Zepp Museum's Official "OH MAN, HOW DO I DO THAT?" How-To Draw thread!

[Amadeus46Art]

1) Foreword

Hello any and all aspiring, would-be, and even accomplished artists of Zepp Museum! I talked with Chaos about it, and we decided that it would be interesting to make a thread dedicated to helping those who are looking to improve their craft in any way. While by no means am I a fully professional artist, I do like to believe I know what I'm talking about, and I've gotten enough requests from people asking me to teach them how to draw that maybe this thread can be an aid to them. So I'll break down not only how to draw, but also try to link some resources in the fundamentals of drawing for further help. Any other artists on the forum can feel free to try and help, posting their own resources or tips and tricks! So then, let's go!

2) So Where do I Start?

Let's say you're just beginning as an artist. You might've picked up a pencil a few times, but really you can't do much. You want to draw anime, but you have no idea how to make it look good. It should be easy right? Well, not exactly. "Anime" as it would be, is very much a style, this is true, but you can't start directly there! Since this is Dustloop, I feel an analogy to a fighting game would work perfectly.

Starting to learn how to draw by emulating a style is like trying to play a fighting game by only doing challenge mode. Sure, you might be able to get some cool-looking things, but no matter what it's still going to look really shitty against anyone who knows what they're doing. Let me go into more detail.

In a fighting game, combos are only a very small portion of the game. The true part of the game comes into your spacing, ability to make reads, knowing what you can and can't do, conditioning your opponent, and etc etc etc. These are all your fundamentals. Knowing your fundamentals is how you get to do those cool combos! And the same is true in drawing. Without knowledge of anatomy, composition, lighting, and whatnot, your drawings will look weak and "wrong". You must learn your fundamentals before you attempt to learn any style.

So where you start is simple then. The answer is life. Look all around you, you'll see people of all shapes and sizes, go and draw them. If, for some completely reasonable feeling, you don't want to sit around outside and draw random people, browse for random google images of people and draw them! But they need to be real people. You don't need to draw things to be photo-realistic, but starting from life builds that knowledge of how the human body works, how light falls across it, how you can squash and stretch proportions to create your style.

For a basic starting point, I recommend Posemaniac's Thirty Second tool, found Here. It's wonderful for showing you a large variety of poses, and drawing them quickly for less than a minute helps you build your knowledge. The disadvantage to this is that they are all digitally rendered models. There are other similar programs out there that use live models, of all shapes and sizes. Use them!

3) Okay, What do I Need?

Paper and Pencil. It's the cheapest, simplest thing for a beginner to use. Yeah you won't be able to do all these fancy digital stuff, but I'm going to let you know right now:

DRAWING ON PAPER DOES NOT TRANSFER TO DRAWING ON TABLET.

I learned this the hard way. If you want to start on tablet, good for you, but you'll be putting in an investment on something you wouldn't be able to use well for a while, and it might feel very very strange to you. If you're really wanting to start on one, or feel you're comfortable enough where you are, I recommend a Wacom Bamboo. They're cheap and they work for what you'll want to do. For Programs, Paint Tool SAI is one of the best programs I've used, do a google search and find it. Note you'll have to find an english translation of the program, but it's amazing for any illustration work.

4) Oh God, Hands are the Devil's Work

Okay, yes, true, but let's not panic. A lot of beginner artists suffer from similar problems when starting their works. The big problem areas I've noticed are Hands, Feet, Faces, and Hair. Limbs and torsos you can learn by going through enough pose practice, as you'll find how the muscles work, but those four things listed tend to be incredibly complex and vary from person to person! The best thing to do is practice! There are some good tutorial images out there for how to start with them, but again there are plenty of references out online for them as well. Draw from life! Can't repeat it enough. Always remember you have a reference of a hand at the end of your arm! I hope. I apologize to anyone with only one hand out there. Feet are very similar structurally to hands too, if you look at the general shapes of them and how they work! Faces are incredibly complex, and vary wildly from person to person, but there are general guidelines. Draw from as many faces you can find, and don't be afraid to just mess around sometimes. You'd be surprised what works!

I'll edit in some good tutorials for Hands, Feet, and Faces once I get to a home computer, but in general specific practice and studies on them makes for a world of difference. You'll be drawing hands and faces the most too, and people always look at them the most, so you have no excuse not to get better at them.

Finally, hair, the quiet problem. This one goes unnoticed a lot, but it's one I like to bring up. Point one: HAIR IS NOT A DEAD BIRD. This may sound hilarious, but hair is made up of layers and flow. Looking at professional hair models shows this quite nicely. Again, I'd love to post tutorials and reference images, but hard to do that from work. But don't just take the lazy way out and draw a bunch of spikes. Work with the hair, imagine how it would flow over the head, how the character would have to style it to make it look the way it does.

5) Alright, Gimme Some Cool Links for me to Use

https://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi Google Image Search is your best friend. Use it well.

http://www.posemaniacs.com/ is an excellent reference tool, with tons of basic poses.

(I'll post more links when I get home and can actually pull them up)

As for books,

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is an excellent book for beginning artists, that teaches how to "think" like an artist through beginning exercises.

Any books written by George Bridgeman are good books for showing the geometry of the body, along with giving insight into techniques of how to draw.

(I'll post more books when I can get home and can actually pull them up)

6) Closing

Alright, that's my piece on the opening. New artists, go ahead and post with your thoughts and questions, and I can try to help. Experienced artists, give your advice and try to help someone out. And don't be shy about posting your work for advice/criticism, anyone! That's how you get better. Thanks for all your time, and I'll try to work on this post more as I think up anything that needs to go into it!

[Amadeus46Art]

Section on "how do I draw boobs" coming soon due to popular demand...perverts (can't blame you).

[Tri Edge]

Great thread, thanks Amadeous :3

[Michi]

Awesome job guys! I can also somewhat help (not that good of an artist tho) by posting what I do. Yeah, about the tablet? I couldn't agree anymore. My first few months of using the tablet made me kind of regret buying on the first place but through practice, you somehow get more familiar with how your tablet works, strokes, pen pressure and stuff.

I personally use SAI. PS on rare occasions. I honestly love drawing hair and eyes, feet and hands are like, omg how.

I can provide answers if ever anyone wants to ask how I draw stuff. Derp.

[Blade]

Needs a 'how to draw Justice' section...just because.