How to draw a cartoon portrait. Basics of animation: How to draw a cartoon face correctly. General information about human perception
(Translation of the article Tara Leaver "Finding your own style: A practical guide" -
For many of us, finding your own recognizable artistic style causes great difficulties. And this applies not only to beginners in drawing, but also affects artists with experience.
Perhaps you begin to doubt even before the brush touches the canvas, remembering the various criticisms of your teachers, or simply losing yourself in a huge number of different possible ideas and inspiration received from different courses. And maybe both, and another at once!
Think about what you draw most often
There is plenty of room for style, between the shapeless drops of the shadow and a completely detailed scene. There are many ways to achieve "feelings", and when you sacrifice the details, you can easily find your own style. There is only one way to realistically display details - and an infinite number of ways to create just the feeling of them.
What is the difference between realism and photorealism? Until now, we have discussed pictures of the brain. What should I do if someone takes a picture with a real camera? Photos of steel are absolutely normal for us. We view them as a real concept of reality, and not the realization of the camera does not work exactly like our eyes and brain. We are so used to photographs that sometimes they seem to us more realistic than reality itself!
It's no wonder that when you find your style, you will feel just amazing!
Today I see a few simple ways to find and develop your own style.
Everyone has it, just need to help him to prove himself. We develop it through constant practice and exercises, but there is also an unconscious part, one that does not go through "hands" but from the heart.
Photorealism is not the highest form of realism. It's just about creating things so precisely that they can be confused with photography. But, let's say again, the photo is not the same as the brain-picture - the camera does not catch all illusions and is not accurate, as we tend to think. How many times have you tried to take pictures of something, but it did not look as amazing as what you saw with your bare eyes? With a small amount of photographic knowledge, you can fix it, but now it may be tempting to go even further and create an improved reality - something better than to be perceived with bare eyes!
I know that this idea seems obvious, nevertheless it is this combination that allows us to start working on developing our individual style. Obtained from the outside, this idea gives you an opportunity to more clearly imagine, with which it is better to start learning about your art and look for your style.
Everything you read below is not exhaustive information on this topic. These are just the starting points for you in search of your own path.
And when you add your own lights that are not found in nature, you get an attractive but unrealistic effect. Studying photos may not bring you closer to realism! You can say "but the photos are so realistic that in fact it's the same thing." Wrong - you just think they are realistic. Take a picture, and then look at the scene with your naked eyes - the difference can be astounding. like a flash of the lens, or a form out of focus, but also more elusive - the camera catches only what is, but our brain can do much more than reality.
Take your last job, put it so that it is convenient for you to consider it. Consistently answer questions, simultaneously noting your reaction and observation. If you want, you can make written notes.
We go in search of treasure!
The main treasure is your own creativity.
Think about what you draw most often
- What topics and topics attract you most in drawing? If you are at a loss with the answer, look in your pictures and folders with the works in search of an answer.
Personally, I try to remember my preferences in the stories, how often I work on this or that topic. And somewhere at home I have a sheet from a notebook where I write this information. So, when I feel difficulty in answering the question about my favorite subject in drawing, then I look in myself or this sheet.
You do not photograph the scene through the eyes full of tears, or the eyes of a frightened man running through a dark forest at night. We do not see only, we also feel - and the pictures ignore the latter. At the same time, the camera is trying to make an ideal snapshot of reality. This does not make photos more real than what we see - they are too objective and devoid of a very important part of our reality.
Just like visiting a restaurant is not just a journey to an expensive place to satiate a hunger, but reality is just a set of visual signals. Of course, this does not mean that photorealism is wrong. These are two different styles, and none of them are "better" or "better", higher. It is also important to observe the world with bare eyes and not rely solely on photography.
So, I like to draw boats! And fish, figures and trees.
The list of favorite topics should not be absolutely complete or exhaustive at this stage. It is enough to single out a few of them for yourself to have a starting point.
Selection of works with experiments and creative searches on the theme of trees. You can see the common features connecting the work - sinuous lines and contour drawing.
What technique, art material do you like?
Studying reality and photorealism, you can create a completely new, unique style. What about things that do not really exist? Can it be realistic or in any style to get realism? Okay, but notice what you just said: "legs," "head." These are things from our world, in a certain form they accept here.
What are your style features?
This is the starting point for your creations. You need to know which head to draw, even if you want to create a new head. You can imagine a horse very clearly in your mind, but then on paper it looks completely wrong. Is not this the lack of talent? No, it is more the confusion of two different processes - identification and creation. Let's look at them with a simple pseudocode.
What colors do you like?
- Think about the color palette that you use by default.
- What can your last work tell you about the repeated selection of colors?
In my working palette recently come aqua, blue, Nepalese yellow, fluorescent pink and white, as which I use acrylic primer gesso. This gives me a good range of dark, medium and light tones. I get a sincere pleasure from playing with these colors, they fully meet my needs and needs at the moment.
When you see an animal with a set of symptoms that are stored in your mind as horses, you will recognize it as a horse. You do not need to know every feature of a horse to recognize it - just some of them, and you know what you see. The same happens when you visualize a horse in your mind - you do not see the functions that you put on. You know, and the reason intelligently hides their lack.
The situation is completely different if you want to create a horse yourself. Suddenly you need to know all these variables and more! You start to draw a hoof, and suddenly you realize that you do not know what it looks like, even if you can recognize it when you see it. That's why multiple-choice tests are usually easier!
And what about you?
Left - my picture, on the right - a drawing on it. I used colors from "my" palette and experimental technique.
What are your style features?
- What do you like more - graphic lines or work with large areas of color?
- Do you like using unusual techniques when working with a brush?
- Or maybe you prefer not to use a toothbrush for spraying?
- Do you like creating so-called patterns, patterns, or do you prefer to work with greater imagination and scope?
Features of my style - contour lines, often uneven and blurry, sometimes "dirty" in color. I am inspired by the works of Egon Schiele. I also love nerve color contrasts, a sophisticated-flexible design.
All the problems with the creation come from a bad database of reality in our head. Too often, we just think we know something similar, but when it comes to details, they simply do not exist. When you read a book, you do not see every blade of grass under the feet of the character, sometimes you do not even know what his face looks like. You feel that your vision of the book world is complete, but if someone drew it and showed it to you, it would be filled with spaces. If you want to create your own style, start by learning realism - create a database of everything that you see.
Analyze what techniques you particularly like and close, give a sense of satisfaction with their creativity. Develop them, stick to their future work.
A fish drawing made in walnut hue ink. Experiment with lines.
These fragile legs are so cute! Artist: "Thank you!". . Do not you see something strange here? Judgment is not only about negative opinions or positive opinions about this. At the very moment when you publish your photo on the Internet, you set it up for judgment. When you do this, but expect only positive opinions, this is similar to this situation.
Guest 2: Honestly, I do not like it, it's too salty Artist: But this is my personal recipe! You can not tell whether you like it or not!
- Artist: Here you go!
- Guest 1: Mm, it's delicious!
- Artist: Thank you!
- And what do you think about this, Guest 2?
What technique, art material do you like?
- Perhaps you have several. What do you like most?
I really like working with oil pastels. But most of all I like to work with acrylic and use the medium in my works. This allows me to control the drying process of colors, to play with the result. It dries quickly and is also easy to clean.
Imagine that you have a rock that you love, perhaps a reminder of some important event in your life. You publish a million photos of this rock in your social profile, and when friends begin to grumble, you respond aggressively: But this is my rock! You can not judge this, you do not know how important it is for me! Well, they do not know and will never know, so why are you publishing these photos? Do not you want them to judge this, but only positively? You can not make him think.
If you want your style to be accepted and perceived as true, make it understandable. If you are not "good", then why do it? Style, like everything, can be judged. When a person says that she does not like the style of the Lion King, this does not mean that she is mistaken, because so many other people love it - it's just an opinion! Apology "this is my style, you can not judge it!" In fact a desperate plea "do not say it wrong, do not say it's wrong."
If you have one favorite technique, it means that you can explore all its possibilities, improve your skills, and therefore your work as a whole.
I did not use references for this work. There are only two of my favorite materials - acrylic and oil pastel.
To answer the question raised in the introduction, there is objectively no "better" or "worse" style until you add one more standard. The style is not "ugly", it's "not realistic enough for me". can be more or less developed styles, so do not use "style" as a shield from criticism.
They feel comfortable with the pencil, but at the same time their progress is not as fast as they want. Therefore, instead of learning from others, they begin to completely copy them. Suddenly, their pictures look perfect, and everyone loves them, too. usually begins with tracking the image, then copying it with your eyes and, finally, learning the rules of style to create your own characters and gain some independence. You are more comfortable with a pencil and a stream of lines, you practice the coordination of the eye rays; Subconsciously, you will learn about the golden ratio, you learn how to have fun with drawing; You draw without pressure to be better, because you are already well; You learn how you feel that you are praised because of your skills. You feel that you are good at drawing, and you do not need to learn anything else, because you already praised, that's why you stop your artistic development, your creativity can be damaged, you treat artistic styling as something normal and true, something Real, unlike the original artist, you ignore all the rules that led to the creation of a style, so you will never do everything possible; Style becomes a part of you, and you can not get rid of it, even when you are trying to develop your own style: you can not judge your art objectively, you - and others - see this only in terms of how close it is to the original; You create a comfort zone that is very difficult to leave; You become dependent on praise, and you are afraid to try something new, because it may not be so good. Manga is more like a set of similar styles.
What inspires you?
So, we have considered the main questions, which you need to pay special attention in the search for your style. Now let's a little distracted, look at the work of other artists and think about what we could borrow from them for ourselves.
I recommend that you do this after you answer the four previous questions. Before you start to consider and evaluate the work of other artists, you need to first deal with their work.
Just like the "Disney style", it can give you recommendations, lots of useful tips on proportions, but there is still room for developing something yourself. This is a different situation than focusing on one particular style, but it still limits you to rules created by someone else. If the previous paragraph sounded reassuring, here are some bad news: every good manga artist with a personal style is also a good artist. You can be sure that they have a lot of realistic drawing experience, and they just decided to use the manga as the basis for their style.
If you are sure that you have identified the main features of your work, it makes it easier for you to search for works of other artists close to you in style and vision of the world. It will be easier for you to evaluate their work, and look for features that you would like to add to your work, your style.
It was created in order to collect and share visual information. There the sea of various pictures, photos and images. Ask a few key queries, look at the result.
If you have no choice but to draw someone else's style, can you draw? Until you understand what the style is based on, you can never freely modify it. You just do not know how to change something without breaking it! The picture is more complicated, that we tend to think. So simple in its fundamentals and so unimaginably difficult when it comes to dragons and warriors. When you understand how many aspects of drawing, it becomes obvious that each one of them can be changed to create a new style.
And since all styles stem from realism, begin by understanding this - watch, be vigilant, turn reality into the only style that you copy. Watch other artists - find traces of realism in your art, see what they have changed, decide how you can use this knowledge. You do not develop as an artist only when you hold a pencil - every time you make an effort to actively see and understand something, your experience bar grows!
You can create your own personal board on which you will collect (pin up - Pin it!) Everything that will inspire you and interest, whether it is an interesting composition in one picture, a color palette of another, an artist's style on the third or a plot of the fourth.
On my board I do not collect paintings by other artists. I do so not because they do not inspire me. I just want to be free of what other artists drew while I'm starting to create, look for my own stories and solutions.
In this you will be helped in part by reference photos (photo-source for drawing). They can serve you well, so keep them always at hand or save on the board in Pinterest photos that inspire you.
In addition, carefully looking closely at the photos you have collected, you will certainly see clues about what you are interested in at the moment, and what to do next.
Yes, Pinterest like a rabbit hole! If you can not tear yourself away from it, put a timer.
On the left is a photo from Pinterest, on the right is my work, to which this photo inspired me.
Errors of novice artists
Question:
« Tell me, please, do you have somewhere the most rough draft on which it would be visible from what you begin? In a sense, on which it would be seen, how do you create your character on the basis of circles and triangles?
I really want to develop my own style, but I can not do without a couple of tips from a man who can draw such sympathizers».
Question: « At me such question: When I some times draw the same character me simply derives from itself that he each time look differently.
For God's sake, tell me, how do you get so that all the characters look the same in every section of the comic strip?»
Answer: These issues are somewhat interrelated, so I will try to give a general answer to them.
1. The structure of the picture.
A very brief description of where I begin (and on what I end) to draw.
The essence of the whole process is to start with simple forms and finish with a detailed drawing. In the first figure, a sketch is made in the form of basic figures and reference lines.
I'll bring clarity. The picture shows a pair of idiots running in the corn field.
I begin with an inaccurate, unpretentious outline of figures and reference lines. At this stage, I care only about the external similarity of characters and the successful transfer of dynamics in their poses.
First I get rid of incomprehensible gestures, unnatural poses, ridiculous proportions and gradually "clutter" the composition, filling the picture.
As soon as I am satisfied with the approximate drawing, I start to draw on top of it, focusing on some of the early lines.
By this point, your drawing will surely turn into something terrible. And all because you are a dirty, untidy artist.
But do not worry. It should be so.
When the main rough drawing is ready, I proceed to a detailed drawing. I do not erase the original sketch yet, because the supporting strokes depicting the outlines of the characters and their movements will help with detailed drawing. They will help you figure out where to put on the seams on the clothes, where to add wrinkles, how to lay hair and hair on one or another part of the character, etc.
In this figure, I already got rid of all the reference lines, here and there I smeared them, and here and there I made them clearer. At this stage, I prefer to work with a pencil, but it is also common practice when the drawing is first inked, and then the entire pencil work is erased.
2. The monotony of the character.
How do I draw the same character from different angles.
Regardless of the position of the head, the established rules remain unchanged.
These blue lines in the upper figure that suggest the shape of the head and denote the middle lines are enough for me to know how other figures are arranged, like those that are circled in red in the figure below.
And in the end we get a character that looks the same from different angles. And all because he was created on the basis of figures on the same principle.
And lastly, always remember that, although such initial techniques can contribute to rapid progress, nothing can replace practice. Do not give up if this technique did not justify itself the first time ... or 98 subsequent attempts. Continue to draw.
3. How to draw "Simpatians."
The very essence of the attractiveness of the character (which usually includes the concept of "sympathetic") is a whole separate topic - an extensive and, moreover, hardly subject to fragmentation. It's unlikely that I will be able to talk about it properly if I can at all, but at least I'll give you a couple of tips that you should pay attention to if you want to create an attractive character:
- Attractiveness. It's no secret that certain proportions from nature have a visual appeal. Do not forget about them when you create a character. Often the characters are cute if they are depicted according to the proportions of the child's face: a high forehead, chubby cheeks, large eyes and other facial features located close to each other.
(The Disney studio has adopted this practice as a rule, so drawing classic famous characters will help you understand how to make your characters attractive, and in general will acquaint you with the structure of the picture.) Try to draw a hunter from the cartoons "Luni Tunz" and "Tex Eyvori "to learn how to create cute and cheerful, rather than cute and sugary characters).
- Cleaning.
Be careful that your character's face does not become gloomy or ugly due to unnecessary unnecessary lines. Understand the importance of saving lines. Simplify the sketch so that the accent falls on its most important, attractive features; Those that reflect the essence of the character and allow you to convey his mood. This not only simplifies the drawing of the character from different angles time after time, but also makes it easier to perceive.
- Expressiveness. The key to making the character look attractive or simply appealing is to achieve simplicity of drawing through cleansing from unnecessary lines, as well as a frank and understandable expression on the face that fully conveys the thoughts or feelings of the character. Ambiguous, empty or indistinct expressions on the face do not have such an attraction. Give the character the opportunity to act, react and be genuinely alive.
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