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Cataclysm-X — Tutorial: Proportions
by-nc-nd
Published: 2009-02-06 20:29:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 294880; Favourites: 4470; Downloads: 5069
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Description
As promised, because I love you people:My proportions tutorial!
Since every drawing is unique, I explained the techniques I used. It's up to you to practice them, yay!
You know... sometimes it makes me wonder why I keep posting tutorials since there are still a couple of people out there who say "I give people false hope" or "everything's fake anyway".
But when I read all the comments of fellow artists, e-mails of art students or people who just happened to come across my gallery and private notes of people who are happy to see my tutorials and find them really useful, I just melt!
And you know what? Even some art teachers are using my tutorials for school assignments after they've asked for my permission, lol!
What a strange world we live in.
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It's a shame I just don't have the time to publish my art book yet, but someday I will...
Have fun everyone and keep up the good work!
If there are any questions left, please feel free to note me about it!
Watch my other tutorials here!
1. Eye tutorial
2. Nose tutorial
3. Hair tutorial
4. Shading & Blending tutorial
5. Drawing Progress tutorial
6. Detailed Hair part 1
7. Detailed Hair part 2
8. Editing Drawings <-- got a Daily Deviation!
9. Drawing Materials
10. Male Lips tutorial
11. Female Lips Tutorial
Related content
Comments: 492
this is extremly helpful! thank you so much for taking the time to make something like this!
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Very good tips! Thank you for doing this tutorial.
And yes, Mirroring is really good for detecting extra flaws. I've recently done it, and god, my drawings started to look ugly 
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wow this tutorial is better than any ive seen here
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I was seeking to further improve my realism skills, and OH. MY GOD.
Your tutorials and art are fantastic. Thank you SO much for making these. They will totally be of use to me in the future! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Hey Man, you are just amazing!! not only you have SUPERB TALENT but you are also helping others who are willing to learn. its a true characteristic of an artist!!!! you're an inspiration to me.
Best
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Thank you so much! I love finding great artists who share tips!! D
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people who says that "all is fake anyway" is just jealous ...your gallery is amazing, I really like your tutorials 'cause they make learn a lot of things that are usefull when I'm drawning (not as good as you but anyway xD)
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Ah, mirroring is such a heartbreaker for me. XD one second I'm like, "Wow, this looks great!" and then I mirror it and it's all wrong. Such is life...awesome tutorial, too. I'll try out these techniques and see how they work for me! :'D
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Wow.. I never realised I use almost the same technique as yours to get the proportion except I don't draw shapes but use dots in stead. I got asked all the time how to get the proportion but I didn't know how to explain without showing the processes so I kind of skipped the alswer. Thanks for making this turorial because next time I can just refer to this turoial and just explain the different parts. I've never tried that mirror thing though. I'm too scared of what the image would look like in the mirror..lol..
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Thank you Kanisa!! I've heard about the dots method before (: it's very similar to what I use. Maybe I gotta try that one too someday!
I think you should worry about mirroring your drawings. At first glance they seem to be correct. I usually take a mirror when I can't put my finger on what exactly looks wrong in my drawing.
Hope you're doing fine 
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This helps me alot! I'm looking to get into an art school when i get older (im a younger teen) and my art teacher said i should draw realism picture and portraits to go in my portfolio but I've only ever done one portrait (a painting)and i kinda sorta cheated on it (i used tracing paper to draw the out line then traced my trace on the back of the tracing paper, put it over my original paper and ereased one side so the other would end up on the paper) so i don't have much practive in that department though in pretty good at free handing
(heres the painting [link] )
If there is any tips you could give me it would be very much apreciated cuase my grandma helps but she can't really show me anything and my teacher tries to get me to do it the way she does.
Thanks for anything at all, I'm gonna go through your other ones now so ill see if they help me out some more.
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Wow,these are great tutorials. These are helping me alot. By the way the people you used in this tutorial are from House right? I love that show.
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It's an amazing tutorial.
It helped me a lot.
Thanks!
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I hope you will make more tutorials. You're very good at it. And when you publish your art book, I will go and buy it!
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The guy being drawn on the left panel kinda looks like house... 
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lol it is house / hugh laurie 
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Thank you so much for this. That mirror tip is brilliant! (Even if I can't draw portraits it will still be very very useful)
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You can use the mirror for anything artistic!
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wow thank you for making this!!
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Dear Cataclysm-x,
I love the amazing tutorial that you created here, but there is something that I want to ask you on the gridding part of the tutorial.
When I was in Primary school learning art as a minor subject, I discovered gridding automatically as I drew and it really helped me with correcting proportions. However, my teacher discovered me using the gridding technique and I recieved the cane from it, including detention from using gridding on my drawings because according to her, gridding is a form of cheap "tracing."
Since then, I forced myself to draw freehand from there on from a pretty shocking event. I also use shapes as you have on your wonderful House character for getting facial features right.
But I wanted to ask you personally; would you consider gridding as tracing? I'm not saying that you trace at all, but I had to learn to draw the hard way, and after stumbling on your tutorial, I got deeply confused.
Would you consider gridding as tracing?
Please help me out.
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My teacher condoned gridding in school! .__. I don't think it's tracing at all...tracing is when you have it directly under your paper on a lightboard. Gridding is just, like Nicolien said, is just a bunch of small images put together...I find the fact you got a detention for that appalling.
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Yeah that's what I meant.
Some art teacher I had...
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I wish I had read the 2nd Tip of free hand before... Yesterday i made this Obama drawing and couldn't put my finger on it.. Took me whole day to figure out that the distance between nose and top lip was a little more
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MAN UR GOOD
I USE METHORD 1 GRIDDING
AT FIRST I USED TO DRAW FREE HAND
BUT LAST 7 YEARS ME DOING GRIDDING
BUT I STILL DONT KNOW HOW TO USE DIFFERENT PENCILS IN THE SAME POTRAIT
BECAUSE I LOVE 2B BUT SHADING WILL NOT BE PERFECT LIKE 2H
SO NOW I USE 2H ALONE
2B CREATES MORE GAP
COULD YOU MAKE A TUTORIAL FOR THAT
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I wanted to ask you about shapes and lines. If you do them, then you must gauge the lines ? lol.
I mean if you don't know that, then you can do some line littlebit taller and then the picture is out of propotions.. or I'm getting everything wrong ?! haha
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It's time to PUBLISH your ART BOOK. For sure I'll grab one. I like your style, LOVE IT!
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Helpful as always. Are you still gonna make a book of all the tuts? Remember me wanting the first copy
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UR tuts are da BEST!!
everytime i have to draw a face close-up i just have to come seek help from ur tuts 2 refresh my mind
THX alot!
<3 ya!
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I have a big issue with proportions, due to my comic book influence. Thanks for this hel, I have already spotted a few areas that will help correct me. Cheers!
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I get a smile sort o' headache when my head gets filled with too much information or stuff like this ^^
I always draw free-hand, with only pencil and eraser to help me
I'm sure it helps alot, but I love being as traditional as usual ^^
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Man, I realy don't know how you do it!
Your shading is like ... PERFECTNESS... XD
You're art is amazing!
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I never realized there's more techniques than just gridding and free hand! Very brilliant!
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hey uh thanks. you word things just the right for them to stick out in my mind.
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I bet you already know this, but at the bottom in tip #1 of your Lining page, you said "me" when I think you meant "be" hehe.
These ideas are soooo helpful!!!
I wanna try the grid one right now, but I'd feel like I'm talented enough to mess it up, haha
Thank you so much for sharing!!!
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Thank you for taking all that time and effort to help others improve! ^_^
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This is such a great tutorial! Thank you so much for uploading! This is going to help me a lot!
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