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The Kitten Factory
Image Works - Tutorial 1
Tutorial 1
Welcome to my drawing tutorial! I've had many people ask me how I draw and color and I thought it would be a good time to finally just put up how I do it. In no way am I trying to claim this is the _only_ way to draw, nor am I saying this is the _definative_ way to draw anime... far from it! This is just one method. I learned how to draw by tracing Disney images and Gizmo duck from Duck Tales! Everyone has their own way to do it and there's no "right" way to do it, no matter what anyone else tells you. Just as long as you love it and it works for you, that's the right way. ^_^
It all starts with the pencil. If you can't control the pencil, then you'll never be able to draw well. ^_^ It just takes practice! Some people have asked me how one draws with such thin lines... well, I've illustrated the method above. When drawing, one has to get a "feel" for the lead in the pencil. Any pencil will work, they all work the same.
When you first have a new pencil to draw with, the lead will be nice and pointy. In the case of the wooden pencil, it will be sharpened on one point; in the case of the mechanical pencil, it will be perfectly square. As you draw, you have to shift the pencil around, usually rotating it as you draw, to keep the wear even. If you look in the pictures I've drawn, you'll see the 3 types of wear pattern that form and you'll also see there's always a "sharp" point. Just keep rotating your pencil so your sharp point touches the paper.
Now for rendering the human figure. These plates are reproduced for educational purposes... but they're from a really good reference book, IMO! The book is called "Complete Life Drawing Course" by Diana Constance. If you have a chance, go get it. It's good reference on drawing in general.
Now the first thing you'll notice is that, man or woman, the body proportions remain generally the same. That's because men and women have very similar skeleton structures! We're both approximately 7 and a half "heads" tall, using a generic head as measurement.
As you can see here, both males and females measure up approximately 7 and a half heads tall. This is a good measure of how big to draw people.
Now, I tend to flesh out people using 'bubble people'. Everyone has their own way of doing things. Some people use block people, others use scribble people. Use whatever method words for you to quickly and efficiently imagine the distribution of a person you wish to draw. If you can't imagine the underlying 'weight' of a person, you can't imagine how they'd stand or sit, you can't imagine the poses they have to be in, and they're really hard to draw. ^_^ Some people are more gifted than others and can just right into a drawing but I'm not. I suck. So, I have to have some form of skeleton or underlying base to form the rest of the image off of. So yeah. I draw bubble people ^_^ The above are the bubble forms of the male and female images seen above. Not very 'good' for anime purposes, but in reality, men and women aren't very 'good' for anime. They tend to be stumpier and broader and generally not very proportionate looking.
"How can this be?" you may be asking yourself? "The _fill in the blank_ generic supermodel doesn't look like that! They're gorgeous and you suck at drawing!" Well, look carefully... most supermodels and such are extensively photoshopped and captured in images using special camera angles and techniques. ^_^ That, and they tend to have luckier genes. ^_^
Now these two bubble people are more 'standard' for anime faire. If you compare them with the bubbles of the people above them, you'll see the differences. In general, anime depicts the chests are less broad, often smaller than normal, unless super-heroic. For females, their hips are often made wider and for both sexes, their legs are often made longer. To compensate, the torso is often moved up and the chest made smaller. This also helps to effectively make breasts seem larger, if they aren't made larger anyway. ^_^
Once the generic form is bubbled out, it's time for the smaller details, like hands and feet. Generally, hands and feet follow the same principle. You have to figure out how to map hands and feet yourself. Some people use generic circles or cubes... I usually draw hands as if they're "fans" until I've fleshed them out. In fact, I sometimes use only 2 bubbles for a finger instead of three because it's easier for me to plan images that way. ^_^ What ever way works for you, it's probably best to spend a day or two doing nothing but drawing hands. Just pick up random objects and draw your hands holding them. Look at other people's hands and draw them. As a friend reading a book to draw their hands. Any random hands will do, as long as they don't belong to someone who would rather hit you with them or are unattached to anyone in general. ^_^
Now, drawing faces. Eveyone draws faces differently, of course, so this is only a basic premise of how to draw faces. The exact positioning is up to each and everyone else's preferences... I've only outlined how I draw heads ^_^
Finally, cloth. If you stop and examine cloth, you'll notice it hangs by points of tension. This tension can be caused by actual points of articulation (like joints or buttons) or by friction. In the picture above, I've illustrated various points of cloth and the direction the tension takes because of the way gravity pulls on cloth and way various forces counter gravity.
