#but getting loose and drawing in styles I typically don't like was neat!

[sylvrndoodles]

vesper in a bunch of different styles ( ˙꒳​˙ )

[theoutcastedartist]

Oh yeah! I used to finish my sketchbooks in like around 2-3 months (nowadays I've switched to doing more digital so they don't get filled as quickly anymore lol)

Everytime I got new sketchbooks, I always skip the first 2 pages and draw absolute chicken scratch (typically done in pen) on the 3rd page

It also helped that most of my doodles, notes, and sketches in them were done in more permanent mediums like pen or marker (sometimes cheap acrylic paint) bc you can't really "erase" it and you just kinda have to accept it will be there.

The more often you mess up on a drawing or a sketch, the more comfortable you also become with making mistakes in your sketchbook, more comfortable with going out of your comfort zone with different mediums, with learning new techniques, and the more comfortable/and more eager you are with filling the book up.

I literally have a couple pages in my recent sketchbook that is just scrawled out notes to myself about ideas and whatnot. Other pages are full of mindless doodles, with pen, color pencil, charcoal, etc.

Some pages of my sketchbook are also full of sticky notes and tabs, where I sometimes draw boards for animatic ideas.

You can glue stuff to your sketchbook

I have pages where I just glued cutouts from printer paper or sticky note sketches (on the super rare occasions: poster material or scraped/torn watercolor paper) that I liked or I think I could resist as an idea later on in my sketchbook.

I've revised old doodles with watercolors, acrylic, and gouache, painting on top of them

Some corners of my sketchbook are just filled with random shapes and swirls and eyes or characters. My sketchbooks are VERY far from looking anywhere near perfect (I also have whole pages that are just one solid color of paint, because I was mixing colors for canvas/wooden pieces and just accidentally had a bunch left over. Sometimes I would go back and either doodle or write over them)

You have to be okay with being messy and excepting that not every drawing will be your best, rather than let yourself down and try to make each page perfect in order to have a perfect looking sketchbook, when really that isn't realistic or honestly that fun.

All of my sketchbooks, including ones specific for art classes, were my personal artistic space, where I can "fuck around and find out" with different mediums, different styles and techniques; what works for me and what doesn't.

What's so fun about trying to ALWAYS look neat and perfect anyhow? Yeah it might look really pretty if every page is filled with absolute masterpieces, but it seems more stressful than anything (personally speaking)

I say to embrace chaos and the inherent messiness that is art, let loose and go wild ✨️

how i managed to finally finish a sketchbook

1. i didn’t

I’m joking. Don’t worry. A terrible mix of anxiety, procastination, perfectionism (especially towards things i care about) has always made it LITERALLY impossible to finish a sketchbook. And you know everyone says “practice practice practice” and it’s 100% true but it’s difficult and frustrating when you just can’t. finish. a sketchbook.

Now to the terrible -trust me- terrible steps of how i achieved such thing (without using daily challenges, which can be counter productive if you skip even a day, for me) :

you know those like.. pretty pretty stationery sketchbooks that feel like sO INSPIRING AND PRETTY AND SLJSKSK y'know? Avoid them. Completly. In the end, for me, they put already an expectation on how good the inside should have been. i picked an old school notebook with a dumb cover and literal squared paper.

Skip the first page. Or like, ruin it completly. i know I KNOW it’s difficult and bad and it feels like sO WRONG but do it DO IT

Actually, when you don’t know how to finish a page or how to do a page so that it is ‘as pretty’ as the previous one, skip it. You can ALWAYS come back to it.

Use any media you want you have to reach the point of not cARING. now y'all will kill me but i use actual watercolors (the cheapest ones of course) on that notebook. It looks terrible til it dries and again feels so so wrong. BUT AT LEAST i made a watercolor drawing, where usually i would have just half done it because i felt like i was ruining a pretty page or a pretty sketchbook

Do not be afraid of errors. Cut some paper (or anything really) and just stick it on the thing you don’t like. drawing it again can’t do you bad (if you’re in the mood)

MIX MEDIA

Obsessed with something lately? DRAW/WRITE IT! doing a research for some art/writing thing? PUT THAT IN THE NOTEBOOK TOO! just seeing a lot of completed pages will make u feel a little more motivated

at the same time, do not be afraid of putting it aside for long. don’t be the me that used to say “oh i haven’t drawn in this for so long….. now my drawings will be so different….. it’ll look so bad in one place….” no. YOU GOTTA draw in that

Same goes for the medium you’re using. “oh i have done a lot of pencils… i can’t possibly put in there a markers drawing….” YOU CAN. DO IT

Thank you for coming to my ted talk i’m done now

gO DRAW

Disclaimer : this is for getting you into the habit of having a sketchbook/scrapbook, of course squared paper and copy paper are not the best for art or the mediums I use. but that’s exactly the point!

[caffinatedartist]

Alright, so as it says the best was to start out is to draw the "line of action". I drew a few different examples of lines of action going through different sketches (the bright blue line). This line represents the way the figure will move, and usually starting at the head and following the most prominent foot. However sometimes it will follow one hand to the other hand, or one hand to one foot, depending on the pose.

Let's do a simple pose, though, just for the purposes of teaching.

This step does not have to be perfect. Think if it as a guildline for the rest of the drawing. Use the line of action to determine how you want the figure to pose.

Keep it loose! It doesn't need to be neat and tidy. Also, remind that a figure like sans is three dimensional, so add guildlines to help you remember to keep him that way.

Another thing to keep in mind at this step is the height. You have probably heard that humans are 8 heads tall. And this is where I call malarkey on that. In a perfectly proportioned world, every human would be 8 heads tall. However, that would make us all look like Greek gods and superman. Women typically range about six to six and a half heads tall while men range six and a half to 7 heads tall. (Sans is both short and squat so he is 6 heads tall in my mind.)

This is where we deviate from a traditional figure. Sans is made of bones and doesn't have a waist to draw, so while normally this is where you'd add the stomach and any chub to the figure, Sans is just bone.

This also doesn't have to be perfect! This is a guildline for the final drawing, so don't stress yourself out.

For the next bit, I switched my pen up in Krita, before I was using a regular "Ink pen" to make everything more obvious and easier to see, now I used the pencil tool, because it's easier to get the details and thin lines I want.

Some thing I've noticed looking at beginners art (and at my old art) is that clothes are a pain in the butt to get right. I still struggle. Often times I see clothes that look more plastered on to bodies instead of the figure wearing them. The best way to avoid this is to use the 3D guide you drew and make sure the clothes follow the contours of the body. Sans doesn't have a stomach, so his shirt is more likely to have a deep wrinkle between his ribs and pelvis.

A good way to get good at drawing clothes is to use lots of references. Like pictures from fashion magazines or just fashion blogs where people take pictures if their clothes. That way you can see the way the clothes work on the human form. (I don't recommend using drawn references, because it's better observe from real life)

Another important part of this step is facial features and expressions. Part of why I like drawing Sans is because his expressions are sometimes hard to come up with. It's a good idea to match expressions with the way you poses the figure. I drew him pretty relaxed, so I gave him a relaxed expression. Another expression I could have used was sheepish, having him look off to the sad. Or maybe even sad, with less of a smile, looking a bit more down. It's good to experiment and see what you like as well.

I'm next just going to talk about basic coloring (because this isn't about coloring) so if you want a full coloring tutorial, let me know.

Sans has a very basic color scheme, and therefore I have fun playing around with styles of his clothes more. However, a good tip to remember is coloring, try and desaturated you colors, meaning that instead of choosing the brightest blue or green, slide that color slider over and pick a one mixed with grey. A tint or shade of that color. It looks much better on the eye.

For shading, you're going to want to place your light source some where. Whether it be over heard, off to the side, or down below, just know that the side you put the light source on is where the light is and on the other side is where the shadow is. For beginners I recommend having a physical remind of the light source (like my light bulb drawing) to remind you of where you want to shade, but as you get better, you won't need to anymore.

As a personal choice, I don't use black as a shadow color. I use mostly blue or purple. I recommend trying it to see if you like it, because to me it looks more realistic.

Please remember that is this is just how I draw, and it's not how everyone has to do it! And I encourage all artists to find their own way of doing things, but sometimes you need a little guidance. So I hope this helps.

If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, let me know. Also, let me know if you want to see another tutorial like this, and if so, of what?