Understanding the subject will make it much easier to draw.
Now,the shape of the nose is starting to come together. You can draw the mouth on neutral if you like, but keep in mind that the eyes and mouth of a person are probably the most expressive parts of the face.
Also, adding differently shaped hair or other features that can create a unique, recognizable shape can help tremendously as well. You can already guess where youre going to place them, but how you place them is whats important.
This is how I use the seed shape to draw Kate from the front, side and 3/4 view: Take note of how the proportions of the face translate across between the differing angles. If its not one or two little mistakes, but the whole foundation is off instead best erase it and start all over again. When it comes to human expression, eye brows are highly potent. This is what will help keep your eyes looking real and not flat. I denote this with lines along the sides of the forehead that wrap around the top of the head. Youll find with time that the more put into practicing and studying, the easier all of this becomes. I borrow from techniques used in animation to construct a character from more basic shapes underlying the head. Although this might all be true, the human head isnt actually as hard to draw as you think. An excellent book for reference is Drawing Dynamic Hands by Burne Hogarth. Pretend that you are wrapping a thick braid around your arm beginning at the wrist, wrapping once at the elbow and ending at the shoulder. That was drawing the nose from a frontal view. I start the head with more of an egg shape. 10. But it is PARAMOUNT that you get it right before moving onward to the details. 13.A Giving a man full, voluptuous lips is a sure fire way to make him look feminine. One last tip that can be helpful when you are learning how to draw eyes is to study the anatomy of the eye. After all thats the whole point of going to all this trouble, to describe what were drawing as a 3D object inside 3D space. To do that, we need to start with a fluid set of lines, or gestures. For example, the chaps mouth above is a single contour line. The lips have five basic form that makes up for the fullness of the lips. To create volume and form through rendering, curve or wrap thefeathering around your object.
That would mean that those forms would cast less of a shadow or maybe no shadow at all. Lastly, I want to emphasize how helpful drawing in a sketchbook can be to help you refine your character drawing. As I said before, you could simply refine the lines and be done with it. If you think about it, the eyes are what give a face life.
So ask yourself what your character is feeling. 6. This is the shape I use for Kates head in Paradigm Shift. These lines run from either side of the head, down to the chin and kink outward about half way down. There is no need to draw a perfect circle for the eyeball because most of it will be covered by the eyelid. Well They are your friend for starters, and they are what will save your drawing from coming across as flat and indistinct. Feet are not as complicated as hands, but they still pose a challenge to people new to drawing the figure. Ive been really struggling with learning to draw hands. In fact with this simple, easy, and effective technique and a little repetition youll have it down in no time. It is true that the teeth individually formed, but drawing the small shapes in can be difficult and if wrongly done, can lead to a very different facial expression. Sketch out the socket, creating the amount of bone definition needed. Again, keep it thin with less volume then the bottom lip. without a doubt that they are gonna look SUPER shmick. I also imagine the shoulder being attached to the collarbone (which it is in reality, as well at the scapula on the back) so it is free to slide around up and down, back and forth on the ribcage when I am posing the figure. Each gives a different feel. Continue to outline the shape of the nose but this time with darker strokes and only the ones that can be seen depending on the light source.Click here for more on lighting. It will take practice to get the size and creases to perform to your liking. Place a small dot, into the eye. You might not be satisfied with your skills in drawing. STOP and go back through these steps another two to three times. The first line in blue goes from Kates head down to her knee. Youve got the head proportions, facial muscles and features, AND on top of that a plathora countless expressions, micro movements and emotions that the human face is capable of. Womens eyes have a somewhat thinner brow.The eye brows will be arched and less winged. 4. This makes us very familiar with them, and leaves no doubt in our mind whether or not a face looks correct. Sure hes a simple, and generic looking fellow, but he is constructed with all the classical proportions of the human head. Just make sure that the top of the ears are aligned with the eyebrows and the bottom of the ear aligns with the nose. But because the ears are at the center of the face and is aligned with a couple of other facial feature, the only angle that you should be careful with is when the head is facing up or down. I could do an entire post alone on drawing hands and feet (again, entire books have been written), but the short version is that the way to tackle these complex forms is the same as above: break them down into simpler shapes. I use this process for all my comics and illustration, working from rough forms through final image. When drawing the eyelids, many would make the mistake of making the eyelids covered with eyelashes, altogether eliminating the visibility of the eyelid (most of the time this happen is when you overdo the eyelashes). Heres how I use this to draw Mike from the front, side and 3/4 view: Like in the seed example, there are certain proportions to pay attention to, though they differ somewhat. The simplest way to form the meaty part is to use your own hand as an example. Seeing how youre going to be drawing this character a lot over the course of your comic, its a good nail down their look so you can be consistent. Your gift supports How To Draw Comics.
If thats the look youre going for, then by all means add some lipstick and glossiness to boot. We will cover ear anatomy in another section, for now simply try to replicate the ears Ive drawn onto the guy in the example. Taking our head as an example, simply keep in mind that any protruding or receding forms, such as the nose, eye sockets, cheek bones, lips, jaw and brow will cast a shadow. 3. When drawing the lips from different angle, these forms will help show the overlap effect of the lips. Now that you know who your character is, its time to draw her. Combine the five basic form and the inflated cylinder shape basic structure (plus a lot of practice), You will have no problem drawing the mouth from any angle. The vertical line running top to bottom is going to represent the middle division of the head, while the horizontal line running across will serve as the eye brow line. Again, these two are fairly big topics to cover so theyre going to get a tutorial all to themselves. I knew I wanted her to look a bit like a Miyazaki character, but I played around with a couple of designs before settling on her final look: For Candys counterpart, Nikka, it took a little more work before I nailed down her design. Look at pictures of real eyes and note the details. They dont always have to be a perfect 1/3 apart. The most common mistake made is to make draw the nose by starting at the bulb area of the nose, and ignoring the foundation or basic structure of the nose. I start with sort of a shovel shape for the palm, then draw a circle to one side or the other on the wrist end to denote the ball of the thumb. Im not going to go and tell you to collect a bunch of photos or reference material to work from either, because really, we dont always have reference material or live models at our disposal. or three light sources to juggle. 11. It hurts, it sucks, and its a punch in the guts. The length of the hand should rest at the middle of the thigh (after the thigh has been learned). Draw a rectangular box for the palm with sticks for fingers and thumb. I hang the jaw down from the egg shape Unlike the anime seed, the jaw line changes more radically between a straight on view and the profile. Notice the lines going through the image abovethey measure the number of heads used for each character. You need to capture this in your drawing. But right now, it doesnt matter what level of skill youre at. Each of the four knuckles I draw as circles across the top of the shovel shape, and then a fifth at the end of the ball of the thumb. Here are a few nifty functions rendering has to offer your drawings: The trick is to think in a 3D mindset instead of a 2D mindset. Kate is slightly shorter at 7 1/2 heads, which is closer to realistic human proportions. Be careful not to lop too much off though. The mouth sits about halfway between the nose and the chin. It will take some practice to master these shapes, so again, using references and live observation will help you refine your drawings. Lets wrap this up. It starts out heavy at the corners, thins out in the middle then bulks back up again at the other end. If we strip away the details and look at the underlying shapes, we can see how each figure is constructed more easily. The line may begin thin, thicken up in the middle, and then fade out again at the end. Net so we can bring you more tutorials, videos and courses. You will need to think about the shape, size and details. The upper lips has three while the lower lips have two. There are a large variety of ways to draw the mouth of a man, so it really comes down to personal preference and style. The second in red arcs along her arms and shoulders, and the final, in green follows her outstretched leg. This helps define the shape and thickness of the brow. Male eyes will have a heavy, low brow with distinguished bone structure. The first thing anyone will see about your character is the shape his or her outline creates, not the details within. Then I draw a smaller rounded shape on the other side to create the heel of the hand. These are the sorts of curves I look for when building up a figure. Just like the rest of the figure, practice drawing from life and good reference photos to not only practice the forms of the hand, but also to see how elegant hand poses come together. Lets deal with the nosey part of the equation first. Id been avoiding the book I love Hogarths illustration style, but I wondered whether it would be a serious art instruction book. Drawing Hands. Because we a drawing the eye brows of a man here, they are plastered on quite thick in comparison to the slim, streamlined eyebrows of a woman. Below the eye line, the face is typically divided up into equal thirds.
The line that runs through the eyes is roughly halfway between the top of the head and the chin. You can do this by drawing the gum line that is visible to suggest that the teeth has its own form but not in detail.You can also draw out some lines on the teeth to give it a tiny bit of detail, but do not over do it. However its not the same thickness all the way through. Are they sad and dreppressed or are they happy and joyous? The muscles are what adds dimension to the arms and a good comparison is that of a braid. The more you practice, the more you will expand your visual vocabulary as an artist and you can combine, mix and match and create brand new features that are purely your own. The length of the mouth is about as wide as the half-way point of each eye, the left corner of the mouth lining up with the left iris, and the right corner of the mouth lining up with the right iris. Feeling a little bit guilty, I decided to look at it at a local bookstore before buying it at Amazon. The ears are no exception.Instead of drawing the basic shape or form of the ear, the easiest way to draw the ear is by using the question mark (?) The two lines youve just drawn should be crossing over one another in the middle of the sphere.
The first step in drawing full-body human characters is to nail down basic proportions. Create a line horizontally to act as a separation for the upper and lower lips. You need to look at how it is shaped and the variations of the eye. If hes got a chip on his shoulder then give him a glare more low-brow then the terminator and a mouth that looks like it just ate a lemon. When drawing the teeth, it is best to keep it simple. Above we have Kate and Mike as examples of ideal human female and male proportions. Drawing great hands takes a lot of practice, and the best way to get good at them is observation. Because the arm is hard to see and work with while flat against the body, we will first draw the arm pointing straight out from the torso at a 90-degree angle. But heres a quick rundown.
However, by borrowing the rounder head and wide-spaced eyes and combining them with features inspired by a cuttlefish, I was able to create something entirely new. Similar to drawing with the Loomis method, this method also allows you to draw the mouth at different angles. Once you have the placement and the size correct, you must now set the smaller shapes.Similar to the shapes used for the basic structure, the smaller shapes are used to get the details and add outline to establish the features of the nose. I highly recommend spending some time on this yourself. Draw another ball for the wrist. Learning how to draw eyes can take time. This method can be modified to stretch characters to be taller or shorter as needed later. Lets refine the drawing and clean around those rough edges. This shouldnt take long, maybe half an hour to an hour depending on how fast you can smash these out. While I wont go into detail on muscular anatomy (there are entire books on that topic), here is a quick cheat sheet on the basic shapes Im thinking of when Im drawing the figure. The Step-By-Step E-Book walking you through the making of "Cleineclypto", Figure Drawing Foundations: Proportions Of The Heroic Figure E-Book, Access to subscriber exclusive special offers, promotions and giveaways. The rest of the neck then extends out into the shoulders.
Firstly, lets look at the head and face because the are probably the most important features for identifying your character and letting him express himself. is used for the outer shape of the ear, while the y shape is used on the inside of the ears. But if you can draw a basic, proportionately accurate head with ease, youll be able to bend and manipulate the standard rules youve learnt to create and modify an endless variety of different headshapes, sizes, and builds for your characters knowing. Here are the rough forms Im using to think through this rough figure. Though it is true that eyelids are not visible from a distance, a lot of people (beginners mostly) continue to do this even when they draw it up close. You also need to think of each eye as an individual thing with its own quality. In order to qualify for super-saver shipping, I also ordered Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery also by Hogarth, and it was an excellent purchase as well! This is another major difference between the two sexes. Normally, the elbows rest along the waistline and the bottom part of the arm is about a fist shorter than the top half. Noses can be a little tricky but the easiest way to get your head around it is to try and visualize the nose as a tapered, triangular block or wedge that has been glued to the face. Youll see the difference! For a couple of years, I drew character studies of Kate & Mike by using photos from magazines as a reference. The last step in this blue print is to place in the jaw lines.
In fact, learning how to draw is without a doubt one of the most mentally challenging and draining tasks one can undertake.
Often in figure drawing, proportions are measured in heads because it is an easy way to check if the features are in the right place in a drawing, especially if the figure is drawn relatively straight on.
Take note of the hip shapes between the two figures.The males pelvis is taller while the females is shorter and a little wider. Before I go, heres a last look at a few extra tips that will hopefully help you out even more along the way! Cyber Civics: A Crash Course in Digital Citizenship. This can be discouraging. When drawing any part of the body, it is best that you start with the basic shapes. Fingers have different lengths but the middle finger is usually a good basis for the lengths of the others. I will often draw a quick version like this as a thumbnail, and then draw these forms over the top of that rough to clean up the anatomy. This can make your drawing of the nose look awkward (unrealistic) and out of place (hanging). The tip of the nose sits about halfway between the eye line and the chin. They break down as follows: Also note the proportions of the arm. Keep this in mind when rounding out the shoulders in relationship to the hands. Once again, breaking down the forms into simpler shapes can be helpful.Its helpful to me to think of a footprint as a starting pointthe heel is separated from the ball of the foot and toes by the arch of the foot.
As you draw in the eyeball, iris and other features of the eye, you will need to pay attention to the details and add depth to bring the eye to life. They can give you away if you are lying. Think of a movable part when starting this part of the body. Not every person is the same. You can imagine it being a bit like a cube, only tapering downward to create the chin. Her joints are also narrower and her limbs thinner. When drawing the mouth, people often make the mistake of thinking that the lips forms up on its own. Add in some guide lines for the cheek bones, and side of the eye brows. Make a ball for the elbow and continue with a second flat oval shape for the bottom half of the arm, making it a fist shorter than the top half. Though it is true that eyelids are not visible from a distance, a lot of people (beginners mostly) continue to do this even when they draw it up close. Once you have the ritual down, draw the other arm along the side of the torso. With the torso and head now taking shape it is time to move on to drawing other parts of the body. The elbows are just above waist height and sit roughly in line with the bottom of the rib cage. For instance, say your characters head isnt so gaunt, chiseled and bony; maybe instead its rounder, cheeks fuller and less sucked in. Thats right.
Afterward not only will you be capable and confident, you will be BLOWN away by how easy it is for you to give your comic book characters cool looking heads! Itll be as second nature as walking. You can relax more, talk on the phone, listen to some music; now youre just drawing on top of whats already there. Even the shape of the head can suggest a personalitytriangular, round, square. 7. If youd like prompt updates about the next installment of the series, exclusive cheat sheets, and other behind-the-scenes material with each installment of the series, please sign up for my mailing list: (function($) {window.fnames = new Array(); window.ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]='EMAIL';ftypes[0]='email';fnames[1]='FNAME';ftypes[1]='text';fnames[2]='LNAME';ftypes[2]='text';fnames[3]='BIRTHDAY';ftypes[3]='birthday';}(jQuery));var $mcj = jQuery.noConflict(true); For tutorials, workshop details and other goodies, subscribe to my mailing list.
Believe is or not, after a while you wont even have to think about these steps when you sit down to draw your heads. Since they are so special, well go into Line Weights more extensively in another tutorial. Okay, now that we have the basic shapes and proportions down, we need to be able to draw our characters in more than close-ups and standing around doing nothing. You will start to see patterns in how the fingers move together as a loose group, not separately (which is why magicians are illustrated using weird hand posesthey dont look natural).
You can think of bangs as clumps of hair that are grouped together similar to what you might have observed on manga, anime or more cartoony characters. So Ive created a system for you and its going to take a lot of the headaches youve encountered out of drawing a perfectly proportioned head. Then erase the bottom half of the sphere, because thats not going to be needed from here on out. I always use this process for creating my finished works. Next extend the centerline in the middle of the face, taking it all the way down to the bottom of the chin. As youre drawing, keep your light source in mind and constantly ask yourself where the heavy black shadows should end up. Is there a light coming from the left or right, and how far back or forward is it? The best way to draw the mouth is by using the inflated cylinder shape as the basic structure for the tooth cylinder. Drawing The Foundations For The Front View Of The Male Head.
The eye line falls directly around the middle of the head. This is how I designed the alien characters for the story STRANGER: In order to draw my characters heads from any angle, I use two basic head shapes as a starting point and then squash and stretch them into the approximate shape. When this happens, you can see a line between the brow and the eyelashes. The more intensity and thickness added to the eye lashes, the more feminine your character will look so keep it toned down for the manlier characters. If you imagine the center line of the face curving to the left or right and the eye line curving up or down, you can start to see the head turn in your minds eye and use this to draw the head and face from any angle like so: The second basic head shape I use is based more closely on a more classical human head shape used in American superhero comics: This is the shape I use for Mikes head in Paradigm Shift. Alright, the hard part is done! Even when I knew my art work sucked, the anatomy was off, the proportions were incorrect, when what was transferred down onto paper was some skewed up, distorted version of what I had envisioned within my mind I knew this that I would take the disappointment, uncertainty and the embarrassment, learning from every mistake; so that failure became an invaluable lesson. You can relax now; from here on out everything else is just icing on the cake. Rather than constructing the eyebrows out of individual strands, I simplify them down into a clump of eye brow fur. Knowing this will give you the ability to transform it into something far and beyond what you could have imagined. Notice that none of the fingers are the same length and the thumb will always seem out of place. But if not, sometimes its better to leave a mans mouth as a simple contour line where the lips meet. The question mark (?) The heads break down as follows with her: Basically, Kate simply has a smaller upper body than her counterpart.
Now,the shape of the nose is starting to come together. You can draw the mouth on neutral if you like, but keep in mind that the eyes and mouth of a person are probably the most expressive parts of the face.
Also, adding differently shaped hair or other features that can create a unique, recognizable shape can help tremendously as well. You can already guess where youre going to place them, but how you place them is whats important.
This is how I use the seed shape to draw Kate from the front, side and 3/4 view: Take note of how the proportions of the face translate across between the differing angles. If its not one or two little mistakes, but the whole foundation is off instead best erase it and start all over again. When it comes to human expression, eye brows are highly potent. This is what will help keep your eyes looking real and not flat. I denote this with lines along the sides of the forehead that wrap around the top of the head. Youll find with time that the more put into practicing and studying, the easier all of this becomes. I borrow from techniques used in animation to construct a character from more basic shapes underlying the head. Although this might all be true, the human head isnt actually as hard to draw as you think. An excellent book for reference is Drawing Dynamic Hands by Burne Hogarth. Pretend that you are wrapping a thick braid around your arm beginning at the wrist, wrapping once at the elbow and ending at the shoulder. That was drawing the nose from a frontal view. I start the head with more of an egg shape. 10. But it is PARAMOUNT that you get it right before moving onward to the details. 13.A Giving a man full, voluptuous lips is a sure fire way to make him look feminine. One last tip that can be helpful when you are learning how to draw eyes is to study the anatomy of the eye. After all thats the whole point of going to all this trouble, to describe what were drawing as a 3D object inside 3D space. To do that, we need to start with a fluid set of lines, or gestures. For example, the chaps mouth above is a single contour line. The lips have five basic form that makes up for the fullness of the lips. To create volume and form through rendering, curve or wrap thefeathering around your object. That would mean that those forms would cast less of a shadow or maybe no shadow at all. Lastly, I want to emphasize how helpful drawing in a sketchbook can be to help you refine your character drawing. As I said before, you could simply refine the lines and be done with it. If you think about it, the eyes are what give a face life.
So ask yourself what your character is feeling. 6. This is the shape I use for Kates head in Paradigm Shift. These lines run from either side of the head, down to the chin and kink outward about half way down. There is no need to draw a perfect circle for the eyeball because most of it will be covered by the eyelid. Well They are your friend for starters, and they are what will save your drawing from coming across as flat and indistinct. Feet are not as complicated as hands, but they still pose a challenge to people new to drawing the figure. Ive been really struggling with learning to draw hands. In fact with this simple, easy, and effective technique and a little repetition youll have it down in no time. It is true that the teeth individually formed, but drawing the small shapes in can be difficult and if wrongly done, can lead to a very different facial expression. Sketch out the socket, creating the amount of bone definition needed. Again, keep it thin with less volume then the bottom lip. without a doubt that they are gonna look SUPER shmick. I also imagine the shoulder being attached to the collarbone (which it is in reality, as well at the scapula on the back) so it is free to slide around up and down, back and forth on the ribcage when I am posing the figure. Each gives a different feel. Continue to outline the shape of the nose but this time with darker strokes and only the ones that can be seen depending on the light source.Click here for more on lighting. It will take practice to get the size and creases to perform to your liking. Place a small dot, into the eye. You might not be satisfied with your skills in drawing. STOP and go back through these steps another two to three times. The first line in blue goes from Kates head down to her knee. Youve got the head proportions, facial muscles and features, AND on top of that a plathora countless expressions, micro movements and emotions that the human face is capable of. Womens eyes have a somewhat thinner brow.The eye brows will be arched and less winged. 4. This makes us very familiar with them, and leaves no doubt in our mind whether or not a face looks correct. Sure hes a simple, and generic looking fellow, but he is constructed with all the classical proportions of the human head. Just make sure that the top of the ears are aligned with the eyebrows and the bottom of the ear aligns with the nose. But because the ears are at the center of the face and is aligned with a couple of other facial feature, the only angle that you should be careful with is when the head is facing up or down. I could do an entire post alone on drawing hands and feet (again, entire books have been written), but the short version is that the way to tackle these complex forms is the same as above: break them down into simpler shapes. I use this process for all my comics and illustration, working from rough forms through final image. When drawing the eyelids, many would make the mistake of making the eyelids covered with eyelashes, altogether eliminating the visibility of the eyelid (most of the time this happen is when you overdo the eyelashes). Heres how I use this to draw Mike from the front, side and 3/4 view: Like in the seed example, there are certain proportions to pay attention to, though they differ somewhat. The simplest way to form the meaty part is to use your own hand as an example. Seeing how youre going to be drawing this character a lot over the course of your comic, its a good nail down their look so you can be consistent. Your gift supports How To Draw Comics.
If thats the look youre going for, then by all means add some lipstick and glossiness to boot. We will cover ear anatomy in another section, for now simply try to replicate the ears Ive drawn onto the guy in the example. Taking our head as an example, simply keep in mind that any protruding or receding forms, such as the nose, eye sockets, cheek bones, lips, jaw and brow will cast a shadow. 3. When drawing the lips from different angle, these forms will help show the overlap effect of the lips. Now that you know who your character is, its time to draw her. Combine the five basic form and the inflated cylinder shape basic structure (plus a lot of practice), You will have no problem drawing the mouth from any angle. The vertical line running top to bottom is going to represent the middle division of the head, while the horizontal line running across will serve as the eye brow line. Again, these two are fairly big topics to cover so theyre going to get a tutorial all to themselves. I knew I wanted her to look a bit like a Miyazaki character, but I played around with a couple of designs before settling on her final look: For Candys counterpart, Nikka, it took a little more work before I nailed down her design. Look at pictures of real eyes and note the details. They dont always have to be a perfect 1/3 apart. The most common mistake made is to make draw the nose by starting at the bulb area of the nose, and ignoring the foundation or basic structure of the nose. I start with sort of a shovel shape for the palm, then draw a circle to one side or the other on the wrist end to denote the ball of the thumb. Im not going to go and tell you to collect a bunch of photos or reference material to work from either, because really, we dont always have reference material or live models at our disposal. or three light sources to juggle. 11. It hurts, it sucks, and its a punch in the guts. The length of the hand should rest at the middle of the thigh (after the thigh has been learned). Draw a rectangular box for the palm with sticks for fingers and thumb. I hang the jaw down from the egg shape Unlike the anime seed, the jaw line changes more radically between a straight on view and the profile. Notice the lines going through the image abovethey measure the number of heads used for each character. You need to capture this in your drawing. But right now, it doesnt matter what level of skill youre at. Each of the four knuckles I draw as circles across the top of the shovel shape, and then a fifth at the end of the ball of the thumb. Here are a few nifty functions rendering has to offer your drawings: The trick is to think in a 3D mindset instead of a 2D mindset. Kate is slightly shorter at 7 1/2 heads, which is closer to realistic human proportions. Be careful not to lop too much off though. The mouth sits about halfway between the nose and the chin. It will take some practice to master these shapes, so again, using references and live observation will help you refine your drawings. Lets wrap this up. It starts out heavy at the corners, thins out in the middle then bulks back up again at the other end. If we strip away the details and look at the underlying shapes, we can see how each figure is constructed more easily. The line may begin thin, thicken up in the middle, and then fade out again at the end. Net so we can bring you more tutorials, videos and courses. You will need to think about the shape, size and details. The upper lips has three while the lower lips have two. There are a large variety of ways to draw the mouth of a man, so it really comes down to personal preference and style. The second in red arcs along her arms and shoulders, and the final, in green follows her outstretched leg. This helps define the shape and thickness of the brow. Male eyes will have a heavy, low brow with distinguished bone structure. The first thing anyone will see about your character is the shape his or her outline creates, not the details within. Then I draw a smaller rounded shape on the other side to create the heel of the hand. These are the sorts of curves I look for when building up a figure. Just like the rest of the figure, practice drawing from life and good reference photos to not only practice the forms of the hand, but also to see how elegant hand poses come together. Lets deal with the nosey part of the equation first. Id been avoiding the book I love Hogarths illustration style, but I wondered whether it would be a serious art instruction book. Drawing Hands. Because we a drawing the eye brows of a man here, they are plastered on quite thick in comparison to the slim, streamlined eyebrows of a woman. Below the eye line, the face is typically divided up into equal thirds.
The line that runs through the eyes is roughly halfway between the top of the head and the chin. You can do this by drawing the gum line that is visible to suggest that the teeth has its own form but not in detail.You can also draw out some lines on the teeth to give it a tiny bit of detail, but do not over do it. However its not the same thickness all the way through. Are they sad and dreppressed or are they happy and joyous? The muscles are what adds dimension to the arms and a good comparison is that of a braid. The more you practice, the more you will expand your visual vocabulary as an artist and you can combine, mix and match and create brand new features that are purely your own. The length of the mouth is about as wide as the half-way point of each eye, the left corner of the mouth lining up with the left iris, and the right corner of the mouth lining up with the right iris. Feeling a little bit guilty, I decided to look at it at a local bookstore before buying it at Amazon. The ears are no exception.Instead of drawing the basic shape or form of the ear, the easiest way to draw the ear is by using the question mark (?) The two lines youve just drawn should be crossing over one another in the middle of the sphere. The first step in drawing full-body human characters is to nail down basic proportions. Create a line horizontally to act as a separation for the upper and lower lips. You need to look at how it is shaped and the variations of the eye. If hes got a chip on his shoulder then give him a glare more low-brow then the terminator and a mouth that looks like it just ate a lemon. When drawing the teeth, it is best to keep it simple. Above we have Kate and Mike as examples of ideal human female and male proportions. Drawing great hands takes a lot of practice, and the best way to get good at them is observation. Because the arm is hard to see and work with while flat against the body, we will first draw the arm pointing straight out from the torso at a 90-degree angle. But heres a quick rundown.
However, by borrowing the rounder head and wide-spaced eyes and combining them with features inspired by a cuttlefish, I was able to create something entirely new. Similar to drawing with the Loomis method, this method also allows you to draw the mouth at different angles. Once you have the placement and the size correct, you must now set the smaller shapes.Similar to the shapes used for the basic structure, the smaller shapes are used to get the details and add outline to establish the features of the nose. I highly recommend spending some time on this yourself. Draw another ball for the wrist. Learning how to draw eyes can take time. This method can be modified to stretch characters to be taller or shorter as needed later. Lets refine the drawing and clean around those rough edges. This shouldnt take long, maybe half an hour to an hour depending on how fast you can smash these out. While I wont go into detail on muscular anatomy (there are entire books on that topic), here is a quick cheat sheet on the basic shapes Im thinking of when Im drawing the figure. The Step-By-Step E-Book walking you through the making of "Cleineclypto", Figure Drawing Foundations: Proportions Of The Heroic Figure E-Book, Access to subscriber exclusive special offers, promotions and giveaways. The rest of the neck then extends out into the shoulders.
Firstly, lets look at the head and face because the are probably the most important features for identifying your character and letting him express himself. is used for the outer shape of the ear, while the y shape is used on the inside of the ears. But if you can draw a basic, proportionately accurate head with ease, youll be able to bend and manipulate the standard rules youve learnt to create and modify an endless variety of different headshapes, sizes, and builds for your characters knowing. Here are the rough forms Im using to think through this rough figure. Though it is true that eyelids are not visible from a distance, a lot of people (beginners mostly) continue to do this even when they draw it up close. You also need to think of each eye as an individual thing with its own quality. In order to qualify for super-saver shipping, I also ordered Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery also by Hogarth, and it was an excellent purchase as well! This is another major difference between the two sexes. Normally, the elbows rest along the waistline and the bottom part of the arm is about a fist shorter than the top half. Noses can be a little tricky but the easiest way to get your head around it is to try and visualize the nose as a tapered, triangular block or wedge that has been glued to the face. Youll see the difference! For a couple of years, I drew character studies of Kate & Mike by using photos from magazines as a reference. The last step in this blue print is to place in the jaw lines.
In fact, learning how to draw is without a doubt one of the most mentally challenging and draining tasks one can undertake. Often in figure drawing, proportions are measured in heads because it is an easy way to check if the features are in the right place in a drawing, especially if the figure is drawn relatively straight on.
Take note of the hip shapes between the two figures.The males pelvis is taller while the females is shorter and a little wider. Before I go, heres a last look at a few extra tips that will hopefully help you out even more along the way! Cyber Civics: A Crash Course in Digital Citizenship. This can be discouraging. When drawing any part of the body, it is best that you start with the basic shapes. Fingers have different lengths but the middle finger is usually a good basis for the lengths of the others. I will often draw a quick version like this as a thumbnail, and then draw these forms over the top of that rough to clean up the anatomy. This can make your drawing of the nose look awkward (unrealistic) and out of place (hanging). The tip of the nose sits about halfway between the eye line and the chin. They break down as follows: Also note the proportions of the arm. Keep this in mind when rounding out the shoulders in relationship to the hands. Once again, breaking down the forms into simpler shapes can be helpful.Its helpful to me to think of a footprint as a starting pointthe heel is separated from the ball of the foot and toes by the arch of the foot.
As you draw in the eyeball, iris and other features of the eye, you will need to pay attention to the details and add depth to bring the eye to life. They can give you away if you are lying. Think of a movable part when starting this part of the body. Not every person is the same. You can imagine it being a bit like a cube, only tapering downward to create the chin. Her joints are also narrower and her limbs thinner. When drawing the mouth, people often make the mistake of thinking that the lips forms up on its own. Add in some guide lines for the cheek bones, and side of the eye brows. Make a ball for the elbow and continue with a second flat oval shape for the bottom half of the arm, making it a fist shorter than the top half. Though it is true that eyelids are not visible from a distance, a lot of people (beginners mostly) continue to do this even when they draw it up close. Once you have the ritual down, draw the other arm along the side of the torso. With the torso and head now taking shape it is time to move on to drawing other parts of the body. The elbows are just above waist height and sit roughly in line with the bottom of the rib cage. For instance, say your characters head isnt so gaunt, chiseled and bony; maybe instead its rounder, cheeks fuller and less sucked in. Thats right.
Afterward not only will you be capable and confident, you will be BLOWN away by how easy it is for you to give your comic book characters cool looking heads! Itll be as second nature as walking. You can relax more, talk on the phone, listen to some music; now youre just drawing on top of whats already there. Even the shape of the head can suggest a personalitytriangular, round, square. 7. If youd like prompt updates about the next installment of the series, exclusive cheat sheets, and other behind-the-scenes material with each installment of the series, please sign up for my mailing list: (function($) {window.fnames = new Array(); window.ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]='EMAIL';ftypes[0]='email';fnames[1]='FNAME';ftypes[1]='text';fnames[2]='LNAME';ftypes[2]='text';fnames[3]='BIRTHDAY';ftypes[3]='birthday';}(jQuery));var $mcj = jQuery.noConflict(true); For tutorials, workshop details and other goodies, subscribe to my mailing list.
Believe is or not, after a while you wont even have to think about these steps when you sit down to draw your heads. Since they are so special, well go into Line Weights more extensively in another tutorial. Okay, now that we have the basic shapes and proportions down, we need to be able to draw our characters in more than close-ups and standing around doing nothing. You will start to see patterns in how the fingers move together as a loose group, not separately (which is why magicians are illustrated using weird hand posesthey dont look natural).
You can think of bangs as clumps of hair that are grouped together similar to what you might have observed on manga, anime or more cartoony characters. So Ive created a system for you and its going to take a lot of the headaches youve encountered out of drawing a perfectly proportioned head. Then erase the bottom half of the sphere, because thats not going to be needed from here on out. I always use this process for creating my finished works. Next extend the centerline in the middle of the face, taking it all the way down to the bottom of the chin. As youre drawing, keep your light source in mind and constantly ask yourself where the heavy black shadows should end up. Is there a light coming from the left or right, and how far back or forward is it? The best way to draw the mouth is by using the inflated cylinder shape as the basic structure for the tooth cylinder. Drawing The Foundations For The Front View Of The Male Head.
The eye line falls directly around the middle of the head. This is how I designed the alien characters for the story STRANGER: In order to draw my characters heads from any angle, I use two basic head shapes as a starting point and then squash and stretch them into the approximate shape. When this happens, you can see a line between the brow and the eyelashes. The more intensity and thickness added to the eye lashes, the more feminine your character will look so keep it toned down for the manlier characters. If you imagine the center line of the face curving to the left or right and the eye line curving up or down, you can start to see the head turn in your minds eye and use this to draw the head and face from any angle like so: The second basic head shape I use is based more closely on a more classical human head shape used in American superhero comics: This is the shape I use for Mikes head in Paradigm Shift. Alright, the hard part is done! Even when I knew my art work sucked, the anatomy was off, the proportions were incorrect, when what was transferred down onto paper was some skewed up, distorted version of what I had envisioned within my mind I knew this that I would take the disappointment, uncertainty and the embarrassment, learning from every mistake; so that failure became an invaluable lesson. You can relax now; from here on out everything else is just icing on the cake. Rather than constructing the eyebrows out of individual strands, I simplify them down into a clump of eye brow fur. Knowing this will give you the ability to transform it into something far and beyond what you could have imagined. Notice that none of the fingers are the same length and the thumb will always seem out of place. But if not, sometimes its better to leave a mans mouth as a simple contour line where the lips meet. The question mark (?) The heads break down as follows with her: Basically, Kate simply has a smaller upper body than her counterpart.