Art Drawing tips. . . . .

I know that there are great artists @ M2A. So i was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers onm some drawing skills.

I have a lot of trouble with Hands and feet when drawing. Does any one have some pointers or some little lesson they could teach me on how to draw hands and feet? And when i say feet i meen from bare feet to shoes etc. . . anything, i just am not very good at drawing stuff with feet. >.<

My hands always look demented and screwed up:blush2:

 

Well, this manga artist taught me how to do hands and feet (although I still can't draw them ). He suggested making the hand a trapezoid, then making the point of the wrist on the center of the shorter end. From this point, draw the center of the fingers going out radially where they should be. If you want to draw knuckles, too, then draw circles around the wrist where they should be, and they should fall into place. Kinda brief, but it was a short course.

Now feet I never understood, so I can't help you there.

 

probably the best thing to do is just practise drawing your own.

 

For drawing realistic hands, I do what poom-poom reccommended and just look at my own hands as models. But it tends to get tricky if you wanna draw your drawing hand, or if you wanna draw hands in a pose that requires a mirror for you to look at.

For simplified hands, I just draw them without looking at any reference material, but just try to figure it out. Overlapping fingers can look very weird if you don't do them right, so sometimes I just draw fists or easy hand poses. I don't know any technical guidelines like the trapezoid technique that Baphijmm mentioned. But I do remind myself that a hand consists of a palm and fingers, not just fingers (that helps getting the shape), and that I usually end up with small hands if I'm not paying attention. Also remember that the wrist is the skinniest part of the forearm no matter how fat or skinny a person is. (I think?) BUT, remember that the "closer" the character is to the viewer and the more foreshortened the hand/arm is (when pointing at the viewer), then the more distorted those proportions become.

 

Well...I'm an artist myself, but I don't have a scanner so I never really put things up. haha... :sweat:

Just keep on trying. Soon you'll get it. It took me 3 years.

Oh yes, becuase I'm such a nice person, I've added some of my other tips!


My tips are:

Don't make your character too unproportional- try to keep things a little realistic, but not so realistic- that takes away from what I consider the 'cartoonish' side of anime.

Female figures:

NOT EVERY WOMAN IS 36-24-36! Try females with various figures and varing heights. Some women can have large breasts, others can have flatter chests. Eyes can vary shape and size, and facial structure can vary as well. Personally, I like voluptuous, sturdy, tall figures and a strong facial structure with exotic eyes and lips. (Whenever I get around to ever posting art, you'll see this.)

Male figures:

Men generally have broader shoulders and smaller hips. Men, like women, can vary from being tiny and fragile (such as one of my original anime characters, who is male, and is 5 foot 4 inches and weighs 125 pounds.)to very big and strong. Men as well have varying facial structures, eyes, lips, hair, ect. (I tend to draw my men with sturdy figures and varying heights and builds, with most of the expression in their eyes.)

My advice is: Try to make your characters UNIQUE! Try to draw them in various positions, with varying expressions and DIFFERENT OUTFITS!! (That's the kewlest!)

HAVE FUN!

 

ok. . . . i have been practicing and i seem to be getting better. ^.^

But my trouble is i have no model to base the drawings on. Could someone please draw me like a bare foot, and some hands in different positions? That would be awsome and would help me out alot, and give me an idea and what my drawings should turn out. Thanks!

 

Well, here's a small compilation of some hands and feet from pictures I've drawn, including a diagram I used on another message board for someone who kept making his wrists too wide. Feel free to use these as examples, and I also recommend finding resource pics (artbooks, online galleries, photos of your friends hands and feet, etc.) to work from as well. If I've got a pose I need to work with, I'll often have my roommate take the pose, and then we'll take pictures of it with her digital cameras and I'll use those as resource pictures for said pose.

Anyway, keep in mind that these pictures are my style, so some may look a bit odd. Also, I'm not exactly the best at feet at the moment, but I'm working at it, and these are some of my better ones.

Keep practicing, and you'll get better. I also recommend www.howtodrawmanga.com and its published books, and www.polykarbon.com for some drawing tutorials that may help you with the concept of base shapes (the trapezoid base mentioned above). And stare at your own hands and feet for a while and see what shapes make them up, then try drawing it. You may be surprised at how basic they are.

Now here's the example collage.

 

those are awsome! thanks!

 

hope you find it useful

http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/farp/hand/

 

thanks for the refrence. It will help alot!

 

Ok i have made some proccess on hands. What do you think? (hands are in the bottom of the pic.)

 

those look great. nice job >_<.

 

good job with those hands Jaken!
the guy looks way cool :anime:

 

Thanks :anime: Couldnt have done it with out your help! But i am still not up to snuff, i will keep practicing, untill my hand rots off and dies. ^^ Thanks again!

 

Looking good, Jaken. ^_^ The only thing I really have to say (aside from never stop practicing), is check your proportions on some of the hands. One (third "row" up from the bottom, second from the left) has a huge thumb and pencil-thin fingers. balance them out a bit more.

Other than that, not bad at all. Love the expression on the guy's face, too.