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heysawbones β UNDERSTANDING YOUR STYLE - 2
Published: 2010-07-01 10:51:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 141172; Favourites: 4733; Downloads: 3541
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---PLEASE DOWNLOAD FOR EASY VIEWING!---Part two of my Understanding Your Style: Symbols, Design Pattern, and Anti-Pattern guide/essay-thing.
If you're seeing this first because it came up stacked first in your messages, please, go read part one first! It might be a bit confusing otherwise!
If you like what you see here, please, share it with your friends. I literally put over a week's worth of work into writing, formatting, and illustrating this. If you like it, please support it! This message is extremely important to me, and I've been thinking about making a guide on it for a long time.
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Comments: 1111
THIS.......... PERFECTLY SUMS UP MY ART RIGHT NOW (THE NOSE THING??) Β THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS
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No offence but you do realize that western eyes can be large and that western world started the whole big eye thing. However I have to say this is a pretty good tutorial.
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I definitely have this problem. I mean, I have a problem with proportions in general, but I definitely have long mid-face-itis, and it's something I've been fighting for years.
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That Natalie Portman, i just fucking love. I really, really love that Natalie Portman.
God that is the best thing.
GOD.
JUST. LOOK.
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This is really nice, pretty cool tutorial. However, I don't have any plans to stop drawing anime.
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The goal of this tutorial wasn't to get people to stop drawing anime. They mention specifically that anime isn't a bad thing. Its about improving what you want to do by understanding how real life eyes, noses, ect look first.
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Oh no, I know, I was just sharing a thought. The tutorial is really cool.
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This tutorial is very good.... but it doesn't solve the problem you stated at the beginning of the first part which is this; "Learning to draw from life is only one step".
Basically, the real question I was looking for was "How to go about simplifying" which is my biggest problem. So, although interesting and helpful, the entire argument just looped back on itself; "Study from life".
Which is good advice.... but then what? How does one learn how and what to simplify and how to do so? I know, I know. "You learn to do so innately with practice" but to find some DIRECTION to start in would also be nice.
Nevertheless, good advice anyway. Just sad to find it's not what I was looking for as I thought it was when I read part 1.
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Go back to studying from different artists. Once you know the basics of how anatomy works (studying from life) go out and look at other artists and see how they've translated life into symbols. They've already simplified the form. Look at a wide variety of art and take inspiration from your favourites, combine that inspiration with your own knowledge of the form. Practice practice practice until your comfortable with how it all looks. By that time you'll probably have your own 'style', i.e your own set of symbols you use to represent a form.Β
Hope it helps
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Omg this tutorial is great. I had a good laugh. I'm kinda in this boat, though not nessecarily transitioning to 'western', just adding a little more realism here and there. I have been borrowing directly from real life but nose length is actually one thing I kinda struggle with now and again. I notice in real life models, it can go either way. Some people seem to have short noses or long ones (not nearly as long as your example, though). I'm trying find a balance between natural variations vs 'proper proportions' when it seems like half the time most people's bodies don't like to follow the "Average Human Look 1.0" so it makes tough work trying to pick apart technical corrections vs personal preference in people's critiques.Β I just don't want to fall into that category where you can only tell the characters apart by their hair and eye colours.
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Good Lord I really needed this!! As luck would have it TF2 is something I have really been trying to draw for the longest!! This will defnitely help me and oddly encouraged me even more.
Thanks!
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guilty as charged. will definately keep this in mind. was just drawing and noticed i drew someone and they had a weird noseΒ Β
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I've been stuck in this rut for a few years now, thanks a lot for this! It's really helpful c:
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This was a really great read (as was part one) and now I'm gonna go check for long noses.
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In terms of the "updated" drawing of that woman, she doesn't just have too long of a nose; she doesn't have enough chin.
Just observing, if it helps anyone.
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This is so true! But it works the other way round as well. Β I'm happy with natural proportions in portraits but can't draw the more stylized faces at all, because my brain only sees the pattern of big eyes, small nose instead of the change in symbols used. Β Drawing less stylized features at 'anime' sizes looks weird. Β Really weird. Β The appeal of moving away from realistic faces is being able to convey big expressions with fewer lines - economy of line is the goal. Β I'm finding Disney animations are a nice middle ground to try and ease myself away from realism, with quite realistic proportions in the earlier cartoons (ignoring Snow White - she's a freak), then progressing to a much more cartoony and anime influenced look once you get to Aladdin or thereabouts. Β There's a lot of habit breaking involved, but it's fun. Β Sorry, babbling - this tutorial is awesome, going straight onto my favourites.
And Andrew Loomis is back in print! At least he is in the UK - got my hardcover 'Figure Drawing for all It's Worth' for Christmas, and it's amazing.
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I was just thinking about TF2 when I read that. I had to double check to see if I hallucinated it.Β
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is anime style bad? like do people look down upon it? I'm just curious c:
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It's not bad, but just like a lot of other things that aren't bad, lots of people do look down on it, unfortunately.
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I don't think so, and I would say that it really comes to the viewer of the work to make that judgement. Some people like an anime aesthetic while others prefer a more western design, or something abstracted.Β
The best way to address your question is to note that if you're drawing something in "your" style then it can look however you want. The audience that likes your work will like something about your design. If they don't like it then there's something they just don't dig.
The comments I hear about not liking anime are things like "they don't look asian", "their (insert feature here) is out of proportion/looks unnatural" or that the style is disliked because they don't watch anime. These comments are from people who hold a bias to begin with.Β
If you browse galleries you'll see many different styles that may incorporate themes found in western/eastern art and that span all levels of realism. Draw what you like to draw, and admire what you admire. Above all else dabble with changes to your style and get a handle on the subject that you're drawing and let the rest develop organically.
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The problem occurs when you try to self-develop your own personal style and end up taking the fancy of another artistic style. It's close to art theft and its a type of corner-cutting. The rest won't develop "organically" as you put it if there is an incorrect presupposition involved in your mind that you are accessing as your state of reference. Even in art there is a right and wrong and good art and bad art, even contained within one's own style; its not as settled in opinion as you might think.
And it comes from trying to copy a design. The suggestion "Draw what you like to draw, and admire what you admire. Above all else dabble with changes to your style" is exactly what the artist is trying to get people to avoid. Because by doing so, you're in danger of incorrectly jumbling the personal style with a different, copied style.
The core idea is to completely strip away drawing everything you like and all the styles and types (Western, anime, etc.) and draw everything directly from real life. From there, after understanding realistic art crafts, divert on your own accord to fit the specific abstracts requirements. When you fail to meet those requirements, you have done it incorrectly.Β
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You might be interest in something I just posed on my blog here: Β karenbjones.com/2013/11/21/facβ¦ . I think the reason for the long-nose anime error is that the proportions an anime artist learns for their anime is not the same as the proper proportions for realistic faces. Β It isn't helped by an awful lot of tutorials out there teaching these anime proportions AS IF they are the classic, realistic proportions. Β So, someone just learning to draw thinks they're getting it right when they draw this way, but in reality they're having the problems you're talking about here. Β
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Kyo Shoma is so much cuter in american style! Β You did such a good job on this article. Β Kudos Β
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Ok hmm... VERY interesting.Β
Now that I understand this, I think I found my artistic problem. I'm trying to go backwards, from Western realism and devolve into anime-esque cartooning and I am having a monstrous problem doing it.
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For those interested in Andrew Loomis: I found this post with links for downloading five of his books; the books (with an additional one) may also be found at archive.org, here .
Lots of thanks for this "guide/essay-thing" Β It really gave me an insight. I'm one suffering from this right now, and I really would not have recognized it. The Natalie Portman demonstration made me laugh!
This makes me look at my work more objectively now.
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Oops, sorry. Miscounted. There's no additional one at archive.org. They are the same number.
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Now that I've downloaded the them, turns out they are the same file, except for "Figure Drawing for All It's Worth." The one on archive.org has cover page for the first page, whereas the one the other website has the dedication page for the its first page.
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This is really intriquing and helpful. It's helped me look at my style more critically and actually thinking about what I'm drawing and going, "if this were real life, would this look right?" And it gave me a bit of a giggle too with the Natalie Portman thing. Thanks much
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Great advice for artists of any style. Nicely done!
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who knew, just from that long mid face-nose thingy we could interpret why anime faces are still appealing to many, to so many possible answer.
"we were enlarging the eye socket so the cheekbone goes down, and so cheek fat and nose too, but seeing that V-shaped face outline we weren't sure from just the front, are those puffy cheeks or jawline". "or maybe we were sizing down the jaw and mouth enough that its not the nose that's long".
etc.
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man this opens my eyes to alot. its funny how you mention understanding the original source material of the subject of your art to develop a closer-to-what-i-would-like-it-to-be art style. I kinda realized that early on. I realized that my style was changing but instead of going western i wanted to be able to draw realism if it came to that but my range of comfort lied in the area between anime and real life. kinda like in the phoenix wright games!! I really like how they mix anime with realism in a balanced way while retaining comedic effect. Its comforting.
oh and thank you~
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Was interesting to read and watching anime turning into western style
After all, I think long noses and other "wrong" anatomy can make an awesome, interesting style too.
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I really love this. It highlights and explains the cause of most problems in art I see everyday. Long nose Natalie Portman will remind me to be more careful from now on.
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Excellent and beautiful!
Now I just have to figure out if my faces look wonky and whether this is the cause, because I have a serious love--in art and in real life--of large, long, dramatic and prominent noses. eheh.
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I'd been drawing anime for years before I decided to switch it up a bit and focus more on a western-style of drawing. And recently, I found out that the massive amount of anime influence was making my attempts at realism look wonky and deformed, but I never actually thought someone would go and make a tutorial to help AVOID that kind of stuff!
THANKS SO MUCH
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Cool tips! I always hear about people coming out of their "anime phase" to draw more realistic so this is pretty interesting!
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Wow, this tutorial sure made me learn a lot....Even if I draw anime and don't want to change it, man I neither want to end with horse-human faces xDDD I'll practice my anatomy from the source, as you said! Thanks a lot for making this! c:
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I don't even know how I found this, but thank you. I kind of want to improve my art style, and I figured the best way to really start was to focus on anatomy, so I've started there. Reading this actually made me more determined to improve, so thanks again. I'll be sure to send this to my friend when she gets on.
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Wow! That's some good insight! I have wanted to get away a bit from the anime style I want just for something a bit more 'realistic', however I normally found that going right from one style to a new one too quickly actually makes it look worse so I'm trying to take my time by incorporating new things as using real anatomy references at the same time. However do have a hard time with the nose, mostly because I can't figure out how to draw a nose that I actually like (they all look ugly to me, I mean in general), so yeah. But this will help me to get a new perspective on things, thanks!
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