#also used a pose ref base off Pinterest

[nalonzooo]

hi nikki!! how do you choose the references for the poses? The poses in your drawings seem so grounded, natural, and organic; i struggle a lot with that! (thanks in advance for reading my q!)

hi!! thank you sm the kind words 🖤 i’ll try to go more in-depth here about how i pick and “translate” my refs into my art—

((again the usual preface of what works for me might not work for others and pick art advice that works for you etc etc))

so i usually just scroll through pinterest and look for more candid poses of people in action/motion, not looking at the camera—i think that helps with the “natural” feel. i also take a lot of inspiration from existing art from artists i admire, who make the kind of art that i want to make. my challenge is how to make my art without taking heavy/obvious inspiration from existing art or outright copying it from photo refs.

the thing is - having marinated myself in pinterest for years - sometimes i see an artwork and the first thing i think of is the ref because i recognize it >< (i’m just speaking for myself and this is purely a me problem, ofc not everyone thinks like this). so this has informed how i approach my refs—i try to tweak it a bit so it’s not a direct copy. (important to note though that this is just a personal preference and i don’t do this all of the time—if i find myself thinking too hard about my art then it doesn’t get drawn! also it’s totally ok if you do direct copies or inspo of photo refs—it really all depends on what you want to convey as an artist. besides, sometimes some of my poses come out wonky bc i tweak it too much haha) ((also if i have a ref that’s my own photo, even if it’s a photo of my own hand, i outright copy it bc it’s my photo anyway and not available anywhere else)).

most of the time i try to change some part of the pose to better fit the characters i am drawing. here’s an example:

left is the ref, right is the sketch - so i had the base or what i felt was the most “anchoring” part of the ref down - geto carrying gojo - and at first i thought it’d be cute to have gojo throw his head back in laughter and his glasses fall off (ok looking at it now, it’s still cute, i’m 🥹) but i thought it’d feel more in-character to have gojo kind of flexing, showing off, teasing geto a bit, and geto being so easy for him and endeared, laughing and threatening to drop him. it felt much more “them” to me. so i looked up a ref of a guy flexing from the side and ended up with this sketch below on the left (final output is on the right). i still had to figure out the pose a bit bc he now didn’t match the original ref (hence the boxes in the first picture).

so again - pick a pose with movement, and tweak it a bit!

(i pretty much frankensteined this pose—it doesn’t always work but most of the time i go more with vibes than accuracy and it’s okay haha 🚬🥲)

also, regarding translating the ref to 2D, especially if you’re using a photo image of people - these things don’t always look good if you copy them 1:1, which is why animators always suggest “pushing” the pose. i always try to keep a sense of movement in my art, and “pushing” the pose helps that, and helps transform it a bit more from the ref. this will definitely help in making the pose feel more “organic”—more like a drawing, and less like a photo. (if you want a look at how artists push poses, i highly, highly recommend following zeet studio’s instagram account and taking a look at their stories. the way artists have translated models to paper is just incredible and inspiring to me always).

sometimes i’m able to draw without a reference but this is only possible because i have drawn from refs or live drawings and have practiced beforehand because every time we draw, it builds up our visual library. this is why i would suggest trying our very best not to outright trace references - or you have to trace smartly (for example, using the shrimp method - which is literally so simple and smart).

also as another practice: think about the same pose but in different ways. for example, i have a favorite pose to draw satosugu in. because i am deranged about them and i sincerely enjoy the idea of gojo catapulting himself into geto’s arms, i have drawn this many times and i’m always like rotating them in my mind - how would it look from this angle? with this arm placement? what if i tilt them a bit? i built up a ref board of this carrying pose and drew it over and over in different ways until i can pretty much draw it without a ref 😆 and i think i improve a little bit more every time i draw it in terms of angling, weight, posing. it becomes more and more “organic”.

ONE LAST THING in terms of making a pose feel “grounded” - i highly suggest looking at the gege’s manga panels. like he really knows how to make a character stand—they feel heavy, weighted, powerful. think of where the character is resting their weight in the pose, and how the line of action or the “energy” of the pose flows from there. these ones of geto, for example:

((these are so fun to look at ><)) i also personally like to draw a bit of shadow under the character - it helps place them on 3D plane too.

sorry i yapped away again but i hope this helps in any way! <3

[haejjoon]

Hiiii

First of all I want to say that I love your art and I really admire it. It has kind of make me want to go back to drawing again. I used to draw a lot a few years ago but I stopped because I became unhappy with my progress. Now I want to go back to making art but I'm insecure about it because I'm worried I'm too old to start again (I'm 19) and whether I'm capable of relearning it properly. Do you have any tips about where to begin to learn art basics (specifically anatomy)? I would appreciate any advice.

Hello!!! Firstly thank you so much for the compliments, it really does mean so much <333

I'm nineteen, too! Of course you can start art again. I've taken a lot of breaks in between my own art, too, and it's only very recently that I started enjoying making art again (after .... like.... a year or two. lord) so I really do understand how you feel. But we're nineteen years young, and have so much time ahead of us to get back on our feet.

In my experience, improving comes quickest when you focus on one very specific skill at a time—and I mean SPECIFIC. Practicing gestures with torsos only, the muscles of the upper arm, skeleton heads in different angles. I've been studying arm anatomy (and only arm anatomy) recently, and I'm already miles ahead of how I used to draw arms in the past.

If you want a specific step by step on how I personally draw anatomy, I don't mind sharing a quick tutorial! But for general advice—form follows gesture, and gesture follows movement. The biggest mistake someone can make while drawing a body is focusing on the accuracy of the muscles/bones before getting the flow of the gesture down.

Even if the anatomy looks a bit wonky with the gesture, it's important that you capture the movement of the pose first, and then build muscle on top of that. Proko on Youtube has a very good quick drawing series on this, and explains it way better than I do, but that's the gist of it.

Also, PLEASE always use references! I know that hearing that gets old, but it's really important. If you'd like, I can make a quick tutorial on how to use references properly, too. Reference everything—pose, lighting, even art style if you're looking to switch things up (i have about 10 different tabs open on my computer with different artists I admire so I can reference their art religiously).

Speaking of referencing art styles, it's important to gather a bunch of artists you like in terms of style, and not just one. The trick is to separate them by skill—"this artist is for lining refs", "this artist is for anatomy refs", "this artist is for face refs", etc, etc.

And to jump off of That: I find that with anatomy, looking at other peoples' anatomy studies on pinterest is also very helpful. Obviously you should be referencing from real life too, but with art, it can be difficult to pin down what to put on the page and what to leave to the imagination. You wouldn't want to actually draw every single muscle in the arm individually, right? So I go and look at other artists' anatomy studies to see what they keep and what they don't keep.

(usually i find them on pinterest, and they look smth like this. the color coded ones especially help me.)

I'd recommend learning gesture and anatomy first, then building off of that to learn how to draw faces, then lining/coloring, just so that you have a solid base to work off on when it is finally time to color. (also because coloring/lighting requires a fair bit of how body anatomy works as well!!)

But yes, that's all the advice I can give from laying in my bed. I hope it helped somewhat, and if you'd like tips on how to do something more specific, I'm always willing to draw it out or go more in depth ^^ Best of luck on your art journey!

[tummyisyummy]

I don't know much about art, but I'm curious how you decide/choose your art refs? (Do I have to kidnap an angel and gift it to you as ref for Theodora?)

I choose references based off of vibe or pose I want :D. For example let’s break down Mathew’s oc profile picture:

For his pose I wanted already knew I wanted too include his weapon in some way. So using the great app of Pinterest I started to search for some basic claymore poses. When none of those rlly helped I just went through my old paintings board to look for refs.

Before I converted Mathew to the black clover verse I already visioned him in the same poses as Joan of Arc because her paintings are always super cool to look at 👍. (The vibe it gives off is cool too) soooo in the end I decided to steal the pose and lighting from an old painting. (LIGHTING HELPS GIVES YOUR PAINTINGS S CERTAIN FEEL TO IT SO USE IT)

Also I use certain poses for certain characters based off of their personality or just certain character traits. (Yeah I do use old “Angel” paintings as references for Theodora so feel free to kidnap one 🙈)

[kyriaeartblog]

omggg i love your art! do you mind telling me if you use any refs? also how do you draw hair on your characters without it looking unnatural? thanks! keep up the amazing work!!

first, thank you so much!! i really appreciate the support <3

and now, as for references, my favorite place to find them would 100% be pinterest. there are plenty of art tips collected from various places that you can search through, as well as a ton of pictures of models doing different poses, as well as some bases for varying things.

and then for the hair, i don’t necessarily have any specific tips for that, but what i can say is that the way i like to start off drawing the head is by using a circle, a couple guidelines to plan out which direction they’re facing, then a rectangle for the actual face to help plan out how everything should look. i’m not sure if that really makes sense, but usually the top of the rectangle is about where the hairline is whenever i’m using that to draw something kind of like this:

and of course, references always help with the process of drawing anything. when i started out, a lot of my drawings were just attempts at recreating nou’s works (the artist who makes artwork for kairiki bear) and thus their influence has surely seeped into my own art style, and i would recommend taking a look at their works if you haven’t seen them before.

beyond that, also look at how other artists draw these kinds of things, as well as real people—it’s better to get a general grasp of how different people do different things rather than copying a certain artist with no knowledge of why something is drawn the way it is

i hope this helped in some way ♡

[fiendishfyre]

[chipistrate]

Me when I fall asleep! Hi bestie, I just wanna know... How do you draw hands?? You have a certain style to it, that makes it look so shaped yet still fluid like... I can't describe it, but what's your process when drawing ✨hands✨ (...of tiIIIME– sorry.)

Huh! Well I guess I never really thought about it... I kinda just auto-pilot when I draw hands now that I think of it, so I don't really have a "process" But I'll try to explain the best I can regardless!

Though not what I always do(sometimes I just wing it), I start with the usual shape base for the palm! Though sometimes I forget it's the palm and just use it as a base- and it's not a strict base! Don't gotta follow it 100%, if you gotta break it to make the pose work better, do it! I always have an idea of where the fingers will be when I draw the base, so I don't really map em out at all like others would with the circle thumb trick n all. (nothing wrong with that trick of course, just never worked for me)

More under cut!!

During the sketch I usually just vaguely map out the fingers like this, like mittens! And honestly, more often than not I keep em like that in the final product, lmao.

Don't be afraid to merge together two or more fingers if it helps get the pose across better! Just make it obvious it's not one huge finger by adding bumps or a line where the fingers would usually split.

I always add a curve to the base/fingers to make the poses less stiff! No matter the pose, I try to avoid straight lines on the hands! Even the slightest curve is enough for me. Though that doesn't always fit! Sometimes you gotta have a straight line or two, especially if it suits your style more! Nothing wrong with that.

Remember that the thumb and the index finger are attached! Try to make their lines flow together when possible.

Also, when I draw clutched hands, I make the index finger poke out a bit!

I don't usually draw hands with wrists attached now that I think about it(I like drawing long sleeves,,), but when I do, I make sure there's a clear dividing line between the wrist and the palm, so they don't look merged together!

Use reference pics when needed! Pinterest is usually my best bet for quick and easy hand ref pics of all kinds! Though you can also use your own hand! Whether by taking a pic or just posing it long enough. You are your own free model or something rejiagdlzf BUT if it's something simpler, I usually just pose my free hand under my desk and feel it out/imagine the hand and go from there.

And of course, the thing everyone says...

Practice makes perfect!

Though I suppose if I'm being completely fair, I never really followed that and just drew for 7 years and hoped something happened... I still struggle with hands ALLLL the time, but these are some things that I learned over the years that made em a bit easier! I guess my number 1 tip would be to just- not stress about it! I don't pay attention much when I draw hands and just let my brain go off while I think about I dunno Hatstache or something LMAO

But uh! Yeah! I hope that helped and was at least a bit comprehensible! Hope I didn't forget anything- If you need something a bit more specific then I could whip somethin up for ya real quick! Just ask! ^ This also goes for anyone reading- if I can be of any help, I'd love to try my best!