Drawing Characters - Tumblr Posts

One of the worst things about being a writer is that often I love filling my worlds with different races, and the darker and and less human-like they seem, the more I want to have them in there. But just for the basic idea of the book I need somewhat detailed information on the race (like what they look like), and that works best with a visual example.

So I try to draw them, so I’ll can just look at the drawing to know what exactly they look like; but I can’t draw to save my life, I can barely draw  a circle that doesn’t look like a severely deformed pancake smashed against a wall. But I need that visual, otherwise my mind slightly changes the picture I have of them every time, or I can’t tell if my idea of them would look good or totally suck, so I try, but it still looks awful and what even are body proportions? It could even look good, but because the drawing is total trash, the idea looks awful too.

Does anyone else have the same problem, or even a solution, because I could really use one.

"And if they make you feel ugly, just imagine everybody in their birthday suit, imagine everybody in their birthday suit. Oh oh, oh oh, funny how it looks when you switch the roles! Oh oh, oh oh, never know what's underneath until it gets exposed~!" ----------Ugly, Christina Grimmie---------- My favorite female character from Fairy Tail, Levy McGarden. I can relate to her on a personal level. Short, bookworm, gets made fun of for being short, blue hair, and small ball of anger when provoked. Enjoy the drawing of her! Please respect artists! I put hard work and personal time into my work- reblog, don't repost, give proper credit if reposting somewhere else, and report anyone you see posting this without credit please! And don't remove the source!

"I will decide what is manly, unmanly, womanly, or unwomanly for me." --Alex Fierro, Magnus chase and the hammer of Thor (pg. 240)-- Alex Fierro- sarcastic, sassy, strong-willed, independent, determined, and a transgender Genderfluid badass? Well sign me the fuck up for the 'I'm in love' list. So here's my artistic interpretation of Alex Fierro, from the "Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard" series! I hope you all enjoy! (Reblogs help a lot! And don't repost without credit please!)

“You can be the king, but watch the queen conquer~” -Tsuyu Asui -Ochako Uraraka -Momo Yaoyorozu -Tooru Hagakure -Mina Ashido -Kyoka Jirou —The Queens of class 1-A— (Reblogs help artists a lot and are greatly appreciated! I hope you all enjoy!)

*SIGH* Oof me.

Behind the scenes for a fun sketching challenge, I'll do it now and then. They are mostly videogame characters btw that I love to draw. Ps, I'll try to maybe add more, it's just there are so many characters already!

The Character Wheel on the left

Orange: Cuphead

Blue: Nintendo Characters

Brown: Elena of avalor & Sofia the first

Yellow: FNF 🎤 🎶

Green: Baldis basics

Dark Blue: Undertale

Black: Bendy & the ink machine

how do you consistently draw the same character without it looking weird or off every different time?? also how do i coordinate faces, i always make the eyes too far apart or too big or too small or make the mouth too close to the nose or chin edge. If you have any advice I'd really appreciate it since it looks like you have your art shit figured out 🙏

Oh man SO so much of it is just practice, and you're not alone! I honestly think everyone struggles with a sort of "generification" of their characters' features the more they draw them, even seasoned professionals. There's a tendency to just sort of average everything out into an unrecognizable mush over time, and it takes a lot of conscious effort to push back against that.

Here are a couple tips and tricks that I've found to be helpful over the years:

Make turnarounds and model sheets. There's a reason animation/game studios do this, and it is because we are all still bad at drawing a consistent face. Despite being gainfully employed. What are we, graphic novelists?? We wish. Anyway it's a great way to familiarize yourself with your character's face from multiple angles, and it gives you a single source of truth to return to anytime you need a refresher:

Gather real-life reference. Anytime I'm designing a character I'm pulling together a ton of reference of actual people who look, to some degree, like the character in my head. It's always a collection of analogues, never just a single person, but it can be a great cheat sheet for understanding how your character might move, emote, etc:

Make a 3D model. I know it seems daunting, but with the advent of programs like Blender and Nomad Sculpt it's becoming remarkably more accessible. Heck, even James Gurney was sculpting maquettes out of clay for Dinotopia back in the day! It doesn't have to be particularly detailed—just a sort of proportionate lump will do—but it's another great way to have dynamic reference that you can rotate and light accordingly:

Practice, practice, practice. Make expression sheets for your character! Either right there on the spot, just start drawin' expressions, or you can slowly collect drawings of your character that you like, as you draw them, and compile them all in one place for your own reference. Need to draw your character's head from a weird angle? Maybe you've already drawn it before and you can copy your own homework! Doesn't count as stealing when the call's coming from inside the house 😎

I'd love to pretend there's a magical point where you can just immediately rotate your character's head in your brain like some sort of photorealistic apple in a twitter meme, but a lot of the time it's reference, hard work, and whole lotta repetition. 😐👍🏼