Hello friends, this is the long awaited tutorial on Line-Quality, Art-Style, and Same-Face-Syndrome.
Line-Quality is improved by building Muscle-Memory.
You build muscle memory through Drawing-Exercises.
Art-Style is developed over time through Observation and Routine.
Routines such as… Drawing-Exercises.
And now for… the Ultimate Drawing-Exercise-Routine!
It’s called Snake-In-A-Basket!!
Draw any kind of snake inside of any kind of basket. You have 5 to 20 minutes to complete it before each/every Big-Serious-Illustration to tackle. No more, no less time!
(my example that I drew in GIMP)
Art-Style is not necessarily what you think it is. A fairly common style issue discussed in artist circles is the inability to draw the same character twice while retaining their likeness or the lack of uniqueness which makes our art (recognizable) distinguishable from another’s “oh! YOU drew this!”.
Here are the fastest pathways to attaining the elusive Art-Style:
Recurrence-of-Thematic-Elements (everyone is sad, robots, someone is always shirtless, etc)
Same Color-Palette used for everything you draw
Same-Tools (line width, brush set, same paper, canvas size)
(examples of palettes!! you can’t go wrong with having a rainbow)
Some Amount of Explanation:
If you draw on the same size or same scale (A6, A5, A4, A3 | B6, B5 | Letter) or in the same orientation (Landscape or Portrait), it helps you learn Composition intuitively by training you to make use of the space you have. Also it’s easier to print out and frame if you draw on common photo print sizes 4x6, 8x10, etc.
Even if you make a lot of use of Blend/Blur and you’re more of a Painter than a Cel-Shader– deciding to use a Set Personal-Default-Color-Palette instead of randomly choosing them on the Wheel/Triangle-Thing will still give you enough stable consistency.
Same-Face-Syndrome is normally caused by one of two things. If it’s not one then it’s the other: Same Shapes or Same Details.
To make noticebly different characters you have to Exaggerate.
Circle, Square, Triangle, Rectangle?
Short, Wide, Tall, Thin?
Before you try your hand at drawing any Face or Body Type, draw another Snake-In-A-Basket first.
So to wrap up, you need to Warm Up to draw, you need to make a color palette and stick to it –or just use the same Crayola pencils, or the same kind of Bic pen, same kind of sharpie, .7 or .5, and have themes like “plaid flannels for everybody” or “hoodies and jeans”. Find those things you can execute consistently, like hatching or stippling, and if you like it, stick with it!
Now draw a SNAKE-IN-A-BASKET!
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