Tuesday, August 8, 2023

100 Days of Drawing (week 13)

This week


Materials:

  • pencil
  • pen
  • eraser
  • paper (printer paper, notebook, etc)
  • colors (colored pencils, crayons, watercolor, etc)
  • alternatives to the above: smart phone or tablet drawing app.

Day 87: yokai



I found this book at the library, Manga Art for Everyone by Danica Davidson and Rena Saiya, and thought it would be a good jumping off point for a drawing.  I choose the four characters in the book that appealed to me:
  • shojo manga (shojo girl in Japanese; manga targeting teenage girls)
  • shonen manga (boys’ comics; manga targeting adolescent boys)
  • nekojin (cat person)
  • yokai (beings from old Japanese folklore)
I then looked for youtube demonstrations of these four. This is the last manga from this series.

THE YOKAI

I found the Brief History of Yokai by Zack Davisson interesting.

More interesting, for our puposes, is Japan A venue’s The Yokai. It provides an illustrated list that we can use to find a drawing to copy:
I suggest that you browse these monsters and select one that appeals to you.  I chose Tengu as my model.

Day 88: zentangles


Zentagles are a kind of doodle. Here's a way to get started: 
  • First create a palette of doodle designs. 
    • On a piece of paper, draw lines to create 9 rectangles. 
    • In each rectangle draw a doodle pattern.  
  • On a clean piece of paper draw the outline of the first letter of your name
  • Using your palette of doodles as guides, fill in the outside of your letter's design.
Charvi Ashtekar has a video where she makes 24 Doodle Patterns (21 minutes, 1M views).

The Art gEEK Beginners Guide to Start Zentangles (8 minutes, 489K views)

Here is the zentangles ‘palette’ that I created:



Here are the videos of the zentangles palette and the my zentangles “A”:




Day 89: gesture drawing



Gesture drawings are exercises that we do at the beginning of a figure drawing session. They are a way for us to warm up our bodies and minds to focus on drawing. The model will take a series of one minute poses, followed by a few two minute poses.  Our goal is to capture the essence of the poses in one and two minutes. 

Jess Karp guides us through her preparation and implementation of gesture drawing practice. I particularly like her reminder to herself of “BYE BYE PERFECTION”.

I’ve created an album of gesture drawing references for us to use. I recommend  that you do three 1-minute gesture drawing and two 2-minute gesture drawing.

Here is Proko giving us  Gesture Drawing Examples - 2 Minute Poses (5 minutes, 834K views)

Here is my 11 second video of gesture drawings


Day 90: manga hair



Art Senpai How to Draw Anime Hair Like a Pro (8 minutes, 4.1K views)

Art Senpai leads us through five elements for drawing anime hair:
  1. Structure and shape
  2. Proportion
  3. Perspective
  4. Line Art
  5. Details
First, in structure and shape, we look at the hair as a form and not as something made up of individual hairs. Art breaks the hair form into three main sections: the bangs, the sides and the back. He labels the origin of these three sections as the swirl.

For proportion, Art introduces the use of a three to one ratio.  To do this he divides 10 into the numbers 6, 3, and 1 and applies it to drawing the three sections based on which is closest to the viewer. He further uses the 631 proportions to drawing hair section details.

For perspective, art uses a cube as a guide sketching the skull and the hair form.

Line art involves using line weight to indicate light and shadow in the hair form: thin lines on the section side facing the light source and heavy lines on the sides of thge sections away from the light source.

Finally, details. This is a style question for you to decide how much detail you want to include. 


Whyt Manga How to draw hair. (20 minutes, 1.2M views)

Day 91: outdoor sketching


If you think about it, we human beings having been doing our art outdoors a whole lot longer than we've

even had an indoors. Artists who work outdoors currently include landscape artists, seascape artists, plein air artists, urban sketchers, and artists like you and me. 

As we think about taking our art outside we are challenged with the question: "What do we need?"

At a minimum we need something to draw with and something to draw on. Since many of us are just starting to explore drawing outside, let's keep it simple: a pencil, an eraser,  a pen and paper on a stiff surface. 

Next we need to find a place to do our outdoor sketching.  Today the temperature where I live will be about 108 F.  If I go outside to sketch I'd be sweating and miserable.  So I'll be doing my outdoor drawing from indoors (remember art's first 3 rules). I'll find a place where I can comfortably sit by a window and draw something outdoors that captures my attention. If it wasn't so hot, I would find someplace to sit outside and draw.  

So let's get started! Find something that "smiles at you" and draw it. (My wife, Chris, introduced me to the idea of "smiles at you" when I asked her how she shopped for clothes.  She told me that she would meander around the clothes department until something "smiled at her".  Being a rational person, this made absolutely no sense!  How could a piece of cloth "smile at her"! Over the 50+ years we've been together I had glimpses of what "smiles at you" means. Baby steps to learning this was being coached by an art teacher on how to view pictures at an exhibit. He said to go into each gallery, find an unobtrusive location and just look. Eventually something will catch your eye.  If nothing catches your eye, go to the next gallery. That 'something catching your eye' is the beginning of a "smile at you"). 

Day 92: drawing comics


Ryan Benjamin, an artist who has worked with Marvel for decades, gives us tips for drawing comics:
  • basic materials: Ryan suggests using pencils between 2H and 2B (2H, H, F, HB, B, 2B) 
  • red and blue pencils: he uses red pencils to lightly rough in his designs. He then uses his 2B to pencil in his preliminary design. He scans this and eliminates the red lines in his digital drawing app.
  • getting started: Ryan demonstrates making various marks with the tip and sides of his pencil. 
  • primitive shapes:
  • thinking with primitive forms


Day 93: texture: hair



In How to Draw Hair (7 minutes, 2M views) Stan Prokopenko once again does a wonderful job of giving us an overview of the do's and don'ts of drawing hair followed by guiding us through the process he uses to create a well formed drawing of hair.








    



Posted by at No comments:

Friday, July 14, 2023

100 Days of Drawing (week 12)

 

This week


Materials:

  • pencil
  • pen
  • eraser
  • paper (printer paper, notebook, etc)
  • colors (colored pencils, crayons, watercolor, etc)
  • alternatives to the above: smart phone or tablet drawing app.

Day 80: nekojin



I saw this book, Manga Art for Everyone by Danica Davidson and Rena Saiya, at the library and though it would be a good jumping off point for a drawing.  I choose the four characters in the book that appealed to me:
  • shojo manga (shojo girl in Japanese; manga targeting teenage girls)
  • shonen manga (boys’ comics; manga targeting adolescent boys)
  • nekojin (cat person)
  • yokai (beings from old Japanese folklore)
I then looked for youtube demonstrations of these four.

This is our third manga of the series: nekojin (cat person)

  • Art Shogun begins by showing us the pencils that will be used and proceeds to do a step by step demonstration in How to draw Anime "Neko" Girl (12 minutes 2.4M views).
  • Shinigami Arts draws and uses colored pencils to color Neko in Drawing a "Neko" Anime Girl (6 minutes 280K views)

Day 81: the figure's proportions



Draw a straight line. Divide it in half (2 parts). Divide each half in half (4 parts). Divide those parts in half (8 parts). Congratulations! you have the beginning of a figure which will be 8 heads tall. In the video by My Drawing Tutorials, you'll go step by step to locate important landmarks on the figure:

  1. Enclose the top part in an oval. You have located the chin and have an important measure: the head.
  2. Go to the second point down. This point will be mid-chest. Mark a point on either side of it, a head length apart. These are the nipples.
  3. Find the midpoint between the chin and the mid-chest. Make a 'v'. This is the clavicle or collarbone.
  4. Find the midpoint between the chin and the clavicle. This is the top of the chest cavity.
  5. Draw the chest cavity as an oval down to the third point down (the navel) and wide enough to include the nipples with some space on the outside.
  6. Draw vertical lines from the nipples and mark where they intersect the chest cavity. Draw a curved line between these two points that touches the mid-chest point. You've completed the chest.
  7. Draw a horizontal line about an eighth of a head below the navel. Locate the points where this line intersects the vertical lines from the nipples. Draw a curve line between these two points that includes the navel. This is the top of the pelvic bowl.
  8. Draw curved lines from the two points made in step 7 down to the next point below the naval (the crotch). 
  9. Complete the pelvic bowl by drawing drawing lines that are the top of the pelvic bone and making curved lines from the crotch point to the pelvic bones.
  10. To locate the top of the leg bone, divide the line between the navel point and the crotch point into 3 equal parts. Slightly below the second part, make a horizontal line. Mark the two points where this line meets the vertical lines from the nipples. This is the top of the leg bones.
  11. Starting at the points located in step 10,  draw short, slanted lines away from the pelvic bowl. Curve your lines sharply so that they become vertical and end at the point two head lengths from the bottom (the knee).
  12. Add 2 lines for the lower legs with triangles for the feet.
  13. To locate where to attach the arms, draw straight lines from the navel through each nipple. At the clavicle, draw lines almost horizontal, but slightly slanting upward.  Where these lines intersect will be the shoulders. Draw vertical lines from these 2 points to a length even with the crotch point. These are the wrists.
  14. Draw a hand attached to each wrist. 
You've completed a proportional stick figure!

My Drawing Tutorials Drawing Human Proportions Using Stick Figures (17 minutes, 970K views)

Fine Art Tips How to Draw the Figure from the Imagination (11 minutes, 5.2M views)


Day 82: continuous line drawing


A continuous line drawing is simply drawing without lifting your pen/pencil from the paper. You can vary your line weight, but the idea is to draw what you see while keeping the pen in contact the paper

In her video, Continuous Line Contour Drawing Lesson (8 minutes, 780K views), Anna Stump demonstrates doing a continuous line portrait.




Day 83: the figure in perspective



David Finch How To Draw Figures in Perspective (31 minutes, 880K views)

My Drawing Tutorials How To Draw The Human Figure In Perspective (18 minutes, 348K views)




Day 84: the cartoon process


A version of the cartoon process is:

  • brainstorm an idea for a cartoon
  • sketch the idea
  • refine the sketch and idea until you are satisfied (an eraser is your main refinement tool)
  • ink the drawing
  • color your cartoon
Here are a couple of cartoonist talking through parts of their cartooning process:
I’ve included the video from the Day 80 nekojin to illustrate a cartoon process



Day 85: warm and cool colors



NPT Art Connection Comparing Warm and Cool Colors (1 minute, 358K views)



Day 86: line control


I suggest that you watch the first 6 minutes of Salgood Sam's Line Control Exercise (8 minutes, 20K views) since it gives you an insight on drawing from the wrist, the elbow, and shoulder.

Sam guides you through a process for drawing straight lines freehand. You might ask, "Why?". The answer is that making straight lines challenges your drawing "equipment" - if you draw from your wrist, you naturally make curved lines; to make a straight line your hand will need to compensate for the natural curve created by your wrist motion.  Sam also does an exercise for drawing a straight line from your elbow. Bottom line: making straight lines helps you realize that drawing requires eye-body coordination, not just eye hand coordination.

Do the following exercise:

  • make a straight line with a ruler and a colored pencil
  • make 5 freehand straight line using the ruled line as a guide drawing from the wrist
  • make 5 freehand straight line using the ruled line as a guide drawing from the elbow
  • make 5 freehand straight line using the ruled line as a guide drawing from the shoulder

Watch the first 9 minutes of Further notes on Grip! (10 minutes, 5.8K views). Sam demonstrates the flexibility that the tripod grip allows.  He also encourages you to relax your grip. In fact, a tight grip on your pencil might your body telling you to take a break.













Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

100 Days of Drawing (week 11)

The Human Body as a Means of Expression

Let's face it, our bodies are fascinating! And well they should be since we spend all of our life in our body!

And how do we express ourselves? We use our bodies to show others how we feel!

Some of us are better at expressing ourselves with our bodies than others. Dancers, mimes, actors, comedians, and clowns are the people that come to mind.

As an artist, I would like to be able to draw people expressing themselves. So I look for photos of dancers, mimes, actors, comedians, and clowns expressing themselves to learn from by using them as models for a drawing. And this will help me develop my skills up to a point; I'll be limited to the poses I can find photos for.

If I want to be skillful enough to draw people expressing themselves from my imagination, I'll need to know how their bodies work. Specifically I'll need to know the fundamental structure - the skeleton. I'll need to know what moves that structure - the muscles. Finally I'll need to know how movements flow - muscular coordination - that is, which muscles relax when other muscles contract. In short, I'll need to know human anatomy.

So far, I've introduced the following human anatomy in our drawings:

The focus of these drawings has been on surface anatomy. Some of the associated videos have introduced deeper anatomy, for example, in Day 62: the mouth, I provide a link to Proko’s How to Draw Lips - Anatomy and Structure.  

Beginning this week, starting with our drawing of the shoulders, we'll be doing more in depth studies.

I encourage you to learn at whatever level you feel comfortable with, but if you are considering portraiture or manga for your artistic avocation, plan to revisit human anatomy periodically in your pursuit.


This week


Materials:

  • for Day 79:
    • charcoal (recommended: General Charcoal HB, 2B, 6B and White 558 pencils)
    • blending stump (make your own) or old used toothbrush (I cut half the handle off of mine)
  • eraser
  • paper (printer paper, notebook, etc)
  • colors (colored pencils, crayons, watercolor, etc)
  • alternatives to the above: smart phone or tablet drawing app

Day 73: shonen manga


I saw this book, Manga Art for Everyone by Danica Davidson and Rena Saiya, at the library and though it would be a good jumping off point for a drawing.  I choose the four characters in the book that appealed to me:
  • shojo manga (shojo girl in Japanese; manga targeting teenage girls)
  • shonen manga (boys’ comics; manga targeting adolescent boys)
  • nekojin (cat person)
  • yokai (beings from old Japanese folklore)
I then looked for youtube demonstrations of these four.

This is our second manga of the series: shonen hero!

Draw a shonen hero (sketch) by Sikana (5 minutes, 1.5K views)
Draw a shonen hero (ink) by Sikana (5 minutes, 344 views)
Draw a shonen hero (shading and filling) by Sikana (5 minutes, 171 views)

And from My Hero Academia: Drawing Deku. My Hero Academia is a creation of Kōhei Horikoshi. Deku is the nickname for My Hero Academia's main protagonist: Izuku Midoriya.


Day 74: a city in 3-point perspective



How to Draw a City in Three-Point Perspective by Circle Line Art School (10 minutes, 244K views


Day 75: cross contour drawing


The virtual instructor in Cross Contour Lines - Improve your drawing and painting (5 minutes, 114K views) briefly reviews the contour line than jumps into cross contour lines that he draws over an apple to illustrate the apple’s form. He then compares using cross hatching to using cross contour lines to draw the form of a cylinder. Finally, he shows how cross contour lines can be incorporated into applying your media: charcoal, painting.

Draw Awesome takes a different approach to teaching us How to Draw With Contours (10 minutes, 139 K views). He draws the contour lines on an apple and a banana and encourages us to do the same. He then uses the apple with the contour lines on it as the object of our drawing and proceeds to demonstrate drawing contour lines on paper.

Day 76: the neck



Proko, in Learn how to draw the neck - Forms you should know (note: the last minute is advertisement. 5.5 minutes, 223K views), starts with modeling theneck as a cylinder.

David Finch in Anatomy study: Necks (17 minutes, 3K views), draws using various anatomy models he has found on the web.



Day 77: the shoulders



Shoulders are incredible.

They allow us to freely move our arms. 

My study shows the muscles from the back and front (posterior and anterior).

Stan Prokopenko first introduces us to the bones in the shoulder in Anatomy of the shoulder bones. We learn about:
  • the clavicle
  • the scapula
  • the acromion process
In another video, he shows us How to draw the shoulder bones. If you get nothing else from this video, you'll start to appreciate how marvelously complex the human body is.

You may be asking, "Where's the meat?" Well, in How to draw shoulder muscles, you get your answer.

Day 78: color harmony: split complementary


Kickreate quickly explains how to identify the three colors that form a Split Complementary color harmony:
  • choose your dominant color
  • identify its complement
  • select the immediate neighbors 
I used procreate to play with various split complementary trios, and then I played around with tints of split complementary trios.

To help yourself learn, choose your favorite color and identify the two colors that it can play with in a split complementary color harmony. Draw something and use these three colors (and their tints and shades).

Day 79: texture: using charcoal


Charcoal is a wonderful material to use for the following reasons:
  • it can give the full range of values from white through black
  • it's rough, natural qualities can free your expressiveness
  • it encourages you to work in larger formats therefore bringing more of your body movements, and consequently your self, into your drawings
  • you can use your bare fingers and hands to 'move' the charcoal around
For a complete introduction to charcoal drawings, I suggest that you watch the following 3 videos:
I've also included Carley Renée's Meditative Drawing Process (11 minutes) to illustrate using charcoal in a large format (larger than 8.5 X 11 inches) work of art.













Posted by at No comments:

Monday, June 26, 2023

100 Days of Drawing (week 10)


 This week’s drawings

Day 66: shojo manga
Day 67: a building in 3-point perspective
Day 68: blind contour drawing
Day 69: the ear
Day 70: the leg
Day 71: color harmony: complementary colors
Day 72: texture: using pen and ink


Materials:

  • pencil
  • eraser
  • paper (printer paper, notebook, etc)
  • waterproof ink pen
  • colors (colored pencils, crayons, watercolor, etc)
  • alternatives to the above: smart phone or tablet drawing app
I’ve added a waterproof ink pen to our materials.  We’ll be using this for drawing manga. Here are some options based on The Proof is in the Water:
You can follow the process used by The Proof is in the Water to test of pens around your house. 


Day 66: shojo manga


I saw this book, Manga Art for Everyone by Danica Davidson and Rena Saiya, at the library and though it would be a good jumping off point for a drawing.  I choose the four characters in the book that appealed to me:
  • shojo manga (shojo girl in Japanese; manga targeting teenage girls)
  • shonen manga (boys’ comics; manga targeting adolescent boys)
  • nekojin (cat person)
  • yokai (beings from old Japanese folklore)
I then looked for youtube demonstrations of these four and suggest we do one a week.

Classic shojo ma,. nga by Ponshadama (13 minutes, 3.6K views)

Ponshadama compares two different manga styles in another video How to draw manga - Shouen vrs Shoujo.



Day 67: a building in 3-point perspective


Circle Line Art School does a good job demonstrating drawing a building in 3-point perspective. As I watched I was impressed how easily the artist created his building, indicating he has a good deal of experience. With that in mind, once you make your guide lines to the three vanishing lines, experiment with creating your own building if the artist’s building is more frustrating than fun.

How to Draw in 3-Point Perspective for Beginners by Circle Line Art School (6 minutes, 117K views)

Here are two more videos to use as guides if you are hungry for more 3-point perspective drawing:

Day 68: blind contour drawing


Blind contour drawing is very similar to the contour drawing that we did last week, except for one thing. You do not look at your drawing! You keep your eyes focused on the object until you’ve completed at least one contour around the object.

The purpose of this is to train your eye and hand to work together.

Here are a couple of videos that will show you how it’s done if you need them:

The Best Exercise to Learn to Draw by César Cōrdova (4 minutes, 241K views)

Blind Contour Drawing by OnlineDrawingLessons (3 minutes, 279K views)


Day 69: the ear


I am giving you links to 2 step by step instructions for drawing the ear.  The first, by Frajana, is for beginners.  The second, by Proko, encourages you to do more shading to make the more three dimensional.

I’ve also provided a link to Proko’s video on ear anatomy.

How to Draw the Ear for Beginners by Frajana Drawing Academy (6 minutes, 810K views)

How to Draw the Ear - Anatomy and Structure by Proko (6 minutes, 427K views)

How to Draw Ears - Step by Step by Proko (8 minutes, 505K views)



Day 70: the leg


How to draw legs by Chommang_drawing (23 minutes, 311K views) is a good place to start learning to draw legs.  Chommang gives us a box to model the pelvic, tubes to model the upper legs, and tapering tubes to model the lower legs.  He then guides us as he draws 7 sets of legs from imagination. He then draws 2 figures from photograph references.


How to Draw Legs by Mikeymegamega (18 minutes, 318K views) is the next level up for drawing legs. Mikey leads us through modeling legs with a bowl for the hips and balls for the knee.

How to Draw Legs by David Finch (18 minutes, 230K views)


Day 71: color harmony: complementary colors


Complementary colors is a color harmony made by using colors directly opposite from each other on the color wheel.

Jacob Olesen’s article, What are complementary colors? Learn how to use them the right way, lists the complementary color pairs and provides a couple of recommendations on making them work:
  • make one of the colors the dominate one and use the other one an accent color.
  • mix the colors to make dynamic shadows 
Riekreate talks about color harmonies and focuses on Complementary Colors in her video (7 minutes, 106K views)

Anne Kerr shows us how to mix colors so they are bright and not muddy in her video Complementary Colours Explained by Anne Kerr Art Studio (17 minutes, 4K views)

I used complementary color pairs for the drawings on day 66 and 67.


Day 72: texture using pen and ink



Today’s drawing is to make 4 circles and shade each with a different pen and ink technique to turn them into spheres.  The virtual drawing instructor and I used:
  • contour lines
  • cross-hatching
  • scribbles
  • dots and dashes (mainly dashes)

How to draw with pen and ink by Drawing & Painting (7 minutes, 448K views)

Alphonso Dunn’s video show you how to draw other textures.  You might want to try one of those textures on your spheres.

How to Create Realistic Textures by Alphonso Dunn (12 minutes, 1.2M views)
How to Create Realistic Textures - Part 2 by Alphonso Dunn (8 minutes, 548K views)
















Posted by at No comments:

Friday, June 16, 2023

100 Days of Drawing (week 9)

WHY DRAW?

There are many reasons why people draw. Here are some of the most common benefits of drawing:

  • Improved visual thinking: Drawing helps us to see the world in a more mindful and observant way. It can also help us to better understand the relationships between different objects and concepts.
  • Increased creativity: Drawing can help us to tap into our creative side and come up with new ideas. It can also help us to solve problems in a more innovative way.
  • Enhanced communication: Drawing can be a powerful way to communicate our thoughts and feelings to others. It can also help us to better understand the messages that others are trying to convey.
  • Reduced stress: Drawing can be a relaxing and therapeutic activity. It can help us to focus on the present moment and let go of our worries.
  • Increased self-expression: Drawing can be a way to express ourselves and our unique perspectives on the world. It can also help us tobuild self-confidence and self-esteem.

Of course, these are just a few of the many reasons why people draw. Ultimately, the reasons why you draw are up to you. But if you're looking for a way to improve your visual thinking, boost your creativity, communicate more effectively, reduce stress, or simply express yourself, then drawing is a great option.

Here are some additional benefits of drawing:

  • Improved hand-eye coordination: Drawing requires us to use our hands and eyes in a coordinated way. This can help to improve our fine motor skills and coordination.
  • Increased focus and concentration: Drawing can help us to focus on the present moment and let go of distractions. This can be especially helpful for people who have trouble focusing or who are easily stressed.
  • Enhanced memory: Drawing can help us to remember things better. This is because when we draw, we are actively engaging our brains in the process of observation, analysis, and creation.
  • Improved problem-solving skills: Drawing can help us to solve problems in a more creative and innovative way. This is because drawing forces us to think outside the box and come up with new solutions.

So, if you're looking for a fun, rewarding, and beneficial activity to add to your life, then I encourage you to give drawing a try. You might be surprised at how much you enjoy it!

(the above was contributed by Google’s Bard)

 This week's drawings

We shift our focus from drawing from the imagination to drawing from life. Four of this week’s topics are aimed at improving your drawing from life skills:
  • sketching - this week’s sketching gives you a warm up exercise that reminds you that drawing is simply making marks
  • contour drawing - contours are a key component of drawing from life. This week’s exercise gives you a way to hone your eye/hand coordination skills whenever you think them dull.
  • the mouth - like the eye and nose in previous weeks, we’re investigating the facial features individually in preparation for drawing realistic faces
  • the arm - similar to the facial features, we are examining the limbs in preparation for figure drawing
Here are this week’s topics:

Materials:

  • pencil
  • eraser
  • paper (printer paper, notebook, etc)
  • pen
  • colors (colored pencils, crayons, watercolor, etc)
  • alternatives to the above materials: a drawing app on a tablet or smart phone

Day 59: a city in two-point perspective


Mark Kistler gives step-by-step instructions for drawing a city in two-point perspective beginning on page page 203 of you can draw in 30 days.

Mark’s city straddles the horizon and includes buildings in the foreground with tops below the viewer’s line of sight. Two good twists to learn.

In my version, I included two of my very young cousins to add interest and a little giant fun (or maybe they’re just sitting among boxes : )

I think that two perspective drawing requires attention to detail. Based on this, here are two more examples:
Finally, here is my Procreate video:

Day 60: learning your character's views


Character design requires your attention.  You’ll be developing characters that reflect good design and be appealing. First, what is good character design? StudioBinder gives us a whole course on their page: What is Character Design - Tips on Creating Iconic Characters.  Let’s just focus on their key elements of character design:
  • silhouette
  • palette
  • exaggeration





Tom Bancroft offers some ideas on character design starting on page 54 of Creating Characters with Personality. And on page 132 in his "It Takes Two", Tom has a couple of tips if you are creating a pair of characters.



Day 61: sketching


This may seem like we’re going backwards, but learning, in general, is very much a two step forward, one step backwards process. 

The key to sketching is developing eye-hand coordination. The following warm-up exercises will help (starting at minute 2, watch Drawing for Beginners, Day 1 by Abhishek). 

  • draw horizontal lines across the paper, left to right - 40 times
  • draw horizontal lines across the paper, right to left - 40 times
  • draw vertical lines down the page - 40 times
  • draw vertical lines up the page - 40 times
  • draw 40 circles clockwise
  • draw 40 circles counter clockwise  

Another way to warm up is to do texture doodles.  I started off my warm-up doing just that. Here are two tutorials on drawing various textures:
And, probably more fun, here is a demonstration on doing 24 doodle/zentangle/mandella patterns by Charvi Ashtekar.

Here is my Procreate video of this week’s warm up:


Day 62: the mouth


Proko gives us a step-by-step demonstration for drawing the mouth. 
  • He starts with a photograph that we hwill use as a model
  • He sketches the mouth’s contour
  • He adds the shadows of the two lips
  • He adds halftones to match the shading of our model
  • Finally, using a halftone, he draws flesh on the upper lip and the philtrum


How to Draw Lips, Step by Step by Proko (8 minutes, 1.2M views)

If you want to explore the anatomy of the lips, view Proko’s How to Draw Lips - Anatomy and Structure. (6 minutes, 627K views) 

I

Day 63: the arm


In his tutorial, beginning at minute 3, Xabio gives us a series of shapes:
  • a triangular shape at the shoulder for the deltoid buldge a elongated rectangle for the biceps
  • a tapering shape for the forearm
  • a small triangle for the hand
  • small triangles for the fingers and thumb
Finally, he gives us a sample drawing of a woman’s arm.



In his video, How to Draw Arms - Beginner to Pro, Kenzo (a.k.a. Love Life Drawing), gives us guidance on how to use the size of the head to get the proportions of the arms correct (the arm is 3 heads long). He also suggests using tapering lines as a way to start learning how to draw arms. He introduces the deltoid muscle that forms the front of the shoulder and transitions into the upper arm. Finally, for beginners, he shows how the arm can be thought of a series of forms: the upper arm as a cylinder; the upper forearm as an elongated egg; and the wrist as a boxy form.

Kenzo encourages you to learn the anatomy of the arm when you’re comfortable including more details in your drawings. When you get to this stage, consider these two videos by Proko:

Day 64: color harmony: analogous colors


Sarah Renae Clark in her 7 minute video, Color Theory Basics, introduces us to the 4 qualities of color:
  • Hue - the location of a color on the color wheel. 
  • Saturation - also known as intensity or chroma, is used to describe how vibrant a color is
  • Value - is used to describe the darkness or lightness of a color. We use white and black to vary the value by making tints and shades of a color.
  • Temperature - refers to colors being warm or cool and how various hues of the same color can be warm or cool.
She gives an overview of the Color Harmonies:
  • Monochrome
  • Complementary
  • Split complementary
  • Triadic
  • Tatradic
  • Analogous
And gives us a couple of tips:
  1. Choose a dominate color
  2. Keep it simple
In short, Sarah crams a lot into 7 minutes!

Make a drawing using the analogous color harmony, 3 to 5 colors which are adjacent to one another on the color wheel. It is recommended that the colors be all warm colors or all cool colors. I used analogous color scheme (yellow-orange through red) in the Day 60 drawing.

The analogous color scheme chart was made by Michael Stillwell.

Here is a 3 minute video by Riekreate on Analogous Colors.

Finally, here is a 13 minute video by Mikko in which he chooses analogous colors; talks about mixing the tints and shades; and makes a painting using his analogous color palette.

Day 65: contour drawing


Contour drawing is one of the best ways to train your hand and eye to work together. 

The tutorial uses your hand as the model. 

As you look along the edge (contour) of your hand your drawing hand is making a mark that mimics what your eye is focused on.

In a blind contour drawing you would keep your eye focused on the contour line around the edge of the hand and not look at the line you’re making. But for this drawing, you’ll glance at the pencil mark and make course adjustments as needed.

Once you complete the contour line to make the outline shape of your hand, you can add the interior contour lines of the fingers. 

Finally, if you wish, you can add the contour lines for the edges of the shadows.

Contour Line Drawing Tutorial by OnlineDrawingLessons (4 minutes, 334K views)
Contour Draw,ing by That Art Teacher (14 minutes, 84K views)






Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)