Hey halp with digital art MLP

[StarStrike 0]

Alright I'm new to art but my hand drawing is terrible, but my hands are desgined for PC lol...just wanted to know if anyone have tips or tutorials on mlp digital art, if you do post em please I'd reall appreciate it, also someone else drew my avatar, clearing that out heh.

Oh I use Inkscape btw, also does vectoring even help your drawing?

[Nothing&NoOne 695]

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world she didn't exist.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Nothing&NoOne

[StarStrike 0]

Ok, does vectoring ponies help though?

[ErBoi 501]

Vectoring won't make your drawings good if that's what you're asking.  Vectoring is just one way of cleaning and colouring your work; and an ideal one because it has virtually limitless resolution.

 

The bad news is there is no 'Make it Look Good' approach to drawing other than drawing well to begin with; if your hand-drawing isn't good, then your drawings aren't going to be good no matter how you go about pretty-ing them up.  The good news is drawing well is a skill, and skills can be learned.  I use Inkscape as well, but it's not a good program to start a drawing with, just to clean drawings with.

 

Look into Life Drawing tutorials and tips; things you can find with Google easy enough.  You can learn your foundations there and once you know and apply those, your drawings will improve.  And, if you find the opportunity, see if you can attend some life drawing sessions (I know several towns have Art Centers that offer them).

I could go on for a long time about how to draw but I'll try to condense it to some key points:

-Always start with a rough sketch.  Define the volume, proportions, and pose of the character you're drawing before you move on to clean lines.  This is the most important part.  The sketch will define what every bit of what the final drawing will ultimately look like and is the easiest stage at which to fix any errors.

-What software you use to sketch barely matters.  As long as it's a functional drawing program, you should be fine.  I use GIMP for my sketching.  It's ideal that the program has pressure sensitivity, layers, and transparency options, but you can sketch in MS Paint if you really want to (just be prepared for it to be a bit more messy).

-Line of Action; something you'll learn from Life Drawing.  A well-posed character has a hypothetical and distinct curve to its body that defines the action of the pose.  To achieve this, start your sketch with the Line of Action before you even begin drawing the character.  Here's a reference for what I mean: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5A0X-ry2ZB8/S6F8obk4NRI/AAAAAAAAB3U/Y_a4e4XcBGU/s320/line+of+action.jpg

 

I'd kind of like to make a tutorial myself if and when I have the time, but for now, I'll just use an old commission as an example:

 

Rough sketch.  Pose is set, the character's volume is defined with basic shapes (spheres, cylinders, etc.), and a reversed-C curve could be overlayed to pick out the Line of Action.  Ponies are nice because we don't have to worry about extremities (fingers, toes, etc.).  2 spheres compose the body, another sphere for the head, and then cylinders for the legs and neck.  Once everything's in pace, start roughing in where the final lines will go.

 

Finished image.  Clean linework done in Inkscape, colouring done in Toon Boom Studio.  There's not much to say about going from the sketch to here.  Once the sketch is ready, clean-up can almost be done subconsciously; just putting everything where the sketch has already dictated.

Shading will depend on how you want to do it; for ponies specifically, I prefer the cartoon-shaded look, but that's just me.  Just keep in mind where the light is coming from to avoid misplaced highlights and tones.

 

 

Some other small tips:

-In addition to a distinct Line of Action, a good test of a strong pose is to imagine the drawing in silhouette and discern if it would still be clear to the viewer what the pose is.

-Particularly when working with backgrounds, avoid tangents; when two lines meet in such a way that they look like they're the same line.  These create ambiguity and the viewer can misinterpret where things are relative to each other.

 

Anyway, I hope that all helped.

[StarStrike 0]

*5 years later* Still can't draw, but literature and stories are my main focus now.

 

Sorry for bumping a 5 year old thread, couldn't help myself.