Tricks And Tips

If I was told to draw something that looked vaguely decent or get shot in the head, I'd end up getting shot in the head. I've looked at some of the tutorials on here for using fancy computer programmes and the like but alls I'd like to be able to do is scetch with a pencil.

I'm of the opinion that practice makes perfect, especially of you have no natural talent for drawing like myself. Anyway, It'd be awesome if I could eventually draw my own space marines but I'm hopeless at making them 3D. They always look flat and squashed because I can't draw depth.

Well, if anyone has any advice, or links to tutorials I would be very grateful.


L.M.

I will try to get one up just for you

Well that's most generous of you, thank you.

i'll see what i can do but i'm not the best at it either....
(maybe if you look towards Sojung's work it would give you a better idea of movement ect?)

Okay, will do. Bodies, legs and feet, I can sorta do, especially for a marine although I think my biggest problem is drawing too small. Feet are a bit tricky but I can do them okay if I go off another picture. Heads though I'm terrible at, I can only draw them flat but then I'm not good at shading full stop so that's a hindrance (I think I press too hard and on undersized pictures it's very tricky).

The other thing I have trouble with is putting objects over other objects, so I find it difficult to draw a marine holding his bolter in a firing position and that sort of thing. I think perhaps I try to draw too detailed initially. I don't know if it sounds silly, but I thought perhaps that if I traced other people's pictures I could train myself how to draw properly, does that sound like it might help?

Thanks for the replies so far

you need to get out of that habit otherwise when it goes wrong you end up trying to change it and "fudging"it up .......i know from past experience

it seems like a good idea as long as you don't claim it as yours

i normally do it lightly(sketch ) first to see how it looks generally ,draw the figure in the stance you want )and if i'm not too sure there's always plenty of people here to tell me where i'm going wrong

i can only surgest practice (sorry i know that reply dosen't help much )

no problem ,i hope this helps Lord Malice

I think a key thing is to realise you need to practice all your life.
I still do simple circle practices from time to time (drawing a circle, then another, then another, then another...trying to get the perfect circle) and the reason for this is that otherwise you loose your edge.

If you look in my topic "So you want to paint like me you sorry sod!" you will find some links to tutorials for drawing bodies.

That guy makes it on paper, with pen and pencil respectively, he is focused on human body, and does skulls and heads as well... look for the links to his YoutubeGallery and you can look through there and find heads and so on.

Great excercises, and it also teaches you how to put the right proportions on the head.

I'd follow those ones and try to do as he suggests, and then practice that. loads.

That way you will soon be great at drawing heads.


About difficulties with things infront of other things, I think Juddski has a very good point in that you should first sketch loosely (faint lines) to get how you want it to look, and then fill it in with harder lines when you know how you want it.

If you have difficulties with sketching loosely, try getting a blue or light-blue led-pen. This one will look less hard on your paper (especially the light-blue one) and so you will be able to pen over with your regular pen without a problem.


I can do a small tutorial about that if you like. Even if I use photoshop I can still show how it should look (Photoshop mimics pen and paper very well) when you sketch lightly or with coloured pens and then fill in with normal pen over it (and even when inking it after).

Also, look for Captain Tiberius' works on these forums. Look at his sketches, usually there is some red in the background- thats his light sketch which is done with a red-brownish led-pen... same principle.

Thanks fellas, that sounds like excellent advice. Hmm, as soon as I get home fom uni I'll have access to some coloured pencils so I'll deffinately be following your advice and start practicing just doing sketches.

In fact, I just had a go at scetching a terminator model I'm working on, and I actually have managed to draw it in perspective. I positioned him so he was looking face on and managed to draw his armour so that it looks like it's facing left and his armour is turned away to the right giving the illusion that we're looking at him from an angle, which of course we are but that's something I've not been able to do before now.

I can honestly say that you've been of tremendous help, you never know, I may actually dare to post something up in a few months.