#ask koko

[kokoasci]

Anatomy tutorials p-please🥹👉👈

okay buckle up because this is going to be a long one

I'm really glad you asked me this now, rather than a few years ago...I feel like I've gotten way better at anatomy over the last years, although i still really struggle with dynamic poses and anything outside of my static pose comfort zone

i usually break down everything into gestures, shapes and then do lines. i don't like taking very long on sketches, so i usually just get a general feel of volume and work from there, but it's honestly just a lot of practice on how the torso/legs connect to draw different types of movements faster

it doesn't really matter what shapes you break stuff down into, as long as you're able to break it down into more shapes. arms can be cylinders or rectangular prisms. heads can be cubes or elongated spheres. but usually i stick with prisms, and connect them as i'm drawing. i still struggle with arms a lot...

i draw the torso first, and then add connections from there. it's VERY IMPORTANT (imo) to always, always be ok and open with something not looking exactly how you imagine it. if the angle looks weird, you can try something else. and that's ok! i didn't like how this leg looked so i fixed it later, it's not perfect but it does look better for a 2 min sketch

i know a lot of people do the crosshair method to lay out the face/head, but i find it more helpful initially to do a triangle-ish shape where the face is and then add a crosshair from there

the best way i learned this was, honestly, by referencing other art. a few years ago i really sucked at anatomy, so some of the poses i would do were referenced from other art. but i didn't like how sometimes it felt like i was referencing the artstyle as well and ending up too similar, so i've forced myself to get better over the last few years. i've gotten to the point that i'll look at general references for stuff i particularly struggle with + use photo composition references for stuff, or as a starting point. all this to say please feel free to reference my poses! i really do not mind, and it's how i learned this in the first place

used a photo ref but changed the angle a bit here, i might still finish this tbh...

i also reference compositions on existing photos (usually modelling concepts, stuff like that) or take photos of myself for references. it's vv helpful, and i highly recommend. here are some examples of breakdowns:

i hope this was at least a little bit helpful! im sorry its not super clear and in-depth but tbh the way i do anatomy is a mess, so i tried to outline it a little clearer here

[kokomi-sangonomiya-official]

"Greetings! How are you on this fine day!"

@kitsune-saiguu

Hello! I'm doing quite well since I finished a good bit of my work already. How are you?

[hydrangeadreamer]

Weeeelll since I’m here feel free to send asks if you like 

[kokoasci]

do you have any advice on improving art or drawing backgrounds?? :)

hi !! one of the best things imo is to draw from life (or just photos in general). usually what happens is your own eye for art is better than your current skill level, and drawing from life can really help catch that right away (proportions are wrong, something is offcenter, etc)

most if not all of my backgrounds that i post are referenced from one or more pictures, including stuff i take myself. this is legimately the easiest way for me to block out shapes, and it's helped me learn a lot about how different lighting and values work. i highly recommend blocking in through shapes at first w/ color values, and then working on refining, rather than drawing a sketch for a background. this is unconventional but it helps me be a lot quicker and more intentional with how i approach something/don't get caught up in the details. if doesn't look exactly like the photo ref, good! it should be your own spin on it :)

[kokoasci]

How would you suggest someone to study in order to have better lineart, like how did u develop urs since ur drawing approach seems heavily reliant on shapes

hi i’ve had this in my inbox for a while and i’ve been trying to figure out how to respond in a way that’s helpful, because i don’t actually do lineart at all 😭 so im going to walk through the steps of how i draw and clean sketches, because that’s usually all i do (i honestly just don’t like spending time on lines...)

it is very reliant on shapes, and it comes from thinking about a silhouette while taking into account a 3D space. like how clothes and hair falls on areas that are 3D…if that makes sense

i like using straight lines wherever possible, and i think that kind of gives rise to more shapes. triangles are my best friend, and i usually like to think on how to section hair into variations of polygons or triangles. i think that rose from studying how to do anatomy better. if you have an artist you like the lineart of, i'd recommend picking out exactly what you think makes it unique and trying to see if it works for you

i don't think any of this is actually intentional at all, it just rose naturally of thinking how to section a complex (usually human) figure to something easier to draw. one of the best pieces of advice ive ever got is from my mom (also an artist), who said there are no straight lines on the human body. sorry mother but i kind of took that and did a 180...my point here is that straight lines in lineart is actually really powerful if you use them as a contrast point. similarly i recommend trying different brushes, line styles and picking out what shapes you’d like to emphasize in your own art. i like geometric stuff, but other artists will focus on circles/curves and it works really well

TLDR: i draw a sketch and clean from there. cleaning is rough for me and i generally just rely on the sketch itself and work on geometric shapes to do the heavy lifting :)

[kokoasci]

May I ask how u learnt/practiced drawing expressions with so much personality? Big fan of them

hii thank you!

this is something i've been working on lately so im really glad! I usually practice a lot of faces at different angles (i use this website a lot: http://referenceangle.com/) as well as studying how different manga artists do expressions with their chars. my favorites are BSD (harukawa) and CSM (fujimoto), they are soo good at adding detail

I think it's a great advantage to have a really good idea of exactly how a character would express themselves, even down to like movements and really subtle mannerisms. A lot of my characters rely on subtle micro-expressions to convey feeling, so sometimes I'll even practice acting out their own mannerisms to get a better feeling of how to draw them. it is embarassing but it works

eventually i've found it's really down to the eyes and eyebrows. body language does a lot, and having a good understanding of how the character you're drawing would react to certain situations can help really nail the personality down. if a character's eyes are always narrowed, maybe their shocked expression would be less exaggerated than anothers

overall the #1 thing i really like to focus on is eyebrows and eye shapes!! this is the thing that i think really helped things click for me, and it adds so much to an expression as well as adding a lot of 3d depth

i hope this is helpful! thank you for asking :D

[kokoasci]

A really distinctive feature of your art style is the white outlines you put around things. It gives it a very shiny and polished look, and makes shapes distinct from each other. How did you develop this technique? Would it be weird to you if I started using it in my own art style, as someone who's always trying to make everything look bright and shiny?

hey !! yeah so this actually started as an accident, I used to do lighting by placing a hard light layer w/ pink over lit areas and accidentally changed it to an add layer once. i liked how it looked so i started using that to highlight things and eventually saw that it rlly works for defining shapes, esp w/ hair and clothes

i usually like to think of it as a way to outline where light and shadows meet to create contrast w/ a base tone. i also like using different brushes and colors to make certain parts of a drawing more interesting (for me, the most boring part of my style is the hair and clothes. adding lighting there helps uplift it)

absolutely feel free to take inspiration, i think building an artstyle should be taking the parts you like from other artists so i would be honored :) here are some tips and what i generally follow while doing this. good luck !!

[kokoasci]

Have you heard of Sunday from Honkai Star Rail? I think your style would look really pretty on him :) Also I love your art sm!!! I'm planning on buying some prints sometime soon <3

20-30 min sketch! maybe ill finish it idk and thank you! <3