Well, I kinda understand how to start with the stick figures to know where everything goes, but I'm pretty much lost after that. I can't seem to figure out the placement of the joints and where they all connect. I'm better at drawing animals, but I still need work there too. Right now I'm focusing on trying to fix my complete failure at drawing humans. Can someone help me figure it out?

If you don't mind it, I personally start from the muscle/bone. I remember the length of parts/joints/etc. far better that way. Either that or more complex stick figures that are more like a mass of various shapes. I can't draw humans yet but I'm learning much faster from starting with skeletons/muscle.

I'm not entirely sure how to start from the bone. One of my problems is that I'm not sure of the length of all of the bones and limbs.

There's a lot of really good anatomy books around you can look at, check at an art/book store for some if you don't have any. They're a lot easier than just using Google for photos.

You can find a lot of good books online too. Deviantart has a lot of tutorials if you don't want to buy anything, afraid I don't know any good ones myself though. Learning realistic anatomy first might be a good idea though if you haven't, a lot of people say once they start with anime, they struggle to get into drawing realism.

I've looked at a lot of books (more than I can remember) And I just can't seem to grasp the concept. My biggest problem at the moment is the placement of elbows and where the arm connects to the body... On second thought, now that I think about it, I'm not sure about anything.

Start from somewhere really simple and gradually work your way through? If you're not sure where things go then line them up with different parts of the body. So say if the elbow starts half-way down the ribcage on something, then remember that's where you draw it. If you struggle with the whole thing overall, just do a certain part of the body over and over until you can do it well, then move onto another.

Are you trying to draw in a specif anime style? Because I'd suggest trying to draw from life first. Or, as it would probably be easier, stock images. And then once you've got the basic idea of anatomy down, working on style. mentioned deviantART for tutorials, they also have a huge amount of stock images you can reference that are very helpful. Just reference the photo as you draw. It's helped me improve tons over the last year.

I think I'll draw my avatar as an example and give a link to it tomorrow (or maybe later today subeta time) It's pretty late where I am now. I have a deviantart account and so far looking up tutorials has been pretty helpful.

Go and get a science book on the human body. Look at the photos of the skeleton, the muscles, etc. The full body photos, in colour.

Look at yourself naked. You can see where your elbows go. Where do they drop down to on your body? Pay attention to that. You just need to learn how a body looks.

If you have a few extra dollars to spend I highly recommend getting Joseph Sheppard's "anatomy: a complete guide for artists". It was required for my life drawing class and it's helped me a shit ton when I need references. You can get a used one for like 3 dollars on amazon. Actually if you go here, click on 'search inside this book' if gives you some of the basic essential anatomy pages(ratios in body lengths) at the beginning.

Okay! I'm sure everyone would be more than happy to take a look at it and let you know what's off. I mean, I know I would. C:

Haha! I accidently pinged myself~

honestly when it comes to learning anatomy its best to start by looking at and examining real people. I often take note of coincidences with my own body to help me understand where things should fall on my art. For example I have noticed that my elbow falls right about the smallest part of my waist. my foot is about the same length as the inner part of my elbow to my wrist. Yeah dont ask me how I figured that one out. Hahahaha. If I place my hand with its base against my chin and stretch it over my face my middle finger lands approximately halfway between my brow line and my hairline. Etc... just pay attention to your own body and focus on things like that and it will tell you a lot about human anatomy.

It's already been mentioned once i think, but you should always start from life when drawing anything. It makes it much easier to learn the placement of joints and body parts. If you don't want to start from life,t hen I'd suggest finding a base (deviantart is a good place to look) for free use, and then tracing over it to learn the anatomy - obviously you have to give credit tot he original base artist, but the bases are free for that very use. I have an art degree and still find myself at times going back to deviantart for bases. ^.^

Thanks for the advice all of you have given me thus far. I finished the drawing and I hope that it's good enough to show the problems i have with drawing. I'm not that used to using hml codes so I'm hoping this works right... well that didn't work, here's the link. http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o721/Shadowzamy/ningen_zps70f6577f.png

I dont think its bad at all for someone who's still learning Also thats MsPaint? If so I think its impressive for that as well.

Thanks. It's MS paint 6.1, I used a tablet to draw it.

I am often in the same boat as you when it comes to my drawings. I have been practicing drawing humans for years now and I still have a hard time with unfamiliar pictures. However, rescently I have been doing a lot of tutorials on Youtube and DA following along with them and comparing. I have noticed my art has improved a lot. I have also done the base thing suggested above. I have come to the point where I can free draw bases and they are coming out much better with each new one. I can tell you though my best stuff I did i first traced something else a dozen times or so to get the idea of where the line should be, and how they are shaped. Before I went about trying to free draw it myself. Practice loads like it has been suggested. Use massive amounts of reference. Don't throw something away because it doesn't look right the first time. Set it aside and draw the same thing again. Do this loads of times then compare to the first one you did. To see what changes you have made and to measure your improvement. Also focus on area's that your bad at. Like drawing elbows as you said. Just keep doing them.

Also you want to keep in mind that everyone's body is different. And though in art we try to make things symmetrical often times they aren't. Even in Anime style. Some have longer arms, bigger foreheads short noes, smaller eyes. Hands some times have different shapes. Some peoples elbows are at the bottom of there breast, where others stop at there hip bone (me). So Just practice and don't be to hard on yourself. And if your using paint and turning out stuff of that quality you are going to just get better.

I never thought of comparing my drawings before, that could be a great help in learning how to fix a few things. The concept of different body types never seemed to cross my mind, but now that I think about it, there are a lot of differences in the body structure in the different anime's that I've watched. I tend to be pretty hard on myself in general, that might take a while to change. Anyway, thanks for the help:)

I am really hard on myself as well. It has stopped me from doing what I love which is art. Now that i am 29 I am looking at things again and telling myself not to give up. But I do find having my old stuff up and on display makes me strive to do better. It also gives me points to be like "Oh i did really good here vs. I need to work that there.." I also always when i am not sure use google. It is your friend. Asking it questions often times gets me more answers then trying to guess at a power word. I often ask google "How do I draw anime style hair?" Or "How to draw Really awesome ninja's" Not really on the second one. Also finding an artist you like the style of to emulate helps a bit. I am currently doing a Charmander study and free drawing it on CS6 I am not that great at it. However I posted it and will do another one in a day or two and keep doing it until I either improve or feel that i need to try something different. But the worse thing we can do in art is be to hard on ourselves. Try to look at it as lifting weights. We never start off at 100lbs we start off at 5 and work our way up. Art is the same way. Pick something and work at it. Keep doing it. Your style + your skill will show through and improve as time progress on. Remeber we are never who we were 10 minutes ago, and we will always find better ways given time and practice. It is part of the human condition. Best of luck.

Thanks:3