Hello!! May I pls ask how you studied (or learned) how to draw the turtles? You do such a good job but also make it look like your own style, I love it so much!
Oh, thank you so much. It means a lot to me to hear that, as I try very hard to stay true to the original style that, I assume, we all feell in love with haha.
I'm not the best at explaining things.. but I'll try my way of thinking/doing. Sorry for possibly bad english.
Imma take this opportunity to introduce my au Raph.
Soo primarily I focus most on pattern recognition and understanding the shape language of the art style, rather than on the specific character I'm drawing. The art style is highly stylized, so I try to adhere to its rules bc that seems to make a turtle look the way it does.
For example, the style prioritizes maintaining a simpler shape of the limbs over anatomical accuracy. The knees aren't rounded but diamond-shaped and angular. The edges are sharply defined rather than round and soft.
It is also important to pay attention to the smallest details, such as the fact that this style mostly uses thiner outlines, but shadows are covered with bold black instead of shading shadow with darker tones of the underlying color. ( Mostly when shown from a distance/full body, sometimes in close-ups the general outlines are also very heavily emphasized with thick lines.)
You can't see it in my drawing right now because of the scarf, but they also often add an extra line under the shadow, (neck) which seems to be a artstyle rule I'm trying to follow.
Furthermore, the style doesn't place much emphasis on "what makes sense and what doesn't." Personally, I find that very difficult to adhere to as I'm a very logically thinking perfectionist and that's why it helps to collect and observe many references and ultimately decide for yourself, for example, whether you want the placement of the shell under the clothing to make sense or not.
Same to this. Don's arms here doesn't make sense anatomically but it is a rule of the style and when I tried to do it my way, the one that made more sense to me, the turtle I wanted to draw didn't look like the turtle anymore that I wanted to draw hh.
But what I personally pay most attention to is that this style has a very fluid overall language. Before I even think about drawing the turtle I want to depict, I try to portray the body language/posture as fluid as possible. Only then do I focus on the shape rules and then the details that define the individual turtle.
(@mkthedingus, I hope you don't mind borrowing your ttots hh.. I love ur adorable comic and my leo needs some heartwarming so he squish the bb's.)
So yeah.. That's pretty much my learning/study so far, but I'm still relatively new to this fandom and style (since last November, I think) and I still have a lot to learn and figure out myself. I don't know what else to say, but I hope that answered your question a little or maybe helps someone.
In conclusion, here. Have a Leo nugget, bc he cute I want to explode.
(Edit: Yes, that nugget is inspired by Cass au! I love it so much and this au is what brought me into this fandom in the first place. Tho for anatomy study reasons, he has two arms.)