
I promised to do an armor tutorial, so here it is! The referenced artwork you see here is from FE Heroes - Xander’s artwork is perfect for this demonstration XD

If you’re working with an existing design (eg. for fanart), don’t be afraid to get familiar with the original outfit first :) Xander’s outfit is pretty daunting, but everything from human bodies to outfits and accessories can be broken down into parts and shapes. Get rid of the excess detail first, and look at the general outline of each armor piece.

As always - try to start with a basic body sketch first, instead of drawing the outfit or armor upfront. It’ll save you a lot of headache as you can correct the proportions at the start, and figure out details like how the armor pieces sit.
Let’s build our sketch on top of Summer Xander :D Build shapes on top of him, and add lines to show the direction armor pieces should be pointing towards (eg. see the shoulder pads, neck piece). You can also make the armor more ‘fitting’ at this point - we can always build up the bulk later.

Now with your first sketch, start ‘carving’ out the shapes more, or building up the curves and edges! With your handy shapes as templates, you can draw within the boundaries without worries.
When you’re satisfied with the overall look, here’s where you go in and start fussing over the armor details, all the fancy stuff. You can also add these during the rendering/color stage.
TLDR: Start simple, use shapes, and build on top
Anonymous asked:
I love the way you colour the hair on characters! I don’t suppose you have or could make a small tutorial on how you do it?

Hello Anon, and thank you :D Here is a walkthrough, hope it helps!
1. Here, you need not put in all the details like individual strands in your sketch/lineart. But best to have an idea of the general flow/direction of the hair, how round it is, etc.
2. I have a color palette set aside for each part; if I have three shades of color for the hair, this is where I use the ‘middle’ color
3. I use the darkest shade here. After deciding the light source, this is where I carve the hairstyle by detailing bunches of hair, following my lineart flow. Some might prefer going even more detailed and making thinner longer strands, starting from the hair crown.
4. Normally I end at step 3 and just add the highlights lol. But you can make hair more ‘juicy’ :3 Take the lighter shade now and add strands on the upper area (where light shines) which you haven’t touched with the dark color. I try to make the strands like fat leaves.
5. Also optional, you can add gradients and a little shine to make the color pop more.
6. Adding the white highlights and whatever touch-ups needed
Anonymous asked:
how do you come up with your group poses? posing is always a really big struggle for me :/
Hello Anon! I will try my best to answer specifically to arranging your characters for group pictures - if you mean individual posing it will require another answer ^^;

- Staging: Best to do in sketch mode so you can go as messy as you want - if you have individual poses prepared, think of staging to rearrange the characters and play with position and scale. The original is the left side which seems to convey a family portrait - good for showing off personality of characters :D
- Now simply by rearranging it gives a different feel! The right side seems to show a story - I assume Original Jakob is the hero/MC, Long-haired Jakob could be a villain or secondary MC, and everyone else are minor/supporting characters.

- Shapes: Use big shapes to draw attention and make it visually cool! Idol picture uses the portrait staging as I place equal importance on each character and I want to show off their design. But the triangle gives an interesting layout compared to the boring Jakob portraits. Azura is front and center as the leader, and the supporting members surround her, arranged to sit in accordance to their personality.
- SMTxFE picture follows the story staging - this is an epic battle taking place (inspired by this btw :D). Scaling is used to convey the importance of characters (Chrom and Flynn as leads and fighting solo VS the others engaged in a skirmish), Circles form a natural loop and keep the artwork ‘contained’. While the human characters look outwards, the enemies ‘look back’ to keep the focal point towards the middle.

- Study: Study references! This gives you an idea of how each artist gives the energy to their group pictures, spend time studying the logic and thought process behind the creation, and think how each individual character has been represented. (From left to right - Bleach, Soul Eater, Bakuman)
Anonymous asked:
I was wondering, what canvas size and dpi do you usually use? How do you know what settings to use?
Heya! Have answered a similar question here
I usually start at A4, or A3 size(for group pictures), 300dpi. And the only reason is I just try to make it print quality in case, thus the size haha
Anonymous asked:
I'm not sure if we can ask tips or how-to's, but if you can, can you show how to draw positions so that they comfortable looking as yours? And, um, how face position can influence the posture?

[Full size here] Er I’ll just use the recent pic as an example, sorry if I misunderstood your question or my explanation is funky ._.;
- Slopes: Try to have your character’s top and bottom half slope opposite from each other to create a sense of balance and weight
- Curves: You can start by boxing the body shape in, then add curves depending on what your character posture is. They help to tell which direction the body is pointing towards and provide a flow
- Shapes: To differentiate body parts and to give a sense of mass Important for me as they also tell me how to draw the flow of clothes, or where to rest the armor on
And some info about leaning and weight. You technically could keep your head upright and straight while doing these but it’ll feel pretty uncomfortable lol
I’m not the best expert on anatomy but I hope this helps. All the foundation I lay down usually gets lost after I clean up the sketch XD (Added a tag for ‘tutorial’ as well so you can search up other replies I gave)
Anonymous asked:
Your art is really good! What canvas sizes do you use?
Hi there, and Thanks :D I usually work with an A4 or A3 resolution (for group pics) at least, then crop or size it down when posting
Anonymous asked:
Thanks for the tips before! So, a more specific question would be...How do you distribute the layers? Do you use a different layer for each color or shade? What about the lineart?

[Full size here]
- Sketch layer: The time to ‘go loose’! Deciding my character pose, perspective, attire, rough BG (if any)
- Lineart layer: Correcting the sketch, such as anatomy, details. I need to be careful with this one since after I start painting, it’s difficult to go back and make big changes lol
- Coloring: Each ‘part’ gets its own layer here, sorted into one Color group. Around this time I also decide where the light source is coming from (in this example it comes from right), so I know where the dark and light parts go
- Coloring 2: Finishing up the color. I start from skin, facial features, and hair, then move onto other parts like the clothes.
- Shadow layer: I paint on extra shadow layer for emphasis. It’s kind of like if you look at your hand now, you can see the form of bones or knuckles, from lighter and darker skin areas. But if I hover my hand over the other, it will cast an additional shadow.
- Apply Shadow: Putting it on top to see how it looks. Normally I just paint it with the color layer on since it’s faster XD
- Rimlight layer: I like this step for some reason?! Makes the character stand out.
- Mood, Texture: I add extra layers if I want to apply additional color or texture filters
- Effects, BG: More layers for effects that go on top of the entire picture, and for simple BGs that go below the picture. Sometimes I work with the BG before the coloring stage to set a color mood
Hope this helps. Some artists might only work on 1 layer, or work in different steps, but do whatever works for you :D
Anonymous asked:
Question! How did you learn to draw digital? And if you don't mind giving some tips or tricks >>
Hey there!
I started on digital art when I was introduced to Oekaki boards by school friends. I used the mouse to do a lot of pixel artwork, and then moved on to trying out the brush tools in PaintBBS. It was a lot of trial and error and getting used to a new interface from paper, I remember feeling so weird how I had to look up at a bright digital screen while my physical hand was moving on a tiny mousepad orz
Only when I enrolled to an animation/media course, did I get exposed to stuff like anatomy, composition, lighting, filters, colors, etc., as well as so many types of software and drawing tools!!! Even now after graduation, I’m still continually putting to practice what I’ve learnt and trying to study more on my own (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و
Tips + Tricks in general
- Pose practice A fun and simple exercise to do whether digital or traditional. You can get many poses from photos, movie posters, 3d models/figmas, etc. Draw your favorite characters doing anything :D IT builds confidence in your line strokes, you get to experiment with movement and anatomy, and it scratches the art itch quickly lol
- Tell a story in your picture This can make an artwork more interesting if the character’s personality can shine through, even with props. Ex. Character sitting down - How many ways can the character sit? If you know the personality, it could already affect how he poses himself on the chair - casual, straight-backed? What about the type of chair? A normal wooden chair, a throne? Things like color and lighting will set the mood here too
- Favorite Tools The software and tools it comes with can be important too, to be comfortable while drawing. I use Photoshop because I can work with many brush options, layers, and filters. Artists will have their own favourite to work with that offers the best options they need
- Build your Artwork I find it easier to work in steps when creating an artwork. Research > Rough sketch > Lineart > Color > Lighting/Filter. Ex. Sketching to set up my scene composition and do rough poses so I know where a character is. Lineart is used to refine the character details after. I take each step to improve on a little bit of the artwork until I’m happy with it :)
Actually I could keep writing on and on but feel free to ask something more specific XD Of course, to everyone, feel free to share your own tips too~
Anonymous asked:
Your art is amazing! I was wondering, though, why do you take so many requests? And how long does each piece take on average?
Hello Anon, Thank you for writing in!
Personally, I take on requests to challenge myself to draw characters I normally would not focus on, since we all have our favorites! I find it good practice as well to aim for an artwork a day if I can, and the requests do make it easier when I only need to consider the pose for a character. I also hope it helps to show as a sample of what I can do, for people considering commissions. Finally, I’m just happy when I come across a request for a character from a series I like, from a fellow fan ~
However, I understand offering so many free requests is not a good practice as an artist, and is unfair to other artists as well ^^; I will be cutting down on the frequency of free requests, but that does not mean I will stop drawing fanart :D
Time-wise, it depends on the complexity of the piece, and how distracted I get :P The requests or sketches take me about 2-4 hours, full color pieces with a bazillion characters can take me up to a week, on and off. A lot of time is spent researching the character as well as looking for their references, and then setting up the composition.
Hope this answers stuff!
Anonymous asked:
What are the brushes you use? Just curious ~

[Full size here] Hello! Here are the main brushes I use (Photoshop) now:
- ‘Hard Round’, used to block in solid color
- ‘Soft Round’, used for airbrushing or blending when I want softer look
- ‘Airbrush Pen’, ‘softer’ version of hard round. Used to make quick sketches and then lineart
- ‘Hard Elliptical’, main brush used to paint
- ‘Hard Square’, pencil looking feel. Used for detailed sketches