Could you do a tutorial on how to draw body hair? like chest hair, arm hair, facial hair? I can never make it look right : (
here’s a short little one:
I’m sure there’s better ways out there, but this is how I do it!
dredsina:
I could explain this a lot better, but I’m lazy today. |(
Also, I made it a dude each time because drawing in boobs would distract from the underlying muscle and stuff. :Y
How do I choose which details to draw in non-photorealistic art? I feel so tempted to try and draw everything, but then it looks too busy and cluttered. So many illustrators seem to have a balance of realistic proportions and stuff but not as many details
In semi-realistic styles, you have to choose what to keep and what to simplify. My advice would be to keep detail in the areas of focus (the face and the hands are good points of focus). Within the face, you also have smaller areas of focus, such as the eyes, nose, and mouth.
If you’re having trouble with drawing TOO much detail, try this exercise:
1) Try to draw the body/object/face in as few lines as possible while still looking like the original.
2) Then, figure out which parts look weird without the detail (the face, and eyes especially, will probably look flat or fake) and add in as much as needed.
Also! Don’t be afraid to look at those illustrators you think are doing this well and studying where they put how much detail in their drawings. You can learn a lot from observing other artists!
-Mod Future (ko-fi)
For those of you that don’t know what 4c hair is, 4c hair is a hair texture type that contains coils to small and tight that the hair appears to be more puffy rather than curly ( like to photo below ) this is in NO WAY to be confused with curly hair. there is a drastic difference.
As a black artist that primarily draws characters with 4c hair, I’ve been asked many times to do a tutorial on 4c hair so here we go~
let’s take a look at this example of straight hair vs curly hair ( 1 type straight hair vs 3 type curly hair )
If you take a moment to compare the two you’ll notice straight hair is flat, it has no texture. Straight hair perfectly hangs down similar to liquid-like silk. It’s lack of curl pattern is the reason as to why it hangs perfectly flat.
curly hair on the other hand doesn’t lie down flat and silky like straight hair, It’s more thick. Curly hair in it’s raw and unstyled state has a trapezoid like shape this is because the sides of the hair spread more outward.
the answer to that question is a thing called piling up. When it comes to hair texture, the shape of the hair strands aren’t the only thing that matters, its how the strands coexist with each other, Curly hair strands coexist by piling up on top each other.
moisture also effects hair texture too, different hair types absorbs moisture differently, thus the thickness of each hair type is different.
Well let’s take a look at the drawing below. Notice how the arrows go outward more as the hair texture gets curlier. As we’ve already discussed, this is because hair piles up, The curlier the hair texture, the more it piles up on each other, the bigger it gets, the more outward the arrows go.
Out of any hair texture, 4C hair has the most curls. Because of this, the hair piles up on each other so much that it doesn’t lie down flat like straight hair, nor does it make a trapezoid like shape like curly hair, it instead becomes more cloud like.❤️
Think of it as piling up a bunch of cotton balls on each other. The most cotton on top of top to lead to a bigger patch of cotton. this is 4c hair.
Garnet fanart. Let’s talk about Garnet Fanart. I notice a trend that when artists draw Garnet from Steven universe, her hair texture is usually changed to 3 type curly like texture. This subtle form of White washing has confused me because this is inaccurate.
Garnet’s hair is in the shape of a cube. Though 3 type hair piles up on each other, it isn’t curly nor thick enough for their hair to stay in the shape of a cube. Curly hair lies down more than 4c hair. So garnet’s hair being in the shape of a cube is a dead giveaway that it is 4C. Why do you think hairstyles like flat tops are usually seen on black men with 4c hair? It’s because, the 4c hair texture is thick and strong enough to stay in whatever shape you put it in.
please, if you’re drawing a character with 4c hair, avoid drawing it like curly 3 type hair, this is very anti-black and texturist.
honestly, its the most easy thing in the world
i wanna clarify that blobby looking 4c drawings ( like the one on the top left ) can work depending on how cartoony your art style is.
Another thing that I want to greatly clarify when it comes to drawing 4C hair is, YOU. DONT. NEED. TO. DRAW. EVERY. HAIR. STRAND!…..like, seriously. I’ve gotten many messages about how 4C hair is hard to draw, and it’s always left me confused; but then I find out that the same people that have trouble drawing 4C hair, attempt to draw every single strand of hair. This is unnecessarily time consuming because it’s merely impossible to get every single detail down, especially when you have a simple cartoon style. 4C hair does not require much effort, all you’re doing is drawing lumps. It’s that simple, nothing more nor nothing less.
The reason why I greatly advise all of you to avoid drawing every single hair strand is because in real life, when you look at a 4C textured Afro, your eyes don’t pick up on each individual hair strand like straight or curly hair. 4C hair, appears to be more undefined and cloud like, so attempting to draw each and every individual strand is unnecessary and will most likely end up looking inaccurate.
Some drawing tips I was asked for. I might draw later how to draw expressions and hands, but for now, here, thanks for the interest! And hope this is useful!
By me, Sara D. (Heh.)
I think it’s very important for artists to vary the types of bodies they draw! Not only does it add visual interest and diversity, but different body types can enhance your characters! (Plus it’s more realistic; when was the last time you walked down the street and everyone had the same body type?) I know I have a hard time drawing different bodies, especially with men, so I’m making this tutorial to teach myself as well (I’ve heard the best way to cement learning something is to teach someone else).
So! Bodies! I’m going to use women for this tutorial because I feel they have more variety in their bodies. One of the most obvious ways bodies differ is in their amount of fat.
[Click here for full size]
On average, people store fat mostly in core areas like the bust, the waist, and the hips. It is important to remember that people gain and lose weight differently, and this is true no matter how fat or skinny one gets. However, these are common places people store fat:
The face and neck can be immediate indicators as to how much fat the rest of the body has; when someone loses or gains weight, it’s initially obvious in the face. This is possibly because the eye is (usually) drawn first to the face.
In addition to differences in the amount of body fat, bodies vary vastly in their proportions. The two main ways they differ is skeletally and in fat distribution. The hip to shoulder ratio is skeletal, and someone with wider shoulders might look more powerful or masculine, and someone with wider hips might look more grounded or feminine.
The torso to legs ratio is also a skeletal ratio. Someone with long legs in comparison with their torso might look taller than someone of the same height with a long torso, and they might also look skinnier.
(I say as I finally get some visual variety all up in here.)
Because the hips are also one of the places with the most weight gain in women, large hips can also be a matter of fat distribution. The three main places where the fat ratio really matters is in the bust, the waist and the hips (making up the core of the body).
While men usually carry weight in the belly area, the fat distribution can really vary with women. Some women carry more weight in the bust, some in the belly, and some in the hips/thighs. Some women carry more weight in two areas, like the bust and the hips, the bust and the belly, or the belly and the hips. Some women show no obvious bias to any area and carry weight equally.
[Click here for full size]
Taking into account skeletal ratios, fat distribution patterns, a vast human weight range, muscle tone and age, there are endless permutations of body types. It would be a shame if you used only one!
Oh, and that first image looks really interesting as a gif.
another art tutorial post :) this time it’s for rainbow effects
i’m still learning anatomy myself so i wouldn’t use this as more than just a general tip but…. I am fascinated by speculative monster anatomy and this is something i discovered years ago and thought i would impart amongst my fellow monster enthusiasts :)
mind you, the second set of pectorals can look kind of funky so i understand aesthetically why people would prefer not to draw them but! if you are someone interested in anatomy, i think this is a thing people dont really think about when giving their OCs wings/extra limbs and i think it’s kind of neat!
how do you bodies/torsos so well? i love them!
first off - thank you so much! i don’t believe i’ve ever had anyone ask me about the way i draw certain things, but i’ll certainly try my best to explain the way i do it…
you won’t hear anything from me that you haven’t heard from any other artist already if i were to give you tips for drawing realistic human bodies!
i believe most of the charm comes from the angularity of my style, so every time i have to draw a body i basically break it down into simple geometric shapes. i dont like the whole ‘draw a line, draw a circle, draw an oval’ business so i just go ham with triangles and squares
you can of course polish the sharp angles and make them smoother after you’re done sketching - that’s up to you
you could also combine straight lines, rough shapes with curvy lines and smooth shapes
if you’re using references you’ll actually notice how common the triangular/rhomboid patterns are on a body
lack of realism when using simple geometry also allows for flexibility and creativity (HUGE shoulders, torsos wider than 3 human heads lined up, etc. im my own cop and i say go ape shit with this stuff)
hopefully this is clear enough to answer your question!