#symmetrical ruler doodle

[flyingoneloveart]

Doodling with a symmetrical ruler.

(⁠•⁠ ⁠▽⁠ ⁠•⁠;⁠)

[pompurumi]

it's 3am and I'm too lazy to get my tablet out so enjoy a doodle of my wife i made on my phone

[maiji]

2 19 29

From the Weirdly Specific Artist Ask Game: https://maiji.tumblr.com/post/705739707798159360

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

Oh god yes. For me, facing left is definitely easiest. Facing right has gotten significantly easier over many years of forcing myself to do it, and sometimes when I flip the image to check I don't even need to make any changes! ...Facing forward is still really hard. Drawing symmetrically is excruciatingly difficult for me, and that’s probably why in my previous answer there is no fully facing-forward Hokushin.

Allow me to demonstrate. 

Here’s a quick base sketch for general positioning.

[image: loose doodle of three heads facing the left, forward, and to the right. They’re little more than ovals with necks, and a cross through where the faces would be for roughly positioning eyes and noses.]

Next, first pass drawings, quick portrait doodles of three not-so randomly picked characters. 

[image: quick digital ink brush drawings layered over the previous doodles. Hokushin from Yu Yu Hakusho facing the left; Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII facing forward; Raiden from Metal Gear Solid facing the right and gazing back over his shoulder/at the viewer.]

I’ve drawn Hokushin a bajillion times; I haven’t drawn Cloud Strife in probably at least a decade; and I believe this is my first time drawing Raiden. Not too bad, I think? Let’s flip to check them oh god what the heck aaaaahhhhrrrgggh

[image: previous image flipped. Hokushin looks OK overall; Cloud Strife's face/jawline seems unbalanced/shifted more in one direction and his shoulders also seem unbalanced; Raiden’s features, in particular the bridge of his nose, seem a bit off.]

I imagine everyone has different levels of sensitivity, and I think it can be different looking at your own art versus looking at someone else’s art. In this case, it’s super jarring to me. There's also an aspect of subjectivity and perspective/brain processing information to it, as with looking at something in the mirror - I've had situations where a drawing looked very off to the point of being not-straight, lopsided etc., but when I actually used a ruler to check it wasn't. Here I drew Cloud in the middle hoping that his asymmetrical hair would help with the face forward symmetrical challenge; clearly it did not. 

Fixing…

[image: previous image updated. No change to Hokushin; Cloud's jawline and shoulder, and Raiden’s nose/eye/hair/chin tweaked a bit and without the base positioning doodles.]

Retouched version flipped. That’s a little better, I guess!

[image: previous image flipped. Again, no change to Hokushin; Cloud’s face looks a little more balanced; Raiden’s features a bit more natural.]

These drawings are significantly more confident, with much more minimal fixing, than I would have been able to pull off years ago. And still lots to learn!

(By the way, guess what these three have in common? They’re all voiced by Horiuchi Kenyu! Hokushin and Raiden are fairly obvious; the Cloud connection may be a little obscure. Cloud was played by Horiuchi Kenyu in his first-ever-incarnation-with-a-voice, a cameo in the arcade version of the Ehrgeiz fighting game, as I talked about here years ago.)

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

Hmmm… maybe clouds! The nature kind, not the Strife kind, since nature is counting as inanimate. They’re fun and low pressure (haha) to draw, and they can fill up spaces so nicely too! Super versatile, and can help make things look cute, or moody, or epic. Everything can be extra cool with swirling ink clouds! Although thinking about it now, these probably aren’t technically nature clouds either, more like cloud-shaped motifs… so perhaps flowers are a more appropriate answer. But again, I think I love them for similar reasons - forgiving organic forms, feels low pressure to paint or draw, wonderful pattern and environment/mood potential in art.

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

I really wracked my brain on this one, which is partly why it took so long to respond to this ask. I was going to assume or interpret "doesn't inspire you artistically" as meaning "doesn't inspire you to create something in that same medium", because otherwise my answer would be "there is no such media" since inspiration and ideas come from everything and everywhere! But then I realized there's actually another question that seems to address that (#7). And “media” could also be a specific piece of media that is consumed.

And… I’m still really struggling to think of something I love, that I thoroughly enjoy experiencing/consuming, that doesn’t have some kind of influence on how I perceive or think about the world. That to me is all part and parcel of inspiration and thus artistic creation. I suppose that is reflective of my worldview though; I guess it’s what happens with an “everything is empty of self-existence!” perspective! I’ll update this if I do manage to think of anything…

Thank you so much for asking these! So much fun (and also hard!) to think about; good opportunities for self-reflection!

[avi-stella]

[conlin-arts]

A quick little doodle of good old Sardonyx I did while playing around with the symmetrical ruler!

[alulawings]

Have you seen Liam's newest drawing? It's on his top 10 essentials on gq. I know you've done a review on his stuff before, so I wanted to know your opinion on this

I’m delighted we got to enjoy a new installment in Liam’s drawing saga so soon! (Not gonna lie, hearing Liam talk about drawing speeds up my heart rate more  than it logically should 😂)

We got to see from his sketchbook a single pencil drawing of architecture detailing:

What first strikes me is how meticulous everything is: no stray marks, no jagged edges, a wealth of detail, a fade shading applied on the edges that is remarkably even. The overall composition is well-centered on the page. It’s definitely not a 5 minute doodle! The work of a transatlantic plane ride, perhaps. And Liam’s not a beginner either. He’s a patient perfectionist who plans his steps and doesn’t rush. (I mean, NO SMUDGED LINES! No marks of abuse of the eraser!) Here’s a breakdown:

Perspective. This kind of excellent quality can’t be achieved by casual freehand (also his sketchbook’s pages are too sturdy and opaque for tracing.)  Liam has lightly sketched guide lines first, and carefully erased (most of) the evidence afterwards like a pro. Look how evenly the tiles are spaced! You betcha the nerd used a ruler.

Shading. You can tell he shades slowly because the texture is fine and individual pencil streaks are not very distinct. He may have used a smudging technique to get a base “color” first and built layers of sketching on top of it. I like the rendering of the crisply highlighted pillars and the shadows beyond the doors! Mysterious and inviting.

Other details: The overall contrast of the drawing is not very high (given that he has a ton of pencils in his pouch that could have darker lead) - it may be his preference to shade lightly for easy fixing. He worried about losing shape definition from smudging so he likely redrew over the lines of the right arch to make them bolder. 

Conclusion:  Liam, your Virgo is showing! �� 

Although perhaps not “conventionally thrilling” for an observer, symmetric forms like architecture are incredibly relaxing to draw. To me, they’re less “for show to others” art, more “yoga for the mind” art. It’s great that Liam has a therapeutic hobby to balance out his performances and traveling. 

Architecture drawings may not seem very personalized - I’m curious how often he draws nature landscapes or portraits! It’s true we have seen his quick marker portrait of an interviewer and a fan (though I think he was a bit out of his element with markers), what would a portrait done at his own pace, with his preferred tool of pencils, look like? 

Finally, I’d like to conclude this with this thought: the book he showed us was brand new, nearly all blank - so he must have filled up an old sketchbook. Imagine what it would be like if he walked us through the favorites of his old filled book! 

[isvoc]

Some Monster Hunter afternoon doodles. Still playing with symmetrical ruler in CSP B) As always - thanks for hanging out in stream!