Distorting complex forms three dimensionally the Texeira way

Tex does far more realistic heads/faces than most comic artists. Not totally realistic, but built on extensive knowledge of skull structures and muscle structures that give shape to the face and to expressions. But not necessarily drawn 'realistically'. Having that knowledge lets him construct the face from forms, and he can do things you can't if you copy photographs etc. He builds the faces from those inner structures, really from his own understanding of them in three dimensions. So again, as with the body, he can exaggerate in many different ways and push beyond realistic boundaries. Those mouths that open farther than any human mouth really can, sometimes with extra teeth in them, for instance. 

In the image above it's clear he understands the skull structures the head and face are built on. 

He's obviously drawn a lot from photographs after developing all that in-depth understanding of the forms,  and extrapolated/extended what he actually sees. Since he understands the construction of forms like the jaw hinges and the bunched muscles around it that give shape to a smile or a frown, he can push what he sees in ways other artists simply can't. And I'll guarantee you, when he draws from photographs, it isn't a simple matter of copying the shapes and tones that he sees. He interprets what he sees, infers things that can't be seen, and builds a head, visualizing it all three-dimensionally, based on what he sees. I know, because I do this, though my own understanding is nowhere near as extensive as his. But this is the beauty of constructive drawing. It teaches you those forms and how everything under the skin interacts to create the lumps, bumps and hollows we see on the surface of the body. And it gives you power to manipulate what you see,  and to change it however you want to. 

I'd say what he really has developed is a mental mannikin of the human figure in great detail, with full understanding of its anatomy down to the skeletal level, and it's distorted the way his drawings are. Or he can distort it that way when he wants to, though his figures when they're really distorted are fairly limited in their movement. He seems only able to draw them in a small range of poses that way. And his particular methods of distortion seem to slip at times. You'll sometimes see a different kind of distortion for a panel or two, and then his usual method comes back. He was doing this in the 90's when everything had to be extreme, and comic book art in particular. Many other artist were doing similar things. 

I have no interest in drawing such intensely distorted figures, and I don't want to distort the same way he did. But some of my favorite artists work this way. Learn the structures and anatomy and proportioning of the human body so well they can distort it from the inside—3 dimensionally. Meaning the skeletal structure itself gets distorted, as opposed to those cartoonists who don't really know the skeleton, so when they distort there's no sense of one underneath the flesh, creating that chassis or framework on which the muscles are anchored. 

Ok, I guess I ought to put my money where my mouth is and show what I'm talking about, though most of my minuscule audience probably already knows this. 

There's a vague sense of some type of structure under there, but it doesn't look much like an actual human skeleton, aside from having a torso, arms, legs, and a head. Those forms are extremely simplified. And yes, in a way that does suggest some smaller forms like vague elbow joints and almost pseudo-knuckles.  This kind of cartooning can be very pleasant, and isn't about detail or anatomical accuracy. It's about simplicity, design and character. 

Here there's more of an attempt at something approximating a human skeleton under there, but it's very simplified (not as much as Lisa was), and the muscles are drawn as very basic forms made of simple round curves. This isn't too far from a giant marshmallow man from a certain 80's. movie with ghosts and comedians, or maybe a tire man from the 70's. 

Even here there's some vague effort at a structure, but it's drawn very flat with no effort to make it look 3 dimensional.