Proportions

So proportions in art is very key. Especially so in figure drawing though. When you have correct proportioning, it makes your art look more visually enhancing, more well done, and a more finished feel to them. Yeah it actualy does.

The main proportions for the average human male are kind of like this:

This actually shows the proportions at different ages, but if you were only to do the teen/adult phases the usual proportions of head to body is 6-8 heads on a human body (this is both male and female). To count the 'heads' you measure from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin, and repeat this measurement all the way down the body. For example the adult male in the picture above is 8 heads, while the teen is 7 1/2.


Another tool you can use to make your drawings better is the dummy doll. You don't have to actually use the doll, but the point of it is to use ovals to create what the basic proportions of the body is. This is used most commonly when drawing poses or action shots, because it makes it easier to visualize where each segment of the body will be at a certain pose.

These are just some things you may want to incorporate into your drawings. If you don't already, they're always great starter tools!

Color Mediums

Hey everybody! I have descended down upon the world of the internet to bring another post for my blog! Mwahahaha! *so evil*So yeah. This post I wanted to discuss a little bit about colors, tone, and mood. This is a lot of information to put in one post, but I'll a)summarize b)actually explain what the heck I'm talking about and c) show you what I mean with an actual pic of mine.

So what I mean when I talk about colors, tone and mood is really what the piece's feeling that it gives off. When you look at something like this, how does it make you feel?

Personally, I think it gives off a darker sort of feel just based on the colors being used. This sets the tone of the piece making it feel a bit drearier or darker. I am by no means saying that everyone might feel this when they see it, art is up to interpretation, so you don't necessarily have to see what I see at all.

What about this one?

I kind of get the feeling of comfort and beauty and I cna almost hear the music that the cello is producing!  (btw this is from Ursi's blog where you can find other artwork by her)

Basically what I'm hinting at is the what the color scheme of the piece is. You can ustilise tools like:

To figure out what colors are near and/or alike to one another to make your piece have a certain feel.

Another way to do this is by actually deciding if you want to have your piece in black and white. Remember, black and white are colors too, and so they should not be left out when deciding what color schemes you feel like using in your piece. I used this when I made my piece (which I will post at the bottom after I finish all this jazz). When you decide how you want the mood to be then you can pick your colors and make your piece! (unless it is digital painting, you might want to choose your colors before hand--duh. With digital painting you can photo editing tools to change your mood and/or change the entire color scheme wiht the click of a button! Rock on computers!)

I hope this made sense, if it didn't, post a comment at the bottom and I can reword any points that don't make sense, and I leave you with one dose of epicosity (thank you tobuscus)

Check out my deviantART channel for more artwork by me!

Character Creation (part 2)

Humans

So for human creation, as in realistic fiction or humans in fantasy or normal fiction, you really want to have a specific defining trait. Humans are complicated. We know that. But for characters, we want them to have dimensions, but also a way we can classify them. For instance; the mousy-brunnette with glasses: quiet artsy type who maybe likes unicorns; the flamboyant gay who likes singing, theatre and skydiving. Your characters can be original, but they also have to have the few eggagerated traits that helps us define them. You can have the jock type be totally into fairies, but you have to make it so that it somehow defines his character (he has a fairy collection, loved looking up pictures of them, wants to be able to wear a tee to school with his favorite types on it).

Fantasy Creatures

These you can have a lot of liberties with. You can go the norm and have a short tempered small dwarf, or a small fairy who loves nature. With this, you really have to make them somehow stand out a bit, maybe not too much in the appearance, but you can also make their personality a little less cut and dry. It may even be more beneifcial to go the exact opposite. What about the super many unicorn who hates sparkles and is allergic to rainbows? Or a tomboy fairy with pink wings who hates animals? The nice thing about creatures is that they can be whatever you want them to be. You cna make them however the heck you want to!

Animals/Pets/Cute Creatures

These can be quite similar to the fantasy creatures, although these I classify as mroe of pets or non-verbal beasts or slightly sentient beings. Most of the time these can be whatever because people have these types of characters from loyal-as-dogs to flaky-as-Townhouse-crakers. If you really want this type of being to be original and/or special, I would pay the most attention to physical appearance and then to personality. The physical appearance can be what attracts people to him/her/it so it really matters. Ex: a ferocious dragon, a cute squid monster with big eyes, a bun-thing with an adorable expression. All these are interesting things that attract a person to think/look at it. Then you can make it have an interesting personality. Ex: dragon who loves pink, squid monster that glomps people, the bun-thing that kills people with cuteness, etc.

All in all, pay attention to your characters. Listen to what they tell you, don't just make stuff up, think of what THEY would do. Make them original. Make them entertaining. Make them classifiable. Make them interesting.

Happy Creating! :)

Character Creation (part 1)

How do I create an original character? (part 1)

Well, one thing you could try is thinking of, traits, personality, physical looks, or jobs, and then make a character based on this. There are numerous ways to practice trying to create characters by playing games utilizing the things above. But I think we should start with the basics.

THE BASICS OF CHARACTER CREATION

Characters are THE MOST IMPORTANT part of a story. Interaction between characters, how they handle situation, environmental stimulus, all deals with characters. You always want your character to do SOMETHING or else your reader will get bored and not read/watch your story or clip or cartoon. They don't necessarily have to talk (silent shorts with just music are still entertaining and awesome), but there has to be some sort of dynamic interaction be it between people, animals, or the environment.

So first thing to do to think of a character-think of a trait, job, personality, or feature. Then make up a background for them, a life, a name, what they look like, anything! After you have a least a little something in mind, you can follow some of these guidelines. You want to have at least a visual in your mind of the character, and maybe some basics on their background before you do the next step.

The next thing to do is work on your character's personality. To do this you can make up questions and then answer them based on what your character would say/do. You can also look on personality quizzes and do them based on your character (try blogthings.com). Really try to think in depth about your character. Never make your character perfect! This is a huge no-no in the creative world. A perfect character is not entertaining or fun. Let your character have flaws, or maybe quirks that make them weird. This will make you character more dynamic and interesting.

drawing hands

Hands. We use them everyday to touch and express ourselves, hold things, feel, and many other things. But when it comes to drawing them, they are pretty tricky for most people. I know that I have always stuggled with their shape, compostition, and for some reason, I always draw them weird... So I'm making this post today to give all the people out there some things that I have felt were helpful to me when attempting to draw these tricky appendages.


Tips for drawing hands:

-Fingers do NOT all end in a straight line across, the middle finger is usually the longest followed by the ring then first then pinky and finally, the thumb.

-When drawing a palm, you must remember that it isn't flat, there are creases and bumps. Take for instance the bump on the palm made by the thumb, that is the main one.

-Wrists are not just staight, they have an area that comes in slightly from the palm of the hand that extends into the arm.

-Fingers have different sections and aren't just lines, they have bends, and not only two, but three!

-The length of the palm is actually the same as the length of the fingers.

My main suggestion though, is to look at your hand (like STUDY it) and just draw what you see from different positions. It is probably one of the best ways to learn.

Drawing Lips

As you way know, we talk so much in our lives, at an average of 16,000 words per day! So in art, mouths should be important too right? In anime, mouths are usually drawn at just lines with almost no lip, but sometimes a small line under the mouth to signify the end of the lower lip. Today I am mostly going to talk about realistic lips.

Tips for drawing lips:

-First decide what kind of lips you want. There are the overbloated lips like Rosie Huntington-Whitley who appeared in the Transformers 3 movie

Or small thin lips, or a more normal sized medium

-Then when drawing these, remember the indent of the lip caused by the philtrum. Many peopl tend to forget this, but it is alos a huge part that makes the shape of the lip.

-When adding color, the original color of the lip is going to be a lot closer to the person's skin tone than you think (unless they are wearing lipstick or gloss).

-Near the edges of the mouth, it is still a dark area because of the overlap of you upper and lower lips, so remember to make that little end dark too!

Here is a video to show you how you can digitally make lips too!

Drawing Hair

So hair is an interesting part of drawing and art because it can be done in so many different styles. The style I usually draw in is manga, and that has a distinctive way to draw hair depending on what look you are going for. For realistic hair (which I am not as skilled at) the way you draw and the way it looks is quite different. For manga hair can be done in blocks, or sections, as I like to think of them. They usually utilize triangles and set shapes to give it more of the cartoon-y manga effect. When drawing realisticly, you have to be more aware of the shape of the hairs, their direction and also about how much hair you are giving the person.

So, some manga tips (they can also be applied to realistic drawing):

-When drawing hair you have to remember the hightlights on the hair. Also you can use highlight placing strategically to give your hair more volume and/or depth.

-Strait hair is not always strait unless it was straitened and then there is no outside force acting upon it, so use wind when you draw or at least the bumps from where the hair hits the shoulders.

-Curly hair has many different types of curles. There can be large loose curles like what is done with a curling iron, small compact curles from naturally curly hair, Shirley Temple curls, and others too. Now each of these look different be it small or large but also the way the light and wind interact with these different types of curls. With large curls it may blow in small strands while small curls will blow the entire curl. So keep that in mind.

-With wavy hair there can be so many ways to play around with this so if you just use light wind and different types of hair types, you can get very interesting/unique looking hair.

So here is a video by a very good american manga artist who shows how to draw a few types of hair styles

Another can be found here

For realistic hair (by the same person as last week's videos)