#so here's something quick and easy to try and get things started 😵

[arealbxy]

( .: location: north pole :. )

"I know I'm not that tall," poor little Pinocchio whined, his (almost-too-)perfectly white teeth gnawing at what was left of a candy cane, "But earlier someone mistook me for one of the elves around here. And I'm not sure that was a compliment." Then the sharp crack of the candy breaking against his teeth echoed, which he didn't seem to even notice, "No offense to the elves, though." Then almost as soon as he said those last few words, the boy's brows furrowed and his eyes snapped close. Frustration all the more noticeable on his face as his perfectly fine nose suddenly grew an inch longer.

[jaderimehardt]

Uhm, hello, hi, good evening? night? morning? early morning? It's 2:17am... So, my hours are royally borked... I guess being sick will do that to you... 🫠

I've been doodling a lot the past few days and looking up a lot of Youtube videos. When I say a lot, I mean a LOT.

A lot for me is already massive, so imagine multiplying that even further. That's... well... 🤯

At first I was looking for a way to put this pose I was trying to do in a better perspective. And then I was like y'know what, I know how to do that, it's just not coming out how I want it for some reason- so let me brush up on the pose method I typically do-

-And then I couldn't find the pose method I typically do.

... as if that method fell off the face of the planet. 🌍😵

Like, what?

So I went on a massive search for "my method" and in that search I found the official method for how I draw heads- which I didn't know was a method. I guess I've been doing it a lazy way all this time? So, now I can do a more structured version of that- holy wow. A method to the madness! (or I can continue being lazy, lol 🙃)

Before I continue and ramble on, let's start with the head method. It's called the Loomis Method. There's a ton of videos out there on Youtube and stuff but here's a good one:

His is 25 mins, and I understand not everyone has that much time to watch vids but it's worth it if you you're trying to learn something new and absorb info.

Here's another one teaching the same method in 9:30 mins. It's shorter and not as "refined" (with perfect circles. Who freehands perfect circles anyways? not me~ 🫠) but has more information packed into it about the method.

Honestly watching both wouldn't hurt as each of them bring something different to the table.

After finding that, I resumed my search for my pose method and came across something called Gesture Drawing. This isn't my method but it's pretty darn close to it, and it caught my attention.

I was looking up vid after vid- wow this is cool. The techniques used here have so much potential... but I'm on a mission here and I'm trying to get a thing done by Valentine's day.

I do think if someone is interested in getting into Gesture Drawing though, this is a good video:

Having watched so many vids, and of the dozens I DID watch, this felt the most complete and explanatory and thorough and easy to follow, etc 👍🏻

Finally in the late evening, I found what I was searching for. And it was in the Gesture Drawing category. The title of the video is called "Quick Pose Gesture Sketching" so to me it sounds like it's a mesh of Gesture and Sketching, but this is basically how I learned to sketch posing and I've been doing it this way for a long time. Its worked for me all this time and I've never felt a need to change my ways.

Or at least until this past week when I couldn't get a perspective on this one specific pose to work for me. It could just be that I haven't drawn in a very long time and everything is feeling off. I just need to tinker around in my art program and not on a sketchpad (because I was drawing with a pencil and paper for a change - which could be it too. I haven't done that for a few years now).

I guess I get to do that "tinkering" thing tomorrow because it's way too late....... this morning? *looks at the time* [3:05am] 👀 oof. I just wanted to share a handful of great helpful videos I found.

Remember a post ago, or a couple posts ago (I forget already) I posted my color palettes of my colored pencils? One of the artists I've been sharing vids of made a new video for working with small colored pencil sets and making a color wheel- essentially making your own colored sheet. It's handy if you're not too familiar with color theory;