The correct material can lead to easier drawings

No matter the activity you're participating in, their are required materials. For pencil drawing there are many optional materials that can enhance the drawing. There are special papers, erasers, pencils, blenders and more. For Christmas I was fortunate enough to receive tracing paper from my parents. Once I opened the present I remembered that in the book, Drawing Manga, Faces and Bodies, by Anna Southgate and Yishan Li, they had mentioned this paper. What a coincidence! The day following Christmas I tried out the tracing paper. On Pg. 8 of Drawing Manga, Faces and Bodies, it says that "Tracing paper provides a smooth surface, helping you to sketch freely. It is also forgiving-- any mistakes can easily be erased several times over." (Southgate and Li, Pg.8) I tested this out. I specifically tested out the erasing ability on the tracing paper. I drew several lines ranging from soft to hard. I expected a little residue left after erasing, just from experience with all of my other drawing notebooks. To my shock there was not even a smudge left behind! After erasing the hardly drawn lines, the paper looked good as new. This will impact my drawings a lot. For my style of art I tend to erase a lot and due to this I have to draw very lightly on all of my notebooks. When I don't draw lightly you can see the erase marks, which doesn't compliment a picture. If I have durable paper with a good eraser quality then I can outline my sketches a lot more. By outlining my sketches more this will lead to less silly mistakes, like shading to far or not far enough. Thanks to this, I now have a new favorite drawing material!

Since I had a new, better place to draw on, I decided that I would like to test it out. I did this by drawing a new picture, of course with a tip from Southgate and Li. If you have read any other blog post by me, you could tell I have a lot of trouble with hands. The shape, proportion and almost everything about it is difficult for me. I decided to apply yet another hand position tip to my art. I tried a new position that they called Grasping Fingers. To draw this position, you have to imagine the character's fingers are holding something. The example they gave in the book was a tennis racket. (Southgate and Li, Pg. 58). I interpreted this as leaving a small gap in the hand for a item. For the item I chose to figuratively put in my characters hand, It was an ice cream with a stick handle. Due to this I made the hand hole for my character smaller because ice cream sticks are tiny and thin. To my surprise, I was extremely happy with the outcome. Maybe the tracing paper really did help make a difference in the art, but the hand placement, in my opinion, is my best yet. Southgate and Li's tip on imagining an item in the hand really helped. While drawing the character, it seemed more real because I could personally relate to the pose and even use my own hand as a model. This really will affect my future sketches, Firstly because the pose turned out well, giving me a new pose I like to draw. Secondly if I examine this pose, I might be able to use it to help my other hand drawings. Lastly it reassured my thoughts that tracing paper is definitely the paper I will continue to use while drawing in the future!

 When you draw do you usually use tracing paper, normal paper, or another type of paper?
Southgate, Anna, and Yishan Li. Drawing Manga Faces and Bodies. New York: Rosen, 2013. Print.

Adding Wavy Hair and a Unique Hand Pose To a Sketch

Every person in the world has a hairstyle. Their hairstyle may be extremely long, down to their lower back, or no hair at all. To draw hair is an extremely fun, yet difficult process. Drawing hair can be difficult because there is no "right" way to draw it. However in the book, Drawing Manga, Faces, and Bodies, by Anna Southgate and Yishan Li, they address several hairstyles. In the book they commented on long hair, short hair, and unique styles. The style I chose to focus on for my drawing is wavy hair. For wavy hair I had to imagine there was a slight breeze blowing the hair to one side. To start the hair make a simple wavy line. This line should be vaguely S-shaped, and usually vertical. Afterwards, draw another wavy line semi-close to the first. If desired, feint lines can be added for detail or connecting the hair. (Southgate and Li, Pg.35) As you can tell in the picture, many strands of the hair are extremely exaggerated S's. Some of the strands of hair are very vertical, like Southgate and Li suggested, while others are stretched. I decided to add some stretched S like hair to add more realism to the hair. I also followed their advice of connecting the two separate S line with a feint line. This, in my opinion, really completed the drawing. Without the connecting line the picture appeared very 2-D and not appealing. This technique in particular, connecting the hair, will impact my drawing style for sure. It added a necessary depth that the drawing was missing before. I will continue to use and take advantage of that technique in my drawings to come.

Another concept that I focused on for this drawing was the placement and poses of the hands. As you can tell from the picture above, one hand is more detailed, while the other is barely visible. I centered my attention to the hand by the girls face. To draw this hand, I followed the authors advice on a particular pose. On page 58 it says, "This hand is almost horizontal, with the fingers poised." (Southgate and Li, Pg. 58) Although this advice is very short, it helped me start and finish the hand. I was very confused as to how I wanted this hand to turn out. I drew and erased probably 8-9 times before I even got something I was remotely happy with. The horizontal placement was hard to use as it made the hand look disproportioned. Then I tried to make the fingers looked more poised. This really helped pull the hand together. With the fingers more distinct and longer, the hand looked slightly less disproportioned then it had before. This made me realize how important it is to draw the fingers with precision. With the fingers drawn well, the hand will more naturally follow. I will try harder to draw fingers more detailed and poised.


Do you have a specific way to draw hands?
Southgate, Anna, and Yishan Li. Drawing Manga Faces and Bodies. New York: Rosen, 2013. Print.

Using Perspective and Proportion In Sketches

To draw humans there are many complicated matters to keep in mind. Some of which are perspective of body parts and keeping all of the body parts proportionate. Personally, I've struggled with both of these concepts. Trying to maintain a similar size for body parts is a challenge for me. Specifically for the legs and lower body. I tend to make the upper body more muscular and the legs extremely skinny. This causes the person to look very unrealistic and strange. However, In Drawing Manga, Faces, and Bodies, by Anna Southgate and Yishan Li, they comment about body proportions. They suggested that first I should define my outline to show general placement. After I have that down and I'm happy with the outcome, I should outline all of the thigh and calf muscles. Then to add more realism to the picture, draw some lines for knee caps. (Southgate and Li, Pg. 69) I tried to use what Southgate and Li said to the best of my ability. In many of my previous drawings I neglected using excess lines because of the messy outcome. On this drawing, I applied what the authors said to use lines for knee caps. Instead of it looking messy It really did add to the picture. As I continue to draw more, I will definitely add lines on the knees. I also took the advice of using an outline. It's not visible, but before inking I had a very sketched out outline of the legs. This helped make the legs look more proportioned rather then uneven. I probably won't continue this skill due to how much excess time it took compared to usual.

Another property I applied to this drawing is perspective. Everything drawn is seen from a perspective. Sometimes it's a front on perspective, like this one, and at other times it can be a direct behind view. For myself, drawing the backs of people is much easier then the front. It takes less time, work and overall has less room for flaws. Southgate and Yishan also take on the concept of perspective. On page 63 they say, "You will need it [this perspective] for any characters seen from the front. Draw the foot as a simple geometric form. Try to capture the basic shape the heel and toes make. Draw in the shin and ankle." (Southgate and Li, Pg. 63) For the perspective they commented on it focused on the foot. This was perfect for me as I struggle with perspective and drawing feet. I followed their instructions as I drew the foot first as a rectangle. I then added curves to make it more human-like. Afterwards I connected it to the leg. Next I put a little stub of a heel because it made sense. Lastly I added the shoes because most people don't go barefoot. I really enjoyed drawing the feet this way. Having a geometric base makes it much easier to change later on and is repeatable. Especially for this perspective feet are very visible. If the feet look terrible and out of the right view then it'll drag down the whole drawing. I will definitely use this geometric base if I am drawing in this perspective again.


What's your favorite perspective to draw in? Or if you don't draw, what's your favorite perspective to see drawings at?
Southgate, Anna, and Yishan Li. Drawing Manga Faces and Bodies. New York: Rosen, 2013. Print.

Drawing Expressions and Emotions

Expressions are one of the most visible things on the human body. Usually when seeing another person your eyes eventually travels to the face region, making you analyze there expressions. With their expression you can tell several things like there mood and emotions. When drawing, expressions is one thing that really pulls together a drawing. The character drawn could have a great figure and complex clothing but without a expression the drawing is incomplete. In the book, Drawing Manga, Faces, and Bodies, by Anna Southgate and Yishan Li, a section of the book is dedicated to drawing facial expressions. On page 18, Li and Southgate explain how to draw a face crying from happiness through an example. "The boy [or girl] is crying with laughter. His [or her] eyes are closed and eyebrows raised. They mirror the open-mouthed smile" (Southgate and Li, Pg. 18). I tend to forget about the crying from happiness expression, so it was good to be reminded of it again. As you can tell in the picture below to the left, I followed the advice they gave to the closest of my ability. There are small tears in the corner of the eyes, a wide opened smile and eyebrows raised. Their advice really helped me widen my library of expressions. This expression is often forgotten so it's important to be reminded of how to draw it correctly. Seeing this expression made me realize how much I like how it looks; therefor I will likely use this expression more in my personal artwork.

Considering how in the book, Drawing Manga, Faces, and Bodies, a large section of the book is dedicated to facial expression, I decided I would like to apply another expression tip to my work. The next tip was for a anguished or alarmed expression. Li and Southgate claimed that a slightly opened mouth would really help the expression out, and to top it off a furled brow pulls the expression together. (Southgate and Li, Pg. 18). In the top right photo I left the mouth slightly open, furled the brows, and to add my own touch, placed the light reflection in the eye on the same corner for a surprised affect. Using Southgate and Li's tips really helped my alarmed expression. Usually I would have a slightly curved line for the mouth, but a partly opened mouth brings out the expression. In my future drawings I'll definitely used a slightly open circle rather then a little curved line for the mouth. This also affected how I'll draw my eyebrows. I usually draw very thin eyebrows but I noticed sometimes thicker eyebrows can compliment the drawing. For example in my top right drawing I first drew the eyebrows thin, but it had a disproportioned feel to it. I then drew it thicker and furled and it seemed much more fit to the face.


Do you have a favorite expression to draw? If so, what kind of expression is it?

Southgate, Anna, and Yishan Li. Drawing Manga Faces and Bodies. New York: Rosen, 2013. Print.

Applying color to sketches

Drawing to many people is a outlet of some sort, and to me I view it that way as well. However whenever I do sketch I tend to not apply color to it of any sort. Coloring a picture has always been hard for me. There are many factors that you have to take into account such as: how is the lighting, where should the hair be a darker shade, how do I make the hair look as natural as possible? In the book, Drawing Manga, Faces, and Bodies, by Anna Southgate and Yishan Li they addressed different tones of color, specifically with color pencils. On page 9 it says, "Unlike with markers, successive layers of tone and shade can be built up with the same pencil, by gradually increasing the pressure on the pencil lead (Southgate and Li, Pg. 9)." Reading this made me want to apply it to my own drawings. I decided to sketch a hair style and use only one color pencil to color the whole picture. This made me realize that what the authors had said was really true! On the occasions when I do color my picture, I always used variations of the same color, sometime using up to 4 different color pencils that are essentially the same color. Now that I know this technique, it has made my coloring of drawings more efficient and not such a tedious job.

For the sketch I colored using the gradual pressure technique, I applied another aspect of Southgate and Li's book. The aspect I decided to try out was complex highlights in hair which will make a drawing more realistic. The authors claim that to draw a well-done highlight I must use a darker tone for the shaded areas of the hair. In addition to that, drawing fine lines will make the character look like they have individual strands of hair (Southgate and Li, Pg. 33). I tried my best to apply the authors advice. Using there advice it allowed my overall drawing to look better. Applying the fine lines to illustrate individual hairs, in my opinion, really differentiated this hair drawing from the rest of mine. Hair without fine lines seems to look more flat, so using the fine line technique gave it more depth and a real feeling. Shading certain areas of hair ties in with the gradual pressure technique. Combining the two different tips allowed me to give the hair dimension. Instead of the whole head being one tone, there are different tones and shades by the roots and where the hair is farther back from the angle it's seen at.

Do you agree with Southgate and Li that gradually increasing pressure is a better technique to show different shades of the same color, or do you prefer an entirely different pencil within the same color category?

Southgate, Anna, and Yishan Li. Drawing Manga Faces and Bodies. New York: Rosen, 2013. Print.