So I didn’t draw any new Cata related stuff, but I have two characters I never scanned/posted. First is Ritz, my last survivor. Might start a new one today. The other guy isn’t actually a character I played but I thought he looked cool.
Now a party of death-themed adventurers. Necromancer, Ghostly Duelist, Blood-Knight Guy, Grave Robber.
Also that demon/tiefling/whatever-i-may-or-may-not-have-a-thing-for-horns chick.
to those not familiar with dark souls, would you believe that that is a man?
also, a friend of mine made this but doesn’t know where to post it/too shy to post it. he asked me to post it for him. I suspect he would be too modest/shy to take credit unless I can get him to start posting.
Tell your friend the NONE especially made me chuckle! Good story ¦D I do hope they come to join us, and not to be intimidated by artists who seem to be ‘better’. We all start somewhere, and frankly, the simpler styles tell longer stories better.
Someone was asking about if people actually block in rectangles/etc before they complete their sketch. I don’t use that system the way it’s explained in books, but yes, I do block out a sort of simplified muscular/skeletal hybrid. It helps plan posing, sense of motion and where bodyweight falls, and whether or not your character’s gonna fit on the paper by the time you get to the legs.
Other than that though, I don’t use any proportions rules. I eyeball the frame I build on. It’s why layers are so important - I do skinmuscles on top of the pseudobones layer, and then draw clothes all over it on a layer atop that. The only downside to this method is figuring out which lines you wanna keep for detailing and which to clean up, and the fact you will in fact have a naked zombie on your drawing board until you get to the clothes layer. Don’t worry, clothes layer’s on in this spoiler, I just trust the pic size to be murderous. Drag and drop it on a new tab.
While I’ve got all the undersketch layers visible on the left, you can tell I’ve cleaned up the musclebones layer from the spitter’s face - it was visually too much of a wreck to read clearly without some cleanup lol. But it gives you an idea of the draw-your-frame-first mentality. Expect shit to get messy. Different colours and layers works for digital, very light pencilling (orerasible coloured pencils!) works for irl media.
I got friends who just sketch in blue and red and by the time they do regular black ink, the underworks don’t even register to your eye, they sort of become ‘shading’ in a sense. It’s very surprising how little cleanup you actually need.
I accidentally on purpose a doublepost, because I just rediscovered William Cross’s older gameplay and design hiding in my doodles folder. He typically uses small sharp things or lengths of chain as a weapon, and is an utter asshole in every way. It is the best for stupid suicidal playthroughs!
Also in contrast to my undersketching of previous post, I typically just draft toons by drawing the whole toon shittily, then ‘inking’ it nice and smooth. They don’t have working skeletons I could possibly begin to pose, anyway.
That is an awesome style in every way you look at it! And “modelling” creatures from the bone is also really good, specially when you try to make an entire new creature design! Really.
my friend is quiet good, the one I posted was just a real quick sketch. when he takes his time he can come up with some really great stuff. he appreciates your words of encouragement though. it’ll definitely help me get him to post himself.
speaking of frames and drawing methods, when I really started drawing I wanted to draw anime, but I sucked at it. I met a guy in highschool who showed me how simple stuff could stilll show a decent amount of details, and the way I draw was changed forever. I do not use a skeleton (obviously XD) because the drawings are too simple. I imagine what I want to draw in my head, come to terms with the fact that the image will under no circumstances translate onto the paper properly, and start with the eyes. using a frame to start my drawings was something I tried, and personally I found it tiresome and ugly. I could do it better without the frame. draw a character, and stick clothes on it. larger articles of clothing have to be drawn onto the body before the body is drawn. after the piece is done I procrastinate for awhile before scanning it on my old PC. (my newer PC isnt compatible with my scanner) once ive transferred the file over to the newer one, I use photoshop to clone stamp out all the eraser marks and bits that didnt get completely erased. I have a sketch tablet, but im terrible at using it.
pthalocy, when you say “I just trust the pic size to be murderous.” do you mean when they are posted or something else? personally, in a sense, I find that scanning my stuff and looking at the picture on my screen brings out a lot of the poor niggling details and can be quiet “murderous” on my confidence in the work. on paper, in my sketch book, they look great. but once they are on the screen, they look awful to me. luckily I have a working knowledge of photoshop and can fix some of that stuff. like the picture of my character with the shotgun and the blob. in the original, her head was at least 1.5 times bigger, horrendous.
also, nice spitter, and always nice to see/hear how people put together their own work.
Roughly translated, what I meant by “trust to be murderous” is “I didn’t bother resizing the pic, sorry it’s so massive”.
I’m getting in a habit of using larger canvases, zooming out, and then on the odd occasion where I want to fuss over a tiny detail, I zoom in and rediscover it’s actually huge like xbox and I have all the room in the world to fuss.
Hehe, yeah. I agree, for toon styles, blocking in bodies is pretty damn time-wasting. Unless you’re using a lot of cinematic cues in comic panels or something, then it’s good for scene composition but not a lot else (not my area of expertise, I use empty space and dialogue to pace things instead of comic panels). I usually start with eyes, then the beard if it’s me, since that essentially frames the face. If I’m gonna have hands or legs obscuring the rest of the body (hands over face for instance), rather than posing skeletons or something, I just draw the whole limb on a separate layer and then erase whatever it winds up obscuring when it looks “right”.
I do in fact discover a lot of previously-ok lines to be ‘imperfect’ when I zoom in, much like your scanning reveals, but you learn fast that the final size of the pic is likely going to be smaller than the in-progress version. (I did actually break Unfortunate Harv in half in order to insert another half-foot in height, he was malproportionate due to not doing a skeleton. So I totally get that issue too haha.) If the flaws are unlikely to show in the final product then it is of no consequence. Otherwise you may find yourself painstakingly redoing every. Damn. Line. Part of being an artist and getting familiar with/shaping your own style: knowing when and when not to fuss. This only comes with repetition.
I’m still learning that. My work ethic when drawing/building up a figure is actually chaotic as hell, and rarely consistent. That spitter (feedback appreciated!) was probably the most orderly piece of work I’ve drawn in aeons.
So I didn’t draw any new Cata related stuff, but I have two characters I never scanned/posted. First is Ritz, my last survivor. Might start a new one today. The other guy isn’t actually a character I played but I thought he looked cool.
Now a party of death-themed adventurers. Necromancer, Ghostly Duelist, Blood-Knight Guy, Grave Robber.
Also that demon/tiefling/whatever-i-may-or-may-not-have-a-thing-for-horns chick.
Looks like a party of Blank Bodies with gear. Nifty.
So I didn’t draw any new Cata related stuff, but I have two characters I never scanned/posted. First is Ritz, my last survivor. Might start a new one today. The other guy isn’t actually a character I played but I thought he looked cool.
Now a party of death-themed adventurers. Necromancer, Ghostly Duelist, Blood-Knight Guy, Grave Robber.
Also that demon/tiefling/whatever-i-may-or-may-not-have-a-thing-for-horns chick.
Looks like a party of Blank Bodies with gear. Nifty.
Gotta love Horns’ facial expressions.[/quote]
Yeah, didn’t draw any faces on them.
So I didn’t draw any new Cata related stuff, but I have two characters I never scanned/posted. First is Ritz, my last survivor. Might start a new one today. The other guy isn’t actually a character I played but I thought he looked cool.
Now a party of death-themed adventurers. Necromancer, Ghostly Duelist, Blood-Knight Guy, Grave Robber.
Also that demon/tiefling/whatever-i-may-or-may-not-have-a-thing-for-horns chick.
Looks like a party of Blank Bodies with gear. Nifty.
Gotta love Horns’ facial expressions.[/quote]
Yeah, didn’t draw any faces on them.
And yeah, all one of them.[/quote]
shrug Two different mouths, more if you count the eyes as changing the expression. Unhappy in convo, marginally confused, wondering what’s up with her hand/claw, and the eye-roll avatar. They work well IMO.