#been practicing faces. TLDR; proportion hard

[sillovn]

Waterfowl Portrait

sorry, re-upload after fixing some detail

[wollfling]

Hello! I have an art question, if you don't mind talking about art stuff! I'm trying to get better at drawing, but having a really hard time with figuring out how to draw people. I feel like I've made progress with things like animals, objects, etc but I just can't get my drawings of people to improve! You draw people (and everything else tbh!!) so beautifully, do you mind if I ask how you learned to draw them? Or if you have any advice? Thank you for posting your art here, you're such a big inspiration and I love seeing your posts when they come across my feed! 💗

I love talking about art stuff!!! ♡ firstly, thank you aww ;×;) !! I'm so flattered, its really so sweet of you to say that!!

(( oh my god once again I've written so much I am so sorry! I put a tldr at the end, I couldn't quite go into much detail about specifics because im not quite sure what specifically you would like to improve, but I did try to cover some bases but please don't be afraid to message me with any more info or questions!!! ))

I'm a bit of the opposite where I can only draw people and struggle making progress with everything else lol, I admire you a little bit!! 🤭

People can be hard to capture, because we naturally (subconsciously?) examine them trying to determine things like emotion and im not quite sure how to put it but... health? For most people, its easy to see if someone is tired or sick at a glance. This comes into play when drawing people because we are wired to immediately analyze everything about them and pick up things that are wrong (think of uncanny valley type stuff!)

I often think about something bob Ross said, I dont have the time to hunt it down but what he said was basically along the lines of; he prefers painting scenery, because when we see a scenic painting its easier to think "this looks like somewhere ive been!" And its more believable. Meanwhile, its hard to capture the exact likeness of someone. If its a little off, we feel it looks "bad". I may have changed or added some points in there, but I think that was the general idea? 🤔 thats not to say scenic paint is easy in any way, its just about how we view it.

My point in this is, the key to drawing people is to create a believable figure. And how to achieve this depends on the style you draw them in ! I can only offer advice for stylized drawings (i struggle to draw hyper realistic people, and I also just don't enjoy it? Lol) but im assuming that since you like my art you're okay with that? ^^

In regards to how I learned to draw, well.. ive been doing it since I can remember ^^; I grew up watching anime which definitely altered my style and interests, and when i was in high-school I transitioned from an "anime adjacent " style, to a generalized "stylized" look, and now I strictly use photo reference which has helped make my style less cartoony but it still shares cartoon elements I feel? For a long time I drew without using references at all which im sure also contributed to how I draw things now. I havent had a chance to take art classes, so I've learned mostly by self study. Practicing drawing from reference, looking up tips and tricks youtube videos, watching other artists work and looking closely at their pieces to try and see how they achieve certain looks. Eventually it all adds up! How i draw people is a reflection of like 20 years of this!!

My biggest regret is not taking art "seriously" and going nearly all of those 20 not properly studying. This is my biggest piece of advice :^( unfortunately, im still learning how to do this myself, I think "studying" is a learned skill and hard to do without instruction. But if you can draw animals and objects I think you probably know a little bit on how to. So then looking a bit deeper into "improving", what about your drawings do you feel are lacking?

Circling back to my earlier paragraphs, how you want to improve depends on what sort of style you are going for and the way you want to portray or capture people. Portraits rely on technical skill i think. I'm not sure i could offer valuable advice here..

Comics, manga, and graphic novels sole intention is to tell a story through drawings. They don't give metaphors (usually!! Sometimes they do but not in the context im trying to explain) and/or tell us how characters are feeling, they show us! This is why the art styles of them often have exaggerated features, and simplified features. The eyes tend to have more detail because we read eyes for emotion, mouths are exaggerated because they are key to reading emotion (most importantly so I think! Watch: 🙂☹ the only difference is the mouth, but we can tell they feel totally different emotions.) Noses in comparison are usually more simplified as they, out of all features of the human face, are the least expressive.

If you want to improve your drawings of people so that they are more expressive and relatable, I would try to analyze how your face changes with emotion and perhaps practice with one of those emotion chart meme templates!

Illustration work is similar, but I feel the face doesn't actually matter as much. If you look at full bodied illustrations of people and zoom in on the face, you'll find that they are sometimes quite simplified! When viewing a full bodied person we generally take in the body's language first. It would take me a long time for me to explain in detail on this post (though I would love to talk about body language in illustration please let me know of you would like me to... also the body language of two figures.. but ill spare you for now ♡) I would recommend gesture drawing and timed studies. I improved drawing so much when I started doing this (I use the site quickposes a lot, set a high timer and draw!!) If drawing the face is hard for you and you can't seem to get anywhere, try focusing on the body for a little bit! Especially how bodies look when bending and twisting.. which might sound random, but I think it helps get a better understanding on how proportions can change with pose.

I wrote so much and I really didn't mean to. Its always hard to answer questions like this without much information like what your goal is and what look you want to achieve. I hope I didnt scare you away with my horrible novel of an answer but if you'd like to give more detail or ask any more questions please I welcome you to!! I love talking about art and I love love love hearing about other peoples art ;^; ♡

Tldr; when trying to improve drawing people it may not be as simple as working on technical skill, its important to keep in mind purpose, emotion, body language, and art style

[redendron]

PREFACE

Before we get into who is responsible for all the waste problems we are facing, Voyage has something to ask the reader.

Question 1: Where has this picture been taken?

Question 2: Where has this picture been taken?

Answer: If you were thinking somewhere in the Himalayas, you are part of the 90% people (based on mountain urban demographic opinion survey) who got it wrong.

The pictures are stock footages of mountains in Europe and New Zealand respectively.

Malana, Himachal Pradesh, April 2017.

Let us observe and reflect how tourists/ travelers, in a moment of indifference, litter and mar the beauty of our pristine mountains. This waste, mostly plastic, will hang around mountains for hundreds of years.

If our Sikkimese readers feel that this is not the case in their geography, the following images could perhaps shed light on their local scenario.

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On route to North Sikkim

You go to Namnang View Point – what do you see? Do remember, Namnang is often visited by tourists but mostly frequented by local youth.

Who is responsible for this litter? 

The Industry or The Government or The Citizens?

Do the readers think it is easy to clear this up?

Why do people who go abroad say it is much better, much cleaner? It is because either people are either mindful or the government is strict. In any scenario, the citizens don’t consider the environment as their personal dustbin.

As Indians, we are so accustomed to litter and filth, that it feels it is the way society functions. WASTE is INVISIBLE.

After traveling or just by becoming mindfully conscious, There comes a time in some of our lives ( mostly in people who love nature) – where waste suddenly becomes visible. Let us define it as something called “The Intervention Point“.

We realize that humans elsewhere have better standards of living, we realize that our waste problem is humongous, we realize that it has taken massive proportions and eventually shrug our shoulders, saying it’s not my problem to FIX!

Is there a Solution?

Effective Waste Management/ Zero Waste / Sanitation / Cleanliness may seem overwhelming, but has a very straightforward solution to it. As simple it may seem, it is equally hard as it requires a very difficult thing to do – BRINGING CHANGE FROM WITHIN.

We at Voyage have a theory. It can be called the “Road to Zero Waste” or “Journey to Zero Waste” or simply “Zero Waste Voyage” – to the utopian dream of a perfect world.

COMMUNITY LEVEL  :

It starts with us molding a basic behavior which most have – forgetting about something after it leaves our ZONE OF CONTROL.

What do we do after we consume something in the car? What do we do when we go for a trip ? What do we do after having a smoke? A lot of the waste reaches the ground, creating a new garbage spot unless swept by somebody.

A question posed to readers – What is the most littered item on Earth?

It is cigarette butts – which is made of cellulose acetate (plastic). The photos shown above are just the rest of the junk. Think about that!

Step 1 = Taking responsibility of your discards and prevent littering.

Step 2 and 3 involve no burning ( which would be discussed in a later post) and proper disposal (no burying, no dumping in Jhoras/drains); all culminating into better waste collection and cleanliness and positive “Climate Action“.

Step 4 – Segregate at Source: Waste is a resource and needs to be driven by the circular economy principle. The next phase in any person’s journey moves to assist in the processing of the waste. This requires every individual to take ownership of their waste and SEGREGATE AT SOURCE.

Is it that difficult? Households in Austria have 4 bins in each house. Japan has 9 to even 44 depending based on wards. Can’t we manage 3? Or is this the Govt’s job?

This is what a community can do to stop the problem – all driven and possible only by individual behavior molding.

Timely Government and Industrial Interventions can ensure that the waste is recovered as a resource. This leads to stopping of roughly 90% of waste reaching a landfill and dramatically reducing the problem.

But is this enough?

The goal of Zero Waste is for no trash to be sent to landfills!

The definition adopted by the Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA)  is

“Zero Waste means designing and managing products and processes to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them”.

All achievable by participating at a Community Level!

Wait, there is more! And has to do with a Spiritual Awakening!

ZWIA also states that “Zero Waste is a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient and visionary, to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use”.

What does this mean? The first few milestones have to do with Waste Management and Sanitation. But to avoid the burden on Mother Earth, to conserve our resources, to make our planet fit for living for our future generations, a further journey must be undertaken.

This is a SPIRITUAL JOURNEY, where one has become so mindful of their bond with nature, that they automatically try to minimize their footprint. This brings about a change of lesser material desires. How?

Step 1 – Reuse – Where one carries a steel bottle everywhere, instead of purchasing a new Plastic water bottle. Where one carries a cloth bag always for grocery shopping instead of taken a PP (Poly Propylene) or plastic bag from their local market. So forth and so on.

Step 2 – Reduce – Where one starts losing touch with their desires of eating packaged foods, drinks and actively looks for ways of reducing any kind of plastic or other materials in their lives.

Step 3 – Voluntary Simplicity – Where the ladies adopt menstrual cups, gents forget about condoms, leather (stays for 40 years in a landfill until decomposition and Greenhouse Gas Emissions) becomes a luxury and a big no-no and so many other examples.

This seems extremely daunting – such a spiritual journey is only embarked upon when one becomes very aware of their own footprint and generates compassion for the environment drowning in the punishment of Mankind’s material desires.

Some take up this lifestyle. These are the Zero Waste Enthusiasts, who by bringing subtle changes in their lifestyles, make a considerable impact in preserving nature.

What about the rest who find this a hassle or too daunting a task?

Just by participating at the community level leads to a high impact in decreasing their footprint. And for them, Zero Waste focuses on “Responsible Production and Consumption” based restructured systems to reduce waste.

In simple terms, if a material doesn’t follow a circular economy or sustainable natural life cycle, they are redesigned to make it flow back into the economy. If found impossible, these items need to be phased out – like single-use disposable plastics.

When all materials are redesigned or when every human adopts the personal journey can we hope to see the Utopian Dream of a Sustainably Developed Planet.

TLDR? Board the Voyage, follow the milestones and embark on your own personal Zero Waste Journey!

Why?

BECAUSE OUR MOUNTAINS DESERVE BETTER!!

Signing off,

Captain

*Voyage supports SDGs

                Our Mountains are turning into Dustbins. Who is responsible – The Industry, The Government or The Citizens? PREFACE Before we get into who is responsible for all the waste problems we are facing, Voyage has something to ask the reader.