I’ve received a few questions in regards to drawing methods and software, and what programs I’d recommend. Before some of you run off, thinking that this post is going to turn into an infomercial or a shill session, take note that some of the software I’ve linked to is actually open-source and won’t cost you a thing. Here’s some of the programs I recommend.

Product: Inkscape
Price: N/A (Open Source)

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics software. Many of its toolsets and functions are similar to ones found in Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X. Your work is saved as a Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. It supports many of the advanced SVG features (cloning, markers, alpha blends and more), and is able to perform complex path operations, bitmap tracing and a ton of other functions you would find in the larger commercial software.  The best part of this vector software being open-source is the community support on constant tweaking that comes out of it.

Product: GIMPShop
Price: N/A (Open Source)

GIMPshop is a modification of the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). Its a free/open source program, developed to replicate the look and feel of Adobe Photoshop. If you’ve used Photoshop before, you will feel comfortable using this version. The only current drawback is that GIMPshop does not support Photoshop plugins, but all of GIMP‘s own plugins, filters, effects and brushes work just fine.

Product: Pencil
Price: N/A (Open Source)

Pencil is a free/open source animation/drawing software. You can create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoons) using both bitmap and vector graphics. It’s easy to use, and requires minimal effort to make drawn characters come to life – rather than spending a ton of money on a program like Adobe Flash to create your animations, you can achieve the same result with Pencil.

Product: Serif DrawPlus X2
Price: $99 USD

DrawPlus X2 is a cost-effective program with easy-to-use drawing and painting tools and special effects you can use to create outstanding drawings and designs. You can easily import and export files in various popular formats (PSD, SWF, EPS, etc.) Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on ultra-pro software, you can achieve the same effects for a fraction of the price, and still function using those proprietary formats.

Product: Xara Xtreme
Price: $89 USD for standard / $249 USD for PRO

Boasting the world’s fastest graphics software engine, Xara Xtreme combines the use of flexible illustration tools with the ability to  handle photo manipulation and editing. The benefit of Xtreme is the use of a single application for all types of creative work – you can create vector drawings, DTP, photo composition, Website design or Flash animation. Xara offers two versions – the standard model, and an enhanced PRO model with more goodies such as tutorials, templates, example files and fonts. Another suitable option for those unwilling to spend hundreds to achieve professional results.

Product: Autodesk SketchBook Pro
Price: $100 USD for digital download

Autodesk SketchBook Pro is one of the best digital sketchpad programs on the market. You can easily use it in place of pen and paper and the transition from physical to digital takes less time with this product. The great thing about it is its artist-friendly, easy to use and reacts well to gestural movement when you combine it with a digital stylus and tablet. I highly recommend this product, as I’ve been using it for a few years for my own work.

Product: Adobe Illustrator CS4
Price: $599 USD / $149 USD Upgrade

Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard for digital illustration, and has been for years. With its endless number of tools, filters, effects and settings, you can easily make any basic illustration come to life with ease. This versatile program is used for all types of scalable vector artwork, and you can export to a million different formats. If you haven’t used Illustrator, you need to give it a try to understand how amazing this program really is. It has a hefty price tag and a steep learning curve, but its well worth the dough, and there are plenty of resources to get you up to speed in no time.

Product: Adobe Photoshop CS4
Price: $699 USD / $199 USD Upgrade – Photoshop
$999 USD / $399 USD Upgrade – Extended

The highly regarded Photoshop is the other weapon in a digital illustrator’s arsenal – starting out as a simple photo-editing tool, artists around the world have been creating masterpieces with it for almost 20 years. Everyone and their dog knows about this program, but fewer can actually afford it. This is the digital artist’s main tool, and many of the amazing digital works you see all over the place owes its beauty to this program. If you havent used it before, you need to try it, just like Illustrator. You wont be disappointed. Its pricetag is high, but its payoff is huge.

There are many others which I haven’t mentioned, but will add in the future – like PaintshopPro, Paint.net etc. I hope this short list gives you a bit of an idea on what is available. There are trial versions for all the paid licensed software if you’re interested on trying them out – I highly suggest you do.

This is probably the most common question most aspiring illustrators bring up. We’ve all been there before – you have all these great ideas in your head, you’re totally prepared to put pen to paper (or stylus to tablet) and you start scribbling like mad – unfortunately what your brain conjures up and what your hands create are two totally separate things.

You say to yourself – how the heck do I draw [enter item] ?

Well, I can’t tell you how to draw everything. I can point you in some promising directions though. Check these tutorials out for some help!

1. How to Draw Comics on the Computer

A lot of people want to skip the pencil/pen to paper idea and would like to start from scratch using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I found this two-part tutorial on DaniDraws.com that shows you how to go about making your own comics from blank canvas to a complete inked and colored illustration.

2. How to Draw in Comic Book Style

Here’s another great lesson from GoMediaZine on how they’ve created a ‘comic book styled’ look to their promotional posters – and the process behind it.

3. How to Draw Animals

Ever wondered how to draw a Kangaroo? How about a giraffe – or maybe just how to draw a dog or cat? Here are a bunch of simple tutorials you can follow to get you started – from how-to-draw-and-paint.com

4. How to Draw Cars, Trucks, etc

Most people understand how to draw a basic vehicle, but not all vehicles are equal. This series of tutorials from HowStuffWorks.com shows you how to draw cars, trucks, vans, classic cars and more.

5. How to Draw People

DrawingCoach.com has a wonderful video series on how to draw people for portraits effectively.

6. How to Draw Buildings Using Perspective

From sketchinghouse.com comes this simple tutorial on how to use perspective to create realistic looking buildings within the city.

There are many other tutorials out there for drawing basics – if there’s one you’d like me to showcase, let me know and I’ll add it to this list.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.