Tips on drawing chubby characters?

 ASKED BY ANONYMOUS

hey! your art is so lovely! you're really good at drawing diverse characters!! do you have any tips on drawing chubby characters?

ahh thank you so much!! ;u;

ok i’m no expert and to be quite honest i don’t even know what i’m doing most of the time BUT i’ll give u some tips based on how i draw + what i know from being a chubby person myself lol

first of all: think circles

snowmen!!! the first one’s body is made up of 2 circles of the same size, indicating the chest and hips are gonna be the about the same size (an hourglass shape), while the one on the right has a smaller top and is gonna be a pear shape!!

now let’s sketch over these snowmen, keeping circles and soft shapes in mind the whole time!

and finally….

note the tummy rolls where the circles overlap!! fat will squish and bend all over the place, so if a person is stretching there won’t be tummy rolls, but when relaxing, the fat will roll up.

important to keep in mind: fat distribution varies a lot from person to person!! i reccommend googling nude fat people (not just plus models!!!) and studying how the fat is stored on people’s bodies and how it will move with the person!! (and if you happen to be a chubby person yourself, don’t be afraid to use a mirror!!)

fat people come in all shapes and sizes, so i couldn’t even BEGIN to try and draw every body shape there is!! so again, google is your friend. that said, here’s a few more snowmen turning into people:

the body isn’t the only thing to keep in mind, of course; the face is also super important!! a nice trick is to simply put less definition on the jawline; fat covers up bone structure!!

i just erased some lines and BOOM!! also, make the face rounder and fuller for those cute pinchable chubby cheeks!!

and of course, don’t forget about double chins!! 

a lot of fat is stored around the neck so not only will you get double chins, but the back of the neck will also be chubby!! that’s a good thing to keep in mind when drawing short-haired or bald chubby people

another important detail: the arms!

fat mostly tends to gather in the upper arms but depending on the person the rest of the arm can also be noticeably chubby (for example, there will be less bone definiton around the wrist.) take note of the armpit area, where you’ll get folds!!

now for something i think is super important!!! stretchmarks!!

honestly, i think it’s so sad that there’s so much stigma around stretchmarks, because i think they’re wonderful!! they look like lightning bolts, or tiger stripes!!!

that said, stretchmarks are scars, so fresh marks will be reddish while older marks will fade and usually become a lighter tone than your skintone. they’ll appear wherever the skin stretches when you grow or gain weight, but here are the most common places to see them:

• the upper arms
  
• the chest/breasts
  
• the underside of the tummy
  
• the waist
  
• the thighs (both inside and outside)
  
• the butt
  

ok, i think that’s about it for tips i have to offer!! i’ll just repeat the most important tip of them all: don’t be afraid to google references!! references are your friend, it’s not cheating, every artist uses them and you will learn SO MUCH from them, trust me!!! and of course, practice practice PRACTICE!! figuring out how to draw different body types in your own style, especially if you’re used to drawing slimmer/skinnier people (and let’s face it, a lot of us started out drawing just one body type) takes time and practice, so just keep drawing!! :D