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CGCookie — Anatomy Reference: The Knee

#anatomy #bones #coco #drawing #knee #knees #leg #reference #skin #tutorial #vonnart #conceptcookie #timvonrueden
Published: 2014-12-19 17:54:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 222908; Favourites: 7266; Downloads: 3036
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Description The Full Knee Reference and TipsArtist: Tim Von Rueden (vonn)

To see the exercise associated with this exercise, click HERE !

Knees are one of those anatomy features that gets ignored, over-simplified, or misinterpreted so that’s why I wanted to do a knee exercise to practice working on accurate knees that you can be proud to show off! Below is a chart I’ve been creating the past week to help understand and remember how to draw knees in your own work. Keep in mind while drawing knees, the underlying forms the most important aspect to showcase accurately.

Remember those 3 bones: Femer, Patala, and Tibia. These three bones along with some tendons and ligaments form that “knee cap” that usually represents the overall knee shape. In the chart you can see as you “melt” the bones, there is a shape that resembles an oval or egg shape being wrapped in the middle with a rubber band. From here you should have an anatomy reference open on the side to accurately depict the muscles the come above and below the knee.

From there remember that the inside of the knees/legs have more indents while the outside tends to be smoother. Lastly, the main difference between male and female legs is that male knees/legs typically focus on the underlying muscles and appear more rigid while the female knees/legs generally appear smoother with softer edges. Hope this helps you while creating knees on your own!

Related content
Comments: 72

SeraphCrl [2022-01-13 08:41:32 +0000 UTC]

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PepperMint64Nyria [2021-04-14 11:28:20 +0000 UTC]

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Zeus314 [2021-02-23 19:12:30 +0000 UTC]

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BonBons-Qoops [2018-06-09 13:45:43 +0000 UTC]

Thanks anyway

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jlayers [2017-12-09 14:58:29 +0000 UTC]

Rofl : soft egg + rubber band XD

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Aliros [2017-10-14 17:51:50 +0000 UTC]

thank yoU!

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onrei [2017-07-20 17:48:21 +0000 UTC]

wow, cool tutorial, thank you!

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JustSomeGuyOnline [2017-05-21 04:59:02 +0000 UTC]

When your knees are screwed up so you need references B)

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The-Psychonaut [2017-04-22 02:09:40 +0000 UTC]

Do you have any other references, please? I hate the knees, because I do great upper torsos and faces, but the legs are my Achilles heel. A botched knee or foot can make the sexiest female subject look like shit. 

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milkchyu In reply to The-Psychonaut [2017-05-06 01:51:50 +0000 UTC]

you could always go look on google for references you nut bag

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The-Psychonaut In reply to milkchyu [2017-05-06 02:03:59 +0000 UTC]

I could, but I like the aesthetics exhibited by this artist: unless you're suggesting someone other than the artist here can instruct me better than they can in their own style, you're just being an irrational asshole. I'm not offended, but, yeah: you need to be informed of the obvious. You're an asshole. Take those Lincoln logs and go build a better cabin.

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milkchyu In reply to The-Psychonaut [2017-05-06 05:44:01 +0000 UTC]

triggered

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The-Psychonaut In reply to milkchyu [2017-05-06 08:26:36 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, or just stating an observation.

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milkchyu In reply to The-Psychonaut [2017-05-06 19:57:47 +0000 UTC]

na triggered

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The-Psychonaut In reply to milkchyu [2017-05-07 10:42:13 +0000 UTC]

"triggers" are (for the most part) imaginary words or subjects that overload someone's pwecious feels so much that they're exempt from responsibility over their thoughts and feelings. That ain't what's goin' on here, chumly. 

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milkchyu In reply to The-Psychonaut [2017-05-07 18:21:15 +0000 UTC]

dont call me chumly noob

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TheArtisticSkeleton1 In reply to milkchyu [2017-11-04 18:33:19 +0000 UTC]

Well that escalated

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Frisby-2007 [2015-10-12 10:23:49 +0000 UTC]

Ugh, thanks for this. This'll just go into my helpful list of references for legs. I just can't seem to ever get them right!

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4bluecat [2015-05-26 00:41:00 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much for this
It helped a lot!!

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OhMyGoshItJosh [2015-04-26 19:04:47 +0000 UTC]

Rigid manly knees. So manly.

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gph-artist [2015-04-26 16:08:04 +0000 UTC]

I love when you lay stuff out like this; invaluable reference.

Thanks for doing this.

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LexiiDear [2015-04-26 02:25:56 +0000 UTC]

Omg I'm dying at the weird pro tip XD
I love your mind and art skills c:

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Antichrist2005 [2015-04-14 17:03:40 +0000 UTC]

This thing has mystified me for years! And no one nor any books has ever properly explained what's going on under the skin with the knee! Thank you!

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milaink [2015-02-18 08:22:42 +0000 UTC]

knee is very difficult to draw, thanks a lot for the tutorial! it will be very helpful!  

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rambocambo [2015-01-09 12:38:45 +0000 UTC]

Well presented info.

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Ferettoko [2015-01-08 02:57:05 +0000 UTC]

Nice. Under appreciated.

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Quelfarii [2015-01-07 19:26:39 +0000 UTC]

I never though about knee like that! You open my eyes! I'm totally serious, no sarcazm

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caramiajinx [2015-01-05 23:21:35 +0000 UTC]

TY! <3 

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michaelabeetle [2014-12-27 11:46:49 +0000 UTC]

It is really good, just one thing. It is called femur not femer. Others are very well drawn.

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michaelabeetle In reply to michaelabeetle [2014-12-27 11:48:19 +0000 UTC]

And also i didnt realize, it is tibia and fibula.

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CoddledTamago [2014-12-26 11:01:16 +0000 UTC]

Since i started being professional about drawing, i have checked anatomy references of all kinds (doctors', artists', porn and all that jazz  ) in an effort to understand how the body thingz work. Your anatomy references though, are often the ones that make my brain suddenly grasp how to address certain weaknesses of mine. They might not be perfect for beginners, but they are great for people wandering how to further express the minutia of human anatomy. Thank you kindly for your work!

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IyadoSketchbook [2014-12-23 16:36:27 +0000 UTC]

thank you very much !! very useful !!

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SafooChan [2014-12-22 16:06:44 +0000 UTC]

OMG...Thank you help

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0137Amy0137 [2014-12-22 07:58:54 +0000 UTC]

wow, great reference. Thank you

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Milo-Wildcat [2014-12-21 22:30:35 +0000 UTC]

awesome anatomy reference thanks!!

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ChrisBerg-316 [2014-12-21 17:57:48 +0000 UTC]

I always struggled to get them knee right this ism great thanks

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jedfras [2014-12-21 17:27:03 +0000 UTC]

Thanks, this is gonna be really useful

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kannEvil [2014-12-21 16:27:12 +0000 UTC]

Nice

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Ashmoor [2014-12-21 15:51:01 +0000 UTC]

that's just great, thanks

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AlienPatch [2014-12-21 11:52:31 +0000 UTC]

And now that knees are on the front page...

ARROW JOKES GALORE!!!

Nah, just kidding. Great reference pic.

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XxZelda-de-katxX [2014-12-21 00:03:34 +0000 UTC]

oh god I've been drawing them wrong!
thanks for the reference!

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invexx [2014-12-20 19:21:36 +0000 UTC]

You have no idea how excited I was to see knees on the popular page.

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Sefo33 In reply to invexx [2014-12-20 21:52:32 +0000 UTC]

XD that pic of  urs makes it sound odd

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Vilintein [2014-12-20 18:09:35 +0000 UTC]

Fantastic, this will be incredibly useful! Also, I can't be the only one who has a harder time drawing knees than hands...

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Ryusoko [2014-12-20 18:04:19 +0000 UTC]

cool

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bnorthr [2014-12-20 16:42:57 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! As an OCD speller, I have to tell you that it's "femur," not "femer."

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Spectredox [2014-12-20 14:57:52 +0000 UTC]

This is very helpful! I've looked at anatomy alone already, but the world needs to know these especially in art-making (not neccessarily though, but for figures)! Hope to see more! 😃

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SmurfTrail [2014-12-20 13:28:46 +0000 UTC]

Yea! We need to know more about anatomy, even if your drawing its not ultrarealism, so we can afford more and more ideas and create more, based on this. I love ConceptCooke tutorials! It helps me a lot!

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rtil [2014-12-20 09:50:07 +0000 UTC]

this is a pretty good reference sheet but i don't think there's anything wrong in simplifying the form of the knee like the 2nd example  of 'shaping the leg' you put an X on. it's a little crude, but stylized it's not terribly inaccurate, and it still has a good silhouette.

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chu0403 In reply to rtil [2014-12-20 10:25:11 +0000 UTC]

I agree. If you're drawing a frames for an animation or something that has a simplified style, it's going to take way too much time to draw each and every muscle just to have it look anatomically correct.

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