Click the image to go to the fullsize! Easier to read.
A big ol’ tip on drawing cities from street-level. The drawings are pretty crude, (I did them very fast,) but I think they get the point across :) I’m sure some streets like in the first example actually exist in the world, but why would you choose to draw something so boringly bland?
Hope it helps you out!
How To Improve Your Art
From ~Maidith on deviantART:
“How do I improve my art work?” is one of the most asked questions in art related forums, mainly regarding drawing and painting in any media. Because the question is recurring so often, I wrote the following tips that I still copy-paste in various threads.
You can apply these universal strategies not just to traditional and digital painting media, but most of them even to photography and collage.
- Look at pictures by artists you admire, and try to figure out things. How do they handle light and color? What edges are sharp, and what edges are soft? Why do they use that particular color there? What technique did they use? How did they work? The more you look at work of others, the more different kinds of styles and techniques you will see.
- Learn from the masters. Copy works you adore. Not for imitating the artist or showcasing your copy, but for the sake of learning. Don’t be shy, ask your favorite artist everything you want to know, such as “What paper do you draw on?”, or “How do you go about painting a picture, do you start with a sketch?”, etc. But be specific, don’t ask “how can I paint like that?”. And check the artist’s website, chances are they already have tutorials, a FAQ or step-by-step tutorials there.
- Challenge yourself. Never used a particular medium? Then buy it, no matter how poor you are, and try it out. Never drawn a still life? Do it. Never used that particular color scheme? Give it a try. At a certain point, when you are afraid of repeating yourself, you are on the right track to improve.
- Use reference. If you aim for realism, you can’t paint most things straight from your imagination. The old masters always made preliminary studies of life models, and did most paintings from life models too. For example, if you are unsure how to paint a head with the light source from below, look up a photo, or take it yourself, or have someone pose for it. It is worth every effort!
Stock photos from deviantartists can be a valuable resource also and provide inspiration.
- Draw from life. It’s probably the most valuable practice that there is. Sign up for a life drawing class so that you’ll be actually “forced” to do it. Believe me, it works wonders.
As for studying anatomy from books about figure drawing (Loomis, Bammes, etc.) a good exercise is to copy the body parts and figures in there and then trying to draw the same from your mind to see how much you remembered.
- Look up tutorials. Browse through the tutorial section and study the many different ways and media of the different artists. Also visit the websites of the great artists here - many have tutorials up there.
- Collect pictures. On my harddisk, I have different folders of fantastic art.
They are very inspiring to browse through and can give you new ideas in terms of technique. Whenever I feel uninspired, I look through my folders.
The images I’ve collected over time, mainly from Cgtalk.com, Deviantart, Epilogue, Artrenewal.org and many other websites.
Further Reading:
Why Reference is not a crutch
Useful resources
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Forums for those who want to learn
ConceptArt
Sijun
Skin tone practice using Lauren K. Cannon’s tutorials. Guys this painting stuff is really fun.
Posting this because I figure someone else might benefit from these tutorials, they’re awesome.
Regarding the first image, the way I draw the hip area and legs in general is pretty exaggerated, I remove a lot of muscle and curve the bones. The left of each set is more correct if you’re aiming to be more realistic.
The second image is just how I personally stretch legs into different body types. The third is one of my most generic poses and some feet. I approach the bottoms of the feet the same way I do hands and I make toes by just overlapping the little circles. The fourth image features some attempts at different positions I don’t show as much, an area I still have to work on myself.
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I’ve still yet to recover from my recent lethargy, so this was all I could think to do… but I hope this is of at least some use! Sorry! :(
Just a few [of the] references [from different websites] I’ve compiled for making more unique face/body shapes in my characters.
Of course, creative liberty is (and can be) taken on most of these shapes, but anyone who wishes to design a character should at least know that there are many shapes and sizes for characters to be and that can define them.
I encourage making each character, human or animal, unique and identifiable by their silhouettes and profiles when they’re bald and unclothed.
A super quick trick for drawing draped fabric that my art teacher taught me in high school.
Anatomical studies using magazine photos (from the book, Figure Drawing)
“Magazines and catalogs offer an amazing opportunity to conduct anatomical studies. Look for the structural lines of the human body, and draw them where you think they belong. Draw on tracing paper so the figures are independent of the photographic context. You can change the traces in scale or adapt them to fit your imagination.”
Feet are so complicated, much more so than hands, and we don’t even see feet that much unless it’s the summer and people are wearing sandals. I could probably draw like 10 pages on feet so … I hope I covered enough in this tutorial. For those of you who can’t draw feet, enjoy it!
