Here are SIX interesting Illustrator tutorials from around the internet – try them out!

1. Realistic Glass Orb

Learn how to use Illustrator to create this realistic glass orb.
In this tutorial you will learn how to use opacity masks
to make clear gradients. (from voidix)

2. From Sketch to Vector Illustration

Learn how to take a pencil drawing to a polished, finished
digital illustration using Adobe Illustrator. (from gomediazine)

3. Create a Stylish Sports Car Dashboard

In this tutorial, the advanced Adobe Illustrator artist
will learn how to make a realistic sports car dashboard.
(from VectorTuts)

4. Introduction to Gradient Mesh

This introduction will take you through the basics
of gradient mesh design.(from BioRUST)

5. Creating Seamless Backgrounds in Illustrator

Veerle Pieters, one of the most sought after digital illustrators
offers an explanation on how she creates patterns and how to modify them
through scaling options (from Veerle’s Blog)

6. Tracing a Photo

The only way to truly get better at drawing and illustration is by physically picking up a pencil, pen or stylus and just getting to work. Much like any other activity, practice is a key element in getting better at a particular skill. Drawing is no exception. One of the most common ways of keeping sharp and active is through quick daily sketch sessions. They don’t have to be long and drawn out – just take 5 and draw something that comes to mind – and if nothing comes to mind, draw what you see in front of you.

It isn’t the subject that is important – its the development of skill. When I have a hard time thinking of things to draw, I’ll grab 4-5 random items that are within my grasp, plop them down on the surface in front of me and take 5 and sketch. These 5 minute sketches become my starting point for the day, and usually they end up on any piece of paper floating around my desk, so I just collect them like clippings and save them in a sketchbook for later use (like now!). The odd time, one of those random sketches will turn into a solid idea for something bigger later on.

I know some of you are thinking – “I don’t have time to sit and sketch…” – this is a lie. You do. You just don’t know it yet. The best time to do these off-the-cuff sketches occurs when you are just sitting idle waiting for something to happen.

Here’s an example:
When I get into work, I have a similar routine. I’m the first one in so I disarm the alarm, bring in the newspaper, hang up my jacket and start up my computer and coffee brewer. This brief moment while I’m waiting for my machines to start up and do their thing is the moment I take to do the Take-5. Other artists like Jason Barton of Almost Sketches call this the ‘boot sketch’, the sketch drawn while waiting for the computer to fire up. You don’t necessarily have to do this while you’re waiting for the computer – other people do their sketch-a-day work during their lunch breaks (here’s a great example – a lunch bag a day for his kids!) or before bed, or any time you have 5 minutes of idle time (I’m sure there’s someone out there who doodles while hanging out in the bathroom!).

These quick sketches and scribbles, doodles and drawings should be kept as clippings in a folder for later reference. Eventually you’ll amass a library of hidden gems you can reuse later. You may say that scribbles and sketches don’t seem like much, but they’re a creative outlet and a means of inspiration for bigger things.

Here are some great sketch-a-day sites you should check out!
Dude a Day - atomictoy’s blog about drawing a dude every single day, running from Halloween ’08 to ’09
Almost Sketches – this isn’t exactly a sketch every day, but its close, and the same concept as mentioned above
The Daily Figure – this blog is run by Kyle T. Webster, and he does a gestural drawing and figure studies every day
Chris Houghton’s Dailies – this blog captures Chris Houghton’s daily work, which often gets rendered fully
The Daily Monster – this blog is run by 344 and there’s a new monster every day
Alter Eebo – This blog contains abstract sketches done by artist Alter Eebo

Check out the Sketch a Day blogs and try it for yourself. Its a lot easier than you think!

In order to increase your efficiency and productivity, I’m going to go over a few methods most artists use to speed up their processes and optimize their workflow. The most common forms of this workflow improvement are through the use of keyboard shortcuts and program actions. For this tutorial, I am going to use Photoshop CS3 as the basis. Most digital artists use this program for a wide variety of things, and in many instances the key commands are the same throughout the suite of products, and even other types of similar software.

Let’s begin with shortcuts.

When you start up PhotoShop, there should be an option under the Edit menu called Keyboard Shortcuts. Select it and you should receive a dialog box similar to the one above. Feel free to poke around through the options to see what sort of shortcuts are available – you will note that almost everything has a keyboard shortcut attached to it in some form. This was done for a reason – to improve workflow efficiency! Your time is valuable, and anything you can do to minimize wasted time, the better it will be for you in the long run. At first, you’ll save seconds here and there – but once you become completely comfortable with a set of common keyboard shortcuts you use on a frequent basis, those seconds turn into minutes, and if you couple those extra minutes with the time saved using actions, your time spent doing menial and repetitive tasks can be replaced with free time, or more productive time.

Here’s a list of some of the most common keyboard shortcuts you should know.

CTRL + Z = Undo
This key command can be your saviour when you least expect it. A filter or an effect gone bad can almost always be fixed to its previous state with these two keys. (You’ve probably seen this command before in other programs – its such a necessary tool in the digital age) The ‘Undo’ command basically gives you the chance at a do-over if you make a mistake, without the need for messy correction fluid. Let me tell you, if there was an Undo feature for certain parts of my life, I would have been hammering those keys pretty fast!

CTRL + Shift + Z = Undo again
Some of the Adobe programs have the ability to do multiple levels of the Undo command (up to 100) – so if you do a bunch of things and dont like the desired effect, you can keep stepping backwards until you reach a state where you’re comfortable to start again.

CTRL + A = Select All
This command says it all – need to quickly select everything on your working area, hit this. Another universal command that is featured on all sorts of software.

CTRL + X = Cut Seection
CTRL + C = Copy Selection
CTRL + V = Paste Selection
Another set of universal commands found in software – from Adobe Photoshop to Microsoft Word. One cuts out the selection and adds it to a virtual clipboard, and leaves a hole behind. The next one simply makes a duplicate copy and adds it to the clipboard, and the last one pastes the item placed on the clipboard. Pretty simple concept – you’ve all heard it before (COPY-PASTE!).

CTRL + + (Plus sign) = Zoom In
CTRL + – (Minus Sign) = Zoom Out
CTRL + 0 (zero) = Fit to Screen
These three commands are used for controlling the size of your viewing area. If you need to quickly zoom in or zoom out, tapping these keys a few times saves you a lot of time. If you need to look at your entire work overall, the fit-to-screen option can do that easily.

Now we’ll get into a few more PhotoShop specific shortcuts. All of these shortcuts refer to tools, and will defnintely save you time once you remember which key is assigned to its particular tool. Note that the dual/multiple items per command show tools that have sub-menus with additional tool options. Here we go:

A = Path / Direct Selection Tool
This activates the selection tool for Paths (black arrow) or the direct selection tool for anchor points, handles and line segments (see Pen Tool tutorial to understand what these 3 things mean)

B = Brush/Pencil/Color Replacement Tool
This activates our brush or pencil tool. It also brings up the option for painting using color replacement.

C = Crop Tool
Activates the Cropping function.

D = Default Colors
Switches the foreground and background colours to the software default (Black Foreground, White Background)

E = Eraser Tool
This activates your eraser

F = Cycle Screen Mode
This option is good if you want your workspace to take up the focus of your working area. Sometimes it is difficult to manoeuvre when there are a bunch of other documents open, or you’re working on the edges of a large document where the scroll bars interfere.

G = Gradient / Paint Bucket Tool
This activates your Gradient options and Paint Bucket Tool.

H = Hand Tool
This tool allows you to grab on to the screen and pull yourself around. Used in conjunction with a zoomed in view, you can pull your way towards different parts of the screen quickly. (A variation of this is to hold down the space bar – the tool will also appear as long as you hold the space bar down)

I = Eyedropper / Sampler / Measure Tool
This command activates your eyedropper, which allows you to take a point sample of color at that specific area. The Sampler is more precise, setting up a direct sample and displaying the values of that color in the info palette. The Measure Tool is basically a ruler, judging measurement and angle from two points.

J = Spot / Healing Brush / Patch / Red Eye Tool
This command activates your “fix-it” tools for getting rid of blemishes and imperfections using spot, healing and patches. You can also reduce red-eye in photo with that particular function of the tool.

K = Slice Tool
This command activates the slices option for creating separate slice sections of an image to be modified and saved as separate files to be reassembled and arranged as you’ve specified.

L = Lasso Tool
This command activates the Lasso tool which is used to select portions of your artwork by manually creating a selection area.

M = Marquee Tool
This activates the marquee tool – for different types of selections (rectangular, elliptical, row or column)

N = Notes / Audio Annotation Tool
This command activates the sticky notes option or audio comment option.

O = Dodge / Burn / Sponge Tool
This command activates your dodge and burn tools for adding and subtracting light/shadow, and the sponge tool for saturation/desaturation of colour.

P = Pen Tool / Freeform Pen
This command enables you to use the pen tool with traditional point and click style, or the freeform option which is cursor tracking based.

Q = Masking Mode
This command toggles the quick-mask function on or off

R = Blur / Sharpen / Smudge tool
This command activates the blur, sharpen and smudging functions.

S = Clone / Pattern Stamp Tool
This command activates your clone stamp option or a pattern stamp from your pattern options.

T = Type Tool
This command activates your text tool and options.

U = Shape Tool
This command activates the Shape Tool for creating path based shapes.

V = Move Tool
This command activates the Move tool, which allows you to move items on your selected layers.

W = Magic Wand Tool
This command activates your Magic Wand tool which will create selections based on color depth depending on the area you click on.

X = Switch Colors
This command switches your Foreground Color to your Background color and vice-versa.

Y = History Brush / Art History Brush Tool
This command activates the History Brush tool, which allows you to restore portions of the artwork from a previous state (depending on what part of the history you are referencing) and the Art History Brush Tool allows you create painterly effects over photographic images.

Z = Zoom Tool
This activates the magnifying glass or Zoom Tool to zoom into your work depending on the selection you make (one click to incrementally zoom, click and drag to make a selection which will zoom and fill the screen with.

[ (square bracket left) = Decrease Size
This decreases the size of the tool in use.

] (square bracket right) = Increase size
This increases the size of the tool in use.

Arrow Keys = Move in direction 1 px.
These keys will move your selection 1 pixel in the direction of the selected keystroke.

Space Bar = Grab Tool
Holding down this key will activate the hand tool, and allow you to grab anywhere on the screen and pull yourself around as long as the Space Bar is pressed.

Tab = Hide / Show Tools & Palettes
Pressing this key will hide or show all of your tools and palettes.

Backspace = Clear Selection
This command deletes anything within the selection.

Shift + Backspace = Quick Fill
This command allows you to fill your selection from options in the Fill dialog box.

And there you have it – the entire alphabet and some additional shortcuts that are the basic way of accessing tools. Try out a few of them while you’re working until you get the hang of them without referencing the list, and eventually with enough practice you wont even have to look and you’ll do it instinctively. We will try some advanced keyboard commands in the next part of the series.

Until then, practice with a few shortcuts in your toolset until you’re comfortable and expand until you reach a point where the frequently used commands are all committed to memory.

I bought my WACOM tablet about 8 years ago, and I remember the feeling after the first time I tried it out – something just wasn’t right. It was oddly uncomfortable and unnatural. I looked on the internet and turned to colleagues for some answers, and I found that I wasn’t alone. I’ve noticed that whether you use a WACOM Bamboo, or a Genius MousePen the first reactions for brand new users are often the same.

“It’s hard to get used to this thing.”

Don’t get discouraged! Everyone goes through a beginner stage where you have to get the hang of drawing facing forward and in proportion to the size of your screen. Its all about hand-eye co-ordination. You may have great physical skills when sketching on a pad of paper, but you totally stink when you pick up the stylus and try it on the digital canvas. Never fear – here’s 5 ways to make the transition from paper to plastic easier.

1) Adjust your tablet settings

You would be surprised how many people use the default settings for their tablets and complain that they do not work as expected. The tablet software allows you to manipulate axes and angles for maximum comfort of your hand/wrist and arm positions, sensitivity/pressure options for drawing and painting control, and position options and sensitivities for cursor control. Also, you have additional functions for other programs beyond the artistic ones you would typically use a stylus for. Experiment and find the settings best suited for your method of drawing until you are most comfortable. Make the tablet work for you – not the other way around!

2) Make your drawings a drag.

Now, when I say drag, I don’t mean it in an unpleasant sense – like you can’t enjoy what you’re doing. I mean dragging physically. The biggest knock rookie users have for tablets is the surface gloss makes it difficult to replicate the feeling of real paper and the control you have with the stylus. This increased friction is called ‘drag,’ and you can achieve this feeling easily with a tablet if your drawing area is too smooth for your liking. To do this, draw your image on a piece of paper first, one that will fit within the confines of the live area on your tablet. Tape the paper to your tablet, and trace over top of it. You’ll get used to the movements and eventually you wont have to physically trace on the tablet itself – you can scan and trace using the program instead. You can keep a clean sheet of paper on top of your tablet later on to retain the feeling of drag. Newer models of tablets actually have a rougher surface to create the drag, but there are still some models that do not.

3) Clearer control of Linework with Zoom + Resolution

Many users have the initial habit of drawing at equivalent viewing size on screen, and complain of jagged linework and lack of control. This can easily be avoided by zooming in closer and taking smaller steps and strokes while creating their work. This allows the user finer control of their strokes and eliminates jagged edges at 100% of print size. Another method of increasing the linework control is by raising the resolution of your working area. Generally for print, 300 dpi is the industry standard at full size. If you work at 72 dpi, you do not have sufficient pixel depth/data to display smoother lines. The more depth you have, the more data can be crammed in because more pixels are used to render your linework. Your file size may go up, but so will your quality. Always work big, because it will retain a good portion of your data when you resize it to something smaller, but its not the same when you work the other way, as data must be added to fill in the blanks, and the guesswork is often not so pretty.

4) Learn how to use the Pen Tool for precision

Brushes and pencils are fine for starting out or achieving a certain effect, but if you want clear control over your smooth lines, learn how to use the pen tool to make your basic linework. This will create sharp, consistent, clean looking lines and greatly reduce your filesize with less anchor points and line segments. Click here for a starter tutorial on the Pen Tool.

and finally…

5) Keep swatches on your working area

If you’re frantically painting away and are tired of going over to the colour picker, switching colors and getting back into drawing/painting, only to have to switch again, here’s an easy tip to remember. Put some blobs of color on an area of your screen you can easily reach with your cursor, and as you need to switch colors, find your key command for accessing your ‘eye-dropper’ tool (most of the time its the letter I, but it can vary from program suite to suite) click on it and select your color, then switch back to your drawing/painting tool with the key command for that. This is a basic efficiency technique as well – using shortcuts to speed up your work flow.

For you new users, try out some of the techniques until you get comfortable with the tablet. You’ll be surprised at how much easier drawing can be when you move to digital. Of course, nothing beats pencil/pen and paper, but it comes close. There are advantages and disadvantages (try doing an undo on a pencil sketch… heh!) but only you can decide which method is best for your style. I hope I was able to assist those looking to make the transition.

That’s it for now!

The Pen Tool
The pen tool is probably the most essential device used in any vector based illustration/drawing software. You could get away with using brushes or pencils, but the pen tool allows you the most efficient control over your linework. For rookie illustrators using the software, it appears to be a daunting task, but after playing around with the mechanics of it, the Pen Tool will become your best friend. For the examples below, I will use Adobe Illustrator, since its generally viewed as the industry standard – other software such as CorelDraw and FreeHand offer the same type of controls with their pen tools, so you can apply the same knowledge you’ve learned here to those programs.

Here’s how it works.
To use the pen tool effectively, the key is to master the control of the way paths can bend and curve.

1) Try clicking on your screen. You will create a dot – this is an anchor point.
This point acts as a base and depending on where you place your second point, will allow you to modify the line segment between.

2)Now click anywhere else on your screen and you will create a second anchor point
- notice there is a line segment connecting the two points. This is the basis for creating lines using the pen tool.

3) Now click and hold at another location and slowly move to the left or right and you will notice a pair of arms that extend from your anchor point. These lines are known as ‘handles’ and are the tools used to modify the curve of your line segment in between your anchor points.

As you hover over certain areas of your line segment, you will see the pen cursor change depending on the function it is able to perform.
For example: if you hover over an anchor point, you should see a minus sign beside the pen head. This indicates that if you click with the mouse you will subtract that point.

If you hover over any other portion of the line, you will see a plus sign appear. This indicates that you are able to add an anchor point at that specific location if you click the mouse button.

If you have made a series of line segments and anchor points and want to close the shape, hover your cursor over the first anchor point you made when creating that linework, and a small O will appear. This indicates that you will close the shape if you select that point. These are the basic functions of the pen tool – addition/subtraction/closing

Now if you hold down the ALT (option for Mac) key and hover over your anchor point, you will see the cursor change into an arrow head. This tool allows you to modify the anchor points by creating a set of handles if you click and drag away from the point. These handles allow you to modify the linework that is attached to that particular anchor point. You can create smooth, flowing paths called Bezier curves by altering the linework with the handles.

If you hold down the CTRL key (Command Key on the Mac) you will receive the white arrow or selection tool. Click and hold on any one of the anchor points and you can move the point around to the position of your choosing.

Try this exercise:
1) Select your pen tool and make four points
2) Select your starting anchor point to be your fifth point to close off and create your shape.
3) Hold down the ALT (or Option) key and select one of the anchor points. Click and drag outwards until you have created handles for your Bezier curve.
4) Select the endpoints of the handles and modify them by moving them around in different directions. Get used to how the movement works.

5) Hover over one of the anchor points and subtract it.
6) Hover over any part of the line segments, and add an anchor point.
7) Hold down the CTRL key and click and hold on an anchor point. Move it to another area and watch the shape modify.

That is the basic gist of the Pen Tool. The next lesson will show you how to effectively trace an outline of an image as reference, using the pen tool. Grab yourself an image of an item you’d like to attempt to trace and check out this tutorial (number 6 on the list) on creating vector tracings.

In the previous drawing post, I touched upon the differences between males and females when attempting to draw correct proportions. This time around, we’re going to look at the differences in the human form as it progressively ages.

We all know that a small child is not built to the same proportions as a grown man/woman – so in order for your drawing to accurately represent a human in all walks of life, you need to understand the ratios for those specific age groups.

Proportions between adults and children

Note the following proportion differences:

• Adult = 8 heads tall, with a head size of 9 inches
• 15 year old = 7 1/2 heads tall with a head size of 9 inches
• 10 year old = 7 heads tall with a head size of 7 1/2 inches
• 5 years old = 6 heads tall with a head size of 7 inches
• 3 years old = 5 heads tall with a head size of 6 1/2 inches
• 1 year old = 4 heads tall with a head size of 6 inches

According to Andrew Loomis, the creator of this chart from Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth – there is a gradual increase in the size of the head of about 3 inches from a toddler to an adult. As the body progresses to shape itself, you’ll note that the legs of the subject will extend at about twice the rate of the torso. These heights are all relative, but act as a great guide for creating proper proportions for a man, woman and child if they are all in the same viewing area.

Try out the following exercise:

1. Much like the previous entry on proportion, do some freehand sketches to note the difference between a child’s proportions and an adult’s proportions. Remember the number of head units needed for each.
2. Try an anterior, posterior and lateral set of views.
3. Remember to modify the look of the young child to resemble a young child (pudginess, wide eyes, lack of muscular definition) otherwise you will run the risk of drawing your figure to resemble a dwarf/little person.
4. Move on to your computer and try out the exercise using the guide lines from your drawing software to create exact proportions.
5. Compare and adjust as necessary.

You should now understand the concept of proportions and have a better grasp of creating realism through the use of varying sizes and shapes and body types of the human form. Check back for my next entry which will deal with proportions in relation to space/perspectives.

Part Two: Organizing Your Other Desktop

In the first part of this series - Drawing Workplace Basics Part One: Cleaning Your Workspace, I explained how an organized physical workspace will do wonders for your productivity and efficiency if you make the commitment to maintaining it. In this episode, we are now going to get into the habit of doing the same thing on your computer.

Many artists who use the computer as their primary means of production often keep their files organized in the same manner as their desks – their stuff is everywhere. Proofs, samples, test files, source files and resources, finished products you name it, you’ve got it, and chances are its probably not where it should be. So I’m going to show you a few tricks on how to organize it so its easy to find months down the road when a client wants to recycle some of the old concepts you created for something new, or requires a reprint of a job.

Does this look familiar? Don’t you wish there was a better way of keeping things together? There is, and it surprisingly doesn’t take very long to do once you get used to the format. You don’t have to micromanage and be extremely anal-retentive in setting up your files – you just have to get used to placing things where they should be.

Here’s the easiest way of remembering the structure:

1. You have a client who needs something done
2. You need to do some research in order to create an initial concept
3. You need to send them a proof and possibly revisions
4. You need to create a final file – press/screen ready

Thats the basic gist of the in/out job process. So why not set your folder structure to follow this format? Follow these steps.

1. Create a base work folder (or call it WIP- Work in progress or Client Work, etc) – this way, you can separate your personal files from your client/work files.
2. Make subfolders listed by client name or client number or both (e.g.  133 – idrawdigital.com) – by labelling the folders in this fashion, you will have an easier time accessing them by simply reordering the folder list through Windows or OS X.
3. Make subfolders within the client folder with the job title (e.g under the 133 – idrawdigital.com folder you could have subfolders for posters, web animation, illustration, etc etc)
4. Inside the specific job folders, create three more folders titled – Working Files, Proofs, and Final
5. The Working files will contain all of your resource material, your drafts and versions of your working files and any client source material. You can go even further and make folders within your Working files folder to separate these items. But for now, anything that isn’t a client proof or the final working file goes in here.
6. The Proofs file is only for this – Proofs that go to the client in every revision stage end up in this folder. Remember to keep every single proof you create no matter how minute the change was. This way, if a client wants to revert back to a previous item from a past proof, you have it documented for reference (or in extreme cases where the client doesn’t think you did something and you did, you have proof – it happens…)
7. The Final file contains the final signed off files from the client, your final prepped file for production purposes and all the related source files needed to send out for production where applicable. You can expand on this further by creating folders titled Production and Client Signoff etc.

Your file hierarchy should look something like this:

WIP Folder
— 001 CLIENT NAME
———– Job Name
—————-Working Files
—————- Proofs
—————- Final Files
———————- Production Files
———————- Final Signoff/Working
———– Job Name
—————-Working Files
—————- Proofs
—————- Final Files
———————- Production Files
———————- Final Signoff/Working
———– Job Name
—————-Working Files
—————- Proofs
—————- Final Files
———————- Production Files
———————- Final Signoff/Working
— 002 CLIENT NAME
———– Job Name

and so on, and so forth. Do this for all your clients and it will be easier to categorize and catalog at a glance. Having dedicated folders for all your work is a sure-fire way of improving your efficiency now to create more time for yourself later. The easiest way to do this is to create a dummy folder with all of these subfolders already set up. The only thing you would have to do is change the job title and the client name. Copy the folder over to your WIP or Client work folder and paste it in and start organizing your files. It’s that simple!

Here’s what it looks like in action:

This is just a basic organizational structure. You can modify this in any way you feel will make you more organized and efficient. I hope this helps to increase your efficiency and maximize your time drawing, rather than searching. In my next article, we will move on to program specific routines that will assist in speeding up some of the menial tasks you face when working on your projects. Stay tuned for Part Three in the series!

Learning how to draw the Human Form efficiently and effectively takes a lot of time, practice and patience. I don’t pretend to be a master of anatomically correct drawing, but I do attempt to consult my charts and references often when I am trying to establish a believable looking figure. Understanding the structure of the human body and its extents and limits is the key in creating forms that are lifelike and realistic in a relative sense – you could be doing life drawings and attempt to be infinitely realistic, or you may be making simplistic cartoons or caricatures which should have some semblance of being anatomically correct.

There are many current and aspiring artists who neglect to refer to the basic fundamentals of anatomy and proportion and dismiss blatant errors as drawing in their own particular style. I’m not going to argue about being right and being wrong in this aspect, but if a body appears jarring and awkward to most people, chances are you’ve done something wrong when you were putting the pieces together. If something isn’t right about a figure that is meant to resemble the human form, (something that you are completely connected to and know and understand) you’ll notice right away. At times – when you draw it yourself, you become so engrossed in your work that you overlook the obvious. To avoid these embarrassing mistakes, make sure you take some time to review the basics of the human form and study the details before leaping into drawing subjects you don’t have a lot of practice with.

Here’s some examples of anatomically correct proportions that you should adhere to in order to achieve realistic looking figures. These images are courtesy of Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth by Andrew Loomis.

Proportions - Male

Note that you’ll want to determine the height of your male on page, divide the height by 8, and work from there – you’ll see there are specific ratios for certain areas of the body. The measurements are determined by head units – one of the 8 divisions you set up is the size of the human head – everything is in relation to that one size.

• The body width = 2 1/3 heads
• The body height = 8 heads
• Distance between nipples on chest = 1 head
• Width of calf muscles together at lower arc = 1 head
• Bottom of the knees = 2 heads from ground level

For further reference, the diagram has a scale in feet to give you an idea of where certain body parts would be in relation to the heights/widths of other objects (vehicles, furniture, etc)

Proportions - Female

For women, the ratios differ slightly as the average form is smaller then the form of an average man. The overall height is measured in 8 Head Units, but because the female head is proportionately smaller, the figure will be smaller.

• The body width = 2 heads wide
• Waist = 1 head wide
• Buttocks = 1 1/2 heads wide
• Width of calf muscles together at mid-point = 1 head wide
• Bottom of the knees = 2 heads from ground level

Now you can alter the proportions slightly to exaggerate features, but you shouldn’t stray too far from the aforementioned guidelines, otherwise your figures will appear alien and awkward. Here’s a diagram with some variations in human proportion.

Variations in Proportion

Loomis mentions the standard proportion technique causes the figures to appear “dumpy and old-fashioned”. This technique uses a ratio of 7 1/2 head units for the height, and is the standard taught in most institutions and courses of study. In order to create more of a well defined form, some exaggeration is needed, so the ideal proportion technique was developed, to act as an alternative to the standard proportions. The fashion industry proportion exaggerates even further and extends the form an extra head unit taller than standard measurement to give the illusion of beauty through elongated lines. Finally, an example of extreme exaggeration of form to create a grandiose, super-human figure comes from the heroic proportion model. Most sculptors in the Classic period, fantasy artists and comic book illustrators who draw large, muscular hero type characters use this ratio.

To successfully learn basic human proportion, try the following exercises.

1. Do a series of sketches on paper first to get the feeling for drawing human forms based on head units.
2. Make sure you draw three views – Anterior (front), Lateral (side) and Posterior (back). This will give you a good sense of where parts should be in relation to others.
3. Repeat the process a number of times and make a wide variety of body types using the other proportion techniques (standard, ideal, fashion, heroic) If you do this enough times, you’ll get the hang of the proportions of body parts a lot faster than assuming they should be a certain way and drawing by trial and error. You wont make blatant mistakes either.

Once your sketches have been completed, open up your drawing software and repeat the exercise. This time, use the guides to help you make your divisions. The reason I didn’t get you to do this from the start was to force you to use your eye and judgement to create the unit divisions visually. The first few drawings may have been terrible because the divisions weren’t 100% equal. That is perfectly fine. No person is 100% proportioned, anyway. This is an average guide that you can use to learn the fundamentals of human form. Once you become comfortable with this average proportion scale, you can modify it for skinny people, fat people etc. For now, lets continue on with the digital portion of the exercise.

1. Follow the same steps as the sketch version, using the drawing software guides to aid you in your proportions.
2. Do not worry about erasing or making the perfect figure (with enough practice you wont even need the guides)
3. If you have a scanner, scan some of your sketches and compare them against your digital version – are the proportions similar?

What you are essentially doing is conditioning yourself to draw the human form in proportion consistently. After doing some gesture drawings, bust out a proportioned human form if you feel you’re not quite getting the sizes down right. Then go back to your subject and try it again.

I hope this short lesson helps you improve on your technique. I’ll elaborate in more detail on other methods to capture the human form through drawing.

Part One – Clean up your workspace. Seriously.

It may sound kind of silly, but you really have to get yourself organized prior to putting your thoughts into tangible forms. Nine times out of ten, artists have the messiest, most disorganized areas as their base of operations. If you’re laid back like I am, you may say to yourself, “Its not that big of a deal!” – But let’s say you’re doing a paid commission or client work and your place is a disaster and the deadlines are approaching fast and you cant find that mockup you did or that 7th revision of the sketch that the client finally decided he/she wanted to revert back to and AAAARRRGH!

If you take 10 minutes to an hour on some down time to create an efficient workspace, you won’t be cursing yourself later. Trust me – I’m extremely scatterbrained – in fact, my desk is cluttered right now because I’ve let it go for too long. But I have a plan that I implemented a long time ago that allows me to get back to an optimal workflow zone in less than 10 minutes. This post is the first in a series of improving your own workflow techniques that will definitely make you more efficient and productive in the long run. If you’re a meticulous clean and neat freak, or already cleaned your desk, or had your mom/significant other/maid do it for you, skip over to Part 2 – Organizing Your Other Desktop

Here’s what you’ll need in order to start part one:

• larger boxes (for larger items – books, papers, etc)
• shoebox sized boxes (for loose items)
• small boxes (for loose items)
• trash can and garbage bags
• recycling bins – one for paper/cardboard, the other for glass/plastics

The first thing you’ll want to do is determine what items are garbage. Now by garbage, I mean stuff that you are not going to keep around for whatever “mixed-media” project or science experiment in the near future. But before you pitch it out, take note of what you have in hand. If its a box or wrapping made from cardboard/paper, break it down until its flat and throw it in your recycling bin. Same goes for glass and plastic stuff. If its something that cant be recycled and is rotting or gross looking, into the garbage bag it goes. Continue combing through the rubble on your desk until you’ve taken out all the useless items.

Now we move on to organizing the items that are important. Starting from the left side of your working area, take all items that are large sized, and put them in the large boxes, medium sized in medium boxes and small sized in small boxes. Get everything off the furniture as best as possible and into the boxes. Once everything is off the furniture, you can remove your dust and grime or stains and whatever. There’s no sense putting your neatly reorganized stuff back on your desk when your it has splatters, stains and three inches of dust and dirt on it.

Once your junk has been placed into boxes by size, now its time to get more in-depth and detailed. Go through your boxes by size and organize all your items into piles of “keep” and “pitch”. The pitch piles mean just that – pitch that stuff out. Remember, recycle what you can.

Now its time to assess where each item in each keep pile goes. This part I’ll leave up to you, but try to keep items of relevance together, even though their sizes may not be the same, you can keep your books in one section, drawing implements and supplies in one section, notes, proofs and important documents in another section, etc. Keep doing this until you have subdivided everything into proper piles. You can get even more detailed with the organizing by subdividing the subdivided piles (ie – creating a section for client dockets and paperwork, separate from your proofs, separate from your billing/invoices. etc). The sky is the limit.

Tear it down
to build it back up.

You’ve taken the junk off the desk, pitched out the garbage, recycled the reusable material, divided, subdivided and maybe even catalogued all the items that took up valuable real-estate on your workspace. Now its time to put it all back – but first you need a plan of attack. Determine the best areas to place your newly segregated and organized piles that will be the most efficient for you – don’t tuck away stuff that you know you will need in a short time from now, or use more often than another item which could probably move to a lesser accessible area.

Put your important stuff into the areas that you feel are the most easily accessible. Keep in mind you’ll need areas for books and resource material, client materials, supplies, and your odds and ends. Keep as much of these items away from the desk top. If you can manage this large portion of desk real-estate to stay in this same condition every day after you’ve logged your hours, you make yourself that much more efficient the next day since you dont have to take time out to clean up before you get started. Always remember to keep your desk top clean at the end of the day – it will help tremendously.

Also, get into the habit of putting things back after you’re done using them (just like when your mom would scold you for not putting your toys away when you’re done – I’m doing the same.) You may need it the following day, but if its on the desk top when your shift is over, take 5 and put it back. Its not that much more effort to pull it back down the following day.

Remember folks, keep it clean and organized and you’ll be able to find things faster, get back to work quicker and spend no time wondering and worrying where things went and why they’re not where they should be. This organizational tactic can be applied once a month to avoid clutter, and if you apply it with more frequency it will take less time to return to a state of organized bliss. You’ll be surprised how being organized will affect your work habits, and how much more efficient you’ll be. A simple workflow improvement technique, simply coming from picking up after yourself!

In my next article – Organizing Your Other Desktop, we’ll tackle the same technique, but on your computer.

Gesture Drawing

The key to a successful gesture drawing is to capture the essence of the form you are trying to replicate on paper or your tablet/screen. Elaborate details matter little -  the most important part is the movement and shape as it relates to the negative space around it. For the most part, gesture drawings are studies of a form in motion. The action of drawing in this manner will help you as an artist understand the principles of anatomy, ranges of movement, dynamics and how muscles and moving parts function.

The gesture drawing focuses more on the representation of the action of the form, not a literal transcription of what is taking place. Practicing quick gesture drawings will train you your eye-brain-hand co-ordination to pick up on dynamic lines in forms and understand basic structures, foundations and limitations.

There’s no proper way to do a gesture drawing. Its messy, fast and loose. Its free flowing and the closest feeling of a snapshot a drawing will ever achieve. Before you jump headlong into any extended period of drawing time, loosen up the muscles and tendons in your hand and arm by practicing a few gesture drawings – 10 minutes worth of 1 minute gesture drawings will help loosen you up and aid in making your drawings flow naturally. Since there’s no erasing in a gesture drawing, you’re essentially feeling your way around the form and building it up by your loose style.

The best way to examine movement is to find some reference material to get you started. Any stock photography site or editorial photo site should have some dynamic images of sport or action – use these shots as a guide. The more interesting the action, the more intense your gesture drawing will be.

Here’s an example.

When drawing gestures based on the human form, concentrate first on finding the dynamic movement lines before defining your shapes. The easiest way is to look at the curvature of the spine. Hatch out a line similar to the spinal curve and start there.

Look at the position of the shoulders and how the arms extend outwards. They also form dynamic action lines. Now, note the position of the hips, and how the legs extend from the pelvis. Again, more dynamic line work. At this stage you should be creating a stick man skeleton.

This is the foundation of your gesture drawing. Once that is complete, block in the head and neck, followed by the upper torso and pelvis. Do not make the upper body one piece, otherwise you will make your form look more like a barrel than a person. Take a quick second and think about your own anatomy. Your rib cage isn’t fused to your pelvis like a tin can – you have your spinal column to provide the anchor, and your pelvis acts as a pivot point. Therefore, they should be drawn separately.

Keep the drawing loose and simple – you can refine these details later. Your next step should be to create the forms of the legs and feet and all the joints in between – knees and ankles. Now, your drawing should look more like a wooden mannequin. Remember – NO ERASING. Just draw. There’s no style points in a gesture drawing. You’re training yourself to create forms quickly and build a better response between your eye, brain and hand.

If you still have time remaining, fill in more details such as clothing, hair, fingers and toes, and facial features. Remember to keep the consistency of the lines light and loose – you’re feeling out the form in the round – much like a sculptor who pulls his work out of a chunk of rock or clay.

After a practice run of 10-15 gestures, you should be loosened up and ready to tackle your drawing projects. Just like any good athlete needs to stretch their muscles and free their minds of distractions, good artists need to stretch their own muscles and clear their minds in order to focus on form and movement and how it interacts with the space around it. Try it yourself everytime you plan on drawing for an extended period of time – take 10 minutes and loosen up. You will build on your hand-eye co-ordination as well as your efficiency and perception skills.