Tips and pointers

[PhantasmicDream]

Shading and Lighting
What can make or break a piece. 

 

 

The number one thing that most artists will say is to never shade with black,  which they don't necessarily mean this...


 

 

But more like this.

Which can make a drawing look muddy, plain, or boring looking when dealing with wrong,  but some people can pull it off I'm sure. 

 

 

 

 

What are the different types of shading you may be wondering to yourself,  well pretty much you have the two "Cell Shading"  which you'd probably see in most media's like TV shows.  Then there's "Blending"  which you'd see in more painter like arts or maybe even promo drawings.

How you pick the right colour for this?  Well with the "Cell Shading" you may be finding yourself playing around with the different options for a bit.  Personally I go for a dark reddish-purple set to Multiply then play with the opacity for a bit.  But the Multiply option for layers will generally make any colour you have on that layer darker.  So play around till you find something you like.    With the more "Blending" choice,  younger/beginner artists makes the mistake of choosing the colour then going straight down for the darker shade.  Which in that case makes the drawing look "muddy" would be kind of similar to shading with black. Instead you'd want to move on a downward angle, sometimes changing the colour hue may help.  For the example piece,  I made the darker shade for the hair a bit for red-orange instead of making it a darker orange. 

 

 

Light is kinda of similar to shading.  Where you can have a layer set to Overlay, and use lighter colours to highlight with.  Personally I go with yellows,  but again play around with colours (and even some of the other layer changing options,  Overlay is just a normal go to)  With "Blending" with highlights can be similar to the shading, but you'd go on an upward angle.

Adding a sort of "filter" layer over the whole piece could harmonize the piece...  Especially when you have a lot of different colours going on.   But you ca also use this to help you get better "Night Scenes"  using dark colours like blues or purples with Multiply. You can even add in a light source have place an overlay/lighten/screen/ ect. layer over that with a lighter colour. 

I don't have anything about the "Gradient Tool"  because the program I use doesn't have it... and wouldn't know what to say about it. RiP

 

 

 

Having a light source. 
Well not all drawings need to have dramatic lighting, and could be basic "room lighting"  it's good idea to figure out a light source for you more dynamic pieces. 

 

Depending on what the lighting source is,  it can make a huge different on how the piece will be shaded.  If the light is from behind the character will be covered in mostly shadows.  If the light source is small,  it could be really bright around the light but very dark everywhere else.   This may involve looking up references on how these shadows will fall on people,  or trying to create your own references.  ^^'  

 

 

 

 

 

Bonus
For the people who like this thing that I do when drawing characters! lol   I normally do "Cell Shading" but I do this first before any shading to the drawing!!

 

 

[PhantasmicDream]

Clothes and Folds. 
Where you either add too much folding detail or not enough!

 

 

When if comes to dealing with clothes,  different materials and amounts will vary in result to have the folds will look.  And what this boils down to is taking a look at clothes in real life,  how do they rest on your own body?  How to they rest on others?   From there you can see a common pattern how folds tend to go.      But for a very basic tip,  where ever moving joint is expect that area to get the majority of the folds/bunches. 

 

 

 

Areas that are being tugged/pulled/pinched on will have more folds going on than the rest of the material. 

 

 

Unfortunately with clothes,  you normally don't see all the details going on with the figure.  Such as defined breast/pecks or muscles! 

 

 

 

 

Feeling like the outfits you draw a bit boring or plain looking?  Add a bit extra details to your clothing,  add seam lines. They can vary on some outfits, being a long the sides of shirts or pants, around the neck hole (or collar).  Adding patterns,  look at your own wardrobe, or search up "fashion" clothing online.    Go 1920s on dress pants and add in that ironed crease!   You know,  just really try and play around with fashion,  it can be weird and bizarre at times, anything can go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The different ways that the body can move will change the ways the clothes rests and folds up.   This means that you'll have to start thinking up your figure drawing more of a "3D" space than just being "2D".   So,  start thinking about those wobble arms being more cylinder!!  If it helps you could start doing a few curved lines around parts of the body,  and depends on the pose you may even notice that these curved lines can change the way they're going while being on the same limb.

Figuring this kind of stuff out does get easier the more you do it.  

 

 

 

 

Or just make it up as you go like I did for years. 

[PhantasmicDream]

Backgrounds.
Who is she?

 

Backgrounds can be a very tough thing to try and do and come up with,   and if you're anything like me you just.... don't do them.  Depending on the type of drawing you're doing you don't always need a huge elaborate background, and some times just a simple shape can be what you need.

 

This can be great for just drawings of a character on their own or for a reference sheet.  Something that's just a reference for the character design you'd want to avoid having a busy background.  It could make it look too busy or unflattering.  

 

 

To really dive into full on scenes with backgrounds you'll probably have to dip your toes a bit into perspective the bane to most artists... I assume.  Well,  how do you approach doing perspective for backgrounds, you may be wondering to your self.  Well,  no other way the with grids...   Send help

One Point Perspective- Probably the easy one to do and to get a hold of.  You can have that vanishing point anywhere along that horizon line.  It's most commonly used for room like settings,  or just any sort of "straight on" views.  
Two Point Perspective -  Having two vanishing points that can be anywhere along the horizon line,  depending on how close you put them together can warp the perspective a bit.   It's probably most commonly used for "City Landscapes" but can be used for building interior as well.
Three Point Perspective - Similar to the Two Point Perspective having two points that can be anywhere on the horizon line,  it also has a third one that can be above or below the horizon line.  Besides being literal hell to try and do.  It's great for that dramatic scene.

 

 

 

 

 

Now,  what can make a scene more interesting with the background?    Figuring out the different planes for the scene.  Which would be to establish what is your "Background", "Midground", and "Foreground"   There's a few different ways to approach this,  you could have your "Background"  being out of focused and then your "Mid" to "Foreground" be clear as day.  You could have your "Background" being the whole back scene,  then have characters in place of the "Midground" and "Foreground" 

 

 

When drawing up a background,  you don't always have to go full on detail  with it.  Having too much detail, or attention to detail can make the whole piece look busy.  This is when you'll have to figure out,  what needs the details and what doesn't need the details.  For an example,  when drawing a forest scene,  you don't need to draw everything single tree, you can draw the front ones more detailed then lessen it the further back the go.   It's one of those things where you can just give enough  information to the viewer and they should be able to fill the rest of the information in themselves, because the human brain is weird and does things like that.

 

 

Now that we got some basic information on things what we can do for the background,  how do we add characters to the scene?  Well,  with the horizon line... which may depend on where you put it,  if it's too low you may have to slide in a different line somewhere more fitting?    Pretty much the character's heads should line up with the horizon line (if they're shorter or taller than average than just have their heads hover around the line),  but ofcourse for children and people sitting they're heads wont reach that that you'd have to base their measurements off of the people surrounding them. 

 

 

 

 

But,  maybe after all that you're thinking,  is there an easier way to do all this background stuff?  Well sure,  you could have take pictures of your surroundings,   use 3D models (or the Sims) and take screen shots of that. Those could give you some possible quick? but I"m sure easy references.   Here's a video by LavenderTowne,  one of the "Tricks" she shows is using the Sims for designing/creating rooms. 

 

 

 

Tune in next time where I'll probably talk about "Composition"

[Lalchi]

OH OH OH

I've seen that tweet of ricepirate who's on the work of a webserie jojo related

It's a tweet on how he take source from google map to do his background. That may be interesting to see
 

 

[PhantasmicDream]

Composition
Imagine if you will that your are a photographer trying to take the perfect picture. 

 

 

 

 

Composition goes hand in hand with "Backgrounds"  because you are trying to create a visual appealing scene.  Not all drawings have to go super intense on "positions" it could be as simple as making so instead of having the character straight on  you could have them a little to the side. 

 

 

A sort of key factor to think about while trying to make a more visually appealing piece,  is to avoid having your "focal point" straight in the middle of the picture.   This where this may come in.  Where one or both of these may look familiar. 

Rules of Thirds- Where you "grid out" the picture as such, and ideally have your "focal point"  at one or more of that dots.   But you'd want to avoid having your "focal point" in that middle square.   This is probably the easiest and basic composition... where you just kind of have your main thing to the side. 
The Golden Ratio-  Is a bit more complicating,  sometimes getting a bit mathematical if you're wanting to get that in-depth with it.  Pretty much you'd break down the piece to into a few different sections,  till you have a small square which would be like a "focal point" while the swill will lead your eyes to it.  
Hopefully I'm getting all of this right.  *sweats*

 

 

Here we are again,  with backgrounds.   There's a bunch of different ways you can lay this out with your drawings using the "Background" "Midground" and "Foreground" formation.   Where you can have items  in the "Midground" to one side of the piece while items in the "Foreground" could be at the other side.  Doing this would give the viewer two (or more) "focal points" to looks at instead of the one.  However, there should be one that's more dominating than the other,  because if you have both of them with the same sort of energy could make the piece more chaotic.   (which is completely fine if that's what you're going for of course)

  

 

 

 

Guiding the eye, would be similar to what the "Gold Ratio" may be going for.   This is what you have your set "focal point"  and you try to warp everything else in the piece to make sure if lures the viewers eyes to it. This could be like having the clouds angled towards the "focal point"  or going as simple as adding "action lines"  may depend on the type of drawing you're going for. 

 

 

 

While its not a bad this to do and it's completely fine if you're doing it on purpose.  But it may be best of avoid making "Foreground" elements "frame" the picture.   There's a time and place for "framing" pictures like that,  and unfortunately they don't always help make the composition of the piece any better. 

 

 

 

Now,  if yo're thinking.  What are some other ways I can make my "focal point" more popping.  Well a big helper would be colour choices and possibly lighting.  It depends on what your "focal point" is.  But you could always make it more brighter than the rest of the drawing.  Or you could make it the complementary colour  to your dominating colour to the piece.  for example if the piece is mostly in purple then you colour make your "focal point" in yellow.  

 

 

Colour choices and composition can be a very powerful tool to use.   Like some of the promo pictures to Steven Spielberg's movie Schindler's List

 

 

 

 

Here's some examples of my own drawings, where drew a grid on the drawings and tried point out where the "focal points" are and if there's any thing that's tries to lure the eyes anywhere. 

Drawing one (Zeke and Slade) - Due to the angle of the drawing it could lure the eyes down to the bottom of the piece to where Zeke takes up most of the bottom.  The way his body is curved may help lead to his face... but his one knee sticking out may catch the eye as well.  RiP   Slade (the mask version) is also a "focal point" being at the opposite end to Zeke.
Drawing two (Comms Officer Jenkins and Nurn'Kal) -   The "focal point" is up to debate with this one.   But for the most part the drawing lures your eyes to more of the center of the piece (you know that area where they say you shouldn't have your focal point, we'll here we are going against that)   You could argue that Jenkin's may be more of the "focal point" due to the contrasting int colours with Nurn'Kal.  But I dunno,  I'm thinking it's that's space between their faces. 
Drawing three (Zeke and Jonah, 80's AU) -  With two sort of "focal points" going on here,  the light from Jonah's flashlight and the glow from the tank Zeke is in.  The flashlight is eye catching due to how "dark" the rest of the piece is.  While Zeke and the tank he's in is eye catching due to having more colour than the rest of the piece.  
Drawing four (Zeke and Jonah) - The "focal point" in this piece is the glow that's happening in the background plus the heads.  The sort of radius glow and the curve of Jonah's body try to help lure the eyes to the "focal point" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a way it's like things have come full circle... maybe. 

[ConfectionCore]

good post, thank you!