Hi, so you may know me as that girl from the site content sections and, a longer time ago, the Battle Maison, but this is another thing I've done a few times and have tried to pick up more seriously lately. This is not gonna be one of those threads though where someone has been doing digital art their entire life; my history has been a lot more fragmented for sure, and as the title suggests this is entirely traditional art. Part of me definitely wants to try digital art too; the issue though is that I don't have equipment and equipment costs a lot of money even for budget options. Definitely a reasonable investment if I remain committed to this, definitely a major silly mari moment if this turns out to be a fad though, and I'm not exactly comfortable believing in the former outcome for now (more on that later).
I'm posting this thread to keep track of stuff I've done primarily and to let more people in on what I've been doing, but if anyone has tips etc then do feel free, I do wanna improve (as long as they're actually compatible with my skill level u_u). I don't plan on taking requests per se, but giving me ideas of what to draw next (again, if it's compatible with my skill level) is also always welcome!
I've seen some people post their equipment here, so let me do the same:
- 3 pencils of different hardness; generally I use 4B for sketches and shadows, 2B for textures, and H for outlines, though ofc this can vary, e.g. I may also use 2B for fur outlines because yea hard outlines don't make as much sense there.
- eraser, not only for obvious erasing needs but also to soften lines or shades for subtle texturing (e.g. white fur)
- stump, for shadows and textures as per usual
- ruler / geometry triangle, to measure out proportions and double check symmetry. Obviously not to draw any actual lines!!
- that's it!!
(yes I am being slightly tongue in cheek here if that wasn't obvious)
Anyways, less talking, more images?
Including this one because a) I like it, b) instructions for this one are probably the best proof of concept for the sticks and circles mapping method my books have taught me. If you wanna see instructions for anything else lmk ig, keeping it at this one here though bc I might accidentally break a copyright law if I include them for everything lol
These two were worth including because most of my drawings are mammals, so including different textures seemed worthwhile. The roadrunner in particular I've always been really happy about.
Scelidosaurus is a recent exercise after the dog and horse from the next hidetag that I came across and went all-in on contour lines so seemed worthwhile. Bonus point for also being a reptile i.e. being my first time I had to try and shade scales, that front leg was where I was still trying things out so yes ik that one is wonky, the instruction sucked so I had to ad lib :(
This was my first drawing using only a photo as reference, I intentionally picked an anatomically not very complicated animal in a not-so-challenging pose.
This was the drawing I made for Secret Santa, the imo obvious take on "herbivore Swampert destroying Grass-types, also Quagsire". Iirc I stayed decently close to my references for the individual Pokemon, in terms of learning stuff this was mostly an exercise in composition since I'd never drawn anything featuring multiple creatures before and the position of the Swampert relative to the Venusaur in particular was something to figure out for sure.
My grandma's old dog, and one I drew for her birthday after all her children and grandchildren were assigned doing "something creative". When I did this one I hadn't done anything in months other than the Secret Santa gift, so that + this one being the most challenging one to figure out without instructions probably made this the hardest drawing I'd done up to this point.
My reference here was the cover of a book, and I picked this one intentionally after the dog because that one showed me that dynamic poses (and especially figuring out mapping with them) are a whole different beast and more practice could never hurt. I kinda ended up making that front shoulder too big, but apparently I accidentally pulled off some perspective trick where someone is looking up towards the horse, so all good I guess? Also yes I know I'm running out of paper and one of the legs gets cuts off, I initially planned on redoing this one as a Rapidash after but I was pretty worn out when I was done p_p
Most recent one, my sister's cat being silly (yes this was his actual pose, I blame anything unnatural-looking on his front legs on the photo).
shoutouts to all my epic friends who I've spammed with wips and completed drawings and somehow haven't told me to frick off, but especially to ausma for giving me landslides of helpful feedback that I've been immediately able to apply in new drawings, I still would've been at the same point I was at years ago if not for you.
But, yea, so, my history involves a couple old step-by-step instruction books that I got in elementary school that does a pretty good job teaching the technique of using sticks and circles to map out animals based on their anatomy. I never got super serious about this and basically just did some exercises from these books every now and then when I got into another drawing phase; I guess there also was art class in years 7-9 but honestly I don't remember learning anything there that I could actually build on, and my main memory is getting meh grades for incorporating my own fantasy animals into my drawings (way to stifle creativity losers >:( ). My current drawing phase has really been the first one where I was actually able to break away from the exercise books and draw some animals from scratch using photos or similar as a reference. I will be posting my work on these, but I'll also be posting some of my drawings from the exercise books; I know they deff shouldn't count as original work, but it still makes sense to share them imo as part of the process + proof of concept for methods.
I am definitely still learning and improving; I also don't know how far I can go since I am self aware that I'm mainly relying on book smarts and a rigid methodical approach rather than raw talent, but I guess thinking about that too much would not be conducive to having fun. This has actually been a problem so far, since my brain is obnoxious and stops me from enjoying hobbies without putting myself under internalised pressure. Balance is difficult to find and yea the only reason I should have for doing things is fun and not something like (going back to first paragraph) "making sure I get good in order to avoid squandering the money I spent on equipment". You get it. I'm being a bit healthier about it now than a few months ago when I felt forced to do something every day (it did make for a good crash course on techniques though!), but yea if I ever end up doing nothing for a longer while then it probably has to do with not being able to handle this again.
I am definitely still learning and improving; I also don't know how far I can go since I am self aware that I'm mainly relying on book smarts and a rigid methodical approach rather than raw talent, but I guess thinking about that too much would not be conducive to having fun. This has actually been a problem so far, since my brain is obnoxious and stops me from enjoying hobbies without putting myself under internalised pressure. Balance is difficult to find and yea the only reason I should have for doing things is fun and not something like (going back to first paragraph) "making sure I get good in order to avoid squandering the money I spent on equipment". You get it. I'm being a bit healthier about it now than a few months ago when I felt forced to do something every day (it did make for a good crash course on techniques though!), but yea if I ever end up doing nothing for a longer while then it probably has to do with not being able to handle this again.
I'm posting this thread to keep track of stuff I've done primarily and to let more people in on what I've been doing, but if anyone has tips etc then do feel free, I do wanna improve (as long as they're actually compatible with my skill level u_u). I don't plan on taking requests per se, but giving me ideas of what to draw next (again, if it's compatible with my skill level) is also always welcome!
I've seen some people post their equipment here, so let me do the same:
- 3 pencils of different hardness; generally I use 4B for sketches and shadows, 2B for textures, and H for outlines, though ofc this can vary, e.g. I may also use 2B for fur outlines because yea hard outlines don't make as much sense there.
- eraser, not only for obvious erasing needs but also to soften lines or shades for subtle texturing (e.g. white fur)
- stump, for shadows and textures as per usual
- ruler / geometry triangle, to measure out proportions and double check symmetry. Obviously not to draw any actual lines!!
- that's it!!
(yes I am being slightly tongue in cheek here if that wasn't obvious)
Anyways, less talking, more images?
Including this one because a) I like it, b) instructions for this one are probably the best proof of concept for the sticks and circles mapping method my books have taught me. If you wanna see instructions for anything else lmk ig, keeping it at this one here though bc I might accidentally break a copyright law if I include them for everything lol
These two were worth including because most of my drawings are mammals, so including different textures seemed worthwhile. The roadrunner in particular I've always been really happy about.
Scelidosaurus is a recent exercise after the dog and horse from the next hidetag that I came across and went all-in on contour lines so seemed worthwhile. Bonus point for also being a reptile i.e. being my first time I had to try and shade scales, that front leg was where I was still trying things out so yes ik that one is wonky, the instruction sucked so I had to ad lib :(
This was my first drawing using only a photo as reference, I intentionally picked an anatomically not very complicated animal in a not-so-challenging pose.
This was the drawing I made for Secret Santa, the imo obvious take on "herbivore Swampert destroying Grass-types, also Quagsire". Iirc I stayed decently close to my references for the individual Pokemon, in terms of learning stuff this was mostly an exercise in composition since I'd never drawn anything featuring multiple creatures before and the position of the Swampert relative to the Venusaur in particular was something to figure out for sure.
My grandma's old dog, and one I drew for her birthday after all her children and grandchildren were assigned doing "something creative". When I did this one I hadn't done anything in months other than the Secret Santa gift, so that + this one being the most challenging one to figure out without instructions probably made this the hardest drawing I'd done up to this point.
My reference here was the cover of a book, and I picked this one intentionally after the dog because that one showed me that dynamic poses (and especially figuring out mapping with them) are a whole different beast and more practice could never hurt. I kinda ended up making that front shoulder too big, but apparently I accidentally pulled off some perspective trick where someone is looking up towards the horse, so all good I guess? Also yes I know I'm running out of paper and one of the legs gets cuts off, I initially planned on redoing this one as a Rapidash after but I was pretty worn out when I was done p_p
Most recent one, my sister's cat being silly (yes this was his actual pose, I blame anything unnatural-looking on his front legs on the photo).
shoutouts to all my epic friends who I've spammed with wips and completed drawings and somehow haven't told me to frick off, but especially to ausma for giving me landslides of helpful feedback that I've been immediately able to apply in new drawings, I still would've been at the same point I was at years ago if not for you.
