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DamaiMikaz — [Tutorial] Beginners mistakes, and how to fix them
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Published: 2014-03-01 20:18:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 63426; Favourites: 3798; Downloads: 613
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Description
I came up with the idea for this tutorial a while ago, when I was giving drawing workshops on another convention.I noticed that a lot of beginning artists that I met actually made the same type of mistakes.
The mistakes listed here are the ones that I used to make as well, when I was younger.
Things that took me quite the time to learn, because these are the things people often don't tell you.
I can still remember having an Eureka moment when I discovered these simple things. I hope you will have the same.
(PS: this tutorial is aimed towards beginners in art. If you're advanced, you might know this already)
Just to rule out a few things:
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Comments: 583
Every blog, every tutorial, everything you say is so accurate to every artist.
It always point something we all wonder(ed) about or things that are relative to our motivation to improve. That's why it's always a pleasure to look at what you have to say and have some lessons.
I am happy with my shading but I feel like I'll try some new stuff about it, especially with colours. Thanks for this tutorial !
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this
is
GENIUS
you know, if i decide to suddenly draw manga someday then i'll follow these guidelines
that's IF it will ever happens XD
but thanks for the tips for shading
even though i don't draw manga, those tips were still extrely handy~~!
good luck and have fun with whatever you are working on right now~~
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Most of those tips & tricks are actually based on the rules of realism... so they apply to any type of art
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yep, super handy~!
i've actually caught myself doing some bad shading XD
though i don't really draw humans often, i've drawn a few human like
and then dragons
oh so many dragons
who look more cartoony than realistic XD
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'awesome ironing'
I love it XD Very good and thorough tutorial
Oh and the random model picture is Keira Knightley x3
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I know.
I got her picture by googling 'random model picture', though XD
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Haha fair enough! ^^ She's pretty enough to be a model anyway!
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But the first two are not mistakes, they're a part of style. Surely, they're anatomically incorrect, but it's meant to be so.
Others are yes yes yes, though, especially the shading thing. I've had this mistake for years, too.
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His point is before learning "style" you need to learn anatomy, otherwise you won't understand why the style is the way it is in the first place. Stylization in Anime is designed to make certain parts stand out and others to be hidden. Case and point as he mentioned "cheeks", they are avoided in Anime mainly because when you animate, the more you can cut out the better, and because the eyes, mouth and eyebrows give distinct emotional impressions based on the facial expression of the character they focus on that and leave the cheek bones out. The cheek bones can be added for more emphasis on a particular emotion they are trying to evoke, but animators usually have tons of pages to draw and not enough time, so again cutting out things that aren't vital to getting the idea down on paper is part of the workflow.
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Damaimikaz is a she. Yes, I understand this, and agree with it, but in my opinion it'd be better to call it "start drawing stylized pictures before gaining basic knowledge" instead of pointing out two (of many) aspects of anime style, which differ from real anatomy.
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Love the examples, the way you explain it and the touch of humor in it! Makes a tutorial worth reading and following. Nice work!
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Very useful advice. Sometimes it's the simple things that are difficult to figure out.
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i believe the "perfect ironing" seems to be my biggest issue at the moment, i feel it difficult to create creases XD
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Thanks for this! I've been having a bit of trouble with shading lately and this has really helped
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This is extremely helpful! The shading part still frustrates me, though. -__-
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Nice. I'll admit that even I'm guilty of some of those things. That is, I still do them... Just sketching and allowing the mistakes is one thing, but for a finished work... Let's just say I don't like the super simplified anime ways...
I think this is a great tutorial even for more seasoned artists, those of us that look at our work and think: "what the hell did I do wrong here?"
Nice tutorial. Nice, valid points. Of course, unless the reader prefers the simplified ways... A.K.A: The Sidenose.
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> Of course, unless the reader prefers the simplified ways... A.K.A: The Sidenose
And even then it still doesn't hurt to know how noses actually work
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This tutorial is indeed very helpful for beginners. You've included all the basic mistakes, however, I think the part about symmetry. I've noticed many begginers do this mistake with the symmetry.
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I think the symmetry thing is more a lack of hand-eye-coordination than unawareness
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This was very informative and helpful... awesome
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The tutorial is good until i saw the anime nose part when she says "cheap". all i know that most anime drawing arent suppose to be realistic. the obvious main part is obviously the eyes. so it doesnt make a difference that much. its just to make your own style in making a nose. Same like it semi-realistic while same like it realistic
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You got me wrong on this one.
Anime is cheap. It's supposed to be, because of the production costs.
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yup i know that part. the production is always a pain for them. thats why only the good ones manage make a long series or a new season. No offense on the post just stating my opinion ^^
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You don't need to have realistic art to not look cheap. I think they only do it that way so they can get things out faster, but then again look at Attack on Titan and Kill la Kill.
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Agreed 
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This is very nice, really, I'm glad I'm done with mistakes like these, even though shading still kills me.... It made me laugh real hard at the end because of the awesome ironing mom! xD
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Very helpful~! 
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Thank you for your content. It actually does help quite a bit.
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Wow!! This was extremely helpful!! *I am a repeat offender of shading on the sides..whoops*
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This is a great tutorial; I still need practice with some of these things... especially clothing creases. XD
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Most of this info is stuff I already know through my own experiences with art, but it is really nice to find a tutorial that actually teaches these things because you are right, the art books often leave out these important techniques, especially in manga and anime styles. Thank you for making this, it is very helpful, especially for begging artists first exploring the manga and anime style, as well as other artists and styles. Props to you for being the smart artist!
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Everything is perfect! .u. Thank you for this, I knew my cheeks and shading had something wrong too.
LOVE THE AWESOME IRONING MOM
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This is good work. When I was first starting out I would've loved to have found this tutorial. Only thing I might point out is in style choice. Like the cheekless look, or side nose thing, beginners might get the wrong idea about these suggestions like they're hard and fast rules. Some cartoonists/mangaka downplay features or stylize their rendition of them heavily, nearly to the point of their being more of a symbol for the thing rather than an accurate rendition of...a nose, say. You might point out that there's nothing "wrong" [as often as that word applies in art] with stylization when it's intentional, just that if you're going for a cartoonish representation of reality then these concepts apply. But again, really good work, a worthy addition to the knowledge base of DA.
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It's 'wrong' not knowing why such a thing looks weird.
Because it you don't know why, then you're stuck in art.
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Right, but to be clear for any beginners reading this, it's wrong if it's a hole in your education; in other words if you do these things because you don't know how to get any other result. Things like perspective, 3D form, and anatomy are important and make up the foundation of realistic art, but if you understand that and make a stylistic choice to symbolize or stylize facets of your characters or other work, that's not wrong. Nothing in art can truly be "wrong" depending on your goals, as long as you get the result and look you want, then it's right. Wouldn't you agree Mikaz?
I didn't mean to offend with my original comment if I did, I was just concerned that an impressionable beginning artist might take your advice out of context to read something like: If your art ever looks this way, then it's bad. Which is a true statement if you're going for realism . But stylization plays a heavy part in manga and other cartooning styles, it would be a tragedy if those budding creatives out there had their stylistic exploration stunted because of a misunderstanding. That was all I meant.
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Well... most of the tutorial was based on those artists that got to me at workshops telling me "my art looks weird, but I don't know why" XD
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if you're aiming at people who draw anime faces or cartoon like art work, that really shouldn't be criticized. people should have their own ways of doing art and they should eventually get there on their own., if your target audience was to be aimed at people who are trying to make professional portraits or things like that you should have listed that instead of making it look like you're targeting people who make anime/cartoon artwork. just to me this was poorly named in what you were pinpointing. it really did look like you're aiming at people who draw more cartoon like artwork or anime.
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Well... it should be aimed at me.
They come to me "The face I just drew looks weird, but I don't know why".
Well... now they know why.
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This is really helpful! I see a lot of mistakes I used to make, and some what fixed myself...as well as some I do still make! This will be helpful in correcting them!
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Dammit I did all of those mistakes!! DX fix fix fix fix fix!!
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Don't worry. I did them too XD
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