My first drawing ever.

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Aaron Ellis   (Mar 02, 2006 at 19:15 GMT)

Chris,

It looks very nice. The best suggestion I can offer is to practice as much as you can -- sketching anything and everything you see. The more you do it, the more you'll find shortcuts to get where you're going in fewer steps. At least that's how it's been for me.

Are you using a mouse or a drawing tablet? To me, a good Wacom tablet is worth its weight in gold.

Also, you might look into using a vector-based image app for some of your artwork once you've got your basic pose laid out. You can create some really funky art with Illustrator's curved lines and pattern fills.

But most of all, be sure to have fun with it.

:)


[Edit: Kept adding ideas. Sorry.]
Edited on Mar 02, 2006 19:23 GMT

Chris Labombard   (Mar 02, 2006 at 19:17 GMT)

I had fun.

How do you take this and turn it into an animated character ? Do you have ot draw each frame individually ?
Edited on Mar 02, 2006 19:18 GMT

Phil Carlisle   (Mar 02, 2006 at 19:25 GMT)

Chris, just get a book.. there are lots of very good beginner character drawing books. I particularly liked the comic/cartoon animation based books.

What they would tell you would be enough to show you how to get the form of an object down to geometric primitives.

However I also like "drawing from the right side of the brain" as an interesting option too.


Not that I can draw at all.

Phil.

Tim Muenstermann   (Mar 02, 2006 at 19:30 GMT)

The only thing I can draw..... is a beer....

-Tim

Chris Labombard   (Mar 02, 2006 at 19:31 GMT)

What is drawing from the right side of the brain?

I haven't been able to find any books that interest me enough to purchase them. I'm planning on making a trip to the used book store sometime this week.

Aaron Ellis   (Mar 02, 2006 at 19:46 GMT)

Chris,

To answer your animation question above, it really all depends. If you're going for a South Park animation style, you can get away with fewer frames and very compartmentalized variations. That way you can re-use much of your the image information from some of the frames. (like duplicating a frame and only changing a facial expression for example). If your'e trying for a more realistic animation style, then you will have to create more animations with lots of subtle but extensive variations.

One fairly quickish and slightly quirky option might be to film yourself or a friend dressed up and doing all of the animations. Then you can pull selected frames from the video file and work with them in Photoshop. If you go grayscale on the frames and apply some heavy contrast, you can achieve a pretty decent effect. And then you could use that as the starting point for your animation frames.

There are lots other super-cool options as well. Again, this topic has got me all excited.

Aaron E.

Chris Labombard   (Mar 02, 2006 at 19:54 GMT)

Well, I want to be able to draw anything I want, so I'd rather work on the more detailed, complex version.

What's the difference between Illustrators vectors and photoshops pen tool ? I suppose I'd have to buy Illustrator as well? :(

I suppose I could use the animation of that 3D stick guy walking that I found in the T2D platformer tutorial and overlay my character on it for a walking animation. If I found anims of him doing other stuff I could use those as well.

Im using a mouse. Im thinking about picking up a cheap tablet.
Edited on Mar 02, 2006 19:54 GMT

Simon Love   (Mar 02, 2006 at 20:08 GMT)

Just a comment...the leg length of your character seems wrong, relative to the way his right foot is placed.

The step just before the 'final' drawing is better, in terms of foot placement.
Or just bend his right leg. Anyways, it makes no sense that a straight leg would be the same length as a bent one :)

Chris Labombard   (Mar 02, 2006 at 20:20 GMT)

His right foot is supposed to be straight forward but I couldnt get the shoe to look right.

His legs are right because his hips arent straight... It's his foot that makes it look messed up :)

Ajari Wilson   (Mar 02, 2006 at 20:43 GMT)

They say the better the programmer, the worst the artist. From what I understand, your a really good programmer. This was really brave of you though and I'm glad your trying to expand your expertise. Keep at it man. It'll take years but you can definitley do it.

David Montgomery-Blake   (Mar 02, 2006 at 20:46 GMT)

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is an excellent book for people starting out. My drawing pretty much sucks, but it has more to do with practice than it does with skill. When I was actively working, I was actually doing some stuff that impressed me (which was exciting for me since I had the "I can't draw" demon on my back for a long time). Of coruse, since I stopped doing it, my "mad skillz" have since degraded quite a bit. Once you get a feel for the basics of sketching (as opposed to pixel art), you can have a lot of fun with the Hogarth series on dynamic bodies and hands. The How to Draw Manga books are a lot of fun as well, giving lots of stock ideas.

Blake Lowry   (Mar 02, 2006 at 20:49 GMT)

Wow, if you are using a mouse that is a good percentage of the problem =P I suggest ditching the digital and start with paper and pencil.. Don't invest in a tablet until you feel comfortable with your drafting techniques. I have been drawing for a while and just recently swtiched to digital.

Other than that, like everyone has been saying...its all about practice. Draw still-life with a sketchy/fast loose arm. I work extremely loose at first then go in and tighten it up way after everything has been established. You sorta did that, but you need more lines to help develop the form.

Chris Labombard   (Mar 02, 2006 at 21:13 GMT)

Ajari - Is that the nice way of saying I suck ass?

Chris Labombard   (Mar 02, 2006 at 21:16 GMT)

Blake - More lines where ?

I draw on paper but it's so difficult to revise my work I prefer digital. I have a REAl sketch book and a set of pencils with all teh grades...

Chris French   (Mar 02, 2006 at 21:58 GMT)

look into open canvas 1.1

It allows for network drawing (i.e. you can have someone else connect to your server and the 2 of you could draw on the same canvas).

This is nice for learning someone elses techniques, or for learning in general.

Pretty fun too.

Oh... i have a wacom tablet which is a must for serious computer drawing.

Chris French   (Mar 02, 2006 at 22:08 GMT)

What he means by "more lines" is that you need to sketch it out... which kinda means you throw done tons of lines while forming the shapes you are going for. Hard to explain but you kinda laying down lines for a shape ( draging the pencil back and forward) until you see something you like, then once its on the canvas... erase anything you don't like.

Todd Pickens   (Mar 02, 2006 at 22:31 GMT)

Chris,

That is really impressive for a beginner. Very well done!

Phil nailed it. There are countless books that would be of great use. Keep it simple, ask for assistance at the local art store and tell them you are just starting out, they will hook you up.

My advice to you is first to stop drawing on a PC. Pick up a note pad and pen or pencil, keep it with you and draw when ever the mood strikes you.

Art ultimately boils down to being able to transfer on to paper (or whatever medium you work in, but paper is a very good place to start) what you see in the real world, then eventually what you concieve in your mind.

What this means is work to become a very good observer.

Unless you are a prodigy, it will take time. My first illustration looked like I was having a seizure with a pencil taped to my hand.

Practice drawing things you can look at, that will allow you to develop the fundamental skills. Once you are doing well with that, start trying to draw from your imagination, which will teach you to FULLY compose an image in your head before trying to set it to paper or whatever.

It is very tempting to only want to work digitally, but it will not help you develop the disciplined skill necessary to become a competent artist.

Photoshop, Illustrator, digital tablets, Max, Maya, LightWave, etc. They are all just tools. If you lack the fundamental understanding of shapes and lines, light and shadow, color, composition,etc. then the best tools in the world will not get you very far.

The hardest part for me, was learning to understand the emotional bookmarks that are created every time you do something, in this case art of whatever form. If it is successful and you are happy with the result, you are motivated to do it again and progress.

However, if you fail at your attempt, it can be very frustrating and results in a sort of emotional hurdle, which you may not even be aware of. But the next time you are faced with doing the same or similar thing again, you will have all this metal baggage that will get in your way. It is no different than say ...injuring your self on you first attempt at a ski jump, you are not very inclined to want to trying it again. But if you succeed in you first attempt, then the opposite is true.

The trick is to recognize when the learning process of successes and failures are creating those emotional book marks and work through them. I can't begin to tell you how many talented artist I have known who have hit dead ends in their development because of such emotional hurdles.

Probably not exactly the feed back you were looking for, but I hope it is of some use to you.

-Todd

abc   (Mar 02, 2006 at 22:48 GMT)

The rule that has helped me in all artistic pursuits is "don't be afraid to throw it out and start over. It can always become better by trying again." That doesn't necessarily mean the entire thing - I use it to make myself do as much revising as possible too now. But my goal in the past was typically speed(since time is short) and to get speed you actively set out to either bring a sketch to a satisfactory state quickly, or to give up on it entirely and try anew. Figure drawing is great for this; I just imagine some totally random pose and try to make it work. Of course, you need to get a figure drawing book and learn each body part to make this work.

Practice is the most important part, of course, and I find that I get the most practice by keeping a sketchbook around at all times so that I can do a little something waiting at the bus stop etc.

Mixing up materials is good for practice too. Pencils and charcoal are the fastest to make recognizable shapes with, but that doesn't make them the best since I find that my muscle memory makes me "cheat" a lot more and repeat things I've already done. Over the last week or so I spent a few hours here and there each day building up a ~100x250 pixel drawing with only the trackball and the GIMP. It was good because the process didn't let me abstract out detail; I started with what now seems like a fairly crummy outline and built up the form and lighting in greyscale, then added more layers to color. I had to go back and rework things so many times, probably at least 100 times for every limb. Still isn't what I'd call perfect, but it was a great exercise.

Anton Bursch   (Mar 03, 2006 at 03:18 GMT)

I think that you should take an art class. I think that drawing is best learned with other people.

Juan Rubio   (Mar 03, 2006 at 03:52 GMT)

Well ya wanna learn traditional skills? Take and do as much figure drawing as possible. Thats the biggest tip I can give. I need to do a lot more since ive been in a traditional slump of recent. As far as animation goes there are lots of books. The best one has to be "The illusion of life". Its considered the bible for animators traditional or CG. It goes out and in of print so you should be able to find a copy cheaply(I got mine for 100 which wasnt cheap.. hehe). If you want to animate a character like this purely on the PC and photoshop you can draw the character moving a little on each layer. Making one new layer for each frame and then comparing it to the last frame. Then you can bring it into imageready and check out your animation. Animate on twos (hold one frame for two exposures/frames) which is what most traditional places do when they want to save cash. Painter has animation built in and then there is toon boom. You can go hardcore with stuff like Retas but its not recommended for sprites. Plus the cheapest version of Retas (Retas Debut) is only available in Japan. I got it in Tokyo after visiting a studio out there and I can tell you that ive never actually used the software after purchasing it. Hehe. As far as the the advice of not drawing using your tablet. Well the scary thing is that everyone I know thats a concept artist for major studios or film can bang out some scary stuff using a tablet soley and thats how they prefer to work. Even Villpu is rocking out stuff using a tablet PC now adays. If they can't have their machine they bring a sketchbook everywhere of course. :)

Evi - Cubix Studio   (Mar 03, 2006 at 10:12 GMT)

Chris, i thought your fairy concept last time is your first drawing

here is a little help:
Baka Neko Tutorial

keep it up Chris, you can do it :D !!!

Andrew Nicholson   (Mar 03, 2006 at 10:50 GMT)

Most of the best advice has already been given, so Ill throw some links in that have helped me in the past.

elfwood.lysator.liu.se/farp/figure/williamlibodyconstruction.html
www.karmatoons.com/drawing/drawing.htm
www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=105003
www.cdli.ca/CITE/cartooning.htm#Draw
www.cdli.ca/CITE/cartooning.htm#Draw
www.jamihn.com/artschool/tut_paint1.php
neondragonart.com/dp/tutorials/
www.shadowlitrealms.com/howto/tut.html
www.cablenet.ne.jp/%7ejapanime/tutorial/tutorial.html
www.neopets.com/art/drawing.phtml
www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/
www.portrait-artist.org/index.html
www.artcorner.org/tutorials/index.shtml

Someone above mentioned open canvas, so this next link will be of some use here:
www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10969
You can basically download the wpe file and watch to see how the images are actually drawn, oh and you
Edited on Mar 03, 2006 10:52 GMT

Chris Labombard   (Mar 03, 2006 at 11:53 GMT)

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I will definately go hunting for a book this weekend.

I don't really like drawing on paper, but I guess I'm going to have to start. I'm sure I'll see the point of it eventually.

Evi - You said you'd never tell.

Andy - thanks for all the links :)


... I've been reading some of those links. Im starting to see why I should be using paper and pencil.
Edited on Mar 03, 2006 13:07 GMT

Juan Rubio   (Mar 03, 2006 at 21:01 GMT)

Stay away from any Christopher Hart books. Heh. Also known as "How to Draw Manga by someone who cannot". Actually a lot of the information you need is on the web. Do a google search for "Andrew Loomis". They are old school books but great for anatomy and contruction of the body. Actually some of the best. All of his information is laying out on the web since I think the books are now PD(also tracking down a copy of one of his books will net you a couple hundred bucks).

Then once you know the basics like this then you can stylize stuff any way you want. Anime, Disney Style, Retro/New Mix (Fairy God Parents.. etc) or whateva.

As far as the newer style books on characters my favorites at this second are:
How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way
More how to draw manga: Volume 1 Basics of Character Drawing
Bridgeman Constructive anatomy (this is for parts of the body... you can also use any of the Hogarth books)

Those are the ones that come to mind now. I dont have my library in front of me but ive looked at most of the books that are out there and I collect books like this. So if you have any questions on a book title before you buy it let me know and ill drop you a line. Heh. Im re-learning anatomy myself so Ive been checking out books almost weekly. :)

Jason Swearingen   (Mar 03, 2006 at 22:29 GMT)

@Chris: no body seems to be mentioning this, but since you are starting from scratch,

LEARN A VECTOR GRAPHICS PRODUCT!!!

dotn spend time using anything that isnt.

I have heard really good things about creature house expressions (it is free now, it was bought by msft and they are going to sell the next version of it later this year)

microsoft's beta product, "Acrylic" is very good also.

James "Nycto" Frasca   (Mar 04, 2006 at 04:55 GMT)

"LEARN A VECTOR GRAPHICS PRODUCT!!!"

I was about to say the same thing. Use the right tool for the job, imo.

BrokeAss Games   (Mar 04, 2006 at 10:49 GMT)

The trusty Wacom digital tablet (example) is my weapon of choice (they work fantastic).
It makes all the difference in the world and using a Wacom with Tatoo on model skins is just plain fun.
A real dirty trick is to create it all in 3D and render with a sketch or cell shader (chicken before egg) and then modify as needed or print out a few and grab a pencil.
Poser, Photoshop and Wacom is a great example of character concept rapid prototyping (it also costs a few bucks).
I can't draw, so when an artist isn't around, I find tools to get the job done.
But this path will never really make me a graphics artist.

Ari

Ajari Wilson   (Mar 04, 2006 at 12:56 GMT)

Quote:

---

Ajari - Is that the nice way of saying I suck ass?

---

lol Yeah. But we all sucked at one point at a lot of things. Look at it this way, I'm a worse programmer than you are an artist. Yeah you suck but keep at it and you will become good. You seem like the kind of person who finishes what you start so I'm confident you'll be a great artist someday. I think an artist that is an equaly excelent programmer can be a powerful person in the indie games industry. I'll be right there with you...to borrow money.

Chris Labombard   (Mar 04, 2006 at 15:10 GMT)

I went out last night and bought....

The Complete Book of Drawing by Barrington Barber... It starts at the dead basics and brings you up through the rest of what you need to know. It's a thick one.

I also bought Drawing the head & figure by Jack Hamm... It's full of tonnes of pictures and chock full of text describing how to create any face or figure you want. It looks like a really awesome book.

AND... Drawing Action Comics by Lee Townsend...

I would never buy a book on Manga. I HATE the anime style.

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