Working on Creating Art

[cinderlite]

Hey! I'm back again, however briefly, to slap down some of my art. I've been working on creating again, and I've really got to work from the bare bones because I don't understand anatomy or even basic shapes. Below is some of the stuff I've created over the last few days, and they're of varying degrees of quality. I mostly know how to do a straight-on POV or a profile, but suck at three quarters. I'm working on it.

I also can't do line art to save my life and know nothing about line weight or how to digitally paint/render pieces. I want to learn, though, because it's a lot of fun. I'm just putting down all the stuff I've made lately because going forward, I'm going to focus on basic shapes and anatomy with only the occasional piece so I can draw directly from my mind instead of using references and frankenstein-ing things together.

Comments

[khaosinkinema]

I asked her for books on drawing that she would recommend:

How to Draw Manga: Basics and Beyond! (Manga University Presents ... How to Draw Manga) by Manga University doesn't seem bad for learning proportions and such, though the exact book she is using is not in sale anymore. D:

One she says has a nicer way to explain concepts would be How to Draw Manga: Drawing Yaoi (don't judge :D), by Ai Kozaki. She says the book also features the art of drawing manga through the course of time, offers examples for the various eras of manga proportions, etc.

Anatomical studies are featured in both books, though the latter focuses on men for obvious reasons. There are also dolls you can use for drawing different angles or positions. My sister has one with a wooden figure and a wooden hand, but she says there are prettier figures out there now. (I will link them in case I can find examples; those I found this far either are copies of copies of copies, or they have really bad reviews D:.)... There is a brand called "1000 Toys" and if you enter this in Amazon with "TOA Heavy Industries" you get some of them around 1 to 12 (1 inch is 12 inches in "reality"), and Bandai also has something like this apparently, too. There is "S.H. Figuarts - Body-Chan Sports Edition DX Set (gray color ver.)", which helps to draw female characters in dynamic poses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUKZMqQtz2w - This is more focusing on practicing shapes and ways to hold a pen in traditional art, but maybe practicing shapes can help with developing a more simplified view on the characters or animals, figures, etc. you want to draw :).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLU26nqcvfY - A tutorial for learning to draw digitally for beginners. I learned a lot about this, too, while watching it :). Even if you do not use Procreate or have an iPad, I think the explanations are really good, and he seems to have freebie brushes on his website, too. This video also helps with the drawing of 3D shapes, though simplified, but for now, I think this helps.

As for Clip Studio... I do not know this program myself, I mainly use Clipchamp (Which comes with this Microsoft program bundle I use...). Either way, maybe Clip Studio has some overlap concerning the functions? What would you need help with? :)

[cinderlite]

Hey, thank you for taking the time to respond with such an informative comment! Sorry for taking so much time to respond. For a while, I just didn't have the spoons for it. I'll definitely take a look of those books and work on them after I finish the ones I'm using now (mostly about learning basic shapes and 3D shapes... plus perspective and values!). Also, considering that I'm queer and the amount of gay stuff that I create, I'm far from judging someone that likes the idea of men in a relationship! Hehe, so no worries on that front!

I am eager to get back to people, ngl. I want so badly to have at least halfway decent proportioned people when I draw... but to do that, I need to know the basics of how things work. So I'm putting the work and effort into learning! Also, I've heard of those wooden dolls! I know exactly what you're referring to! I had one once when I was a teenager. Exciting to hear that there are nicer ones now! I should look into that! Thank you for the keywords on how to find them on Amazon!

I'm going to go watch these videos rn! Thanks so much for linking them. :3 Thanks so much for looking out for me! I'm going to watch the tutorial on drawing digitally first. Or maybe the one on how to hold a pen... that also seems important! Thanks again!

As for Clip Studio, I am slowly learning how it works. I found a book on it too, so probably I have everything I need when the time comes for me to read it and use it properly! Though I might hold out for this book because it seems really cool! It comes out near the end of Feb, and I really really want it. <3