Many artists, when first learning how to draw, use head to body radios in order to determine how tall they will be making their character be. The chibi style uses a ratio of 1:2, 1:3, or 1:4. That means that a character with a ratio of 1:3 will have a body that is three heads long. To determine how tall the character will be, all the artist has to do is determine the approximate size of the head and then create a circle, which should be duplicated and stacked, one on top of the other. Then you just have to figure out how to draw the rest.

For this how to draw guide, I will use the 1:5 ratio. This is not a good ratio for drawing chibi but rather for drawing an adolescent or short adult. The following character will be drawn.

After that, I’ll be covering how all the other different ratios can be used. Of course, she doesn’t exactly have a 1:5 ratio, but when I originally drew her with a perfect 1:5 ratio, she looked really weird.

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Tags: artist, cartoon, cartooning, chibi, circles, Eyes, face, features, forehead, hair, Nose, Noses, strands

Digital art is art created using a computer. Back when I was around 7 or so, I remember first learning how to draw using Microsoft Paint. The free program takes forever to draw anything and is extremely limited with its features. In contrast, programs like Photoshop CS4 can create nearly perfect lines, blend together pixels realistically, fade several images together and distort an image in thousands of different ways. However, programs like Photoshop CS4 come at a price that almost reaches four digits. You can also use less expensive programs like Corel Paint and Photoshop Elements, which are just as useful but lack many of the nice features found in Photoshop CS4. But luckily, some really nice programmers have taken it upon themselves to create free versions of the expensive Photoshop programs. Both these programs I used for years before I finally broke down and bought Photoshop. Also, these programs are 100% spyware free (as long as you download them from the links I provide).

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Tags: Alex, Art, artist, Artists, brush, brushes, computers, digital, digitally, draw, drawing, Drawings, edit, Expensive, features, gimp, image, lines, links, Love, Money, paint, Painting, Paintings, Photoshop, photoshopped, realistic, tools, Work

Adobe Photoshop is loaded with brushes. Oftentimes, the quality of your lines and your artwork depends on the brush you use. Because of that, before you even get started drawing your first picture, you should experiment with brushes to find the brush that will be perfect for whatever you’re trying to draw. I’m going to go through each distinct brush type for each brush category, experimenting with the brushes and hopefully figuring out what each different brush can be used for.

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Tags: Alex, animal, anime, artist, Artists, brush, brushes, circles, draw, drawing, Drawings, eye, Eyes, figure, lines, paint, Painting, Paintings, Photoshop, photoshopped, picture, pound, side, Star, strokes, tips, tools, Travel, tricks, Work

Arms can be some of the most pain-in-the butt parts that you can ever learn how to draw. The way the arm flexes, twists, stretches and raises can really drive an artist crazy. There are so many ways that an arm can position itself that I’d be insane to try to cover all arm positions in one tutorial. So in this drawing tutorial, I’m hitting arms that are mostly straight and downwards. Whew, here goes. Click to read more …

Tags: Alex, Art, artist, Artists, character, characters, draw, drawing, Drawings, drew, face, figure, lines, side, Travel, Tutorial, Tutorials, view, Work, write, Writing

Hello everyone, Marisol and Alex here! How is everyone doing today? I think Alex and I are doing alright, we’ve just been really busy. Now, I’m sure you guys are reading this saying “huh? Alex and Marisol?” Yep, we’re both posting under the same blog today. Why, you may ask? Well, I will tell you.
A few weeks ago (it may have been a few months ago, I’m no longer sure), Alex and I devised a plan about how we can create a joint post. I came up with an analysis post where he and I look at one picture and we each come up with our own interpretations of the image. This is a bit of an experiment on the male and female perspectives of art, if there is such a thing, that is. Today, Alex and I will be analyzing  “Unrequited Love” by Deviant Art’s Elfdaughter (Averil White, who is also a new contributor to Sketching House, so please give her a warm welcome. Ms. White comes to us from the United Kingdom). So, without further ado, let the analysis begin! Click to read more …

Tags: Art Tutorial, artist, Averil White, blind art, blindness, color analysis, creating textures in art, darkness, Deviant Art Altura-Tears, Deviant Art Artists, Deviant Art Culturalrider, Deviant Art ElfDaughter, Disney, Disney's Cinderella, drawing textures, drawing tutorial, Dreams, Elfdaughter, emotive portraits, How to Analyze a Portrait, Perspective, Photo Analysis, princess crowns, royalty, Strathmore Drawing paper, tutorial for art, unrequited love, weddings, whiteness

I’m back

Where was I? Working, school and being lazy. I’m sorry! I know, it’s been awhile. Marisol and I were trying to get an apartment but we ended up working so hard that everything started to suffer. From now on I’m going to stick with contributing to our tutorial art gallery.

Anyway, here’s another art drawing tutorial on nothing specific in particular. This tutorial focuses on drawing face art, rather than body art, giving explanations on how to draw out each part. I added advanced sections, even though they’re not really that much more advanced. They’re really just extra things you can look out for when you’re trying to go the extra mile with your art lessons. Click to read more …

Tags: anime, Art, artist, Artists, bangs, cartoon, cartooning, coloring, colors, draw, drawing, Drawings, drew, emotions, eye, Eyes, face, hair, personality, tablet, Tutorial, Tutorials

I took a shot at drawing a character for a story I’ve been working on for awhile (months, years)? This isn’t really a tutorial but a record of the steps I took to draw her. This character is not done at all and she’s getting more folds and shading. I need to decide if I want to do cell shading again or try a harder type of shading.

I’m not even sure who this character will be but she’s temporarily named Angora. I might not even use her since I don’t hold on to characters unless they feel right. Maybe she needs some redesigning. Click to read more …

Tags: Alex, angle, artist, Artists, Blogs, blue, cartoon, cartooning, character, characters, clothes, clothing, Color, coloring, colors, dark, draw, drawing, drew, eye, Eyes, face, features, hair, lines, Lips, Love, manga, Marisol, Night, Nose, Noses, Plugs, proportion, proportions, real, Saw, school, shades, shading, side, sketch, sketching, Tutorial, Tutorials, Work, write, Writing

Hmm, we haven’t had an art tutorial in awhile…

I’ve been working on a picture of four women. They’re all walking towards the point-of-view, which of course means that the ones closer to the camera must be larger than the ones farther away. I want this to look as proportionate as possible, so pow! I whipped out the sliding dummy.

You might be thinking “argh! Sliding dummies? What are you talking about?”

The sliding dummy is a nice tool that removes some of the pain of giving a character the right size in proportion to other characters on the page and the point-of-view (which is basically the lens of the imaginary camera that photographs the picture). When characters are walking in different directions, the sliding dummy makes it easier for the artist to figure out where the heads and bodies are supposed to go. If you are first learning how to use this awesome technique, I recommend you first draw a scene that has a back wall. Maybe its just me, but I find everything easier to visualize when there’s a flat wall to place the imaginary dummy up against. I have a picture that I might as well make an indoor picture. You can start with a character or a background first when drawing, but I mostly prefer a character because that’s usually the most important part of the picture for me. Click to read more …

Tags: Art, artist, drawing, figure, illustration, Perspective, proportion, Tutorial

The next natural drawing tutorial is “How to Draw Medium Hair.” Short hair stays on the top of the head and sometimes throws a party, except when a comb comes to crash it. Medium hair often covers the ears, or extends down part of the neck. That includes my favorite hairstyle, the one that is made up of curved triangles and wraps around the character’s head, making it look really round. Its a common hairstyle in Japan both among men and women.
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Tags: anime, Art, artist, bangs, cartoon, cartoon drawing, curly, draw, drawing tutorial, face, hair, hairbrush, hairstyle, how to draw cartoons, manga, Pencils, sketch, sketching, strands, Tutorial

Since Alex wrote about HOW to get started with the drawing process (“Free-Sketching”), I will write about the tools needed to get started, since, as we all know, the days of the rock and slate are gone (unless that’s how you roll, I’m sorry for making assumptions). So what are the tools necessary for drawing? Click to read more …

Tags: Art, artist, chalkboard, draw, drawing, dry erase board, notebook paper, pad, pastels, pencil, sketch, sketching, tools