Artisitc Merits

Pettytyrant101 wrote:

Heres another sky experiment- alien sky-

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Bit messy at points this, as it was very much an experimental test piece I just wanted to be ridiculously busy to see what happened-

Norc wrote:
so this is what i start with. A square with a cross, each of the four parts the same size. i know tutorials and stuff always say start with a circle, but i have found that starting with a square (when drawing full frontal) is easier. it also gives the end result a sort of masculine look. but i am all for circles! you have to have the idea of the circle in your head while doing this. 

after i have my cross and circle, i mark where i want the eyes, nose, mouth and ears to be. notice how the ears are on line with the eyse and goes all the way down to the tip of the nose. a common mistake is to make the ears too small, but try measure on yourself. ears are big! also the eyes should be at the centre of your face. People often (me too!) have a too small forhead or too big chin, but remember we have a hairline here i haven't drawn yet! i also mark the chin. i hindsight i see it's not the same on each side, but who is anywa  Another thing to notice is that (i think i figured at this point that i was drawing a male) the neck is as wide as the head. This is natural and on women too! although i curve women-necks more inward and ever-so-slightly thinner


i round the head a bit more, detailing the eyes. notice that the corner of the mouth is directly beneath where the pupils will be. Also don't be afraid of a big mouth or nose (or ears). i could've been bolder here. I also mark where i want the hairline to be. it may have gotten a bit too far up, maybe i thought of giving him long hair..  ? same pencil, HB, but i make the "darker"parts by applying different pressure to the pencil. be concious when you do this, not just draw lines, but where you want the shadows on the lip to be, more pressure. long lines can be skinnier and lighter.. experiment. If you master this technique you have reached far and reached the stage where it is very fun! doodles go quick and you can use the same pencil for everything (almost):

DON'T BE AFRAID OF USING THAT PENCIL! WORK THOSE CONTRASTS BITCH! WORK IT! MORE IS MORE!
as you can see i do shadows, be aware of where you want the light to be coming from, where is the light-source. be bold. i make sort of little bubbles where i want the different shadings to be, as a guide. also fixing up lines i want to keep. until at this stage i have been using the same pencil HB. Now i will switch do the 4B. It is softer and will be darker therefore i use it to add up the contrasts even more and to redo the nose-lines and ears and etc. to make it more cartoony.


now we've reached the finish-step. I shade and smudge with my finger to make everything even. erase the outer-lines from earlier and whatever smudges i may have accidentally made. notice how i haven't erased any of the original sketch-ups/guide-lines from earlier. It's almost never really necessary to completely remove the evidence of a sketch because they will disappear when you start smudging/shading. Just do the sketch very lightly. Here i used HB almost all the way, but you can use a harder pencil for a sketch, like H or 2H.  the finish touch here was to use the sharp end of the eraser to make highlights on the nose, forehead, cheekbone and neck-area. and the hair of course. really half-arsed short hair. a little darker on the side because of the light-source.

you're welcome.
Norc out. I smell dinner.

(let me know if you want me to make more draw-a-longs, i am best with faces..)

Radaghast wrote:Trying to post an image here from deviantart, but it's not showing. Does this site not show stuff from deviantart?

Norc wrote:wow you're really good  great work  (I may have snooped around on the account). i wish i knew how to master Photoshop though.. or at least own the program and have a proper pad.