#I have the least consistent art style.. Like fr its bad

[dakotacoleweekly]

welcome to the blog!

I'm a taaad obsessed with Dakota and I love drawing him, but since there's already a daily 'kota blog and I don't think I could stomach drawing EVERY day, you get Dakota weekly!

Hopefully ill stick to some sort of schedule but if anything ill be posting multiple things a week :]

Note: sorry for not touching this blog in abit! Ive been totally swamped irl with moving and school and on top of it all my old drawing tablet finally kicked the bucket a month or so ago. I got a new one for christmas but am still re-teaching myself the basics, since i stopped drawing for atleast a month. Buut im way happier with my style, alteast the last couple drawings ive done. I do plan on coming back and im sorry to the few people who followed me for not sticking with it... oh and finally, ive privated a few posts just because looking at them makes me die inside and i dont want to inflict that on the wonderful people of tumblr! Cant wait to be posting again, see you soon!

[stealingpotatoes]

hi! i have a question/compliment about how you do characters if thats ok. you are able to draw thing like their hair and clothes very consistently in your comics, how do you do it? (also its amazing btw) is there a specific thing you do to make them look very similar or is it just practice? also i love your silly comics, they always make me smile!

here is a horse wearing a hat for your time

GASP THAT HORSE IS FULCRUM!! SIC 'EM BOYS!!

ok bein fr oo thats a very good question!!! the very simple answer is yeah, it is just practice lol -- but that's not a helpful tip so I'll elaborate!

Drawing a character consistently is down to 2 main things, imo. the first one is the most obvious: identifying the key features and shapes of the character. think big, don't get bogged down in getting all the tiny bits perfect -- most people won't notice if the little details change lol.

+ if it's a character I draw a lot, I'm usually drawing them from memory, not reference! and I think that rlly helps w making a character (at least seemingly) consistent, bc I will only be drawing the most memorable aspects of their design -- which is what YOU identify them as easiest!

BUT I will also reference my own art sometimes!! actually knowing how you drew them last time definitely helps lol!! REFERENCE YOURSELF!!!!

good exercises to improve character consistency: drawing in their simplest form w no detail (/drawing them timed), drawing them from memory and (obviously) just drawing them a lot!

the second thing is basically a more general version of the first -- it's having a consistent Way of drawing things. i don't mean "your art style needs to never change!!" cause consistent artstyles are bs. you just need a consistent perception/ way of looking at things and a bit of muscle memory!

like here's a character in 3 different "styles" but you can still easily tell it's the same character (and probably the same artist lol) bc the way my brain thinks abt each aspect of the character doesn't change! the rendering changes but the shapes (ie the hair, the jawline, the lines of the facial hair) remain the same bc thats Just How I Draw lol! makes him look consistent

the bad news is this is something you just achieve with practice. BUT doing those above exercises should speed things up for stylisation too!! but yeah its all abt identifying key features and having a consistent way of looking at things!