Latest Posts by aether1984 - Page 3

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!

hii i saw some tutorials floating around on avoiding same face so i wanted to share how i do it! heres something quick :’D

I’m creating the world’s first true ENCYCLOPEDIA of drawing tutorials under the hashtag #howtoTHINKwhenyouDRAW, all of which is FREE for EVERYONE, FOREVER - you can see EVERY TUTORIAL on  OUR MASSIVE INSTAGRAM HERE and OUR GIANT TWITTER HERE! PLUS! CLICK HERE for 300 EXTRA FREE TUTORIALS! Lorenzo!

Making this guide because I see this question time and time again on here. This post is mostly directed at white artists and writers who are wondering how to best design their characters of color. Full text description is at the end under the cut.

Full disclaimer, I am biracial (mixed E/SE asian and white) and grew up in majority poc communities, but I am just one person and this post is only based on my own experiences. If any other poc want to chime in, feel free to do so.

Once again, a full plaintext description is under the cut. If you find the information useful, please pass it on by reblogging <3

(Finally, even though I spoke vaguely on genetic inheritance, this is NOT the place to comment on certain features being mutations, as if being a mutation means something is inherently lesser or isn’t supposed to exist. Mutations is everything! All of our traits were at some point or another, an emerging mutation. Love yourself ^__^)

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how do you do torsos?

[full pic here] 

it’s not anatomically accurate but this is basically how i do torso

on drawing fat bodies

i present to you, TORSOs. heads an legs got lost in the mail sorry

disclaimer: I am east asian. if anyone who is not white sees anything wrong with my phrasing, inaccuracies, or insensitivity, or something I missed, please feel free to add on. I’m just one person with one perspective; none of what I say should be taken as The Singular way to draw an Asian character. if you havent done so already, please take the effort to expand your view of Asian culture outside this one tutorial.

if a white person reblogs this and adds something stupid I’m going to bite and kick you like a wild animal

hi! i’m absolutely in love with ur OCs and ur art :0... how do you make ur characters so diverse? (currently struggling with same face syndrome lol)

TYSM <33 

I think it has a lot to do with big shapes and the relationship between the characters features. So with my OCs for an example I made the shape of their heads very distinct. None of them have the same shape, and the same goes for their eyes, noses and mouths. If you run out of shapes you can just change the relationships, like have one character with a square face, big round eyes and a small mouth while another has the same square face but with flat eyes and a low nose. 

This is used in siluettes and body shapes as well! One specific thing you can keep in mind is where a character’s weight is. Annix has a very square body with mass evenly distributed over her arms, chest and legs, while Aligra has all of her weight focused on her wide hips and big hands/feet. It helps to look at the body type of yourself and the people around you. I have long spindly arms and legs with most of my weight in my boxy hips!

Weight can also be used to vary the characters body language: Corvet has an exaggerated arch to her back while Kiropt pushes her pelvis out in a slouch. This movement in their spines completely defines how we read their personalities. Corvet looks high strung and snobby while Kiropt looks relaxed and careless.

When it comes to humans you get a lot of diversity for free if you make your characters different ages, etnicities, sizes etc. The most distinct differences between etnicities is the shape relationship I talked about earlier. If you make one of your characters white and one east-asian, the white character will naturally have thinner lips and a more pronounced browbone which already makes them different before you’ve even designed them.

Last thing I’m going to mention is perspective. Sometimes your characters faces look too similar because you always draw people from the same angle! Just making them look up, down or to the side a little can make a huge difference. Especially if you draw really stylized art since you can’t draw a nose viewed from the front with the same lineart as a nose viewed slightly from the left.

I know this explanation is a lil messy but I didn’t have time to do a proper tutorial. Thank you for asking though, and good luck with your art! :)

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! 

Please share this!!!!! As you resident vitiligan and fellow artist I am here to educate people on how to properly create a character with vitiligo and other things to keep in mind about the disorder.

Only 1% of the entire world’s population has vitiligo but I see so many artists making characters with it when they sometimes don’t even know what vitiligo is and pass it off as “skin pigmentation”. Like— what does that even mean??? XD

It’s not an aesthetic and it won’t get you “diversity points” so stop romanticizing vitiligo!

I’ve been studying the classic black tie dress code (mainly from here) so I thought I could share my notes. Maybe they can be helpful to someone else, too. If I made any mistakes or things are really confusing please tell me.  I also have some notes on white tie which I could share as well…

Do you have a tipp how to draw mohawks?

KINDA SLOPPY but my general idea on how I draw mohawks

hairline first, stripe through the middle of the head, head fan for length and direction, add hair! hope this helps somewhat!!

So here are my tips for drawing side profile views and study people’s faces! I wish I could explain more but I’m all over the place I’m sorry ㅠㅠㅠㅠ but well, I hope this can be useful for someone!

morty how the heck do you draw top heavy bodies (kinda like kuins) because its hell 2 me

OK SO THIS IS LATE AND IM BAD AT EXPLAINING SO I JUST SCREENSHOT’D MY PROCESS

FIRST, GET YOURSELF SOME MOOD MUSIC

BASE SKETCH: I don’t usually draw what’s in red there, but this is your basic inverted triangle shape. Basically, as long as you make sure the shoulders create an exaggerated silhouette that highlights the waist, you’re doing the top heavy thing right. Generally, you don’t wanna shrink the waist too much or else it looks REALLY weird, so if you want to exaggerate the shape more, try to focus more on the arms and shoulders. Keep the hips narrow.

LINING SHIT. Add some core muscles to actually support all that up top. I like making the pecs particularly pointy just to drive home the triangle thing.

It’s ya boi

skin color ref because some of yall non-black poc and whites keep fucking up as if yall don’t know there’s other shades of brown when u racebend for woke points or something 

(non-black artists please reblog)

How to draw Afro textured 4c hair - an explanation/Tutorial

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~

before we get into 4c hair, lets take a moment to fully understand it by talking about hair texture in a general sense first

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.

So why is this? Why is straight hair flat and curly hair thick?

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. 

…..soooo, how does this all relate to how to draw 4c hair?? 

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.❤️

This is what you need to take into account when it comes to drawing 4C hair.

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.

How to not draw 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.

So, how do you draw 4c hair?

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.

Anyways! that’s it for now! there will be a part 2 to this tutorial that will come out next week! i hope you guys have learned from this and apply it to your black character in your art!~

black history month is coming to a closeeee but i have something that’ll help you draw black characters in any month! if it was helpful then hey… here’s my kofi 😏

Male Anatomy

Artist: Brandon McKinney

DeviantART – ArandaDill

I finally reached 5000 followers *quietly cheers* and @strongity asked me a day before that happened to maybe do a tutorial thing on eyes and anatomy… So I did my best. I have kind of moved past using methods to draw (like using boxes to create shapes), just because I’m so used to drawing people. It kind of became a tips thing rather than a step by step guide, but hopefully it will help some of you!

How to draw feet by zephy.fr

Support the artist and follow them on instagram!

How I Did the Mosaic Effect

You asked for it, so here it is- a shoddily composed but nonetheless candid and hopefully useful tutorial on the Mosaic Effect I used in the Mollymauk portrait.  Those of a stout and courageous spirit, read on.

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Face tutorial for Anon!

I wasn’t sure whether you meant heads or facial expressions, so here’s a very basic head tutorial! Of course not all faces are the same so proportions and the size of ears/eyes/noses etc. can vary! Feel free to explore and play with them to create unique and interesting characters! I hope this is somewhat helpful, and let me know if you’d like a tutorial on expressions as well!

Drawing Heads and Faces: Cheekbones

I’ve found that drawing the head starts to make a lot more sense once you start thinking about cheekbones and cheeks, and how the fit into the head structure.

You might be aware of the Mysterious Indent that Looks Good Next to the Outer Part of the Eye, or the Mystery Indent for short. 

Drawing a Mystery Indent may serve you fine if you only draw the head from flat angles, but it falls apart when you get adventurous.

Why isn’t this making sense anymore?

Drawing a ‘Mystery Indent’ is an attempt to imply cheekbones without knowing how they actually incorporate into the skull, and this is why it looks so unconvincing when you use it to draw the head in anything other than ¾ view.

The cheekbones wrap around the head and eye sockets from above the bridge of the nose.  The concave you draw if you draw the ‘Mystery Indent’ is a misunderstanding.  There is no concave.  You should instead be thinking of this as where the eye socket/brow overlaps the (convex!) cheekbone.

Compare the cheekbones on both sides for placement.  They should match up and correspond with each other.

(Knowing cheekbone structure helps when drawing gaunt characters, because their cheekbones may stick out.  Remember to compare the cheekbone placement on both sides!)

* This is part of a much larger tutorial I’m working on about head, face, and facial feature structure.  Hopefully more to come eventually?

Hi there this is a psa by your local mixed kid

Mixed rep in the media as a whole is kinda a fucking disaster so I'm definitely encouraging people to write more diverse mixed race characters!!! That being said give this handy dandy little guide a read to make sure you have a basic idea of what you're doing. And also. Y'know. Maybe dont make your mixed characters nonhuman. Just a thought

EDIT: I put latina instead of Filipina for Vanessa Hudgens, that's my mistake and I'm truly sorry about it. PLEASE reblog this fixed version instead

disclaimer: I am east asian. if anyone who is not white sees anything wrong with my phrasing, inaccuracies, or insensitivity, or something I missed, please feel free to add on. I'm just one person with one perspective; none of what I say should be taken as The Singular way to draw an Asian character. if you havent done so already, please take the effort to expand your view of Asian culture outside this one tutorial.

if a white person reblogs this and adds something stupid I'm going to bite and kick you like a wild animal

hi! since u mentioned dreads earlier, i thought it would be a good time to ask if you have any tips on drawing dreadlocks!! i'm doing my best but it doesn't always turn out how i want it too, so any advice would be helpful!!

I use a lot of shorthand to draw krav fast, but here’s a loose tutorial for how i do natural dreadlocks. 1.) Draw your boy. Indicate the hairline so you know where to start. 2.) Use straight lines to indicate what direction you want the strands to hang and fall. 3.) Draw bumpy lines over the straight lines. Consider how thick you want the strands to actually be, and how they rest on the head. 

4.) Use short curved lines to indicate where the strands twist off from the scalp and where the strand ends, curving to kind of a point. 5.) Gradually build off the individual strands from the mass of hair. You can also draw a bit of fuzz here and there, depending on how neatly twisted/kept the dreads are. 6.) erase small sections and at jewelry/charms at leisure.

Final step: color the boy.

A lot of people ask me for tutorials. I guess this counts. I don’t really know how to tackle a full tutorial just yet. Styles range so much that I feel it’s more just tips or suggestions

To celebrate a follower milestone on ig and also so I don’t have to keep a million references open whenever I draw these characters, I’ve made semi-model sheets on all of them, including their general build, face shape, expressions, and fashion styles.

Another comment I’ll make is that Julian and Lucio have quite similar faces, but Lucio is very sharp while Julian’s rounded out.

Each character tends to have a reoccuring line shape throughout their design:

Asra - Semicircles/curves

Nadia - Straight vs flowing lines

Julian - Loose waves

Muriel - Blocky or jagged

Portia - Bubbly waves

Lucio - Sharp and spiky

I hope this can be useful :D