#btc tips

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Hi, Do you have any advice for new artists? I keep saying I’ll draw but then I just know it’ll be bad so I never do. But I really want to. I have limited experience with art. So any recommendations would be very welcome. Thank you.

Hello! I coincidentally just reblogged a comics tips post with the tag ‘all of my art advice boils down to ‘just do it’’ and I feel that’s true. While true, that may not be the most actionable or inspirational advice. So:

If you’re framing it as ‘I know it’ll be bad so I never do,’ try reminding yourself that every artist has made bad art and will make bad art. It’s part of the process. It’s 100% ok to make bad art. It’s good even! You learn a lot from mistakes and things that don’t turn out how you wanted them to. And then you turn around and try to use that knowledge in your next work. Note that artists on social media are filtering what they post - I do a ton of ‘ugly’ doodles that I delete before I draw something I want to share - so be careful comparing yourself to an unrealistic standard.

What I find inspiring about drawings and bad drawings is that even if it’s bad, you’re that much better at drawing because you did it. Bad drawings are not a waste of time or effort. They all build into better drawings in the future.

Since this is your struggle, I also recommend some warm ups. Just get your hand moving. Draw some circles, draw some lines, draw an ugly scribble on purpose. It’s easier to keep drawing if you’ve already started.

Maybe also use cheap materials so it doesn’t feel so daunting or like you’re wasting materials when you practice. I love a bic ballpoint on printer paper. Daiso has cheap blank notebooks.

If you’re intimidated, start small! Give yourself easier goals to hit - for example, a study of a face rather than a five page original comic. Find a basic tutorial and just follow it through - it’s structured and takes away the pressure of deciding what you will do.

Draw content you like. Try to enjoy the act of drawing. Practice is a lot of time and work, so it’s easier if you enjoy doing it. As someone who has loved drawing as long as I can remember, I don’t know if there is a way of teaching yourself to enjoy drawing because I just do. Perhaps try to make it a pleasant environment and thing for you to do. Reframing your goals might help... of course you want your drawing to look like what you’re trying to draw, but maybe change your goal from ‘it must look perfectly alike’ to ‘I’m going to draw it for fun and we’ll see what happens’.

Thanks for stopping by. I love talking about art process. If you have further questions, feel free to ask. Good luck! Go forth and live your art dreams!

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@missluthorwillseeyounow​ asked after how I did the coloring on that cold lena drawing, so I thought I’d share. See below for some pics. This is creative cloud photoshop.

Draw your linework and then do your colors on separate layers. Base color layer first.

Draw a large circle of your top color.

On your top color layer, use gaussian blur at a large pixel size. Then use the wand tool on your base color layer (red) to select the negative space. Toggle back to the top color layer (blue) and delete.

Repeat from another side with a different, probably analagous (next to each other on the color wheel) color. This is the gaussian blur, before deleting out the negative space:

On the upper layers, select different treatments and see what happens. Try turning down the opacity for a more blended look.

These are techniques I’ve adapted from others into what’s easy for me to do. Play with it! There’s an explanation for what each layer color type does, and how it works, and at one point I knew some of them. But really now I just toggle them and see what happens.

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Even though Melissa has a very distinct face it does seem to change *a lot* based on hairstyle/dress/lighting. Is this what makes her harder to capture in a drawing than Katie (something I’ve seen a number of artists mention)?

I think you’re right in that she has a distinct face. Even before hair/dress/lighting, her face itself changes profiles a lot because of the planes of her face & the way her different expressions really change it.

The following frames are in the span of like a second, and her face and features change drastically.

I think that’s part of what makes it hard to get her right because there are a million different ways to get her right. And even once you nail one, there are still a bunch more. Additionally, I’d say her features are a little more subtle in shape and contour and that’s hard to capture too.

That said, if I could pinpoint and articulate exactly why it is she’s so hard to capture, it wouldn’t be so hard, now would it?

:) thanks for the ask

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Smattering of body drawing tips

@i-okamie​, ask and ye shall receive somethingorrather. 

I like to start with the head and work down from the neck to the shoulders. I think of the neck as a cylinder with one end connecting to the head and the other connecting as a base at the center of the shoulders. If I know the neck is aligned on center with the head, I can align the center of the chest to the center of the neck.

I like to use shoulders a lot in posing and expressions. Keeping in mind the height of the head relative to the shoulders helps a lot. 

The gesture line! Classic body drawing, and it really helps to have a strong, dynamic pose. Sometimes I draw the gesture line first. I try to draw it so the center of gravity is still realistic.

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