A compilation of stuff I know about drawing Asian faces and Asian culture! I feel like many “How-To-Draw” tutorials often default to European faces and are not really helpful when drawing people of other races. So I thought I’d put this together in case anyone is interested! Feel free to share this guide and shoot me questions if you have any! I’m by no means an expert, I just know a few things from drawing experience and from my own cultural background.
yo here’s a useful tip from your fellow art ho cynellis… use google sketchup to create a model of the room/building/town you’re trying to draw… then take a screenshot & use it as a reference! It’s simple & fun!
Sketchup is incredibly helpful. I can’t recommend it enough.
There’s a 3D model warehouse where you can download all kinds of stuff so you don’t have to build everything from scratch.
reblog to save a life
This is an incomplete tutorial, and it drives me crazy every
time I see it come around.
We live in a pretty great digital age and we have access to
a ton of amazing tools that artists in past generations couldn’t even dream of,
but a lot of people look at a cool trick and only learn half of the process of
using it.
Here’s the missing part of this tutorial:
How do you populate your backgrounds?
Well, here’s the answer:
If the focus is the environment, you must show a person in relation to
that environment.
The examples above are great because they show how to use the
software itself, but each one just kind of “plops” the character in front of
their finished product with no regard of the person’s relation to their
environment.
How do you fix this?
Well, here’s the simplest solution:
This is a popular trick used by professional storyboard and
comic artists alike when they’re quickly planning compositions. It’s simple and
it requires you to do some planning before you sit down to crank out that
polished, final version of your work, but it will be the difference between a background
and an environment.
Even if your draftsmanship isn’t that great (like mine),
people can be more immersed in the story you tell if you just make it feel like
there is a world that exists completely separate from the one in which they
currently reside – not just making a backdrop the characters stand in front of.
Your creations live in a unique world, and it is as much a character as
any other member of the cast. Make it as believable as they are.
Great comments and tutorials!
I’m a 3d artist and have been exploring the possibilities of using 3d as reference for 2d poses. I want to add a couple of tips and things!
Sketchup is very useful for environment references, and I assume it’s reasonably easy to learn. If you’re interested in going above and beyond, I highly recommend learning a proper 3d modeling program to help with art, especially because you can very easily populate a scene or location with characters!
Using 3ds Max I can pretty quickly construct an environment for reference. But going beyond that, I can also pose a pretty simple ‘CAT’ armature (known in 3d as a rig) straight into the scene, which can be totally customized, from various limbs, tails, wings, whatever, to proportions, and also can be modeled onto and expanded upon (for an example, you could 3d sculpt a head reference for your character and then attach it to the CAT rig, so you have a reference for complex face angles!)
The armature can also be posed incredibly easily. I know programs exist for stuff like this – Manga Studio, Design Doll – but posing characters in these programs is always an exercise in frustration and very fiddly imo. A simple 3d rig is impossibly easy to pose.
By creating an environment and dropping my character rig into it, I have an excellent point of reference when it comes to drawing the scene!
Not only that, but I can also view the scene from whatever angle I could ever want or need, including the character and their pose/position relative to the environment.
We can even quickly and easily expand this scene to include more characters!
Proper 3d modeling software is immensely powerful, and if you wanted to, you could model a complex environment that occurs regularly in your comic or illustration work (say, a castle interior, or an outdoor forest environment) and populate the scene with as many perspective-grounded characters as you need!
reblogging to save a life
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Look at this amazing addition! This is fantastic!
I tried Sketchup before but did struggle a lot with it X_X Maybe I should give it another try sometime ….
Masking fluid is, essentially, liquid rubber. It adheres to the paper and protects an area from watercolour. When the paint dries, you simply remove it. There are different types of masking fluid, like the ones you apply with a brush. But if you’re like me and want to cut the crap with RUINING BRUSHES: look no further. I exclusively use Molotow masking liquid pens now.
You don’t need sacrificial brushes. It’s tinted blue so you can see where the hell it is. The future is here.
Rolls on like a kickass pen
Let it dry, slap on your watercolour
Coax it off with an eraser
Bam look at that. Perfect for those details you want to stay white. Not recommended for application over large areas. Available on Amazon.
For those who asked. I say it every time, but you don’t need fancy brushes to make digital art if you don’t want to use them or can’t afford them. To further my point, I’ve included a list of completely free brush packs at the end of this post.
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Sketches & Linework |
I don’t so much do linework as I do clean sketches, all one layer, à l’ancienne. So, I like my brushes to have a natural, textured look.
My go-to are Kyle T Webster’s pencil brushes (free with PS);
For something with more bite and less texture, I’ve been using one of Deharme’s sketch brushes from this set;
Below are four free brush packs that I’ve used in the past and can highly recommend, all of which are similar to those I currently work with (squared or angled blendable brushes). They also come with special effect brushes (splatters, foliage, smoke…).
From left to right, top to bottom, least to most complex:
As a little bonus, if you don’t feel comfortable using advanced brushes but still want a textured look, you can download these free paper textures to play with, by S3PTIC-SHOCK on Deviant Art. Put them on overlay, multiply or divide over your painting for a little kick of texture.
Just remember for every person with a trillion custom brushes, there’s another that uses the stock brushes and still creates beautiful art. Fancy brushes are not a necessary, and can actually be a hindrance if you don’t know how to control them.
Watercolor flowers are one of my all time favorite things to paint.
There’s something about the rhythm of the petals, the base coat turning vibrant with just one more layer…I absolutely love it. 😍
I can’t wait to post this finished painting! It should be done by tomorrow. ✨
Come follow us for more of our dog-themed tarot deck pictures!
Some watercolor tips too!
Try to keep the layers of watercolor to a minimum. As you can see, the flower is just two layers (one with the base shadow and highlight, then each petal is painted in a gradient)! This makes vibrant colors.
When doing details, make sure it’s dry before painting near it. See how we did every other petal first? That was to make sure the others were totally dry before painting next to it so the color didn’t bleed.
Rotate your paper! In order to make sure the brush is precise and leaves clean lines, rotate your paper. The tip of the brush has the most control, so make sure that paints the edges of any detail work.
Use complementary colors for your base. We used yellow and purple, and then painted over the petals with a mix of purples, oranges, and yellows. This made one side in a strong shadow and one in a highlight!
Plan ahead where the light source is. Watercolor is a medium that really needs a defined light source to shine. Pick the direction before painting, it helps with organizing your piece and colors a lot!
Chartreuse Abstruseness Export 