How I draw with structure vs Draw freehand.
This is just something I noticed when I draw with friends who don't draw much. They have a tendency to start with the eyes. There isn't anything wrong with that, however it makes thing harder for yourself. That is unless you're a experience artist in drawing a style, then you pretty much do everything in your head. I know artist that can draw Wolverine perfectly starting from like..the ear xD. The important thing is proportion and being used to them.
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Drawing from the eye:
Let's say I want to draw Conan today. Because Conan's eyes are fantabbyabulous I start there.
The problem is what I do after. Let's draw the next eye.
Hmm maybe it's a bit too close. Since that eye I drew is so pretty I don't want to erase it...let's erase the other one instead. Thank goodness I didn't detail it yet. After a while of trial and error and staring at reference I get the rest of the features down.
But hmm how far apart is the face? Where should the line go. I'll just make a rough guess.
Hmm it's a bit wide I think, but I'm not sure how to fix it exactly. People should be able to tell that it's Conan though. So maybe I should just continue down. But how wide is the shoulder...? The head is finished so I don't want to move it!
And then I get kinda stuck and just leave it lol. /eh it's good enough quit
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Drawing stucturally
I'm much better drawing stucturally since I'm not comfortable with Gosho proportions (it's strangeee lol). I still don't really use Gosho's proportions, for Conan I make up my own:
I want to draw Conan checking something out at the crime scene. I draw the circle and a CENTER LINE to show which way Conan is facing, then I drop down to draw the chin. I add the rib cage, the neck and the arms. <DRAW LIGHTLY>
I very simply put the features down. CIRCLES for the eyesockets, a line for where the hair begine. Simple so it's easy to erase and change. Notice that I don't just focus on the head. The hand and the prop is also important. <DRAW LIGHTLY STILL>
I don't like the hand so I change it, I also add eyelid, some expression to the face and hmm I don't like the other arm at all...let me think <Draw slightly darker>
I decide that Conan is holding a test tube and a swab. I roughly block in what the eyes will look like though I'm open to change it anytime. I make sure to measure the length of the arm against each other so it's more or less the same keeping in mind foreshortening. Notice that I don't care about detail of the hand too much yet.
The head is too small and makes him look too mature. Starting to use MULTIPLE REFERENCES here to fix the eyes the hands the hair etc... Try NOT to copy your reference! Keep to your original idea. <use pencil to draw slightly darker with more precision>
Built the hand from self reference (hence why it kinda sucks lol, I don't have a camera atm) add slight detail to suit, use reference for hair. Sign. Clean up drawing if needed. I'm not since this is just a rough sketch.
If I decide to build the rest of the body. Adding the pelvis and using cylinders for the legs, it's easy to quickly rough in the idea~
That's my process for sketching. I hope this gave you something to think about~