Kress
March 9th, 2004, 08:03 PM
*Brought over from eatpoo. Disclaimer: This tutorial is very long-winded. Sometimes I talk a lot when I am teaching, but I only do so in the hopes of the person gaining an understanding of what I'm saying, and not just memorizing specifics. So yea, I know, it's long-winded.
*****
Hey all. Hope this post finds you in good health. Windowlicker made a suggestion a little while ago about a step-by-step. And while I don’t consider myself a pro or advanced in any sense of the word, I figured I’ve collected enough tips and tricks over the last few years to put them in one place.
Just a disclaimer – this is mostly about drawing characters, their poses, and going from rough to specific. This is NOT about composition and layout or scenery, although I presume some of this could be applicable towards those things.
Thanks Windowlicker for the suggestion, I wouldn’t have done this otherwise! Your encouragement is appreciated. Hope it helps.
For what it’s worth, enjoy :D .
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/1.jpg
1: Light and vague. Structure and placement. Very important phase, perhaps the important phase. I usually throw a circle head down to start from, that’s how I gauge distance to things like shoulders and ribs, length of sternum and ribcage, etc. Those, in turn will give me info about hips and legs.
I’ve decided to give her wings, so I plop in a line or two to give me an idea about balance and proportion – as well as something to go on later. I will probably leave it alone for a while, rough is good.
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/2.jpg
2: This is the payoff for having the last phase work out. It is closely related to the first. Once I’ve found distances and proportions, I can start to play with finding the right curves, but definitely not finalizing any of them yet. This is still rough because I will undoubtedly change things later as I find mistakes in proportions or just things I don’t like.
Notice the guidelines I give myself (the straight lines shooting through different parts of the body). I’m taking them from the reference as I try to see what’s next to what. For example: Notice how her right wrist is lined up with a certain part of her hip; it’s this method that can point out real bad mistakes as well as help you layout a realistic pose with it’s correct proportions. Sometimes proportions can be totally off and the artist has no idea. This is a great way to avoid that as well as familiarize yourself with human proportions over time.
Keep this part loose still, there will be changes to make. For example, I was about to move on until I realized her right wrist was too high, and moved it down. If I had gone on to finalize the drawing, she would have a truncated arm and the feel or convincing quality of the drawing would have been compromised more.
Since I’ve done this a few times, I keep a lot of these guidelines in my head – but as I lay out the pose of the figure, I always keep in mind things like “how far forward does her knee go?”,or , “does the edge of her butt come out farther than the edge of her shoulder?” (yes it does, very helpful!) The way I figure these things out is by either drawing, or imagining straight horizontal and vertical going through the pose, in a sense plots things out for me. I hope this part makes sense because all too often I see poses screwed up when these simple things are overlooked. Often times people get halfway through their drawing and realize something is totally off in relation to something else (I’m talking about body parts in this case). And usually by then, it’s too late to fix without doing some serious damage to the work they’ve (or I’ve :wink: ) already done.
*Another point I want to stop and make here: I would not know what to do with my reference if it weren’t for live figure and life drawing. In case there’s some confusion: I would not know what to do with my reference if it weren’t for live figure and life drawing.
This point fits well between drawing 1 2 and 3 since it is in them where I am laying out the figures pose and proportions. My drawing is going to depend heavily on that being convincing. If it weren’t for life drawing, I would look at a photo of a person and see lines and confusion – but since I have *some* experience with drawing from life, I know what to look for in the ref to make my drawing seem more balanced, lifelike and sculptural. Ok, had to get that out of the way :) .
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/3.jpg
3: So I’m comfortable with what I ended up with in drawing 2 and move on to solidify the figure a little more. I being details like nose and mouth, establish a LITTLE of the shading to give the figure depth and presence, as well as move down the leg. Note: I tried a bunch of different lines to get the legs right (look at drawing 2). No way in hell am I going to do that on the first try, after practice, you’ll start getting lucky and it’ll happen more often – but DON’T expect it to and frustrate yourself. Take your time and make sure you like all the lines (I like to pretend the character is my friend and I’m doing them a favor by making their lines right… err, nevermind)!
Another note: Try to avoid using scratchy lines to draw. You can see a lot of the strokes I made with my pencil and they’re mostly fluid and long. Drawing this way will do you a lot of good (IMHO). It will get you to make more of the drawing happen in less time, it will train your hand and eye to nail angles and proportions quicker and easier, and loosen up your drawings (which is good for achieving a lifelike quality).
Also – I’ve decided to give her mechanical wings (yea, Mr.Originality I know…) so I’ve blocked in some of that. Still doodling and luckily the perspective looked OK enough to let it go. If it doesn’t on the first try, don’t worry – do it again until it makes sense. Remember to stay loose at the beginning of things.
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/4.jpg
4: Everything seems to be in place for this one so I’ve furthered some of the detail and explored the wings some more. Also a little more shading and sharpening of lines.
Remember: PLEASE, for ME – use line variation! Do not make your lines all the same!!! It will flatten and (IMHO) kill your drawing! Line variation lends to your subjects being more sculptural. I’ll talk more about that later.
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/5.jpg
5: Everything’s in place on the wings so I’m still in the detailing phase. Here I made stronger lines where I know I want to keep them, solidified some of the structure in the wings, and beefed up her shading. Oh yea, her left hand was bothering me so I killed it, that’s OK to do.
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/6.jpg
6: Coming around 3rd plate. More of the same, except a lot of cleanup. This phase was mostly taking the mess I made in drawing 5 and making some sense out of it. Cleaner lines here ‘cuz I’m almost done. Did a lot of erasing here, which is something I do a lot. Because of all the sketching and fiddling I do, often times things get messy so I have to kill it and rebuild a lot. Added some more final details like her matrix-style plugs (notice the fluid line I placed them on).
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/7.jpg
7: Well this is it. Just cleaned up the back wing some, and added a little shading overall to solidify things.
I sincerely hope this was beneficial and it helps someone, somewhere, sometime. I felt a little long-winded at times but I guess I have a lot to say. As they say, teaching teaches, so it was good for me to do too.
I won’t color it ‘cuz I suck at it, so will someone please?
*****
Hey all. Hope this post finds you in good health. Windowlicker made a suggestion a little while ago about a step-by-step. And while I don’t consider myself a pro or advanced in any sense of the word, I figured I’ve collected enough tips and tricks over the last few years to put them in one place.
Just a disclaimer – this is mostly about drawing characters, their poses, and going from rough to specific. This is NOT about composition and layout or scenery, although I presume some of this could be applicable towards those things.
Thanks Windowlicker for the suggestion, I wouldn’t have done this otherwise! Your encouragement is appreciated. Hope it helps.
For what it’s worth, enjoy :D .
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/1.jpg
1: Light and vague. Structure and placement. Very important phase, perhaps the important phase. I usually throw a circle head down to start from, that’s how I gauge distance to things like shoulders and ribs, length of sternum and ribcage, etc. Those, in turn will give me info about hips and legs.
I’ve decided to give her wings, so I plop in a line or two to give me an idea about balance and proportion – as well as something to go on later. I will probably leave it alone for a while, rough is good.
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/2.jpg
2: This is the payoff for having the last phase work out. It is closely related to the first. Once I’ve found distances and proportions, I can start to play with finding the right curves, but definitely not finalizing any of them yet. This is still rough because I will undoubtedly change things later as I find mistakes in proportions or just things I don’t like.
Notice the guidelines I give myself (the straight lines shooting through different parts of the body). I’m taking them from the reference as I try to see what’s next to what. For example: Notice how her right wrist is lined up with a certain part of her hip; it’s this method that can point out real bad mistakes as well as help you layout a realistic pose with it’s correct proportions. Sometimes proportions can be totally off and the artist has no idea. This is a great way to avoid that as well as familiarize yourself with human proportions over time.
Keep this part loose still, there will be changes to make. For example, I was about to move on until I realized her right wrist was too high, and moved it down. If I had gone on to finalize the drawing, she would have a truncated arm and the feel or convincing quality of the drawing would have been compromised more.
Since I’ve done this a few times, I keep a lot of these guidelines in my head – but as I lay out the pose of the figure, I always keep in mind things like “how far forward does her knee go?”,or , “does the edge of her butt come out farther than the edge of her shoulder?” (yes it does, very helpful!) The way I figure these things out is by either drawing, or imagining straight horizontal and vertical going through the pose, in a sense plots things out for me. I hope this part makes sense because all too often I see poses screwed up when these simple things are overlooked. Often times people get halfway through their drawing and realize something is totally off in relation to something else (I’m talking about body parts in this case). And usually by then, it’s too late to fix without doing some serious damage to the work they’ve (or I’ve :wink: ) already done.
*Another point I want to stop and make here: I would not know what to do with my reference if it weren’t for live figure and life drawing. In case there’s some confusion: I would not know what to do with my reference if it weren’t for live figure and life drawing.
This point fits well between drawing 1 2 and 3 since it is in them where I am laying out the figures pose and proportions. My drawing is going to depend heavily on that being convincing. If it weren’t for life drawing, I would look at a photo of a person and see lines and confusion – but since I have *some* experience with drawing from life, I know what to look for in the ref to make my drawing seem more balanced, lifelike and sculptural. Ok, had to get that out of the way :) .
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/3.jpg
3: So I’m comfortable with what I ended up with in drawing 2 and move on to solidify the figure a little more. I being details like nose and mouth, establish a LITTLE of the shading to give the figure depth and presence, as well as move down the leg. Note: I tried a bunch of different lines to get the legs right (look at drawing 2). No way in hell am I going to do that on the first try, after practice, you’ll start getting lucky and it’ll happen more often – but DON’T expect it to and frustrate yourself. Take your time and make sure you like all the lines (I like to pretend the character is my friend and I’m doing them a favor by making their lines right… err, nevermind)!
Another note: Try to avoid using scratchy lines to draw. You can see a lot of the strokes I made with my pencil and they’re mostly fluid and long. Drawing this way will do you a lot of good (IMHO). It will get you to make more of the drawing happen in less time, it will train your hand and eye to nail angles and proportions quicker and easier, and loosen up your drawings (which is good for achieving a lifelike quality).
Also – I’ve decided to give her mechanical wings (yea, Mr.Originality I know…) so I’ve blocked in some of that. Still doodling and luckily the perspective looked OK enough to let it go. If it doesn’t on the first try, don’t worry – do it again until it makes sense. Remember to stay loose at the beginning of things.
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/4.jpg
4: Everything seems to be in place for this one so I’ve furthered some of the detail and explored the wings some more. Also a little more shading and sharpening of lines.
Remember: PLEASE, for ME – use line variation! Do not make your lines all the same!!! It will flatten and (IMHO) kill your drawing! Line variation lends to your subjects being more sculptural. I’ll talk more about that later.
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/5.jpg
5: Everything’s in place on the wings so I’m still in the detailing phase. Here I made stronger lines where I know I want to keep them, solidified some of the structure in the wings, and beefed up her shading. Oh yea, her left hand was bothering me so I killed it, that’s OK to do.
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/6.jpg
6: Coming around 3rd plate. More of the same, except a lot of cleanup. This phase was mostly taking the mess I made in drawing 5 and making some sense out of it. Cleaner lines here ‘cuz I’m almost done. Did a lot of erasing here, which is something I do a lot. Because of all the sketching and fiddling I do, often times things get messy so I have to kill it and rebuild a lot. Added some more final details like her matrix-style plugs (notice the fluid line I placed them on).
http://www.dropship1.com/art/post/7.jpg
7: Well this is it. Just cleaned up the back wing some, and added a little shading overall to solidify things.
I sincerely hope this was beneficial and it helps someone, somewhere, sometime. I felt a little long-winded at times but I guess I have a lot to say. As they say, teaching teaches, so it was good for me to do too.
I won’t color it ‘cuz I suck at it, so will someone please?