All of the tutorials, references, artwork, etc. featured here were not created by me. This is just an area for people to find anything related to helping others improve their art skills.
Please do not hesitate to submit or notify me of resources and tutorials for anything relating to art you can imagine will help people in their improvement of art. Since art is such a subjective and vague term, this can mean anything from writing to cosplay to cooking to even home construction.
Anonymous whispered:I'm honestly crying because I just now realized my anatomy is such shit and I don't know how to keep it cartoony but accurate at the same time… Any tips?
everyone should start w a basic grasp of anatomy before delving into stylized cartoony stuff, but its actually not nearly as hard as it looks/sounds. figure drawing from reference pictures is a lot easier than making up cartoonish styles in ur head, because the learning curve is so sharp.
just start drawing people you see- watch youtube videos that show candid crowds, pause it for a bit and give yourself like 1-5 minutes to quickly draw the pose and figure, and then let it go and move on to the next pose. make em vary in size from whole page to half page to ¼ page, knock out like 10 in one session, and after a few sessions i guarantee youll notice a difference. focus first on the angle & twist of the torso, and then on the pose of the arms & legs, and THEN on fleshing it out/lightly shading. its really easy to pick up, and once youre comfortable with it, you can try simplifying your linework a ton and exaggerating shit to get cartoon-y looks you enjoy that actually look 1000x better because the human eye/brain can make way more sense of them.
if you cant read my handwriting: no reference “cartoon-y” -> life drawing from reference -> simplify (less lines, fewer details) -> simplify into shapes, exaggerate proportions -> (when to stop simplifying is up to you!)
For those wondering about HOW to do this, here’s a short explanation according to me:
Drawing A to Drawing B: -the most obvious change is the exaggeration of the line of motion in the character.
In Drawing B the line of motion is much more pronounced, creating more drama and movement to the whole composition
-The arms are open wider, showing more confidence and exuberance in the character, exaggerating their emotions so they can be more clearly read without having to look to the face for emotional cues.
-the legs are wider apart, adding to the aforementioned confidence but also giving the character a solid foundation, visually speaking.
-The head is tilted back and overlapped by the chest, adding a touch of dynamic perspective to the drawing.
Drawing B to Drawing C: -Most obvious change is to zoom in on the character. Character framing is just as important as what the character is doing. Zooming in can help infensify emotions. this shot is ALL about this character and what they’re feeling. -Because of the zooming in, the arms/hands would have gotten lost, so instead of making the canvas wider, the artist has elected to rotate the character slightly, bringing a dynamic angle to things and more intensity to the close shot. -While the character is more upright in this shot compared to Drawing B, in Drawing C the chest still slightly overlaps the neck, preserving the feeling of being slightly below the character (putting them in a position of power relative to the viewer), which helps maintain confidence and power in the character. -the chest is exaggerated to carry the majority of the body’s line of action so even though you cannot see the legs, our brains are able to fill in the gap and envision that line of action. -The cropping/framing of the character allows for a more interesting composition/negative shapes created by the positive (character) on the negative (background), creating more visual interest as well as a circular motion to the composition through the arms, across the face to the negative space for the eyes to rest in before dropping to the hand in the background and back through the composition again.
Pretty sure I’ve posted this before. But worth a repost
Anonymous whispered:Dearest Kisu, the characters you draw are always full of like and dynamic! Do you have any tips to draw more dynamic characters/poses ? I love your art so much, you're such an inspiration to me
Why do artists refuse to use references why why why.
It’s not a contest to see who can get by without them. It’s not cheating to look at a thing in order to know what the thing looks like.
You don’t get stronger or better by pretending. Nobody is impressed by the awkward whatever-it-is you just drew. Use references.
I don’t think a lot of people know that it’s not cheating. I recall seeing so many piece of art called out because they referenced a pose, someone recognized it, and then proceeded to shame them for it. There’s this belief, both by creators and the audience, that artists should just be able to translate the ideas from their head to paper, and if they don’t, it’s plagiarism, or not true originality (spoiler alert: there’s no such thing).
I myself didn’t start using references until very recently, because even I was under the impression that it was frowned upon. And that belief has seriously crippled and stalled my ability to improve as an artist.
As a restarting artist, I can confirm. I just never knew. I thought you were just supposed to know how to draw the body correctly and if you didn’t you had no talent.
References are important. Even the most skilled artists will admit to using them. Nobody is born knowing how to draw anything off the top of their head. It’s a skill that has to be learned. The idea is to work from reference (and life) as often as possible. You can commit a lot to memory through practice and repetition. And even then, if you’re ever in doubt, USE A REFERENCE. This is literally the purpose of stock images. To help you expand your visual library. What you SHOULDN’T do is reference someone else’s artwork and try to pass it off as your own. This is where the idea of cheating and plagiarism comes from. If you’re borrowing a pose or outright redrawing someone’s work you should CREDIT THEM.
^^^^
I don’t like using references bc I used one for a pic and someone recognized it and said I stole/traced it and I was like wtf so now I never use them which is prob why I only draw boring poses and faces lmao
