The Empty House - Part 4

very blergh day to start…. 😔😔😔

—today surprisingly started to draw in the morning… ahaha I don’t usually… even took my pencil towards to sketch… and thought to start with heads from yesterday… and just not looking at refs to see where I am… and well that first one came really well… I Like… but ahaha yeah I def need to practice heads more ahhhhh… well at least they don’t look bad……?

—and then I went to do usual figure pracs but I don’t know if it was the heads that three me off but man…. I feel like I was stumbling and I didn’t know what I was doing 😭😭😭 everything felt so blergh…

— took a lil break and came back to see if drawing fav character to draw would help but omg I think her magic fell?! cuz it didn’t feel any fun to draw her wtf……. I was planning to lmao continue drawing other wips but that was too much work to try so I went to doodle her but even she… didn’t help…. 😔😔😔

—but looking at these doodles now I am feeling great looking at her….. maybe it would really help to try to doodle shit… even if the procress might feel urgh/not great I am sure I will feel a lot satisfied and happy to see myself draw a character drawing. maybe even a small comic for ft… since 😳 im getting ideas….?! okay so plan for next stuff!!! i don’t feel like drawing now…

The big post of things about hands!!! I don’t consider myself qualified to teach art at this point in my life, but I don’t see any harm in sharing observations I have made. In learning to draw hands over the past few months I’ve tried to take a lot of notes, with the end goal of hopefully creating a video tutorial one day. I personally learn better from videos than written or illustrated instructions, but I’ve never found any one video that really demystifies drawing hands. I believe that in order to tackle such a difficult subject it is important to understand what makes it difficult, and this is not often addressed. If you understand the problems you can systematically solve them…

Drawing the hand is almost like drawing a whole person. Similar number of “major masses” and a big range of motion.

Because the hand is so versatile, it’s hard to pick a pose when practicing. Most individual body parts are drawn from different angles, whereas the hand must be drawn from different angles and in different poses.

Hands have a lot of moving parts and from any given angle many of these will be partially or wholly obscured by other parts. Drawing “through the form” results in confusing construction lines that are difficult to interpret.

Hands are expressive and give big clues as to what a character is doing. Odd or unnatural hand poses detract heavily from your overall piece. Most people avoid drawing hands because of this.

The thumb flexes along a different plane than the four fingers and sits on its own deviant metacarpal. Drawing the hand in perspective is hard enough, but adding the thumb in relation to the rest of the hand at a convincing angle? Forget about it!

Hands are typically simplified into box and cylinder forms, but almost every part of the hand is a combination of angles and curves. No one simplified form really describes these parts.

Hands interact with other objects, like all the time. They’re tricky enough to draw on their own… this isn’t helping anyone.

Hands have a lot of bony landmarks, veins, and tendons, all visible at the surface level. These are obstacles when trying to render them realistically.

Hands are asymmetrical from every angle. Every part, every time.

I think that about covers the major issues we face when trying to draw hands. Now here are some observations and facts that you can use to fight back!

The width of the first three fingers (index, middle and ring) is the same as the width of the wrist. The pinky and thumb both emanate from the parts of the palm that overhang this line.

The palm of the hand is more of a pentagon than a rectangle (Thanks, Jim Lee!).

The length of the middle finger is approximately the same as the length and width of the palm.

The length of the phalanxes (finger bones in this case) diminishes in size as they get further from the palm. The second (middle) phalanx is 2/3 the length of the first (proximal), and the third (distal) is 2/3 the length of the second. You don’t really notice this since the first knuckle is “inside” the palm and we tend to think of the fingers as starting at the “finger crotch”.

The thumb has no middle phalanx, only a proximal and a distal one.

The thumb is rotated 90 degrees from the angle of the four fingers. So the fingernails point “up” and the thumbnail points “to the side”. This obviously changes depending on the pose, but the thumbnail never really points “up” with the other fingernails unless it is bent backwards, as in poses when all five fingers are pressed against a flat surface. It never really points “down” unless the hand is clamping or pinching… or operating a sock puppet.

The thumb has to sit lower than the palm so that it can flex underneath the hand. The first knuckle of the thumb is almost as far below the index finger as the pinky is far away from the index finger.

The “webbing” of the thumb connects exactly half way up the palm.

Hands are asymmetrical from every angle. Every part, every time.

That is all the knowledge I have so far, and now you have it too! I don’t think any tutorial, video or otherwise, can ever teach you as much as the thousand observations you will make from drawing a thousand hands. There is no substitute for practice. So practice by looking at your hand from the normal vantage point, and from a mirror. Practice from 3D reference like the Handy Art Tool. Practice by copying other artists and animators whose hands appeal to you. Most of all, practice from imagination. PRACTICE! Below is every reference that I can remember that I’ve personally used while practicing hands:

http://www.handyarttool.com/

http://youtu.be/BAQb-5VKxmg

http://nk-chan.deviantart.com/art/mini-hand-tutorial-68320552

http://kibbitzer.deviantart.com/art/Hands-Reference-321600866

http://kibbitzer.deviantart.com/art/Hands-Reference-2-322546252

http://kibbitzer.deviantart.com/art/Hands-Reference-3-330102275

http://kibbitzer.deviantart.com/art/Hands-reference-4-428109721

http://characterdesignnotes.blogspot.com/2010/09/hand-reference.html

http://characterdesignnotes.blogspot.com/2010/09/hand-reference-part-two.html

http://characterdesignnotes.blogspot.com/2010/11/hand-reference-part-three.html

Do me a favor and share this around, will you? We could all use more light shed on this subject. -Aaron

I have two questions! First: have you ever thought of doing a tarot card suit for your characters? I think it'd work really well for them! And two: help me how do I draw legs

@gravitality

Hi!! I’ve absolutely been thinking about that, yeah, in fact I recently talked about that to my boyfriend just recently. It’ll likely happen after october! And to answer your second question! I made a thing on legs that i hope you’ll find useful!!

So. I’ve already explained basics on legs here, but I don’t think it hurts to go through some extra details to help you understand legs some more.

The very basic thing is to imagine legs as teardrops. Again, this has already been covered in said tutorial above, but I figured it’s still good to mention even the most basic thing that I know of. I still highly recommend you check it out to get in more detail and to see some other examples and practices that you do. But basically, think of legs in the shapes of teardrops, when it comes to shape. If you need a simple stick-figure to connect the legs in the first place, make sure that they bend at the knees a bit so that the legs don’t come off as stiff and unnatural. 

As you can see, this method works perfectly for realistic legs as it does for stylistic ones. Remember to use these as a guideline, never to be the exact base of the legs you will be drawing. If you draw traditionally, remember not to draw these guides too hard, or they will be hard to erase/do freestyle!

But how do you actually draw out the legs without drawing them perfectly straight, as shown to the left? The trick is to add volume to them, and how you do that can be winged to your own liking. The idea is to think in curves. As no leg is perfectly straight. You may make these curves minimal if you don’t want them to be curvy, but keep in mind, still, that not even your own bones are perfectly straight, so it is highly recommended that you make them bend, at least a little. 

It all depends on how you draw them as well. Say you put your legs together, as shown in this picture, what happens to the fat and muscle? Naturally, they press together, much like how thighs squish on the surface when you sit down (I’m sure most people know what I’m talking about). Make sure this shows in your art! This is very important to keep in mind, because it makes it all look more natural and believable. Try to cross your legs or stand up and sit down again for real-life examples!

The same applies for stretching your legs, more or less, except they appear to become more ‘hollow’ and slimmer. They become less soft to the touch, too, and might show. Try stretching your legs and feel where the muscles tense and where it feels ‘hollow’. This is very helpful with your art.

Many leg tutorials talk about legs without mentioning the behind. It requires a tutorial on it’s own, in all honesty, but this is the most simplest way to draw it connecting to the legs. Remember that it comes in many different shapes, and this is just a super basic guide! Two circles overlapping, while following the line and flow of the legs. Remember the muscle/fat as mentioned above!

Okay, so we got the basics of leg shapes figured out? What if you want o draw them in a certain pose, or with a certain silhouette, but perhaps do not have the reference for it? Or you want to blend your style into it? The key is to not shy away from doodling the form. Make mess, draw lightly and don’t care about the anatomy. That way you’ll get everything down without it appearing stiff. You can clean up the sketch later, always, and if you can, use a reference after you have drawn your pose, to correct your drawing.

Remember that the hips do a lot to the pose of the legs! Make sure they are in flow with your legs, so that it can look more natural. Remembers that hips ‘rotate’ with the spine.

I’ve talked about this method before when it comes to posing, and the same applies for the legs. One way to make legs appear ‘steady’ is to picture them standing in a line, and one of those legs need not to stray from the lines too much, making it steady. If you want a dynamic pose despite the steady pose, you can always have the other leg stray from the line, since it only matters that one leg is steady. This method can create good, casual poses without making them appear boring. (also notice how the teardrop shapes are used here, despite the highly stylized legs)

Do you want a highly dynamic pose, or them to appear unsteady, then skip the line entirely and make both legs aim away from it completely. As you can see, the legs appear more moving, in action, as if they’re fighting, falling, or dancing. As you can imagine, this is not a pose that one could stay steady on, suggesting that it’s taken mid-movement. More about posing and this ‘line’ method is talked about in this tutorial.

Hope this helped you, if you have any questions let me know, and if you’d like to check out all my tutorials they can be found here!

think I’ll take a break now from art’ing and brush up on my knowledge of how things work and connect… specially arms… urgh…..

They have a regular customer now☺️...

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Photo by @yunyun160

💀 zipping from wow i can’t for shit i’m so sad abt it all look at this and hey okay it wasnt actually so bad and hey it’s looking good and hey doing this constructing step step thing is kinda working out to getting motivated by vids and doing quick poses and oh wow i’m getting hang of it yay to lets goooo and back to wtf i can’t draw shit man i want to cryyyy

alright I have to say it’s kind of funny that I have been wanting to do some lil art like figure pracs but honestly couldn’t be bothered to try to, just no energy/want for it. but as soon as I opened MM to reread for fic purposes…. I got the urge to draw them….!

—okay to be honest… I already wanted got urges to draw the characters before while reading but I was in my Art Needed Break then sooooo. time to do so now and OH MY GOD. I want to squeeze Ian cuz my guy why the f was so diff to draw :’ I wanted to cry at one point but also I do like how pretty he is… n that eyelash… I love drawing his eyes… too… and I think(?) I’ve finally got the hang of drawing him…

—and HA…. the problem really lines on how tch this art style (not really trying to copy the artsyle but get close to it to get more likeness of characters….) and yeah it is hard to get… also it doesn’t help the hair are like complicated shit. well more complicated than the scribbles I do 😫 I think I might have to actually study to do the hair properly 😔 but I at least I got the gist of it……?

—also I do think it’s funny how it took me more than one face drawing to try and get Ian sort of right but lol with sliver boy, I drew him once and was like…?! I already felt like I got the likeness. that was pretty funny. I mean I kinda did feel like I got likeness sort offff for angel boy but hmmmmmmm. it was yknow not enough. also I think it was hard trying to capture for him the feeling of his which was like “narrow/pointy/small” and not to mention the bumps that the artists likes to use…

—also his eyes are pretty hard to get down, I mean I kinda got the gist but it’s different when drawing it with the face. I feel like my separate lil eye studies were better… either way. looking at some fanart, I realised that it’s fine…?! anyways if I don’t get it alll right. it’s cool. I think I just need to get the hair exactly right or more right and that’s fine 😌. I drew him without looking at the source and yknow I think I got him somewhat down also I do think it’s so funny seeing the both of them in together since angel boy looks more finished/pretty then sliver boy LMAO. I guess it’s obvs which one I like drawing more despite how harder it is…. BUT I WILL GET TO YOU SLIVER BOY….

—anyways I think this was fun to do anyways. I don’t usually draw in this style (lol im influenced a lot by naru), but it was fun… and I really do like how the eyes look…. it’s so nice drawing in them… they’re soooo pretty. while🍥 artsyule holds my heart, I have to say ft artsyle is genuinely one of my faves. every time I see it I want so badly draw all the characters!!!! (especially want to get down to drawing dragon fire boy and armour girl!!!!!! ahhhh they’re gonna be so<3 cuz honestly I think that im getting well I wouldn’t say bored but I think that my recent juv stuff isn’t really sparking the same funness as it was in the beginning… I don’t think I’ve really captured what drew and made me love her design so freakin much and just makes me kinda sad ngl… but I WANNA GET THERE ONE DSY!!!! also man I really have to draw armour!!!!!!! girl!!!!! her design is just. idk WHAT it is but second fav… I think it’s just her general vibe ahhhhhh… also weirdly. I love dragon fire boy for his hair 💀 me? wanting to draw something? for hair? yeah I know NDJDKKD but I really love how hair…… I honestly did draw these two (dragon fire boy n armour girl years ago but ah sadly I lost those art but I remember drawing them…..) anyways yeahhhh….!!!!! im excited to get them I mean. I did doodle in dragon fire boy during ft doodle session but it wasn’t really proper stuff.

—to not get derailed: I’ve been only drawing MM faces to get used to it and it’s been really just straight on to…. Like yeahhhh I drew side view and 3/4 which uhhhhh wasn’t great but yeahhhh I probs should prac that but cba too. Also I kinda want to more draw them in poses…… I kinda have general idea of a scene to draw….. but also cba to do that right now. my energy is low. I probs should get back to rereading and lol to that fic’ing idea… 8.44 also ahhh I do want to get back to my onoe face prac (I WILL GET HIM DOWN) so I can draw one of my fav otps ever hehehe and be the only person in fandom lmaooooo. 8.45

oh jeez. here’s comes the highlight of the day n the biggest/crazy part. okay well it’s not really crazy but feels like TO ME.

THE GAA PIECE!!!!! REMMEBER HOW I WANTED TO WORK ON IT!!!!! I FINALLY DID!!!!!’ WHOOOOP WHOOOOPP. how fitting it is that I do it, one day before the d-day ahaha ♥️

—I had like general idea of focusing on the guy with him bending like to get some kind of present and bending poses are like. the bane of my existence ngl. so I had to find refs and ha……..as I knew that refs didn’t exist. like I mean I couldn’t find it. where hell is my “bending slightly” ref pose?! none that’s where. so I just had to start it without it.

—so. the pose. 😐 I tried many attempts (it was two/three) and while while it looks kinda bending over. it felt too much or just — was off. but THEN…. OMG… I don’t even know where it came from (wait I think it was from general idea of robo/bean method I saw on proko vid) I just used two circles that are overalapping and made sure that one was more bending over and that fixed it???! I GOT IT IT???????? im freaking awesome that’s what. ahahah

—yeah yeah as you can see from my notes the pose wasn’t perfect felt off and stuff but anyways. yeah intially I had the idea of him actually bending to receive the present and it would be maybeee ambiguous who it is or maybe it’s the son. and like had floating ideas of sibs being there. but when I got to drawing the going to recieve the present, I was like hmmm. maybe it’s best that he’s already received it and has it in hand kind of scene? and I decided to just go with the son being in foreground (large) who is the one whl gave it.

—here is (above) my rough first sketch of the idea where I redraw the pose (using heh new method to do bending pose….!!! <333) and this time he’s like holding the present or whatever and did scribble of the son in then foreground. I couldn’t be bothered for actual trying to draw in son in foreground like that. like no.

—after that I went over to drawing over and doing the clothes and more finalised sketch and I was really liking it!!! it was coming along VERY nicely. but well. yeah there was a lot to do and focus as I did the notes there. but that was for future me….. sigh I think I knew on some level that this wasn’t just gonna work out. but well it doesn’t hurt to try you know.

—I came back after a bit, procrastinating really cuz I did NOT wanna draw this guy in foreground…! I knew how it’s gonna be like. but yeah I did get around to doing it. practice n shit first. well it’s not really practice lol.

—it was just trying to get an overall feel for how things should be placed/be like and it was just blocks that I was working with to help figure stuff out and yeah I don’t think I knew what I was doing but thought I gist of it (yeah. No. I didn’t 😔)

—yeah and then I drew pose for the son so I can get a feel for how the pose would be like and lololol it did feel… for the gesture… so stiff… I think it might have to do with how there’s no diff angles. I guess. and hey… you know what. looking at this now. it’s not actually bad…….? I think maybe there should be a more an overlap but not bad and I do think lol gaa is looking super awkward with his posing. looking at the sketch of the pose I can see it might have to do with how weirdly out the pelvis is…? when it feels like he’s not really bending over in this one hmmm. but anyways im happy to know that I can still came back to this one.

—anyways I did do a draw over the son pose and my GOSH was it hard to even try to find 💀💀💀💀 ref… I don’t know how to draw the stupid back of his or his clothes. and well. I guess that he would be wearing more casual clothes anyways but well. whatever.

—yeah after doing this I realised. yeah no sadly this is Was not going to work out 💀💀💀💀💀 (but like I said looking at this now from the future it’s the not bad??? I think may haps be too much distance between them butttt??? Also yeah the son’s pose looks weirdly stiff but yeah.)

—I was initially going to for a similar thing (going to reach for presents/holding presents) but well. I did try to doodle something after that but I was like. maybe I need to step back and think properly and stuff……

and so came the second idea….!!!!!!

Remember how I said I wasn’t gonna do anything for today welllllllll.

— like okay first of all, I thought not doing anything today for the sake of not doing anything was kinda a waste since I didn’t want to go out of prac for no reason. lol remember those days I took off drawing prac in dec and yeah ahahah it showed when I got back into it

— also I saw this vid of someone prac art and it got me really fired up; also man being surrounded by all these good art also made me so jealous and want to get better so. yeah<3

—one thing I learned today, while trying to get of drawing the rectangles, is to imagine the way the limbs are gonna be like before I put pen to paper. it’s really important and helps a lot. and also realised it’s really helpful to have stick figures or rough sketching to figure out pose or whatever but it also doesn’t mean that I have to draw over it, since it loooks better when I redraw it knowing how the pose looks like…

— also when doing my pracs from ref… I tried to adjust the pose in some way so keep practicing imagination stuff. and like to challenge myself and to see like where I need weak one. also realised that why some of this is getting boring is cuz I’m not doing more challenging angles and diff stuff so that’s def up for when doing prac for next time

— also tried to get in some clothes prac. I wanna watch some clothes/folding stuff to get better understanding of it all. I didn’t get to doing that since I wanted to leave clothing prac for when I’m ready/wanted to and well! the time is now ahaha… also while trying to diff pose prac I also realised I barely do!!! any back poses!!!

— so I had to get those in…. and ahahah yeah I’m def out of practice with those…

— while doing figure pracs, I really did want to draw some characters… but ehhhh o really couldn’t be bothered to change the canvas to diff folders… anyways I did end up going to this prev ideas I had and… well I wanted to try to redraw it and it’s nice before the redraw to see this art from two months ago and see already what’s wrong with it… and ahhh the satisfaction to able to just draw it… I even did figure scribble next to it to figure out how I wanted the legs and stuff… and ahhhh it really was so satisfying to see how quickly I get get it down and the way it wasn’t any struggle at all to draw compared to before. IM REALLY FEELING THE PROGRESS!!!! It made me want to look at other old stuff and wow yeah. But also mannn this is ALSO why I wanna draw!!!!!!! Cuz I can just see it and feel the greatest satisfaction of “improvement” ahahah

— cuz wow I def feel like I don’t have enough of this bad art!!!! I need to create more stuff!!!!! but i guess problem is that while I want to… I can’t also be bothered with steps to getting to the canvas lololol.

— I did end up, drafting some ss comic…

— I had some idea but realised quickly how vague it was, so i tried to scribble down some situations and got something… and ahahah this is good to get in background prac… and comic too…. after first draft my energy levels reached zero for this and I couldn’t be bothered to continue at that time…. I think this is cuz I wanted to keep those drafts and not erase and rub over it…,. so next time I think it’s best to already keep some kind of squares for diff drafts so I can just already draw into it… thing I wanted to keep in mind while drawing this comic: is to not keep thinks complicated while chasing that “perfect” comic I want… cuz I think it’s fine to have comics I’m not satisfied with… and to keep it “simple” too… its way I can learn and to not get caught up in details…

— I remember this redraw I wanted to do of the anime watch.,, and ahahaha I got distracted a bit and so there was like only two mins of the day left and lololol I quickly sketched it in… I feel like this will be a good prac for background awareness…. and keeping characters interacting with the background and well hmmm. I don’t think I wanna to a 1.1 redraw. I wanted something that would capture what I really liked of the moment and wanted to redraw but don’t know how to do that yet. I just thought they looked super cute n funny/adorable how they were peaking out from the stones ahahah… and as to how I would try to capture that feeling in my redraw… no clue but something to think on I guess

FOR TMMR!!!! I really want to get in more character interactions prac and I just wanna draw characters,.. and I want to get in some face/expression pracs in diff angles too!! I totally forgot about those….

ahhhh came across other peoples figure practices and im so jealous…. It looks so good….

but at the same time i know that my practice now isn’t like an effective method. if o wanted to get better… i should study forms of ribcage n pelvis and how they interaction in diff poses/angles and the forms of the muscles on them….. but at the same I really can’t be bothered with stuff like that so my skill level makes sense but ahhhhh its gets to me some times fjfjjfkdkdk. I feel like best way to motive me is to just draw character shit and be like fckkkk if I want to draw this I have to be able to learn how to…… but also drawing character shit is takes Effort and I can’t be bothered either right now…. But to give myself credit I did a lot of character drawings (okay it was two recently but i also did a lot of stuff last month!!! so!!!!) im actually doing a lot 😌

and I DID get better!!!!!!!!!! like two months ago…. I couldn’t do shit…. as I can now 😌

just stuff I have to consistently remind myself when I get depressed about this stuff ahahaha