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?
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.
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!
The video is one part of a paid for course. The point was to show that he starts with a rough drawing, reduces opacity, and then refines it on another layer. This can be repeated several times.
If I was starting doing my version of the reference I would start with the big shapes. Possible one circle for the head and one rectangle for the body. I would make sure these looked right in relation to each other. I would then add shapes for arms and hair etc.
Once this seemed right I would erase back and start drawing it more solidly using the reference.
The point being that it is better to start simple and build up rather than with final lines. Whether you want to do an exact copy or your interpretation is then up to you.
Let's be real here for a second: fineliners can get pricey. It varies from brand to brand, store to store, and country to country, but good fineliners like the Staedtler Pigment Liner (my personal brand favourite) can cost an arm and a leg. I remember finding them being sold individually at a Michael's for $4-$5 each. That's highway robbery right there.
Now, we're not a big company ourselves or anything, but we have been in a position to periodically import large batches of pens that we've sourced ourselves - using the wholesale route to keep costs down, and then to split the savings between getting pens to you for cheaper, and setting some aside to one day produce our own.
These pens are each hand-tested (on a little card we include in the package) to avoid sending out any duds (another problem with pens sold in stores). We also checked out a handful of different options before settling on this supplier - mainly looking for pens that were as close to the Staedtler Pigment Liner. If I'm being honest, I think these might even perform a little better, at least for our use case in this course.
We've also tested their longevity. We've found that if we're reasonably gentle with them, we can get through all of Lesson 1, and halfway through the box challenge. We actually had ScyllaStew test them while recording realtime videos of her working through the lesson work, which you can check out here, along with a variety of reviews of other brands.
Now, I will say this - we're only really in a position to make this an attractive offer for those in the continental United States (where we can offer shipping for free). We do ship internationally, but between the shipping prices and shipping times, it's probably not the best offer you can find - though this may depend. We also straight up can't ship to the UK, thanks to some fairly new restrictions they've put into place relating to their Brexit transition. I know that's a bummer - I'm Canadian myself - but hopefully one day we can expand things more meaningfully to the rest of the world.
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