Hello!! This May Be A Weird Question But I Too Am Heavily Interested In Birds But Unlike You, I Cannot

Hello!! This may be a weird question but I too am heavily interested in birds but unlike you, I cannot draw them as well. :,^( If it's not too much work (if it is just ignore this, i don't mind), do you know of any good references or sources to learn more about birds from facts to anatomy? I know this is a pretty wide range so again, I totally understand if you can't! I just thought it was worth an ask. Thank you so much!!

i don’t really have any specific reference places but here’s some things i do.

drawing birds is arguably one of the hardest animals because of their feathers. unlike fat and fur that folds to the body in a way that’s usually readable to whats underneath, feathers sort of create a ‘bubble’ around the body which makes a lot of body parts indistinguishable to where one ends and another begins. so its important to always think in terms of skeletal anatomy:

birds are dinosaurs and therefore reptiles. looking at birds this way, it’s a lot easier to see their evolution.

with that in mind, say we wanna draw this dude. owls are pretty tough because their outward appearances are so deceiving.

we’ve got a neutral pose, feathers are generously surrounding most of the body so its no sweat, we don’t really know whats going on. but we can hide it. but now we want to make him move and look cool. without really knowing whats going on we might get stuck on something like this:

Hello!! This May Be A Weird Question But I Too Am Heavily Interested In Birds But Unlike You, I Cannot

its always kind of stiff and frustratingly unrealistic. mostly this is because we just don’t have enough knowledge of the skeletal structure to work with. eyeballing anatomy on our first drawing might get something like the left, more than anything people aren’t generous enough with leginess of birds:

owls do indeed have regular proportioned necks with the rest of their bodies. and their skulls are like that of any other stereotypical raptor under their mask of feathers (minus their freaky eye sockets and ears)) they can open their mouths wide just like a hawk or eagle can. it’s important to remember that birds with large wingspans do not magically lose their length when hidden. they are just conveniently folded in against their bodies.

knowing this we can try again. suddenly things seem to click in place more and have a believable-ness to them.

the rule of thumb for most birds is they have less body mass and more leg/neck than one thinks. they are lanky dinosaurs.

when we are looking at this:

we are seeing this:

with that rule, drawing birds becomes a lot less confusing. with practice you might just eyeball their feathered appearances but if not, going back to skeletal/muscle structure gives the base you need to draw convincing birds.

when it comes to specific body parts, the most challenging part for me personally have always been feet. birds with super twiggy feet are easier because one line per toe is easy to get away with. but when you get to birds with meatier feet, especially raptors, it gets difficult. my way of getting around this is to think of the actual ‘feet’ last. drawing each separate toe first gets confusing because you just find yourself trying to get them to each fit evenly together at the base of the foot. one always seems kind of skinnier or fatter than the others in my experiences, and by the time you correct it the gesture gets muddled and lost.

so i just skip that part until later, i draw talon first.

perhaps this is very unorthodox, but just like artists might square in the hands first on a human before working out the arms, i square in the talons to know where i want them before worrying how they go on exactly.

that way we have a clear gesture captured, and in my experience it is much more readable.

thats’ really all i can think of now in terms of my techniques, i hope this helps :V

Gradient Textures + Simple Ocean Simulation (Blender)

something that i like to do when im strapped for creativity is to open up Blender and make a little stylized ocean wave sim, like these

they’re super simple, nice to look at, and if you add in a little something extra, like a boat or some fish or even some particle effects, it can turn into something really special.

it also takes like three minutes to make, so let’s get started.

Czytaj dalej

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nastysynth

5 years ago

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.

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nastysynth

4 years ago

3D Pixel Art Tutorial (Blender)

so here’s another little tutorial, this time on how to make quick and easy pixelated models in blender, like these

so lets get started!

Czytaj dalej

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nastysynth

4 years ago

Some Of You Have Been Asking For A Tutorial On How I Draw Faces So I Threw Together A Thing For You.

Some of you have been asking for a tutorial on how I draw faces so I threw together a thing for you. *finger guns*

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nastysynth

4 years ago

Symbols and Signs: Flowers

Sometimes by using flowers we can convey messages about a character and their motives. Meanings behind plants can differ by country or region and some can be completely different. Using flower symbols is a subtle and poetic way to say things. Like instead of saying Trump is wanker, you can describe him as holding Aconite, Begonias, tansy and hollyhock. (See below for meanings)

Positive Flowers

Aloe Vera: Healing, protection, affection

Amaryllis: Pride

Anemone: Forsaken

Angelica: Inspiration

Apple blossom: Preference

Arborvitae: Unchanging friendship

Aster: Symbol of Love, Daintiness

Basil: Good wishes

Bay: Glory

Bluebell: Humility, kindness

Red carnation: admiration

White carnation: Innocence, pure love,

Pink carnation: Rememberamce

Yellow carnation: rejection

Chamomile: Patience

Cumin: Fidelity

Daffodil: Regard

Daisy: Innocence, hope

Forget-me-not: memories

Gardenia: Secret love between loves

Holly: Hopefulness

Honeysuckle: love

Hyacinth: play, rashness

Blue: Constancy of love

White: Loveliness

Ivy: Friendship

Lavender: virtue and loyalty

Lily: Beauty, freedom, death, purity, Motherhood

Oak: Strength

Roses:

red: love

pink: Happiness

White: purity, innocent, worthiness

Rosemary: Remembrance

Valerian: Readiness and calmness

Rue: Grace

Sunflower: Adoration

Thyme: Courage and strength

Violet: Loyalty, devotion, faithfulness, modesty

Yarrow: Everlasting love

Negative Flowers

Aconite (Monkshood): means ‘hatred’ and ‘be cautious’. Also poisonous.

Butterfly weed: ‘Leave me’.

Orange lilies: symbolize hatred, pride, and disdain.

Petunia: symbolizes resentment and anger.

Begonia: Beware

Cyclamen: good-bye

Hollyhock: Ambition and pride

Purple Hyacinth: Sorrow, forgiveness, regret

Yellow Hyacinth: Jealousy

Yellow Rose: jealousy, decrease of love, mourning

Dark Red Rose: Mourning a lover

Tansy: anger and hostility

Willow: Sadness

Yew: Death

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nastysynth

5 years ago

Process of one of my drawings of Ardyn!

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nastysynth

5 years ago

I have no Idea how many people know this but its a life saver

Start off with a crappy scanned/phone taken picture like so

Mess around with the SAI Filters, I usually go color deepen all the way to the left then mess with brightness and contrast until I find a good balance I like, then to top it off with a copied layer on multiply to make the lines darker

Click what I boxed off and the magic has already happened

you now are left with a clean lineart layer that you can color underneath to your liking : 0 Hell you can even color your lines however you want as well for a colored lineart

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nastysynth

3 years ago