Tutorial: Fan Art, Spiderman

Now it is very easy to recognize that the drawing is of Spiderman, but I still want to highlight the importance of perfecting the characteristics that make up that character. The large eyes combined with the webbed skin is done perfectly which makes it easily to recognize. This drawing is done entirely with coloured pencils, but you can still just use a lead pencil to recreate it. Keep note of the attention to detail in the shading, each little square in the webbed suit has it's own shading, and the eyes are shaded so that they are reflecting the light. The shading of the eyes is fairly difficult, but if you want to create this make sure you already know where you want the glint to go, since it is difficult to create glint if you have already drawn heavily over the area where you want it. This tutorial will be focusing on the use of coloured pencils though. Since I'm not so experienced in this area, I'm going to use the advice that the artist had included with their drawing.

    Artist's Comments:

I took art classes for a few years, and this one was done with prismacolours. A few things I've learned are:

Do not apply black right away; always use the darker blue/purple before applying black if it's necessary. The Spiderman drawing was more purple than red, surprisingly.

Try to keep your pencils sharp, and use paper with as little variation in texture as possible. I use a brand of sketchbook called Mayfair, and I find it much better for colour pencils.

Don't press too hard. It's better to add multiple thin layers than one thick layer of colour. This also makes it easier to mix colours.

I usually try to avoid erasing or smudging colour pencils just because it's harder to colour over afterwards. It's extremely important that when making the outlines in pencil before applying colour, you press very gently, just enough to see the pencil lines. If you press too hard, when the pencil lines get erased, it leaves small dents in the paper which look like white lines when coloured over.

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

Artist: FreshLemons49
Picture retrieved from: Spiderman for a friend's birthday!

Tutorial: Human Face, Amanda Seyfried

This drawing is particularly powerful due to the strong connection made by the eyes, as they stare directly at you. Very minimal shading is used, leaving only the lines that are crucial to defining her face. As you can see there are barely any dark lines, everything is kept soft which results in the person looking soft as well. There are a variety of ways to create the same soft effect, easiest way is to start drawing with a lighter pencil, that way it forces you to create only light lines. For this drawing the pencils used are 4H and 6H which are extremely light, but you can use whatever pencil you want as long as you don't apply too much pressure while drawing. The shading here is created with the help of a smudge stick (that white roll of paper to the right), but you can create the same effect using your eraser softly on your page, or just using your finger to smudge but it is more difficult.

Now the actual drawing of the person is done to the correct proportions which is why it is so realistic. Understanding the light direction and where to add shading is also important, for example the above picture has the shading on the left side of the nose and lips being the main element that distinguishes her face. If you want to try and perfect creating realistic people, I suggest you start drawing people from real life. Whether you're drawing from real life or a picture, it is important to keep looking at the picture or the person as you draw. I usually look at whatever I'm drawing every few seconds or so, then I return to drawing.

Artist: TheAmazingAaron
Picture retrieved from: Amanda Seyfried - Graphite in Sketchbook

Tutorial: Fan Art, Lady Thor

This is a good example of someone's own interpretation of a character. Despite being a different gender from the original Thor, you are still able to recognize that the drawing is a representation of Thor. This is because the artist has chosen to draw the items that make up the character Thor, these being his iconic hammer combined with his helm and cape. You can also stylize the items that make up the character to add more originality. Anyway the drawing style here fairly simple but the amount of shading throughout it adds to the complexity. Understanding the proportions of the human body is important when you're drawing a human out of your own imagination. Keeping in mind that hands and feet are probably the hardest part of the human body to draw.

Now if you want to draw this for yourself, you're going to need to learn how different parts of the body line up or how they compare in size. For example from the shoulder down, the arms should be long enough to extend past the hips and sit on the thighs. Since if you're creating your own fan art, you don't have anything to refer to. You could find a picture of a person with a suitable pose then start drawing that as a base for your fan art, if you're struggling. Anyway it is difficult to create recognizable fan art so don't worry if you aren't able to.

Artist: 0ptimistprime
Picture retrieved from: Lady Thor wip part 2

Tutorial: Fan Art from League of Legends, Gentleman Poro

This drawing is fairly simple, but the cartoon style combined with the shading makes it unique. I decided to showcase this picture since it shows a clear example of Crosshatching. Now the drawing above is of a simple creature that is not overly complex, but the shading is done exactly where it needs to be to create depth. Just start with a light outline of whatever you're drawing, whether it be the picture above or your own thing. The lines for the outline in the above drawing are all smooth and soft, so keep that in mind while creating an outline if you want to create the same effect. Don't be fussy over how accurate you are though, since it's the shading that makes the drawing look good. The Crosshatching here is fairly light due to the spaces in between the lines, but it still is effective. In order to Crosshatch you want to start by understanding where to shade. So keep note of the light direction and follow it, the above image has a light direction from the upper left area coming down upon the creature.

Anyway Crosshatching requires layering if you want to increase the intensity of your shading. So in the above picture, some areas only use one line to Crosshatch rather than creating X's. For example around the mouth and the tongue. The areas where you want to shade darker using Crosshatching you keep overlapping lines. To start Crosshatching, choose one line direction and don't draw too many lines, try to keep a bit of space between each line. Next figure out where you want your Crosshatching to be darker, then draw lines that are the opposite direction to overlap your previous lines. I would say Crosshatching is much easier then regular shading once you understand where you need to shade, since you can easily change how dark you want your shading to be. The only difficult thing is understanding where to shade, a technique one of my teacher's taught me was to squint your eyes while looking at whatever you're drawing to see the shadows easier.

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

Artist: Harrietalicefox
Picture retrieved from: Gentleman Poro

Tutorial: Under Arrest! Human Face Structure and Shading

I decided to do a tutorial on this drawing since the girl is attractive. A variety of different elements all add up to create the attractiveness of this drawing. When you first start trying to draw humans, you're going to find that you tend to make them uglier then they really are. Well that's what happened to me when I started. Now pay attention to the soft lines that make up her face, combined with the soft shading. Those soft lines are why her whole face looks cute, since if you go overboard on the shading on her face you lose that soft look which is why it is important to start light. The shading here is the bare minimum you need to help distinguish the curves of her face. Although soft lines and shading help to add to the overall attractiveness, you're going to need to learn how to draw attractive people to start. Also capturing the facial expression of human faces is difficult to create. The slight lip tilt and the small opening of the lips in the drawing above is an example of this, just a minor adjustment can create an expression.

I suggest you try and find a celebrity's picture or any sort of actor then try and replicate them onto paper. The hardest thing about drawing a face is creating two identical eyes, so don't stress if you can't do that. I personally start drawing eyes first when I draw faces, but you can start anywhere you're comfortable. Always start light, if you're struggling to consistently stay light with your drawing, then I suggest getting a graphite pencil that is either H or 2H. It takes time and repetition in order to draw realistic people, so if you can't draw whoever you want to draw to perfection, just try again with another picture. Rinse and repeat. The picture above has a hand included, hands are also difficult to draw to the correct proportions so don't worry if you can't replicate it.

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

Artist: FLY_MOLO
Picture retrieved from: Under Arrest! [sketch on moleskine]

Artist's comments:
 I spent a good 20 minutes drawing the hand, had difficulty. Need more practice.

Tutorial: Fan Art from League of Legends, Mecha Kha'zix

To start off this drawing is a copy of a original image, and it is a fairly accurate replication. What's important about this drawing is the sharpness of the outline. To create this you're going to have to spend a majority of your time perfecting the outline of what you're drawing. A good technique when copying something is to have it close to you where you can constantly keep referring to it, basically every time you draw a line on your own paper, you double check how that line looks on the original image.This way you can be more precise as you create your outline. Keep in mind the outline in this image is kept fairly thin, so it's ideal to keep the lines very light to start off so you can easily erase them if you mess up.

Shading with coloured pencils is fairly difficult to master, since the way you layer the shading can be made up of several colours and not just one. For example, on the majority of the blue armour on the drawing above, it is done through having a starting layer of light blue, then he switches pencils to a darker blue to add another layer, then black is also added if the shading is not dark enough. It's important to start with the lightest colour first, then you can add a variety of darker shades of that colour to create shading. Also I wouldn't use black pencil unless you can't find the darkest shade of the colour you want to create, since black is very overpowering.

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

Artist: Nemanja007
Picture retrieved from: Link

Artist's Comments:
My hand made Mecha Kha'zix !

Tutorial: Shading and the Human Face

I know this picture is done through charcoal or pastel, but it shows clearly where the light hits her face. This tutorial will be going into detail on how shading works as well as understanding the human face. In order to replicate this you're going to need to start by creating a light outline. Since this drawing looks fairly rough, I suggest you try and sketch the outline quickly without thinking. This is so that you aren't so worried about perfecting the lines so you can create movement in the drawing as shown above. You can always refine the lines later if you aren't happy with the rough look. Anyway I personally would start with the eye since that is how you can distinguish who the person is, as well as base proportions from it. Proportions being the most important thing in terms of creating a recognizable face.

When you shade you want to choose a light direction so you can base all the shading around that one direction. In the picture above the light direction seems to be coming from front on at a low angle from the left side. You can tell by how the light reflects off the eye, since it is at the lower part of her pupil. Once you have chosen a light direction you want to replicate that same light direction throughout. First you need to understand the structure of the human face, the drawing above is a good example since the white effectively shows the way her face is shaped. For example you can see at the shading above the lips helps to show that the lips stick out more then the eyes do, same goes for the nose. So you can clearly see how the light hits her nose and what effect that has on her whole face. Understanding how the curves of the human face is fairly difficult to master, but this drawing above highlights the lighting and shading very clearly so I hope it helps.

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

Artist: 0ptimistprime
Picture retrieved from: Late night Doctor Who sketching

Tutorial: Fan Art from League of Legends, Bladecraft Orriana

This tutorial will be focusing on how to create recognizable fan art. If you don't play League of Legends, this art piece is of Orriana in her Bladecraft skin. The key element distinguishes Orriana is her robotic ball. So if you want to create any type of fan art you must find the element that represents that character, for instance if you were drawing Spiderman, his key elements are his large eyes and his spider symbol on his chest and back. Once you figure out the thing that allows you to recognize that character, you focus on either creating your own interpretation of it, or you mirror it's details into your own work. For this art piece, the ball must be done to the closest detail since that is what makes Orriana recognizable. Since the artist is copying off an original image then creating her own interpretation, it's very important to perfect the drawing of the ball.

This drawing is fairly simple, but it's the shading that adds to its complexity. This particular style seems to be a mix of a Comic Book and a Anime'ish style. To get this same effect you need to start drawing a light outline on what you want to draw. The lines are very strong and rigid so perfecting the outline is very important. Since this image is in colour it is more difficult to judge the shading, so try to find a black and white image if you are struggling to copy the one above. Once you have created a fairly solid light outline of what you want to draw, you can either start by adding in shading inside those lines, or darkening the outline. Personally I would start with shading on the inside first. To get the same shiny effect, you need to shade by layering and also shade in the direction of the object. For example when you are shading a ball you need to be using curved lines to act as the shading, not straight lines. If you are struggling with shading, you can use your eraser to help lighten the areas where you have gone too dark.

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

Artist: Akaibelier
Picture retrieved from: [CommBSWC] Orianna by Akaibelier

Drawing Tutorial: Minimalist Half Portraits

At first this drawing does look very daunting due to the high amount of detail applied. The key to this drawing is Proportioning. In order to start creating something similar,just find a front on picture of a face or you can just copy the one above. I would recommend copying the one above if you are fairly new to drawing. Anyway, I find it easier to start by drawing the eye, since the eye is in the middle of everything, so you can judge your proportioning from everything else. Now this eye in the drawing is fairly detailed so don't be disappointed if you aren't able to replicate it. The most important thing about drawing the eye is perfecting the pupil. Remember to start light then add shading once you are happy, and also shading is about layering and not just darkening lines.

Once you are happy with your eye, to get the same minimalist effect you must pay very close attention to lighting and shading. Since you have your eye completed, you can now judge the size of the eyebrow, nose, lips, chin, and hair according to the size of your eye. In order to get this realistic as possible, you must be constantly checking your proportioning and positioning of the objects. Now you must only add the lines that are absolutely needed in order to define what you are drawing. So for the nose for example, you only need to add the shadows made from the opposite side of the nose and the nostrils. Those elements alone are enough to distinguish that it is a nose.

The hair however is a bit more complicated due to the complexity of the curves. In order to create natural looking hair is to look at the most distinguishing parts of the hair that make up that style. So for instance the curves in her hair are very distinct. Once you make a light outline of the movement of her hair, you want to start layering in order add depth. It's important to capture how the light hits her hair since that is why her hair appears natural.

Feel free to post results in the comment section, have fun!

Artist: Mayaselky
Picture retrieved from Half portraits can be very powerful

Artist's Comments:

Inspired by Illeana Hunt's work. This is my first successful attempt at drawing realistically  (I think) in 6 months of exploration and copying artists' work.