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[yowico]

Sorry for being inactive but I’m pretty busy lately because of the gallery 미안해 🙇‍♀️

[yowico]

you make flowers grow, even in the saddest part of me ♡

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scene redraw from killing stalking

even tho the manga is really super fucking dark, its also really addicting to read ୧☉□☉୨

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[yowico]

[yowico]

How to do “extra” facial expressions!

Drawing basic facial expressions is not the hardest. Most people can draw a sad face, a happy face, angry etc., but making more multidimensional expressions is more of a challenge. I have gotten a lot of compliments on how I draw facial expressions, (specifically “angsty ones”) telling me that they are very dramatic and well… expressive! And there are actually only a few things I think about when I draw faces that take them to the next level, so I thought i’d illustrate them all here!

SUPER IMPORTANT TIP BEFORE WE START: Look at your own face when you draw faces. Even making the face when you are drawing (you don’t even have to look at it), will give you some sense of how the face muscles pull and where things fold and stretch, because you can feel it. You are the best reference when it comes to facial expressions!

Angles 

Draw the head in an angle that matches the expressions you want to make. It is not a requirement, but is going to add to the effect.

Symmetry vs asymmetry 

A face is rarely symmetric. Unless the face the character is making is 100 % relaxed or even dissociating, the eyebrows, mouth and facial muscles will have different placements of their respective side. This image shows the dramatic impact asymmetry has on a face: 

That’s the difference between a smile and a smirk!

The first one’s like “oh yeah?” and the second is like “oH YEAH??”

The “balloon squishing principle”

This is something I did subconsciously, and I didn’t know about until I made this tutorial. And this principle goes hand in hand with an asymmetric face. Basically, if you squish one part of the face, you need to even out the empty space by “inflating” the other part of the face so that it doesn’t appear shrunken. The picture hopefully explains it:

Teeth 

Don’t forget to add the gum when the mouth is open to its full potential!

Squinting and folding

Adding folds around the eyes when a character is squinting makes a HUGE difference. It makes a smile more genuine and a growl more intimidating. Adding folds to the face in general makes your characters more lifelike and ‘visually relatable’. Like, they look human, and less plastic or fake.

and so on..

Pupils and irises 

The placement of the iris and pupil in relation to the eyelids is very important! The less of the white you see, the more relaxed the character is. 

And then of course eyebrows and eyes go hand in hand!

Gestures, spitting, sweating… 

Adding more elements than just a face is key to making the character actually look like they are feeling what you want them to feel. Just the tiniest sweat drop adds to their anxiety, spitting adds frustration to their rage, slouching shoulders, waving hands, a double chin, extreme angles, the list goes on! Add whatever and see what kind of impact it makes! Does it do the trick? Great! Add it! 

Over exaggeration!! 

Remember that you can almost always exaggerate more. Don’t be afraid to do draw “too much” because you’re just experimenting. See what works and what doesn’t. What do you like to exaggerate?

Now that you know some theory, it’s time to practice!

Practicing!! 

The 25 Essential Expressions (a classic! I’ve done it multiple times)

And the one I do when I’m bored:

Fill a page with circles and fill them in with different expressions. Try and exaggerate as much as you can! 

This is mostly for experimenting. They are quicker to draw than complete faces, but the same rules should apply!

And that’s about it!

I don’t know if I covered everything in this tutorial, since some things might be obvious for me, and this post perhaps only scratches the surface. So feel free to send me a message if you want an explanation about something more in depth! Thank you for reading! And now DRAW!!! ✨🎨

[yowico]

[yowico]

[yowico]

[yowico]

Hello Madame! So I'm an art student in Graphic Design and a self-taught artist since more or less ten years, but I honestly learn way more things by myself than at art school so I still have one big problem. I can draw a lot of things but when it comes to poses I just... Draw always the same, easy ones, or I'm obligated to use references to draw something a bit different. It's killing me, because I want to leave my comfort zone and draw poses from my imagination alone. Any tips, tutorials ?

Hi anon ^^

First, I have to apologize because it’s gonna be a long post, consider it as my “DEFINITIVE REFERENCE PICTURE POST” :)

I’m obligated to use references to draw something a bit different.(…) I want to leave my comfort zone and draw poses from my imagination alone. Any tips, tutorials ?    

The first step is drawing all kind of poses under different angles using reference pictures. What? But…I don’t want to!! That’s why I’m contacting you P-M!!! WHAT THE HELL!!!

Calm down ^^

It’s necessary in order to build in your head a kind of “visual library” that will give you the possibility to draw without references later. It will train your eye and your hand. Also, at the same time you’re working on your “visual library”, you have to study anatomy techniques like for instance breaking figuresfrom reference down into more simple 3D shapes. You have to learn how to draw groupsof simple 3D shapes in perspective and then construct figures from them. However, it doesn’t come in one day and also, you’ll have to use tons of reference pics AT FIRST. You see what I mean? You can’t go from zero reference to “cool figure drawing” in one step, you have to use the combo “reference + anatomy technique” to be able to reach this goal.

Artists who train inillustration are taught how to draw from using a building block tool for construction, muchlike some of the pictures that you can see below. 

As I said above, it really takes a lot of training and practiceto build objects from shapes. Basically every form begins as a shape. The more experience youget, the more you understand proportions and the more skills you will have to drawwithout visual reference.

In order to reach this result, you have to study anatomy tutorials. They always work more or less the sameway, a bit like the pic above: decomposing the human body in geometric shapes or in elaborated stickfigures. Here are a couple of video tuts.

Drawing the body from imagination (part1)

Drawing the body from imagination (part2)

Figure drawing with Michael Hampton (not really for beginners but very interesting)

TLDR: practice over and over again by using refs. Create a “visual library”. Learn to break the body into shapes. That will be the only way to make you come out of your comfort zone.

(Rainbow Comic Sans for maximum effect. I guess that now, I have everybody’s attention if it wasn’t the case til now)

Yes, you have rules to makethings easier to draw from memory BUT THERE IS NOTHING WRONG ABOUT USING REFERENCE PICTURES!! It shouldn’t “kill you”, it shouldn’t make you feel guilty and you shouldn’t feel “less of an artist” because you need references for complicated poses!!! Plenty of pros don’t do art without models and props. And the old masters did the same thing. You want examples? Ok, let’s start!

Here’s a great quote from Alex Ross’ book, Mythology.

Ross’ biggest breakthrough as an illustrator came in June 1987 at the American Academy of Art, when he was introduced to the use of live models. “Before that, I had no idea how much I could grow as a draftsman. It was a huge turning point, because all through grade school I hadn’t so much as drawn from photographs_I’d always thought that you had to make it all up out of your head, and that’s how you did ‘fantasy’ illustration. Now I wonder if I would have developed even sooner had I drawn from life as child”

Photo session for a Superman drawing:

Alex Ross using the photos for his work (and you see the pose is not even complicated!)

And wait, MY FAVORITE PAGE EVER. PROFESSIONAL artiststaking pictures of themselves and of their friends so that they can have referencepictures for their artworks. An example:

(Artist Claudio Pozas posing with…huh…a modern day sword for one of his artworks)

And if you want a funny anecdote, you see Dean’s shoes in this art? It’s mine. I had a problem with the pose so I took a pic of myself with a camera and worked from the pic.

Yeah…but for manga andcomics, it’s more stylized, they don’t use refs…Artists draw from the top oftheir heads…and…HA! HA! HA!!!! MEGA LOL! Two examples from my personal archive. Here is apicture taken from a Japanese program. I don’t remember the name of the artist butthis mangaka is drawing a page for his forthcoming comic and instead of drawingfrom memory do you know what he did? He asked his assistant to pose for him. He took a pic with a Polaroid and…voilà!

The guyis in his 70′s!! He’s a super experienced artist and he still uses referencesfor his art.

Let’s carry on! Another example. When I was ateen I bought an artbook by artist Takeda Yaoi (my first yaoi stuff!) and two of the poses lookedfamiliar.

You bet it looked familiar. The artist used as reference, pictures of members from some my favorite bands at the time, Gene and Menswear (90′steenagers, fan of Britpop, hello…).

(Pictures: L’UOMO Vogue, May-June 1995). And yes, we are in 2016 and I still have this magazine and this artbook at home. I..have problem throwing things away, ok? >

Also, do you know what comicartists use nowadays for referencing? 3D softwares like Poser.They create the pose with a 3D model, they orientate the model according to the perspective they want and they use it as ref. It doesn’t mean they aren’t “real” artists, it just makes life fucking easier and it reduces the chances of anatomy mistakes.

(The picture above proves that not ALL the artists in the business use models or reference pictures xD)

Listen, I understand that you want to draw from imagination, that for some reason it makes you feel “freer” and that some poses are complicated to obtain from refs (the super dynamic “spider man poses” for instance) but it shouldn’t “kill you” to need refs to draw the human body when you really need it. If it’s to sketch or to draw “super comic style” poses, ok, why not, but otherwise WHEN IN DOUBT: REF!!! Particularly when you work on something complicated or on a big project like an artwork, for a book, a comic cover, etc..Do you understand? Even dôjinshi artists who seem to sketch things from the top of their heads use refs. I KNOW IT BECAUSE I KNEW SOME OF THEM.

TLDR2: Drawing from imagination is cool, it’s convenient for some poses or for some styles (super dynamic comic poses) but otherwise, don’t feel guilty for using refs! Pro artists do it all the time and now that 2000000 miliion images are available on the Internet, they do it even more than before!

Good luck anon, YOU CAN DO IT!! ♥

[yowico]

[yowico]

[yowico]

house of butterflies 

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suho

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that preview…….

[yowico]

2011

[yowico]

Junkrat cooldown (about 30 mins, I think). Y’boy isn’t even my favourite, but he is easy to draw.