[amarinreyny]

Hello!

I've only recently been able to get back into drawing after taking a long break, and so far, I've done two sketches, with the intent to do more, in hopes of building my skills back up before I attempt to draw more "completed" pictures, most of which will be done in an art style I like to refer to as "comic book realism."

The first of these sketches is a picture of the faces of Ferasek, one of the characters in the webcomic I hope to make one day. He's visibly disfigured due to experiments performed on him while he was being raised by a group working for one of the villains of the webcomic, that have caused him to debatably become undead, along with debilitating physical weakness, and an appearance that looks a lot older than he actually is, in addition to the decidedly undead-looking features. Despite this, his mind remains intact, and while he retains the more "refined" mannerisms of the group that raised him, he strongly opposes their evil goals and the brutal and sadistic methods used to achieve them, and has an overall gentle and delicate personality, with a rather feminine way of expressing himself.

This sketch is not colored or shaded, even though the texture sort of provides a shading-like effect for parts of the face. Eventually, I would like to move on to actual shading and coloring, though I think I'd rather use digital methods to color the picture after I've finished applying the graphite and scanned it to a computer, rather than using traditional coloring methods. That said, I'm open to advice on traditional coloring methods, and may end up changing my mind on which coloring method I ultimately use when I begin working on my webcomic.

I've also been told that this drawing is a bit stiff... Any advice on fixing that? I've been told in a more general sense that I need to work on gesture drawing and lines of action (which I plan to ask for help with in a post dedicated to that topic), but I'm not sure how that applies to a face portrait, rather than a full body picture.

Aside from that, does anyone have any advice on drawing him in a way that simultaneously depicts his artificially aged/undead appearance while still showing his underlying personality and hinting at his much younger age?

I'll be posting the second sketch after this one.

 

[Janique]

I think you did a great job!

 

[amarinreyny]

I think you did a great job!

Thank you!

In any case, now that I know that this discussion has been approved and can thus be replied to, here is my second sketch. It's actually my first attempt at a chibi-style drawing, which is notably different from my preferred style, but it's meant to be a way of practicing for drawing the first part of a drawing I plan to do as I build up my drawing skills, not only to recover the drawing ability I may have lost during my years of being unable to draw, but also develop new skills in drawing a sequence of events, which will come in handy as I prepare to begin work on my webcomic.

Admittedly, this might be more what people were referring to when they talked about how I needed to practice gesture drawing in order to make my drawings less stiff. However, since this is meant to be a way to use stylistic dissonance for expressive purposes in an otherwise more realistic sequence (as chibi depictions often are in anime and manga that aren't typically chibi in style), I'm not sure if the same standards apply.

 

[Janique]

Thank you!

In any case, now that I know that this discussion has been approved and can thus be replied to, here is my second sketch. It's actually my first attempt at a chibi-style drawing, which is notably different from my preferred style, but it's meant to be a way of practicing for drawing the first part of a drawing I plan to do as I build up my drawing skills, not only to recover the drawing ability I may have lost during my years of being unable to draw, but also develop new skills in drawing a sequence of events, which will come in handy as I prepare to begin work on my webcomic.

Admittedly, this might be more what people were referring to when they talked about how I needed to practice gesture drawing in order to make my drawings less stiff. However, since this is meant to be a way to use stylistic dissonance for expressive purposes in an otherwise more realistic sequence (as chibi depictions often are in anime and manga that aren't typically chibi in style), I'm not sure if the same standards apply.

View attachment 70577

I think it's always great to try new things in art. Gesture drawing is definitely a help is making more loose poses. Usually I will draw the center line, where hands, head and feet go the put in the curves of the body. Pinterest has got some good poses for references.

 

[amarinreyny]

I think it's always great to try new things in art. Gesture drawing is definitely a help is making more loose poses. Usually I will draw the center line, where hands, head and feet go the put in the curves of the body. Pinterest has got some good poses for references.

That's kinda, sorta, vaguely what I remember having done before I had to stop drawing. I don't remember exactly what I did, but I do remember starting in the middle - usually around the hips area - and expanding outward from there while drawing the "skeletal" framework for the drawing that would eventually be drawn on top of it. for reference, here's a picture I made before I stopped drawing. I've actually been wondering if maybe it would be a good idea to post some pictures from before, to get a sense of not only how my current drawing skills compare to what they were before, but also potentially identify any ways in which my drawing skills might benefit from doing things differently going forward - especially since I'm struggling to find inspiration for my third sketch, and maybe figuring out a way to improve upon my old art would help me to figure out what to draw next.

One of my friends who is also a bit of an artist specifically mentioned the line of action in this one as something he really liked, but I'd like to have input from more sources on that - both because a wider range of perspectives can help increase the reliability of feedback, and because another art forum I tried joining recently really put a lot of emphasis on the idea that learning their own particular gesture drawing technique is basically a mandatory requirement for anyone to learn how to be good at drawing. Said technique placed a lot of emphasis on making very broad pencil strokes with elbow movements that I honestly don't think I'm capable of making without causing significant problems for either the drawing, the arm, or both - hence why I'm thinking of making another discussion more dedicated specifically to asking for advice related to finding alternatives.

Anyway, here's the drawing - this one is of Madün, another one of the characters of the story of the webcomic I hope to make. He's a sort of rogue/martial artist type, whose goal is to protect those who are vulnerable - especially Ferasek, whom he was best friends with during his childhood after Ferasek was rescued from the group that raised/experimented on him, and whom he unfortunately had to step in to protect quite a lot due to the way people typically reacted to Ferasek's appearance. I think I wanted to shade this one originally, but I never got around to it, due to the worsening health problems that would eventually force me to stop drawing in the first place. I did, however, manage to color it digitally, which was something I was only just getting into back then (as you can probably tell), much like how the chibi style of my second recent sketch is something I'm only just getting into now.

 

[Janique]

That's kinda, sorta, vaguely what I remember having done before I had to stop drawing. I don't remember exactly what I did, but I do remember starting in the middle - usually around the hips area - and expanding outward from there while drawing the "skeletal" framework for the drawing that would eventually be drawn on top of it. for reference, here's a picture I made before I stopped drawing. I've actually been wondering if maybe it would be a good idea to post some pictures from before, to get a sense of not only how my current drawing skills compare to what they were before, but also potentially identify any ways in which my drawing skills might benefit from doing things differently going forward - especially since I'm struggling to find inspiration for my third sketch, and maybe figuring out a way to improve upon my old art would help me to figure out what to draw next.

One of my friends who is also a bit of an artist specifically mentioned the line of action in this one as something he really liked, but I'd like to have input from more sources on that - both because a wider range of perspectives can help increase the reliability of feedback, and because another art forum I tried joining recently really put a lot of emphasis on the idea that learning their own particular gesture drawing technique is basically a mandatory requirement for anyone to learn how to be good at drawing. Said technique placed a lot of emphasis on making very broad pencil strokes with elbow movements that I honestly don't think I'm capable of making without causing significant problems for either the drawing, the arm, or both - hence why I'm thinking of making another discussion more dedicated specifically to asking for advice related to finding alternatives.

Anyway, here's the drawing - this one is of Madün, another one of the characters of the story of the webcomic I hope to make. He's a sort of rogue/martial artist type, whose goal is to protect those who are vulnerable - especially Ferasek, whom he was best friends with during his childhood after Ferasek was rescued from the group that raised/experimented on him, and whom he unfortunately had to step in to protect quite a lot due to the way people typically reacted to Ferasek's appearance. I think I wanted to shade this one originally, but I never got around to it, due to the worsening health problems that would eventually force me to stop drawing in the first place. I did, however, manage to color it digitally, which was something I was only just getting into back then (as you can probably tell), much like how the chibi style of my second recent sketch is something I'm only just getting into now.

View attachment 70585

There's no one ways to draw, different methods work for different poeple. There's alot of methods for drawing anatomy, youtube is a pretty good resource. Your drawing looks alot more loose and flowing. I like the feet alot lol.

 

[amarinreyny]

There's no one ways to draw, different methods work for different poeple. There's alot of methods for drawing anatomy, youtube is a pretty good resource. Your drawing looks alot more loose and flowing. I like the feet alot lol.

Really? That's actually kind of surprising, given how stiff the hand/arm/etc. I draw with is, and has been for a lot longer than my break from drawing was. That said, thank you!