Kirite's confuzeling tutorials for drawing

[kirite 23]

Since I seem to epic fail at critiquing art works and explaining things. I decided to make a small tutorial thread in attempt to hopefully better explain what I mean. In this thread I will post tutorials and draw over (with your permission) your pictures.

Please note I don't know much about drawing either, I'm no professional. You don't have to take this very seriously xD. If you don't understand I'll try to explain better. Maybe I'll make a video.

[kirite 23]

Tutorial 1. A way of copying a drawing accurately.

This tutorial will cover basic measuring, point to point drawing and plumb lines.

NOTE: This is mucheasier to do with pencil and paper. I'm only doing it on computer because I have no scanner. No matter what you're using please look up tutorials to how to measure with your pencil. Such as this on http://www.ehow.com/how_5511040_use-pencil-measure-drawing.html

Also I would recommend drawing something easier then this at the beginning. Haibara is kinda complicated xD. Try drawing a box or something~ Don't expect to get it perfect the first time, this is very difficult skill to learn!!!

Let's say I want to copy the drawing of Haibara in this picture. (note: try to get your hands on a bigger reference picture when you try this on your own)

Now some of you might just start at the eyes or the hair, then kinda guess the rest of the way. But there is actually a more accurate (but slower and more tedious) way of copying pictures. You don't have to follow all the steps exactly, just using 1 measuring skill might already improve your drawing!

Tip: A way to get really accurate drawing is to flip the Haibara picture upside down and copy it upside down. That way you will draw what you actually see and not what you think you see. I won't do that here though because I'm afraid it will confuse people looking at this tutorial lol.

First you want to figure out how Haibara fits in the picture.

Haibara's chin is in the center of the pic. Her hair is close to the edge. Her eyes are slanted, the top of 1 eye is the middle of the second one.

Lightly sketch these straight lines on your paper. Note that it's very important that these lines are STRAIGHT, they're crooked in my example because I fail at drawing on computer otz. These lines are called "plumb lines". They're a way to measure objects~

Now we want to find the exact location of where everything is located. We're going to do that by lightly making marks/dots at important points and drawing a straight line through the dots. This type of drawing is called "point to point drawing". We find the points by using those plumb lines I was talking about. Measuring with your pencil is important here!

The chin is around 1/6 the way up the picture, the cheek is around 2/6 the way across and the top of the head is around 1/4 the way across, etc... Of course this is all guessing ^^, try to get it close but it doesn't have to be perfect. We can always fix it later!

When your relatively comfortable with were the points are you can lightly put a STRAIGHT line through the points. We're just mapping out where everything is right now, so don't obsess over details. You can lightly curve the lines using multiple straight lines. That will make sure the curve is accurate.

So continue lightly putting dots in places you're not sure where things go. And lightly putting a line through it. You can use the points to get other points. For example some points are on the same horizontal as another point. You can also use your pencil to measure the angle of one point to another.

Note that I don't really put many points when I'm doing the hair. It's because I like to take liberties with the hair (it won't make her completely unrecognizable). However points such as the face and main spikey for the hair I will try to get as accurate as possible. If you're trying to get it "perfect" then you'll have to make points at the hair as well ^^.

Here's this step finished. Note that I didn't follow my plumb lines exactly, they're not very accurate since they're not straight. When you do this step I would recommend looking at the pictures upside down to make sure things are accurate!

Now pushing a little bit harder with your pencil, you're going to "draw" Haibara. It should be a bit easier now that you measure out where everything is! If you made mistakes on your measurement, it will be very apparent here. If that's the case go back and remeasure the things you think you didn't get right.

Erase the light pencil lines and you're finished!

Note that my copy isn't perfect at all xD haha. I still need to work on this. The face is really off haha.

Anyways here's my tutorial, I hope you learned a little bit.

- kirite <3

[Misaki-chan 164]

Cool! I think I'll try it! Good job on the tutorial kirite! XD

[Anti-APTX4869 181]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

That's what I needed!

I'll try these out and see if it works out better.

THANK YOU AGAIN!!

[phantomlady1101 59]

I... think I can't do it...

But I'll try...

Ha ha

[Shinichi Kodou 12]

Looks easy, simplifies the drawing issues i've been facing Thank you.

[kirite 23]

Thank you for looking at this thread everyone! I'm glad some of you find this helpful. /blush I'm very bad at explaining things so I'm glad you guys understand at least a bit of it ^^;

For those of you who think this is too complicated. I can just do a version where you guys just draw the picture and you check over the picture you drew with basic anatomy and measuring techniques. It'll be great if you have a reference or some kind.

If anyone has a picture I can use as an example in that tutorial that will be very helpful for me :>

[Officer Kaoko 142]

Kirite-chan!! This is so coool !

What a neat work! I love this thread <33

But sadly, I don't have a critique . I wanna save up for one though . And when I get it someday, I wanna get a special course from Kirite-chan ! <3

Edit: I will see if I can find any good pic : D

Edited June 14, 2011 by Officer Kaoko

[kirite 23]

Here's a tutorial I posted because someone on DCTP asked about manga colouring. I thought it might be useful here too ^^;

Here's a tutorial I posted on "Holmes study" forum back in the old days (get off my lawn you crazy kids!):

How to separate lineart from background in Photoshop:

Please note: This tutorial is based on the drawing program adobe photoshop. However I'm sure other programs can do it too. There are also many ways of doing this, this is just the way I've always done it (I'm sure this is outdated but please bare with me orz).

1. Open image. Make sure it's relatively clean. (If needed I'll post a small tutorial on how to clean lineart, but for now I'm guessing you guys will get a clean image or know how to clean images).

2. Go to Image> Mode and make sure the image is in "RGB colour" (note that Image is right beside File and Edit on the top of the program window)

3. Go to Window>CHANNELS to open the CHANNELS window. You'll see 4 layers in the channels window. RGB, Red, Green, and Blue.

4. Duplicate the Blue layer. You can do this one of two ways:

a ) Grab the blue layer with your mouse and drag it to the "new" square It's the box thingy beside the garbage can.

b ) Right click on the blue layer and select "duplicate channel"

5. Now you'll have the layer "Blue copy". Make sure it's selected (highlighted in blue) and has an eye thingy in the box beside it. Now press "CTRL-I" (apple logo key- I on mac) to invert the layer. You can see what that layer is suppose to look like on my final image below.

6. Now press the "Load channel as selection" also know as the "broken line circle thingy" beside the mask button. You should now have a selection of all the black lines in the image.

7. Now go to your LAYERS window and create a new layer. You can chose to make the bottom layer invisible now if you wish.

8. Now fill the image with Black (or whatever colour you wish) with the paint bucket tool. And we're done!

Now that your black lines are seperated from the background, you can paint the lines itself (selecting the lines by pressing ctrl or making a layer on top and pressing alt in between the layers), you can paint under it to make skin tone, you can do a different background....whatever you please.

If you don't understand a step feel free to ask. I hope you understand this.

-kirite <3

[Officer Kaoko 142]

Owww... thank you, thank you, kirite-chan! I just started using photoshop so this tutorials really helps me a lot !

[kirite 23]

Good luck on using photoshop Kaoko-chan \o/

Here's my mini tutorial, another technique to copy pictures.

How to use negative space and positive space to check your copy picture:

The area coloured in PINK is the area we're used to seeing and drawing. This is called "positive space",

The area coloured in BLUE is called NEGATIVE SPACE. In this case the negative space is the background, people sometimes forget that a like the positive space, it's important to draw the negative space correctly as well! When I draw I tend to check both positive and negative spaces, when you change between them it'll give you a fresh perspective on things that you thought were correct : >.

Now I'll show you a practical example of how this can be used. I think Cure-kun from DCW for volunteering his pictures for my tutorials \o/. Thank you so much <3!

Let's say the drawn version of Heiji's hair is bothering you, but when you look at the measurements and positive space you're not sure what's wrong.

If you compare the shape of the negative space (shown in red) you can see where the difference is much clearer. It's just comparing the shape of two triangles instead of the shape of two Heiji hairs.

Of course negative space can get complicated too xD. But try your best to compare them~ you can use it to see wrong angles you previously missed : ).

Of course negative/positive space viewing skill doesn't only have to apply to the whole figure of Shinichi and Heiji vs background. It can be as small as wanting to check the shape of Shinichi's neck against his shirt and jacket. Use this skill whenever you feel like you need to compare shapes and angles.

Best of luck <3

-kirite

[Anti-APTX4869 181]

This is awesome kirite!

You can always use my drawings anytime! (I really don't mind)

Thank you! (+rep)

Now I see my mistakes!

[kirite 23]

I'm working on a tutorial right now since I saw some members talking about not being able to draw folds, I'm just going to write down some notes for now since I'm too busy to make a full tutorial.

For everyone who's in the Toronto area, I hope you check out Imaginism's SUBWAY SKETCHING on sunday afternoons! Most of what I learn is from the people there, I learn especially from T-bear : ).

Drawing folds:

-To draw folds you must first understand what creates the folds. For example imagine the shoulder as a ball and now picture a cloth on the ball. What doe the cloth look it? Why is it this way? The folds are being created because the ball is pushing the cloth up while gravity is pushing the cloth down. If you study what's pushing and pulling and folding the fabric, it will give you a better idea to where to draw the folds.

-Folds are nothing to be scared of. They always act more of less the same way, they all look different in the DETAILS, but they're underlying structure can be understood.

-The more lines you add to your folds, the more likely you will confuse the viewer.

[kirite 23]

asdf, I can't seem to find the images I'm planning for this tutorial, so I shall do the written portion for now~

Some critical thinking:

Say you want to draw a Christmas present. On this Christmas present there will be a pretty red bow and wrapping paper with little christmas trees on it.

Now how would you start drawing this present? Would you start with the bow? Would you start drawing the trees on the wrapping paper?

There are many ways of drawing it, but for myself I like to start with BIG SHAPES. I would first draw the BOX, then draw the BOW on the box, then decorate the box by drawing trees on the side of the box.

In the same way when I draw CONAN, I would start with the shape of the body, then the head shape, THEN I would add the eyes, nose, and hair.

By drawing this way, it is easier to not make mistake and keep 2 or more characters consistent size.

(Drawing examples coming up)

If you don't feel comfortable with drawing the big shape, an excellent way of getting the hang of it is to draw over drawings. Note that you're not COPYING EVERYTHING. You're just trying to figure out what Conan's head and body look like.

[angelranchan 56]

sugoii! thanks a lot! <3

[redangelran 29]

wow. thank you kirite. awesome~

[vawli 43]

Wow! This will help alot thanks!

[kirite 23]

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.

---

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

---

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~

[MadelineLime 45]

Most people do start with the eyes. As a rule of thumb, straight on eyes are an eye width apart, unless you're like me and it's actually less than that. Yes, I am a mutant. XD

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.

I'll be honest, as an artist and knowing many, many artists, I have never known a single one who can draw exactly what they imagine things to be in their head. I also don't think any of them "draw" in their head, and then do the exact same thing on paper. If someone has the ability to start from any point and draw it straight up, that is more of a photographic memory or a memorization of the anatomy and ability to read where things should go from there. Most artists have to block out the form, starting from the basic gesture as you showed here.

[kirite 23]

Haha I didn't believe it myself but when I went to comic con and watch some of the marvel artist draw they start drawing from some really hilarious places (nose, super detailed arm). It blew my mind stupid until I realized they must have drew this like 100000 times lol. Still I agree, most of my most fav comic artist will start off with a rough figure too.

For eye width I found it useful personally. I find it hard for me to tell anime artist how to use it though because their eyes are so strange and varied lol. So I think for artist who think of the real eye when they draw anime the eye measurement is useful.

5 eyes across the head, 5 eyes from the nose to the dip in the clavicle, the 5 eyes down to the end of the sternum. Of course this is just a general proportion, everyone is different.

[Anti-APTX4869 181]

Ohh! new one!

So I'll take a note of this...

I got used to estimating eye width as I drew over the past... idk. somewhere after I started drawing for DCW.

Kirite's expert advise about copying picture and the negative and positive space helped me a lot in drawing...

For the figures, I got the basic body and the head, but I still have trouble with hands and visualizing in some dimensions... and sometimes clothing around the neck like collars and hoodies.