I Taught Myself To Paint Because I Don’t Have The Patience For Crisp Lineart And Now You Know How To

I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I finally had the time to work on a really simple walkthrough of my design process for armors! Hope it can be useful :D

Before designing the attire I like to define first who this character is going to be, based on their alignment, their role, job and so on. I used a random dnd character generator and found a simple but cool prompt:

Based on this brief description the first step to take is to get a good silhouette and pose. Figure drawing and silhouette studies are a good method of exercise: they train you to think without any sort of detail. The pose alone should convey the whole mood. I wanted my human paladin to be an aged veteran knight in medium build, ready to strike and prepared to carry her weight in battle with two swords.

Armor is a tricky subject but only when you don’t know it. I study a lot from real traditional armor, because before designing something I have to figure out how it actually works in real life. I could recommend lots of book to buy but Pinterest does an amazing job in providing you with an endless stream of inspiration and photos/illustrations to study (Osprey Publishing has fantastic books about armor, weapons and military from 10th century and before to 20th century). I believe in functionality over beauty but with a middle ground that makes both aspects look good together instead of clashing (I’m looking at you, Korean concept artists): it’s my job to find a compromise between them. A good example to study is something like this:

Simple, readable, every rivet shown makes it understandable to know how to move into an armor like this. I also take lots of inspiration from fashion design but it’s another whole world lol, https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows is pretty much the Bible for that since there’s a complete list of every season of pret-a-porter and couture from 1990 to the present day. It’s a fun game to play!

Question yourself when you design, “can I wear this? How? If I were to make a cosplay of this, how would I layer everything?”, if you’re aiming for realism you have to follow certain rules and guidelines. Speaking of guidelines, this is a simplification of the parts of the armor I want for this character.

You can call it a day and be done with it by refining the sketch a bit now. This is a good design, boring but functional. How do we make it more interesting? By using shapes and patterns to create a general theme, adding cloth parts like a cape and undershirt and all the elements needed like belts, chain mail and so on. Rectangles? Amazing. Circles into rectangles?? Beautiful craftsmanship (go wild)

This is looking like a real character now, congrats! Here’s where the fun really begins though: details. Once the silhouette is defined you can customize the character all the way and make it look like there’s a story to be told even in the armor. I like to think of a theme and apply it to pretty much everything, it’s usually animals or flowers because often times knights had themes like those. This woman is a fierce, fearless mom figure, tired but wise, willing to help the young adventurers to see them leave the nest and fly on their own… like a bird… but like, a cool bird? Like a cool bird often associated with freedom?

Eagle theme are all over the armor: it intrigues the viewer and makes the design look complex enough to be interesting on its own. The knee and elbow parts are wings now, one of the pauldrons has a raging eagle coming out of it (asymmetrical details are cool!), the important parts connecting the armor are shown with little details that make it look like a custom made set. At this point I’m satisfied and can go onto colors, then rendering.

Colors take a big part into the character design but it’s not something I feel good enough to cover lol, the only advice I can share regarding this is to have in mind the materials of the outfit. Right now the breastplate is in a grey zone: a slight change in material can turn a decorated breastplate into a half coat. Defining material when you’re sketching is a neat way to save yourself some time and get a bit less stressed when you get to painting.

And it’s done! Hope it was helpful!

I just realized how terribly short her right arm is LOL please don’t shame me

Here's my guide to how I draw fat masc bodies! (please keep in mind that this is not an in depth tutorial. I only put the information that explains how my brain interprets it)

hope this isn't too annoying but you do have any tips for drawing teeth? i l o v e the way you draw them but i can't seem to draw fangs that well :/

I've seen some amazing tutorials for teeth which explain much more about how teeth fit in the skill, which is very useful! But this is a very quick explanation of how I do Teeth! I don't often outline teeth too hard, unless I'm doing tusks, since the gums and teeth edges suggest pretty well without em!

Do any of the mods have tips for drawing a full body in side view? I always get it wrong

There’s a really good side view breakdown in Bridgman’s Constructive Anatomy book, however I can’t find it! I did my best to emulate what I know. 

If you already have the front view down, it’s a simple thing of translating the proportions over to the side view. One thing that helps me construct the body is using boxes to construct the head, ribs, and pelvis. The shoulder usually sits with bias towards the back, unless the person is slouching or their shoulders are raised in tenseness. I would recommend studying the bone structure of this if you really want an analytical sense of how it works! 

-Mod Future (ko-fi)

Male Anatomy

Artist: Brandon McKinney

yesterday i reblogged a drawing resource that included how to draw hijabs - and it honestly wasn’t the best advice i’ve seen out there

now, i’m not an artist. but what i saw was a video that included hijab styles most of us don’t really wear and incorrect terminology surrounding niqabs and burqas (yes, there is a difference between the two)

so, i went searching and found a tutorial that i felt was better! these drawing guides and examples come from @/winchestermeg on twitter, and i think they’re really great 💕

this has more relevant examples and correct terminologies, and is drawn by a muslim woman

enjoy, artists of tumblr!

i didn’t mean to make this so long but i wanted to both analyze my own style and give other people a look into it! I hope someone can find some use for it! 

Really crappy/quick tutorial on how I draw muscles?

I tend to draw muscles very simply, and there are tons of other tutorials that are waaaaayyyy better! But I hope you enjoy yungterra!

i want to tell you something and i hope it helps

pile of sketch garbage I’ve been posting on instagram !