Transcripts
1. Introduction: Want to learn how to
improve your drawings and make them more
interesting and appealing. I'll show you how
Hi I'm Madalina, an artist and
illustrator based in Italy and in today
class I share with you my process of creating expressive and
colorful drawings. First, I take you through some
basic animation concepts that are rarely considered
in the traditional courses. You'll learn how to use shapes
and lines to create rhythm and how to keep an eye on
tangents and negative spaces. You'll become familiar with hand movements and
pressure on paper and learn how to do
proper hatching to better define
volumes and shapes. Finally, you'll take your lineart to the next level by using colored pencils and placing
color in the right spots. I'll also teach you a
nice technique for giving depth to your
lines and characters. To better follow this class, you should have some
basic drawing skills so you can already apply these techniques
to your drawings and see a clear improvement. As for materials, you'll only need some paper and two types
of colored pencils, standard and thinner ones. So grab your favorite pencils
and let's get started.
2. The Sketch: Sketching is the first and the most important step
in the drawing process. It gives you the freedom to
explore multiple options and also come up with new ideas that you wouldn't expect
at the beginning. When it comes to character
design or simple portraits, you should try
different poses and features until you're
happy with one of them. But if you don't
have a clear idea of the subject or if you don't feel confident drawing people
from imagination, you can look for
references on Google, pinterest or other platforms. The important thing is to
stay loose with your drawing and try not to copy all the features of
the reference photo. At this point, you
are not supposed to draw perfect lines
and proportions. So you can be creative with different things like the hair, the face expression, the clothes. There are two main
things that I want to point out in this
part of the process: First, try to erase
as little as possible. Second, try to draw small and fast so that you can capture the essentials of your
subject and you won't get tired before starting
the actual drawing. The sketch is the foundation
of your drawings, so you should never
skip this stage.
3. Shapes & Lines: The first thing I do is define the edges and shapes
in my drawing. We need to distinguish between straight sharp edges
and round smooth edges. Using straight against curves creates a nice
contrast and appealing in your drawing. Straight lines give a clear sense of
direction and power, while the soft curves are
very gentle and warm. I try to make a balanced
use of these two edges, but you may prefer more
straights or more curves depending on your style and the intention behind
your drawing. Try to avoid too many symmetrical
shapes in your drawing. Symmetry is often perceived
as predictable and boring. Asymmetrical shapes
instead will make your drawing appear more
dynamic and interesting. You can decide how much to
exaggerate these shapes so that your character will stand
out and be recognizable. Now that I'm happy
with my sketch, I can start drawing on top of it and make it more readable. At this stage, I better
define the features of my subjects such as the
face and expression. This is a very personal step
in the process because it depends on your unique drawing
style and preferences. My approach to drawing since I was a child and the way I hold my pencil makes me draw thinner lines and prefer
delicate features. But you may be an
artist who draws more rigidly and prefers
a stronger look. So it's up to you the way
you render these drawing. But there are a few key points
that I consider essential for a good drawing and I'll share
them in the next lesson.
4. Key Points: These are four key
points that will help you make your
drawings more appealing. Use a combination of
straights and curves. You may prefer round
lines if you have a delicate and soft art style, or you may opt for sharp edges if you want a stronger look. But overall, I suggest you find a good balance between
straight and curved lines. Try to use very little
symmetry in your drawings. Create instead some interesting
shapes that will add personality and dynamism
to your subject. Don't be afraid to
experiment with different shapes and
find your favorites. Also try to avoid tangents. Tangents happen when
two or more things are touching at the same point. And this causes
spacial ambiguity, so you can't tell which thing
is in front of another. In this case, I could
let the hair touch the nose or the dress touch
the neck line and so on. And to avoid tangents, either put some space between
the hair and the nose, or put the dress
clearly in front of the neck and avoid those
lines intersections. Last but not least,
add negative spaces. I add a lot of negative
spaces in the hair. It usually makes a big compact
mass in your drawings. So adding some
white spaces can make it appear lighter and
more believable. If I drew a full pose, I would also add negative space between the body and the limbs of the character to make the silhouette
more readable. I talk more about this concept in my negative painting class if you want to take a look. Now let's do some warm ups with colored pencils!
5. Warm- up: Here are some exercises
that will help you warm up and prepare for the lineart
and coloring process. The first one is about drawing
parallel lines that are very close together
but never intersect. Try to draw them
in different sizes and as fast as you can. This is a precision exercises
so you have to keep your fingers close to the tip
and use mostly your wrist. You can draw as many
lines as you want, both straight and curved, but always with the
same constant pressure. This is my favorite exercise, it's still about drawing
parallel lines, but this time with
pressing variation. You'll have to press more
at the beginning and less at the end of the
line and vice versa. I like doing this exercise every time before
I start drawing because my whole
line art technique is based on pressure variation. In my opinion, this
makes the drawing much more dynamic and interesting. Now let's do some hatching. In this exercise,
you'll find out how much pressure comes
naturally to you. Start by pressing very
hard in the first square, then apply medium pressure in the second square and finally, use very light pressure
in the third square. To me, medium- light pressure
is what comes naturally. Even if strong marks
come easier to you try to control your hand and barely touch
the paper so that you can make very
light strokes as well. This exercise is about
shading. Hold the pencil at a 45-degree angle so that you're using
the side of the tip. This time you can
move the pencil with your shoulder since you have
to fill a larger square. And this is the way to
get larger strokes. When you move the
pencil with your wrist, you can only produce
smaller strokes as you did in the
previous exercises. To get an even shade, you need to combine hard
and light pressure. You can start pressing hard and then lighter as I do here or you can start
with light pressure and increase it towards
the end of the square. I find this last exercise
very fun and useful to do. It's about connecting to
different points on the paper with hatching. Since you have to deal with a lot of different
shapes in your drawing your hatching needs
to be more flexible. The lines won't be parallel like in the previous exercises, but will all point to
the same destination. I always use this type of
hatching to define Volumes. I find it more
fluid and flowing. We're going to talk more about volumes in the next lessons. Meanwhile, I hope you've
done this warm up for at least 15 min
and never skip it.
6. The Line Art: To achieve a clean line art, you have to start
with a clean drawing. You can use a light
pad to transfer your drawing on a
new sheet of paper. Or you can use a
kneaded eraser to blur the edges of the sketch and
then draw on top of it. But I highly recommend
using a light pad, especially when it comes
to very delicate paper, such as the watercolor paper. When I transfer my drawings, I keep the pressure very light
because I just want to do some kind of under drawing and I don't want
it to be so visible. I usually use
colored pencils both for the under drawing and
the line art. A grey under drawing wouldn't fit so well
with a colored line art. So either use
standard graphite for the whole process or just
use colored pencils. And as for the colored pencils, I usually use very
thin erasable pencils so that it's easier to put
light pressure on the paper. For this particular drawing, I'll use two erasable pencils
a rose and a violet one and three standard pencils with a
larger tip for extra color. I suggest you to use colors that are in the
same range shade and add just one color that
is different from the others. In my case, this is blue. For the line art I switch between the rose and the
violet thin pencils. Use the lighter one for the parts exposed to
the light source, for me, it comes
from the upper left, and the violet for
those in shadow. You don't have to
be very precise. You can also switch
randomly between colors according to your
style and preferences. It's important to vary the pressure when drawing lines because this will make them
feel more dynamic and lively. In particular, press
harder where two lines are intersecting or to
emphasize sharp edges. As you may notice,
I don't produce large strokes because I mainly work with my wrist and therefore
I draw many small marks. I also don't have a steady hand, so I don't feel
confident drawing long lines with just one stroke. This has influenced my art style and the fact that I barely
touch the paper with the pencil makes my drawings look very dedicated and soft. So as I said in the beginning, you definitely have your own
way of holding the pencil, pressing on the paper
and creating shapes and lines. It's absolutely okay if you get a different
line art and feeling. Try to cultivate this difference and
make it stand out because it's the basis
of your unique art style. One thing that makes
your lineart stand out is emphasizing the
intersection points. Points where two or
more lines are meeting together should be
treated as key points. Go over and over those
points and do the same at the beginning of
the intersecting lines. Many comic artists
use this technique because it emphasizes
the overlapping. When you darken those points, you create depth
and make it clear that some parts are
in front of others. So I'm sure this technique
will enhance your line art.
7. Volumes- Demo: Before I better define the hair, I want to explain how
I create volumes with colored pencils. Start by drawing this
shape that is similar to a hair section and identify
the ups and downs. The angles that point inward
are mainly the darkest. Now try hatching from side to side as we did in the
warm-up exercise. It's that kind of
flexible hatching, as I called it, since
it follows the shape. Now let's move to
the point where you can see a big line intersection. Do another strong hatching there. So the main concept here is that you should focus
on the darker parts first. The lighter parts are
the concave ones, those kind of bumps. There, you have to keep a
very light pressure. If you do a medium
intensity hatching where the darkest and the
lighter parts meet, you'll get an even shade.
8. Volumes- Face & Hair: In the next two lessons,
we'll do a lot of hatching to better define
shapes and volumes. Start with the face,
using the lightest color. Focus on those parts
that are usually more reddish like the
nose, the cheeks, and the top of the ear. Also define the sharp shadow
between the face and the neck. Keep pressing vary lightly and continue hatching those parts you want to have more color. When it comes to hair,
It's important to create some sort
of flow and depth. And to do that, you
need to clearly divide the part in front of the light source from
the part in the shadow. But keep in mind that
even the darkest part has both concave
and convex shapes. Therefore, you should press
harder on the bottom and less on the bumps as we
did in the previous lesson. The lighter parts should
also be somewhat defined. Spot those strands of
hair that are covered by the others and emphasize the shadows with a
bit of hatching. You can also create
some contrast by drawing dark lines
here and there. When drawing these lines try to follow the roundness of the head and the overall
movement of the hair. If you add straight lines, or lines that follow
a different direction, you may break the flow and the drawing will look a bit odd. That's another reason why I use erasable pencils, so I
can correct these mistakes. Now keep hatching on
the darkest side of the hair till you're
happy with the result.
9. Volumes- Folds: It's time to give
some dimension also to the folds and
wrinkles of the shirt. Start with
the lightest color and fill in all the spaces
between those small bumps. In this way, you will emphasize which parts of the fabric
are coming outwards. Do the same on the
bottom of the sleeves if the light source
is coming from above, like in my case. Don't worry too
much about making perfect strokes. It's just
the first layer and the important thing
is not press too much and establish
the main shadows. As for the shadows
on the sleeves, you should simplify them
as much as possible. I mean, instead of drawing
a bunch of wrinkles, which can be a bit confusing, try drawing a few big
shapes in the shadow area. Now I take the larger
colored pencils and color the same
parts as before. I use the pink shade to
color another layer between those bumps and try to press more in the intersection areas. Finally, I used the blue pencil to add shadows here and there. It could be the
color of the light reflected from a blue
floor or object. Using two colors
for the shadows adds more variation and interest
to the whole drawing. So this is my whole process
for line art and volumes. Now I can proceed painting
with watercolors on top of it, or I leave it as it is. In the next lesson I'll share with you some final thoughts on improving drawing and
developing an art style. So see you later!
10. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for
joining this class! What I mostly want you to take
from these lessons is that different ways of drawing and different preferences
when it comes to lines, shapes and colors should be
preserved and made evident. These will make your art style
unique and recognizable. It's perfectly fine to
take just one aspect from this class and apply it to
your own drawing routine. I wanted to break down my
process so that you can learn which part can add more interest and appeal to your character. It may be just one small aspect that you missed in your drawing, but it can really
make the difference. So please feel free
to share your work and thoughts in the
project section. I'd love to see it and
help you if you need it. You can also follow
me on Skillshare to be notified whenever I post a new class and on social media, such as Instagram and YouTube, if you want to see all my works, life updates and useful art tips. Thank you again for
joining my class and see you in the
next one. Bye!
Madalina Buzenchi, Artist & Illustrator
