A good "Human Portion/Nonhuman Portion" Ratio?

So far, I've been mostly practicing drawing the characters's faces, but now I am starting to work on bodies. And I really don't know what the accepted length for the various tails is. Hence this poll.

I actually made a thread about this too, because I found it confusing when a naga was measured in length, rather than height while standing still. I really have no idea about a good ratio. I think only the master knows.

100-0.

Depends entirely on your plans for the creature, to be honest.

Using checkboxes? Wouldn't this warrant the use of radio-buttons? With checkboxes I can select multiple choices. In fact I think I'll select all of them... j/k.

its really up to you.

A good tip is study animals. and pick features that you may want for your character.

for example my Dridders body structures a little different from others. they are based off a Black Widow spider, big butt and different leg lengths

also they have one of the most powerful venom, so i worked with that idea and made character into a royalty type of figure.

Hmmm yep I've noticed that length can be a bit more confusing, I described my naga Negeyari based on length of 100 feet, but with the full grown pictures I drew of her it didn't quite add up. A bit too small for a Felaryan Naga, even Aurora seems a bit bigger than that.

I've found that about 1/4 to 1/5 of the total length (Head to tail) works in my opinion. Though your own results may vary.

Depends so highly on the subject matter. For a naga, I'd definitely 25/75 for constrictors (nice long tail), but 30/70 or even 40/60 can work for vipers (who could also stand to be much smaller overall, due to not needing the extra size to take down prey thanks to their venom, but that's a matter for another thread.)

For other races, the nonhuman portion has to be big enough to support the human portion, yet small enough (and limited enough) to make the human portion worthwhile. Take the dridder for example. If a dridder's spider half is so big that the human portion's arms can't really reach beyond its legs, there's not much practical benefit to having a human torso. It'd make your venom difficult to use since your fangs have no reach and your best grasping limbs are too short to do ay good. Yet on the other end of the scale, if the human part's way too big for the nonhuman part, it looks ridiculous - like a spider with a giraffe neck.

Well, with nagas, a 30/70 ratio seems about right. Though a couple specimens like Kat are more like 20/80. But I think the Felaryan naga average is 30/70. Not horribly large, but definitely capable of supporting the human portion.

Though to be perfectly honest, I don't put much thought into that when I draw nagas. When I add the tail, I just keep drawing it until it feels right.

Nervan wrote:

For a naga, I'd definitely 25/75 for constrictors (nice long tail)

Noted.

GREGOLE wrote:

Well, with nagas, a 30/70 ratio seems about right. Though a couple specimens like Kat are more like 20/80. But I think the Felaryan naga average is 30/70. Not horribly large, but definitely capable of supporting the human portion.

Though to be perfectly honest, I don't put much thought into that when I draw nagas. When I add the tail, I just keep drawing it until it feels right.

I would imagine it depends largely on the species (constrictor vs viper), and then on the individual.

servomoore wrote:

So far, I've been mostly practicing drawing the characters's faces, but now I am starting to work on bodies. And I really don't know what the accepted length for the various tails is. Hence this poll.

I once ran into this same problem, and I could have solved it thus:
Draw (well, crudely sketched) a human figure standing.
Then "blend" in a naga tail, starting at the figures waist and running it some length down the page.
Doing this multiple times will give you several nagas with various human-naga body length ratios, and you can choose the one you like the best.

The way I actually solved it was different. I calculated the length her stomach would have to be to hold a person, the length her "waist" would have to be so that she could bend in half and hug prey in her stomach (as if she were laying next to them), and then added a reasonable looking tail. I think I might end up lengthening her though, as she seems kind of short.