Little help with digi legs?

[Valery91Thunder]

Ssssooo I decided to doodle something for myself today, but I stopped because I'm having problem with a character's digitigrade legs. I've tried re-sketching them a couple of times, but they always feel weird for some reason, most probably for the angle chosen. I was wondering if anyone could spare a moment to give some critique on it, or maybe even a redline, that would be awesome ^^ I'm always pretty shy when it comes to ask for these kinda things, I hope it's okay!

Here's the culprit:

You can click it to enlarge, I suppose, or go here: http://i.imgur.com/EuNhM32.png

Granted there's a lot more that looks wonky and I should fix (the middle character's torso is probably too long, I'm trying to shorten it out just a little bit, or maybe it's the thigh that's too short?), but as far as the other characters' legs go, I feel like they kinda work. They're cartoony yeah, but still.
It's the legs of the one on the left that look too weird :C Any ideas, please?

If you see something else that isn't right, please feel free to redline or tell me, I'm accepting any kind of comments =D

[Ratmomma]

I've got similar issues going on, BUMP.

[BerryBubbleBlast]

I'm not experienced enough to redline the issue right now, but I'll try to comment what I think might be the problem. The character to the left does look a bit of, just as you mentioned, with how his legs are positioned. RIght now its (his? hers?) back leg is far back (rather far back compared to the other two) and pointing forward while the front leg is pointing slightly to the side with the hips rotated slightly as well. This looks kinda awkward seeing someone walk like that, as standing in that exact pose myself wasn't comfortable at all, or at least while taking such a large stride. Unless there's something happening in which this character justifies standing as it does. Otherwise I feel the back foot should move forward a bit as to match the pace of the other two characters, and maybe twist it slightly to match its front foot as well.

Alternatively it might have to do with how the thigh of the front leg is pointing forward while the lower leg is bent to the side due to the foot is positioned. You can stand like this, though I get the feeling the character is doing something else than casually waking, like suddenly stopping in order to get the other two's attention about something. Though the stride still feels too big here ... unless I'm just completely mistaken into believing that its back leg is actually on the ground, but in reality it's in the air. That might also be where the issue is at; because I think the foot is on the ground, it throws off the leg placement as I've mentioned earlier.

There's no guarantee what I've said is actually the main issue, though this is my view of it. I hope this might at least help you (or someone else) with finding the problem.

[Valery91Thunder]

Awh man I've been a little too impatient on this and tried to come up with a solution of my own yesterday. Luckily I'm still at sketching phase for what it concerns the legs so maybe I can still fix things down there, also now that I've added more into the drawing it can help on figuring out what's going on; like @BerryBubbleBlast said, the character on the left is calling the other two for attention (thank you so much for your comment!). Here's what I got so far:

Direct: http://i.imgur.com/K2WOibk.jpg

The left leg has been left how it was on the rough sketch, and considering the foot is touching the ground it is indeed father than the other ones. It might work if you think that a digitigrade's step covers more space than a plantigrade one (am I making sense here? Gosh I dunno) and she's taller than the other two, but if that looks off, I don't think there's a problem in bringing it a little more forward.

As for what it concerns the right leg, I have redrawn it from scratch, and finally it's pointing forward, lifted from the ground. I'm pretty satisfied with it, but my only worry is that from this angle it may look too much like a plantigrade leg, making it different from the left one. Thoughts? ^^

58 minutes ago, Ratmomma said:

I've got similar issues going on, BUMP.

You could post your sketch here as well! This way we can help eachother ^^

 

EDIT: Oh man, how do you mention/tag people?

Edited December 14, 2015 by Valery91Thunder

[BerryBubbleBlast]

Hey hey, nice to see you've managed to salvage something from what I said.

Now that you mention it, I forgot about the fact that the left character has digitigrade legs, and I must also agree that the front leg looks more plantigrade than digitigrade right now. Though for that you could just alternatively break the "symmetry" where all three characters are about to take a step. Since the left character is actively doing something different compared to the other two, you could let her foot already be firmly on the ground, which I believe would show her digitigrade leg much more. Granted I understand you normally try to always keep the same pace as your friend, yet just this time it might not matter too much.

Another thing you could do as well is to make the feet of the character to the left point slightly outward, as to follow the perspective like the character to the right does. Although I see that the perspective is placed more to the left than right in the centre, which means it might not matter too much anyway. Especially in case the character to the left actively place her feet as to show more of her back to the person behind her and lean in towards her friends.

There's obviously a lot of ways you could "correct" this, though I hope with this help you'll find the way which fits your scene the best.

[Valery91Thunder]

Right, I'll see what I can do, thanks! I was half-hoping that showing the front foot with a bit of perspective might have lead to imagine that it was way longer, just like digitigrade ones, but yeah, it just fails.
I'll try bringing it down, though I expect it's not going to be easy since that was the main reason why I twisted it so horribly in the first draft. If I could find some kind of walkcycling model of a digi character, even from an anime or such, I could take some reference; I'll look around.

Aaand since I'm bringing the left foot down, I should as well edit the other one and make it look closer to the "camera" as she can't possibly cover that much lenght in just a step. I'll post edits asap. ^^ Once again, thanks for your help!

[Valery91Thunder]

Update: Here's what I got last:

(Zoomed out with the rest of the drawing: http://i.imgur.com/DdNWLDX.png )

If this works enough, I think I'll stop here with the tweaks'n'fixes I'm eager to go on and see this complete. x3

[BerryBubbleBlast]

If it truly works enough is actually up to you, though in my opinion it certainly look more believable now. It would be fun to see the final piece when you're finished with it.

[Valery91Thunder]

I could probably turn this into a sketchbook thread and post more updates! I very rarely share sketches (bad habit I suppose...), with the result of having little second opinions and regretting some choices/mistakes only once the finished thing is posted. But it would require a title change, and probably a section change as well. xP

[BerryBubbleBlast]

I'd certainly recommend you doing that! Of course I understand if you might feel a bit exposed showing something that's (gasp!) unfinished, yet in the long run you'd certainly benefit more from the feedback how you can improve your art compared to if you don't. If anything, it'll make you feel less bad if you spot an error in the sketching phase compared to if the image is already finished. Either rename this thread or make another one. Both works. Although creating a new thread will let you decide what your first post should be, the one everyone will see the first time they open your thread.

It would be fun to see more of your sketches in the future!