Think in Three Dimensions

One thing that many artists seem to do is to draw differing angles of one given thing. This skill can come in handy if you'd like to draw a comic strip, illustrate a story, or maybe even become an animator — I'm obviously no expert, but these are my educated guesses of possible possibilities. In any case, as an aspiring drawer person, I'd like to try to draw different perspectives. Let's start with a circle.

On my first try I got too excited and drew eyes, ears, and a mouth. Let's take a step back and return to the circle (or ellipse, rather). The lines that cross are something I've seen being used before, but it turns out they do more than just look nice, they definitely helped me see the face in three dimensions (think sphere). Matching facial features between different renditions of the same face becomes easier by using the lines as guides for where the features should go. For example, the ears are in a similar position in both heads. I used the lines as guidance. I ended this progression with an outline of the hair line. Moving along...

Adding the rest of the hair, it already begins to look like a final version. I drew it once more to eliminate the outline of the face across the head. The shading turned out sort of cool, but it's simply dark at all the points in the hair and fades to light moving away from the points. I added a nose, eyebrows, and a little line under the mouth line. In the end, it turned out alright. And I got to practice my ellipses and kept working towards having a steady hand. Let's try a different angle.

I think one lesson to take from trying a second angle is to imagine you are drawing the exact same person in the same moment in time (expression, general shapes), but looking from a different angle. I find it easier to think about three dimensions this way, instead of thinking you remained still, and the person you are drawing spun slightly. On the last sketch in the line I added some shading under the nose and mouth, like I think an actual face would have. 

Here's what the profile looked like to me, and how I drew it. Turned out looking pretty much like I wanted it to look like. I added a bump to the original ellipse for the nose, and flushed it with the top of the face in the final try. The shading on the back of the head makes it look a bit grim I think. Interesting. Let's look at that last sketch again.

I'm noticing here that this isn't really how heads work. Jawlines usually reach towards the ear. I didn't really draw a jawline. Would that make the face too thin? I'll give it a try.

This is a pretty rough sketch after looking at a couple of examples online, but I just wanted to visualize how a jawline could work. I think this was enough to prove to me that drawing it that way would look way better, and also a tad more realistic. I ultimately would like to learn to draw more realistically as well, so let me try this a little more seriously.

Not bad. The neck is a lot wider than I am used to, but it allows it to work well, giving the head proper shape. The proportions are still somewhat off I think. The nose could be lower, and the chin and mouth need more shape. But a little bit of shade on the neck from the head made it look a ton more realistic to me. I like that a lot. Gotta try one a little bigger where I can play around with shading. Leggo.

Woah. That looks sweet. A lot of it could be better, but I think it turned out pretty well for what I was expecting. Shading under the jaw, hairline, a bit under the eye, inside the ear. I have to do proper research on shading, but it made this guy look awesome. Let's try a front view. Same deal, he isn't moving, I am moving around him. Think in three dimensions.

Neat-o. The chin is smaller than his profile version, and the ears aren't properly aligned either. I will probably try to draw the two different angles next to each other in the future so that things align better. I didn't try different eyes either, stuck with what I'm used to. Eyes and hands are probably what I'll try next. Otherwise though, I'm pretty proud of myself. It took quite a bit of erasing to get the proportions right but that and thinking a bit about the shading made this guy look pretty bad ass. I even tried to give him a little stubble. Bad. Ass.

As an ending remark to this post, it's amazing how much I learn and figure out on my own from plain old repetition, and then seeing the drawings again on the computer screen when updating this blog. A lot of what I write are thoughts that come to me while I'm writing. It's crazy what the mind can do, so be sure to do a lot of repetitions of anything you'd like to improve on. If it seems to be working for me, then it can definitely work for you.

Thanks for the motivation and kind words, reddit!

Practice, Practice, and Some Letters

Welcome back peeps. I decided to practice the base styles I have developed while attempting a couple of new things. First off, speech bubbles. 

I've seen this method of connecting the bubbles in the past and realized it takes some practice to make it look right. This doesn't look too right, but it's a good first try. Connecting lines should be parallel, in my opinion. You can also see the erased outlines of the initial basic shapes. Perhaps I'll make those lighter in the future. Let's try some more.

This one I thought turned out pretty cool. The thin, long tail of the "Hi!" gives it a feeling of something that's being yelled. That's a neat find. The background word was pretty difficult to make after the girl was drawn, but looks good and the font matches what I was going for. It's supposed to say "Awesomeness". The shading continues and the bold outline brings it together.

This is Michael. He's one of the main characters of GTA V, one of my favorite video games at the moment. He's smoking a cigar and contemplating life, pupils pointed more or less downwards (was the intent, at least). Polo shirt, shorts. Should have done some shading on the clothes/overall.

Next is Franklin. He was new drawing experience for me, since I haven't tried too many dark skin tones, tried to shade and draw facial features accordingly. The gun didn't turn out too well, I need to practice objects and hands. Hands are probably one of my next learning points.

Trevor's the third of the three main characters within the game. He's holding a bat and is supposed to have an I-live-in-a-trailer-park-in-the-desert sort of feel. He's also a maniac and wears dirty shirts. The shading (cross-hatching?) seems to have driven the latter of those points across. I continued practicing the background words with these characters, which I'll try writing before the actual person next time. The bottle on the ground is more of a secondary object so is a little bit more faded. 

This new style I tried on a whim. Letters. The font is supposed to be graffiti-ish, though I didn't look at anything for reference so it's more out of what I imagine it could look like. The brick pattern does make it look like it's on a wall though, which I thought turned out pretty awesomely.

Keep on drawing y'all!

Bold Outlines, Emotions, and Stupid, Stupid Hair

Day three, here we go. I've been enjoying the "Chibi" bold outline style because nothing seems to look bad with a bold outline. I want to learn this style a bit better before I continue on to something else, so I looked at some examples online. I'll start by drawing a dude, applying some of what I learned from a quick google search.

Here's a dude. He's annoyed, probably because you're looking at him. The eyes don't connect on the sides and the pupils are close to the center of the face which makes it seem like he's looking back at you. Neat. The shading across the top of the face gives him an angry blush look. The hair took a couple of eraser hits before it looked decent. The face is a bit too square. All about practice. Again.

Face is more proportional, mouth gives it a bit more life. Hair needs work, I think this is something that's going to give me trouble. I'm also forgetting the bold outline. What am I thinking? Again.

Bold outline. Kick ass. Looks like it's popping out of the page. Trying some different eyes. He's still looking at you but it feels more like he's scared or embarrased. Emotions? Heck yeah. Let's keep this going.

Here I tried practicing the hair. I obviously did not care at all about the shape of this poor kid's face. New mouth type for me, open smile, doesn't meet at the bottom. It's a Chibi thing apparently. Let's go back to the emotions thing.

Hair looks a bit better, might be getting the hang of it. Expression looks okay, embarassed or something? Face shading thing could be more parallel with the face sides. Again, gotta do the bold outline. 

This. Dude. Looks. Dope. Can't go wrong with a bold outline. Shading is darker and expression is clearer. Looks like he pooped his pants. Added a tie for fly-ness.

Next expression: crying. Why is he crying? Because he looks like the drawing of a six year old. A six year old who can't draw. What happened to the hair? I just wanted to focus on the tears style. Sure.

Here we go. Hair looks better. Face looks better. This guy is crying because he looks too good. Can't handle himself right now. Can't blame him. I haven't tried drawing girls, let's do that.

Aaand I spoke too soon about the hair thing. Girl hair is way different. Why do they have to be so complicated? Blush circle things and some eyelashes. Looks like a dude with make-up and a wig. Uhh. Retry.

Hair still needs some work but it definitely looks more like a girl. Again.

The bottom half looks iffy, I know. Added it to try the skirt texture (which I practiced on the side) and close the bold outline. All in all though, she looks awesome. Eyes are a successful experiment. Face looks on point. Bold outline.

Let's try a different style I encountered past the vast, wise, and convenient google search bar.

What's up, guy? Hair seems a bit easier to draw this way. It also looks more realistic rather than cartoon-y. Was just trying the style out. Try #2:

Tell me you wouldn't take that flower. You can't. I know. This guy looks kick ass. Shoes are a work in progress. Hands as well. Ladies' turn.

Again, just trying it out quickly. Hair shows that I need to work more on that skill. Let's try to do it a bit better:

This is interesting. The right side of the hair looks good, the left side was a failed experiment. Outfit doesn't look too bad though. Live and learn. Let's mirror that hair and give her a bold outline. Enough lollygagging. 

Holy guac. That looks amazing. I mirrored the hair style. I gave her the open smile that doesn't meet at the bottom. Worked on the ears. Bold outline. Bad. Ass. Shading. Went from dark to light wherever there was a corner in the hair. a bit of shading on the body. No shading on the face makes it stand out which might not always be a good thing but seems to have worked here. Did I mention the bold outline? This girl is popping out of that piece of paper. Bam.

That was awesome.

Helpful video

Drawing Sensei, Drawing a Sensei

So there's this blind monk who is the epitome of badass. Give him a stick and he can take out a dozen ninjas running at him. NINJAS. Give him a sword? Don't give him a sword. This blind dude is so badass they call him One Hundred Eyes.

Let's start by drawing him like I think I see him.

Why did I do that? There's some attempt at shading, some leaves cuz he ain't afraid to go outside. That's supposed to be a robe and the light bulb is meant to be his head. I'm disgracing this badassery of a man. But it's all about practice. Let's try this again.

These proportions look a little better. There's an attempt at a hand, the robe looks more robe-y, the head less like it's trying to light up the room. There's some shading issues I have to work out, as well as everything else. This doesn't look like a guy who could kick your ass, it looks like he needs a nap. One Hundred Eyes doesn't nap. Back to the drawing board. Hah. Shut up.

I learned how to draw Chibis yesterday, don't fix what already works until you learn something better, which I haven't. Give the man a stick, now he looks like he can knock you right out if you breathe too close to him. Or far from him. Whatever. Went back to the familiar bold outline.  Add some shading. Some background penmanship. Bam. Mr. One Hundred Eyes.

I'm pretty proud of being able to draw something that actually looks like something. Especially after having zero experience in the matter a week ago. Drawing is definitely pretty alright. 

A Pencil, Some Paper, And A Badass Collage'd Clipboard

I have never drawn before. I want to be a badass drawer person and I gotta start somewhere. Saw these little "Chibis" my good friend drew up and I thought hey, those are pretty badass. Let's do it.

Start out drawing a head, those are important.

That looks like a head, right? If it was a ridiculous looking face I was trying to draw then yeah, maybe. The hair is off, practice the hair.

Eh, that's enough for me to know what I want I think. Gonna draw another dude's head to see how it goes.

Badass. I'm on my way. How about a whole dude? Just gotta add a body.

Bam. Whole dude. Looks like me. Hands? In pockets. Not a drawing sensei yet. Good looking collar. Bold outline. Manly eraser marks. Getting the feeling this is all about practice. I'm all about practice. Let's practice.

Give the dude a vest.

Dude's at work.

Give the dude a suit.

Fly ass dude.

I think I'm going to like this drawing thing. 

My good friend's tumblr link