Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Author Intermission - Awesome Tools!

I introduce to you: Author Intermissions! The purpose of these special posts is to give a few little extra tips or to bring up topics that I realize most young and learning artists won't think to ask about. Hopefully Author Intermissions will encourage further questions based on what I've posted. 


In my post on art materials, I covered some specific tools I recommend for my fellow artists. Today I want to make a sort of addition to that post, and mention some extra accessories that can make your work a little easier.


Pencil extender
Ever get your wood pencil down to a nub and have to cramp up your hand trying to hold the thing?


It's a shame to simply throw it away when there's still so much of the pencil left, but it's just too short to use easily. Meet your solution.


A pencil extender is basically what it says on the tin. You put your stubby little sharpened-down pencil into the holder, and you magically have more to hold when you draw!

General's is the easiest brand of these to find. I think they're a little bit expensive for being a chunk of wood with metal attached, but it's really worth the price, as these things last forever.

Unfortunately, they sometimes don't work too well with the woodless pencils I recommended in the materials post (depending on the brand), but they're perfect with a standard wood pencil.


Erasers
Erasers are probably one of the materials most of us artists pick a favorite for very early on. I still use the same type of eraser I used in middle school. If you have your favorite then by all means, keep it. This is my advice to those of you still using whatever eraser happens to drift your way.

My personal favorite is the Clic eraser. It lasts a long time, and you can really erase fine detail if you know how to use it. Since I work a lot with dark pencil lines, it's insanely valuable to have an eraser that can get into small details, and erases cleanly with no smudges.


There are similar tools, like fine-point drafting erasers and electric erasers. These will work just as well, but Clic is the only one I know of this quality that can be found in general office supply stores, or even drugstores.

For those of you working with rendered (shaded) art, I highly recommend a kneaded eraser. This is the most commonly used type of eraser in the professional world of art. It's like a little ball of clay. You can shape it to a fine point, or flatten it to lift a little bit of value in a large area, and it doesn't leave little eraser bits! I also find them a little relaxing to squish in my hands while I'm working.



Gel Pen
For most of us, hearing "gel pen" makes us think of those horrible little cheap pens packed with glitter and over saturated colors, that see the most use in year books. (I still love those things.) Well, it's time to think of them a little differently.


If you like to work with ink, you might want to try out Gelly Roll's white gel pen. It's basically white-out, in a pen. You can fix mistakes with incredible precision, and it doesn't create an ugly glob of goo on your paper. They go a long way, as well. I find most art stores are carrying them now.

A little gel pen and re-inking will fix that!
Why so unhappy?




















Non-Photo Blue Pencil
If you're like me and tend to do lots of heavy sketching before putting in your final lines, you might want to work in blue pencil. When you do your sketching in blue pencil, you can never make your lines anywhere near as dark as a soft graphite or ink line. This way, your final lines will be much easier to see.


Another advantage is that blue pencil is harder for a copy machine or scanner to read. You can easily scan an inked drawing with blue sketch lines underneath, and make some simple tweaks in Photoshop to make the sketch underneath completely vanish. All you're left with is the clean final drawing.

The original, unedited scan of the Field Book bird

Any light blue pencil will work, but specifically non-photo blue pencils are best. My favorite is Staedtler's non-photo blue pencil. Some other brands are a little too dark, and get picked up more easily by copiers and scanners.

Before. . . 

. . .and after some simple Photoshop tweaks


Saturday, July 20, 2013

Question #6 - Proportions in Anatomy

Q: "What are some of the most important proportions to know for human anatomy?"


I want to start off my response by saying this: Anatomy is something that takes years and years of practice to learn and perfect. Don't be stressed when you can't magically draw a perfect figure without these years of drawing under your belt.

However, the perfect book to help you get started on drawing the human figure is Figure Drawing For All It's Worth by Andrew Loomis. The best part? You can download the full book for free here.

Here are a couple examples from this wonderful book:





I could write a hundred posts about human anatomy (and probably will over the course of this blog's existence), but the question for today's post is specifically concerning proportion.

Here's a simple chart I sketched up to show the major proportions you should know.


Some extra tips:

  • The distance from one shoulder to the other is three head-widths.
  • The eyes are halfway between the chin and the top of the head
  • The average figure will be about 7 1/2 head-heights tall 


These measurements will not always be exact, since every human has slightly different proportions, but these are good rough guidelines to follow. When you're drawing from a live model, always measure and re-measure to be sure you get that individual's proportions correct. I've drawn models that measured 6 heads tall, and others that were 8 heads tall.

Characters in animation and illustration will often have very exaggerated proportions, which completely break from these guidelines. While it's tempting to only draw exaggeration and never learn realistic proportion, you will only be able to draw exaggeration well if you know your real-life anatomy.





















Even Picasso learned everything he could about anatomy before testing what he could do with exaggeration and stylization.



Thursday, July 11, 2013

Question #5 - The Do's and Don't's of Drawing


It's been a while. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. I hope this post is worth the wait!

Q: "What are the do's and don't's of drawing?"


(I recommend clicking on images in this post to enlarge them)

DO
  • create a rough "under drawing" before putting in final lines
    • Draw the anatomy underneath the skin (I'll cover some anatomy tips in another post)
    • Know what's happening under the clothes / hair / accessories / etc.
    • Draw all of a partially obscured object or character
  • use reference and do research



  • get into the habit of thumb-nailing more complex drawings


  • have dynamic line work (I'll write more about this in a separate post if someone requests it)

  • practice, practice, practice!
    Work from my first year at art school
    Work from my third year at art school



DON'T
  • get stuck in one style
    • Having a unique personal style is great, but you should learn a variety of styles as well (including realism!)
    • Get inspiration from a variety of artists - fine artists, concept artists, comic artists, animators, illustrators, etc.
© Chris Sanders
© Aaron Alexovitch

© James Gurney


  • assume something won't be useful to know
    • Never stop learning. Inspiration can be found in subjects beyond art