#ahh want to draw more stuff that isnt just doodles but i have to focus on projects for now...

[satsuha]

rip jove justice you would've loved apollo's loud ass voice

[pinkplantmakesstuff]

Do you have any tips for sketching / lineart? (also for drawing characters any way that isnt 3/4 view neutral expression? It's the bane of my existence habit wise and you're amazing at it!)

Ahh ty! Sorry this took a few days, I ended up taking some screenshots because I’m not great at explaining things!

Lining Stuff and sketching

So generally I use Paint Tool Sai, and have one brush I do almost EVERYTHING with! (Well technically 2 - the sketching one is just the same but thicker) I think its a brush I tweaked a LONG time ago so I can’t remember where it came from. It’s fairly smudgy so I keep my lines separate from the colours if I want them to be sharp and clean.

For my proper drawings I tend to keep the brush small and zoom in to about, 125-150%, and depending on my mood I turn my stabilizer up! 

I think the most important thing for me however, is to have confidence in my lines when drawing! I’d rather the line is slightly incorrect after one long stroke and move on, then spend ages drawing one little bit repeatedly, or using lots of little lines and just getting angry at myself. You can always erase bits when your finished and go back! I use this tip when drawing on any software, and find I do much better lines when I just go for it! And of course practice, the more you do lines the more confident you’ll be trusting in your hand.

For sketching I use a nice chunky brish and focus more on the mood/expression, I often forget to add things (Like Pépin’s flowers in the example) but that’s all stuff I can add in lining. To me sketching is just to get the vibe down, and I like nice chunky lines and just going for it!

Non-3/4 Angles

Ahhh I’m glad you like my attempts at angling and expressions too! I still fall into the trap of a 3/4 a lot, but it’s good practice to vary it up. I 100% recommend playing with 3d pose software if you can!

(These aren’t very extreme examples I’m afraid (And one of them again is a 3/4 sliiightly top down looks XD, I wanted something easy to do.)

When using 3d software I can pose it and change the angle to what I want, then I just sketch roughly over that, changing it to what the character is, and then remove the 3d model entirely and refine it, sometimes redoing the sketch again. I more often then not reference photos and stock poses (Such as Senshi Stock!).  Using photos is super important, and I also take my own goofy photos to use as reference too!

Referencing is VERY important, I’ve been drawing since I could hold a pencil and oh my gosh my doodles and drawings when I don’t take the time to at least glance at a photo do they look a bit wiggly!

More often then not I don’t use 3d models and just stick to referencing photos, but it’s a super easy and useful way of getting used to figuring out angles and poses, and I still set up scenes if I’m really struggling! There is nothing wrong with tracing over a 3d scene you’ve, you’ll be completely changing it anyway as you work on it more.

It’s ALSO super handy to make sure your characters are distinct. Both Pépin and Alec were drawn over that default head just as an example, but I tried to still make them different from each other.

Expression wise I’d say just play with them! I actually think my expressions could use more work, as I don’t tend to push them very far and tend to go for more subtle looks, but it is something I enjoy doing! Honestly a mirror is SUPER useful, and pulling faces and feeling how your own face moves is a great tool!

I think overall confidence is very important! I draw for myself rather then anyone else, and whenever I stop enjoying working on a picture I move on! Alongside practising and referencing, trusting myself and having a nice time is how I mostly draw! 

I hope any of that was useful, I’m a very rambly person 😅 I still have a long way to go in my own art too, and still trying to find what I enjoy doing art wise after three years of animation and realising that that wasn’t for me!