what sort of iterator-drawing tips would you give to someone just starting out in the rain world fandom? are there even any specific tips or is it just like go! draw the sillies!
uh good question I tried to think of some
Firstly — a lot of people give them orb heads. but are they flat orb or orb orbs? If they are orb, the face will be orb'ed. I am not good at drawing this; i always flatten it somewhat. But if the head is curved, the face should be, too. Regardless you should try to keep the shape of the face in mind while drawing the facial features as well as when choosing what shapes you use to complement it.
More Broadly speaking, you should try to figure out how you want to draw your Iterator Puppets !!
I have given three common examples, but there are definitely others and also overlaps. Like doll is kinda a subset of Robot but it's the one I draw most frequently, so... anyways. I've seen trends of more Buglike iterators (somewhere along doll - robot) and more... meat sack puppets? Not smooth, more like fabric skin. see Tarigon for an example.
You want to figure out basic anatomy stuffs when drawing your Iterators. What kind of proportions do you want to use? How detailed is their anatomy, and how is it laid out? Are they like detailed androids, puppets, dolls, creatures, aliens, etc? How expressive do you want them to be? How are the joints segmented, and are the segments visible? Are they covered in "skin", or do they have hard metal plating? How decorated are the puppets? How big are they? How articulated?
You can reference the in game art on the wiki to get a better grasp at drawing more like canon, but the art is famously (and belovedly) inconsistent, so it might be easier to pick a Specific Piece to reference. Reference Robots from other artists and other media to see how joints articulate, how to segment the plating, etc. Reference humans with skin for... skin. I have looked at a lot of refs for Ball Jointed Dolls, personally.
And then you can work on their clothing, too. Do you want it to be simple or more complex? More canon-like or more your own thing? It depends on what you like drawing and what you wish to express with your designs.
Uh, maybe that's overwhelming? You can always find someone who draws iterators in a way you like and take inspiration from them, or you can make multiple designs and do whatever you want. I don't have any set-in-stone designs for the canon iterators, personally, so you'll see me jump from cartoony proportions to realistic ones and doll-like to fleshy and etc etc however I Feel Like. My OCs have Established designs, but I often play around with proportions or little details (and I often simplify things for my own sanity).
Some Examples you can look at:
Echosian draws closer to canon, good orb refs. many ocs to reference too
Flickering-Nightfall has more robotic itties with more cartoony / chibi proportions, and some design experiments / breakdowns
ToxicToxicities has robotic itties that are more realistically proportioned and detailed; lots of outfit designs too
Shkika has very cartoony designs that push shapes a lot! Also a guide on how she does expressions
Tarigon has meat puppets like I mentioned earlier. also xe has very detailed guides on puppet anatomy stuffs, warning for organs i guess.
@redfirefox-55 has simpler, more doll-like designs, and @maryymaruu has smooth puppets (with less fingers) and doll like proportions. both of them are very cute, check out OMOP and TS. @ideavian draws iterators in a very painterly style. also has EE.
@skybristle has a lot of detailed iterator designs with detailed refs to look at (lots of nice colors). also has Variants which are helpful to reference
@druidshollow has iterator ocs in Comics!! so expressive, cartoony and designs that MOVE around the surface so it's a good ref for that!!
@daszombes Iterator Logs has simpler designs for Animation Good, also das has internal design guides which can help if you too want to follow design trends. (image provided here)
sorry, these descriptions aren't the best. Just check them all out for examples. There are like a billion iterator artists you can find on here to reference from !! Like there are so many I don't really have time to link or list them all. I definitely missed some, including those I personally reference / enjoy a lot, sorry. There are some that aren't on tumblr, too. If anyone sees this post please feel free to list more or share your own works !!
Overall though, my main tip is to DRAW WHAT YOU LIKE DRAWING. That's how you can make drawing easier for you. Don't feel pressured to draw a certain way just because other people do! apologies if this is too complicated