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Here is a tutorial on just the basics of how to draw, as promised to .

This is part 1: face layout and Eyes.

I didn't realize how hard it is to make a tutorial. I am going to do this is parts, I got the eyes done and thought that was a good place to start.

Ok... so I numbered the pictures so you can use that for reference. I am gonna go over each separately.

~**~**~**~**~**~

1 - Make a circle, it is your refence to make sure you're not making the picture lopsided, I am drawing a woman, I just tend to lean in that direction all the time... anyways. It doesn't need to be pretty, hell, it is good practice to make a circle or an oval shape. Some artists make a proper circle and build off it, but I have always been partial to an oval like shape, to see the face in my mind.

2 - Put a line through half of that circle (or oval) and then one down the center (long ways) and you will have quartered the face, the center is normally where the nose extends from the face and meets the eyes.

3 - Put a line through the lower part, around the halfway point, that is where the nose will end, then one more below that, putting it in the middle and that is where the mouth will go.

4 - the "V" is how long the neck is... this is only guidelines right now, nothing fleshed out, then you see the other lines will be the shoulders. - I think I will do the nose, mouth and neck lines next time.

5 - Make two circles, on both halves of the face (try to keep them about the same, the distance should be about the same as one of the circles. Look at your own face, you will that if you measure your eye, it will roughly be the same space between your other eye.) the reason for the circles, at least at first is that the top of the circle is going to be the eye brows and the bottom is the bottom eye lid.

6 - The top eye lid, make it bend over like you were putting a string across a little ball. Pretty simple...

7 - Do the same for the bottom eye lid. Lashes - there are different styles. You could make them one solid lash, or make them little individual lashes, or like mine, they look small and slightly separated, for men, I make them one solid lash, but that is just so people can tell the difference in my men and women, but that's the beauty of art, it can be whatever you want it to be.

8 - Eye brow - we have draw a line that arches, not stretches over the ball... because a skull has those holes for your eyes, so the skin is draped down for your lids, the brows run along the top of those holes. Run your hand along your skull and you will feel the curve, the best thing for me, as an artist, that I did was looked into the mirror and used myself as reference... I put a lot of myself into my art still to this day.

8b - there are different types of eye brows, there is the thin, manicured brow...

8c - there are several different thicknesses some get pretty bushy, not just men, but some women too.

8d - then there is the uni-brow, no real reason I drew this besides the fact that I never had a reason to draw one before and it is rather fun... hehehehe

9 - Ok... moving on. The eye ball itself. I draw the colored part of the eye, I line it up with the direction I want the person to be looking, note: if you draw one eye slightly off to the side, you must match that with the other eye, try to make the other eye a little more in that direction, look at another person for this - see how when that person looks to the right with one eye, the other tries to see, but has to look further... I hope that makes sense. Then I put the black part of the eye down, it tends to be partially covered by the top eye lid, it changed with different emotion, try looking in the mirror and try to see what your eyes look like when you make different expressions.

10 - This is deffinatly where you look into the mirror, the details for eyes are that there is always a shine from whatever light source (light source is the direction of the light). If the light is coming from the right, the shine will be on the right, if the light is coming from the left, the shine will be on the left, etc. OH! Then there is the eye lid, your lids are long enough to cover your eyes even when your eyes are extended high, so you will see a definite crease of your eye lid when it is open normally, the crease changes with different expressions.

11 - Now, the other eye, if you have your character facing forward, the eyes need to look the same, generally. One of the reasons I do 3/4 view (and what I am using for my tutorial is a 3/4 view) is that the eyes don't need to look EXACTLY alike. Your face is round, so, when you look at a 3/4 view, you see that part of your eye disappears from view... so you need to make sure the end furthest from the nose doesn't show up. The eye is a sphere so it will bend downwards and if you notice on the picture, the brow looks slightly different, similar type of thing. I hope I am explaining this enough... *dies*

12 - that line that goes from the top of the lid to the brow is actually your eyelid and it is leading from your cheek to your forehead.

13 - Have some fun with the details on the other eye, each eye is different, there are different wrinkles and highlights and such. If you look close enough, you will see spots and creases inside the color part of your eyes... it is from all the years of your emotions. Babies have virtually clear eyes, they haven't learned to constrict their pupils or dilate them yet.

14 - Now, I said this was a eye tutorial, but I think the bridge of the nose has a lot to do with the eyes in that the nose, when you look at a 3/4 view, you see it connects perfectly with the center part of your eye brow.

14 b - see, it doesn't really connect, but it can be used as a reference when you are sketching this out

15 - Now, I didn't really look at my middle line too well, and I had to raise it up. When you are doing anything in the computer, make as many things on different layers as you can... I work in Photoshop and if something is looking like it is going to be a lotta detail work and I don't think I can get it done right on the first try, I make a different layer. If you are doing this by hand, then my advice is to pencil as lightly as possible and have an eraser that is small enough to get around details without erasing stuff you want to keep. When you ink, try to ink with your pencil first, make slightly darker marks to see if you can trace over your lines the way you wanted to.

ALSO, keep movements loose... don't try to be ridgid, and when something doesn't look right, keep working on it, I sketch several different times before I come up with what I want. I hate 90% of my stuff and don't show off my sketches. But, doodle for yourself and when you have the confidence, show what you want. Something I tried when I was younger, I used pens to sketch... like ball point pens... they give your mind a sense of "this is just to play around with" and you can come up with brilliant ideas!

I can't think of anything else to say, ask questions and I will try to elaborate or just plain answer your questions.

Description
Here is a tutorial on just the basics of how to draw, as promised to .

This is part 1: face layout and Eyes.

I didn't realize how hard it is to make a tutorial. I am going to do this is parts, I got the eyes done and thought that was a good place to start.

Ok... so I numbered the pictures so you can use that for reference. I am gonna go over each separately.

~**~**~**~**~**~

1 - Make a circle, it is your refence to make sure you're not making the picture lopsided, I am drawing a woman, I just tend to lean in that direction all the time... anyways. It doesn't need to be pretty, hell, it is good practice to make a circle or an oval shape. Some artists make a proper circle and build off it, but I have always been partial to an oval like shape, to see the face in my mind.

2 - Put a line through half of that circle (or oval) and then one down the center (long ways) and you will have quartered the face, the center is normally where the nose extends from the face and meets the eyes.

3 - Put a line through the lower part, around the halfway point, that is where the nose will end, then one more below that, putting it in the middle and that is where the mouth will go.

4 - the "V" is how long the neck is... this is only guidelines right now, nothing fleshed out, then you see the other lines will be the shoulders. - I think I will do the nose, mouth and neck lines next time.

5 - Make two circles, on both halves of the face (try to keep them about the same, the distance should be about the same as one of the circles. Look at your own face, you will that if you measure your eye, it will roughly be the same space between your other eye.) the reason for the circles, at least at first is that the top of the circle is going to be the eye brows and the bottom is the bottom eye lid.

6 - The top eye lid, make it bend over like you were putting a string across a little ball. Pretty simple...

7 - Do the same for the bottom eye lid. Lashes - there are different styles. You could make them one solid lash, or make them little individual lashes, or like mine, they look small and slightly separated, for men, I make them one solid lash, but that is just so people can tell the difference in my men and women, but that's the beauty of art, it can be whatever you want it to be.

8 - Eye brow - we have draw a line that arches, not stretches over the ball... because a skull has those holes for your eyes, so the skin is draped down for your lids, the brows run along the top of those holes. Run your hand along your skull and you will feel the curve, the best thing for me, as an artist, that I did was looked into the mirror and used myself as reference... I put a lot of myself into my art still to this day.

8b - there are different types of eye brows, there is the thin, manicured brow...

8c - there are several different thicknesses some get pretty bushy, not just men, but some women too.

8d - then there is the uni-brow, no real reason I drew this besides the fact that I never had a reason to draw one before and it is rather fun... hehehehe

9 - Ok... moving on. The eye ball itself. I draw the colored part of the eye, I line it up with the direction I want the person to be looking, note: if you draw one eye slightly off to the side, you must match that with the other eye, try to make the other eye a little more in that direction, look at another person for this - see how when that person looks to the right with one eye, the other tries to see, but has to look further... I hope that makes sense. Then I put the black part of the eye down, it tends to be partially covered by the top eye lid, it changed with different emotion, try looking in the mirror and try to see what your eyes look like when you make different expressions.

10 - This is deffinatly where you look into the mirror, the details for eyes are that there is always a shine from whatever light source (light source is the direction of the light). If the light is coming from the right, the shine will be on the right, if the light is coming from the left, the shine will be on the left, etc. OH! Then there is the eye lid, your lids are long enough to cover your eyes even when your eyes are extended high, so you will see a definite crease of your eye lid when it is open normally, the crease changes with different expressions.

11 - Now, the other eye, if you have your character facing forward, the eyes need to look the same, generally. One of the reasons I do 3/4 view (and what I am using for my tutorial is a 3/4 view) is that the eyes don't need to look EXACTLY alike. Your face is round, so, when you look at a 3/4 view, you see that part of your eye disappears from view... so you need to make sure the end furthest from the nose doesn't show up. The eye is a sphere so it will bend downwards and if you notice on the picture, the brow looks slightly different, similar type of thing. I hope I am explaining this enough... *dies*

12 - that line that goes from the top of the lid to the brow is actually your eyelid and it is leading from your cheek to your forehead.

13 - Have some fun with the details on the other eye, each eye is different, there are different wrinkles and highlights and such. If you look close enough, you will see spots and creases inside the color part of your eyes... it is from all the years of your emotions. Babies have virtually clear eyes, they haven't learned to constrict their pupils or dilate them yet.

14 - Now, I said this was a eye tutorial, but I think the bridge of the nose has a lot to do with the eyes in that the nose, when you look at a 3/4 view, you see it connects perfectly with the center part of your eye brow.

14 b - see, it doesn't really connect, but it can be used as a reference when you are sketching this out

15 - Now, I didn't really look at my middle line too well, and I had to raise it up. When you are doing anything in the computer, make as many things on different layers as you can... I work in Photoshop and if something is looking like it is going to be a lotta detail work and I don't think I can get it done right on the first try, I make a different layer. If you are doing this by hand, then my advice is to pencil as lightly as possible and have an eraser that is small enough to get around details without erasing stuff you want to keep. When you ink, try to ink with your pencil first, make slightly darker marks to see if you can trace over your lines the way you wanted to.

ALSO, keep movements loose... don't try to be ridgid, and when something doesn't look right, keep working on it, I sketch several different times before I come up with what I want. I hate 90% of my stuff and don't show off my sketches. But, doodle for yourself and when you have the confidence, show what you want. Something I tried when I was younger, I used pens to sketch... like ball point pens... they give your mind a sense of "this is just to play around with" and you can come up with brilliant ideas!

I can't think of anything else to say, ask questions and I will try to elaborate or just plain answer your questions.