Requested - Abigail Inspired Dance Essentials

Some Figure Drawing practice and Using Shapes tips By me. 

While practicing.. i thought i should share some tips to you. hope it helps! 

Grace Inspired with Requested Leotard

Sorry, if you've answered this before, but do you have any tips on drawing mouths and lips?

Hello anon! :D I’m not the best at making tutorials and giving tips but I’ll do my best to answer your question! ^^

I sure do love drawing lips! It might be in fact my favourite part of the face to draw. 

Let’s see what makes them so irresistible ;)

tip 1: let them shine! that tiny shiny spot does wonders for the lips - it makes them fuller, softer and more three dimensional. It also makes the lips look slightly wet. Sexy!

tip 2: Build the depth with some darker spots. Quirking corners are great for that, and if you make the darkest spot in the middle of the mouth it seems like it’s about to part. And maybe whisper something seductive ;)

tip 3: The very middle of upper lip is my favourite area, it gives the mouth its distinct character. It’s also a great spot to play with shadows, one lighter stroke, one darker stroke and you have a very dramatic shading going on! 

tip 4: When drawing lineart it’s good to keep the line varying in width and pressure. Equally thin, flat line might look good in anime, but even there it’s rarely the case. Making the line thicker in the shadowy part of the mouth adds depth to your drawing. 

General remarks:

I almost never outline the upper lip, it tends to look weird. Just a thin “U” shape in the middle is usually enough.

Upper lip is usually in the shadow, at least half of it. Lower lip tends to catch the light, especially with pouty plump lips. The more shadow you add under it, the fuller the lips look. 

When drawing male characters I usually play around with skin tones instead of pink and red (see the third row of examples). But it’s not a rule. Some boys rock them rosy lips. ;)

Never paint the teeth white, never. Gray, yellowish and pinkish tones are great. 

And the final tip: use reference! Look for pictures of people with beautiful lips, with thin lips and full lips, try to see which line goes where and how it changes the shape and expression. I hardly ever draw without a reference.

Good luck! 👄

Requested - Dance Bags

art tips post

for all the artist following me

Have two sketchbooks: One for finished and high-quality art (stuff made with Prismacolor or Copic if you use that or art for your portfolio) and the other sketchbook for more messy doodles. This way you have a place to try new things and mess up as much as you need. When I only had one sketchbook I was scared to draw in it because I didn't want to mess it up

Do studies. I cant tell you how much I've improved just by doing studies of shoes, hands, noses, and all that. This works for when you have art block too since you’re not really making stuff up and just learning how real things work.

Learn from others. I’ve never taken a real art class because 1. I can’t afford it and 2. there’s no good art classes/programs at my school. I’ve been following several artists and learning from them over the years and they’ve helped me tremendously. Just please do not steal art because that is never okay.

Break down concepts. If you notice there’s something wrong with your piece then figure out why. You can’t get better if you leave mistakes and don't try to understand whats going on. If the color is weird figure out if the values look right or maybe its the saturation of the color.

Watch youtube tutorials. Here are some youtubers I think are pretty good art teaching all things art: Draw with Jazza |  DrawingWiffWaffles |  Proko |  Baylee Jae

Have an inspiration folder/blog. Sometimes you just need a collection of starry nights or a misty forest or even a French bakery. All of those things can help you get inspired to draw. It could even be completely unrelated to what you plan to draw.

There are no dumb ideas in the creative process. If you want to draw a lizard in a dress go for it! If you want to draw various pastries with faces do it! Don’t let the thought of it being too dumb stop you because if I’ve learned anything in my several years of drawing it’s that an idea can lead to another and another and another and you may get a really good idea just from doodling dumb things.

Here’s a few things that can get you started on drawing better:

Dynamic poses | Dynamic clothes | Dynamic figure drawing

COMPOSITION | PERSPECTIVE | CONSTRUCTION

Anatomy:

Legs

Arms

Hands

Heads

Body (Female) (Male

Color Theory

Improving your sketchbook

Most importantly, don’t give up! You may not immediately get notes or followers but it’s more important you get better than to have popularity. How do you think those popular artists got to where they are now? To be good you’ve got to work at it.

Inspired Dance Outfits Dena (Abigail) ¾

Disclaimer:  I never went to art school and am NOT an expert in these things, but here are some basic guidelines that I follow when I draw heads.  

Here are some extremely helpful videos by Kienan Lafferty that are pretty close to how I draw heads, so I hope it’s useful for you guys too!

Just sketchbook dumping stuff from the last day or so. Running into my folds slowing down my finished stuff, so just obsessively going to crush that lack of knowledge.

Including all the raw sketch stuff and notes to show younger artist how to quickly and efficiently study new topics🤷‍♂️