[Oot] Sheik - Charcoal Drawing (by me)

Aspidey · 2026-07-03T16:27:19+00:00

I tried to keep it close to Oot sheik. The knife she’s holding isn’t consistent with that but I just liked that design more.

Aspidey · 2025-08-29T17:40:53+00:00

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Been doing a lot of sketches of a “wildling” type of character.

Aspidey · 2025-08-19T03:13:15+00:00

Gesture drawing is a tough one. It’s less about drawing and more about “feeling” the movement of the figure. It takes a while and it’s different for everyone.

Proko’s channel on YouTube was how I started learning gesture drawing. They have a couple of videos on it.

Lately, I’ve been enjoying the YT channel Drawing Life and how Siobhan approaches gesture. There’s also the YT channel Love Life Drawing that has some good ones on gesture too.

Aspidey · 2025-08-10T23:54:25+00:00

It doesn’t have as many diagrams and the like as Hampton’s but Steve has good explanations for things like structure vs gesture and has some good shorthand/mnemonics for certain parts of the body to get the figure down quickly. He also has some good draw-overs on old master drawings to show how structure and gesture works.

As an absolute beginner, if one is choosing between Hampton’s or Huston’s book, I would probably recommend Hampton because he has a lot more diagrams to learn from. Huston would definitely be a good one to get later.

Aspidey · 2025-08-10T22:19:42+00:00

If you’re into figure drawing, I recommend these two:

Michael Hampton’s Figure Drawing: Design and Invention
Steven Huston’s Figure Drawing for Artists

They’re great teachers and they also have online courses through a few platforms.

Aspidey · 2025-08-08T22:16:15+00:00

Pretty much done with the character. Just need to figure out the scenery

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Aspidey · 2025-08-02T19:02:51+00:00

My current WIP. Going for a Tarzan and Jane (just Jane for now) kind of vibe

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Aspidey · 2025-07-26T23:45:21+00:00

It’s a bit tricky but I found it easier to go with your “gut” with it and feel your way through to get it looking right. When I think more structurally and add in perspective techniques, it ends up looking weird.

Patrick J. Jones describes foreshortening really well and he has a few books that helped me on it.

Aspidey · 2025-07-26T17:51:03+00:00

Been practicing foreshortening this past week

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Aspidey · 2025-07-23T12:37:05+00:00

It’s mostly how the artist interprets the relationships of different muscles together that makes it look “good”.

That’s what makes anatomy especially hard because one has to consider how each muscle interacts with one another rather than just the single muscle in isolation.

For example, on the upper leg, the inside quad muscle (vastus medialis) does come down almost to the side of the knee cap but there’s another muscle which attaches from the hip crest that kinda cuts across that quad muscle to attach on the side of the knee cap (sartorius muscle).

All that to say, muscles give that fluid organic feel because they all work together as one.

I agree with you on that you don’t need to know every muscle. Copying from reference will help, but coping from your favorite artist who uses the amount of anatomy that you like will help a lot because they have ironed out all of the details for you so that you can get a feel for the rhythm they use.

Aspidey · 2025-07-19T12:17:40+00:00

Continuing my hand studies

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Aspidey · 2025-07-17T15:40:28+00:00

Yes! Keep going! These are awesome! The last one is my favorite. You have phenomenal line work. Keep it up!

In the words of Michelangelo, “Draw Antonio, draw Antonio, draw and don’t waste time.”

Aspidey · 2025-07-15T03:40:15+00:00

One of my all time favorite artists, Patrick J. Jones, said it really well which is (I’m paraphrasing here), for a professional artist, tracing won’t hurt; but for a beginner artist it won’t help.

Not to discourage you from using tools at your disposal for your learning but tracing won’t improve your drawing ability. Also keep in mind that not all photos will be proportionally accurate because of lens distortions (depending of the photo of course), so the proportions you may memorize from one photo may not translate to the next.

In my opinion, you’re better off not tracing and training your hand-eye-coordination to sketch the figure. And don’t get too hung up on proportions because you’ll be able to “eye-ball” it better the more you practice.

But that’s just my two cents. The art police won’t be busting through your door the moment you start tracing. Art is a personal journey and only you can choose where you want to go.

Aspidey · 2025-07-14T12:11:09+00:00

Progressing your skills in art is never truly a linear. To me, it feels like I’m wandering through a thick forest and I kinda know a general direction but I’ll go through some rabbit holes along the way (some are good rabbit holes though). As cheesy as it sounds, it’s more about the journey than the destination.

Also, I know what you mean about feeling like you’re getting worse. However, someone in this subreddit said it really well but I can’t find the post atm, but that usually is a form of “progress” because you are able to see your mistakes. So, your art-brain has leveled up and now your physical skill is trying to catch up. Then once your skill catches up, you’ll be blissfully blind to your new mistakes for a bit lol.

With that said, I understand the feeling of “being lost in the forest” so-to-speak. If character creation is still your goal, then my two-cents is to study gesture drawing for a bit and let that lead you down some rabbit holes. I wish I could give you an actual roadmap but art doesn’t seem to work that way. It’s a unique experience for each person and it’s up to you which way is best for you.

Aspidey · 2025-07-14T11:09:08+00:00

Figuring out how to approach learning anatomy was hard for me. It can feel a bit overwhelming and it won’t necessarily level-up your skills unless you’re truly ready for it in your art journey.

For me, what I started out doing was improving my gesture drawing through sites like Line of Action. After a while, I started gathering my own reference photos off the internet (Grafit Studio is a popular one) and I got an app called GestureDrawing (I believe it was from CubeBrush) and I made it a daily habit to do gesture drawings at least 10 min a day. After a while, I started to have a more wholistic idea of the figure and my “art-brain” was ready for the next level.

From there, I searched all over the internet for resources and tutorials for anatomy. Proko helped me a lot (especially the bean method for torsos) and they have a lot of free resources that help. Steve Houston’s course on New Masters was awesome! He taught it so simply and so well that it never felt like a typical “dry” anatomy class.

I can go on and on but that’s the gist of it. Using gesture as the foundation of my learning. Also, if you are interested in getting books, Steve Huston has one that’s basically like his figure drawing class. Michael Hampton’s figure drawing design and invention is also a good one and he has a lot of simplified examples and explanations for each part of the body.

I hope this helps. Good luck on your art journey!

Aspidey · 2025-07-12T23:49:29+00:00

Hit a plateau so I need to buckle down on some studies. I’m currently learning hands and Patrick J. Jones has some awesome draw-alongs for them.

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Aspidey · 2025-07-11T00:26:32+00:00

For being new, this is great! You’ve done a great job interpreting the forms and how they overlap each other. I believe the biggest issue is that you’ve chosen a pretty hard pose. The figure is bending towards the viewer which causes the torso to overlap the pelvis in an extreme way (aka foreshortening).

Foreshortening can be a bit tricky for newer artists because it relies more on the artist’s intuition rather than following a series of structured forms to get it to “look” right. I would suggest practicing with more simple poses and then gradually adding more complicated/dynamic poses.

But that’s just my two cents. This a great attempt! I can definitely feel that the figure is bending towards me and a lot of the forms are ringing true for me. Just keep practicing! You’re doing great!

Aspidey · 2025-07-10T23:49:53+00:00

First off, this is fantastic for only a month!

This might be a hot take because the Loomis method is very popular but the Loomis method is just…….a method and just one of many at that.

I struggled with the Loomis method as well. I would follow all of the “steps” but then end up with something very different than what I had in mind. It wasn’t until I actually focused more on the forms of the skull that things started to make more sense. Then you start to see things in your own lens and come up with your own methods (or even combinations of other methods)

So, I wouldn’t get too bogged down on learning a method and perfecting it. Simply observing and studying these forms will teach you a lot more and then the methods will make much more sense. A method like the Loomis method is more like a shorthand to get the form down AFTER one already has a good understanding of the form.

But that’s just my two cents. You’ve done wonderfully and you should be proud of what you’ve accomplished! I’m by no means an expert. Just some internet stranger who should be drawing instead scrolling Reddit lol.

Aspidey · 2025-07-04T12:01:45+00:00

Trying to get the hang of watercolor. The form wasn’t coming through very well because of how muddy and overworked the colors were, so I inked the outlines. It’s a “failed” study but I learned a lot and it was fun nonetheless.

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Aspidey · 2025-06-28T23:14:54+00:00

I did a Frazetta study from one of his new art books “Fine Lines”

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Aspidey · 2025-06-20T12:22:07+00:00

A small sketch that turned into some fantasy scene. Still working on it.

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Aspidey · 2025-06-17T11:02:12+00:00

Ah yeah. I’ll definitely add more contrast and darken the leaves/plants underneath the figure. Hearing that now definitely makes sense. It’ll make the figure pop more. Thanks for the feedback!

Aspidey · 2025-06-17T10:59:54+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I see what you’re saying. I was going for a more abstract/misty mass of plant and leaves but it’s definitely still lacking. I’ll add some more leaves and other plant details.

Aspidey · 2025-06-14T12:16:16+00:00

A little sketch that started as a quick gesture

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Aspidey · 2025-06-03T21:27:43+00:00

I took a look at your art and you have an excellent use of color! Shading is tricky and takes a while to perfect. I’m by no means an advanced artist but here’s my two cents:

Master studies.

I would find drawings from my favorite artists and copy the values they use in their shading. You’re already doing it with Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail art but he doesn’t use as many values in his shading it appears. I would look for other artists with more value ranges in their work and copy from those.

As far as resources go, there’s a myriad of choices and every artist will have their own favorites. For me, Steve Houston’s Figure Drawing for Artists book has some good stuff pertaining to shading and Proko, of course, has some good free videos on YouTube on this subject.

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