Good day to you!

Hello, world of blogging!

I shall start by saying that this is my third attempt at blogging. The difference? This time I'm doing it on something I'm truly interested in writing about and furthering - drawing. I've been drawing for many years now, and am always learning and getting better. Not only that, but I love to teach people too! So, my purpose of this blog will to be to force myself to learn new things (I will be trying to find new things to draw to teach myself), and I will be documenting my process with explainations and tips for those who may want them!

So, to begin my blog, I just drew something random - it's what I tend to doodle during classes, spare time, etc. It's just a semi-realism face. I love to draw faces - especially eyes and lips - as you may learn over the course of this blog.


Drawings never really look like anything when you first start. People always ask me "What are you drawing?" when I've only drawn a line. Just watch, is what I respond.

 

 

I like to start with the eyes. It's a good focal point for me. When I took a sort-of-drawing-class in 5th grade, we were told that it's best to start with the nose - but I always had really terrible proportioning when I did this. Try starting with different things - the eyes, the nose, the lips, the facial outline - to see what works best for you. When I'm drawing more of the body, I often start with the facial outline, as I have a tendancy to draw the body before the face - that way I get a sense of what expression to give to the face.

 

 

Always draw an outline first, don't try to super detail as you go, it will make it messy and confusing. Especially if you're drawing in pen.

 

SIDE NOTE: Don't be afraid to be really sketchy when drawing in pen - it's almost impossible to do otherwise, as you cannot erase.

 

 

Once you have an outline of something, it is then safe to start filling in some details, as long as you know what you're aiming for. Sometimes I have an actual goal in my drawing, sometimes I just let my writing utensil take me where it may. This time I went for a female eye.

 

 



When drawing female eyes, keep in mind what makes female and male eyes different - I will make a seperate post about the differences later on. For this specifically, I gave the eye long, curled eyelashes, a larger iris and a larger, rounder shape. The eyebrow is lean and shapely. These are some characteristics of drawing that make a feminine character more feminine.

Next, I draw the nose. I usually start with the nostril closest to the eye I've drawn, to make sure that the nose doesn't intrude on the space that is symbolicly represented by the eye. How far down you place the nose is up to you - I just kind of guess. It won't entirely ruin your picture if you don't do it the way you want to, it'll mostly just affect the shape of the face. It's really just a matter of guessing - better done in pencil.

I also have the lips drawn here. I start with that little divet between the top lip and the nose - this gives me a sense of where to actually place the lips, so that they're not to close or too far from the nose. Make sure not to emphasize this divet too much, or it will end up looking like a moustache...

Next, I draw the line created by the top and bottom lip. This structures the shape of the mouth - smiling, sad, neutral. Next comes the bottom lip, then the top. These are all up to style - go look at pictures of people, artists, stare at people on the bus.

NOTE: A big part of learning to draw is staring at examples of what you want to draw. Look around at real things around you, or look at other artists work to see how they interpret the world.

Lastly, fill in the rest of your details. Emphasize lines that are more important, fill in spaces... It's all up to you and your personal style that you will develop.

Once finished the facial details, I start to draw the outline around it. It didn't work so well this time around, so this is the last photo I'll show you. I'll create a better example another time.




That's all for now, folks. If you have any questions, comments, anything you would like me to go into more depth for - please let me know! I will also be posting a poll soon for things you may want to see in the future.



By for now, readers.