Any Tips On How To Start Out Drawing? I'd Love To Be Able To Just Start Being Able To Doodle Characters

shading colour tips

hey yall its me the Art Mom™ to help you shade pretty

rule 1: DO NOT SHADE WITH BLACK. EVER. IT NEVER LOOKS GOOD. 

red- shade with a slightly darker shade of purple

orange- slightly darker and more saturated shade of red

yellow- i think like..a peach could work but make it a really light peach

green- shade with darker and less saturated shade of blue or teal

blue- shade with purple

purple- a shade thats darker than the purple you’re using and maybe a little pink (MAYBE blue)

pink- darker shade of red

white- a really light lavender or blue..or i guess any really light colour??

black- okay listen dont use pure black to colour anything unless you want to leave it with flat colours because you cant really shade black lol

grey- a slightly darker shade of purple or blue (less saturated)

brown- slightly darker and less saturated shade of purple or red

aaaaand thats all i got lol. let me know if there is anything i should add to this list!!

LITERALLY the most Lynch thing i’ve seen

No one asked but here’s a brief tutorial on digital underpainting and how it can add some extra flavor to your art!

(I got asked this a couple times so just to clarify: I used “overlay” in the second slide… but the rest of these examples are JUST painted on, no effects! Try playing with the opacity on your pencil/water/brush tool to allow the base color to show through!)

i have an arty question. what program do you us, how do you shade? i'm actually in love with your art style and i was wondering for some time if you could give away any tips :) i just started digtal art and i can't draw as good as i do on paper so anything is helpful

Oooh buddy, I LOVE making tutorials and explaining my way of drawing so prepare for a long (and hopefully helpful) post! >:D 

Ok so first of all: I use Clip Studio paint pro and a simple Bamboo Manga Tablet from Wacom. (I’ve been using this tablet for 8 years now and it still works perfectly fine and never gave me any trouble!~ It has a great pen pressure, setting it up is very easy and it’s not super expensive) 

I tried many different art programs and Clip Studio (back then it was called mangastudio 5) is still my absolute favorite. It provides you with everything you need as an artist, is very easy to understand and not as overpriced as other programs (I’m looking at you photoshop). So if you don’t have a lot of money (like me, I’m fucking poor X’D) and still want something of quality I’d definitely recommend it.

Time for the brushes:

My main brush for outlines and sketches

My absolute fav brush for shading (Opacity is around 40%)

The 2 brushes that are displayed up here are part of a set that you can download for free on this page. I love them for their rough look and they fit my sketchy art style perfectly. Sadly I can’t find the original set anymore but I made screenshots of their names:

I cannot stress this enough but you should always download new brushes and try them out. And this page is perfect for that (nearly all of them are free)! Using new brushes and combining different ones can give your art so much more personality.

But just a quick tip. I know that the range of brushes is gigantic and can be quite overwhelming. So download everything that might interest you, try them all out and only keep as little as possible! Having too many brushes will confuse you and you’ll spend more time searching through them than drawing. I’ve downloaded over 400 and only kept around 20. I only use 2 of them for my drawings and the rest is for manga backgrounds and action lines. 

Now for the drawing itself:

I’m a quick artist and I care more about speed than quality. I always hated making multiple sketches so I’ll just draw the outlines

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and fix them up without a previous sketch or making a new layer. That’s why most of my drawings look very rough and don’t have a clean look. (but I like that~)

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For the color, I just fill in the entire picture with a neutral looking color and use the bucket tool to remove every unwanted color around the drawing. That way you won’t have any white pixelated edges inside your drawing and can add other colors quickly (again, with the bucket) without having to draw every single color per hand. Saves time and looks fine. 

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For shading (in this case his skin) I’ll combine the skin color with the color that I’ll use for shading inside this net. That way I can choose from multiple options to find the perfect color. ~

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At first I’ll add rough shadows with dark red (Opacity 60%)

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And then smooth them out with a lighter red. (Opacity 40%)

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Now I’ll quickly add the last details and a few white spots on his hair and skin to give him a more realistic look

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And you’re done! :D This took me about 15 minutes. But remember, you don’t have to be super quick. Draw at your own speed and use the style that’s the most fun for you! If you want to draw carefully with multiple layers and have clear outlines with many details then do it! Every person is different :D The most important thing is that you have fun!~

Quick art tip - child proportions

Ok this is a real quick one but let me show you how to get more-or-less accurate sizes for child characters. Kids are tricky to draw, they are - from toddler up to about teens people change radically almost every year so pinpointing character’s size during those years is pure hell.

What you need to do to make everything super easy for yourself is to check their Head Proportion. What makes kids look like - well, kids, is that their heads are proportionally large in comparison to their body.

Average adult is about 7,5 heads tall in comparison to their own body, however with children under 10 that number is just under 6 heads with about 1 head shorter the younger you go down to 3 heads as an infant.

Easiest way to figure the so-so head-height of a certain age is to find images of said age group and do a quick count on them

at which after you can replicate it in your own works - don’t mind if it’s not 1:1 with reference, finding images that are actually of the age you need is tricky and kids in general vary a lot so someone might be a lot taller than others. You have a bout  0,5 -1 heads of wiggle room before it starts to look way older.

Proportions are super important in art and i lovingly recommend everyone to figure out basics of them - it’s the easiest way to get notifically better with art. I could go on about proportions but let’s wrap this up. Need to note however that head proportion is not same as character height - a character can be 15 feet tall but still have head-height of 6, HH is simply a way to scale out the body.

So many of you asked for a tutorial on how I paint faces/ add a light source, so here you go! 😍 Let me know if you guys have any feedback or if you want to try it yourself! 💜

If you struggle drawing heads in different angles watch this!

OMG I found this video and it is a absolute goldmine! Its filmed by a Disney story board artist and they make drawing heads in any angle easy! now granted it takes practice to get this technique down but it soooooo helps.

The video below goes into deep details.

Face tutorial for Anon!

I wasn’t sure whether you meant heads or facial expressions, so here’s a very basic head tutorial! Of course not all faces are the same so proportions and the size of ears/eyes/noses etc. can vary! Feel free to explore and play with them to create unique and interesting characters! I hope this is somewhat helpful, and let me know if you’d like a tutorial on expressions as well!

Things you can say in response to literally anything, when you have nothing else to say:

As the prophecy foretold.

But at what cost?

So let it be written; so let it be done.

So…it has come to this.

That’s just what he/she/they would’ve said.

Is this why fate brought us together?

And thus, I die.

…just like in my dream…

Be that as it may, still may it be as it may be.

There is no escape from destiny.

Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen.

In this economy?

…and then the wolves came.