ART/VIDEO – How to Create Your Own Anime Characters
Anime is huge. The people who love it often want to be able to draw it too.
My daughter is obsessed with wanting to draw in anime style. I give her the best tips I can, which is to say, I send her to my drawing website.
This week I answer the a question many people have about anime. Here’s how the question went:
Hi I’m new and I just created my own website on googlesites it is called artforpros. I want to create my own ANIME character and need to know what should I do first I want to create a male and female. Have any ideas?
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ART/VIDEO – Color Blindness and Making Art in Color
Color blindness is something I personally haven’t dealt with. Quite honestly, I don’t even know anyone who is color blind.
This week’s question is about color blindness and making art in color. It goes something like this:
I just discovered your website and I like what you have written very much. Your drawing style is charming. I have a question about color. Have you ever come across a colorblind artist? What does a person do when they don’t have natural color harmonizing skills?
In the video, I will attempt to answer this question. I’ve read and seen videos of artist who are color blind. Which I will link to below.
And also, knowing a few things about the foundations of color make me doubt color blindness is as bad a problem as it may seem.
Links Talked About in This Video
Colorblind artist debuts Disney collection in Sac:
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ART/VIDEO – How to Bridge Observational Drawing and Imaginative Drawing
I got a very long question conscerning observational drawing and imaginative drawing. Since it’s such a long question, let me get to it soe you can see what it’s all about:
I have a question. And it is a very hard question, nobody ever told me the answer, no one artist or teacher.
We have two principally different approaches to drawing. First – is the approach where we should make a drawing of the existing scene. We stand at one single point of view (or we have a nice reference image), the light is set up, we draw with a variety of technics such as sight-size, or triangulation, or evaluating control points with a pencil, or using camera lucida or simply by eye… And that is a very tight process, or maybe a loose live sketch… But we draw something that exists. We can stylise the elements, we can simplify them and sometimes we can replace some details, but in overall we are limited to that one point of view. Suddenly we realize that we can’t remember what we’ve seen and draw without a reference or staging.
The second approach is the illustration. We build a drawing above a sketch, we construct objects as the combinations of simple 3d forms and 2d shapes, then make the outline, the shading, the coloring and so on… The drawing is stylised, and usually it looks like a cartoon. Technical drawing (with cross-sections and curves in perspective) is essentially the same, but it requires much more precision… But again, the principle is the same: we construct the drawing step-by-step from simple shapes up to the stage where even other artists sometimes can’t tell how the drawing was builded, because the final lineart or the illustration looks very complex and detailed.
I’ve seen a lot of artists who work perfectly from life, but they can’t do the illustration. Their work is called “fine-art”, they do exhibitions and sell their paintings for thousands of dollars, but they are unable to draw a dragon or Santa.
Also there is a lot of really good illustrators who work perfectly from imagination, they have their distinctive style, but… they make very poor life drawings. They use reference as the inspiration, but when they draw, it DOESN’T look like an object form reference image at different angle or with different light – instead, it just roughly reminds the same idea with similar textures… Not more. Life drawing is a pain in the ass for these creative persons, they usually hate borders and mandatory work.
There is A LOT of information for both matters (ranging from special ateliers, who teach sight-size method of drawing plaster casts, and up to Scott Robertson’s book “How to draw” or Neil Fontaine’s very huge and affordable course “Discover How to Draw and paint Comics”)
BUT! Nobody teaches how to build a bridge between two approaches. How could we fill the gap between drawing from life (or reference) and constructive drawing?!
I mean, how should I draw from life and analyse the reference material in order to LEARN the subject’s form for creative drawing WITHOUT a reference?
But if that wasn’t enough, once I answered the question, I go a follow up question that was just as long. It went something like this:
Quote: “So how to do bridge both? By practicing and mastering both skills. You learn the observation skill of drawing from life, but you don’t simply copy what you see, you reinterpret what you see using the formulas you use drawing from you’re imagination. … you draw what you actually see and try to understand what is happening there from your anatomy and construction studies.”
I am in trouble with this. It seems simple in theory, and it works more or less with a still-life (draw-through technique with simple or obviously constructive objects) or a figure drawing (anatomy schemes for doing better proportions and reinterpreting the whole shading). Actually it works well in the class or studio.
But… The trouble starts when reality comes. Let’s say, I need a decent tree for a composition. We usually are unable to find the right tree, which looks good in 2D projection. So we need to reinvent the structure of the drawing. I can’t apply any formula for such object because the formula doesn’t exist (or maybe exists in someone else’s brain).
The world is full of volumetric objects that are perceived in motion. What we really know about such complex objects is a range of conclusions and observations that are made from a lot of different points of view with various weather and light conditions. And THAT is the image of the subject in the mind of “non-artist” people. We know the subject, but a lot of that information is tactile, sound or whatever. But in order to depict the object, artists should establish the base form. When we understand the form, we can add everything: textures, small details, colour, shading, composition, storytelling and so on.
Any single point of view, any single reference image is lying to us – there is a lot of texture information, but it is extremely hard to understand the form.
It seems that I can’t get the formula out of life, it is necessary to creatively invent the formula which is believable, and for every new object there should be the new formula. HOW?!
As for the trees, the problem is how to interpret THOUSANDS of proportion relationships between leaves, not making a mess from the foliage. Also, how to reorganise tree branches in 3D space.
As for the iguanas, elephants, or snake’s head, or close-up view of the foliage, or flowers, the problem is that I simply CAN’T BREAK THEM DOWN on the simple shapes or constructive lines… because objects in nature are NOT simple. A head of a fly is not made of spheres or cubes or cylinders… Curved surfaces are everywhere, and it is necessary to simplify them somehow.
I don’t need the anatomically correct fly, also I am not going to be a botanist or guru of mammal’s anatomy… But I need the idea on how to invent the formulas based on what I see. Because three-four simplified curved surfaces would be enough for each individual detail, I just have to know the approach… How to make APPROXIMATE analysis of what I see.
I am sure, you understand what I am talking about. The speech seems complicated, but the problem is really fundamental. How Leonardo was drawing a swirls of water (or the backgrounds for his portraits)? How Durer was drawing a rhinoceros? How sculptors invent the curls?
In the end, THIS knowledge is a key to the so-called “visual library”.
How to redesign, reinvent, interpret the form on a basis of life drawing, reference images and observations? What is the methodology of this process? Not only regarding the figure drawing or technical drawing, but in overall? Any ideas?
So yeah, I made a video answering all this:
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ART/VIDEO – How to Draw a Professional Animation Clean Up Line
You have a rough drawing, however your stuck. You want to clean it up but every time you’ve tried to tighten up a drawing, your lines are sketchy, or wobbly, or just plain ugly.
How do you get a clean lines? How do you make your line look great, clean, professional?
This is, therefore, a bit of a follow up to that post:
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ART/VIDEO – Starting a Drawing: Stick Figure or Shapes?
Starting a drawing of a figure can be tricky. Especially when you’re starting out. We often get conflicting information about what to do when we start drawing a figure or cartoon.
This week, one of my readers asked me a question concerning methods of approach drawing a figure. Here’s what he asked:
I have a question. After I started reading your lessons I have really gotten into drawing. I am really happy with the progress I have made. (though I do get impatient with myself) And I had a question.
For awhile I have been using a layer method where I start with a stick figure kind of deal then kind of draw over that adding more detail with each layer. But lately I found I am not getting great results. So I tried a more free drawing style. (Using a circle to draw a head around then working the body off of there. And I was wondering if you know if that is normal.
I mean I still layer details but I just don’t know if stick (or skeletal) base works for me. Do you think it may be easier to do it that way? (Sorry if my question is so long >.< I am just trying to work with my brain)
Alright, so answering this question is what this video is all about:
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ART/VIDEO – When Learning to Draw: Graphics Tablet or Analog Tools?
Now that technology has gotten advanced enough for artists to be able to draw directly on screens and tables, a new problem has come up for beginning artists. The question goes something like this question I was asked by one of my readers:
I have one question, do You recommend drawing on a paper or on a graphic tablet? Which medium is better to start with? I was always astonished by the digital works, but I guess, I need to start with the most basic paper and pencil, don’t I?
In this week’s video, I tackle these questions:
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There’s this notion people have when drawing, that the first line you put down should be the final line. It should automatically come out great from the start. If it doesn’t, you’re an awful artist.
I’ve been asked, not one question but two questions regarding lines and making marks when drawing. They went something like this:
I think one of the most confusing things for laypeople when they see professional sketches is this multiple line business. I can’t speak for everyone, but it’s strange when you say to draw a straight line from A to B and I see a smattering of lines between various points through the alphabet.
I’m sure there are advantages later on (like with inking, I assume), but what should newcomers know about the technique? Does it help or is it just something the pros do?
Should the lines in these exercises be done with one stroke? I have done a few pages now, but I lift my pencil about 10 times for each line I draw, and turn the paper around to get a better angle to complete the “C” curves and “S” curves. Am I just fooling myself to believe that I am starting to get the hang of it?
They’re both different but similar enough that I was able to answer them both in the video below:
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ART/VIDEO – What is Style? Analyzing Humberto Ramos’ Art
Artists with great styles you admire can sometimes be a mystery. What are they doing that makes you love the look of their artwork so much?
K.J. Green, one of my patrons over on Patreon is struggling with this mystery. He wrote me and asked me this:
Love your tutorials!
I’d describe myself as a decent artist (I’ve been grinding for a few years and would say that I developed a strong sense of form and anatomy from Loomis, Bridgman, Hampton, and Proko). Now, I’m getting into stylization and as I’ve been practicing my ability to see how artists shift reality to create their style, my favorite comic artist still stumps me: Humberto Ramos.
He exaggerates every expression and movement so forcefully but his faces and bodies never seem distorted. They, instead, are always aesthetically pleasing. Because I have studied the fundamentals for so long, every time I “break the rules” to stylize and exaggerate, my figures and faces (especially ones with strong expressions) look very boring and/or ugly.
They come out as a series of forms that seem overly constructed and devoid of passion and freedom. Could you perhaps do a break down on Humberto Ramos’s style and his ability to keep WILD expressions pleasing through his simplification of facial features and body parts (even as he breaks every rule in the book)?
Thanks so much and have a good one!
This week’s video answers his question and I also try to show how you can solve the mystery of just about anyone’s style just by knowing what to look for:
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A reader has asked me, this question about age and learning to draw:
How old is too old, when is it too late? I’m almost 34, and I’ve always badly wanted to be able to draw, but two year olds draw more coherently than I am capable of (no joke), and I just have no idea how to even start. Everybody says that I don’t want it and that I’m not willing to put in the work…. Maybe in the end, in truth, they’re right, but. just… I don’t know. This is supposed to be enjoyable, right? And it just isn’t any fun at all not being able to even do the most basic, most simplistic things, and feeling like I’m never making even the slightest progress…
I feel like I’m at my wits’ end with this.
In this week’s video, I answer his question:
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Being told you’re talented is meant to be a compliment. Perhaps if you’re not taking something very seriously it may be. However when you’ve spent years honing your craft, being told you’re talented really ends up coming across as if all the work you’ve done is being ignored.
More often than not, most people who draw really well, draw this way because of hours of practice and effort. Does that equal “talent” or is it hard work? How many people who have an affinity for drawing but who’s work isn’t any good YET, should be considered talented?
What is talent? Is there such a thing? In this video I answer some questions about talent:
Links to Things Mentioned In The Video
Blog post with examples of my early work from 4th grade until now:
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Anime is huge. The people who love it often want to be able to draw it too.
