Just kidding!! I have a love hate relationship with muzzles because I struggle to understand perspective on such a little area for some reason. XD; SO I just kind of fake it till I get it looking good! Here are some notes~
Also typical disclaimer of: this is just some info im spouting please don’t take it as law it might not work for everyone do what works for you!! okay here we go!!
Method 1 is probably the most straightforward way to construct a muzzle. Basically just draw a sphere, toss a line out as though you had a straw sticking right out of your face, and then build a muzzle around that! I get pretty overwhelmed by all the lines and this method honestly stresses me out. I only break it out to really measure and structure stuff out if I need to.
Method 2 is the one I usually resort to more. It relies on using bigger broader shapes to show an area! I start with a circle or sphere, make a blob for the muzzle shape and then add some structure on top. Then I’ll erase it out a bit, and start doing a less construction based drawing on top!
When I’m working on a specific animal, I usually do something like this. I’ll grab a bunch of pictures of the animal from a bunch of angles. Then I do quick drawings of those muzzles. Then you can apply these muzzles to faces! How you wind up anthropomorphising is ultimately up to you - I do a lot of simplification. But good things to note throughout are: the angle from the eye to the nose, how short the muzzle is, and how wide it is.
Usually when I do the little application doodles they don’t actually look how I’ll draw them in the final - this is mostly me just directly applying what I’ve learned without much melding.
Here’s a raccoon drawn after doing those studies above:
So like you can see, it’s totally not perfect lol. I basically study the thing, then let that info just sorta meld back in when I draw. For raccoons, I like how the width of the muzzle kinda tapers all the way down and back towards the ears, so i pulled that in here more than anything! I don’t like muzzles to be too long, so I kept this one pretty short. It winds up giving it an almost bear like look though, which might not be the best but I also don’t really mind it!
The biggest thing is just doing what you want to do. If you do some studies, look at artists you like, then go back and let that all filter into your own original work, you’ll come up with something you’re happy with. <3
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