I’d like to build on this a little, mostly because when I was just starting out, I had no idea how to actually follow this advice (which is very good advice!).
I’d also like to apologize in advance for not having any illustrations to go with this. You’ll have to try and work out what I’m talking about based on the lovely sketches above.
1. If you are working digitally, make your brush big. Bigger. Are you looking at it and thinking, “What? I’m never going to be able to capture any details with this monstrosity of a brush!” Good. That’s about the right size.
2. If you’re working analog, grab charcoal, or a crayon with the wrapper all peeled off, or one of those woodless pencils. Take your mechanical pencil and fine-liners and hide them from yourself. Take your chosen instrument and turn it on its side, like you’re gonna do a rubbing of a leaf or something.
3. Start making big blocks of color. If you wear glasses, actually take them off to look at whatever you’re using as a model. Otherwise, just let your eyes unfocus a little. Once whatever you’re looking at has dissolved into a pleasantly fuzzy shape, copy that blobby shape onto your canvas.
When I’m doing this, I’m usually using charcoal, so I tend to work from the lightest shapes to the darkest, because it’s easier that way. That doesn’t mean you’ve messed up if you do it differently though. It’s literally that I’m lazy and going light to dark is a convenient shortcut that saves me some time in this medium.
4. When we outline, we try to capture the “shape” of an entire object, and then paint shadows and highlights onto it. So… if you look at the picture of McGonagall up there, you might normally think that her robe is one shape with some dark parts and some light parts. When you’re working without outlines, it’s more like there’s a bunch of dark and light shapes sitting together like a puzzle and you’re copying those.
5. This is going to look weird at first! That’s great! It takes a slightly different hand-eye coordination and thought process to recreate an entire shape at once rather than by “outlining” it, and that’s a learning curve of its own. Expect that if you’ve never tried this before, your hands are going to feel clumsy and uncoordinated at first.
Some tips that might help (I’m sorry I don’t have pictures to go with this!): if you’re working analog, don’t be afraid to turn your charcoal/crayon around whichever way you need. A long skinny shape can be made by sliding the crayon along its length. A curved shape can be made by holding the flat side of the crayon against your canvas and turning your hand like you’re opening a door knob. Experiment and see what you can do!
If you’re working digitally… well actually I’m not sure this is right because I don’t work in digital media much…. but at a guess I’d suggest picking a rectangular or oval shaped brush and don’t be shy about using your tablet’s pressure sensitivity.
Don’t be afraid to put down a darkish area and then lighten it later. At a guess, I’d say that’s how the reflected light on the right side of McGonagall’s robe was put in, as well as the highlights on Bard’s sleeve and Brienne’s armor. (Try to pick out other places where you think that’s happening)
6. THIS ABSOLUTELY HELPS WITH DRAWING CARTOONS OR COMICS! This’ll be especially easy for a digital artist, but I’d suggest trying something like… do a sketch this way, and then either put a new layer or a sheet of thinnish paper over it, and ink like you were doing a cartoon of the thing you just drew. Fiddle with your line weights. What does it look like if you put heavier lines where there’s a high contrast between one shape and the next? What if you use heavy lines where there’s a heavy shadow, and light ones where there’s a highlight? Practicing like this will help you figure out what the outlines you draw as a cartoonist are actually representing!
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