Composition can be hard, but learning about it can make the difference between making a great illustration or polishing a turd for not solving initial problems. So here are some tips to help you with that, of course you can always watch the video, and if you like this and want more, you can support me on PATREON
I visited an exhibition of the photography of Henri Cartier Bresson, and I was absolutely stunned by his amazing compositions. When I got home I just had to analyze some of his photos. I hope they inspire you as much as they inspired me. #woutertulp #henricartierbresson #photography #composition #artreview #tulptorial
Hello! Firstly, thanks so much! I love character design but I’m trying to get much better at it, especially with painting. I can try to give some advice on what teachers/professional artists have said and that I definitely know to be true:
1. Every single physical trait a character has should show their backstory/who they are. For example, don’t just add a cool looking scar to a character because you think it’s cool. Add one if it adds more depth to their backstory! Everything on the character should be there for a reason.
2. Silhouette concepts are my favorite part in the design because it allows you to quickly explore a lot of clothing, armor, body shapes, etc. Having a pose makes the character have more of an exciting silhouette to look at as well (this is something I need to do better on because I love neutral poses hahaha).
3. Alright I’m gonna go on a rant about the importance of using reference here: make sure you have a TON references to draw from before you start a character! Many of my teachers require that students come in with pages filled with photo refs before they start any drawing. The better researched your costuming/props/etc. is the better your drawing will be! This was one of the many reference pages I created for my sci-fi Chinese mafia project, for example:
For some reason a lot of people think that pasting photo refs onto your PS canvas and referencing them is “cheating.” That is just SILLY. Obviously people shouldn’t trace an image nor should they copy the photo pixel by pixel when making original work (that just makes the learning process slower). But the more stuff you look at while drawing the better your stuff gets. And as you get more confident with drawing, you can deviate more and more from the reference (ex. combining more than one pose together, changing the colors, lighting, etc.). Here are the references I used for a hitchhiker character:
A lot of my character stuff is referenced from movie screenshots, and this is because the characters in films move so the reference gets a bit more… elusive/hard to notice? My final cover art was referenced from a scene in Scarface, because no way am I wasting precious time and energy to try to guess how to draw complex clothing folds and etc. when I can pump out a better piece in half the time by looking at reference:
Make sure to draw from life as well! Drawing people everywhere you go gives you a broader sense of the endless possibilities of characters you can make.
Anyways, I hope this helped and that I didn’t rant on for too long! ^o^ Have fun!
hey! i had a great day, i saw kubo and the two strings finally! it was rly sweet.
thank you!! ah, i’m always bad at answering these ‘’how do you draw x?’’ questions bcs i usually don’t know how to step-by-step describe something that i do based on feeling and thought process that’s hard to put down in words… so it ends up in a ramble..
i guess key is to look at a lot of real human faces and training your eye to see that one or couple features that is like, super interesting and unique to that face, connecting this feature to a geometric shape (or rather think abt boiling it down to a simple geometric figure) and exaggerating it a lil bit? i guess? i mean i think that’s what i do.
might sound a bit weird but sometimes you can draw someone’s face/appearance so that their personality shines thru. that rly helps to make something more appealing and interesting looking. imo, anyway. you can put in a lot of info abt the character as a person just in their outlook. don’t be shy to really just use.. geometric shapes to draw a face, i guess is what im saying.
this is a good blog w tonnes of good ol faces of varying ages and races and at first glance it’s like ‘’ok this is just a bunch of regular looking ppl’’ but the exercise is to spend a little time looking at each individual face and find that specific feature, or the different way how they are arranged on their face that is unique to them! draw from these! train your hand and your eye.
another good way how to think about making characters’ faces look different from one another is to draw like, a handful of them in grayscale without hair or accessories and STILL make them look recognizable and distinct from one another. this is a nice way to check for sameface, if you’re doubting that in your art. try this and then look where you need to go from there, what to change up and stuff.
pretty ok! you can still tell who is who even when they are stripped of their unique hairstyles, accessories and even scars n freckles.
now i could have made a much worse example, where the only way how to tell which character is which just by their haircolour or who has glasses. this isn’t, like, too bad BUT it’s still essentially the same face dressing up as different characters, you know? here you should start thinkin abt different shapes for different features so it’s not the same thing over and over again. don’t be afraid to experiment and move away from shyness to draw ‘’ugly’’.
i hope any of this is useful, and i hope i understood your question to begin with haha.
Happy Tuesday! Today’s tip is a very easy one to remember – VARY Your PROPORTIONS!
Characters that has varied proportion within their shape tend to be more dynamic and interesting. The ones with equal proportion tends to be more static; there’s definitely time to do this; ie. when you want to emphasize the staticness or boringness of a character. In general, I tend to give variety within my proportion and avoid to divide things in half or equal mass. I always keep in mind to use the rule of 1/3 2/3 and S-M-L.
Have fun!
Griz
Also on a side note, anything looks cute with 2 dot eyes and a smile!
#griz #grizandnorm #tuesdaytips #grizandnormtuesdaytips #characterdesign #cute #kawaii #arttips #tutorial
A compilation of stuff I know about drawing Asian faces and Asian culture! I feel like many “How-To-Draw” tutorials often default to European faces and are not really helpful when drawing people of other races. So I thought I’d put this together in case anyone is interested! Feel free to share this guide and shoot me questions if you have any! I’m by no means an expert, I just know a few things from drawing experience and from my own cultural background.
Inspiration Haven 