These sketches are all themed around Homo erectus, an ancestor of human beings which would have evolved in Africa around two million years ago. They would have been the first hominins to use fire for cooking, although they probably had not developed our capacity for language or art yet. And, while they would have used stone tools, they probably did not make any clothes!
When drawing the full-body view of the female Homo erectus, I was unsure how human or ape-like her body would appear. However, all the online sources I could find said that Homo erectus’s body proportions would have been similar to a modern human’s, so that’s what I went with.
Nice sketch. Also love that sexy Homo Erectus chick.
Which subspecies of H. Erectus are they? Java, Peking, Lantian?
I didn’t have any particular subspecies in mind, but they could be African Homo erectus (or “Homo ergaster”).
Homo ergaster is already suggested to be its own species. As such its likrly not Homo erectus.
The drawings look decent. However I have 2 mayor criticisms:
1) Continental origin: the idea of Homo erectus being of african origin and an ancestor of humans and other hominins is now considered questionable. As many of the proposed Homo erectus “subspecies” (or populations) appear to be very morphologically distinct and from different time periods. As a result, experts suggest that many of them must be split into different species. As such, most likely the Java man and many asian hominins identified as members of the species would be the true Homo Erectus (meaning that H. erectus would be of asian origin and a split off rather than an ancestor), while the african fossils of the Turkana boy’s group (probably the one you drew) are their own species: Homo ergaster. Weather Ergaster is an ancestor or a split off is unkown.
2)Anatomy: You have to remember that this is a different species from ours. As such they posses several anatomical differences from us. You are right that as a Savannah hominin they possesed a body anatomy similar to ours (as opposed to Neanderthals, who where more robust and had shorter, muscular limbs, adapted for the cold. Or H. naledi, who possed curved fingers adapted for climbing). However weather they looked like as how you depicted them is questionable, as where not sure what type of eyes, ears or nose they possesed. However one thing I want to say is that its nose should have a mayor gap between the mouth. The reason why our noses have a small gap with the mouth is due to our neotenic features shrinkin our faces. But H. ergaster and other hominins where not neotenous, as such they developed more “older” faces. Amongst the features of those faces include a mayor gap between the nose and mouth.
Hope my critique was of help.
Thank you for this and your other comments. However, for future reference, please pace yourself when commenting on my works. I get overwhelmed when someone comments on a large number of my pictures at once, especially when those comments are critical (though I understand your criticism is meant to be constructive).