Jessica’s Kickboxing Skeleton

Remember Jessica? She works with instructor Matthew as part of Game-U’s Accelerate program. Matthew’s helping Jessica build a full set of game development skills, including art and graphic design, so today he brought some skeletons out of the closet to boost her figure-drawing abilities.

What’s underneath a figure? Bones, of course! A human’s foundation is his or her skeleton. Artists often start figure drawings by sketching out “stick skeletons,” using lines to represent limbs, backbones, hips, and phalanges. Circular “joints,” drawn where the lines intersect, show where the figure is movable. Even the oval head starts with two crossed lines, the vertical one longer than the horizontal one, that provide the artist with a reference for the head’s shape. From there, the artist employs pencil strokes (and the ever-handy eraser) to flesh out the figure, turning the skeleton into a person. The bone sticks remind the artist where different parts of the figure begin and end and where those parts should be in relation to the others. The joint circles provide a base for the rounded shapes of elbows, knees, shoulders, and hips. Matthew introduced Jessica to skeletons when he found out she wanted to take a break from her pixel art to practice dynamic figure poses. Jessica spent the class recreating the reference pose Matthew gave her, using skeletons, lots of care, and even more stamina. Check out her finished product! If you look closely, you can even see the skeleton she drew.

Great work, Jessica. You captured a very dynamic kickboxer with pencil and paper, and the drawing looks awesome. Keep honing your artistic skills! They play an important role in game design, and give all of us something beautiful to study. Thanks for sharing!