Day 14 - Line style research

So, today I started out with just sketching my hands just like normal and while I was discussing this with a friend, he linked me to a video regarding drawing and styles. We had a nice discussion regarding how to get better at drawing etc and this video basically sums up what I was thinking as well!

Basically: You need to stop using your own imagination as a reference and start looking at other artists and copy them. Or else you’ll never get any better. And that’s exactly what I’m doing! However, he also talked about what different kind of styles there are and what “components” they have:

• Line style
• Shape style and…
• Mood

It is so simple yet I’ve never really thought about it. So today I decided to just analyze my own style with others and I realized that I absolutely adore the clean thin-thick-thin line style that is very common in certain comics. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for many years. So today I just sat down and tried to work on my line art style with the few hands I sketched earlier today.

Nothing major, but rather, an educational day!

Here’s todays work: I think it works pretty darn well when you scale the hands down from the original 100%. The lines look more clean!

Here’s the video my friend linked:

It might be a bit annoying to watch, the presentation is a bit off-putting. But the things he says are great!

Day 13 - More hands!

I gotta be honest… Drawing hands are HARD. I still havn’t really gotten the skills to draw them without any sort of references that I manage to do with like the head and body. So I figured, I just need to keep drawing hands for a while, a few more days! Then we’ll see how it’s going!

Here’s todays work:

Even tho it is based on references, I’m still happy with them! I’m STARTING to get a feel for drawing them, making less mistakes while trying to replicate them. So that’s at least something! :)

Day 11 - Back at it… drawing hands!

So the last couple of days have been quite rough… I havn’t found any kind of motivation to keep sketching but I finally managed to break that today. Even tho I didn’t have much time, I decided to start sketching on hands!

Oh my god… I hate drawing hands so much… but there is clear progress, that’s for sure! haha. I’m quite happy with some of the hands and It’s pretty clear which hands was a “first try” and which ones are better tries in the picture.

I still feel kinda… down, I guess. So I hope that I’ll be back at it tomorrow again.

Here’s todays progress:

Day 8 - First week progress test!

So, yesterday I was suppose to do this but I didn’t feel that well. So here it is on day 8 instead! I strongly suggest you right-click on the image below and chose View Image, that’ll make it much larger for the details!

Let’s get into it right away:

So, I took the original sketch I made a week ago and tried to recreate the same character after everything I’ve learned this week! The odd armor and the big belly he had I translated into a very tight-fitting leather cloth armor of some sort. I also made his belly quite round to keep that kind of feeling for him. I think I managed to make a mustache that fit the original sketch! Less of a smile underneath, but it’s still very visible!

Another thing I tried doing was adding shadows and light on the character, which… went ok I guess…? There’s def areas I could improve on there, but I don’t even know if I’ll be doing that sort of detail for the game itself. We’ll see! :)

So I think it’s quite obvious what parts of the drawing that I havn’t had any practice in yet: Arms, hands, legs, feet and accessories. This is what I’ll be practicing moving forward. To end this week, and start another one, here’s a gif showing all the steps I did today!

Well, there we go! Time to keep going!

Day 6 - i forgot to skeeeetch!

Yepp, I forgot to sketch today… and I’m already in bed! So I did what I could: I drew with my fingers!

I’m gonna do it EVERY DAY, damnit!

Here’s my phone sketch I did in 20 seconds x’D

Now I feel better… haha!

Day 5 - Bodies, but with a Twist!

Today I decided that I wanted to try and draw some of the bodies but straight from the side and then use whatever I’ve learned so-far! I also watched yet another Asterix & Obelix movie, they are just wonderful!

Here’s todays result:

I quickly realized that if I just kept using the same shapes as before, it’s basically just the same anyways. I also gave arms a try and quickly realized how aweful I am at drawing arms! That’s def gonna be something I do in the near future. Like arms + SIMPLE hands.

Drawing hands scares me.

Day 4 - Drawing with no references

I didn’t get too much drawing done today, but again: I’m happy that I did SOMETHING. I was interested in trying to draw bodies without any references today. So I just went without looking at anything and just drew a whole bunch of different body-types.

Here’s todays result: The quality is all over the place, some of them got better than others, but overall I’m actually happy that I managed to make something that looked very similar to yesterdays work! I think I need to work on bodies but in more extreme angles next.

Day 3 - Horrifying Bodies

I didn’t spend too much time today drawing, I did a bit more research by watching some more Asterix & Obelix movies in order to find good examples of body-postures etc.

Here’s the result of todays sketching!

I’ve noticed that they use a lot of circles for the body’s gut as well as top part of the torso. Which is really good, I love that sort of style! I also had a play around with drawing the feet/shoes and I’m quite happy with how simple they are. I need to keep working on drawing bodies/torsos!

The next steps is arms, legs, and… hands… shivers

Day 2 - More face practice

Today I didn’t spend as much time as I did yesterday, felt a bit tired to be honest. I love that my goals are just input based rather than output focused! There’s literally no stress for me doing this. So it feels great to just put the pen away.

This is todays work:

I focused on trying to replicate faces from Asterix as much as I could, I then started to add my own little twist with certain features, like the more roundness of the noses etc. I then took a gamble and tried drawing some bodies… and oh my god I do not look forward to drawing bodies… But I took the first step today, and I’m alright with the results, but I need to find some better references tomorrow!

Day 1 - Style and general practice

Today I watched Asterix & Obelix in Britain as well as The Twelve Tasks of Asterix and oh lord was it a nostalgia trip! I adore the style and I bet it is something I would be able to get tons of inspiration from and get better by trying to replicate.

So this is todays work, it took me about an hour to finish! I also tried to be cheeky and colored one of the sketches… and I’m quite happy with the results :)

It’s great to see the improvement from Day 0 to today. I tried to “re-sketch” the same character but with the new style.

This is so great!

Before I start

I just want to post some pictures of what my current “skill-level” is… I like my doodling style, but in order for the quality to be better, I need to get better with details and sharper outlines etc.

I think it’s gonna be great! I already have some fun ideas for the game itself, so I have some rough ideas for how some of the characters will look!