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tigrin — Drawing with Sincerity
Published: 2005-11-16 09:30:58 +0000 UTC; Views: 30284; Favourites: 881; Downloads: 10139
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Description
So I'm home sick for a few days with practically every kick in the mental and physical system possible. I dedicated today to taking antibiotics and writing up this tutorial, as I promised I would at some point. Really this is more of an essay than a tutorial, so be prepared to read a lot of text.Summary: This tutorial details how to make characters more believable through observation and careful study of the character being portrayed. This tutorial covers topics such as how to see, what to consider when creating emotion in your characters, and what to consider when using body language to communicate emotion.
This tutorial is not a how to. I am not trying to tell you how to draw every emotion out there. The emphasis of this tutorial is applying YOUR OWN way of seeing the world and how you experience a character to your art. I'm just explaining what I take into consideration when I draw my characters, and what I think about when drawing their emotions. My approach is highly inspired by Glen Keane (my animation god), so I've included an excerpt and some of his drawings to illustrate my point. Though i approach this largely from a sort of animator-y standpoint, this can be applied to any kind of creative work that involves characters.
Further Readings/Works Cited:
Glen Keane Gallery - Part of Aimee Major's site, where quite a few of the sketches came from.
Interview with Glen Keane - the interview (also from Aimee's site) where the excerpt is from
Treasure Planet: A Voyage of Discovery - where I scanned Glen's Treasure Planet sketches from. This is an incredible book in general if you have any interest in animation and characterization. There are a ton of articles and artwork in this book about the characters, and it's amazing and inspiring what the artists put into them.
The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expressions - Haven't read this one myself, but I've looked through it. Has a lot of examples of how subtle changes can make a huge difference in what a facial expression is suggesting. very detailed.
The Nonverbal Dictionary of Gestures, Signs, and Body Language Cues - rather interesting site I stumbled upon today through a google search... has quite an extensive number of entries on different body language cues, as well as differences in cultures and media references. kind of weird, but an interesting resource.
err yeah. about it. hopefully someone finds this interesting at least.
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Comments: 123
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. <3
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No problem, glad you enjoyed it.
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Wow, I haven't seen such a good tutorial on expressions yet, It'll help out animating 3D! Thank you (yet again)!
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Thanks very much for posting this!
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Thank you for making this 'tutorial' and posting those helpful links
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I've been doing an intense study of animation in prep for my firsty major project and this is really quite helpful. The way you presented the ideas of character portrayal and artistic representation is excellent. I am gonna 
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I'm faving this now so I can read it properly later.
Thank you very much for explaining this in such simple terms
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Wow, I can tell you put alot of hard work into this. <3
It's wonderful, and I'm certainly learned alot from it.
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I just had to say that this was really helpful, more helpful than any other tutorial I've ever read. So thank you so much for taking the time to put it together and really getting to the heart of what drawing is more than just what a style or your style is.
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Thank you so much for this! 
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Wow, Tigrin. This is absolutely the most insightful drawing tutorial I've ever come across. I can tell from the work you do, you do draw with absolute sincerity and looseness. Specifically the Vampiress and Silence pictures. For years, I've struggled with expressions in all my artistic career, but when I stumbled upon this I enjoyed every single bit of it and is by far the most interesting read I've come across.
I shall continue studying this wonderful information to suck less. XD
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Glen Keane and Chris Sanders have been my two animation idols for years. (Sanders is the one whose story and style they used to make Lilo and Stitch). I still have some of Keane's children's books from when I was little. They are both incredible artists.
Kudos to you for taking the time to create a tutorial for others to learn from.
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Wow this is really helpful (though I haven't read it all yet, lol)!! Thanks for writing all this out!! I'll read it all sometime later.
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You have absolutely NO IDEA how much I needed to read this....it has already helped a lot. Thank you so much for taking the time to come up with a tutorial like this. It is well worth it. =^.^=
~Yuni
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That was a very interesting tutorial to read. Thank you for sharing these ideas! I will try to incorporate them into my work and hopefully they'll help me out a bit. Thank you! ^^
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Very insightful, was just the thing I needed to read tonight
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It's good to know my theories were on the right track. I'm glad to see that the ideals I try in my work are what the big boys do. This brings renewed confidence in my work! Redouble effort! HAAAAAAAAAAA!
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This is a wonderful (and wonderfully illustrated) approach to a subject that is not easy to convey to a beginner. It should be an introduction before even teaching anatomy and such. Well done
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wow. Seriously, this is such an awsome tutorial. In my opinion communication is the most important part of art and in so many cases that's lost in 'other' aspects of drawing, but i've never seen anyone who's addressed it head on- points for you! Especially loved the interveiw with Glen, i'm also into theatre so reading what he had to say stuck a very sensitive cord.
laundrys finished.
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wow that is just fantastic of you to do!
the fact that you took time out for this is amazing! thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!
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I just stumbled across you and happened onto this beaut. Tucking away for future reference, and I'll definitely keep these things in mind. Thanks you ^__^
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thank you! this is one of the easiest (?) tutorials to understand. it goes in to perfect detail, but not so much that i got board. it was clear and easy to read. thanks for a great tutorial. i have benifeted from this greatly.
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Wow. I'm really gonna benefit from this, I think.
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This is an amazing AND very unique tutorial -- like I think someone else said, it's more helpful than a step-by-step, since it really gets you THINKING in a particular way. Thanks so much for putting something like this together and saying it all in such an articulate way.
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It's nice to see what goes through an artists head. I guess I've thought about all this before but never applied it.
Great tutorial. :}
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This is one of the most helpful tutorials I ever read. I always think my characters look so emotionless. Now I can try to make them look a bit better. Thanks!
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Wow... Honestly, I think this helped me a lot more than normal tutorials that show you step-by-step stuff. This is very well written. I was easily able to grasp the images you were communicating and apply them to my own drawing habits. Focusing on what goes on behind making a drawing instead of the actual technique was an effective approach. Hopefully this will help be when I'm stuck on expressions. [like I am am at the moment. XD;] Thank you for taking the time to make this, it was very moving. <3
[/fav'd]
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this is such great advice and a wonderful tutorial. i applaud you. and i shall use this. lol
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As someone who is, essentially, just starting to really get into the whole 'animator' state of mind, this has been incredibly helpful. I'm currently desperately trying to inject more personality into my sketches, and indeed, characters. Which, it has to be said, is somewhat more difficult than the majority seem to give credit. Its reassuring that it's evidently not something I should innately 'get', but rather, has to be worked at. All that you've written here will be taken closely into consideration.
Similarly, the references you've provided will no doubt be thoroughly investigated. Treasure Planet ref.s are always a bonus, as the art's so darn pretty to look at in any case.
Just as a quick, slightly off topic comment: I really like the tone of this piece. It wasn't a 'You've got to do do this' or 'This is the way it is'. It seemed far more of a... well, a guide.
Thanks so much. Apologies for the somewhat rambling comment.
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Hey, is that Jim Hawkins near the third paragraph?!
Brilliant ideas, very cute also!
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This is awesome! i am goingto show this to everyone
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This really opened my eyes, thanks! it is awonderful tutorial... art isn't just drawing something material, it is also expressions and feeling! wow. 8D
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Wow. This is a great piece of analyzation. Helps *a lot*.
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This REALLY inspired me! You definately did your job!
I loved reading this, it's well crafted and thorough, and I believe you're right. I should bring my characters to life. Heck, I am the characters. Without me there would be no them. I guess I'll find out more about myself in the process!
Also, I love drawing from what I see. In fact, people every day inspire me. One boy in my class wore the cutest hat, and when I added it onto a character of mine whose design has bugged me for years...it clicked. He looks fantastic. I tweaked him and voila! Finally, I was satisfied.
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Remarkable! xD it has inspired me even more and i feel, no i know that i have improved on my skills thanks to you! this has help me a lot, thank you soo much.
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so well written! the examples are really good...my fave is the drawing of tai!
i love watching people...
...but havent been sketching too much lately...should start again!
thanks for the kick in the butt i should say!
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wow. It's very interesting, some of those things I think I do w/ out even relating it to art, like observing people & things. But putting myself into a characters position, and how the shape of the eye, I never though about it that much, mostly I'm always trying to make my eyes look all sort of bubbly, and only the amount of whiteness did I ever change. But either way I think this was very informative. Thank you :3 I bet it helps a lotta other people as well ;3
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