Tutorial: Fan Art, Frozen, Anna

With this tutorial I want to focus on creating the shading using coloured pencils. Here you can clearly see how the shading is created as all the different lines are noticeable. Firstly figure out where you are going to leave the white spaces to help define the lighting, as you cannot erase coloured pencils very well. Now Anna, the character that is drawn above is known for her large blue eyes and braided hair, so focus on recreating those if you are drawing Anna. To create a rough outline just use any lead pencil but preferably a light one, then only create a very soft outline since if you apply to much pressure it can be visible through the colour.

Once you have created the outline, you want to start using the lightest shade of the colour as a base for the obejct that you're drawing. Basically you always want to start light first, then go dark after. For example if you're colouring the skin you want to start by using a light pink-ish white. Then when you want to define the shading you get a darker shade of the same colour, and then you start layering on top of the light base colour you did earlier. You can also add other colours apart from a darker shade of the same colour, as shown by the red cheeks, the artist layered in red as well as brown to create them. I suggest never using black unless you have to, since it is a very strong colour and may ruin your drawing if not added correctly.

Feel free to post your outcome in the comment section below, have fun!

Artist: Kaylamarrie
Picture retrieved from: I know everyone draws Frozen characters but I'd like to think I did decent....

Tutorial: Human Form, Back of the Head

This tutorial will be focused on understanding the proportions and shading from a different angle. As you can see the ear lines up with the eyes and the eyes are roughly aligned with the hole of the ear. Now everyones facial features can be slightly different so don't feel restricted by these alignments, but they only provide a rough guide to proportioning and positioning. The shading here is perfect and it clearly shows the light direction combined with the correct proportioning, this is why such a simple perspective drawing has such a realistic feel towards it.

Although the soft shading created here is done with charcoal smudging, you can still create the same effect using pencils, erasers, and smudging. To create this shading using a pencil try to use a light pencil such as a 2H or 3H, then you want to start by creating soft gradients on where you want the shading to be. Firstly you need to understand the curves of the face to be able to recognise where to shade, this only comes with practice and observation. Anyway this will then leave soft remnants of the lines, so then to get the overall soft shading as shown above, you then use either your eraser, smudge stick or even your finger to try and smudge the lines so that they aren't so noticeable anymore.

Make sure you shade in the direction of the object as shown by the hair, all the lines are curved towards the bun of the hair creating a realistic look. Now to create the shading of the hair you want to create the same sort of gradient effect as the skin. Then to create the white highlights in the hair you want to either avoid drawing in those spots, or an easier way is to use your eraser to erase some of the shading to help show how the light hits the hair. The hair also has very thin strands that stick out on the outer edges of the hair, just use a sharp pencil to draw them to add another layer of detail and realism. Don't be disappointed if you can't create the amount of detail as shown above, since the drawing above is very advanced and can only be created through practice.

Feel free to post your outcome in the comments section below, have fun!

Artist: Tkamp11
Picture retrieved from: Trying something new graphite,charcoal, and sharpie on paper.

Tutorial: Fan Art, Samurai Champloo, Mugen

With this tutorial I wanted to highlight a different style of Anime styled drawing. Mugen as a character is recognized by his hair and blank expression on his face. Understanding the elements that make up the character is the first step of creating a successful fan art. Now Samurai Champloo which is the Anime that the character above, Mugen, comes from has a more of a unique style. The art style of this Anime leans towards more of a realistically proportioned face, but they still keep a similar facial feature style. Keeping the art style in mind while creating any fan art is important.

Anyway the drawing itself here is relatively simple. There are minimal amounts of lines, but this will put more emphasis on the accuracy of the lines. When starting drawing with this style you want to start drawing lightly as the room for error with the precise lines that define this style. The shading is also kept simple using only solid colours without creating any sort of gradients. The hair however is shaded with a more of a realistic texture by shading in layers.

Feel free to post your outcome in the comment section below, have fun!

Artist: Pro-PAIN
Picture retrieved from: I drew Mugen from Samurai Champloo

Tutorial: Humans, Eyes

Since eyes are such a important piece in terms of recognizing people in drawings, I wanted to create a tutorial just focused on eyes. Now the eye here is drawn from a lower angle and the pupil is looking upwards, although this is a more rare angle to draw an eye from, it helps you understand the lines of the eye. What separates the good eyes from the bad, is how the small rim of the eye is shaded. As you can see the rim of the eye is the small gap between the eyelashes and the eyeball and runs on along the lower edge of the eyeball. Since it's such a small area of the eye it is hard to apply correct shading to it, but when it is done correctly as shown above with the tiny specks of white, it creates another layer of depth to the eye.

Another thing that is important when drawing an eye is understanding the shading of the pupil and the eye ball itself. The pupil of the eye will always have some specks of light hitting it, so it's important to keep those areas of the pupil white, you can do this by making a light outline of where the light hits the pupil then never drawing within that outline. The eyeball itself must be shaded so it looks like a ball, as shown above by the direction of the lines used while shading it. Drawing the eyelid groove is another small thing that can help create a more realistic eye.

Now the eyelashes here are slightly exaggerated at the upper eye, but they still carry the same drawing technique. When you draw eyelashes you want to draw them quickly and with some curve to them, almost like you're drawing the curves of a circle. You draw the eyelashes quickly to help make them look natural otherwise they would look rigid if too much time is spent on them. You also draw the eyebrows with speed to help them look natural too, except the curve of the line is less angled compared to the eyelashes.

Anyway feel free to post your outcome in the comment section below, have fun!

Artist: 0ptimistprime
Picture retrieved from: Quick late night eye study

Tutorial: Fan Art, League of Legends, Darius Sketch

Now this is a sketch done by one of the artists that created several artworks for the game League of Legends, so he has a pretty good idea of the art style. The art style of League of Legends is a mixture of a comic style combined with realistic shading. What I wanted to highlight was the sketching style of a more experienced artist. You see how he only briefly defines the shading with some quick line work but with the outline, more precise lines are used as well as darkening the outline where it would be darker from the shading. With this style of shading, you can focus more on perfecting the outline since it is the most important part of sketching is defining the drawing without spending too much time.

Anyway this drawing style leans towards more of a Anime style than a realistic style which you can tell by how the face is drawn. So as I've said before, with an Anime-ish style, the outline of the drawing must be  accurate since that is what helps to create that style. What's difficult about this drawing is the perspective created, since the arm is close to viewer which throws off the proportioning of a normal drawing which makes the head look small. Understanding this angle of drawing is important when you want to recreate this drawing.

Feel free to post your outcome in the comment section below, have fun!

Artist: IronStylus
Picture retrieved from: Dario Chop Man

Tutorial: Human Face, Scarlett Johansson

I wanted to show a different shading style that could be easier to use when drawing human portraits or anything really. Basically the shading style is similar to cross hatching except you only choose one direction of line, then when you want to darken the shading you add more lines while sticking to the same line direction. With this style of shading you don't have to worry about shading in the direction of the shape, this helps you focus on the how dark the shading should be and where the shading should be. Also with this shading style it creates a interesting textured look to your drawings.

Anyway the actual drawing of Scarlett is done very well as the angle of the portrait is a rather difficult to recreate. Only with repetition can bring up your drawing skills up to the level as shown above. As you can see, despite the different angle, you can still recognize that the drawing is of Scarlett. I suggest to start practicing by drawing eyes since they are the main element that makes someone recognizable. Also eyes can be deceptively difficult as only the tiny details in the eye can have a large impact on how recognizable that person is.

Feel free to post your outcome in the comment section below, have fun!

Artist: FLY_MOLO
Picture retrieved from: Attempt at a Scarlett Johansson portrait [pencil on moleskine]

Tutorial: Fan Art, Sasuke Sketch

Here is a sketch of a popular character from the anime Naruto, the character's name is Sasuke. Now with Sasuke, his main attributes are his unique hair and eyes, those two things are what make him recognizable. Here the artist has sketched a good representation of Sasuke's ruffled hair combined with his unique eyes. The art style of the anime Naruto keeps the hair and the nose fairly flat in terms of shading. Whereas the eyes become more detailed depending on the expressions that are made. Now drawing this style requires a good amount of accuracy with your lines, as this style keeps shading to a minimum and only uses precise lines to determine shapes and how they are positioned as well as depth.

To create accurate fan art on the character Sasuke, you're going to need to understand how his hair and eyes looks at different angles. This depends on whether you're copying an image or creating your own drawing from scratch. If you are copying an image make sure you start copying it from a point that can be used to help judge proportions from. An example of this is starting from any facial feature, if you're drawing the lips then you can understand how large those lips are compared to the eyes and the same goes for other elements of the face. I don't suggest starting from the hood of the drawing above unless you are experience at drawing this particular anime style, as the hood is difficult to recreate perfectly as you don't have anything to judge the proportions of it when you're starting from nothing.

Feel free to post your outcome in the comment section below, have fun!

Artist: Dam-El
Picture retrieved from: Sasuke sketch!