[Silver Pandorica]

hello i require assistance
i was trying to doodle one of my characters and
got confused about facial anatomy yet again :')
i think i overthink it, but i also really struggle
with anatomy. like what is a chin?? how to draw
from 3/4 angle?? every now and then i'll sketch
something and i'm like "woah, how did i do that"
and try to replicate it and fail triumphantly

here are some examples of art styles i aspire
to, just to give you an idea of my goals.

doppler (webtoon) - currently my favorite art style tbh
x x x

the moth prince (webtoon) - really love this style as well
x x x

and uh kage, dok, parker;, hypnowave, and a bunch of other cs artists :')

feel free to redline, that would be really helpful!! any general
tips or advice or links to helpful things would be much appreciated
as well <3

[ThousandSounds]

a solution I contribute to you:
https://creatureartteacher.com/product/ ... on-blaise/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjkGJ04 ... aronBlaise

[Silver Pandorica]

a solution I contribute to you:
https://creatureartteacher.com/product/ ... on-blaise/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjkGJ04 ... aronBlaise

Thank you! I'm worried that if I try to learn perspective while not having a good grasp on the actual shapes, it would confuse things. Is perspective still helpful while I'm still struggling with basic anatomy and shapes? <3

[Loelya]

Here’s a really helpful tutorial I found for this once!



and here’s the post where I found it! ^u^

[Silver Pandorica]

Ooh I'll try that @Loelya, thank you!

[ThousandSounds]

Thank you! I'm worried that if I try to learn perspective while not having a good grasp on the actual shapes, it would confuse things. Is perspective still helpful while I'm still struggling with basic anatomy and shapes? <3

Oh, yes, absolutely! Even if you're stills struggling, learning perspective can actually help you with your shapes too! It forced you to experiment, and helps you recognize certain shapes like "oh, this kinda looks like a small rectangle in here", whilst also teaching you to align features like, eyes, nose, mouth details, and how they respond to angles and how the body or tilts move. So even if you're learning shapes, learning perspective can help you do that as well, because it also teaches you to break those shapes down. I've been trying to learn perspective with the following things I've done:

x x x x x x


and what I find out, or just find in general, that.. Like, really helps me is that because - if you see my lego stuff, you see that I'm working a lot with shapes, and because it's not accurate lego you can see those shapes are very rough and recognizable in my current skillset of drawing lego Mimi figures. so working with more basic or most basic shapes will really help you recognize toy, human, animal, etc anatomy. Because we're all just a bunch of walking shapes mashed together to make a human body. understanding kind of what you're working with can help you learn it. for example my strawpurry (made by SpeedyJay, whom also made a bit of a how to draw humans tutorial at my request a while back), he's literally just a strawberry with legs and a kitty face and ears and I love him dearly. so what I did was literally just think about the shape of strawberries, or the shape of one strawberry that represents his body and I literally started with a circle and added a torpedo tip for a butt. and then I was looking a his ref and the shape of his limbs, but also thinking about the anatomy of a cat, and just applying the stylized reference to him

I can't draw humans but I have been doodling hands a lot as of late. since last summer, I think, and I've just been using my hand for a reference and recognizing that it's nothing but a glorified meat paddle, so you're see a square, a triangle on the thumb bits maybe, depend son the shape of the hand you're drawing-- sorry, tangent

Just don't overthink it, keep it simple and loose, don't stress or worry too much and recognize you're still learning. Even though you HAVE experience you'll always be learning no matter how pro you are - and that's gonna continue to advance you. and don't be afraid to use your old art of humanoids for reference because it could help sometimes; whether help you notice what's missing, or what you did last time that you're trying ot repeat and etc

[Silver Pandorica]

@ThousandSounds This is literally so helpful, thank you!! I definitely struggle to see the shapes, but I think it's because a lot of the time I'm focusing on the lines instead of what shapes make up those lines. I literally stare at the lines of a drawing and it totally distracts me from the shapes, which is probably why things turn out so wonky for me sometimes, haha. Perspective scares me a little (flashbacks to high school art class omg), but I'll read up on it for sure and start practicing using it in my drawings. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and also for introducing me to the wonderful phrase "meat paddles" LOL

Also, I LOVE your Ninjago drawings!! Top tier fr

[ThousandSounds]

awwe thanks love!

I'm happy to help, seriously I could go on and on about the process and how much easier it is or has gotten or can get for you, so if you want pm me and I'll give you my discord and we can geek. Or if you're in the keld server you can find me with a Kai pfp

[wyzrd]

just a quick tip, but i might suggest taking a couple faces from those two artists you like, and seeing if you can draw over them with the shapes that they're using, breaking them down. then you can see what shapes and proportions they're dealing with and how it comes together. also, the act of doing so with your own hands starts letting you feel what creating these different forms feels like, a bit. let me give an example
x
this example uses a photo, but it's the same idea.
remember, when you copy or trace an artist's work like this, it really isn't for sharing, we're not trying to rip off the artist's work. it's just a simple exercise to help you understand what you're seeing when you look at the art, drawing back the curtain so to speak. it's a useful tool to study style when you have trouble replicating lines with the naked eye, and it helps you start thinking in shapes and proportions which can help with placement.
whenever i do something like this i do it to get a feeling of what these stylizations feel like coming from my own hand. it helps me work out what in particular i found appealing in the style, so i can try incorporating elements similar to that into my own art. i usually only end up wanting to draw one or two ideas from a style, like line quality or shape language, finding myself inspired with a clearer vision of the kind of image i want to create.
in the end i usually don't actually try and emulate the other artist, instead chasing my own vision which incorporates similar but different ideas (this is a little vague, for example i could be inspired by an artist who uses hard, blocky lines to represent shapes and curves, i doodle a couple lines that imitate the ones they made, and then looking at the lines i drew i can see what i actually like and don't like, and the final lines i draw actually look quite different from the other artist's because i have a clearer vision now of the lines i actually wanted to begin with. i analyzed their art to get closer so i could more easily visualize the thing i liked and was going for. is that even more vague?)
anyways, it's useful to look at how other artists have stylized proportions in order to understand what the stylizations that you 'feel' like drawing might actually look like. everyone has a unique vision and exercises like this help realize them
(guess that wasn't very quick after all)

[sputnikzero]

^
Definitely agree that tracing over pieces to simplify what shapes are at work is a great tool for studying and getting a better grasp at using them in your own art ^^

Also being mindful that’s limited to fundamental shapes. For actual anatomy, it’s always great to study from real life and photos. Signing up for some life drawing sessions is super helpful ^^(As an example I draw the ears lower as a stylistic decision and I wouldn’t want someone who is trying to study anatomy to note it down) It cuts you so many tangents to learn the rules first instead of chasing a specific style. When you have a good grasp at the fundamentals, style will come naturally as a beautiful amalgamation of your own experiences and what you admire from others. It will happen, I promise!

I’m in no way experienced but I definitely know how frustrating and confusing drawing can be. Wanna remind you that the fact you are so open minded and humble with learning is really admirable. I always love it when you post something <3 hope I could be of some help.