learning how to draw again
i've finally realized my complacency with my current artwork even more so than before, so i've finally gotten motivated to actually get good again. i want to improve my speed and skill, especially because i'll be drawing a 16 page comic in may with essentially six days to work on it (if i don't go outside in the weekends). but i rarely draw let alone practice drawing so it's hard to sit down to do it, even just with a 10 minute youtube tutorial. the last time i properly studied was for a two week period in 2022. since then, i've lost all my memory of how to draw well.
because faces are particularly difficult for me, i watched a refresher video on drawing faces by marc brunet. it was super useful for learning how to get the proportions of the face correct and properly relating the face to the base sphere shape everyone starts with. the video focuses on standard face proportions, but for cartoony characters such as miguel o'hara, it's helpful to draw guidelines of where his facial features line up in relation to the standard face thirds in order to capture the nuances of his design. for instance, he has a longer nose and higher lips in relation to the usual guidelines.
next, this figure drawing video by love life drawing was really helpful for understanding why regular gesture drawing is important. of course it's something i did on occasion before... but it always felt like something you just do for the sake of it, and i didn't understand why i bothered doing it when i wasn't relating it to any specific concepts. it seems useless to draw naked people when i don't know what the muscles being portrayed are or draw clothing folds when i don't know what's causing it. but the takeaway is that gesture drawing is just that: about gesture. just getting the natural flow of things... i've always been too caught up in trying to replicate the accurate anatomy of a figure before, but it really is just about pure vibes even though it seems contrary to my current goal of finally actually learning how to draw. but in the end, natural art feels more appealing than stiff yet accurate art, doesn't it? the most memorable line from that video was something to do with how, even though it's life drawing, it's still your own image. so you can choose how you want to present it and pick which parts to focus on and emphasize.
the last useful video i watched was this guide on the fastest way to improve your art in 1 hour with the blind method by oridays. it has a really creative use of video sponsorship! essentially, the method is to copy a reference without looking at it, then identify what you should alter to make it match the reference. i tried it with miguel because he's stupidly difficult to draw...
...however, i messed up on the method, so i basically ended up doing the blind method without the blind part, at least for the first two rows. the third row was my attempt at the blind method. still, it was really helpful to even do fully referenced pictures of him and identify where i went wrong and how i could make him look more like him.
i've already gotten better with just a little bit of study...! not as good as i was as a teenager but lol i went back and redrew some a piece that's been sitting in my WIP folder forever.
it's seriously like night and day!!! the first drawing was initially for a fanbook from last year. i ended up drawing genderbent barok instead, but now i'm staring at this like WTF... how could i ever think something so poorly constructed would be OK? in general, i was way too reliant on rendering, even though my actual lighting made no sense lmao. there are still issues in the second image, but it really is a massive improvement. i also tried to employ more interesting lighting through increasing saturation at the terminator line.
when i was drawing my piece for the TGAAI zine, i finished the full comic in just two weekends, but the faces were so ugly i had to resubmit my final piece like three times. my attempts at using 3D models still looked terrible and i only managed to get by in the end by copying official artwork from similar angles. but in retrospect, it's so easy to draw nice faces just by studying for a few hours... hopefully i can still say this tomorrow though lol. i can't look away...!