Thanqol Learns 2 Draw: Every Step Is The First

[Thanqol]

Lots of nicely shaded... balls.

Like a custom protein molecule gone haywire.

That's what she... said?

Though besides looking only moderately like actual grapes, the pic looks good. The grapes stand out, both through color and the sort of depth-of-field effect you got there, so it's pretty nice, and just pretty.

Good good. Good-good-good.

...they really do look like grapes. There is a consistent light source and a generally consistent shading based on that light source. That was part of the reason for the exercise. But the piece itself, as art, is very nice. I appreciate it. Thank you, Thanqol.

Always welcome

Day 376: I can hardly express...

Ah thank goodness, today I learned the most valuable thing you can possibly learn for drawing three dimensional heads. Indicated in the picture.

And starting on expressions! Hmmm~ this is going to be a tough one, I can tell that from the outset. One of those things that only long, long practise and study can get consistent. I'm looking forwards to it, though, because I'm tired of slack-jawed generic expressions and the Determined Stare as being the only two moves in my repertoire. What makes the really fun artists, in my eyes, is having lots of very vibrantly expressive characters. It's an essential part of character design, which is still my overall top goal.

I think I'm going to change up a few things for my sketching process in the days ahead and as I move out of finals. Firstly, one unique expression and one body sketch are going to be permanent additions to the schedule. Secondly, I'm thinking I might start looking at the Team Fortress 2 characters as special case studies that I'll go through in detail. They all have enormously expressive faces and body shapes, and I think if I can get the nine of them down then I'll have a pretty good conceptual base to do other characters.

Finally, this sketching is really hard to do in long sustained bursts like I have been doing because it's just kind of tedious. Instead, I'm going to endeavour to have SAI open all the time and doodle in between other things rather than having sit down and grind sessions while I'm on sketchy conceptual stuff like this.

If anyone has anything to help me with expressions, I'd love to hear it. The Lackadaisy tutorial has been an astoundingly useful place to start, got any more?

Links

Time: 35 minutes
Music: Run Boy Run (seriously, watch this)