Learn to Draw

The human figure is considered to be one of the most difficult subjects to draw. One of the most commonly encountered problem of aspiring artists would be drawing it in proportion. So, if you want to learn to draw the human figure in the right proportion, here are some basic steps in doing so.

Materials

What you’ll need would be paper, pencil, a good eraser, ruler, and one good dose of imagination! Once you have all these, you are ready to start drawing.

Start With The Head

One of the easiest portion to start with would be the head. Draw the head. Create an oval for the head. This is because most heads are said to be oval in shape. Place this oval at the top portion of your paper. Try not to put too much pressure with your pencil stroke just yet. Draw lightly, and consider this to be a sketch.

Get The Body Size

Use your ruler to determine the body size. Get the measurement of the rest of your subject’s body. The ideal measurement can be taken from the principle that the human head’s size is approximately 1/7 of the total body height. So, measure the height of the oval that you just drew. Compute for the height of six more oval heads, and you would get the height of your body. It is best that you put marks on your paper so that it would be easy for you to see the measurement marks.

Start Having Some Figure

Once you’ve determined the height, you can now start giving your drawing some figure. Start by drawing the hips. Generally, you can find the widest portion of the hips located halfway down of the body. Draw a basic trapezoid shape. Put the widest or the base line of your trapezoid approximately at the position where the hips and waist should be, according to your measurements. The normal space starting from the hips up to the waist would be approximately 2/3 of the head’s length.

Add The Lower Extremities And The Upper Extremities

Add more form by drawing the knees and feet. Your figure’s knees should be halfway in between the feet and hips. Obviously, the feet would be the bottom part of the body. Create 2 small circles for the knees, place 2 small ellipses for the feet.

Now draw the upper extremities of the body by adding the shoulders, arms, elbows, and hands. Generally, the elbows should fall at waist level. The shoulders should be just right below the bottom of the head on both sides. Just like with knees, you can draw small circles for the elbows. To put the shoulders, draw two more heads lightly. Place 1 on each side of the head. You can draw circles to for the shoulders below each imaginary head. For the hands, they usually fall halfway down your figure’s thighs. Create small ellipsis for the hands.

Get Connected!

Now, it’s time for you to connect the different body parts that you drew. Use ellipses so that you can connect the body part.  As soon as this is done, you could start adding some shading and details. Add some clothing and some other essentials.  Do not forget to get a light source so that you’d know where the shadows should be placed.

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If you do not know who Sailor Moon is, she is the main character of a popular manga series that has the same name. It was first published in 1991 and was made by Naoko Takeuchi. Ever since it first came out, this manga got a lot of reissues, got spun off to various storylines, got translated to English and later on became an anime. If you want to learn to draw Sailor Moon, it’s best that you study various pictures of her. Get to know the different aspects of her personality as you view different illustrations of her.

Materials

There are a couple of materials that you’d need before you can start drawing. First, you have to get some Sailor Moon manga issues. Get one from Anime bookstores or even your local bookstore’s children sections. Get some pencils. Also, it would be better if you have inking pens. Best, if you have different colors. Lastly, you should have paper.

Get Acquainted: Meet Sailor Moon

If you’re not a fan, the very first thing you should do is become acquainted with Sailor Moon. Go and browse through different issues of the Mange. Do this so that you can have an idea of what your subject character looks like even  before you get to draw her. If you can’t get a hard copy of an issue or book, try searching the Internet. For sure you can find something online. After browsing, try to pick just one scene that you want to concentrate on and draw.

Start Drawing

Draw a girl that has a face with a slightly heart-shape. She should also have large and round blue eyes. It is pretty normal for you to encounter the heart motif throughout the manga. This is because she is described to be someone who has a very kind heart.

Her eyes should be big and inviting. Closely observe the manga and you’ll see that her eyes have a reflective manner. You can achieve this effect by putting a lot of white spots in her eyes. However, there are proper positions for these spots and they also depend on the direction that your character is looking. So, go back to your picture and observe properly.

Drawing The Hair

Once you’ve figured out the way you want her eyes to look, you can now add her hair. Sailor Moon’s hair is her trademark. This also applies with the different characters in the manga. Thus, drawing her with a different haircut or hairstyle would not make her Sailor Moon anymore.

If you will observe carefully, you’ll see that her whole head is heart shaped, including her hair. Sailor Moon has a very long hair that is always kept in pigtails. So, add some long hair and a big puff of bangs that forms a heart on your character’s forehead. Also, put 2 small puffs, one on the right and one on the left side of her head.

These look a bit like animal ears. However, they are not. Those two puffs are actually her hair accessories. The hairstyle she is sporting is called "odango" hairstyle, which is based on the Japanes word for meaning rice dumplings. Her pigtails should sprout out from the two puffs. Color her hair yellow when if it’s already time to put some color in your drawing.

The Body And Clothes

Sailor Moons’ body is quite slender. Her clothes are also another trademark. She wears a uniform, which is basically a sailor dress that is colored white. The short skirt is also white, but has some blue accents. She has a big red bow with a heart pendant on the middle of her chest. Her legs are slender and long with red boots.

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Drawing human figures is considered to be the most difficult for artists to do. This is because there is no generic way of drawing it. The human figure is unique for each and every one. Hence creating a replica via pen and paper could be complex. Nevertheless, with some practice, you can still learn to draw people.

Learn Proportion

One of the most common mistakes when drawing people would be the proportion. You should take note of this when drawing. The ideal proportion would be 7 heads tall for a man figure. Here are some of the other important proportions to take note of, all of them are 2 heads long:

1. From the kneecap’s middle to the foot’s bottom

2. The femur’s head to the whole kneecap

3. The elbow’s size to the extended fingers’ tips

4. The collarbone down to the belly button

5. The chest width from each shoulder’s end.

Observation

Other than mastering the skill of proportioning, you should also learn how to observe. You can have a perfect drawing if you learn how to closely observe faces and people. Being able to observe and view correctly could be helpful in your artistic improvement in the long run.

Ask yourself questions such as: Were you able to see the correct outline of your model's eye? What is the thickness of the outline? How about the eyebrows? Is the chin’s positioning at the right place? Did draw the neckline curvier than it should be? Take a look at your drawing. Is it a real representation of what your model looks like? Did you miss something? Take a look again.

Precise observation is needed if you really want to draw people. For you to do this, take some caution when observing.

Express Emotions

For your work to be appealing, it should also express emotions just like real people do. Remember to give extra effort with your figure’s eye brows, eyes, and mouth. These are the 3 areas that you’ll be utilizing to express your character’s emotions.

For instance, if you’ll be drawing eyes, remember that the eye surface is moist and that it reflects light. To achieve this kind of effect, try to add little white dots on the black part of the eyes. Doing this would make your character more appealing and lively.

Start Out Big

The trick to drawing precise figures is that you should start out big. Try to draw the gross parts of the body first. In this way, proportion could be secured. After you’ve drawn the bigger portions of the body, this would be the good time to add the details. So, eyes and other intricate features are to be added on the later part of your work.

Be Environmental

You should also take good note of the environment that your character is in. For instance, if your figure would be beside the window, then you should take note of how light falls upon the body. The lighting would definitely make a difference, especially on the shadings of your drawing.

You should also be able to establish the environment. Is it an indoor or outdoor scene? If it’s indoor, then add some indoor furniture or accessories. If it’s outdoor then place a figure that resembles the outside world, like trees or lamp posts.

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Manga is the world famous style of drawing Japanese cartoons. It is also more popularly known as “Anime”. This style of drawing has captivated a lot of Anime fans all over the world and people of all ages. Here are some of the basics of drawing Manga.

Learn The Culture

If you really want to draw good Manga, it is best that you learn more about Japanese culture. Most Anime’s are based on Japanese tales and historic characters. It is also better if you learn to observe the different surroundings and places in Japan. This is so that your drawing would really have a Japanese feel to it.

The Hair

Characters’ hair is generally based on a variety of hair strand shapes. More often, these shapes have a grass like appearance to it that is more curved at the lower end. Just like real hair, they do have many strands. However, you do not draw each individual strands as is, instead, you have to draw it into clumps.

It is important to take note that there is a skull underneath your character’s hair. A lot of artists overlook this factor and usually end up drawing oddly shaped heads. It is better that you draw a hairless head first so that it would look natural when you add on the hair.

Clothing And Folds

For clothing, the folds are very important details that you should take note of. You should always remember to take into consideration the direction that the fabric would be pulled. That is where you should create folds. Also, remember to shade the parts that are not subjected to light, like grooves, places in which there is an overlap of cloth and areas within folds.

For female characters, the clothing usually cling tighter to the body. For male, they usually hang loosely. There are also body portions that folds always occur, whether you are drawing a boy or girl character. These portions usually include the shoulders, lower waist, ankles and knees. There is less creases on the cloth on the lower and upper leg, since they are usually hanging loosely or are simply pulled down by gravity. They only have folds when the leg is being lifted up.

The most common pieces to be seen are pants, shirts, skirts, kimonos and capes. Manga art is very fond of using capes and kimonos, especially if the setting of the story is somewhere long ago in the past. School uniforms are a favourite too, which usually consist of pants and coats for boys and white blouses and mini skirts for girls.

Eyes

The eyes are the most important aspect of your character. This is what makes them different from other characters. Thus, you have to learn how to draw them correctly. For most cases, female eyes are drawn big. They are also more complicated than male eyes, since they tend to have a lot of shiny areas.

It is important that you select a light source, so that you would know where to put the white shiny areas on the eyes. For male eyes, they do have shiny areas but they are less obvious, than that of female characters. Male eyes are also narrower than female’s.

Most of the time, they are shady too in order to give life to the character, especially if they have a very mysterious personality.

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Japanese Animation or Anime is one of the most beloved kinds of cartoons all over the world. These are basically cartoons that are based on Japanese Manga series, or comics that were brought to life by being animated. If you want to learn to draw Japanese Animation, here are the things that you should know.

They Are Based On Manga

One thing that you should remember when drawing Japanese Animation is that they are based Manga. Thus, the style of drawing would be pretty be pretty much the same, only that they are moving for the animated version. Here are some things that you should take note in drawing this style of cartoons.

Characters Have Wild Hairstyles

If you observe characters in this kind of genre, you’ll see that they usually have wild hairdos. More often, male characters have long hair. In fact, there are some shows that sometimes men are mistaken to be women because of their long tresses. Their hair colors are also wild too. You can see pink and green haired characters. The style of their hair could be very extreme also. Often times, their hair would be sticking up and out to different directions.

When drawing hair, all you have to do is draw them into clumps that would stand as hair strands. For female characters, ponytails, headbands, pigtails and loose hairstyles are common. For men that have long hair, loose let down hair is also in fashion along with ponytails. Bangs are also in for both sexes.

The General Male

Most male characters would be muscular. A lot of them are depicted to be warriors of some sort. A lot of them are also lean and tall. It is normal for you to see blue or even pink colored hair male characters. However, this doesn’t really mean that they are gay.

The General Female

Most female characters are depicted to have slim bodies and long legs. These features are also emphasized by the type of clothing that females wear. More often they wear clothing that shows off their long legs, especially if the setting of the story is in the modern times. The breasts are also prominent. Women also have sharper chins and snub noses.

Little People?

Do not be surprised if you get to see characters that look like little people. These are called “Chibi’s”. These are basically distorted versions of characters. Although proportion is a rule when drawing, Chibis are intended to have a distorted proportion. This is done to achieve a ‘cuteness’ factor. This type of drawing is usually applied for child-like characters. They have big heads, small bodies, big eyes and no nose.

Villains

For villains, characters are usually drawn to be more realistic. There is more shading to make their faces look scarier and the lines used are more crooked than smooth and straight. You could usually find them in the form of mafia’s or gangs. Big bosses are also usually not seen. Body parts such as hands, feet or a mouth smoking a tobacco are the commonly used images whenever the big boss is focused on.

Cute Vs. Macho

For cute Anime’s the drawings are often simplistic with huge eyes and a lot of hearts and touches of pink. However, for macho type of Anime’s, the characters have more details and are rendered to be more realistic.

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Flowers are another yet favorite subject of artists to draw. This is probably because they are easy to find, naturally beautiful and easy to position. Although you may think that drawing flowers is simple, this kind of artistic venture is actually a good training ground for drawing much more complex subjects.

There are different flowers all over the world and you can choose to draw all of them, if you please. However, you should understand that all of them are unique. Thus, you should approach drawing them differently. However, there are still some principles in drawing that are applicable for whatever kind it is you may be drawing. So, here are the basics for you to learn to draw flowers.

Don’t Get Too Excited, Learn To Observe!

Upon seeing a flower, your eyes are definitely drawn to its center. Hence, it is really tempting for you to start drawing coming from the center also. However, what most beginning artists do not understand is that starting out from the center is very complicated. It is tricky, since you would have to judge the overlapped forms and small distances in the center. If you do not figure it out right, one thing’s for sure. You get a misshapen bloom.

To avoid this, start from the flower’s outside features.  This is so that you can look at its overall proportions. You can also use negative space to aid you in drawing the outer petals.

Be Sensitive With Your Lines

Progressively work in by following the line that you can see for each petal. Remember to go only as far as it goes. Do not shorten or lengthen just yet. Draw these edges quite firmly, but lightly on portions where the middle part curves out from you. Also, be prepared in trailing off a line. This means, lifting your pencil and starting a new line whenever you see an overlapping petal.

Sketch It Out

Pen and pencil drawings of flowers usually work well especially when drawn cleanly and smoothly. However, they also work pretty well when they are drawn in a much relaxed manner. Try to exaggerate the weight of the lines you would be using. Do not be afraid to lighten the pressure or make it heavier. You can add loose or even scribbled marks. This would suggest foliage and overlapping petals.

Draw Something In Between

If you’ll be sketching with line, it’s good to try drawing shadows underneath your petals, instead of outlining each petal precisely. You can place short, stippled marks. These can suggest stamens placed at the bloom’s center. If you’ll be observing different drawings, you’ll see that petal length and sizes vary greatly. This is very evident especially if the flower has a certain angle to its viewer.

Get A Light Source

You should also have one light source for your drawing. This is important so that you can determine the shadows and the lighter portions of your picture. This gives your drawing depth and a much realistic look to it.

Improve With Variety

If you want to improve with your drawing skills, you can do so through variety. Try to vary the position of your subject or model. Try sketching it at different angles. You should also try different light sources. Doing this would definitely improve your skill.

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Graffiti is commonly thought of as mere public vandalism. However, it is not just that. There is more to it than what meets the eye. It is an art. In fact in some places in the world, there are walls where you can legally put graffiti art. It entails great creativity if you want to learn to draw graffiti letters. However, there is no right way to do it. In this kind of art, you have to develop your own style. Hence, here are some of the basics for you to do so.

Get To Know The Art

It is important that you familiarize yourself with the different graffiti styles. It doesn’t matter where you come from or live, for sure there is some graffiti nearby. However, if there aren’t any, you can try visiting another city. If you can’t go on hunting for the real thing, then you could resort to the Internet. Try browsing for different pictures of graffiti art work from different places in the world. This could get you exposed with the different styles.

Write Down A Name

Get a sheet of paper and write down a name. It is best if you use your name to start out with. Most serious graffiti artists started out by simply writing their names in a unique manner. For starters, it’s easiest to have the letters printed in all capital forms. Use a pencil. Try to draw as light as you can so it would be easy to erase details you don't like. You should leave enough space between your letters. Remember that you'll be expanding the letters and this space would be filled in later. Make your writing big enough so that it would be easy to work with, but not too big that it’d take you forever to finish your work.

Choose A Style

Next, you should choose a style that you'd want to use for your name. One of the most famous styles would be bubble letters. However, there still a lot of other styles out there. Don’t be afraid to explore. You can use rounded or sharp edges, same sized letters or have some big and others small, etc. It would be easier for you to emulate a given style. Once you get to learn the basics, it’s easier for you to naturally develop your own.

Outline

Once you’ve chosen a style, outline the letters of your name. Try to approximate it with the style you've chosen. Use a pencil and make sure you write lightly. If you make mistakes, which for sure you’ll do for a number of times, use your eraser. Remember to make use original letters as your guide and not your prison. Also, do not be afraid to change your letters past all recognition.

Line Thickness

One good way to vary your letters is by varying its line thickness. This is good if you want your letters to have a 3-D effect. Try to make lines thicker and thinner at different points. This also gives a perception of space and depth.

Add Details

To give your work a personal touch, add more details to your letters. For instance, a lightning bolt for your i’s dot would be good, or a pair of eyes peering out of your B’s hole. If you want, you can also put a bubble around the whole word, just like in comic books. It all depends on your preference and imagination. Try to explore and don’t be afraid to mix colors.

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