Advice and Tips From a Professional

[ErBoi 501]

Warning:  This is a very very long post.

 

Hello Creative Resource board! All things considered, I'm surprised I haven't been more active on here before.
You may or may not know me but I'll just go ahead and lay out where I'm coming from.
I am a digital artist and animator, both by freelance and contract. I am currently a Junior Animator at Atomic Cartoons, and the two supervisors I work under worked on Friendship is Magic in the past. I also have past experience doing prop, character and effects builds on Mother Up! and Rick and Morty.

There is a lot of potential in this community and I want to help it along.

So, as the title suggests, I'm making this thread to give advice and tips on drawing. Obviously there are tons of threads asking for individual advice and, while I'm happy to give advice directly to specific people, a lot of the advice that can be given is universal.
In fact, a rut that just about every aspiring artist (myself definitely included) falls into, usually in the high school age-range, is to under-value roughing out your work and go immediately for slapping clean lines down. When you draw like that, your lines don't have any sense of expression or hold any indication of volume. For my own eye personally, the ugliest drawings are those that clearly had a lot of care put into their rendering; fancy colours and shading; while having had no foundations put into their early stages. Ultimately, characters drawn that way look like cardboard cutouts. While the layman may look at those drawings and immediately praise them, an experienced artist will know at a glance, beyond shadow of a doubt, when you've skipped the roughing. And, again, those are the kinds of drawings I was guilty of before my college years,

I'm gonna section these off into their own spoilers since this post is likely going to end up very lengthy (as if it wasn't already).

First, I'm going to start by rehashing some advice I posted over in this thread a few days ago, reworded slightly where appropriate. This is largely about the process of drawing well.  :

 

 Drawing well is a skill, and skills can be learned. So long as you are physically capable of picking up a pencil and making a line on a page, you have the potential to be a good artist.  The real difference between a good artist and a bad artist is the knowledge of how to make those lines work, as well as the care to do it.
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.

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).
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

To demonstrate some of this, I'll 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 or actually put 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.

 

 

Drawing ponies well takes the same approach as drawing anything well:  Know what you're drawing and how to draw.
To further demonstrate some of the principles I was talking about there, I made a drawing of Rainbow Dash and separated each major step so I can talk about them more in-depth:

Rough Sketch

This drawing began as just a C-curve which I went over in red to highlight. That's the Line of Action. Note how, for the most part, all of Dash's features are following it or influenced by it. This creates expression and motion even in a still drawing.  C-curves are what you'll typically see in strong action poses.  When a character is at rest, their body tends to follow an S-curve, particularly along the spine.

Note that even at this early stage, we can see the volume of the character.  We know the relative shape and volume of her body simply from how it's drawn.

If you don't like your drawing at this stage, you should start over. You're not too invested time-wise at this point and you're better off sketching it out again than going through with a lengthy clean-up process only to have a final drawing that you still won't like.
Software tip: I sketch in GIMP which has customizable pressure sensitivity effects. I always have it set so that my pressure controls both line thickness and transparency, and I have my brush set to Multiply. This way when I go over a line multiple times, it will become darkest in an averaged area that helps me pick out where the final lines will go and helps define the volume of the character's shape. I also found some realistic pencil brushes online, but that's personal preference.

"Clean Rough"
Now, as you can see, the first rough is very messy, so it's helpful to go over it on a separate layer and pick out our final lines before we move on to the actual clean-up.

Additionally, I took care to avoid tangential lines.  One potential problem area for a tangent is where the far eye meets the muzzle.  I made sure to define the contour of the muzzle separately from the eye.

Clean Lines
Bringing the clean rough into Inkscape, I can go over it relatively midlessly putting my lines where the sketch has dictated as well as using the right kinds of lines for the correct line-weighting.  I also caught that one of Dash's feathers was a bit too long in the sketch and fixed it here.
Software tip: If you use Inkscape, I'd assume you likely know about the different 'Shapes' you can set the Pencil tool to. Ellipse creates lines with a taper on both ends, the Triangle In/Out shapes have a taper on one end, and the 'None' shape, of course, isn't tapered at all and, by default, creates a 1-pixel line. You can, and will likely need to, adjust the thickness of your lines. For any tapered lines, the thickness setting is in the 'Path Effect Editor' window. For lines made with the Shape set to 'None', you can adjust their thickness by right-clicking on them, selecting "Fill and Stroke" and going to the Stroke Style tab.

Colour
There isn't a whole lot to say here. I brought my Inkscape lines into Toon Boom, I (previously) made a Rainbow Dash palette by looking up vectors of her and using the Pick Color tool, and coloured the drawing using the Fill Color tool; note that Fill tools are not an ideal way to colour your drawings if you're working with raster (pixel-based) imagery as opposed to vectors.
Software tip: Colouring (and shading) in Toon Boom, the 'Stroke' tool is extremely useful; it's a tool that creates invisible lines in the drawing that's great for separating areas in a drawing that need to be filled differently (the linework in particular needed to be sectioned off since her body, hair and eyes all have differently-coloured lines). Admittedly there's a chance Inkscape may be just as effective, possibly more, as a tool to colour the drawing, but this is just how I like to do it.

Shading Layer
After I finish the colouring, I copy the image to an above layer and use the stroke tool to section off where my tones/shading and highlights will go. Once I'm happy with those, I fill them with blacks for tones and white for highlights all set to a certain degree of transparency.

Light is coming from viewer-right so the left of the drawing is mostly in shadow, meanwhile the far right, the tail in particular, has little shading.

The Final
And there it is together.  I want to take a quick aside here to point out that the volume of the character was not defined by the shading, only accentuated by it.  A good drawing can carry a sense of 3D space with or without shading.  An easy and great example of this is The Simpsons.  The show nearly never applies shading but you are always perfectly aware of the full, three-dimensional shape of the characters, as well as their proximity to each other, purely from how the linework is handled.

 

 

 

Now we're going to get a little more philosophical than practical.  This is something I've actually been meaning to post on here for a while but I was never too sure about giving it it's own thread.  Anyway, this is an informal essay I wrote...and re-wrote...and re-wrote...called Growing as an Artist:

 

 

Growing as an Artist

While attending panels at BronyCAN, I found myself pondering what kind of panel I might do if I was ever given the opportunity. It didn't take long for me to settle on the topic of artistic development. I feel like there's a near endless amount of untapped potential out there that I would love to help out. I won't be talking about specific techniques or give particular lessons on how to draw, but instead talk about how to approach your artistic life and the kind of attitude you should have towards your audience, your superiors, and those less experienced as well. This will be about the mindset an aspiring artist should have in order to become the best artist they can be.

 

Primarily I'm going to address the topics of criticism, stylization, and workflow. These are all very important things to consider when drawing. A conscious recognition of the many pitfalls found in these areas can not only help one improve, but help them improve exponentially faster than frequent practice alone.

I once watched an interview with Stan Sakai, creator of Usagi Yojimbo. In this interview, he was asked for advice for young artists. His exact words, as I recall, were, “Get used to criticism”. I would like to expand on that sentiment: Do not just get used to criticism, learn to love criticism. Approach your audience with a thick skin and welcome any and all negative feedback that can be applied to your artwork. The more you are critiqued, the better you can learn about your shortcomings and apply yourself into improving those areas.

Valid criticism does not only come from experienced artists. You do not have to be a skilled artist to know whether or not something looks right. Speaking on something of a personal note here, I am frequently frustrated when critiques are met by either the artist or a third party retorting something along the lines of, “Well you couldn't do any better.”. That is a terrible attitude to have. For example, if I sketch out a character, and something is proportionally wrong with the sketch; say I draw their head too small or large (something I often do); and, say, an accountant points out the error.  Would I shrug them off or would I fix the drawing? I would fix it, of course.

Ignoring criticism purely on the basis of the critic's experience is the kind of thinking that ensures you'll never improve.

It's a good idea to develop a critical eye yourself as well. Learn to critique artwork, be it your own or another artist's. Do remember to treat people with respect though.

Never get too attached to your own artwork. You could draw something today that is the best work you have ever produced, but in only a few weeks worth of progress, you could look back on it in disgust; an experience I have had several times and will continue to have as time goes on. That is a great experience to have; it's a sure sign you are improving.

As you improve and as you draw more and more, you will likely develop noticeable nuances to how you draw. At this point, if you haven't already, you might begin thinking about developing a unique look; something that instantaneously identifies you as the artist in every piece.

Stylization is great to play around with but it also comes with one of the largest pitfalls that too many potentially great artists fall into: The idea that botched proportions and flawed perspective can be chalked up to “It's my style”. Having your own style is no reason to ignore proper form and structure.

Learning the basics and learning to draw realistically first, and adding your own flare afterwards will result in your art looking infinitely better than if you were to immediately jump into the exaggerated and the abstract. Life Drawing classes are a great way to build such a foundation. You do not need to be able to produce photo-realistic artwork but you should become competent at creating imagery that looks like it exists in 3D space and carries all the major aspects of real-world structure (perspective and proportion especially).

The better you know how objects, characters and creatures are built and how they look within the confines of the real world, the better you can make them look in your own style. I would also advise to try variations on your style and try to emulate the styles of other artists. This leads to more varied experience throughout your growth.

If you are an active artist, chances are you already have an established workflow; the specific process you go through and tools you use to create your art. Finding a workflow you are comfortable and efficient with is important and it's something that only you can do for yourself. Everybody draws differently.

Any time you have the chance to work with a medium you haven't before, do it. Be it a new physical drawing tool or a new drawing software you just discovered, trying out everything available to you both gives you knowledge of what you have at your disposal and can teach you about what works for you personally.

On another somewhat personal note, if you have a digital workflow, keep in mind that it is not wrong to take advantage of the “cheats” your tools provide. An artist's top priority should be to make their work look as good as possible and if that means turning up the smoothness setting, using shape tools, adding artificial line quality, resizing parts of a drawing to fix proportions, etc. then go for it. There's hardly any reason to work digitally otherwise. I've seen peers refuse these advantages out of some sort of misplaced self-importance and, quite frankly, their work suffered for it (by which I mean it could have looked a lot better if they just got over themselves and turned up the smoothness on their brush tool).

A solid workflow that you know in and out is a great thing to have. When you have that, you're comfortable drawing, you're proficient, and your work will look its best. As your own skills evolve, your workflow will do so as well and you'll naturally accommodate yourself.

 

To wrap things up, value criticism above all; a thick skin can bring you far, know your fundamentals before focusing on your own specific style, and tailor a workflow to yourself. An artist never stops learning and they never should. Draw all the time, be excellent to one another, and have a nice day.

 

 

There's so much more that can be said but this has already gone on way too long.  And, in the end, no drawing is every totally perfect.  In fact, I'm already noticing issues with that Rainbow Dash drawing I did for this post.  To make a very long story short:

-Value rough stages.  I really want to stress this one.

-Learn from those above and below you skill-wise

-Value criticism

-Life Drawing is an excellent way to learn core fundamentals

With that, it is well after 2 AM and I'm extremely tired.  I really hope whoever finds the time to read this will find it helpful.  Feel free to ask questions if anything was unclear.  I'll try to check this thread as soon as I wake up.

[NavelColt 22,879]

Fantastic advice, ErB <3 Great to see you around here again, and quite the post to see you return with

[Guest]

Wow.

This is really helpful. I didn't know about Line of Action and now it seems obvious to me, I always thought my character poses were too stiff.

Also that's a very good essay.

 

Thanks a lot !

[SasQ 1,376]

Once I understood the Line of Action as an artifact of our brain's ability to imagine physics laws by looking at the image. When we look at real 3D objects, we see real physics laws working, but our brains are doing exactly the same: They take the flat pictures from both our eyes and try to deduce the distances (from perspective shortening and relative sizes of objects), their "solidity" and "weight", and deduce how gravity force would act upon them. So there's no surprise that our brains do the same when looking at flat drawings.

 

Our brains try to measure distances between different parts of an object and find its imagined "center of mass". Then they check if this center of mass is stably located over some base which would support it. So if you fail with your proportions, you may mislead the viewer's brain about the location of the "center of mass" (he would think that it is located somewhere else than it should be), and then your character would seem as if it were about to fall, since its center of mass would be off the base.

Here's a picture which demonstrates this principle:

Notice how the dragon in the first picture on the left is balanced, because his center of mass is above the base line. In the middle picture, I exaggeratedly changed the dragon's proportions to show how one can fail with it, because wrong proportions shift the center of mass somewhere else (notice shorter tail, legs are too much in the rear, claws are too much in the front, and his head is too much in the front too), so that is it no longer "supported" by the base, and the dragon seems to be falling forward. You can imagine a line (blue) connecting the middle of the base with the center of mass, and this line will rotate around the point where it connects with the base, because gravity acts at the center of mass now along the red line. To fix that, the dragon needs to move one of its legs forward, to make the base wider and support the center of mass again. Then it won't fall and it would look stable to our brains again.

 

Walking and running is actually constant falling forward. You bend your body in a way which makes the center of mass shift off the base (of your feet), and then you start falling forward. So you move your foot to restore balance, but not 100%, to keep falling forward a little bit. And the process continues.

 

And here's where the Line of Action comes to play: When you join beginning and end of that line with a straight line, and the center of mass will be somewhere on that line, then your pose will seem stable. But when the Line of Action bends too much, shifting the center of mass off that line, it starts to act as a stretched arc of a bow: it uses its "springiness" to pull on the center of mass and make it move in the direction the Line of Actions bends.

 

It's all physics, and our brains make these physics simulations all the time, even for imagined objects which exist only on a piece of paper or a TV/computer screen.