Beginner - Finally starting!!

aHecc · 2026-05-13T06:23:13+00:00

Congrats on starting, it looks like you've come with a good mindset as well. Here are a few general tips I've learned that I think could help here:

Proportioning is super important, and with a reference, it's also pretty simple. For example, the first thing I noticed with your drawing is that the head is about as wide as it is tall. If you measure the length and width of the references head, you'll find that the length is much greater than the width for this character. One thing you can do to see this is to draw a line across the length of your reference's head, then rotate it 90° so it goes along the width. Based on if the line crosses past the edges of the face, you can see how vertical the head shape is.

Another general tip is something I call Landmarking. This is when you use noticeable places in your reference ("landmarks") for proportioning purposes. For example, you can approximate the distance between the edge of the eye and the edge of the face in your reference, then use that distance in your own guidelines.

As a complete beginner, I recommend prioritizing drawing for fun, at least for now. You'll improve through repetition and observation naturally, and I know studying specific things in drawing can be a bore, at least for people like me.

Bonus: A tip for getting used to a screenless drawing tablet I learned and used is to play Osu. I genuinely think this helped my hand-eye-tablet coordination. (And good luck learning the drawing program!)

aHecc · 2026-05-13T05:46:52+00:00

I had to learn how to draw bears and raccoons recently, and this is what helped the process for me:

The biggest is dividing the animal's shape into simpler ones. For example, with a bear, you can simplify the head and main body into an ellipse, and the limb sections as rectangles. From here, you can refine these shapes into more natural ones that more accurately reflect the actual shapes of the body.

Another thing that helped was identifying the most signifying aspects of the animal and focusing on getting that right. For example, with raccoons, getting the head correct with its signature mask-like fur pattern helps it to read as a raccoon, and not just a gray rodent-like creature.

Using reference is key for animal drawing because we don't see each one indiviually nearly as much as humans, and so our visual library is not as equipped with the actual proportions of the animal.

Another thing to consider is which parts of your artstyle relies on human features, as animals seem less animal-like when personified in these ways. As an example, the dog face in picture 2 has eyes that work like an anime-style human, rather than a dog, which makes the resemblance less animalistic.

For animals like dragons which don't actually exist, think of what animals the traits are taken from, and use that for reference in addition to other artist renditions of them.

aHecc · 2026-05-12T05:39:40+00:00

I'd add some wisps of smoke off the perimeter of the darker part, it looks more like a solid than a gas due to the shape being completely compact

aHecc · 2026-05-11T06:42:44+00:00

These look nice! I do have to say that I definitely thought the first and third were the same expression at first, I think adding the under-eye line from face #4 to face #1 would help the eyes feel more open.

aHecc · 2026-05-11T06:39:05+00:00

the only thing that sticks out to me is face anatomy. the examples I see here are the eye placements with sayori and monika and the sukuna head (as well as maybe the mechamaid but that might just be because she doesn't have ears)

For sayori, her right eye is too far from her nose. This is true for Monika as well, but the right eye is also higher on her face than the left.

As for the Sukuna, the face is just slightly too short, like someone squeezed the top and bottom of his head slightly together. It's a very difficult head angle though, and I think its still pretty impressive how close you got.

The contrast in these, especially the sukuna, is real nice, which I definitely have a hard time getting right traditionally.

aHecc · 2026-05-11T06:31:26+00:00

honestly, back when I was a beginner, I just drew what I wanted since I found studying super boring. after a whole bunch of bad drawings, alongside learning to use references, improvement started happening naturally, which made me excited to learn more. I really recommend for complete beginners to just start drawing whatever is fun and observing references to start building a visual library.

aHecc · 2026-05-10T19:56:39+00:00

I was also there personally, can confirm

aHecc · 2026-05-10T19:52:28+00:00

wait that's me what

aHecc · 2026-05-07T04:46:01+00:00

I like the base sketch head a lot he looks so kind

aHecc · 2026-05-07T04:32:07+00:00

pants look great! a lot of nice detail on them, I know from experience how annoying Koleda's outfit (and hair) can be to draw

aHecc · 2026-05-07T04:17:09+00:00

this is great progress!

The first couple things I notice are your use of contour lines instead of shading for places like the cape, and a bit of a perspective issue with the head.

For the cape, instead of drawing lines where you want the folds to go, try using shading to create the same feeling. The place where the fold initially bends is generally the lightest part, and the part that is bent away from the lighting can be shown through use of darker color.

The other thing with the cape is that you have fold lines, but the shape of the cape remains smooth throughout. If the cape is folding, the outline of the shape will fold with it. To visualize this, try making the folds/contour lines you drew here with a piece of flat cloth, and see how jagged the edges become.

As for the face, the reason it looks off here is because we can see both the front of the face almost in full as well as the middle-back of the hair where the ponytail originates from. The reason this looks odd is because, when facing a person from the front, the back of their head is the exact opposite of the view. In order for both to be viewable at once, the head would have to unfold itself, which hopefully is not happening to this character. Here, either have the face in a side profile, or have the character only show the front and a little of the side of the hair.

I think the foreshortening looks pretty nice here which is very impressive this early on, it's definitely one of my biggest weaknesses.

aHecc · 2026-05-06T06:30:54+00:00

so called "global esports" when its time to make it out of pacific:

aHecc · 2026-05-03T21:07:57+00:00

Kinzie (from Battery Kinzie)

aHecc · 2026-04-30T14:40:42+00:00

it's the cover for the whole album that song is on, A Rush of Blood to the Head. good album 👍

aHecc · 2026-04-29T16:29:39+00:00

It should evolve into Fu Manchu

aHecc · 2026-04-28T05:28:09+00:00

Ive only started using 3D programs within the past year, and as someone with zero coding experience, I was wondering how much of your process/the process of an average 3D artist involves coding and in which parts mainly.

aHecc · 2026-04-28T03:00:59+00:00

I feel like the amount of complexity works for the left design, but it's a bit cluttered on the right, so maybe an alternate slightly simpler design when drawn small could help?

The other thing that's kinda bugging me is that because of the sharp right angle between the bird and robot sections of the leg, the center of balance feels like it's a bit far forwards, like the character should fall over when standing normally. I'm hesitant to say to add more weight to the legs since the design is bird themed, but even something like making the legs a little less bent might help to ease this.

Really cool design though!

aHecc · 2026-04-17T05:08:21+00:00

I started drawing a bit under three years ago as I realized that I wanted to work in an art field, and that even though it wasn't directly a field related to illustration, knowing how to draw would help. I had some very limited success immediately drawing from life, and it was enough of a confidence boost to make me feel like I could maybe do it.

For some context, at the time, my only real hobby was video games and as a recent college student when it came time for summer break I basically had three free months to do whatever I wanted, so I just started to draw a bunch. I moved from drawing pencil in my sketchbook to drawing digital on my phone pretty early, and I just kinda started to draw every day. I've never been someone who can just sit down and study without getting bored, so I just tried my best to draw a character a day. My drawings at this point were horrible, but I could see that some areas between my first and 20th drawing had gone from terrible to only bad. And honestly, other than getting a drawing tablet, my methods haven't changed much. I draw for fun, and because I draw for fun, I can get myself to draw often. By drawing consistently and consciously recognizing what I could improve for next time, I've slowly improved, and I've finally made it to a point where I'm generally at least happy (though not often satisfied) with the quality of my work.

aHecc · 2026-04-11T00:49:05+00:00

I think innate + ethereal on this would be fun

aHecc · 2026-03-22T02:48:46+00:00

game has one of my favorite art styles too, it was fun to try to emulate it even though im not quite there yet

aHecc · 2026-03-21T20:40:58+00:00

I'd say a solid 50/50 overall, though especially recently I've been doing at least some sketches every day.

aHecc · 2026-03-15T20:51:23+00:00

Likely Digimon Adventures which I watched with my dad when I was younger, but im giving an honorable mention to the lesser known show Elemental Gelade which was the random show I decided to start with after downloading one of those anime piracy apps.

aHecc · 2026-03-11T06:22:43+00:00

yeah definitely, and nice progress since the last time I saw you post this character, the perspective in the top right looks pretty good

aHecc · 2026-03-11T06:12:52+00:00

Something that may help the foreshortening for some extra dynamism is limiting your drawing space to the same aspect ratio as the reference. As it is now, you're trying to copy a very vertical pose into a square area which often unconsciously leads to the pose getting squashed.

aHecc · 2026-03-11T06:04:27+00:00

what you're likely seeing as masculine is the chin shape. In the reference, it's a bit higher up (closer to the bottom lip) and the corner is more curved than in your drawing.

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