DaCeronNine - Art School Journey

[daceronine]

A few ears exercices before I leave to an event.

This is the first time I'm forced to really analyze the ear, which I think is really helpful, even if the ear is usually glossed over when seeing art, and extremely simplified in anime (very much like the nose).

Now that I took the time to attempt different angles and such, I never realized how the antihelix played that big of a role in the ear design. Looking at different references I also realize it varies a LOT by person. For some it's almost not there, for others it's extremely visible. It's almost like having a small ear coming out of the ear.

I probably also need to calm down on the Helix size, it seems bigger than it should in my first tests.

[ryooh]

Hey, youre doing some good work. Your art looks nice and i can see you're improving steadily. Keep goin!

[daceronine]

Thanks a lot! It's really interesting to see the progress across the months for different people and the different approaches to some of the same exercices.

[daceronine]

And here we practiced noses!
I was trying to kind of "put together the nose" knowing the different pieces, but by the third nose I realized for me it was easier to draw the overall outline of the nose followed by adjusting and adding the piece details.

Though I deal with stylized noses in anime (usually pointy and more exagerated depending on the angle), this is really helpful to understand how noses should look like from different angles. After all, anime is just a deconstruction of reality. This should help me give more variety to noses from references, and still proportion them correctly within their exageration.

[daceronine]

This time, it's mouths!

All these exercices really help to get comfortable with the different pieces. Usually by the third or fourth drawing I start getting a good feeling for overall form and how it affects lighting.

It's just one part though, I feel the real test when everything comes together will be when we get into the full face exercice, since many of these muscles and sections interact with each other as well, but I can understand why it's important to analyze each part individually first.

[mitsuki-youko]

these studies look so good!

[daceronine]

Thanks for the kind word! Though if I'm honest with myself, upon revisiting the tests there is clearly room for improvement. I think I'll refine some features once I get to the full face.

[daceronine]

Final of individual pieces. Eyes. And eyebrows. they kinda go together.
Being used to drawing anime eyes, trying the more realistic style was quite a challenge. Trying to resist the urge to just make them big and stylized.

Looking at different manga references, you can definetly see how these basic construction rules are applied and modified, which I'm excited to try once I'm done with all term 2 exercices.

eyes being probably the most important component, I tried to add a few more details like some lighting and eyelashes. I feel these really make a difference.

I tried to keep the eyes on the viewer to move the pupil around as well.

I find it also helps to draw the full eyeball in the back, and then draw the eye as kind of an "opening" on the eyeball. And even to draw the skull in the back in some cases to get the position right (I used a skill for the side one).

[daceronine]

Boom. First full head done.

Now I can move to do more faces and heads from references, deconstruct some for more stylized types, and also move to perspective.

[Gordon003]

Your head studies look comprehensive and straight-forward. well done and good luck with future head studies!

[daceronine]

Thanks man! I've only done a few studies, but if my main takeaway is that though all heads are different, the main pieces are still there, and in the right place. It's interesting how faces and heads can all have the same pieces and yet be so different, and how much of a difference and "weird" it looks when a piece is either not there or off proportion.

[daceronine]

One more head study! With an actual reference this time.

My goal is not just to copy, but to deconstruct and replicate, which should allow me to later stylize the components for a different styled result.

Trying to get a little fancy with the shadows and lights. Also downloaded a special brush to help with the hair.

i'm really enjoying what I'm learning here, and it's exciting to think on how to apply it to may daily works.

[snakker]

Yo great work on all the studies!
A couple of things I notice: on your eyes, I would add a bit more of a triangle towards the nose where the lacrimal caruncle is and watch out for lines on rendered faces they come out as wrinkles and make the face look older

On side views of the eye, the lower eyelid is further back in comparison to the upper lid and you would see the cornea jut out in front of the pupil rather than the pupil in the front

Cheers!

[daceronine]

Got it, I see what you mean with the lacrimal... it's barely there and it fuses too much with the eye whites instead of being an actual indent.... I'll have to keep that in mind.

For these studies I tried to make the ball of the eye and then lightly "wrap it up" with the eyelids, but I see the eyelids are need to have a stronger prescene as well, especially the upper one for the sideview. I also see what you mean by the pupil. It's supposed to be kind of a hole in the cornea, so it doesn't make sense for it to be "ahead" of the cornea.

I'll practice a few more.

[daceronine]

Started the perspective 2 course as well.

Point 3 perspective is something I've always tried to do, but never really got the hang of. With this course, I finally learned something really important.

Keep your 3 points outside the canvas and try to keep your canvas within the are of these 3 points.

It sounds really simple, but I don't remember hearing this before. Most videos or tutorials I saw about it just explained how to use the 3 point ruler and how it works, but not what happens if your vanishing points are within the canvas.

Moreso, seeing the interaction between the 3 points, you can clearly see they are intended to represent the x/y/z coordinates, but I had not seen someone explain to treat the 3 vanishing points as such. Once you do, you can clearly see the effect on the drawing, and how the z vanishing point impacts the angle if you decide to put it above or below.

I'm really happy to finally get these concepts, and though I'm still going through it, I tried to apply it on a drawing for the webtoon, in this example below.

[snakker]

Nicely done!

[mitsuki-youko]

woah this looks amazing!!

[daceronine]

Thanks! I'm also still getting used to coloring through gradients. As usual, kinda wish I just had more time, but very happy with the progress regardless.

[daceronine]

Many thanks! That's very encouraging! To think this is just term 2, still got a lot more to get through.

[daceronine]

It's been a couple of very intense weeks at work. Haven't really had chance to continue my art studies... or anything else really, but things are finally starting to slow down, so I was able to continue my practice on term 2. Anatomy.
Heads.

Tried one more exercice from reference to keep understanding face structure and get back into the groove.

As I get a better grasp on head structure, I also tried to apply this to my anime characters, drawing them in a different style. As Marc has said, the principles carry over, you can just modify them to adjust to the style you are using. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I notice the imprevement mostly on ears, nose, mouth and general eye to head proportion and ratio. Not a style I plan to especialize in, but still a great exercice.

Time to get more practice in.