HOME | DD

Description
Here's a tutorial I decided to compile for this drawing: [link]

This will show you how I put together a character, from start to finish, with a digital art program.

1. The first thing to know, is that you should know a decent amount about correct anatomy (for whatever art style you're using) before you focuse too much on drawing actual characters. Your character will always look cooler if they have arms the right length, and their hips are the right width, etc. So it's important to learn where each piece of the body starts and ends first. I learned from the Idiots Guide to Drawing Manga, which has a fairly great anatomy section. However, it would take a lot of extra text to go into such things here (which I could go over in a separate tutorial specifically about anatomy if people want me to).

As the Idiots Guide will also explain, I begin with the 'skeleton' of my figure; though since this is digital, I like to use layers to make things easier to fix if something goes wrong. I have Photoshop set to begin me with a canvas that's 8.5/11, just like a normal piece of printing paper. I would work on larger... but I don't have the RAM to handle it if the picture gets to complicated, lol. Anyway, it also gives me a white Background layer. I immediately start another layer, and name it Sketch.

The 'skeleton' of the character almost looks like a stick figure really. I usually start with the waist, and then draw the spine line up to the shoulders. Note that this line extends past where you draw the shoulders, as it also includes the neck. This helps establish exactly what kind of character you're drawing, and how long their limbs should be and such.

In this case, I want a fairly strong, muscley looking character, so I extend his shoulders fairly wide. I also want him to be walking in an intimidatingly calm style, so I hide one leg behind the other, and have his arms swing out. Originally, I wanted his arms to be coming toward the artist using forshortening, as if he's beckoning someone into a fight with him. But you'll see, your vision can change as you go on, and you realize something else may look better.

2. Here I begin roughing out the body, on a new layer above the last one... called Body. So that I can still see the original sketch, but it doesn't get in the way, I set its Opacity to somewhere around 65-50%.

Don't focus on clothing, or detail, or anything like that yet. Just sketch out where each part of the body will be. At this point, I decided to draw in the hands, though I truthfully usually do this later on when I'm doing the clothing; in case sleeves or something might cover them up. But since this character has no shirt, there was no reason to wait.

Notice how I did indeed shorten the arms, eliminating the forshortening I'd originally intended. This is the stage where you really want to make sure the anatomy is matching overall. It gets harder and more complicated to change it the further you go along, because you have more to change.

3. In this step, I create a new layer above the Body, called Face (and I hide the Sketch layer). This is where I sketch in the face of the character. Usually, you will set it on the neck, but since this character has big muscles and a low/slightly hunched, menacing upper-body stance, you can't see the neck.

Draw the main jaw line, in whatever shape fits the character, and mark a vertical and horizontal line across the face where you want their face to be (shocker!!! lol). Make sure to place the horizontal line where you want the eyes to be, and curve the lines with the head, depending on which way the character is facing.

In this case, he's got his chin close to his chest, allowing you to see more of the top of his head. And that means his eyes will be slightly lower than normal. But since he's facing us directly, it's a simple, straight vertical line and horizontal line. This also means that the mouth will be fairly low, everything on the face being sort of 'scrunched' together. This is due to slight forshortening, but it would take forever to get into that here. NOTE: Since he won't actually show his eyes, I didn't do those first, though I usually do; I work from the eyes down to the mouth.

4. Here I add in the facial features on that same layer. You can do this in yet another layer if you want so that your guide lines for the face don't get in the way, but I prefer to simply work way zoomed in, so that I can delicately erase the guides as I need to.

Add in the ears, which are once again lower than normal on this drawing, and the eyes/nose of your character. I also added a bit of sunken-ness to his cheeks, via the two L-shaped lines on each side. Little details like this can add a lot to a character. I also added angry eyebrows. And if you notice, the bandages are slightly wavy in the middle, and I added in a line where the bridge of the nose would be. This shows that the nose isn't just flat on the face. NOTE: Before I continued on, since I knew this was going to be a fairly wild hairstyle, I added in the shape of the top of the head, which you can see in the next panel.

5. I once again added a new layer on top, called Hair, and I temporarily set the Face layer to partial Opacity. Drawing hair is all dependant on your style, and what you like. There is some form to how to go about it obviously, but it's highly dependant on what style you're going for. So I can't really give much advice on this subject here.

Still, just follow the head, and you should be fine. Usually, since the eyes are the most important part of a face, if any bangs are going to go into the eyes, I make them stop AT the eyes. In this case, there are no eyes, so I have no problem with them overlapping the bandages.

6. I make yet ANOTHER layer on top, and call it Clothes. I take the Body layer, and set it to partial Opacity (while bringing the face back to full Opacity and erasing the line for the top of the head). Now, I start to sketch in the clothing, but I don't do the folds just yet. Still, anytime there will be a fold that changes the outer lineart, I will add in the uneven section where the fold will stem from (EX: If this had sleeves, I would NOT add the folds ON the sleeve itself yet, but I would add in the bumps and fabric folds on the outside of the LINEART ONLY; the clothing sillohuete if you will).

This is usually where I will also add in body details, like the hands and feet.

7. Now that you're done with the Body layer, hide it. Make another layer. I would usually call this Folds, for clothing folds. But since there aren't that many, I changed it to Accessories. This is where you will need to add in the actual folds across clothing. If it conflicts with where you originally put the lines on the lineart sillohuete, then it's simple; change one of them until it works. Doing them separately allows you to see the big picture, without getting hung up on any one difficult spot. It also prevents you from having to repeatedly re-draw extra sections of lineart. It's more like putting a puzzle together.

This is also where I decided to add in the extra difficult clothing parts. I set the Clothing layer to partial Opacity, and draw all of the chains and extra pieces on my character on the Accessories layer. Once that's done, simply go back to your Clothing layer, and erase any lines that are now supposed to be behind your Accessories; lines that no longer need to be there. Then bring the Clothing layer back up to full Opacity. Once you have everything with your lineart EXACTLY how you want it, Merge them all, and rename the layer Lineart.

8. I can't really tell you much about how to color and shade digitally, as I'm still pretty new to it myself. But I can tell you how to safely and easily set up your base colors.

Make a new layer. Name it whatever you feel is right. I just stick with Colors 1. Then find/make the color you want for the part of the character that would be hidden the most (in this case that's skin, since it will ALWAYS be under the hair and clothing). Then color it. Make sure this and all of your color layers are under your lineart.

Do the same with each of your other colors. Once you're done, you may be asking "Why is your background pink?" This is actually a trick I use to make sure my coloring is completely filled, otherwise you might miss some sections because of the white background. Make a layer under everything, and call it whatever you want. Then simply use the Bucket tool to fill it with the most outlandishly bright color you can think of... one that contradicts most of your other colors.

Zoom in and look around. Any places where the color shines through, you need to fill (on the CORRECT layer) with the right color. This also helps you catch any area that you go outside the lineart.

And that's about it. Happy drawing

Description
Here's a tutorial I decided to compile for this drawing: [link]

This will show you how I put together a character, from start to finish, with a digital art program.

1. The first thing to know, is that you should know a decent amount about correct anatomy (for whatever art style you're using) before you focuse too much on drawing actual characters. Your character will always look cooler if they have arms the right length, and their hips are the right width, etc. So it's important to learn where each piece of the body starts and ends first. I learned from the Idiots Guide to Drawing Manga, which has a fairly great anatomy section. However, it would take a lot of extra text to go into such things here (which I could go over in a separate tutorial specifically about anatomy if people want me to).

As the Idiots Guide will also explain, I begin with the 'skeleton' of my figure; though since this is digital, I like to use layers to make things easier to fix if something goes wrong. I have Photoshop set to begin me with a canvas that's 8.5/11, just like a normal piece of printing paper. I would work on larger... but I don't have the RAM to handle it if the picture gets to complicated, lol. Anyway, it also gives me a white Background layer. I immediately start another layer, and name it Sketch.

The 'skeleton' of the character almost looks like a stick figure really. I usually start with the waist, and then draw the spine line up to the shoulders. Note that this line extends past where you draw the shoulders, as it also includes the neck. This helps establish exactly what kind of character you're drawing, and how long their limbs should be and such.

In this case, I want a fairly strong, muscley looking character, so I extend his shoulders fairly wide. I also want him to be walking in an intimidatingly calm style, so I hide one leg behind the other, and have his arms swing out. Originally, I wanted his arms to be coming toward the artist using forshortening, as if he's beckoning someone into a fight with him. But you'll see, your vision can change as you go on, and you realize something else may look better.

2. Here I begin roughing out the body, on a new layer above the last one... called Body. So that I can still see the original sketch, but it doesn't get in the way, I set its Opacity to somewhere around 65-50%.

Don't focus on clothing, or detail, or anything like that yet. Just sketch out where each part of the body will be. At this point, I decided to draw in the hands, though I truthfully usually do this later on when I'm doing the clothing; in case sleeves or something might cover them up. But since this character has no shirt, there was no reason to wait.

Notice how I did indeed shorten the arms, eliminating the forshortening I'd originally intended. This is the stage where you really want to make sure the anatomy is matching overall. It gets harder and more complicated to change it the further you go along, because you have more to change.

3. In this step, I create a new layer above the Body, called Face (and I hide the Sketch layer). This is where I sketch in the face of the character. Usually, you will set it on the neck, but since this character has big muscles and a low/slightly hunched, menacing upper-body stance, you can't see the neck.

Draw the main jaw line, in whatever shape fits the character, and mark a vertical and horizontal line across the face where you want their face to be (shocker!!! lol). Make sure to place the horizontal line where you want the eyes to be, and curve the lines with the head, depending on which way the character is facing.

In this case, he's got his chin close to his chest, allowing you to see more of the top of his head. And that means his eyes will be slightly lower than normal. But since he's facing us directly, it's a simple, straight vertical line and horizontal line. This also means that the mouth will be fairly low, everything on the face being sort of 'scrunched' together. This is due to slight forshortening, but it would take forever to get into that here. NOTE: Since he won't actually show his eyes, I didn't do those first, though I usually do; I work from the eyes down to the mouth.

4. Here I add in the facial features on that same layer. You can do this in yet another layer if you want so that your guide lines for the face don't get in the way, but I prefer to simply work way zoomed in, so that I can delicately erase the guides as I need to.

Add in the ears, which are once again lower than normal on this drawing, and the eyes/nose of your character. I also added a bit of sunken-ness to his cheeks, via the two L-shaped lines on each side. Little details like this can add a lot to a character. I also added angry eyebrows. And if you notice, the bandages are slightly wavy in the middle, and I added in a line where the bridge of the nose would be. This shows that the nose isn't just flat on the face. NOTE: Before I continued on, since I knew this was going to be a fairly wild hairstyle, I added in the shape of the top of the head, which you can see in the next panel.

5. I once again added a new layer on top, called Hair, and I temporarily set the Face layer to partial Opacity. Drawing hair is all dependant on your style, and what you like. There is some form to how to go about it obviously, but it's highly dependant on what style you're going for. So I can't really give much advice on this subject here.

Still, just follow the head, and you should be fine. Usually, since the eyes are the most important part of a face, if any bangs are going to go into the eyes, I make them stop AT the eyes. In this case, there are no eyes, so I have no problem with them overlapping the bandages.

6. I make yet ANOTHER layer on top, and call it Clothes. I take the Body layer, and set it to partial Opacity (while bringing the face back to full Opacity and erasing the line for the top of the head). Now, I start to sketch in the clothing, but I don't do the folds just yet. Still, anytime there will be a fold that changes the outer lineart, I will add in the uneven section where the fold will stem from (EX: If this had sleeves, I would NOT add the folds ON the sleeve itself yet, but I would add in the bumps and fabric folds on the outside of the LINEART ONLY; the clothing sillohuete if you will).

This is usually where I will also add in body details, like the hands and feet.

7. Now that you're done with the Body layer, hide it. Make another layer. I would usually call this Folds, for clothing folds. But since there aren't that many, I changed it to Accessories. This is where you will need to add in the actual folds across clothing. If it conflicts with where you originally put the lines on the lineart sillohuete, then it's simple; change one of them until it works. Doing them separately allows you to see the big picture, without getting hung up on any one difficult spot. It also prevents you from having to repeatedly re-draw extra sections of lineart. It's more like putting a puzzle together.

This is also where I decided to add in the extra difficult clothing parts. I set the Clothing layer to partial Opacity, and draw all of the chains and extra pieces on my character on the Accessories layer. Once that's done, simply go back to your Clothing layer, and erase any lines that are now supposed to be behind your Accessories; lines that no longer need to be there. Then bring the Clothing layer back up to full Opacity. Once you have everything with your lineart EXACTLY how you want it, Merge them all, and rename the layer Lineart.

8. I can't really tell you much about how to color and shade digitally, as I'm still pretty new to it myself. But I can tell you how to safely and easily set up your base colors.

Make a new layer. Name it whatever you feel is right. I just stick with Colors 1. Then find/make the color you want for the part of the character that would be hidden the most (in this case that's skin, since it will ALWAYS be under the hair and clothing). Then color it. Make sure this and all of your color layers are under your lineart.

Do the same with each of your other colors. Once you're done, you may be asking "Why is your background pink?" This is actually a trick I use to make sure my coloring is completely filled, otherwise you might miss some sections because of the white background. Make a layer under everything, and call it whatever you want. Then simply use the Bucket tool to fill it with the most outlandishly bright color you can think of... one that contradicts most of your other colors.

Zoom in and look around. Any places where the color shines through, you need to fill (on the CORRECT layer) with the right color. This also helps you catch any area that you go outside the lineart.

And that's about it. Happy drawing