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Description

Yay, another practice sheet. I learned how to make characters indicate their emotions without having to outright say they are.

What's really neat about this one is the fact that I not only developed my own head-drawing technique and how to illustrate expressions, but I did it completely unassisted! That's right, no online tutorials, no help from my friends, and I only used my own thought processes! For something developed completely on my own, the results are pleasing. I would've expected things to go horribly wrong, or come off as lackluster, but man did I surprise even myself this round. Admittedly, it was a tiny bit difficult to actually get to the drawing, but once I got there, things kicked off.

Now, I worked on this in roughly the same way I do with the other practice/learning pages; starting from the bottom left and working my way to the right. That's why you can see the improvement moving to the left, instead of the more orthodox left-to-right. The reason behind the right-to-left is, well... I'm left handed. Clearly some important information, I know, but I figured I would explain why these pages are formatted the way they are. Also, I've kinda taken to doing tiny sketches of completely unrelated things, normally trains, but I also included a starship in this one-which might become the subject of my soon-to-be Blender projects.

So, I started in the bottom left and worked in a zigzag pattern, gradually working left-ward as I went along. Initially, I wanted to draw exclusively snarling dogs-still in the vein of drawing expressions-and I decided to start off with drawing a full-body sketch of a rather dashingly dressed, and frankly overbearingly-posh character that could serve as a starting point. Obviously, I didn't get farther than the base skeleton and clothing outline when I realized that the idea wouldn't work. After that, I wanted to draw more than snarling dogs, so I started with attempting to draw a wolf-looking-thing to the left of it in an attempt to start off smiling and have a complimentary frowning face above it. That didn't work out well either, but I wasn't too discouraged by it. Above that, I tried the same thing, but from a front-on view, with similar results in terms of quality. Above that, taking up most of the space in the upper right corner, I tried to do a sort of transition, working through slightly different expressions and simultaneously trying to tell a very brief story that would be more befitting of some other place.

The results of the experiment in the upper-right corner are a little better, after all, they do sufficiently display the decay of the unnamed character's mental breakdown upon the realization that he's simply a disappointment no matter how hard he tries to be successful. Totally not derived from a certain somebody I know However, I still got slightly inconsistent with the overall shape of the head, and a lot of the individual head sketches look vaguely the same. I figured I'd take a brief break, so I drew a basic explosion with lots of shadow-casting and such, derived from the scene and phrase from Monty Python; "And now for something completely different." Below that, I somehow thought up my own, improved way of drawing animal heads, which, while rough, turned out pretty good. I basically filed this newly developed technique away into the annals of my memory.

Left of that, I started a section called, if you struggle to read my cursive, "Where's your War-Face?", obviously derived from a scene in Full Metal Jacket (which, by the way, I've never seen and I have no intention of changing that). Attempting the 2-D thing from the front again, and ultimately stumbling on the same pitfalls as the experiment in the top-right. It wasn't until I did the last face at the bottom of that section, with changing the shape and position of more than just eyebrows and mouth-curve, that it looked starkly different. Of course, that led me to question why the last face, at the bottom of the section, was arguably the best out of the four faces there. But that also led to the realization that moving more than just eyebrows really works well.

Just as another experiment, as I realized just how easy it would be to do expressions on a Protogen character, I first drew the basic emoticon, and then drew the Protogen head with the expression. And unsurprisingly, it was just that easy. And the four Protogen heads were done in the following order; ^_^ X_X ? and >: ( .

Following the Protogen experiment, I had run aground, with the idea-well running dry, worsened by what happened . But, that gave me the excellent idea; why not draw myself expressing the emotions I felt for the duration of that harrowing time. I'd say that looks pretty good, but for whatever incomprehensible reason, I decided to go over the outline with a pen like I normally would on a regular, full-size illustration. Under that, because amazingly, I managed to bounce back from that weekend, I drew my character being absolutely exhilarated and singing about the hills being alive with music. I kinda messed up with the arms, but I was okay with that, "it's only a sketch and it's a learning experience." Under that, I drew my character with a pompous expression (my general reaction to things I deem unnecessary). Again, I managed to slightly mess up with the proportions and arm sizes, but I repeated the same reason above; "it's only a sketch [...]". Still, nailed what I was trying to show. After that, I once more temporarily ran dry on ideas, so I decided to take a break and draw something inorganic, which resulted in that starship launching a remote drone. I'm fairly sure that starship will be incorporated into my efforts of making things in Blender.

Above, left of the starship, I drew my character with a more dynamic, but less exaggerated pose. I also used the shirt I was wearing that day as a reference because I didn't want to draw myself exclusively in a drab jacket with shirt. By far the most proportionally correct out of all of them, even including the wrinkles and folds in the cloth, this drawing, and the one above it are by far my favorites to be produced on this page. Speaking of the one above, I figured I'd go a similar route, but in a more work/leisure setting; pointing from a countertop whilst wearing office-grade button-up shirt and undersized-tie. Also one of the best to be made here in this learning experience. Now, the drawing above that one is a little less impressive, but I still got the expression, gesture, and general idea down right. The last drawing, made in the top left corner, was not only the last drawing on this page, but the one that proved to be a dud, which I'm fine with, because this was a learning experience and I wasn't going to lose my joy-streak to a minor dud on a page that was expected to be filled with duds.

I'll admit, I am darn proud of what I did on this page alone. The fact that it was all developed from my mind alone, with no outside input from internet friends or YouTube tutorials, and almost no emotional drag from not having ideas on how to continue. That's impressive to me, just the independence of everything in this particular thing, at least with how I made it. I even learned things that I didn't expect to learn while doing this. It's funny that after that preliminary sketch of the dapper dog, I almost completely scrapped this thing, but I decided that the skills learned, and the fact that it didn't have a timeline would be great-which they were by the way.

Real good work this is.

Description

Yay, another practice sheet. I learned how to make characters indicate their emotions without having to outright say they are.

What's really neat about this one is the fact that I not only developed my own head-drawing technique and how to illustrate expressions, but I did it completely unassisted! That's right, no online tutorials, no help from my friends, and I only used my own thought processes! For something developed completely on my own, the results are pleasing. I would've expected things to go horribly wrong, or come off as lackluster, but man did I surprise even myself this round. Admittedly, it was a tiny bit difficult to actually get to the drawing, but once I got there, things kicked off.

Now, I worked on this in roughly the same way I do with the other practice/learning pages; starting from the bottom left and working my way to the right. That's why you can see the improvement moving to the left, instead of the more orthodox left-to-right. The reason behind the right-to-left is, well... I'm left handed. Clearly some important information, I know, but I figured I would explain why these pages are formatted the way they are. Also, I've kinda taken to doing tiny sketches of completely unrelated things, normally trains, but I also included a starship in this one-which might become the subject of my soon-to-be Blender projects.

So, I started in the bottom left and worked in a zigzag pattern, gradually working left-ward as I went along. Initially, I wanted to draw exclusively snarling dogs-still in the vein of drawing expressions-and I decided to start off with drawing a full-body sketch of a rather dashingly dressed, and frankly overbearingly-posh character that could serve as a starting point. Obviously, I didn't get farther than the base skeleton and clothing outline when I realized that the idea wouldn't work. After that, I wanted to draw more than snarling dogs, so I started with attempting to draw a wolf-looking-thing to the left of it in an attempt to start off smiling and have a complimentary frowning face above it. That didn't work out well either, but I wasn't too discouraged by it. Above that, I tried the same thing, but from a front-on view, with similar results in terms of quality. Above that, taking up most of the space in the upper right corner, I tried to do a sort of transition, working through slightly different expressions and simultaneously trying to tell a very brief story that would be more befitting of some other place.

The results of the experiment in the upper-right corner are a little better, after all, they do sufficiently display the decay of the unnamed character's mental breakdown upon the realization that he's simply a disappointment no matter how hard he tries to be successful. Totally not derived from a certain somebody I know However, I still got slightly inconsistent with the overall shape of the head, and a lot of the individual head sketches look vaguely the same. I figured I'd take a brief break, so I drew a basic explosion with lots of shadow-casting and such, derived from the scene and phrase from Monty Python; "And now for something completely different." Below that, I somehow thought up my own, improved way of drawing animal heads, which, while rough, turned out pretty good. I basically filed this newly developed technique away into the annals of my memory.

Left of that, I started a section called, if you struggle to read my cursive, "Where's your War-Face?", obviously derived from a scene in Full Metal Jacket (which, by the way, I've never seen and I have no intention of changing that). Attempting the 2-D thing from the front again, and ultimately stumbling on the same pitfalls as the experiment in the top-right. It wasn't until I did the last face at the bottom of that section, with changing the shape and position of more than just eyebrows and mouth-curve, that it looked starkly different. Of course, that led me to question why the last face, at the bottom of the section, was arguably the best out of the four faces there. But that also led to the realization that moving more than just eyebrows really works well.

Just as another experiment, as I realized just how easy it would be to do expressions on a Protogen character, I first drew the basic emoticon, and then drew the Protogen head with the expression. And unsurprisingly, it was just that easy. And the four Protogen heads were done in the following order; ^_^ X_X ? and >: ( .

Following the Protogen experiment, I had run aground, with the idea-well running dry, worsened by what happened . But, that gave me the excellent idea; why not draw myself expressing the emotions I felt for the duration of that harrowing time. I'd say that looks pretty good, but for whatever incomprehensible reason, I decided to go over the outline with a pen like I normally would on a regular, full-size illustration. Under that, because amazingly, I managed to bounce back from that weekend, I drew my character being absolutely exhilarated and singing about the hills being alive with music. I kinda messed up with the arms, but I was okay with that, "it's only a sketch and it's a learning experience." Under that, I drew my character with a pompous expression (my general reaction to things I deem unnecessary). Again, I managed to slightly mess up with the proportions and arm sizes, but I repeated the same reason above; "it's only a sketch [...]". Still, nailed what I was trying to show. After that, I once more temporarily ran dry on ideas, so I decided to take a break and draw something inorganic, which resulted in that starship launching a remote drone. I'm fairly sure that starship will be incorporated into my efforts of making things in Blender.

Above, left of the starship, I drew my character with a more dynamic, but less exaggerated pose. I also used the shirt I was wearing that day as a reference because I didn't want to draw myself exclusively in a drab jacket with shirt. By far the most proportionally correct out of all of them, even including the wrinkles and folds in the cloth, this drawing, and the one above it are by far my favorites to be produced on this page. Speaking of the one above, I figured I'd go a similar route, but in a more work/leisure setting; pointing from a countertop whilst wearing office-grade button-up shirt and undersized-tie. Also one of the best to be made here in this learning experience. Now, the drawing above that one is a little less impressive, but I still got the expression, gesture, and general idea down right. The last drawing, made in the top left corner, was not only the last drawing on this page, but the one that proved to be a dud, which I'm fine with, because this was a learning experience and I wasn't going to lose my joy-streak to a minor dud on a page that was expected to be filled with duds.

I'll admit, I am darn proud of what I did on this page alone. The fact that it was all developed from my mind alone, with no outside input from internet friends or YouTube tutorials, and almost no emotional drag from not having ideas on how to continue. That's impressive to me, just the independence of everything in this particular thing, at least with how I made it. I even learned things that I didn't expect to learn while doing this. It's funny that after that preliminary sketch of the dapper dog, I almost completely scrapped this thing, but I decided that the skills learned, and the fact that it didn't have a timeline would be great-which they were by the way.

Real good work this is.