Kisses

Kisses

Let’s not confuse kisses with mouth-to-mouth… Press those lips!

I jotted down for a friend of mine some tips and notes on how I approach drawing hair, and things I keep in mind while doing so, and thought I’d share. There are loads of other ways to do it, and the learning never stops, so I hope this helps!

How to draw Mermaids for MerMay coming up next month?

Thanks for the ask @dragonfire810 !I don’t have all that much to say about it, but I can give you a few quick tips about drawing mermaids!

I’m going to start with the anatomy since I find it’s always the best place to start. So, here is a mermaid skeleton!

The way I see it, a mermaid’s tail is going to be like an extension of the spine, just like any other tail is, but there should probably be some rib-like bones for structure. This turns out to be a bit like rotated fish anatomy, but even more like the anatomy of a snake.

Remember to keep a little bit of a butt/waist in there, that’s part of why we kept the pelvis in the anatomy; things look kinda funny if it’s all flat. The muscular part of the tail should be as long or longer than a pair of legs would be, so about the length from the top of the head to the (non-existent) crotch. The fins will continue beyond this point.

Now since the tail is built a lot like a snake it’s going to move a lot like a snake, meaning any bending or transitions are going to be smooth and make smooth shapes. No sharp transitions like at a knee bend because there are no knees to bend!

Because of the curvy shapes this makes, you’re going to want to keep straights and curves in mind to keep your drawing looking appealing.

You can learn more about straights and curves in my drawing tips from animation tutorial.

Now we get to the fins. I tend to do very simple fins, but you can get really creative with them! I highly recommend looking at real fish for inspiration, there are some crazy fish out there. But whatever shape you choose, keep the consistency/thickness of the fin in mind; they tend to bend and move like thick fabric or large petals or leaves.

And last but not least, I, personally, really like giving my mermaids a full set of cloths on top. If you wanna’ brush up on clothing you can check out my fabric and clothing tutorial.

I hope these tips are helpful. Have a great MerMay!!

Tuesday Tips - EARS In storyboards, I often don’t put too much thinking into drawing ears. I mostly draw them as shapes. The only time I really need to know the ins and outs of ear anatomy is when I draw an over-the-shoulder shot. I never wanna draw attention to it, but a poorly drawn ear WILL stick out. Other than that, you can only simplify something adequately if you know it well. Maybe I’ll do another posts later on “cartooning” ears or modifying ears. Message me if you have requests. Norm

Braiding Tutorial Reference by ConceptCookie

Tuesday Tips - WATCH YOUR BACK! A reminder to not forget the large muscle groups in the back. They add structure and clearly influence the silhouette in different positions. Of course, I used a very muscular character to show more clearly those groups, but every body types will have those muscle groups underneath. -n