The tutorial I have today I came up with spontaneously while working on a picture of a tribal character I’m working on. He’s from the prehistory Phillipines, an area that I’ve never heard of a story being written about. Such a fascinating area.

That picture up there shows Snake Island in the Philippines. The completely naturally formed landbridge connecting two islands is shaped like a snake. Click the thumbnail to see how beautiful and clear the water looks. Anyway, I can’t get myself to draw the main protagonist as I see him in my mind.

Anyway, as I was working on trying to draw him a few nights ago, I realized that a lot of people draw the majority of their characters the same way. They’re always standing forward or to the side with their legs straight or slightly bend. But in real life there is a whole range of positions and motions that an individual can do. So I decided that my newest tutorial would be on how to draw a character sitting.

There’s a ton of ways that characters sit, so covering them all in one tutorial would be crazy. So instead, I’m going to focus on how to draw characters sitting in chairs. The way a character looks when sitting in a chair varies depending on how the body is shaped and what the character is wearing, but there is a general shape that the legs take when in a sitting position.

(Click the picture to make it larger).

Side Profile

Start by  drawing a slight vertical line that curves outwards to the right (or left). This will be the character’s butt.

At the bottom of the line you just drew, continue with a very slightly curving line that curves downwards and to the right. This line is part of the character’s butt and thigh.

Continue the line as it travels more and more horizontally, becoming less and less curved. This forms more of the thigh.

Draw a line that attaches to the last line you drew. This line will be drawn vertically and curve slightly outwards. The bottom end of the line will travel to the left (or right).

Here I switched the line I just drew to the line of a pair of pants, but you can keep the original line if you want. Draw a horizontal line that travels to the left and slants slowly upwards. Then have the line curve dramatically upward and to the right, forming the toe of the foot. This will form the bottom and front part of the foot or shoe.

There should be a point where the thigh and the calf intersect. At this point, draw a curving line that travels downwards and to the left. The line will also curve outwards and to the right.

Have the line that you just drew curve outwards to the left (or right). Have this line travel downwards, forming the back part of the other leg.

Continue with the line you just drew, drawing a small bump where the heel should be. From this point, draw a curving line that curves slightly upwards and travels to the left. This line curves slightly upwards because it is forming the arch of the foot.

Draw a line that travels upwards and to the right, curving upwards and to the left. This will form the top part of the other shoe or foot.

Now, switch over to the other foot, drawing the curving horizontal line that makes up the shoe or foot for that part of the body. Have the line curve slightly upward and travel to the right.

Draw a line that curves horizontally and slightly upward. This will form the top part of the other thigh.

Continue this line by drawing a line that travels vertically, curving to the left until the line reaches the ankle, where it then curves to the right. The line finally curves to the left again to meet the lower foot.

Make adjustments to the leg.

That concludes part one of the sitting tutorials. I’ll be covering different positions and different sitting styles. I’ll keep covering this until I’ve run out of sitting styles or until someone emails me at sketchinghouse@gmail.com with a different topic. Just no dirty or degrading requests. I really want to cover how to draw every topic under the sun, but if this bores you to tears, send me an email and I’ll teach other things.

Best wishes,

Alex

Arm #1

This arm is hanging straight at the character’s side in such a way that the palm of the character’s hand would be facing the character. This is an important arm to learn how to draw, since characters commonly hold their arms this way.

Draw a slightly curving line that travels downwards.

Draw another long curving line parallel to the first line you drew. Make this arm less curvy than the other line and have the line travel farther downward than the other line.

From the bottom of the shorter line, draw a more curving line that slants more towards the other line as it travels downwards.

Arm #2

This arm has the palm facing away from the point of view. This is often the way the arm looks when a character is holding on to an object that is between the character’s body and arm.

Draw a curving line that starts off traveling horizontally and starts to curve until it suddenly travels downwards sharply, very far downwards.

In whatever direction that the previous line curved, on the opposite side draw a line that curves in the opposite direction. This line is not as long as the other line.

At the end of the line that you just drew, draw a second similar curving line. This line is the same only longer than the previous line.

Draw a second line that is similar to the line you just drew but which curves in a different direction.

Arm #3

This arm is similar to the arm above, but the hand is swung more towards the center of the character. Otherwise, this isn’t a much more difficult arm to learn how to draw.

Draw a curving line that travels horizontally and then curves suddenly downwards, traveling vertically and slightly curving outwards.

On the other side of the line you just drew, draw a line that curves outwards slightly, mostly traveling vertically.

From where this line ends, draw another curving line that bulges at first and then tapers off gradually.

From where the opposite line ended, draw a line that curves very slightly and then travels somewhat towards the other line that you just drew.

Arm #4

This is the arm of a character who is swinging her arm, raising it, or stretching her arm out to grab someone’s hand. Her arm looks somewhat curved, like a banana. This is a lightly tricker arm to learn how to draw.

Draw one curving line.

Then draw another. Both of these lines will curve in the same way, curving in a somewhat downward and Eastern or Western direction (depending on which arm you’re drawing).

With the line farther away from the character’s body, draw a smaller line that curves in the opposite direction.

Where the last line left off, draw another line that curves in the opposite direction.

Go to the line opposite of the lines you’ve been working on drawing. Draw another curving line that is similar to the first curving line, but have that line curve more towards the other line.

Arm #5

This is the arm of someone who has his elbow by his waist and is raising his forearm without moving his elbow from its position. This arm might be easier to learn how to draw if you look at your arm in the mirror and experiment with different arm positions.

Draw a curve that looks like a hook. Draw a really small curving line that will represent the shoulder. As the line travels downwards, the line will become almost perfectly vertical with a slight curve to it.

Closer to the human body, draw a line that slants slightly upwards towards the body.

Back to the first line you drew. Draw a line that curves sharply upwards and outwards.

Draw a fourth line that curves in the same way as the third line, but tapers and draws closer to the third line.

Arm #6

This is the arm of someone who is holding her skirt, curtsying. This will be last type of straight arm that I can think of that an artist would want to learn how to draw.

Draw a curving line that travels diagonally across the page.

Draw a second line that curves in an opposite direction and is not as curvy as the first line.

Continue the second line, curving it out slightly a second time.

Continue the first line by drawing a really big bulge that tapers off gradually and travels closer and closer to the other line.

Woo! Next arm tutorial, I’ll be hitting bent arms. I dunno if I’ll do that in the next art tutorial, since writing about the same things all the time gets kinda dull. I’ve spent a lot of time working on drawing the human figure, which is really important. But I’m up for a change. Please email art tutorial requests and specifically drawing tutorial requests if there’s anything specific that you want to have an art tutorial on.

Alex

Elderly men do not dominate manga and cartoons, but you can sometimes still find them playing a few important roles. These characters are given extra lines on the face to emphasize wrinkling and the sagging of a face. The elderly face usually has some features that are drawn out more than you would with a younger face. It seems like the older a character is, the more realistic the features are drawn, while the younger the face, the more details you omit. For instance, some young children do not even have mouths drawn. The elderly face can be really complex and the extra angles can end up requiring some really innovative shading. For this drawing tutorial, a more simplistic face is going to be drawn.

Draw a line that curves upwards. This will be a tiny line that represents the corner of the eye. Then draw a second line that travels outwards, curving slightly. Finish with a long, curving line that represents the bottom of the eye. These will be the eyelids.

Draw two curving lines in between the two eyelids. These will represent the irises. Notice how the entire eye isn’t completely shown. Instead, the top and bottom parts of the irises are covered by the eyelids.

Create a duplicate but reversed version of the eye you just drew.

Draw a line that slants downwards and to the left. This line will be beneath the eyes in the middle of the face. Yep, this is the nose. This line will then suddenly travel downwards and to the right, forming a right angle. The corner of this right angle will be rounded.

Draw a broad line that curves only slightly downwards to show a slight smile. This character is meant to be somewhat older, so I put slanting lines in the corners of his mouth that slant downwards.

Between the nose and the mouth, draw two lines that start somewhat near the nose that curve outwards and travel down towards the mouth.

Draw some curving lines beneath the eyes.

Draw two curving lines somewhat beneath the mouth that are small and very curved. Start drawing the jaw. The jaw will be less pointy than usual on this guy, since sagging skin will make his jaw seem wider.

Draw the rest of the head. Have the lines that make up the head slant outwards as they travel upwards. When you’re ready to draw the top of the head, draw a curving line that connects both slanting lines.

Draw the folk’s ears. Draw a curving line that starts at the edge of the head, curves and then travels downwards a long way becoming more straight with a slight curve. Have the line curve at the bottom until it touches the side of the head. As for the inside of the ear, you will probably need a human model
. No matter what, the ear is always drawn with curving lines near the edge of the ear within the ear. What’s tricky to draw is the opening of the ear canal near the ear lobe.

Draw the hair however you’d like, though it’s a bad idea to draw every individual strand.

Alex

Start by drawing a curving line that slants towards the head.

On the part of the ear that’s farther away from the head, draw the line as a curve that suddenly goes into a slant that moves towards the head.

Draw a line that starts near the bottom middle near the edge of the ear. This line will travel along the outer edge of the ear until you reach the top corner closest to the head. Then the line will curve downwards and away from the head until it stops.

Where the last line you drew ends, place your drawing tool slightly above the end and draw a curving line that travels downwards. Continue until you draw a half circle.

The next part looks sorta like an upside down S that is a little more elongated and attached to the half circle you drew.

At this point, draw another S that is right-side up and attaches at the bottom to the line that you just drew.

Now locate the inner curving line and draw two curving lines that travel downwards and attach at the tip like a triangle or a strand of hair.

Finish by drawing a line that travels near the inner line that you just drew on the outer side on the inner side of the ear (good thing there’s pictures, this is confusing). At the bottom of the ear, draw a small curving line that curves upwards.

Next, let’s try another type of ear (woo!). Start off by drawing a curving line that looks like a hook. The line will be curving towards wherever the head is supposed to be.

Wherever you want the bottom of your ear to be, draw a line that curves downwards.

On the side of the ear that is away from the head, draw a slightly curving line that connects both of the other lines.

Draw a curving line within the hook part of the line and have that line travel along the outside part of your line until you stop somewhere near the top.

Where the last line ended, move up a little and draw a line that travels downwards and curves, attaching to the outer part of the ear. This line will travel down, slant downwards and to the left and then slant more steeply until it touches the outer part of the ear.

Now head over to the other part of the ear and draw two lines, one that curves upwards and one that curves downwards. These lines will be curving away from each other. The bottom line will slant downwards more and father out than the upper curve.

From where you left off, draw a line that travels downwards and curves towards the character’s head.

From this point, draw a similar curving line that sorta forms a small M but stops early and slants more towards the head.

The next part’s incredibly difficult to describe. Yeah, the ear is kinda tricky. Luckily, most people aren’t experts in what an ear looks like and most people won’t notice if there are minor errors in the ear. Of course, if you’re trying to get the ear really right, you’ll need to draw from an art model.

Now, let’s draw the ear that’s really difficult to see. The ear that is drawn from the back. Start by drawing a slightly curving line.

Draw a second line that makes a pass at the first line. This line travels more downwards and is even less curved.

At the bottom of the last line that you drew, draw a second line that curves in the other direction.

At the bottom of this line, draw a small curving line that travels away from where the ear connects to the side of the head and curves downwards. Then draw a line that travels directly upwards.

Where you left off at the straight line, draw a second line that curves upwards and away from the ear.

Draw a slightly curving line that connects the two lines that are traveling somewhat vertically up. Draw a line that hangs freely to the left of the ear. Find the bottom of the ear and draw a line that curves away from the ear and upwards.

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.

My story takes place in a setting inspired by pre-history Philippines. I’d draw her wearing the clothes that people wore during that time frame, but they mostly wore nothing. That reminds me of a museum exhibit I saw of Native Americans. Some of the figurines of the Native Americans were completely nude. That was so weird since I was shielded from all nudity as a kid and then I’m exposed to a culture that sometimes runs around naked. I guess I learned from that how values can be way different from culture to culture.

You might think “hey, she doesn’t look Filipino.” Well, actually she’s Negrito. From the research I did, Negritos settled in the Phillippines before the Austronesians, an indigenous group from what is now called Taiwan.

That is the initial sketch I started off with. I like that sketch and might use it for a different drawing. How did she change so much? A whole bunch of reasons. The main reason was that I wanted to practice foreshortening, which is something I need to learn how to do with the body. Well, I didn’t really succeed at foreshortening her because that is tough!

What’s foreshortening? Foreshortening is how objects seem deformed at different angles. I guess I made her arms somewhat foreshortened, but their sizes are roughly the same and not large enough to show a real contrast.

So now what? I drew new torso lines in order to make her body appear turned to the side. I also foreshortened her shoulders, making one appear larger and one smaller to indicate that one shoulder is turned farther away from the point-of-view.

Next, I made her sides more shapely and raised her chest. Now she doesn’t look like she has the body of a 90000 year old woman. (I meant to say 900, not 90000).

At this point, I decided to redraw her clothes. Why? She looked like she was wearing a kimono or tunic, which doesn’t really fit with her character. But nudity doesn’t work for me, so I made up some clothes. I also redrew her arms. I liked how they looked, but they look way too long right now. I think this is where I was getting tired two nights ago because her proportions are extremely out of whack. I started drawing her legs because I wanted to shorten her dress. With dresses, its really important that you draw all of the legs out in order to make sure that you have the proportions right.

I did a little resizing and drew out the basic shape of the head.

Then I drew her face. I was aiming for a face that was both delicate and Negrito, but I ran into a problem. Most cartoon and manga faces are European/Asian inspired. Rarely do you see other races represented. I really had nothing to go off. I wanted to emphasize this character’s ethnicity, but I also wanted to keep her features relatively simple. So I experimented with the nose and lips until I got the results that I wanted.

I also added hair, my favorite part.

Then I added lineart and widened her features. I don’t know why I did this and I think I’m going to change it back later.

As you can see now, I colored her. I don’t know if I gave this advice out yet or not, but setting your coloring layers on multiply allows you to color without coloring over dark lines. This is good if you have a hard time coloring within the lines.

Then I used a handy-dandy color scheme generator at: www.colorschemer.com/online.html

Just plug in the value for one of the colors you’re using and it’ll generate colors that are compatible. These colors should pop out more when put together.

So I drew her and showed her to Marisol and she drew all over her. She took her mouse and drew all these lines all over my drawing like it was nobody’s business (joking. I asked her to).

This is sort of like an artist’s version of proofreading. It really helps to have someone else look at your artwork before you finish it because they can see mistakes that you missed. Being an artist doesn’t have to be lonely.

I took her advice and adjusted her. But I gave her brown eyes instead of blue.

Like usual, I have to finish most of my tutorials in multiple blog posts. This isn’t because tutorials take that long, but because I have to write these in gaps of time between school and work. I wish I could write more tutorials, but time is always so short. Still, Marisol and I promise that we’ll always keep updating. We won’t be those people who stop posting out of the blue.

I love you all,

Alex

Do you see your character wandering up a large expanse of land.

Or are you staring at your character from the tip-top of a tree?

Regardless, the horizon will dramatically change the way you see the picture.

First and foremost, open the game and hop on your character. Once you’re in, either find some gear that you like to put on, or just wear whatever you’re wearing and set your character behind the planest background you can find.

Picture 1

Alright, now that you did that, you might notice that… your interface is totally in the way, not very good for taking pictures right? Right! So to get rid of that, hold down ctrl+alt+z and then you should have something that looks like this

picture 2

Tada! Much better! Now you’re ready to take a screen capture of your character! There is one thing to remember, and this is important! Make sure that when you take a screen capture, you do not have the mouse on your character, as that little hand will show up on them, and it’s rather unsightly to have a hand randomly on them. =P Alright, if you don’t know how to take a screen cap, just  hold ctrl+ print screen or prtscrn or however it is on your keyboard. Got that? Good! Now it’s time for the next step!

Open up photoshop and take that image into there and start cutting out the shape of your character. This is why I say chose a plain background, it’s a lot easier to see all the details. Cut them out, and don’t wory about the spaces between where some of the background shows, we’ll get rid of that in a second. Alright, now that you have the basic sillhouette (sp?) of the character, go to edit, cut, and then file new.  It should open up a clipboard that’s the same size of the image you cut out. Once you have the new board, go to edit paste and paste the character. It should be on a layer of it’s own, defult layer 1 and a white background.

pic 3

This is when you can cut out those annoying little pieces inbetween the arms, and shoulders and what not to make it all clean. It make look a little pixilated but that’s alright too. Now what I do image, adjust and make it a bit brighter, then duplicate the layer, gaussian blur, and set the mode to something like lighten, overlay, anything that looks interesting, just play with it. From here you can add your own backgrounds, play with the layers and add some effects, and when it’s all done it’ll look like….

Done!

This! Tada! That wasn’t so bad! Feel free to add text, play with some filters, brushes and anything else you like to make it stand through! Your imagination is what will really bring life into your character. Hope this helped in some way, this is Tala signing off and wishing you all have fun!

A lot bigger change. The feathers could be made more realistic and slender. Maybe I’ll redraw them again next time in the same way that I redrew everything else except the hair :p

My inspiration for the wings was derived from J Peffer’s angel character, though I tried hard to make my wings look distinct from hers. For me, the hardest part was getting the reflection of light on the feathers to pop out, which means that i have to tweak the shadings and highlights. He needs better shading to make him look more 3D too. Maybe a background would help (hint, hint).

The first thing I did was add some wings on the inside. This might seem weird, but it’s going to work. Trust me. The highest feathers were drawn longer and thinner, while the lower parts of the wings look like the bumpy designs they used to make everyone in my 1st grade class draw.

I started using a different technique that might only be useful for those using photoshop. First I zoomed out so that I could see my whole character. Then I sloppily sketched the wings. But wait, I’m not done yet. I then used the superpower of the photoshop to zoom in as close as I could to each individual feather (crtl + z). At a very close range, its a lot easier to draw smooth lines. I kept using ctrl + x to switch between black and white so that I could color over my mistakes. I used ctrl + h to move around the page. I think its faster, but I’m really a newbie to photoshop and there might be yet a faster way.

With traditional art, none of this really matters. But, I really recommend getting a really thin-tipped eraser for fixing tiny mistakes. They save you a lot of headaches.

Then I started drawing little half-circles to give the wings texture. I did this imitating Peffer’s angel character, though I drew way more half circles. After I finished the ones on the right side, I wiped the sweat off my brow and thought whew, that really takes forever. So I cheated and used the lasso tool (ctrl + L) to select a huge chunk of the texture and then copied and pasted it. Nobody’ll notice, and I added a whole bunch more half circles.

Unless its really cathartic and relaxing, I think its okay to take shortcuts with really simple motions like half circles. Part of learning how to draw is slowly building hand-eye coordination over time and drawing lots of little half-circles doesn’t give you a whole lot of practice.

The next part is the really fun part. I’m going to completely redraw the outer outline of the wings. I liked the original outline because it had a simplistic, cartoonish, graphic design feel to it. But they didn’t really fit the character. This whole process is all about variety and experimentation. I made the top feathers longer and bent a few of the feathers to give them character. Then I drew smaller bumps on the bottom part of the wings since I just made the upper wings thinner.

The next step was a small, but important step. I decided to define the majority of the feathers on the bottom part of the wing. With these feathers, and all the other feathers to a degree, you can draw them rounded like I did, or you can draw them triangular or like real feathers. Just don’t make them too wide if you’re drawing them in a triangle shape or else they’ll end up looking like teeth (unless that’s the look you’re going for).

The lines on the bottom are so thick that they look like a warzone. So I went through and smoothed all the lines. *Bounces up and down excitedly*

The next part isn’t necessary, but if you really want the wings to stand out, you can add shading. I’m nowhere near done with what I could do, but I did manage to add a base layer of grey. When shading, it’s really important to start off shading light. before going to heavier shades. First, you don’t want to make the mistake of making your individual feathers indistinguishable because then the wings will just look like a big blob of mess. Also, you can always add darker shading over your lighter shading. I shaded the lower feathers more heavily because I figured that the upper wings and the character’s body would cast a shadow on the lower wings. Like I said earlier, I need to redo the highlights so that they really pop out. The highlights do a great job giving the feathers a 3D look and the really make each individual feather pop out.

Thanks to every commentator. I really love reading comments and they really influence what I write. I keep referring back to what I read in the comments while trying to figure out what to write next. It might sound weird, but it feels like I’m having a conversation with people who comment and I really cherish that. Its really easy to take over this blog. I like to draw almost anything. I want to play around with clay again too. Just suggest anything and we’ll try almost anything as long as its PG rated or lower (we don’t do that other stuff here). Someone requested a World of Warcraft character tutorial and Tala’s working on that right now.

Also, we’ll display the art of our viewers. Email it to sketchinghouse@gmail.com and we’ll put it in our viewer’s gallery.

Thanks for everything!

Alex

I decided to create a digital character and see how far I could go in a drawing tutorial. First a little sketching. Then some line cleanup. Lay over some lineart. Erase the sketches beneath. Add details. Add color. Do cell style shading. I don’t get how professional digital artists pull that off in 6 hours. I worked on this guy for 6 hours and I was able to get the lineart done only. Now at 11 o’clock, I’m yawning too much to even see my keyboard. Since I’m on break, I want to see how far I can take him. Maybe I’ll even add a background.

When drawing or painting, the artist has a boatload of choices. Painters can choose between watercolor, acrylic, and oils. Sketchers can use graphite pencils, regular pencils, or go straight to pen. Digital artists can use a mouse, tablet, or pen tool. You can even combine different tools. For instance, you can start off with graphite pencils on drawing paper, then scan the drawing with a really good scanner, and then use the pen tool to replace the rough sketch with smooth lines. You can even print out a piece of digital art, fix a mistake, and then scan the image again.

There are lots of different approaches to all the different effects that artists go for when drawing. For instance, when using a traditional medium like a graphite pencil, you can cross-hatch, make short dabs with the pencil, or you can make really short sketch-marks. With digital art, you can fill certain parts of the picture with a shade of grey or a darker shade of a particular color, or you could use screentones. Some of these techniques are faster, while other techniques are felt to be faster for some artists. There’s really no rules with what you use and different methods can be combined.

I got this whole blockhead man thing going. By drawing the head initially as a box, I just might be able to draw a 3D head. Getting the box 100% right isn’t a big deal, since you’re going to erase the box anyway if you’re using this technique. Really, all the parts of the drafting stage are there simply to give you something to easily expand off of.

Then I drew arms. The arms look out of proportion, but that doesn’t matter because I can always fix it later. I drew what I was going to make a spear or wand. I drew circles where the knees would be, but that’s not so important if you’re not drawing bent legs.

I’m using a tablet by the way. I used to scan drawings that I created using drawing paper and a graphite pencil. Sometimes I drew with a really fine-pointed pen with really black ink so that I could ink the smallest lines. I made sure that I paid a few extra dollars to get a really good pen, so that I wouldn’t be stuck with something that would dry up halfway through a stroke.

After getting the guidelines done, I started crafting the body. With the limbs, I drew two ovals that come together at the joints. I drew an oval for the face on the front of the box and I drew the forehead on the top part of the box. I connected the top and bottom part of the body with curving lines where the waist is at.

Since I’m using a graphics program with my tablet, I’m able to do each step on different layers. Since I really don’t need the guidelines anymore, I deleted the guidelines from the character. Then I started drawing the wingspan. Yesh, he’s going to be an angel (or something).

Then I continued drawing the wings. I’m not all that experienced with drawing wings, but I tried

Next, I started drawing the face. I drew eyes, even though the hair I ended up using completely covered the eyes. But its important to draw all features so that you can more easily draw the features in the right spots on the face.

Then I got lazy and decided to plop hair that I drew earlier and liked on to the head. This hair looks really faded. But don’t worry. I am going to go over that hairdo with a pen tool. You might notice that the face vanished too. No problem! I posted the hair on a separate layer and I can use my trusty eraser tool to erase the part of the hair image that covers the face. Tada!

I also drew a cape for good measure. This was done with curving lines that curve outwards.

I had four other pictures, but I just discovered that there’s something wrong with them. I’ll have to redraw them some other time and add them to this post. For a general idea, I created a new layer. Then I used the pen tool to create paths that I then stroked using the smallest paintbrush. This is done by clicking on one point to create a vector, and then clicking where you want your line to end and holding. You can then move your mouse around in order to give the line a curve. I guess theoretically you could draw the entire character this way, but I found that characters drawn this way always end up distorted for some reason. So I’ve been drawing each individual curve instead. I then went to the lower layers and erased the messier lines beneath.

As you can see, I also added clothes and details to the wand. This guy is almost ready to be refined, shaded, highlighted, and colored. But there was one last thing I wanted to fix for today. For some reason his hand was abnormally large and his feet looked kinda on the large side. But no fear! I used my trusty lasso tool to create a selection that I wanted to resize. Then I clicked and held the box in the bottom-right corner and dragged the mouse towards the center of the selection until the hand was the size that I wanted. I rinsed and repeated for the feet.

So there ya have it. He’s not exactly perfect. If you squint, you can see all kinds of problems with his legs. He’s not exactly looking realistic yet, but I’m going to keep working on him to the extent of my abilities, maybe even give him a name.

Till next time, I bid thee adieu

Alex

I get bored easily; I discovered that the past few days in my psychology class. My professor is nice, but she talks like a funeral director—which is fitting considering that the class is called the Psychology of Death and Dying. I know I should be paying attention to the lectures, but I find it so hard. It might be because it’s cold outside in Indiana this time of year, and it could be because it gets dark during the time I’m in class, but either way, my attention tends to wane while I’m sitting in that class. So what do I do? Well, I’ve been reading my Banana Yoshimoto novels, mainly because I may focus on her for my Master’s thesis (her or how text messaging and Instant Messaging help ESL students learn English), or I draw on anything and everything I get my hands on (like my class syllabus, as shown). I guess maybe because this semester has dragged on for SO LONG, I just want to draw; I have not been able to do so in forever and that fact depresses me. However, I created a new character today, a vampiress who does not have a name yet, but she made me think, how does one create a character?

One of the most important factors in creating anything is the imagination, so when it comes to creating a character, there is no exception. Many people that I have known have derived inspiration for their character creations from books and television shows. Many of their characters have traits that are combinations of different characters, which I think is great, because all those different traits come together to create a nifty character. I have mentioned about books, television shows, and movies, but how do I derive inspiration for characters? Like many people, I do base some of my characters from books that I have read, but I also feel inspired to create characters by listening to music. My vampiress I created today was based upon songs by Trish Thuy Trang (I am addicted to her amazing voice!) and a story by Angela Carter titled “The Lady of the House of Love.” I want to write a love story based upon Carter’s vampire character and Trish Thuy Trang’s songs.

Think about some of your favorite book and television characters, and choose some of your favorite traits from those characters and write them down. The list you have compiled is now the starting point for your own unique character.

Now, what will your character look like? Many people I have known, just like with character trait development, have based their characters on different looks of several celebrities. Do you want a character that has NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin’s eyes (Denny Hamlin is my idol!)? How about Derek Jeter’s skin tone, Alex Rodriguez’s smile (so what if he is a womanizer? He is still gorgeous), and Mike Mussina’s nose (I am a New York Yankees’ fan; do not hate me!)? Would Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s body suffice for how your character will look (and who would not want that body on a guy…WOW!)? The possibilities are endless! The same works for creating female characters, as well. Of course, you would use female references. You can use Abode Photoshop, and take a bunch of different pictures of people and select different body parts that you like from each person and create your own unique face! I have done this for creating characters before, and it works very well.

Now that you have all the information you want (traits, image), sit down and create the character you have imagined. After you have created your character, give him or her an interesting story. As I have said, the possibilities are ENDLESS!

I took facial features from several Miss Universe contestants and mashed their features using Photoshop Elements.Then, I drew the image to the right. Awesome, huh?

MARISOL’S CLOSING THOUGHTS

I love charities and I love donating to charities. The holiday season is upon us and even though we are all facing hard economic times, it does not mean that generosity and kindness has to suffer. Think about all the children who may not have a great Christmas (or any holiday) this year because of their financial hardships or because they are ill. Open your hearts this Christmas. Even if you just donate fifty cents, every cent counts for helping someone! Here are some fantastic charities.

DENNY HAMLIN FOUNDATION: As previously mentioned, NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin is my idol, and for good reason! Not only is he a great driver (and super cute!), but he also does a lot of charity work, which makes him a fantastic role model for ANYBODY.  The Denny Hamlin Foundation helps children with Cystic Fibrosis, a lung disease that often kills children before they are ten years old. Please help research this disease!

St. Jude Children’s Hospital: Who does not know what St. Jude does? This wonderful non-profit hospital opens their doors to children who have serious illnesses without the expectations of payment. In order to help parents and children stay at this hospital, donations are needed from anyone generous enough to help. What if you did not have any money and child needed serious healthcare for cancer? Think about it…

In addition to monetary gifts, St. Jude Children’s hospital also accepts donations of NEW and CLEAN stuffed animals, books, robes, slippers, and toys to help children during their stay.

Also along the same lines as St. Jude, there is Ronald McDonald House. Like St. Jude, RMHC houses children and parents without the expectation of payment. RMHC also accepts donations of NEW and CLEAN stuffed animals, books, robes, slippers, and toys to help children during their stay.

Make-a-Wish Foundation: How are wishes granted for children who are dying and very sick? Monetary donations make wishes come true for children who are granted a wish via Make-a-Wish. Any amount is welcome through this foundation, so please help a child go to Disney World or visit their favorite sports star.

In addition to helping children, our animal friends also need help. Please visit the Animal Rescues blog in our archive.

Thanks so much for reading! Enjoy your day and sketch away!

Love always,