Trying To Draw Buildings

Trying to draw buildings

Hey friends, Meg here! Welcome to another TUTOR TUESDAY, recommended by the lovely potstickerninja22! Today we take a look at eyes! Remember, I always am open to recommendations for other tutorials. Send them here to to my personal blog! Keep practicing, have fun, and I’ll see you next Tuesday!

Lips Tutorials Row 1 to 4   Row 5: Left Right Row 6: Left, Middle Right Bottom Image

30 day improve your draws

so i looked around for something like this but all the ones i found were like HEH SUCK YOUR OWN DICK DRAW YOUR OWN BORING OCS FOR 30 DAYS DRAW HOMESTUCK FOR 30 DAYS DRAW YOUR OWN BORING OCS AS HOMESTUCK FOR 30 DAYS etc which w/e is fun buddy but i don’t find that shit helpful so i made my own that i can do. these are meant to not be super heavy time investments since i have a full time job and i need something i can spend like 2 hours tops on anyway here

DAY 1. paint a BG

DAY 2. draw a figure in perspective

DAY 3. STILL-LIFE DAY don’t go crazy but you know, challenge yourself maybe do something a bit more complicated then a rubber ball in direct sunlight

DAY 4. draw a animal you’ve never drawn before

DAY 5. paint a picture using a limited palette, you can get those anywhere but here are some sites

DAY 6. draw a figure in: 1 hour, 30 min, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds

DAY 7. put your ipod on shuffle and play the first song it gives you. illustrate that song. if you have a zune get the fuck off my blog you heretic

DAY 8. 2 POINT PERSPECTIVE DAY

DAY 9. draw the same picture 3 times with 3 different compositions

DAY 10. STYLE DAY 1 - pick a artist with a unique style and emulate it!

DAY 11. STYLE DAY 2 - pick a artist with a unique style and emulate it!

DAY 12. STYLE DAY 3 - pick a artist with a unique style and emulate it!

DAY 13. watch a movie or episode of a show that you find visually appealing. while watching draw thumbnails of shots that catch your eye and try to articulate why it’s visually appealing/why it works

DAY 14. paint another BG but it has to be different than the one you did  DAY 1 SO if you painted a outdoors scene, do a interior if you painted a tree try some water w/e

DAY 15. do a lineart, then swap with a friend who also did a lineart and color each other’s pictures. if you don’t have friends then make some ok

DAY 16. paint a portrait of your favorite celebrity (mine is adrian brody!!)

DAY 17. do another limited palette picture b/cuz they’re easy and fun but this time after you’re done INVERT THE PALETTE (CTRL + I in photoshop) AND PAINT A DIFFERENT PICTURE whoa

DAY 18. close your eyes and draw 3 random shapes with your non-dominant hand, then turn those shapes into legit draws

DAY 19. MAGICAL GIRL DAY FUCK ok go to here and draw the first 3 you get. i guess you could use any of the other generators but why would you want to?

DAY 20. pick a body part you have trouble with, find a bunch of photo references (or use yourself/a friend that you should have made by now) and fill up a whole page/canvas with studies

DAY 21. 3 POINT PERSPECTIVE DAY

DAY 22. random.org 1-648 3x. gijinka the corresponding pokemon no cheating yes metapod is 9 kinds of lame but do it anyway this is about growth i’m already trying to make it fun quit bitching. if you don’t like pokemon go to wikipedia and hit “random page” until you get 3 animals and gijinka them.

DAY 23. draw the keyframes of a walk cycle

DAY 24. this is a project i did in my intro to drawing for non-majors class (aka confused business majors who need a fine arts gen ed and couldn’t get into ceramics). pick a ancient culture that you’re interested in (aka not contemporary japan you giant child) and find a sculpture or piece of art (3D works best) that really speaks to your heart or some shit. render it as realistically as possible. this may seem odd but it was a weirdly engaging project for me except you have it easy b/cuz i had to recreate it on a 4ft x 8ft canvas in ink and, while engaged, i also wanted to fucking die the entire time (almost 2 weeks) so that’s the feeling you should be aiming for here

DAY 25. YOU’RE GETTING BETTER EVERY DAY DAY! find the oldest picture you have and redraw it for a quick and dirty self-esteem boost

DAY 26. have a friend draw you 3 very rough gestures and then you finish them. if you still don’t have friends you have bigger problems than needing to work on your art i gave you 10 days to find a buddy which is pretty generous i think

DAY 27. pick 3 basic geometric shapes, design 3 characters utilizing those shapes

DAY 28. find a book, open to a random page and draw the 2nd sentence

DAY 29. pick a character (whatever) and draw them happy, sad and angry. be consistent and push the expressions/pose

DAY 30. real talk nobody ever makes it to day 30 i could pretty much say anything here and it wouldn’t matter at all. i’m making this day about me, this is my day, national johre day. draw yourself god tier while listening to really cool music. pretend you are really a god wearing cool pajamas and have amazing powers and are not actually a disenchanted alcoholic woman lost in the financial abyss of post-university life christ almighty help me 

fat bodies tutorial!

ALRIGHT SO my pal @kalreyno wanted help with drawing fat characters and as a fat artist i felt like i could give a bit of helpful insight on that. there’s also been a lot of complaining about “boo hoo fat characters are hard to draw so i can’t include them in my work Ever” goin on lately so if that’s your case then this is for you too!! and also just for anyone who would like help with fat bodies in general, ofc. anyway, let’s get this show on the road!!

let’s start with some common misconceptions. these are the two main attempts at chubby bodies i run into, so i’ll focus on them. 

the Anime Chubby i see everywhere, and it’s just……so wrong in many ways. first of all, there is almost no additional body fat compared to your average thin character - except for where it’s added in “attractive” places (breasts, hips, thighs). the breasts are way too perky, and don’t have the realistic shape fat would give them (though how to draw accurate breasts is another tutorial all on its own lmao). there is still a thigh gap, which usually only happens in very thin people, and bones are still visible on the surface of the skin, which also rarely happens in fat people.

the Michelin Man is better in some ways, but still not that great. it’s a slightly better attempt, but basically all that’s done there is taking a thin character and blowing them up, while giving no thought to fat distribution. the thigh gap is usually still present, and they look a lot more hard than soft - and fat is very soft and pliable.

here’s a chart on how fat usually distributes (if you can’t read my messy writing, “1. next to no fat, 2. moderate amount, 3. most of the fat distribution”). basically, the more muscle an area has, the more prone it is to develop fat, such as the abdomen, thighs, and upper arms. it’s important to note that fat sits on top of muscle, and that it does distribute in different levels, and not evenly across the body as shown in the Michelin Man. 

now, here’s an accurate fat body with all of that kept in mind!! notice how the fat isn’t only kept to aesthetically pleasing areas, and how it sits realistically on the character’s body. their breasts sag a lot more, which happens even in thin people with larger breasts, and the nipples are pointing more downwards than straight out. there is no thigh gap in sight, there are no bones in sight, and most importantly, they have fat rolls, which are very important in drawing a convincing fat character!! as far as i know i’ve never met a single person with no rolls at all, and everyone has them, whether thin or fat - they’re just more prominent and more consistently present in fat people. pay close attention to where they are and how they’re shaped.

here are a couple of drawings showing how fat is affected when sitting vs stretching. as seen in the first, the fat specifically on the stomach is distributed a lot more evenly and stretched out, so it becomes “flatter”. the love handles are still pretty visible, though, as well as the fat on the thighs and arms. the breasts are raised with the shoulders, and the fat on the shoulders and near the neck forms rolls as it’s being pushed together. 

in the second, there is a lot less room for distribution, so the fat is all pushed together. the breasts sag and the stomach forms rolls and spills into the lap. a good analogy for the way fat works is to liken it to a water balloon, and thinking of how its shape would change when resting flat on a surface, hanging off of a ledge, held upright, etc.

here are a few extra tips i find a lot of people miss!

first on the top is the hip/pubic region. the first circle is showing the way the bellybutton is folded in fat people, as opposed to stretched out in thinner people. the second is the stomach fat spilling over onto the pubic region and creating a separation in the two areas, which is something that’s missing in a lot of art. in addition, the pubic mound also gains fat, making it round as seen in the profile drawing i did up there (i’ve heard people refer to it as fupa?). the last in the hip region is the lack of a thigh gap. i can’t stress this enough!!!! if you’re trying to draw a convincing fat character, make sure their thighs are pretty much always touching!! for reference, mine literally don’t separate until my feet are about 2ft from each other.

the bottom right is showing the double chin, which a lot of people are afraid to draw!! fat does distribute itself here too, and there’s nothing wrong with it, so don’t feel like you shouldn’t give fat characters a double chin in your work for fear of it looking like a caricature.

in the bottom middle, it’s showing how fat affects different types of breasts with the presence of more or less breast tissue. 

lastly, at the very right are stretch marks with their usual locations and directions, which i also can’t stress enough!!!!! i sometimes forget to add them honestly, but they’re so important in accurately portraying fat characters, as they literally come from the skin being stretched from fat being gained (and they’re also just rlly neat lookin like why wouldn’t you lmao). some people have less and some people have more, feel free to experiment with them!

the last thing is body types!! there isn’t one single way for a person to be fat, so feel free to experiment with shapes once you’ve learned the basics!! 

so there you have it, a tutorial on how to draw chubs!! now go forth and make some accurate fanart or some rad fat characters, because the world could always use more of both. hmu if you have any questions or concerns, and thanks for reading!!