pot."

The flat front side of that pot
will represent the hip bone,

and, of course, the
rounded side is the butt.

Using both the undies and
the tilted pot together

will give us everything
we need to build

all sorts of good poses.

Anyway, let's focus on just
the front view a bit more.

You should try to develop

a comfortable sense
of subtle variety

with the pentagonal undies shape.

You can have a set
baseline that you like,

and then try to make a slightly
more narrow one or wider one.

Notice how the wider version tends

to slope more outward from the top.

That sloping can continue outward

to get wider set hip
joint indicators as well.

Those floating dots.

If I add some more
underwear shapes below this,

we can also talk about
the variety in waistlines.

This doesn't require you to do
anything different with the hips,

but it's worth practicing different
sizes of waistlines as well.

Starting from a simple one

that is basically the
same width as the hips,

you can exaggerate how
the obliques are shaped

in relationship to the hips

by adding some quick
inward curving lines

that make the whole abdominal area

feel like it's resting
on the hip structure.

Alternately, if we want to
have a very slim waistline,

we can lead from the
hips upward and inward

with a sloping line that connects
towards a narrower ribcage.

For a larger gut, we can
just allow the obliques

to rest with a lot
more mass and weight

on top of those hips.

A classic muffin-top formation.

The big thing you
might start realizing

is that our underwear shape

is not going to be
visible in the end.

What does that mean?

It means we are actually
doing something

I almost never do
in these videos--

construction.

Yes, you might know I
generally hate construction.

Why?

Because it usually leads to less
creative and stylized drawings.

But, in this case, I've always
found that starting poses

with a quick indication
of ribs and hips

actually leads to more
stylized and fun shapes

that you might not try otherwise.

This will be very important

when we get to poses
in a future video.

Alright, so we can hopefully add
abdominal areas to our hips,

but what about on the other
side with the thighs?

Let's do a few
more quick mockups.

We'll try to make one of
them a bit thicker,

one a bit more muscular,

and one a bit more neutral.

We can even add
some contour lines

to really help express
the forms of the thighs.

On our thicker version,

we're going to store a lot more
fat deposits around the hips,

which means less muscle definition

and a stronger rounding
of all the shapes.

The muscles that
drive the inner thigh

up towards the center of the pelvis

are going to feel less noticeable,

and even the quad muscles
will take a backseat

to the buildup of fat around
the hip joints and upper thighs.

Notice how small that
little "S" curve movement gets.

The muscular version is going
to play off the quads a lot.

The muscle body of the quads

is much lower on the thigh.

And, without many fat deposits,

this is going to make everything
around the hip joints

feel much more
narrow and angular.

This will lead you toward
a much more stronger

and noticeable "S" curve that
goes further down the leg.

Finally, on our
neutral test subject,

we can just keep the
mass low everywhere.

Not much muscle and not much fat.

This just leads to less
movement on both sides

and a very subtle and
simplified curve in the thighs.

Let's throw in some more
practice from the side view.

We can start will
all of our tilted pots--

some bigger and
some a little narrower.

Adding in the side view of
our undies shape next,

the key is to make
sure it sticks out

further forward
than our tilted pot.

Obviously, with a bigger tilted pot,

aka a bigger butt,

you can just let that carry a bit
more weight behind the hips.

Of course, we're supposed to
be mentioning the thighs,

so make sure the thighs feel like

they're flowing naturally
off the front corner

of the tilted pot and the
lower back of it as well.

Getting good at making quick
little "S" curve movements

will be essential to making all

of your anatomy
drawings look better,

so practice leading
into them quickly

and getting a smooth curve out.

I feel like I'm making
everyone far too caked up,

so let's chill out a bit,

and make a couple
smaller butts for variety.

Generally, a smaller
butt can have more

of an obvious dimple
formed by the muscles.

You can also go full pancake mode,

and make everything
much more angular,

maybe an extra crease
or two under the butt

for maximum sag

if you're really trying to be
more down-to-earth.

Before I ever did
Anatomy Quick Tips,

I did have a video on
drawing butts specifically,

so I'll sum that up best I can.

We'll go for a baseline
butt on the left,

an exaggeratedly small hank
hill butt in the middle,

and full on Pixar
mom on the right.

Most of this is just
giving a different view

on what I mentioned
moments ago:

small butts having more
angles, dimples, and creases,

while a larger butt is just
more simplified and round.

Do, however, pay
attention to the fact

that the butt mass is
not the widest part,

and they should
always feel like they

are resolving themselves

long before the hip
joints on the outer sides.

You probably won't see the clear
outer edge of the butt, though,

because the crease under the butt

tends to taper off relatively fast

as the gluteus maximus
connects downward

and outward toward
the side of the leg.

But, I think it can be helpful
to draw in the muscle body

as the shape that is inside
of that wider hip structure.

Anyway, the crease under the butt

does move and change
a lot with weight;

it will certainly never
extend all the way

out towards the sides,

but it will become a
lot notable and longer

as weight is shifted onto
that side of the body.

It will even feel like a
much flatter line

that will just follow the
contour of the leg

as it carries more weight.

I'll just throw in a silly little chart

of butt cheek creases over
here on the left side.

I think that's enough of our
reductions and simplifications,

so let's mention some of
the main types of movement

you may have to demonstrate
with the hip area.

The main one, and by far the most

important one for
your entire art journey,

is going to be pelvic tilt.

Understanding pelvic
tilt is essential

for making stylized poses
and dynamic characters.

Going back to our
tilted pot shape,

the more tilted that pot is,

the more pelvic tilt you will have.

And, generally, this is how
you hyper stylize

the more masculine
or more feminine traits

of any character.

Since I didn't visually
demonstrate it as clearly earlier,

first, let's make sure that the
front of our legs and thighs

connects to to the front
corner of our tilted pot.

Once again, a very controlled
"S" curve is great for this.

Next, we can do an "S" curve
for the back of the leg,

either shallower or curvier
depending on our goals.

And, after adding a
clear line for the butt,

we can also follow our
imaginary underwear shape

to round out both the waist
and the lower abdomen.

For the record, we're
keeping everything all ages,

so there won't be any genitalia,

but it is still important to have
some level of a pubic mound

in both male and female anatomy.

How visible that may be is going

to be affected by pelvic tilt,

so keep that in mind.

Of course, the spinal
curvature in the lower back

is also greatly affected
by the pelvic tilt

as the spine still needs to flow
into the pelvic tailbone.

So, pelvic tilt plays a big part
in this side view of the body.

But, sometimes, people
forget how important

it is for the front view as well.

I'm going to try and make
the same exact hips twice:

one with no pelvic tilt in the pose

and one with extreme pelvic tilt.

As things tilt forward,

the pentagonal
undies is going to be

much more squished vertically,

which will result in it
feeling much more

widened horizontally
by comparison.

Pelvic tilt is, therefore, going
to give the whole pose

a much more feminine feel

by making the hips look curvier.

The "S" curve on the inner thighs

also gets tucked up
behind the pelvis,

making any gap between the thighs

feel widest at the top
instead of lower down.

From the back view,
it's the exact same effect--

everything will look
wider and curvier,

resulting in an
exaggerated feminine look.

With this all in mind,

you should feel much more
capable of exaggerating

the gender expression
of any character pose.

To move on from this,

we can also explore
some other types

of movements that involve the legs.

While legs might might move a lot,

the hip structures won't
be doing too much.

And that's great
because it gives us

a good structure to work off of.

So, even if I lift up a leg,

the tilted pot will
basically stay the same.

And, I can use the front angle of it

to, once again, build a
sharp "S" curve off of.

Same thing for the back side of
the leg connecting to the butt,

but, now, I can have
the mass of the leg

drag that curve downward
from the butt with gravity,

giving the whole thigh
a greater feeling of mass.

If we saw this from the other side,

it would be fairly similar,

although, I'm a big fan
of using a single line

on the inner thigh to
imply some insertion point

for the adductor muscles.

Speaking of those
adductor muscles,

we can get a much
clearer look at them

if we put the legs in
a much wider stance.

The curves on both
sides of the thighs

are still based on the same
connections as the side views,

but a quick tapering
line for the adductors

makes it very readable.

Any pose we can think of now

will just be a combination
of all the information

already given in this video.

We can draw from the back
three-fourths with a leg being raised,

and all the connections
should hold up.

In this case, we also
need to make sure

to implement what we learned

about showing how
weight distribution

affects the crease under the butt.

Even in a more extreme pose

where the leg is
being lifted behind,

this just requires angling
our tilted pot so far

that it would be spilling its
contents on the ground,

but all of the other
connections and concepts

are, once again, the same.

I think we're almost ready;

all information has been
distilled and delivered.

Let's just make sure we avoid some
of the most common mistakes.

We definitely don't
want to draw cheeks

that have lines going
upward on the sides,

as they will appear
saggy and awkward

with our knowledge of
how the gluteus maximus

resolves itself toward
the outer side side of the leg.

We also want to make sure we don't
forget any important structures,

such as the abdomen
actually having mass

or the hip bones being the highest
connection point for the legs.

Speaking of highest connections,

let's make sure our butts don't slide

their way up to our lower back.

But, really, a lot of these mistakes

usually just come from having
some childish iconography

of round butts stored
in our brains,

so try to let 3D form become
your new iconography.

Alright, now you're set and can
have as much fun as you want

drawing hips from all sorts of
angles and all sorts of poses.

I've already drawn so many hips
from imagination in this video,

but it hasn't become any less fun,

so let's do one more page of
various poses and angles.

This part is more for
fun than education,

so I'm just focused on my
tempo and line energy.

Some of these are
definitely exploring

the more stylized side of things,

and you probably
won't see references

quite like these in real life,

but, with enough of our
sprinkles of knowledge,

we can have fun with anatomy

that feels somewhat believable,

but is pretty wild in the
actual proportions.

I know I tend to stylize
the legs very widely set,

so these thigh gaps
are a bit ridiculous,

but it does make it more
fun to balance the poses

and see more crazy
silhouette shapes.

Alright, I did fiddle around with

the actual layout and
positioning of this page,

but I think we're ready to paint.

Our normal starting
point still applies,

so I will be lightening
the line art

into a more orange-ish tone
and setting it to multiply.

The background continues to have
that iconic chalkboard color,

which will help us pick more
balanced colors for this skin tones.

Filling in the solid tones
cleanly on a new layer

is a boring step, but saves
tons of time in the long run

by letting you lock transparency

and never have to worry
about edges until the very end.

By far, the biggest
decision I had to make

was how to handle
rendering the pelvic area.

Just having skin tones
alone can make this

feel very lewd very fast.

Even just adding black
modesty underwear

can feel very lewd
if it's too skimpy.

So, figuring out the right
balance in this was a bit tricky.

I think what I got
should work, though.

Hopefully, it strikes the
right educational balance

and keeps the Demon of
"Itize" from attacking.

The next step is a subtle amount

of airbrush gradiation
on each skin tone,

lightening areas that seldom
get exposed to the sun

and potentially adding
more reddish tones

to various other parts.

At this point, things
will be deviating

from previous paintings a bit.

I decided to go
with a hyper-smooth

and more cleaner
rendering style this time.

All of the earliest anatomy
quick tips were very painterly,

so this offers a bit
of contrast to that.

The easiest way to go about this

is to rely on our
lock transparency

and establish a simple
cylindrical shading

on both the torso and each leg.

Heavy airbrushing
around all of the edges

with a slightly deeper and,
once again, more reddish tone

will make the forms feel
like they're turning away

from the light source.

Next, you can hit the
tops of these forms

with a bit more highlight.

Usually, I establish this with
just a minimal amount of strokes

with a big hard-edged round brush,

and then a bit more
airbrushing when needed.

Next comes the hard edges,

so if there are any cast shadows,

you can just add those in,

potentially darkening up
the edge of the shadow

to imply some bounced light
hitting inside of the shadow.

All of these additional anatomical
details and plane changes

can be hinted at by
using hard edges

where any of those
planes run into one another,

and then just softly gradiate
away from that edge.

It's always nicer if your light
source leans a little bit more

toward one side of
the drawing or the other.

Lastly, the underwear does
need a bit of form as well,

but we'll imply that
it's slightly less

reflected material than skin

and just shrink the
contrast range of values

down to be more subtle.

This painting technique
is definitely more suited

toward pinup aesthetics
and stylized anime,

as it gives everything a
very silky, smooth appearance.

In other styles, I would disregard
the line art much sooner,

but with this technique,
you can mostly leave it in

and still get a presentable look.

One important thing to remember

is that you will need to be
adding the edges and details

into areas of heavy gradiation,

which means that you'll need
to selectively pick your colors

for anatomical details based
on the specific location

you're at in the overall gradiation.

You don't want to use the
same color for form lighting

in a brighter area as
you do in a darker area.

Luckily, the large sweeping
form gradiations

that you do at the start

will give you enough of a palette
to constantly pick from,

so avoid picking
values that fall outside

of that initially
established gradiation.

Everything is pretty
straightforward from here.

Try to notice how often
I seek to do form details

in as few strokes as possible.

Sometimes, just a single
softening stroke of the stylus

is all you need to
define an entire form.

Of course, the darkest skin tone
is probably the most fun to paint,

as you get to bring in
more focus on the color

of the primary light
and the bounced light.

It's really too bad that most
of the world's indoor spaces

are dominated by just
Eurocentric lighting.

I think we would all
be better painters

if indoor lighting was
a bit less standardized.

Anyway, as things wind down,

I did decide to paint out
the line work a bit

so I can be a bit more
painterly with the strokes.

I do enjoy playing around
with that overall ratio

of smooth rendering versus
painterly rendering.

If you can do both comfortably,

it opens up a lot of freedom

for deciding the
mixture you want to use

in any specific painting.

It's just going to be a bit of minor
touch ups from here on out,

so I'm just going to skip
ahead to the finished result.

It's pretty good, but I can't resist

having just a bit of fun
with rim lighting as well,

so I'll pop that on,

and, voila, I'd say we're done.

Another Anatomy Quick
Tips in the archives.

Now, you can always
get more in depth

with your anatomical details,

but as far as hips go,
this should all be enough

to get you into
the thrust of things.

So, hopefully,
you enjoyed this video

and learned something fun.

At the very least, I do want to

thank you all for
watching this video.

The positivity of this community
has always been great.

And, finally, one last big thank
you to the Patreon supporters

that allow me to do these videos

without having to waste any
time on boring sponsors or ads.

You guys are wonderful.

Alright, see you, everyone.