Realistic Eyes Have trouble drawing eyes? Well, you’re probably not alone. Eyes are the first thing that the viewer is drawn to in a portrait. To make sure you create a lasting impression, you need a few techniques to create a sense of realism. A quick rundown on the basics of drawing realistic eyes after the jump! What you’ll need:HB (#2) Pencil, 4B pencilEraserDrawing paperDrawing surface The first step in drawing eyes is to draw the full eyeball itself. After you have your “not-a-perfect-circle” eyeball drawn, draw an oval shape horizontally across the eyeball in the shape of an eyelid opening. Once you have the opening for the eye nailed down, you can erase the lines outside. Now we’re ready for highlights! Almost done now! We’re entering the home stretch!
Human Figure Drawing Proportions START WITH A (3 x 4) OVAL. Divide this head like this:The top of the skull.The pupils are in the middle of the head, top to bottom.The bottom of the nose is about 1.5 eye widths from the eye line.1 eye width below the nose is between the lips.1/3 below between the lips and the chin is the chin crease.I started with an oval that fit on my skull's front view. My horizontal center line of the skull dividing the top to bottom is between the pupils. The head sideways is one head-length high and one head-length wide. The ear hole is in line with bottom of the nose, and the backbone/skull pivot point. The bottom of the ear varies with the individual and age. The face triangle is from the center of each pupil, through the nostrils of the nose to a point between the top front teeth. This charcoal self-portrait drawing is on a white background. Five eye-widths span the center of the skull, again, everybody is a little different. PROPORTIONS OF THE BODY A perfect body is 8 heads high, total. 1.
Perspective This next set Calisthenic Exercises usually follows our Point to Point and Ellipse warm ups. Things to note, sketch on big paper (I used cheap Newsprint 11 x 17), keep loose and free (some people like to start with a ruler, but you have to work your way towards sketching freehand straight lines), and most importantly work on that mileage (practice, practice, practice). I am quickly going to go through this for your times sake (if you want more detailed notes on constructing a box I suggest a perspective drawing book). The book I used for reference is “Design Sketching” by Erik Olofsson and Klara Sjolen (this book is from Umea Institution of Design and is worth its weight in gold, filled with inspiration). 1) Always warm up with calisthenics I always try to warm up first before I sketch. 2) Two Point Perspective So here’s a basic construction of a box in two point perspective. 3) Three Point Perspective 4) Practice, practice, practice 5) Basic Lineweight 6) Choose your perspective Like this:
How To Draw Hands Tutorials So everybody knows that the hands and the fingers are one of the hardest things to draw. So here is a personal collection of different hand references, hope to enjoy it and never stop practice. Hogarth hand poses from Iron Giant (middle of page) Mickey Mouse Hand Model Sheet by Les Clark ca. 1932 Merlin hand poses via Deja View Hand drawing tut by uchuucacahuate on deviantart. Excellent hand tutorial by alexds1 on deviantart.com Mr. Useful collection of hand poses by Chrissy Fellmeth Collection of female hand poses by artrush73′s Study of the hand in minimal style
Girls As the founder of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, I’m besieged by newbies who want to attend, but have the terror they’re not good enough. Here’s an basic guide to the complex art of figure drawing, so you can show up to your local alt.drawing salon and wield you pencil with pride. 1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) 5.) 6.) 7.) EXTRA CREDIT: Get a copy of Drawing the Head and Figure , a simple-to-follow guide to making stuff look right Most importantly, draw! Words and Art by Molly Crabapple with modeling by Katelan Foisy and photos by Lauren Goldberg. Follow us @ChinaShopMag Molly Crabapple and Katelan Foisy Molly Crabapple Katelan Foisy and art by Molly Crabapple Katelan Foisy how to draw like molly volume 1 A picture Speaks 1000 words Molly Gets down A Red Rose: The perfect Accessory Have no fear : just grab a pen! Molly Finds the Line One Sultry Session Anything Becomes Art A Sultry Smile molly makes art A proud moment Capturing the Character: Katelan Foisy "I can't believe how good it is!" "What You Lookin' At" Bold Lines
Portrait/heads The most important part of a drawing is the start, not the finish. This tutorial will focus on how to start a portrait drawing, using basic blocking-in techniques. When drawing a portrait from life, you don’t want to just jump-in and draw. I always walk around the model to get a better understanding of the model and plan out my composition. In addition, whenever I do a head study, or a portrait, I don’t start out by trying to capture a “likeness.” Here is my process for drawing portraits: 1. Mark the top of skull, not the hair, then locate the line of the chin, mark the back of the skull and two lines for the angles of the front of the skull. Look for the bone structure of the skull not the features of the face—that will come later. 2. Divide the head into thirds: one third is from the top of the head to the top of the eye socket; the second is from the top of the eye socket to the base of the nose; and the third is from the base of the nose to the bottom of the chin. 3. 4. 5.
Heads (angles) The Basic Forms To draw the head from any angle you must first understand its basic structure. Look past all the distracting details and visualize the underlying forms. This ability to simplify can be applied to the features of the face, but when starting the drawing you could look even further. The head deconstructed into its basic forms, is a sphere as the cranium and a block as the jaw and cheek bones. A Sphere as the Cranium The sides of the head are flat, so we can slice off a piece from both sides of the ball. A Block as the Jaw and Cheek Bones Attach the shape of the jaw. Constructing From Any Angle Step 1 – Determine the angle of the ball The angle of the head is established at the very beginning of the drawing with the ball. X Axis - The up and down tilt is established by the angles of the horizontal and vertical lines in the oval. Y Axis - The direction the head is turning (left or right) is established by the width of the oval. Step 2 – Find the thirds Step 3 – Add the jaw
Heads It's important that you take the time to walk through and complete the Understanding 3D Form tutorial before you're ready to take this next step. Anyone who thinks they are beyond the basics presented there is kidding themselves, myself included. No matter how good you may be, if you don’t get the basics it will come back to bite you. Step 1. This is the biggy. The centerline of the face is derived from our cross section. With a minimal degree of shifting of one feature or another, all faces are fairly symmetrical. Once you know the tilt, have found the cross section, and laid in the centerline of the head, your next step is to shave to two side of our sphere on either side of the cross section. Step 2-Now that you have the cross section established, the next thing you will do is divide the head into thirds. The 2nd division establishes the location for the nose, ears, and eyes. The lower 3rd sets up where your mouth goes, and finishes the skull with locating the bottom of the chin.