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[justpickupthatpen]

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I know I am doing now this is sweet.

[justpickupthatpen]

[justpickupthatpen]

Hi there ania~ It took me quite a lot of effort, but I'm at a point where I'm really content with the pace I'm improving at with my art. But I'm having a hard time figuring out how to make it look less plain and more whole? If that makes sense? I feel great about my work, but it feels like it's missing something. Is there any advice you could give about that? Thank you!

I’m so happy that you are happy with your improvement and art!!! It’s such a simple thing but is a very difficult stage to reach. I’m not sure if you are talking about final illustrations that you are doing or sketches (or just everything you do in art in general), but I’ll take sketchbook examples that can apply to all art.. I’m pretty sure.

1. Smooth line art never fails to make artwork look finished. The smoother your lines, the more ‘whole’ the artwork looks. Unless you’re painting or it is on purpose that it is not smooth. So it’s important that you practice your strokes (but it will get better over time automatically as you draw anything)!

2. Color! If you use your colors right it’ll look so much better. I drew this old man and colored him in orange highlights and colored in a blue background (the opposite color of orange!) so that he pops.

3. Decorative elements: use your imagination. Even the simplest decoration behind what your drawing will complete your art. In this case I drew a guy smoking and used the cloud shaped smoke as decor. (this art looks dirty because the graphite kept smudging. if you want to prevent this, use hairspray! it really works!)

4. Lets say you drew only a character called Lucy and you’re really proud of her, but it doesn’t look finished or enough for it to get to that ‘wow factor’. Don’t be afraid of adding elements around Lucy. Draw her at a scene, in a dream, draw her best friend next to her, draw her again but in a different pose, or even just color her in!

5. DON’T DRAW SMALL. BIGGER IS BETTER.

If you look at other people’s sketchbooks, you can see how their art looks complete too: (smart composition) ( use of lettering and color) (line art is important!) (dont be afraid of drawing big or using the whole page)

[justpickupthatpen]

Different anon here: I really want to become a storyboard artist, do you have any advice or excercises to practice to get better at expressive poses and the like? Absolutely adore your art btw <3

I scribbled some notes down for ya!

For poses, keep practicing at gesture drawing to get that clear silhouette/line of action. Dance choreography or martial arts videos are really helpful for this sort of exercise.

Usually I’d tell you to go cafe sketching, but since we gotta stay indoors, flip through some photography books! Your work will be stronger if you can capture more nuanced mannerisms. You’ll always get the best ideas from real people.

For facial expressions and acting I try to think of the who these characters are and how they might react to the same situation.

Then all that’s really left is practice! Also keep a mirror by your desk for reference. That’s my secret, I just stare at my own mug all day. (And thank you! <3)

[justpickupthatpen]

do you have any advice on anatomy? and how do you often draw/break it down in your style if that's okay to ask? :0

if youve got the time for it id recommended just buckling down and studying skeletons and muscles! like straight up google images human body diagram, copy it a few times from a few angles, and just memorize the largest bits,. its absolutely really ugh yikes tedious to copy a gazillion bones but being familiar with even just the general placements of certain bits of bone structure or large muscles makes it so much easier to make stylization decisions, draw quicker, visualize how the body is placed in 3d space, especially with no ref in front of you, etc etc and it definitely makes me feel studier in my people drawing?hhhh i know for sure ive got to properly study muscles at some point like i mostly just wing it so dont trust me too much on that

here ive done a few quick general notes and such on what i think about when im drawing but im sorry im realizing now theyre sort of messy.so.if you or anybody really wants to see clearer examples of how i draw anatomy i could share some of my pages from life drawing,, which i think are like.basically how i normally like to draw anyway but more focused on being proper,,. idk but if anyone thinks it could be helpful i can post some :)

[justpickupthatpen]

Fav art tips?

These're some of my general art / drawing tips!

✎⁾⁾ ◞

Just incase text is hard to read:

1) torso is free-floating pillow. Everything is pillow. (soft, flexible anatomy)

2) if you're struggling with how to start a shoe, try outlining the sole first.

3) characters looking stiff? Give them something to do and take a snapshot mid-action.

4) try to keep z-axis in mind! Let body parts twist and be obscured.

5) another way to combat stiff characters is to skip the guidelines and start drawing the focal points first... or whatever you're most excited to draw first.

6) don't know how to start a piece? Draw the tiniest thumbnail ever, enlarge, and sketch on top!

[justpickupthatpen]

Hey friends!

Meg here for this week’s TUTOR TUESDAY! This week I go over just a little trick that I like to use when drawing and connecting arms/hands/legs/feet ect. This helps me with foreshortening as well. I hope it helps you folks as well! I have tutorials that talk more specifically about hand/foot/leg anatomy here. If you have any tutorial recommendations send ‘em in here or my personal. Now go forth and I’ll see you next week!

[justpickupthatpen]

Here is some study notes about drawing the torso as boxes ^^

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[justpickupthatpen]

[justpickupthatpen]

hi

[justpickupthatpen]

[justpickupthatpen]

Here are some painting tips, as promised. I hope they will help beginner artists!

Composition

Position of characters on the sheet

Choose the location of your character to be beneficial to the appearance of the art in general, you can accentuate the important places where the viewer should look first by using perspective and composition.

Tone sketch

Set the lights based on references, but adjust to your own, favourable lighting.

Contrasts come in many forms. Contrast in color (warm and cold), values (dark and light), shapes soft and hard, straight and curve, etc.

Less is better. Work on the details of the most important part of your work while cutting down everything else. If you do strong detail in one place, don't forget to add looser detail in another so the viewer's eye can rest. For example: If you are detailing a portrait, don't detail the background as much. Next to a place of high detail, there should be a place of low detail so that the picture does not look overloaded.

All in all, you can twist and break perspective, anatomy and shapes to convey your idea better. No rules are made of steel, they should support your imagination, not restrict it

Anatomy

Break down objects into simple shapes to arrange them in space.

Check references! plasticity comes first, then structure (muscles are important, but proportions and line of movement come first).

Take a photo of yourself, you will be able to understand how to perform your pose naturally. Color/light.

Light is part of the composition, put it in a way that highlights the important things. Air perspective

General rules of composition. From the general to the particular, first prepare the general scene, correctly place contrasts and accents, make everything important in contrast, and take the unimportant into an aerial perspective. (aerial perspective, or atmospheric perspective, refers to the technique of creating an illusion of depth by depicting distant objects as paler, less detailed, and usually bluer than near objects.)

When all the points are ready we can start working out the details.

When all the details are finished again it's back to the overall picture, looking at it from a distance. Check if the accents you wanted to draw attention to are working. They should have the highest contrast. Check if the contrast is not created by objects on the edges, where you don't want the viewer to pay attention. For example, if you are painting a portrait then the focus should be on the face and not on the details of the clothes or details in the background. (You can always convert the image to black and white and check the contrast)

Save the stages of your work to check against the initial idea and see what things have changed for better or worse!

[justpickupthatpen]

hello!! i wanted to ask, do you have any tips on how 2 draw noses?? i really love the way you draw them and faces in general they always look so shaped!!!

Noses are very shapey in general! Once you have the basic components of the nose you can kinda just fuck around with them and go crazy with the proportions

It may not be anatomically accurate but that's how I construct them haha

[justpickupthatpen]

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get it