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need help with proportions (in general)

1:23 AM, Saturday August 28th 2021

Hi, long story short, ive been drawing for quite a bit and ive been having a lot of trouble with proportions.

specifically drawing stuff from imagination and keeping it consistant and tangible (looking real and 3D)

Ive been practing drawabox stuff on and off as well as just free-drawing.

I have some samples of observational drawing I did, for these i just solely looked and drew what i saw, focus mostly on

proportion and not form

https://gyazo.com/055540f1afd237e5134a296c0720f416

https://gyazo.com/c9c303f499a43275686edbe7d8c3e47b

for example if i wanted to draw in a certain style in proportion from memory/imagination i have no idea how id go about learning that if that makes sense ive been struggling with what to do for a while losing motivation and hope.... id really apprciate some tips or help, thanks! :)

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12:07 PM, Saturday August 28th 2021

I think this is why the 50% rule is so important. What you are talking about is the drawing for fun part.

It looks like you might have drawn these digitally. If you have I would advise turning the opacity of your layer down to say 15-20% and add a new layer on top. Now re-draw what you have done using both your drawing and the original as references. This should provide you with an improved iteration of your drawing. Repeat if you like.

I often do this on paper and use a putty eraser to lighten my original drawing and then draw over it again to improve it.

What this will do will highlight the bits you are getting wrong and allow you to correct them. Over time you build up your sense of what is required ie relative size, negative space, angles etc. You will learn what is required, your line technique will improve etc. It is a very iterative process.

Generally your brain will learn by doing until eventually it just starts to know what you want. The more natural your ability becomes the better your drawings will be. It takes a lot of purposeful effort to achieve.

Do be careful with manga style drawing though. It is fun to do because you get results quickly but can be very flat and over-simplified and that can be limiting.

8:30 PM, Saturday August 28th 2021

hi thanks a lot for the reply! im not sure what you mean by

"re-draw what you have done using both your drawing and the original as references. This should provide you with an improved iteration of your drawing. Repeat if you like."

do you mean just, re-drawing it once again but looking at my drawing + reference to see where i went wrong?

9:42 PM, Saturday August 28th 2021
edited at 10:38 PM, Aug 28th 2021

Pretty much. Common technique in character design is to draw a character, erase back most of the drawing, then draw back over it but with variations. This is not to trace the original but to try and improve it.

You will be using it to get closer to the drawing you are copying but it is mainly used for experimenting with and improving designs.

I'm a fan of Aaron Blaise's tutorials as they are very accessible. His character design course is well worth the investment. Here is a sneak peak where you can see him do this sort of process digitally but is effectively the same thing. Worth following his youtube livestreams too which he does most Fridays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bzlcWKXIfI&t=2226s

edited at 10:38 PM, Aug 28th 2021
2:48 PM, Sunday August 29th 2021

thanks i havent seen this channel before but it seems pretty useful! (i'll try and take a look over the next few days) he seemed to just be skimming thru and not showing the entire drawing process of it

https://gyazo.com/3badad8befedeff4174f1438f8b201d9

if you dont mind, for example if i wanted to improve my propotions and other things with this drawing, what sort of specific process or steps should i take in order to go about this so i actually improve? (sorry im usually not very smart with this kinda stuff and i need explanions + details)

i assume its just sort of "oh the shape of the eye is wrong or theres too much space in between both eyes" according to the reference

then id re-draw the correct eye by hand overtop of my actual drawing (with opacity down)? but just want to confirm in-case im misunderstanding anything!

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3:03 PM, Sunday August 29th 2021

It looks like you might have drawn these digitally. If you have I would advise turning the opacity of your layer down to say 15-20% and add a new layer on top. Now re-draw what you have done using both your drawing and the original as references. This should provide you with an improved iteration of your drawing. Repeat if you like.

I often do this on paper and use a putty eraser to lighten my original drawing and then draw over it again to improve it.

I've never heard of this but t sounds useful thanks for sharing.

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