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As someone who has injured their tail bone before, I know where it is by heart now but I often will slightly change the stance of characters with tails because the balance will changed with a different body part like a tail
Something else to note: The tail being an extension of the spine doesn't just factor into its positioning, but also at how steep an angle, its base can start out from the body. After all, having a straight up right angle in your spine generally isn't considered to be healthy. So, if you want to be anatomically correct about it, you should try to make it form into one smooth line with the spine, lacking any sharp angles.
Note that the base of the tail can still have a wide range of motion making it _look_ like it forms a 90-degree angle with the lower back (common example: a housecat holding its tail up), but the joint is nonetheless a "bend" not a "fold".
@@Stratelier Yes, but the drawing looks a bit more unnatural than a bend..mostly because of how it curls after the base; it looks like it's supposed to be a relaxed position, but how a cat tail works, that would be an upright not relaxed tail position. It's not quite translated correctly onto a human body..a cat tail on a human likely wouldn't have as much motion as on a cat because our anatomy is very different.
I have a character with a bird tail that I've been drawing a lot of lately. I think bird tails are one of the easier ones to do, canine/feline tails are like a medium, with reptilian being the most difficult to draw
Tip: Instead of drawing the cat tail perfectly straight, angle down, towards the bum. Because it's connected to the spine, it'll start off having some directionality and weight and that will make it look more natural.
I was finding it difficult to place a lizard like tail on the body, it just didn’t look right- thankfully you helped me understand the mistakes I made Lol
Something you could think of to clarify the difference between the two types of tail is thinking of how they're used. Cat/Dog tails are primarily communication tools, while Alligator tails are primarily functioning tools IE have a use beyond communication, nominally as a rudder or paddle.
Not entirely true, the difference has a lot to do with different pelvis shapes between mammals and reptiles. Basically on reptiles the legs stick out to the side while on mammals they stick down.
Found you in my recommended, and you touch on all the topics (animal features on humans) I use the most! Watched a few of them, and I couldn’t agree more on everything you mention 😂 you explain things the way I try to for my friends, so I’m gonna share ur videos with them for sure. You are doing amazing! Keep it up :))
@@RubyLing_ It's the kinda word that is hard to forget once you learn it, but generally yes. A doctor would know it without having to dig into textbook knowledge
@@veinfish exactly, We dont want them to topple over. Also if its really short like a deer tail it does not matter, but if you do a tail long as the thighs, you got a problem.
Here let me post more advice on tails but more thought out. What I said up there is good advice but I was not 100% clear. When drawing the person draw a line centered in them. Flow the line out where the legs start and that will be your tail. Now if its a cat round the end and thicken the beginning and tapper it down. If its a dogs tail depending on the breed but, make the tail a little lower then the knee, and point out the end. Make the tappering more dramatic. If its a curly tail make it long as above the knee and curl it. Deer tails. Make it the size of the hand. And a triangle. Bird tails. The same as deer but dont be afraid to push those feathers. Dragon tails. Do what ever you want but I tend to follow the same rules as the cat but make it 2 legs tall. And add extra details. Crocks and gator. What they said should work. Monkey tails. Just like cats but shorter (cats are below the lower calf.) monkeys tails should be slightly longer then the legs to help balance. Dont forget to make the tail thick monkeys need their tails to be able to carry their wheight. Make it like another leg. Thats all I can think of for now.
@@Flicker_thefo0x only new world monkeys have prehensile tails; old world monkeys use their tails for balance/communication, so they vary in length and size. Some species only have stubs, and some, like the colobus monkeys, are ✨absolutely fabulous✨
I have a lot of ocs with reptilian tails (dragons), and I would always draw them like the cat/dog style you did because when I tried the alligator it didnt really fit too well heh- 😅- but I'm glad to say that at least I could experiment with that new way of drawing a reptilian tail someday! Thanks a lot for making this!!
This helps but i'm still having trouble with the connection between the tail into the pelvis region, i don't want my tails to look like a pipe coming out of a stiff wall so i feel like there should be some muscles or little bump above the tail bone connecting them together
Personally, I use a mix between both methods. I just extend the spine downwards(like the alligator method) without altering any other anatomy. In her example, the cat/dog method makes it look like the spine makes a sharp, unnatural angle, so that's why I use my method.
0:19 my gosh, I have a friend who does this just of regular animals, I’ve tried to tell her that it’s not where the tail is supposed to go, but she’s annoyingly stubborn
I sat, smack down, bull’s-eye, 100 points, right on a sprinkler, with my tailbone. For 3-4 months I took sometimes 5 minutes to sit down or stand up. So uh- yeah. I will forever know where the tailbone is
The thing I love most about watching videos like this where I think I understand the concept before watching is that I almost always learn something new! I’ve never thought about the ‘alligator’ tail method on humanoid characters, and it looks really unique to me!
I found you in my recommendations and I just wanna say thank you!! I am a beginner animater but I really enjoy making animaloid humans. And you've helped so much with how to draw and animate them!! Thank you so much!!
A helpful hint for drawing the super-thick tails: Look at an otter standing upright. Otters are mammals, so their legs go straight down rather than to the side like reptiles. It won't be exact, but it will give you an idea.
How will bird tails, tails that are small, and fish ones work? I was wondering that throughout the whole video, does it work the same way as the other two examples or is there a different method for drawing them?
It should definitely work the same for birds. Fish I feel you have room to draw it in multiple ways since fish are structurally quite different from humans. Probably the most realistic would be to draw it the same as with an alligator or lizard, since on most fish the transition between tail and body is fairly seamless on the outside.
When contructing a character 'base' with a tail, i will put about... 3/4s of an ellipse, and use about half of that as the ribcage and stomach, the rest goes into the base 'skeleton' of the tail.
I am so glad I watch your videos. You're really helping me progress at drawing. I've known how to draw bodies for a while but a lot of your videos helped me out on the facial features, animals, wings, you name it. I'm really glad I discovered your channel and I'm glad to be here, watching you grow. I want to learn all there is about art and I know it'll take some time but at least with your help it'll be somewhat easier.
My gripe is people drawing the tail sticking straight out and then curving downwards, as if the spine is snapped at a right angle to have the tail jutting out like that. It should come out at at least a slight downward slope to accomodate the anatomy of the spine.
I didn't realize that most people don't know where their tail bone would be- I've injured it so much that it hurts when I sit in certain seats or for long periods of time so I already knew
Depends on the poof, for a fox I would say start with the thin cat tail to get the position down. Then add the shape, think long trapezoid with the shorter parallel side starting at the base. Where the other parallel side stops is where the thickest point (width wise) of your tail will be. Cap it off with a long triangle for the tail tip. After you get the basic shape down play around with fur shapes. Fox's tend to have short fluffy fur, so keep the strands shorter with less curve if you want a realistic look. -I've been drawing for about 9 years now, and one of my first characters was a fox. Good luck and if you don't get it down first just keep at it, art is mostly practice.
Draw the spine first, and then draw the "envelope" of the fur on the tail. The top part would have less volume than the bottom part due to gravity, and there goes the correct shape. Also, fox tail doesn't seem to have a significantly wider part in the middle, and the end is often more squared off, if you are going for realistic. Think of the shape as a rolled up towel. For artistic rendition ignore this paragraph and read only the first one.
If you want to get super technical, I feel like a thin tail like that of a cat or dog on an anthro should start basically between the butt cheeks pointing down and then curve away either through an extra hole in the pants or out of a pants leg if they had to wear pants for people without tails for whatever reason
Draw a triangle the size of their head, and add feathers. Make it a little above where the legs are and make sure it follows the spine. Thats my advice though, what ever they say about that you can also follow.
This is helpful cause I draw sometimes Unikitty characters as Humans and other animal characters humanized too, but even if I was doing it quite right, this will help me ^-^ And new subscriber!
I got this weird idea about making humanoid characters with "Cephalic Tails" that look similar to ponytails (Or similar to the tails of other mammalian animals), because i wanted to make them express emotions while having their tails move accordingly behind their heads, and also i wanted to avoid having to design the ergonomics of urban eviroments and clothing centered around individuals with pelvic tails.
Not so sure if you’ve covered this or not before but, you see I’ve got a winged OC that also had a feathered tail, though it’s hard for me to draw feathered tails, if you haven’t already can you please try to cover that?
how would smaller tails, such as deer and rabbits, tails from fish and bird tails work? I wanna make a comic with oc's that have animal ears, tails, and such. Thanks and I love your lessons because of how informational and helpful they are! :)
The difference has a lot to do with different pelvis shapes between mammals and reptiles. Basically on reptiles the legs stick out to the side while on mammals they stick down.
idk what messes me up is like the different features say you were doing a reptilian tail or smthn and so you have this human skin body and then just scales
This reminds me of a trade paperback I had of the debut of the second team of X-Men (Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Thunderbird, and Banshee...IIRC, the tag-line was something like "The All-New, All-Different X-Men"?), where it had a collection of character design documents in the back, along with the various cover arts, etc. The notes on Nightcrawler (who, for the uninitiated, is a mutant who looks rather like a demon, including a prehensile, spade-tip tail) make a very aggressive point about reminding the artists to not be lazy, and never just have his tail look like it was coming down from his crotch in full-front facing views. That the tail extends from the tailbone, and should never just be kinda hanging down lifeless behind him. It was the first place I learned this particular tip, and I'm always aware of it in both my own art, and when looking at the art designs for other tailed characters in media. That said, in mass media, I tend to notice that there are two weird, anatomically awkward things that crop up often enough to irk: one, is that I see (particularly in American comics) characters with cat-like or otherwise long, slender, flexible tails doing the "tail hanging down limp" or going the other way and having the tail standing straight up behind the character's back in a way that would break the spine. Two, they draw big, reptile-style tails as if they have no spine keeping them from hanging limp, dragging on the ground, as though a tail has no muscle to hold it up. Even a big, heavy reptile tail has muscles that allow it to move, and to draw itself upward.
I'm glad you covered this topic, and especially that you even covered what i call the "tummy connected" tails. Like vaporeon uwu. But ye. People constantly getting tails wrong drives me nuts
Solutions to the approximation problem: 1. Big fluffy tail large enough that where it ends and the body begins is unclear. 2. The Kitsune solution of having several tails join at some place that is obscured by the rest of the tails. Bonus points if you do both.
Regarding the Alligator style... I have a character who has that kind of tail but it's mechanical. The reasoh why is primarily because he's a fusion of a human-looking character and the Yu-Gi-Oh monster Cyber Dragon Infinity, and... i don't know how to transition the parts. I was thinking of doing it as him having normal skin that blended into the alloys making up the tail, but... something about that doesn't quite feel right. Any tips?
I've always thought of those as one large "stump" that connects to the spine before branching off into said multiple tails. If you don't do that, I assume they're multiple tails connecting to the relatively same spot?
You would either treat it like threads of string coming off of a single piece of rope. Or, there would be a conjoined area of bone on the inside of the spine, that begins, and then once it breaks the surface they would pull off each other. I'd do this in a circular pattern which would also give the illusion of a singular tail. In general though, because a 9 tailed kitsune for instance is a mythological creature you could apply fantasy rules to it.
I wasn't expecting to already know the answer on how to do tails. XD I always did it on the lower part, I never done it above the butt, so unnatural. Anyway great video! ♥
The first one is totally correct, the second with the lizard tail is only, when you draw more animalic chars. When you draw more humanoid, then the tail is not between the legs, it is like the dogs tail, only thicker. Because draw it like speaded legs only looks ridiculous on humanoid chars, when they looks more like humans. one example is Monty from FNAF.
Do you have anything for bird tails? I have a few bird bird oc’s and the tail iss a little bit hard and I just wanna know what I should do with the tail
One thing I have trouble with is fish tails :(. I still want to keep the legs of the character but the tail just seems a bit chonky on the back and overall very weird. I still want them to swim, but the top part of the tail would be sticking up vertically in the vision I have. Can someone help me out and give some tips please?
Ultimately I'd say go for the "alligator" approach, maybe try to make the tail more slim and long like that of an eel (unless you want a chonky carp or something like that but I don't think it's a particularly great idea). If you want them to swim then the common left-right movement of a fish tail would conflict with up-down (when in horizontal position) movement of humans which might make it a bit difficult to work well together but it's not too bad, after all it doesn't have to be ideal. The "cat/dog" approach doesn't really fit a fish tail just cause fish don't bend like that but you can make it work, just with the angle between spine and tail closer to 0° (around 45° at most) rather than a nearly right angle. Whichever you choose it will have some disadvantages so best to try both approaches or even something in-between and see what feels best, and good luck with it.
If you want the tail for them to swim, having a tail between the legs wouldn't help with that. Unless it's a dolphin (so not fish), the tail would move to the sides to propell them. Legs get in the way I'd give them webbed feet that make it easy to swim? Or if it's more fantasy, some sort of shapesifting that makes them able to go from 'mermaid' to 'human' and back
thank you for this ! i usually draw animal / human things a lot since i got used to it , but i were drawing their tail coming from their bu- haha xd well , this really helps , thank you !
The best advice we can give on this is to use reference! Find a few different pictures of the type of Fawn/Deer species you're interested in drawing in various angles and break that down into simple shapes. Then it's just about practicing! IF you'd like more advice on the topic, join our discord.gg/wingedcanvas and get community feedback and guidance!
I see a lot of people are still having issues with tails, I might make a tutorial of my own if anyone is interested? Fish tails, Fox Tails, Duck Tails etc.
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What about a dragon fork tel
Next, multi-tail squid monster people!
As someone who has injured their tail bone before, I know where it is by heart now but I often will slightly change the stance of characters with tails because the balance will changed with a different body part like a tail
I got lost at the last five words lol
What did you mean?
@@Mercy_of_the_Devil oh thanks didn’t noticed I forgot the last part of the sentence
I've injured mine before too! I cannonballed into a pool and bruised it when I hit the floor :D
I feel u I did that to
I bruised mine and had trouble getting up for months
Something else to note: The tail being an extension of the spine doesn't just factor into its positioning, but also at how steep an angle, its base can start out from the body. After all, having a straight up right angle in your spine generally isn't considered to be healthy. So, if you want to be anatomically correct about it, you should try to make it form into one smooth line with the spine, lacking any sharp angles.
Note that the base of the tail can still have a wide range of motion making it _look_ like it forms a 90-degree angle with the lower back (common example: a housecat holding its tail up), but the joint is nonetheless a "bend" not a "fold".
@@Stratelier Yes, but the drawing looks a bit more unnatural than a bend..mostly because of how it curls after the base; it looks like it's supposed to be a relaxed position, but how a cat tail works, that would be an upright not relaxed tail position. It's not quite translated correctly onto a human body..a cat tail on a human likely wouldn't have as much motion as on a cat because our anatomy is very different.
I have no idea what yall are talking about
Congrats to me who has always drawn the tails like that
I thought of this too and when she drew it like that i was like: "Shouldnt it be a one line with the spinel and not at a 90⁰ angle?"
I have a character with a bird tail that I've been drawing a lot of lately. I think bird tails are one of the easier ones to do, canine/feline tails are like a medium, with reptilian being the most difficult to draw
What about duck tails tho
@@AlicornHana bird
I find it hard to draw tail feathers and all other tails are quite easy for me
What kind of bird? I made an oc for a magic themed get together of sorts. And he had a peacock train
@@ShovelMarshy usually Crows,Ravens and Owls occasionally the peacock
Tip: Instead of drawing the cat tail perfectly straight, angle down, towards the bum. Because it's connected to the spine, it'll start off having some directionality and weight and that will make it look more natural.
0:31 this cat is just a quick sketch and yet better than basically every cat I've ever drawn-
Exactly, I had to pause just to admire it lol. I can never just randomly draw a cat like that!
i wanted to say that bro
Same here
I was finding it difficult to place a lizard like tail on the body, it just didn’t look right- thankfully you helped me understand the mistakes I made Lol
Something you could think of to clarify the difference between the two types of tail is thinking of how they're used. Cat/Dog tails are primarily communication tools, while Alligator tails are primarily functioning tools IE have a use beyond communication, nominally as a rudder or paddle.
Not entirely true, the difference has a lot to do with different pelvis shapes between mammals and reptiles.
Basically on reptiles the legs stick out to the side while on mammals they stick down.
Found you in my recommended, and you touch on all the topics (animal features on humans) I use the most! Watched a few of them, and I couldn’t agree more on everything you mention 😂 you explain things the way I try to for my friends, so I’m gonna share ur videos with them for sure. You are doing amazing! Keep it up :))
I often like to draw one of my oc’s. He has animal ears and a tail.
This will be rlly helpful :D
Zike fan pog
there's also a video on drawing animal ears
@@wintermint9186 yea ik i saw it
@@Only_Rory zike very pog
Omgggggg I want more animal tutorials!!!
ikr-
Anatomy tip: The tailbone has a scientific name: the "coccyx."
I wonder if doctor needs to memories that word
@@RubyLing_ We learn it in anatomy class. It’s actually a couple of separate vertebrae that fuse, pretty cool
@@RubyLing_ It's the kinda word that is hard to forget once you learn it, but generally yes. A doctor would know it without having to dig into textbook knowledge
cocc
How do you pronounce that it's seems like it would be cool or complex
Well, I now have a five episode playlist of your videos explaining the right way to draw animal features on humanoids
Ima make a guess and say, tails follow the spine make sure the tail is as long as the legs. Thats my advice though
yes! if a human were to have a tail, it’d need to be a long tail for balance.
@@veinfish exactly, We dont want them to topple over.
Also if its really short like a deer tail it does not matter, but if you do a tail long as the thighs, you got a problem.
Here let me post more advice on tails but more thought out.
What I said up there is good advice but I was not 100% clear.
When drawing the person draw a line centered in them. Flow the line out where the legs start and that will be your tail.
Now if its a cat round the end and thicken the beginning and tapper it down.
If its a dogs tail depending on the breed but, make the tail a little lower then the knee, and point out the end. Make the tappering more dramatic. If its a curly tail make it long as above the knee and curl it.
Deer tails. Make it the size of the hand. And a triangle.
Bird tails. The same as deer but dont be afraid to push those feathers.
Dragon tails. Do what ever you want but I tend to follow the same rules as the cat but make it 2 legs tall. And add extra details.
Crocks and gator. What they said should work.
Monkey tails. Just like cats but shorter (cats are below the lower calf.) monkeys tails should be slightly longer then the legs to help balance. Dont forget to make the tail thick monkeys need their tails to be able to carry their wheight. Make it like another leg.
Thats all I can think of for now.
@@Flicker_thefo0x only new world monkeys have prehensile tails; old world monkeys use their tails for balance/communication, so they vary in length and size. Some species only have stubs, and some, like the colobus monkeys, are ✨absolutely fabulous✨
Would this apply to the tails that ducks have? Just asking out of curiosity.
It depends ima go out and say probably
Idk what she said because premiere is in 27 hours but you can look at duck's skeleton
Excuse me as I check if you are the same person who asked about duck legs
I have a duck human oc and I just didn't give her a tail, I do wonder how that would look though
@@Scrimgly-scrumbly lol I think they are😭
I have a lot of ocs with reptilian tails (dragons), and I would always draw them like the cat/dog style you did because when I tried the alligator it didnt really fit too well heh- 😅- but I'm glad to say that at least I could experiment with that new way of drawing a reptilian tail someday! Thanks a lot for making this!!
This helps but i'm still having trouble with the connection between the tail into the pelvis region, i don't want my tails to look like a pipe coming out of a stiff wall so i feel like there should be some muscles or little bump above the tail bone connecting them together
I personally agree. Maybe make the beginning of the teil bigger and slosly taper it near the end.
Personally, I use a mix between both methods. I just extend the spine downwards(like the alligator method) without altering any other anatomy. In her example, the cat/dog method makes it look like the spine makes a sharp, unnatural angle, so that's why I use my method.
Look it on sphynx cats. Looks like a river delta.
I think the tail should always go down first, and then make a tight right angle turn if needed.
@@FlameRat_YehLon look it up on cats, it's flexible
"this second method I call-"
Yes, Mew-two.
"-alligator"
...Right, right, that does make more sense
Idk why I never thought of a tail as one big spine. Learn something new every day!
0:19 my gosh, I have a friend who does this just of regular animals, I’ve tried to tell her that it’s not where the tail is supposed to go, but she’s annoyingly stubborn
Send her this epic video then
@@AlicornHana lol, I might
It kinda looks like that on very fluffy animals
I sat, smack down, bull’s-eye, 100 points, right on a sprinkler, with my tailbone. For 3-4 months I took sometimes 5 minutes to sit down or stand up. So uh- yeah. I will forever know where the tailbone is
Thanks for this! As an artist who enjoys drawing this kind of stuff, this helped a lot and I can't wait to see a result!
as someone who falls off their skateboard way too often I could point to a person's tailbone with my eyes closed, it's muscle memory at this point
hellow I'm 2 days from future and I tell you this vid is the best
Why thank you for spoiling it
Why did you gave me a spoiler >:(
2:44 After watching this I immediately thought of Mewtwo. They're drawn like that too 😂
The thing I love most about watching videos like this where I think I understand the concept before watching is that I almost always learn something new! I’ve never thought about the ‘alligator’ tail method on humanoid characters, and it looks really unique to me!
I found you in my recommendations and I just wanna say thank you!!
I am a beginner animater but I really enjoy making animaloid humans.
And you've helped so much with how to draw and animate them!!
Thank you so much!!
A helpful hint for drawing the super-thick tails: Look at an otter standing upright. Otters are mammals, so their legs go straight down rather than to the side like reptiles. It won't be exact, but it will give you an idea.
You should do full animal people
How will bird tails, tails that are small, and fish ones work? I was wondering that throughout the whole video, does it work the same way as the other two examples or is there a different method for drawing them?
It should definitely work the same for birds. Fish I feel you have room to draw it in multiple ways since fish are structurally quite different from humans. Probably the most realistic would be to draw it the same as with an alligator or lizard, since on most fish the transition between tail and body is fairly seamless on the outside.
@@themockingdragon135 Thanks! :D
When contructing a character 'base' with a tail, i will put about... 3/4s of an ellipse, and use about half of that as the ribcage and stomach, the rest goes into the base 'skeleton' of the tail.
I am so glad I watch your videos. You're really helping me progress at drawing. I've known how to draw bodies for a while but a lot of your videos helped me out on the facial features, animals, wings, you name it. I'm really glad I discovered your channel and I'm glad to be here, watching you grow. I want to learn all there is about art and I know it'll take some time but at least with your help it'll be somewhat easier.
My gripe is people drawing the tail sticking straight out and then curving downwards, as if the spine is snapped at a right angle to have the tail jutting out like that. It should come out at at least a slight downward slope to accomodate the anatomy of the spine.
IM SO EXCITED FOR THIS VIDEO!!!!!
OK, I hadn't thought about making a dragon tail start like an extension of the torso, that's a good tip : )
Thank you so muchhh i made a huge improvement on my art!
I didn't realize that most people don't know where their tail bone would be- I've injured it so much that it hurts when I sit in certain seats or for long periods of time so I already knew
I understand where the tail should come from, but how should poofy tails look, like a fox? My poofy tails look like weird fuzzy ovals
Depends on the poof, for a fox I would say start with the thin cat tail to get the position down. Then add the shape, think long trapezoid with the shorter parallel side starting at the base. Where the other parallel side stops is where the thickest point (width wise) of your tail will be. Cap it off with a long triangle for the tail tip. After you get the basic shape down play around with fur shapes. Fox's tend to have short fluffy fur, so keep the strands shorter with less curve if you want a realistic look.
-I've been drawing for about 9 years now, and one of my first characters was a fox. Good luck and if you don't get it down first just keep at it, art is mostly practice.
@@bashful_vixen2020 this helps a little bit, so thank you!
Draw the spine first, and then draw the "envelope" of the fur on the tail. The top part would have less volume than the bottom part due to gravity, and there goes the correct shape.
Also, fox tail doesn't seem to have a significantly wider part in the middle, and the end is often more squared off, if you are going for realistic. Think of the shape as a rolled up towel. For artistic rendition ignore this paragraph and read only the first one.
Start it off as looking thinner near the base them begin proofing it up slowly, then taper it like a paintbrush at the end.
And make the edge a bit jagged, especially on the longest side so it looks like the hair is spreading out.
Mmm yes from the future can confirm, this was a good video to watch 👍
Mewtwo is a suprisingly good example of the second tail method
If you want to get super technical, I feel like a thin tail like that of a cat or dog on an anthro should start basically between the butt cheeks pointing down and then curve away either through an extra hole in the pants or out of a pants leg if they had to wear pants for people without tails for whatever reason
What about Duck tails? Geese? Birds in general?
Draw a triangle the size of their head, and add feathers. Make it a little above where the legs are and make sure it follows the spine. Thats my advice though, what ever they say about that you can also follow.
aw man, I'll be in class when this premiers :(
Sorry 😣
Same
Same here
these videos are genuinely the best and really helpful
even if i dont prefer to draw perfect anatomy, i love watching these for some reason
This is helpful cause I draw sometimes Unikitty characters as Humans and other animal characters humanized too, but even if I was doing it quite right, this will help me ^-^
And new subscriber!
I got this weird idea about making humanoid characters with "Cephalic Tails" that look similar to ponytails (Or similar to the tails of other mammalian animals), because i wanted to make them express emotions while having their tails move accordingly behind their heads, and also i wanted to avoid having to design the ergonomics of urban eviroments and clothing centered around individuals with pelvic tails.
I'm not very good at drawing, but I like to watch people who are to see their artstyle.
I think they drew a Grian (the minecrafter) with fox ears and tail on the thumbnail
just found this in my recommended. your microphone sounds like something your teacher would use on a zoom meeting, already love it
Not so sure if you’ve covered this or not before but, you see I’ve got a winged OC that also had a feathered tail, though it’s hard for me to draw feathered tails, if you haven’t already can you please try to cover that?
how would smaller tails, such as deer and rabbits, tails from fish and bird tails work? I wanna make a comic with oc's that have animal ears, tails, and such. Thanks and I love your lessons because of how informational and helpful they are! :)
The difference has a lot to do with different pelvis shapes between mammals and reptiles.
Basically on reptiles the legs stick out to the side while on mammals they stick down.
These videos are making me want to design so many characters with animalistic features now
This really helps as someone who is currently trying to reseash the topic.
Thank you for making this video! I have always noticed tails being put on the back rather than the tailbone
idk what messes me up is like the different features say you were doing a reptilian tail or smthn and so you have this human skin body and then just scales
This reminds me of a trade paperback I had of the debut of the second team of X-Men (Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Thunderbird, and Banshee...IIRC, the tag-line was something like "The All-New, All-Different X-Men"?), where it had a collection of character design documents in the back, along with the various cover arts, etc. The notes on Nightcrawler (who, for the uninitiated, is a mutant who looks rather like a demon, including a prehensile, spade-tip tail) make a very aggressive point about reminding the artists to not be lazy, and never just have his tail look like it was coming down from his crotch in full-front facing views. That the tail extends from the tailbone, and should never just be kinda hanging down lifeless behind him. It was the first place I learned this particular tip, and I'm always aware of it in both my own art, and when looking at the art designs for other tailed characters in media.
That said, in mass media, I tend to notice that there are two weird, anatomically awkward things that crop up often enough to irk: one, is that I see (particularly in American comics) characters with cat-like or otherwise long, slender, flexible tails doing the "tail hanging down limp" or going the other way and having the tail standing straight up behind the character's back in a way that would break the spine. Two, they draw big, reptile-style tails as if they have no spine keeping them from hanging limp, dragging on the ground, as though a tail has no muscle to hold it up. Even a big, heavy reptile tail has muscles that allow it to move, and to draw itself upward.
I mean, the miniature one really looks cute.
Now I know how to draw Sr.Pentious :,)
I just watched like three of ur videos and this is the most useful information and helpfulness I have ever received. Thank u so so much!
I like to draw sometimes to draw a skelleton befor drawing the actuall animal.
Yess!! This! I hate it when people draw tails above the tail bone. It's very uncomfortable to visualize a tail coming out of someone's back
this is helpful for cosplay too! now i know exactly which part of my skirt to glue my tail to
Never define "what you ARE" by "what you are NOT." - Uncle Kage
This was overpowered helpful!! 💕
I'm glad you covered this topic, and especially that you even covered what i call the "tummy connected" tails. Like vaporeon uwu. But ye. People constantly getting tails wrong drives me nuts
Thank you, this guide is awesome
thanks for teaching us
Solutions to the approximation problem:
1. Big fluffy tail large enough that where it ends and the body begins is unclear.
2. The Kitsune solution of having several tails join at some place that is obscured by the rest of the tails.
Bonus points if you do both.
It will be on a school day for me too, but for my time it Wednesday at 2:00AM I which i am not at school
Some people have a style that's different than this but I understand this but somepeople learn it differently
Her: "So, if you have a cat-"
Me: *turns around to my cat laying on my beanbagchair*
Me: "KITTY! :D"
Regarding the Alligator style... I have a character who has that kind of tail but it's mechanical. The reasoh why is primarily because he's a fusion of a human-looking character and the Yu-Gi-Oh monster Cyber Dragon Infinity, and... i don't know how to transition the parts. I was thinking of doing it as him having normal skin that blended into the alloys making up the tail, but... something about that doesn't quite feel right.
Any tips?
Oh okay I thought I was doing it wrong when I saw this in my recommended but I’m doing it right actually so yay
Love the video but do you have any suggestions on how to do deer tails? I’ve been having some trouble with one of my characters.
Yesss plz
I'd say probably the same as the cat tail but shorter. It'd come off the tailbone basically
how would two or more tails work? say, for a kitsune, would their tails split off at the same spot on the spine?
I've always thought of those as one large "stump" that connects to the spine before branching off into said multiple tails. If you don't do that, I assume they're multiple tails connecting to the relatively same spot?
I think it'd be most realistic if the spine split into two tails at the same point.
You would either treat it like threads of string coming off of a single piece of rope. Or, there would be a conjoined area of bone on the inside of the spine, that begins, and then once it breaks the surface they would pull off each other. I'd do this in a circular pattern which would also give the illusion of a singular tail. In general though, because a 9 tailed kitsune for instance is a mythological creature you could apply fantasy rules to it.
OMG I'm so happy i found this channel.. I LOVE U SO MUCH ❤❤❤
This is so good
Good god I've been struggling to do with the reptile tail for ages.
Cause drawing it from the side made my brain go crazy.
I wasn't expecting to already know the answer on how to do tails. XD I always did it on the lower part, I never done it above the butt, so unnatural. Anyway great video! ♥
The first one is totally correct, the second with the lizard tail is only, when you draw more animalic chars. When you draw more humanoid, then the tail is not between the legs, it is like the dogs tail, only thicker. Because draw it like speaded legs only looks ridiculous on humanoid chars, when they looks more like humans. one example is Monty from FNAF.
Please do wolf version for tail and ears and other wild animals
How I’ve interpreted the two ways:
1. Tailbone extension
2. Mewtwo-
What about bird tails though?
Are they just the same as dog n cat tails?
I have two cats and a dog and one of the cats is sleeping beside me on my and his bed so I can look at him as a resource :D
Do you have anything for bird tails? I have a few bird bird oc’s and the tail iss a little bit hard and I just wanna know what I should do with the tail
Would you make a version of this with insect tails?
ive been using your advice for art and ive been really improving ! thanks so much !!
One thing I have trouble with is fish tails :(. I still want to keep the legs of the character but the tail just seems a bit chonky on the back and overall very weird. I still want them to swim, but the top part of the tail would be sticking up vertically in the vision I have. Can someone help me out and give some tips please?
Ultimately I'd say go for the "alligator" approach, maybe try to make the tail more slim and long like that of an eel (unless you want a chonky carp or something like that but I don't think it's a particularly great idea). If you want them to swim then the common left-right movement of a fish tail would conflict with up-down (when in horizontal position) movement of humans which might make it a bit difficult to work well together but it's not too bad, after all it doesn't have to be ideal.
The "cat/dog" approach doesn't really fit a fish tail just cause fish don't bend like that but you can make it work, just with the angle between spine and tail closer to 0° (around 45° at most) rather than a nearly right angle.
Whichever you choose it will have some disadvantages so best to try both approaches or even something in-between and see what feels best, and good luck with it.
If you want the tail for them to swim, having a tail between the legs wouldn't help with that. Unless it's a dolphin (so not fish), the tail would move to the sides to propell them. Legs get in the way
I'd give them webbed feet that make it easy to swim? Or if it's more fantasy, some sort of shapesifting that makes them able to go from 'mermaid' to 'human' and back
Use the design of Chinese dragon (which by lore has fish tail), and make it shorter if you want to draw a human, or human-like creature.
The trick would be to include not just the fin of the tail, but also more of the part of the spine attached to the fish.
Thank you so Much. I'm drawing a chimera character (a lizard-guy).
Please do insectoids next(half human half insect characters). I need to know how to draw half spider humans and such
Damn, I’m excited
thank you for this ! i usually draw animal / human things a lot since i got used to it , but i were drawing their tail coming from their bu-
haha xd well , this really helps , thank you !
Omg tail time i cant wait
Question:how would i draw faun or deer tails?
The best advice we can give on this is to use reference! Find a few different pictures of the type of Fawn/Deer species you're interested in drawing in various angles and break that down into simple shapes. Then it's just about practicing! IF you'd like more advice on the topic, join our discord.gg/wingedcanvas and get community feedback and guidance!
OH MY GOSH NOOOOOOOOO I’LL BE IN SCHOOL WHEN THIS PREMERESSSSSSS
Haha I’m out of school 🤧
Sad but im online class-
Me to I am online
That’s tough :)
I see a lot of people are still having issues with tails, I might make a tutorial of my own if anyone is interested? Fish tails, Fox Tails, Duck Tails etc.
I want fox tails tutoriel
ANODA AMAZING CONTENT 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
I'm gonna be in school 😔👊 but I guess better late than never