I’ve been meaning to put together a short tutorial/drawing tips post for a while, so, I figured why not use the piece I’m currently working on? I’m by no means a pro, but I hope this helps someone! These are some rules I pretty much always abide by no matter who I’m drawing.
TIP 1: When sketching out your jaw and cheekbones, take into consideration their relativity to each other. It’ll help keep things symmetrical. With an angle like I have drawn Ardyn’s face here, it’s (hopefully) easy to see that his jaw and the top of his cheekbone form a diagonal line, the bottom of which will create a straight line that passes through the mouth to the other side of the jaw. It kind of forms a right triangle.
TIP 2: Laying out the sides of the face will help make sure your proportions are even. It’s especially helpful when drawing faces at an angle. I always map out the tops and bottoms of the cheekbones, as well as the chin.
TIP 3: Your pupils will generally also line up with the corners of your mouth, no matter the angle you’re drawing from.
TIP 4: USE REFERENCE IMAGES. I have a bunch of screenshots I took from my game clips open right now. For whatever reason, people seem to think your art/talent is somehow lesser/mediocre if you say you used a reference??? Buuuuuuuulllll. I can’t remember what shape Ardyn’s eyebrows are off the top of my head, and I have taken so many photos of my own darn hands as reference for my art because I don’t know how the heck fingers work sometimes. And if it’s the first time I’m drawing a certain person/thing, I always devote time to finding multiple references of the thing I’m trying to draw from a few different angles, so that I feel I understand the thing. Have some google image searches open, create a collage like this one above and study it, whatever!
TIP 5: If something seems like it’s missing or doesn’t look quite right, but you can’t figure out what, step away. Go eat, drink some water, play a video game, take a walk, read, work on something else, etc., and come back to it. Chances are, giving your eyes a rest and seeing the piece again when you’re refreshed will allow you to see where you went wrong, or will allow time to inspire you anew.
TIP 6: Maybe these tips will be helpful to you, maybe they won’t, and that’s totally cool either way. Do whatever makes your own creative process most enjoyable. Listen to music, or don’t; make ridiculous faces to nail down the expression you’re trying to portray, or don’t. Whatever helps you get there, and create the pieces you can be proud of and makes you feel good, that’s what you should do.
This is an ultimate masterlist of many resources that could be helpful for writers. I apologize in advance for any not working links. Check out the ultimate writing resource masterlist here (x) and my “novel” tag here (x).
