HOME | DD

Description
Even shorter then the original tutorial! XD I made this pretty fast in response to Jaii-Chann's drawing based on my chibi tutorial (which can be seen here: [link] ). Rather then just try to explain how to fix parts of the anatomy I figured it would be better to show how. Now for the explaining part~

- Part 1
The original picture. I marked problem areas in red. The first thing that struck me when I saw the picture was the torso. Which way is it facing exactly? It almost looks as if her upper body is sideways and her lower body is at an angle - which isn't impossible, but it's not really a comfortable pose. Her right arm (your left) is also too long if this is the case. The wrist on her right arm also has an unnatural kink in it, as if it were broken. Her left arm suffers from poor perspective, mainly due to the line of the glove she's wearing. If the line were curved along the arm it would have looked more natural.
Going down to her leg, her right knee seems to bend backward like a birds! Her feet are also curved strangely.
Also, her pigtails aren't level. It's really not a bad drawing - it merely needs some adjustments.

- Part 2
Here I drew red lines on the drawing, trying to shape the anatomy of it. Now that these lines are in plain view, you can see where exactly things went wrong and what needs correction.

- Part 3 and 4
In part 3 I took the anatomy lines and tweaked them, fixing the proportions of the character where needed. I fixed and smoothed out the torso and spread the legs a bit to give her better balance in her stance. I changed the arms position since the original positions didn't quite suit her. Since she seems to be a ninja of some kind, it doesn't make too much sense to have her holding the shurikens so tightly like swords, so I made it so that she holds them more gingerly - as if she's a master of them.

- Part 5
Using the fixed anatomy I drew the hair and clothes on her. I gave the hair around her head more volume and fluff, since the hair in her pigtails is curly and fluffy - if you draw hair so close to the scalp it ends up looking stiff and wet, or even oily. The curls in her hair were drawn with more variation to make them look more natural. Since it's a chibi, or super-deformed character, there's no need to go into great detail, so no curls were added inside the lines of the hair. The ties and sizes of the pigtails were drawn carefully so that they were even on each side. I put some lines on the hair ties to make them stand out more.
The clothes were simple enough. The lines on her bust help emphasize that she has a bust (it's a popular mistake to simply draw the curvature of the breasts as if the clothes were painted on). The belt-looking part is curved to follow her body lines, but it's also drawn evenly. I wasn't sure if she had bare feet or not, so instead I gave her tabi socks since she's so ninja-like.
Lastly I drew the shurikens. I gave her two in her right hand because I felt it looked more natural to have more then one in each hand.

- Part 6
Finally I erased the under lines and added black and shadows. I used the shadows to emphasize certain areas, like her hair, face, and bust. And that's it!

I hope this tiny tutorial helps you understand how to balance things out when drawing. The most important thing when drawing, I think, is to use your eyes. Really look at your drawing and train your eyes to look for inconsistencies and unevenness. If need be, walk away from your drawing for awhile and come back - it's easy to get used to looking at something for so long and ignore the flaws.
As long as you try your best there is no such thing as failure! Just keep trying until you're satisfied - then keep going!

The character used in this tutorial belongs to Jaii-Chann ~Jaii-Chann , so please don't use this without permission.

If Jaii-Chann wants this removed I will gladly comply. I just thought I'd throw it out there.

Description
Even shorter then the original tutorial! XD I made this pretty fast in response to Jaii-Chann's drawing based on my chibi tutorial (which can be seen here: [link] ). Rather then just try to explain how to fix parts of the anatomy I figured it would be better to show how. Now for the explaining part~

- Part 1
The original picture. I marked problem areas in red. The first thing that struck me when I saw the picture was the torso. Which way is it facing exactly? It almost looks as if her upper body is sideways and her lower body is at an angle - which isn't impossible, but it's not really a comfortable pose. Her right arm (your left) is also too long if this is the case. The wrist on her right arm also has an unnatural kink in it, as if it were broken. Her left arm suffers from poor perspective, mainly due to the line of the glove she's wearing. If the line were curved along the arm it would have looked more natural.
Going down to her leg, her right knee seems to bend backward like a birds! Her feet are also curved strangely.
Also, her pigtails aren't level. It's really not a bad drawing - it merely needs some adjustments.

- Part 2
Here I drew red lines on the drawing, trying to shape the anatomy of it. Now that these lines are in plain view, you can see where exactly things went wrong and what needs correction.

- Part 3 and 4
In part 3 I took the anatomy lines and tweaked them, fixing the proportions of the character where needed. I fixed and smoothed out the torso and spread the legs a bit to give her better balance in her stance. I changed the arms position since the original positions didn't quite suit her. Since she seems to be a ninja of some kind, it doesn't make too much sense to have her holding the shurikens so tightly like swords, so I made it so that she holds them more gingerly - as if she's a master of them.

- Part 5
Using the fixed anatomy I drew the hair and clothes on her. I gave the hair around her head more volume and fluff, since the hair in her pigtails is curly and fluffy - if you draw hair so close to the scalp it ends up looking stiff and wet, or even oily. The curls in her hair were drawn with more variation to make them look more natural. Since it's a chibi, or super-deformed character, there's no need to go into great detail, so no curls were added inside the lines of the hair. The ties and sizes of the pigtails were drawn carefully so that they were even on each side. I put some lines on the hair ties to make them stand out more.
The clothes were simple enough. The lines on her bust help emphasize that she has a bust (it's a popular mistake to simply draw the curvature of the breasts as if the clothes were painted on). The belt-looking part is curved to follow her body lines, but it's also drawn evenly. I wasn't sure if she had bare feet or not, so instead I gave her tabi socks since she's so ninja-like.
Lastly I drew the shurikens. I gave her two in her right hand because I felt it looked more natural to have more then one in each hand.

- Part 6
Finally I erased the under lines and added black and shadows. I used the shadows to emphasize certain areas, like her hair, face, and bust. And that's it!

I hope this tiny tutorial helps you understand how to balance things out when drawing. The most important thing when drawing, I think, is to use your eyes. Really look at your drawing and train your eyes to look for inconsistencies and unevenness. If need be, walk away from your drawing for awhile and come back - it's easy to get used to looking at something for so long and ignore the flaws.
As long as you try your best there is no such thing as failure! Just keep trying until you're satisfied - then keep going!

The character used in this tutorial belongs to Jaii-Chann ~Jaii-Chann , so please don't use this without permission.

If Jaii-Chann wants this removed I will gladly comply. I just thought I'd throw it out there.