When I look at butts, this is what I see. I see a gesture here, and there is a gesture here. These are two sculptural lumps that I think describe butts pretty well. This top one is going from the outside of the top of the pelvis toward the butthole, and the lower one is going from the base of the spine out toward the hip joint, and that is my butt thesis in the nutshell. But if you want more in depth, let's talk anatomy. This is from the back. Pelvis from the side. Iliac crest, sacrum, trocancer. The gluteus maximus originates here along the sacrum and Iliac crest, and it inserts way across down here below the trocancer, actually pretty far down the thigh from the joint. This muscle is creating that lower butt gesture that I just proposed. A gesture that's often continued further by saddlebags of fat hanging out on the thigh. The gluteus medius is originating higher along the Iliac crest up here, and is only traveling down to the trocancer, so not so far and not nearly so big, much more perky, if you will. The combination of the bulb of the gluteus medius combined with the peak of the larger gluteus maximus here, possibly also with some help from a fatty pad under the sit's bones, is creating this other gesture in the butt that I'm talking about. It being a button all these big glorious ass muscles are usually covered in plenty of fat smoothie things out, and the fat coverage is pretty uniform over the whole area so the shape of the butt, even when it's built up with fat, echoes the shape of this deeper flesh. But the butt is more than just soft tissue. I want you to take a second to put your hands on your own butt and feel around for hard spots. These are where your bones are close to the surface. What you're feeling is out here over the trocancer, and then also this ridge of the Iliam and sacrum. Basically, where these muscles are connecting. And visually, these surface bones create dimples, which define the borders of the lumps that we're looking at. Okay, no more anatomy. Let's get back to what we really care about. We've got these two gestural lumps. The top one coming inward, and the bottom one shooting outward. For demonstration purposes, I'm going to work with a nice, happy plump butt. I'm showing form with nice, happy highlights on top, and gloomy, but not unhappy, little shadows below. Okay, so if we're looking dead on at the tailbone, we're probably looking at two jelly bean shapes. But suppose we're looking down from above the pelvis. We're kind of just going to be seeing this upper gesture, and the lower one is going to be hidden, so the butt looks like it's wide on top, and narrower towards the bottom. Vice versa. If we're below the tailbone, the lower outward gesture is all up in our face, so it looks like the butt is wide at the bottom and comes together at the top. Out there in the field when we're looking at real butts in action, the subject is usually tipping their pelvis, either toward us or away from us. This is what I'm talking about. If you're standing with your butt tucked, leading with your junk, if you will, you're mostly just showing us the top half of your gluteus, whilst hiding your butt hole far between your legs, simultaneously squishing the lower gluteus into the backs of your thighs, which, like tectonic plates, deepen the crease at the bottom of your butt, probably doubling it up to you. From behind, the gesture of the butt is going to look something like this, pinching in towards the butthole. On the other hand, if you're standing with your hips forward, you're really showing us the underside of your butt, while stretching your legs away from the gluteus, so that's going to reduce possibly even eliminate the crease between the butt and the thigh. The throw-in and other juicy situations, suppose, we're looking from the side and above the butt. The closer butt cheeks upper gesture is going to be foreshortened, while the distant one on the other side is a full butt cheek broadside creating this wonderful pattern of peaks, hella sexy and so damn anatomically satisfying. Okay, I'm going to say that that's the end of part one. In the stunning conclusion of this two-part series on butts, I'll shut up about the theoretical butt shapes and run through some actual practical situations. Thank you for watching the first ever video of DAX Plains, a how-to series where I DAX attempt to illustrate an illustration topic whether I know shit about it or not, and it's time shorter than my own attention span. And if this free video was useful to you, I still need Patreon patrons for my Eisner nominated graphic novel, Failing Sky.