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Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red/Blue Rescue Team - All Team Bases

[muirean]

SO YOU WANNA DRAW CATS AND DOGS BUT THOSE PESKY SNOOTS GET IN THE WAY

Here’s a hopefully helpful tutorial on how to draw them from memory but it also helps to understand and break down how to see their structure when you use reference!

Remember, it’s always best to learn the anatomy of an animal first before trying to stylize it. This way you know the rules and can choose which ones to break!

Please do not repost this tutorial or any images from it. Permission will not be granted. You may post a link to this post instead to help spread it from the original source.

[muirean]

Stretches Exercise 

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(via tuqcM0K.jpg (691×960))

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how to go from this

to full drawing 

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Webcomic tips

In the conclusion for now, some things I’d really recommend doing if you’re seriously considering making a webcomic (or really a comic in general). Some of these don’t really apply to strips or gag-a-day type of comics, but I’m not talking about those here.

1. Write down ideas\sketch stuff, LEGIBLY. “I’m gonna remember it later” NEVER works. And if you scribble it somewhere on a piece of paper, you’d better scan it or retype in one doc later, because tiny notes always get lost among other doodles in my skethbooks.

(i know it’s hard to keep everything clean and organized, but this mess is just not productive)

If your project is a collaboration, save your conversations. If you’re working alone, make a blog for your ramblings. You have no clue what tears of relief I cry when I open that blog and rememeber I don’t have to painstakingly look through my heaps of sketchbooks and folders for a tiny idea I’m not even sure I wrote down a few months ago.

2. Inspiration folders, or even better, inspo blog with tags also help with collecting and remembering ideas. Color schemes, landscapes, style inspirations, atmospheric stuff, maybe some photo references, all those neat things.

3. Basic tier: character design sheets. Top tier: common poses, expressions. God tier: outfits they wear throughout the comic. Holy cow tier: turnaround sheets for all those outfits.

(I’d die trying to find good pages for references without these)

4. If you haven’t finished detailing the plot, don’t even think about moving on to drawing the comic. You’re gonna regret it when you come up with a really cool plot element that can’t be incorporated anymore because you’ve already drawn all the parts you could’ve tweaked.

5. Don’t just define the plot, make a script. Writing down the lines and the brief description of the actions serves me fine:

(notice that I approximately divided the pages & the text that’d go to each panel on a page)

6. Hard mode: make thumbnails for all the pages, if possible. At least whenever a new chapter starts. 

7. If your story involves some convoluted chronology shenanigans, you’d better write down the events of your timeline in the chronological order.

8. Backgrounds. You can’t avoid them, bro. Like half of the comics are backgrounds, especially if your story involves a lot of adventuring and looking around. I know it hurts, but you’ll have to become friends with them. Read some tutorials, practice on photos, go out and sketch some streets, use 3d programs (like Google Sketch) to understand the perspective, use sites like houseplans to visualize your buildings better, I don’t know. Just be prepared for their imminent evil.  

9. If you’re drawing digitally, pick a brush size for the lines and stick with it. You don’t want your lines and detail levels to look all wonky and inconsistent in different panels. And I don’t mean the cool stylistic varying lines, I mean this:

Also, things on the background should have thinner and/or lighter lines to avoid distraction. Usually less details too, unless you’re making a busy background with a simple foreground to help it pop out. Or wanna draw the attention to an object on the bg.

10. Readable fonts. Even if you chose to ignore people with poor sight or dyslexia, the majority of your readers aren’t gonna be excited about struggling to decypher this:

Also, as much as I love my black speech bubbles, colorful text on black still kinda hurts the eyes. I wouldn’t recommend doing that for all the characters. Black speech bubbles are usually used for creepy, inhuman voices. And yes, having a colorful outline in this case helps.

11. Probably newsflash, but did you know that panels have their place, order and functions? They do! My favourite thing ever is how I used panels when I was like 12:

(comics ain’t rocket science, but this one is)

The composition of the panels and word balloons always serve for a better reading experience. They guide your eyes over the page, so that you never feel lost or confused. The images in the comic equal frames in a movie, so it’s pretty damn important in what order you look at things and how quickly you can understand what’s going on!

(Eric Shanower & Scottie Young’s Wizard of Oz)

12. One update a week is fine for testing waters. Don’t overestimate yourself, especially if you have a pretty busy life outside it. A stable comic that updates slowly, but regularly is better than an unpredictable erratic one. You can always pick up the pace later, if you feel confident enough.

13. Try to always have a buffer - a couple of pages in reserve. If you’re making the pages much faster than you’re updating, this shouldn’t be a problem. But if those paces are equally the same, it’s goddamn HARD. But on the other hand, if something happens and you skip an update, those come in handy.

If you’re looking at this list and thinking “wow that’s a LOT of work”, you’re totally right. And it’s okay to be intimidated at first! But that’s why it’s important to start with something small. Once you get the formula down, these things will be natural to you.

[muirean]

Hero: Your average pineapple, peeled and cut makes about 4.5 cups or 36 ounces of pineapple chunks. Cans of pineapple come in a variety of sizes the most common being 20oz and 46oz. Meaning a single pineapple generally won’t fill up a single can perfectly, which also means every time you eat pineapple from a can somewhere someone else has the can that has the rest of that same pineapple. Meaning you can share a single fruit with a stranger from hundreds of miles away and i think that’s beautiful.

Partner: How much sleep are you getting?

Hero: Not enough.

[muirean]

Dusk in Wyoming from a cross country drive last Fall

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Devil’s Bridge Trail

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[muirean]

PLEASE.

this is the money dog, repost in the next 24 hours and money will come your way!!

[muirean]

Weeks 1 and 2: Faces

Here are some tutorials to help you get started on weeks 1 and 2 of the 50 Weeks of Art Improvement challenge!

Week 1 is a bit short and ends on Saturday, January 16th at midnight, and then we’ll start week 2. Week 2 will end on Saturday, January 23rd at midnight, and then I will have week 3′s tutorial list up. Come figure out how to art with me! :D

The Whole face

Facial Proportions (Loomis, Andrew)

Draw Profiles

Face Proportions: Profile View

Draw face shape

Drawing your favorite character

How to draw - Proportions of the Adult Female Head (video)

How to draw - Proportions of the Adult Male Head (video)

Common Issues with Drawing Faces (video)

Drawing a Head in Perspective (video)

Noses

Nose Tutorial

How to Draw a Nose

Noses

Nose Tutorial

Eyes

Eye Tutorial

How to Draw Eyes

Advice on Eyes

Lips

Lip Tutorial

HEAD and MOUTH stuff

Mouth reference

Notes on lips

Ears

Ear Tutorial

How to Draw Ears

How to Draw the Ear from Any Angle

Changing up facial features

How to Avoid Same Facing

Face tutorial

References for features

Head at angles

The all-important cross on the ball (Loomis, Andrew)

The cross and the middle line determine the pose (Loomis, Andrew)

Action of the Head on the neck (Loomis, Andrew)

head at all the angles (Can’t find source)

Angles of the head

HEAD and EYES angles

The head at various angles (Can’t find source)

How to Draw the Head and Face from an Angle (video)

I try to credit where possible, but some of these have been reposted so many times that I can’t find the original artist. If you know the artist, please let me know!

[muirean]

Week 3: Shading the face with light sources

Here are some tutorials and references for week 3 of the 50 Weeks of Art Improvement challenge! Week 3 ends on Jan 30th at midnight. Happy drawing :)

Shading

Shadow and Light references

Face Shading, basic planes

Lighting Guide

Portrait Lighting Cheat Sheet

Drawing Planes of the Head (video)

Understanding the Planes of the Face using Ellipses (video)

Your Face Changes in Different Lighting (video)

Lighting Angle Ref 1| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Skin tones

Painting skin tones

Skin: A tutorial | part 2

Skin tutorial

Another skin tutorial

Skin tones reference blog

Skin coloring tutorial (anime style coloring tutorial for Sai)

The grain tutorial (adding texture to skin for Photoshop)

[muirean]

Week 4: Expressions

Tutorials

Week 4 of the 50 Weeks of Art Improvement challenge let’s goooo!

Lackadaisy Notes on Expressions

Facial Expressions Sheet

Mastering Facial Expressions

Emotions and Facial Expressions

How to Draw Dynamic Expressions (video)

Using Photos to Draw Expressions (video)

More things to get you Drawing

Pixelovely Gesture Drawing for Expressions

Quick poses (Records total time you’ve drawn)

25 Essential Expressions Challenge

Some Disney character design sheets

Flynn Rider | 2 | 3

Rapunzel | 2

Mother Gothel

Elsa | 2 | 3

Anna | 2 | 3

Kristoff | 2

Hans | 2

Olaf

Hiro Hamada | 2 | 3

Fred

Wasabi | 2 | 3

Honey Lemon

GoGo | 2

Callaghan

Hercules

Hades | 2

Meg

[muirean]

Week 5 - Proportions

A bit late, but here’s week 5 tutorials for the 50 Weeks of Art Improvement challenge

Male proportions

Normal / idealistic / fashion / heroic

Ideal proportion - male

How to - beer belly/chub

Shape variations

Male body types

Ideal proportions at various ages

Female proportions

Ideal proportion - female

Varying your body types

Female body types

Proportions in various positions

Understanding Proportions

—

Shapes and Design | part 2

Giving your characters unique bodies

I’m also going to just leave you with this Pinterest board

[muirean]

Week 6 - Torsos

Whoops, so it seems like I needed a 2 week break instead of just one, but here’s to hoping that I’m back on schedule for 50 weeks of arting now! (You can find all the previous weeks’ tutorial lists here)

Male body type study

How to: Male torso anatomy

Core Construction Tutorial

Understanding Anatomy

Thinking in 3D

Female Curves Study

Female Waist Tutorial

How to Draw Boobies

Analytical Figure Drawing

Landmarks and Volume: Torso

Female Torso Rotation

Videos

Simplify Motion of the Torso - The Bean | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

How to Draw the Male Torso from the Front

How to Draw Breasts

How to Draw the Shoulder

How to Draw Pecs | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

How to Draw the Male Figure and Torso Muscles

How to Draw the Female Figure and Torso Muscles

[muirean]

Week 7 - Drawing the Back

Week 7 resource list for 50 weeks of arting :) (You can find all the previous weeks’ tutorial lists here) 

Back Muscles Diagram (Male)

Back Muscles Diagram (Female)

Watch Your Back!

Anatomy of the Back

Back tutorial

Motion of the Scapula

How the Shoulder Girdles Work

How to Draw the Ass

Male and Female Hips

Videos

How to Draw the Male Figure and Torso Muscles

Anatomy of the Upper Back

Drawing Muscles in General (Videos)

Drawing Anatomy: What you Need to Know

How to Design Muscles and Tendons

How to Shade a Drawing