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Cataclysm-X — Tutorial: Proportions
by-nc-nd
Published: 2009-02-06 20:29:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 294882; 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
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Comments: 492
My son gave me the link to your site, he said that your drawings are incredible, I agree. I have just started art classes for portrait painting and was having trouble getting the proportions right, your tutorials will prove invaluable, thank you so much!
Chezzie
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wow these tutorials keep getting more helpful 
a lot of the time I just freehand work (and as you said its a killer DX) but once in a while I really take the time and try to do the line measuring which is sometimes messy but well worth it
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Thank you for all your tutorials, I can see you have put a lot of time into making them all and they are amazing! You help so many people!
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wow... I had a personal crisis this week when I realized I have been almost 10 years without drawing (only oil paintings) and I wanted to go back and practice... thnks for the tutorials. I will draw again!
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That's great! I'm glad you are willing to get started again! 
Thank you
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This is SUCH A GREAT HELP.
'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".'
...they're jealous and need to rub the crap that's obscuring their view out of their eyes. Don't listen to them for one minute. You're incredibly talented.
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I don't really draw anymore, but these are pretty handy little tutorials. (Some of those were covered in my art classes back in middle/high school, too.)
Just a note: typo on #4, second tip at the bottom. It should be "buy" and not "by."
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Hey, great tutorial. I used the mirror technique too.
And I used the lines technique too. It's interesting to see, that you use the same lines like me.
Congrats for this great tut!!
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This is really helpful! I love your tutorials! Meh, ignore those idiots, these things have helped soooo much!
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this drawing tutorial is extremely useful, I'm very glad that you've done it - I already knew the mirror trick but it never fails! 
*
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Ive gotta say this tutorial has answered my god damned questions ive used some of the above described techniques, and honestly despite the difference in time i have more patience now as i can see the end results going well. Next step lighting and shading for me. From ireland till next time nicoleen.
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I'm so glad this tutorial helped you in some way, that's a great thing! Thank you so much for the feedback.
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well i just figured i could try somethin that isnt straight out freehand but i did two more drawings since and they are so close to the real thing its great (well for my standards anyway). Well aside from what you draw (aka final fantasy, and amazing portraits of characters in movies) what is it you like, as in what sort of art? do you read comics or you like Salvador Dali, Tattoo artists, Glen Fabry, Alex Horley etc etc?
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Well I don't really like anything specific aside from realism art. I like any artwork that gets my attention right away, whether it's a simple sketch, abstract art, tattoo art or anything else...
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cool i am the same way i guess im trynna get a little more varied tho for example im workin on four different peices one being the characters of monkey island and one on vampires and cable from x men im trying to get better at portraits too next one to attempt is stuntman mike from death proof
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This is so great! I think we must have had the same sortof ideas or teachers. I use all of the techniques you mention, especially griding and mirroring. I also work up-side-down sometimes. Not ME, but the drawing. Its like mirroring vertically instead of horizontally and it makes you look at every detail in a different way. Doing this gets you to freehand faster I believe. Awesome hon. So glad you did it.
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Thank you so much for the feedback my friend! 
Hope you're doing okay!
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Great work, as always. I noticed how different my pics came out when I inverted them in photoshop....and wow! some of my people came out looking like aliens, lol. Your shapes tutorial was pretty interesting, I'll have to try it.
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lol! aliens eh? Well the older your works are, the more flaws you'll notice, especially when you mirrored them!
That shapes technique is something I use quite some times. It was a bit hard to explain how it works. You better need to try it out to understand how it works I guess
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Great tutorial! I moved from gridding to the "lines" kind of thing too (although I use 'different' lines..less triangles for one 
Did you get my email?
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Thank you so much Corien!
Yes I got your e-mail, no worries. Just didn't have the time to reply yet
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Oh, and don't care about these ones, who keep telling you these awful thing - it's rude and stupid. Carry on making tutorials, there a lot of people who need them
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Aww thank you dear
I'm glad I barely receive rude comments these days. I used to get a lot more, though since I posted the details and tutorials things are getting better yay
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You're welcome 
I'm glad to hear there are less rude comments!
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Though I don't have any biiig problems with proportions, I'll strudy your tutorial very carefully. I'm sure I'll learn sth new and useful
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you sure don't. Your drawings are great as they are!
You're welcome dear!
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Awww you're so sweet, thank you!
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I usually always do my drawings free hand. But the drawing I'm working on right now I used the grid technique. I also do the line technique sometimes like you mentioned in your tutorial. I'll use a protractor though so some lines will be the exact angle as another one that's being mirrored so I can get a better proportion later on. Anyways... Thanks for the sweet tutorial. For some reason, I always thought you did all of your drawings free hand. :$
Hopefully all of these tutorials you keep posting will help me with my art. If you ever publish an art book, I know for sure I'm going to buy it.
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Wow I only ever did free hand! It came out okayish but there's so much room for improvement for me! (for one thing, shading T_T It doesn't go smoothly at all for me). Anyway! Mirroring sounds great. I remember getting taught that at school now. I'd completely forgotten! I'm soooo grateful for the reminder!!!!
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Your tutorials are great! They'r helping me a lot!
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a new tut from you, yey. i'll try it out as soon as i find enough time. thanks again for all your tutorials.
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People still think you're faking? 
Thanks for sharing this!
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ahhh, ignore the dumb people that say your tutorials are'nt helpful! they're just jealous they didn't come up with the idea first and aren't as skilled, either!
personally, i loooove your tutorials.. thank you!
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thank you so much for this tutorial!!!! it helps so much!
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Thank you so much for this tutorial. That's really useful.
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jees meid, echt superduidelijk weer! jammer dat er van die haters zijn die denken dat het nep is, maar ik heb er echt wel wat aan! Zo insprierend, elke keer weer!
keep up the good work, en ben benieuwd naar je volgende werk
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I love your tutorials and I found a good way to make the grid technique less time consuming (sorry if this has been said before, I didn't read through all the earlier comments).
I print the reference picture with the grid on it and then print only the grid in the size I want my final drawing to be. That way I can put the sheet of paper with the grid on it under my drawing paper and the lines will show through a bit - you can draw your lineart without having to first draw and later erase all the lines for the grid
I know you don't use the grid method but maybe others might find it useful. I think using a grid is a great step on the way to drawing free hand
One more thing, this won't work well if your drawing paper is very thick. I sometimes take the glass out of a big frame; it needs to be a bit bigger then the drawing paper, then I place both sheets of paper on top of it and put a lamp under it which will make the paper shine through. I normally balance the glass and paper on my lap which isn't very comfortable, but it will do for the lineart
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Your tutorials have helped me in ways I can't even describe!!!! And thjis one is no exception.
Thank you
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haha, fantastic that youre so good people actually think its fake
absolutetly love your drawings and tutorials!
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wow...this tutorial is helping me out a lot.
thanks again for the wonderful tutorial. keep it up
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thank you very much ^^ this is very useful, I never used the first technique, with the shapes and all, but the technique with the lines could get in handy ^^ at first I drew at free hand but I figured out that using a ruler and/ or a grid my drawings indeed get better proportions =] we'll just keep on practicing!!!
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Gosh no wonder it's so hard to mak realism pieces... @_@ I'm lazy, so I do everything freehand. *fail* great tutorial.
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