How do I draw MANLY MEN?

[Fawn]

Hey y'all, Fawn here. I'm trying to come up with some concept sketches for my game, and I just can't seem to make my muscular bald criminal character look manly enough.
He's supposed to have a short neck, huge shoulders and a rounded-square head, but whenever I draw him he looks like a gnome or a bobblehead figure. also, baldness is hard for me.
This is supposed to be a comedic character in my story so he should be a little exaggerated, however, my drawings of him just look terrible. =__= Any tips on drawing middle-aged muscular men?

[Endorphin]

Ahh... I know your pain...
Have you tried to draw him hard edges?
While woman are more round and curly, mans can have really hard edges.
<= The flow can be broken
It's kinda hard to describe. x_X"

[Hm... You could even try to make him look more badass by leaving this manga-ish prettyness away.
Means having eyes with different size, or a lopsided grin, dark circles around the eyes, etc.
With a little practice this can look awesome. x3]

Well... I hope you'll find a way. =/

[Samu-kun]

It will be a challenging road. For starters, try drawing this guy 15 times. (or 9000, if you prefer)

http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/index?tags=nappa (other parts of the website might not be safe for work)

[mugenjohncel]

- CONTENT NO LONGER RELEVANT -

[Samu-kun]

You forgot the step where Fawn also gets a sex change, you fool!

[Auro-Cyanide]

To draw a character bald you have to know what the actual shape of the head is. You can't skip bits by cover it with hair. Find a couple reference such as these so you know what the head actually looks like. http://www.rankopedia.com/CandidatePix/29628.gif http://www.beauty-and-the-bath.com/imag ... n-male.jpg

You seem to have a fairly good idea of what you want to draw (thick, short neck, broad shoulders) so maybe your problem is something else? If you post one of your attempts we could give some more specific advice.

[Ren]

Would you feel comfortable posting the attempts you didn't feel satisfied with? Generally speaking, there are various things to point out about what makes a man look older and manlier, but it's easier perhaps to see what you came up with and point out a few things you could do better.
I found that to draw convincingly manlier men, knowing more about the facial muscles helped a lot, I'll make an example: my first attempts all had lots of lines to try and make the man look older, but the basic structure of the face wasn't all that different from what I'd have used to draw a younger man - as a result, it looked like I drew a kid dressing up as a grown up for Halloween...
When you know how the volumes of the face, you can emphasise them with shading, more than lines, so that your man doesn't look like he's been drying in vinegar and his skin is ageing prematurely, and instead looks like he's aged normally.

That's something I'm working on myself, as I'm also trying to draw manly men better. I'm concentrating on the face, first, as it seems to me it's complex enough to get a separate explanation on its own. It's not the best example ever, but there are a few tips you may not know already that could help you.

As a general advice, I'd try concentrating on the general feel of the figure before you even try to draw a complete body: try looking at some movie screen-shots or photos, and observe the general posture. Analyse the general shapes, first, and think of the details only after you've drawn some loose sketches of the general idea. Keep in mind that the chest and shoulders will be broader in a manly man than they are in a woman, the hips narrower (often people will compare the torso to an upside down truncated cone, in a man) and there won't be a nice curve connecting the hip to the knee.

I'm sorry, I'm a bit on the knackered side, and I'm figuring out myself, I hope I can still be of help regardless.
(I'm just a slacker.)

[Deji]

Muscular bald character instantly reminds me of Atelier series' Hagel.
http://img.neoseeker.com/v_concept_art.php?caid=11289
http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/491811

You can study him and use him as a base for your character?

I, like many others, have a hard tiime drawing manly men myself; what I do when I have to draw somebody manlier, is google photographs of men (usually models, or wrestlers) and sketch a lot until I get it right. I've found the 'shortcuts' only come out right when you have drawn enough of them from photographs or other sources.

Good luck C:

[Arowa]

The easiest way, is to study Anatomy or do some figure drawing. It doesn't have to be from life, you could also study from pictures. The shape of the Skull, placement of Muscles, etc. My teacher was stressing on that a lot. "Master the real thing before trying to stylize or distort it!!" He says when he saw me sketching manga style in drawing class.

His reason is that when you learned real-life human anatomy, naturally your drawings, be it cartoons or anime, will look better.

[Duredhel]

You have to edge towards realism. Anime style is extremely limited in character and feature variation, that's why in anime and manga you see that older, more muscular or plain ugly people are all much more realist than the standard 14-24 year old nondescript attractive person. Professional anime artists in Japan are expected to know figure and academic drawing so they have a solid basis for their style choices, and when something doesn't work with their style, they can simply fall back on their classical training. (Something which most western anime artists lack, which is why they find themselves horribly outclassed when they step out into the professional illustration field and find artists who can draw anime, but switch to classical realism whenever they please.) Its also why a lot of western amateur anime artists tend to draw old people who look just like young people with some wrinkles and white hair.

To draw the muscular guy... or any person, you just need to know the construction of the head and body from the base up, as opposed to "use eyes from anime A, combine with hair from VN B and smile from manga C and hope they all match together somehow."

Hope this helps;

[Fawn]

Wow, thankyou for all the tips and advice!! :O I really appreciate it. The diagrams and ref pictures will definently help... anddd!

@Samu LOL I luff Nappa with over 9000 percent of my luff~
@Mugen That's all fine and dandy but it's kind of hard to get take good ref picture of a fat man in the mirror when I'm an 105 lb girl :3c

I HAVE been studying realism. Infact I just did some studies not too long ago :3 However I think the problem is that I make my characters too skinny, so that's why it's looking wrong... here's the sketch in question to prove my theory:

He's the one on the left of course. (the other two are also characters from BMM) I doodled it during work with a pen, probably not the best place to do it, but I felt like it at the time. Please crit D: I want to make him look comedic but it just looks bad right now.

[Duredhel]

Actually the problem with him, I think, I what most people have already stated here. The face and head structure are still the same as a young, anime styled male, only with a few lines added on top of it. The body type is not the problem there. I'll redline later tonight if no one beats me to it XD

[Fawn]

Actually the problem with him, I think, I what most people have already stated here. The face and head structure are still the same as a young, anime styled male, only with a few lines added on top of it. The body type is not the problem there. I'll redline later tonight if no one beats me to it XD

Ah yesh. I'm still stylizing it too much... Please do, I'd be so happy if I could draw it like how yours is ;-;

[Arowa]

More solid lines for the face and head structures as well as for their bodies. For example, the shoulders should be more angular, not as soft looking as you have drawn. Actually, they look kinda feminine to me...

Maybe it's got something to do with their pose? The pose they have makes them look a bit weak and soft, not proud and strong like REAL MEN!! Or is it on purpose?

[Fawn]

More solid lines for the face and head structures as well as for their bodies. For example, the shoulders should be more angular, not as soft looking as you have drawn. Actually, they look kinda feminine to me...

Maybe it's got something to do with their pose? The pose they have makes them look a bit weak and soft, not proud and strong like REAL MEN!! Or is it on purpose?

I'm not using this as an excuse but

he's actually gay.

That being said you ARE right. I've been drawing too much moay moay and not enough REALIZSM!