GOTTA GO FAST LIKE SONIC - Drawing/ Sketching With Kimmy Nguyen! - Gesture Drawings

Hey, guys! Welcome to the 5th, and last, installment of Drawing/ Sketching with me!

This post will be on gesture drawings, which is basically drawing the human figure in a limited amount of time. It's quick, but the drawing captures the important things: the pose and the form (3dtotal Publishing 68). By doing this, I'll actually get into my head that, hey, the beginning sketch doesn't have to be so detailed. And, this way, I'll get to drawing things quicker.

When I saw this chapter, I thought, why not really test how well and how many I'll do by creating this post on the day it's due? So here I am. And I just came back from taking my CAI finals...

Before I start doing anything, I just want to point out what one of the creators wrote. "... Don't be afraid," they said, "... Be bold!" (3dtotal Publishing 68). This quote is rather profound to me because... I'm reassured that I can make mistakes. It's been in my head to draw more perfect than my skill actually is, and, while I know I can make mistakes, it's rather nice to be told that it doesn't matter.

Alright, it's 2:51 PM right now. I'll start when it's 3!

....

It's 4, now. I actually finished at around 3:35, but procrastination hit me.

Anyway, here are the pictures!

 Each figure was kept in a 5 minute time frame with 2 minutes in between. I don't particularly like gesture drawings 1 and 6, but I think that, considering that this is my first time gesture drawing, these were pretty good. To self critique my drawings, I would say that I need to focus a bit more on getting the anatomy more right than it is now. Overall though, this experience was rather... okay! I got to focus more on the pose than the details, which is exactly what I had in mind.

And that's it, you guys! Thanks for sticking with me for these posts!

Now, for my last question!
Do you like doing certain activities quickly, or do you prefer to take your time and go at your usual pace?

Drawing/Sketching With Kimmy Nguyen: Session 4: Silhouettes!

Hey! Welcome to Session 4 of Drawing/Sketching with me! This time, we're going to focus on silhouettes.

Let's start off with an explanation. Silhouettes in art is basically a flat color figure of your drawing. So, let's say I drew a person skipping. I would color in everything, from the edge lines to the inner with a single color without the line art. All you would see then, essentially, is a shadow of the action.

Silhouettes are essential for animation and character design - if you can tell who that character is just by their shadow alone, then the creators were successful in creating an interesting and strong character, just enough so that you are able to remember them (3dtotal Publishing 70). This is essential to me, especially since I need to make impactful characters for a future comic I'm planning to make.

My main goal here is for you guys, the viewers, to be able to determine what the person I drew is doing. One of the co-creators of this book said that, "Viewers should be able to immediately understand what the character is doing at any given time" (3dtotal Publishing 70). What I'm basically trying to do here is to rid of the static poses that I usually draw and get used to drawing more dynamic poses.

My first test is to see if you guys can tell who this is (the following image is drawn by me on the computer). Hint: It's a superhero.

 If you guessed Spiderman, then you're right! While it is somewhat sloppy, the pose should get the point across.

My next test is to see if you can tell what the person in the drawing is doing.

When I look at this and forget the fact that I know what I drew them doing, then I can't really tell what this pose is. I guess it's a pretty big hint to myself that I need to get the pose more dynamic if I can't tell what the person is doing...

I sketched a few more, but I don't want to bother you guys with extra drawings that you all don't really need to see. But, that's it! The end of session 4!

My next question is my second to last... huh... Anyway, what aspect/feature about a character makes a large impact to you?
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3DTotal Publishing. Beginner's Guide to Sketching: Characters, Creatures & Concepts. Worcestershire: 3DTotal, 2015. Print.

Drawing/Sketching with Kimmy Nguyen: Session 3: What is Life (Without Light)?

Millions and millions of years ago, our world was encompassed by darkness, plaguing mythical creatures in the land of dark and evil.

And then, there was light.

Of course, there's still darkness, and in this case, darkness is equivalent to shadows. There are so many different strengths of darkness, creating the shadows that we see today. That, folks, is what we are going to focus on today: Value shading.

According to the book, "Value deals with lightness or darkness of a color, depending on the pencil choice and the amount of pressure applied" (3dtotal Publishing 49). The book tells you to get four different kinds of pencils of varying kinds of graphite, but I find it very unnecessary to use the different pencils. One regular #2 pencil is perfectly fine, and this way you can develop your technique of using varying pressures to create different shades (however, I only had my red lead mechanical pencil with me at the time, but it's the same thing).

The next point the book says is to create a value scale. "Using a value scale before drawing helps you identify specific values and add them in at appropriate spots" (3dtotal Publishing 49). A value scale is, essentially, shadings with varying degrees of darkness to each individual shade and gets darker for each shade. This is very much important, and doing that really helped me create a deeper depth in my drawings. It made them feel much more... whole rather than flat and still. Alive, if I had to choose a word for it.

I wrote numbers on them to specify the what levels they are. As you can see, 1 is the lightest as 5 is the darkest.

During this session, I practiced drawing arm anatomy. I focused more on the muscles than freehanding, this time.

I don't think the photo quality does this drawing justice (I'M SO PROUD OF THIS ONE FOR SOME REASON DON'T JUDGE ME) but you can still see that I shaded a bit more on certain areas to create dimension.

After a few more drawings, I could already tell that my values have improved greatly. Hopefully, I will be able to include more value in my future drawings than to leave them flat.

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Session 4 will feature Silhouettes! I hope I'll do the practice justice.

Now, my question is: Do you think it's necessary to create a value scale of 1-10? Because really, values 6-10 are the same as 1-5, just in opposite order.

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3DTotal Publishing. Beginner's Guide to Sketching: Characters, Creatures & Concepts. Worcestershire: 3DTotal, 2015. Print.

Drawing/Sketching Techniques with Kimmy Nguyen: S2: We're Finally Getting Into Anatomy But I'm Not Posting Half-Naked People

Hi!
Welcome to Session 2 of Drawing/Sketching Techniques with Kimmy Nguyen!

For session 2, I focused more on the torso of human anatomy. After several days of simplifying the skeleton and referencing anatomy images, I free-handed some drawings of people (with clothes on).

During this time, I practiced shading techniques. I mainly focused on regular / hatching lines and crosshatching lines as methods of shading.
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Regular / Hatching Lines:

According to my chosen book, hatching lines are basically lines that "are placed parallel to each other" (3dtotal Publishing 31). So, I did that.

The method is quite simple to understand, so I don't think I need to delve further. All that should really stick to you is:

1) They are parallel lines.
2) The sets of parallel lines never intersect.
3) The more you layer on the lines, the darker the layered section gets.

This method of shading can be classified as "simple shading". By what the book says on page 31, it's a common technique that can be used in multiple kinds of drawings.

Crosshatching Lines:

Crosshatching is like hatching lines, except the sets of parallel lines are "crossing over another set". It "creates volume" and is typically one of the quickest and more effective ways to create more density and values in drawings (3dtotal Publishing 32).

Here, I simply shaded the base layer. All of the clothes are black, so I had to create a layer that had the same value.

Please note that the lines are all going in the same direction. There is simply no volume as of right now.

Now, I lined the outline so it would be easier to see the shape of the image rather than have it as one gray mass.

If you look, there are some sections that are darker than most. On those parts, each of the sets is in different directions. The lines should be "in a perpendicular or near-perpendicular direction to the first set" (32). Now, there is more volume and different values.

It is also important to note that when the set of lines are closer or farther apart from each other, the area is usually darker or lighter respectively.

What the book fails to convey is crosshatching isn't just a set of lines. Crosshatching is an umbrella term, meaning that crosshatching is a term that encompasses many other techniques. There can be squiggles or lines that go in other directions in the same set. Crosshatching is so much more than just straight lines.

Drawing (Sketching?) Techniques with Kimmy Nguyen (^・ω・^ )

The Obligatory Introduction (feel free to skip):

Hey, guys! M'name is Kimanh Nguyen (AKA Kimmy), and if you know me (or seen me in class) then you know that I am very involved with drawing.

I've been drawing since the end of... 4th grade, and have been drawing since. My style has evolved from the typical 'anime' style to one of my own. Style develops naturally throughout practice and time, and mine, I would like to say, is different (though there still isn't a firm style, yet).

However, it has been on my mind for the past couple of months lately that I did not have a solid base/understanding when I started drawing. Back then, it was more like a hobby than what is now a goal in life to pursue a job in this sort of industry. I never actually thought of values, line weight, shading techniques, etc. Now that I'm more experienced and have knowledge, my lack of experience in the technical aspects is really hitting me in the face right now. Seriously. I cringe at my artwork most of the time. There is also the fact that my drawings feel static and repetitive. I'm in a stump, actually, because of my lack of skill. Basically, I feel like my art isn't good enough.

And so I decided to make that base of understanding. After browsing through a bookstore, I got the Beginner's Guide to Sketching: Characters, Creatures & Concepts by 3dtotal Publishing. Going through it, I can tell that it teaches technique rather than the usual "step-by-step how to draw this" sort of thing. For me, this is perfect. Yet...

This book really isn't for beginners. Rather, I feel as though it's meant for those who already have the experience yet want to enhance their drawings. There are some parts that aren't fleshed out and parts that I don't really agree with in the book, but overall, the book is good. I don't recommend this book for those who are just starting to draw.

Along with following some techniques in the book, I will practice drawing anatomy (because my anatomy game is not strong).

So, I guess... let's begin?

Session 1: Accent Lines and The Study of 2「ユーリ!!! On Ice」 Characters 

I know I said I was going to practice anatomy while following the book, but I was planning on drawing heads for the first post... and drawing a head is a staple for drawing people. Meaning, I have a lot of practice on drawing faces and such, so my priorities on practicing heads are quite low. Meanwhile, my need to draw these characters are quite high and I don't feel satisfied with the way I am drawing them now. Thus, the character studies. I'll be using screenshots from varying scenes and only drawing the bust.

In the book, Beginner's Guide to Sketching: Characters, Creatures & Concepts, it states: "Accent line drawing is a more developed type of contour drawing. In this case, the lines are accented with a variety of line weights..." (3dtotal Publishing 29).

Basically, accents lines are lines that have varying pressure, thickness, and lightness (aka line weights). It helps add emphasis to certain parts in a drawing and makes the drawing interesting.

My first subject is Katsuki Yuuri (勝生 勇利), the protagonist of the anime.

Yuuri is the easiest out of the 3 main characters to draw for me. However, I feel like I wasn't truly encompassing his features, so I attempted to for the 6 drawings I did. I tried to take in his round/square like head structure while making his eyes more round as well.

During this time, I tried to add in accent lines. The drawing that I think best shows this is drawing 4, the bottom-most left.

While drawing accent lines, the closer the part of the image is to you, the thicker the lines and vice versa (29). Accent lines are also created when 2 lines meet. As you can see, there are parts in the drawings where the lines are thicker than most. I know that if I had drawn this without attempting accent lines, then there would be only one line weight, making it seem blander than what I want to achieve. This drawing seems much more interesting to me and it actually looks nice in my eyes.

My next subject is Viktor Nikiforov, the second main character in the anime.

For Viktor, he's the hardest for me to draw. I don't understand his hair and I don't really know how to shape his face. All I know is that Viktor's head shape is sharper/narrower than Yuuri's. What I'm trying to avoid here is the 'same face/features' problem. It's where every character looks basically the same if you compare them. It's... a hassle really. No artist wants all their characters to look the same.

Unfortunately, I don't think I did well with accent lines on Viktor. I was unsure of what I was doing and was more intent on trying to get his features than anything. So, I won't delve deeper than I already have.

And... That's about it. My next post will be about shading techniques while featuring torso studies! Nothing too explicit will be shown, don't worry ☆⌒（＊＾∇゜）v .

Now, my question is... Why do you think hobbies sometimes turn into a lifetime job or dream?
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3DTotal Publishing. Beginner's Guide to Sketching: Characters, Creatures & Concepts. Worcestershire: 3DTotal, 2015. Print.