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- Posted: August 16, 2012
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Centaur Anatomy 101: Proportions
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- Centaur Anatomy 101: Proportions
- Centaur Anatomy 102: Parts of the Body
- Centaur Anatomy 103: Artist's Joints
- Centaur Anatomy 201: Leg Bones
- Centaur Anatomy 202: Overall Skeletal Structure
Okay, so it's time for some arguin'.
A lot of people have asked me over the years things like:
- What do you think are the correct proportions on a centaur?
- How do you think a centaur's muscles and skeleton are arranged?
- How would a centaur eat and breathe?
- Where are the lungs? The heart? The kidneys?
- How does the reproductive equipment work?
So let's start with a disclaimer: These are my opinions! There is no real physical centaur to compare against, so the best I can do is make an educated guess. If you prefer a design other than this, that's fine, but this is what I'm going to keep drawing. If you disagree, fine, but do so politely, and above all, please don't ask I draw things your way. I know how I think it'd work, and that ain't gonna change.
Now, getting into the meat of the first anatomy picture here, these two pictures show how I think the proportions work best. The blue lines are equal, and the red lines are equal; and the ratio between them is more-or-less phi, which results in proportions that look fairly natural, since so much in nature is based on that same ratio. When I draw, I'm generally eyeballing the picture to try to get the L-part to have equal lengths and to get the lower half roughly square.
A real live horse is a bit longer than square, but shortening the barrel to square seems to work better on a centaur. (See this photo for comparison; the ratio of Reggie's length to his height looks to be approximately phi, not 1:1 like Lucy here.)
So that's that. Feel free to argue the point, but please be civil.
If anybody's enjoying the start of this series, I'll keep doing a new centaur anatomy lesson every few days. So if I were to do more, which would you most like to see next? Muscles? Skeleton? Nervous system and brain? Digestive system? Respiratory system? Circulatory system?
And yes, I know reproductive system would be a popular topic, but even if I can get it past the dA censors, I'm still going to make you wait for it :P