Very Happy To Finally Post My Third Tutorial! Thank You So Much For Your Overwhelming Support Of My Last

If you don't mind me asking, how do you draw faces and heads in general?

HELLO YES IM SO SORRY I TOOK FOREVER. I’VE SORTA COVERED A LITTLE BIT OF THIS, SO I’LL LINK MY OTHER “TUTORIALS” AT THE END. HERE WE GO

SIDE PROFILE FACE AND HEAD:

FRONT PROFILE FACE AND HEAD:

MINI-TIPS:

Okay so I hope that helped!!! Obviously these vary based on the design, race, and age of your character, but it’s all rooted in the same basic,,, tHiNg.

Here’s the nose and eye tutorial (just skip the hands 😬):

https://rustic-space-fiddle.tumblr.com/post/181858381880/how-do-you-draw-hands-and-eyes-im-having-so

https://rustic-space-fiddle.tumblr.com/post/181887675515/how-do-you-make-noses-i-think-they-look-really

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Upon request someone asked for an anatomy tutorial! I kept it fairly general but if anyone wants something more specific, I’m happy to make a more of them :D

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

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A Tutorial Masterpost

I said that I’d show some tutorials I have saved up to someone, but decided that I’d just go ahead and post most of what I have stored away and create a sort of masterpost out of it. (I figure it’ll help me just as much since, as of now, they’re all pretty scattered between my Tumblr and bookmarks)

A lot of these are hosted on my personal Tumblr, but I don’t change my url so it’s pretty safe to bookmark them there (and not have to worry about the url changing) if you don’t wish to reblog them yourself for whatever reason.

Feline tutorials:

Basic domesticated cat tutorial

The domestic cat body

Improving upon (lion) anatomy

Realistic lion faces tips

Big cat paw tips

Canine vs. feline - paws and legs

Beginner feline tutorial

Guide to big cats

Feline comparison

Canine vs. feline - facial anatomy

Canine vs. feline - chest anatomy

Guide to little cats

Big cat eyes (could work for other eyes)

Canine tutorials:

Basic wolf anatomy

Skeleton notes on wolf legs

The wolf skeleton as a whole

The wolf skull and teeth

Wolf paw tips

Basic canine poses

Canine ears and chest

Drawing realistic wolves

Basic wolf tutorial

Wolf paw tutorial

Paw pad tips

Wolf skeleton and muscles

Wolf fur direction

Canine vs. feline - paws and legs

Canine vs. feline - facial anatomy

Canine vs. feline - chest anatomy

And this is just an excellent DA for wolf reference images

Avian tutorials:

Bird wing anatomy applied on humanoids

Bird wing tutorial (lots of underrated tips)

Varying bird wing structure

Basic owl anatomy

Bird wing vs. bat wing vs. pterodactyl wing vs. human arm

Bird wings and flight

Various bird wings

Human(oid) tutorials:

Hand tips and reference

Simplifying human anatomy

Feet and shoes tutorial

Bird wing anatomy applied on humanoids

A guide to movement: flexibility

A male shoulder study

Altalamatox face tutorial 

Male legs reference

The human hand

Male vs. female waist

Excellent expressions tut

Understanding anatomy part 1 (follow desc. links for more)

Painting skin

Simplifying hands

More simplified hands

Pose tutorial

Varying the female figure

Profile proportions

Expression tutorial

Virtual lighting studio

Breaking up the male torso

Male torso anatomy in use

Simplifying the human foot

Various facial and body shapes reference

Drawing the nose

Female anatomy patterns

Human mouths

Breaking down the human nose

How to draw the ear

More hand(y) tips

Neck and torso tut

Jawline and kissing tip

Yet another hands tutorial

Male torso in motion

The human head at various angles

Variation of colour throughout the skin

Excellent action and couple references

Advice on eyes

Feet reference drawings

Nose shapes

The human skull and face

Facial features

Portrait lighting cheat sheet

Animating dialogue (mouth movement)

A kissing tutorial

The fist

Various athletic builds

Various types of hair

Proportional height of different positions

Expressions photo references

The hand in motion

Skintone palettes

Semi-realistic eye tutorial

Male muscle reference

The human body in perspective

The human head at various angles

Painting a realistic eye

Arm shape and muscles

Animal feet on a human figure

Hand poses

The face in profile

Skin tutorial

Body type diversity

Drawing hair

Muscles in the neck and face

A beginner’s guide to knees

Another ladies tutorial

Breakdown of lips

Blocked out human faces

Practice figure drawing (animals as well)

A neat arm trick

Excellent ear anatomy tutorial

Fullbody proportions tutorial

Over the shoulder poses

Male torso photo reference

Detailed arm muscle drawings

Guide to human types

Dragon tutorials (and bat wings):

Anatomy of the Western dragon

Dragon wing tips

Dragon wing tutorial

Dragon anatomy

Dragon tutorial

Equine tutorials:

Basic horse (back) reference

The equine skeleton

Horse anatomy and pointers

A good, large collection of horse stock references

Skeleton of a horse and its rider

Horse hooves

Cervine tutorials:

Basic deer anatomy

Deer skeleton drawing

Deer skull reference

Deer musculature

Deer skeleton

Ursine tutorials:

Fantastic bear anatomy/poses references

Basic bear structure

Bear anatomy tutorial

Miscellaneous animal tutorials:

Sheep vs. goats

Background and objects tutorials:

Griffsnuff background tut part 1 (second in desc.)

Tree tutorial

Realistic gems tut

Water tutorial

General water tutorial

Drawing crystals

Drawing bows

Painting rocks

Clothing tutorials:

Fabric tutorial

Clothing folds part 1 (second in desc.)

Drawing hoods

Drawing jeans

Hat on human figure reference

Armor

More hat on figure references

Different shirt collars

Colour palette turtles

General painting, drawing, and style tips:

Altalamatox digital painting walkthrough

Simple fur tutorial

Realism painting tutorial (human subject)

Excellent colour tutorial

Painting a wolf (good fur painting visual)

Photoshop brushes tut

Basics of Photoshop tutorial

Another digital painting tutorial

Common digital painting mistakes

Colour and light

Soft cel-shading tutorial

Various types of hair

Colour tips and the mood it expresses

Composition tips

Lighting and colour tips

Shadows

Another composition tut

Simple colouring via overlay

From paper to digital

Painting gold

Hope these help!

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Hi! Made an incredibly quick and easy to comprehend guide because you freaks need it tbh. Image quality kinda sucks but whatever, you get it. Stop putting yellowface on my dash.

Male Anatomy

Artist: Brandon McKinney

DeviantART – ArandaDill

Some drawing tips previously posted on twitter. More drawing tips on my patreon. Hope some of these can be helpful.

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How a knight should be armed.

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