White Umbrellas

A 19 Days fan blog by ninevillains | Original fan art sometimes | You may repost if you give credit!

[ninevillains]

"Do you believe me?"

I had to make this as soon as I read the last chapter. 😭😭😭 These boys need to stick together!🙍‍♂️💖🙍‍♂️

Full Image (I used the wrong post type, so try this link if you can’t click the image for the expanded version)

Chapter here: https://alexc1ting.tumblr.com/post/663666719539298304/old-xians-19-days-chapter-talk

[ninevillains]

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

(ref - Mario Hervas 🔥)

[ninevillains]

Bonus material from my last post. ✨ Qiu without the clutter. 🔥🔥🔥

(ref - Ramon Schijns)

[ninevillains]

“Hey Boss...”

This wasn’t the first mistake Qiu made at Boss Cheng’s party, and it won’t be the last.

(ref - Ramon Schijns)

[ninevillains]

Look who’s back! Party boy Qiu is getting pissed at He Cheng for some reason.

Made from studies of Ramon Schijns (insta: ramonschijns)

[ninevillains]

Has it really been more than a year since my last art post? I thought I was going to return with a sweet picture of Mo and He Tian, but no, what finally brought me back was Qiu. Something about the latest update spoke to me. 💪

Really shows you where my priorities are, right? 😂

[ninevillains]

I redecorated.

Decided to change the appearance of my blog. I’ll keep the URL the same for the convenience of my followers and rebloggers. Thanks for looking! 💙

New art soon, I hope.

[ninevillains]

Guan Shan’s fights don’t last as long as they used to...

[ninevillains]

Congrats for being featured in tumblr! What art of yours did they pick? When was it featured?

Thanks! They picked the very first picture I posted here. I found out I was featured just two days ago, when Tumblr sent me an email.

[ninevillains]

A special thank you to everyone who discovered me through Tumblr Radar! ♡

Many thanks to Tumblr for featuring my art!

[ninevillains]

so i'm trying to draw a picture of a dude in a bathing suit... i was wondering if you could give me some pointers? especially in the anatomy lol

Sure! Excuse me if I go into too much detail. Or not enough! Feel free to message me again if you still have questions after this.

Short version:

1. Find a reference picture or two

2. Copy or analyze/reconstruct the image(s) to the best of your ability. (If you’re going to share your art publicly, you should use a license-free image, or credit/ask the owner – assuming that your art and the reference are clearly similar.)

3. ???

4. Profit

Long version:

1. Gather good reference

Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, Google… the internet is full of attractive people. Find some pictures that look close to the result you want. I like workout videos or TV/movie scenes because it’s always useful to see your subject from multiple angles, and I can select the exact frames that look best to me.

Sometimes I use little action figures, or 3D models in apps like Skelly or Handy, when I’m trying to figure out a pose. You can also use pics of yourself or friends. A big mirror or a smartphone is all you need to be your own model.

Don’t hesitate to take inspiration from art you really like. Instead of copying it, analyze why it appeals to you, and see how you can apply that in your own work.

2. Draw the pose first!

One of my favorite general principles in art is to work from big to small, or general to specific.

Try to capture the basic shape and position of the pose before you consider individual muscles. Place the head, torso, and limbs as flat boxy shapes using straight lines or simple curves.

At this stage it’s still easy to make changes and correct things. Don’t rush ahead to the muscles before you’re satisfied with the pose.

This is more or less how I start a figure:

(Both of these dudes are missing a cranium, and there are other proportion issues, so don’t mistake this as reference for anything but the overall drawing approach.)

3. Think of muscles as flat shapes

Muscles are complex interlocking 3D forms, but you don’t have to think of them that way in the beginning, especially if you’re sticking close to your reference. It’s easier to map the positions of the muscles onto your blocked-in pose with straight lines and basic curves, just like you did for the head, torso, and limbs. (See the chest of the second figure I posted above.)

This step is all about creating a clear guide for your final lines.

4. Final lines (or) additional steps

At this point you can make the contour more realistic, get the muscles just right, and add in more details from your reference, because you’ve got the pose established and you’ve figured out where all the major shapes are placed. If you tried to do this all at once, without blocking in the pose, you’d probably end up with a figure that’s way out of proportion.

For the final lines, work on top of your sketch. If it’s a traditional drawing, erase the sketch with a kneaded eraser until you can barely see it. If it’s a digital drawing, just lower the opacity of your sketch layer and make a new layer for your final lines on top.

If you’re familiar with constructive drawing (using perspective knowledge to translate your 2D drawing into basic 3D shapes, like wireframes), now is a good time to take your sketch further, using cross-contour lines and more accurate forms to define the figure in 3D space. Then you can do the final line work, or move on to the lighting or coloring phase.

Art is hard, so try to keep things simple and focus on one thing at a time. I try to think in a step-by-step way even when I ignore my own advice and rush to finish a drawing.

Generally speaking, the pose and overall proportions are much more important than detailed anatomy. Anatomy is the icing on the cake.

Resources for learning!

I should say that the main thing I covered in this post is an approach to blocking in a figure from reference. I left out a lot of the form building stuff that I rely on for most of my work, because it’s a huge subject, and you can get great results without all the complications if you use good reference.

To get the most out of your reference, it helps to learn observational drawing. Dorian Iten’s accuracy guide has some very useful tips. 

In addition to observational drawing from reference, I use a constructive drawing approach, which I learned from resources like this:

Draw a Box - A great intro to constructive drawing. Highly recommended.

Figure Drawing: Design and Invention by Michael Hampton - Great to study after you know basic form construction, and before you dig too deep into anatomy.

My all time favorite figure drawing teacher is Steve Huston. Brilliant teacher and equally good artist. His book, Figure Drawing for Artists: Making Every Mark Count, is the single best guide to figure drawing that I’ve found. Also check out his lessons on New Masters if you want to get really serious.

Bryan Lee has posted a lot of great figure drawing tutorials and notes on his DeviantArt page. You can dig up most of the good stuff in his Tutorials section, and by searching his gallery for notes.

—

My ego is forcing me to add a disclaimer: More experienced artists will see that the work I post here doesn’t really do justice to the principles I mentioned. Trust me, I know my doodles are a horror show of errors. This is my fanart blog for chillaxing and trying very hard not to be the perfectionist who hates everything that’s not fit for a professional portfolio.

[ninevillains]

Rushed this like crazy because the next update is coming up soon.

Might have lost interest if I’d waited. Sorry for the quality. :|

[ninevillains]

My skills failed me when I was working on my latest illustration idea, so I had to draw He Tian instead.

[guanshanbabyfox]

Commission by @ninevillains

※ Don’t repost

[ninevillains]

Commission for @guanshanbabyfox . Thank you so much!

Please don't repost without his permission!

[ninevillains]

Get strong Mo!!!

[ninevillains]

Wanted to post this before the next update.

[ninevillains]

I tried Old Xian’s style. 10x the time for 1/10 the quality!

The choice was post now or spend a week on pointless tweaks. Better to move on.

(I included a non-blurred version so everyone can see the sloppy background I made instead of sleeping.)