Art Tips
(or, "How To Draw Comics the Pini Way!")
by Linda Tam © 1995
First appeared in the
Eight-of-Dreams Holt
Handbook,
January, 1995.
Notes to the HTML Version of this document:
I haven't changed the text of this document, which addresses the members of my Holt.
Now that I'm aiming it at a more general audience, some changes may be in order
(for example, the bit that talks about submitting your work to the Holt fanzine
just doesn't apply!). I haven't gotten around to it yet. Just ignore anything that
doesn't apply to you.
Second, this wonderful HTML universe makes it very easy to append other people's feedback
to this document. Pop down to Feedback at the bottom of this page
for some additional slants and comments on drawing Pini Elves.
Hi, Sweetwind here. I want to share a few hints and insights that have
helped me improve my drawings over the years. Some of these may be specific to the
style I use, and I don't want to force everyone into the same style, but most of these
tips will help everyone.
Contents:
The single most helpful thing I ever learned was in my first day of Basic Drawing with
Paul Darrow (good old Mr. Darrow). He spent about fifteen minutes discussing the proportions
of the face and head and after that single lecture my art improved 100%. The trouble is the
difference between what we see when we look at someone's face, and how the face actually looks.
When you talk to someone, you spend most of the time looking into their eyes, and at their
mouth. As a result, when you go to draw a face you come out with something like a
"smiley face."
Figure 1.
It's cheerful but it's definitely not realism.
Here's how Mr. Darrow instructed us to draw the face (I earnestly hope you'll take out a
pencil and a scrap of paper and follow along with these instructions): Let's start with an
oval head shape.
Figure 2.
(Other shapes are possible, for example a round or squarish face. For an excellent example
of different face shapes, see the
first Elfquest Gatherum, p. 61.)
To help yourself
place the features you should sketch in guidelines splitting the head into quarters.
Figure 3.
(Of course, all this is in pencil so you can erase your boo-boos, as well
as erasing the guidelines when you're finished.) Now, here comes the shocker: the eyes are
placed on the centerline that divides the face into upper and lower halves.
Figure 4.
Surprised? I sure was. I had never noticed that people had so much forehead over their eyes.
So the eyes go halfway down the head. The nose ends halfway between the eyes and the chin.
Figure 5.
The lips go halfway between the bottom of the nose and the chin.
Figure 6.
Now just throw some hair on
Figure 7.
and you've got a halfway decent human face.
For a three-quarters or other angle view of the head, keep in mind that
the oval (or other face shape) is not flat but roughly spherical, and draw your guidelines
along the surface of the sphere.
Figure 8.
For a profile, remember that the neck is rarely straight up-and-down. It usually angles
forward to meet the jawline. The angle from the neck continues upward in the forehead,
but between the forehead and the neck the lower half of the face juts out like a
"muzzle".
Figure 9.
Compare with the Dreamchant study included here.
Note that, in a profile, the lips are always placed in front of the eyes. Take a look at
the person next to you if you don't believe me!
The above is pretty much the same for both elves and humans, although elves' eyes are
much larger and uptilted at the outside corners, and most of their other features are
smaller and more delicate. That brings us to ears.
Mr. Darrow says that the bottom of the earlobe is level with the bottom of the nose,
and the top is level with the top of the eyes.
Figure 11.
That's true for humans and partly true for elves. The elfin earlobe is level with the
bottom of the nose. Now observe the shape of the Elfquest elf's ear (Figure 12A).
Figure 12.
It can be broken down into two components, a regular round ear plus a pointed extension
(Figure 12B).
The top of the round ear part is just about even with the top of the eye, as in humans.
The point continues up until it is nearly level with the top of the head.
Figure 13.
This holds true for the "short elves," including Wolfriders, Sun Folk, and Go-Backs.
The ears of the "tall elves" (High Ones, Gliders, and ancient elves like Savah and
Heat) are not so large, they end almost level with the eyes like those of humans.
The "tall elves" differ from the "short elves" in another important
proportion. A lot of the tall elves' height (and that of humans, too) comes from long legs.
Compare the illos of Nightfawn (left) and Nightfire (right) (Figure 14).
Figure 14.
You can tell the human has proportionally longer legs. (Nightfawn's legs are longer both
absolutely and proportionally.) Wendy Pini writes "navel divides figure length exactly
in half" on a study of Cutter in the first Elfquest Gatherum (p. 129). The same
rule holds true for all the short elves. Look again at the illo of Nightfire, and measure
from her feet to her belly button with your thumb and finger. It should be the same distance
as from her belly button to the top of her head. Now do the same thing with Nightfawn - you
can see that her legs make up much more of her body size. "Halfway down the human figure
is where the legs begin," as Mr. Darrow used to say. Or as Wendy might have put it,
"crotch divides figure length exactly in half!" You should be
able to see the same difference of proportion in any panel drawn by Wendy that contains both
an elf and a human, or a short elf and a High One. (I specify Wendy because some of the other
EQ artists have problems with proportion themselves.)
You'll notice, in Figure 14, that I've marked off the height of the head
of each figure and used that height as a rule to measure the rest of the body. This is a
method commonly used by artists to get proportions right. Wendy even specifies that Cutter
should be drawn five heads high (first Elfquest Gatherum, p. 129) as I've shown
Nightfire to be.
Classical art has traditionally depicted humans at about 7 1/2 heads high.
Michelangelo's David
is just about seven heads high. With Nightfawn at seven heads high,
I'm not drawing her strictly correctly - as she is such a tall woman, one might
expect her to be drawn eight or even nine heads tall, a very tall person's proportions.
But I never liked the pin-head way that looks (I guess that's why I enjoy drawing elves so much!)
Modern art books will say eight heads high or even 8 3/4 is correct for the average human.
But let's not let these guidelines hem us in too strictly. For one thing, each individual
is a different shape and has his or her own proportions. The most important thing I want you
to get out of this section is that the different races have different bodily proportions.
(That includes Preservers, whose hands, feet, fingers, and toes are proportionally very
elongated, and trolls, whose proportions I still haven't figured out yet.)
Here's how I try to keep the proportions right while drawing. I sketch
the figure lightly in pencil and mark where the navel (crotch for a human) is. Then I adjust
the size of the figure until the proportions look right. Drawing a stick figure also can
help in getting the proportions right. One self-check method that really helps is to look
at the paper upside-down. Often when something isn't quite right but you don't know what,
the error will leap out at you when viewed from a different angle. Whatever method you find
helps with the sketching, use it before you begin to fill in the detail. Only start drawing
definite lines and features after you have outlined the overall figure,
with its proportions correct.
The child is even shorter than the short elf and its head is therefore proportionally larger.
And the younger the child, the more so - consider the newborn baby, which is about three or
four heads high, full length! This is something a lot of artists have trouble with simply
because they don't often draw children. If you go to your local library, at Dewey Decimal
number 743.4 you'll find books on figure drawing which will discuss the head-measurement
method and will list every obscure proportion you could think of (the hand is 3/4 heads long,
etc.) - for adults. It's hard to find a life-drawing book that discusses
children or the elderly.
Male and female children both have a straight tubular body with flat chest and perhaps a
hint of potbelly. The hips are the same length across as their shoulders. (In adults, the
hips are wider than the shoulders for females, and the opposite is true for males.)
Children's eyes are larger in proportion to their face than those of the adult. The mouth
is proportionally smaller than the adult's, with a slight pout or cupid's-bow curve.
To try to achieve the correct proportions, use a reference: a live child
of the right age, or a photo or good drawing. Sketch lightly and erase a lot
until the proportions look right. Recheck by looking at your drawing from different angles.
Then start drawing the outlines and filling in the detail.
In all figure drawing it's best to work from a live model. But kids have
a hard time sitting still, and elves are rare around here.
The next best thing is to work from a picture.
Fortunately, we have plenty of pictures of elves!
No matter what you want to draw, a male elf crouching, a female running, a child asleep,
you're bound to find it somewhere in the hundreds of pages of Elfquest.
Use the picture as a guide to proportion, and see what kinds of line and shading were used.
If you can't draw something yourself, copy it.
Don't trace it, but look at the picture and try to duplicate the lines
with your own hand on a different sheet of paper. If you do this several times you will
soon be able to draw it without a reference. This is exactly how I learned to draw the
face from a three-quarter view. That's why there's not much on three-quarter faces in the
"Anatomy & The Head" section - I was never really taught to do it so I don't
know how to teach anybody.
Consider the two pictures of a cuffed boot in
Figures 15a and 15b.
Figure 15.
Doesn't one look more stilted and unnatural? That's because of the difference in perspective.
The top of the boot in Figure 15a must be lined up directly with your eyes, it appears,
since the rim can be seen as a straight line. That's an unnatural place for a boot to be.
Boots are usually on the ground, but even if you put a boot up on a table, you'd still be
looking down on it. Figure 15b shows the boot from the perspective of someone looking downwards
at it. The rim of the boot is seen to be an oval shape, and the bottom rim of the cuff curves
to echo the top rim's shape. So Figure 15b looks more natural.
What does the cuffed boot look like with a foot in it? The same, except
two lines protrude from the top of the boot. In the boot with perspective,
the leg blocks the back part of the curve of the top, and the rim can be seen to curve
around and disappear behind the leg. The way the cuff curves around the leg gives a strong
3D effect to the leg in Figure 15d which is absent from the leg in Figure 15c.
A lot of other items in your drawings will benefit from the same consideration.
Almost everything people wear curves around the body somehow - necklines, belts,
wrist-, arm- and head-bands, halter tops and vests. This is because, if you drew the
object alone without the body inside it, you would be showing it from a perspective
which is not straight-on but at a slight angle. You'd be able to see part of the
sides and back of the object. When the object is worn, the body blocks the back from
view but not the sides. Notice how, in
Figure 10,
you can see Dreamchant's torc curve around and disappear behind her neck.
Capturing this effect will enhance the depth of your drawings.
Consider the light source in your drawing. Is the sun out? It makes sharp lines and deep shadows.
Is the light source on the left side of the drawing? Then all the shadows should point
to the right. Make your shadows consistent - if one object in a scene casts a shadow,
then the other objects ought to as well.
Read the character sheet fully and acquaint yourself with the elf before drawing a picture
of him or her. You wouldn't want to draw a left-handed elf holding her sword in her right hand,
would you? Send (a copy of) your drawing of any active persona to the character's owner for
approval before submitting it to Dreamsongs.
Remember, you are probably your own harshest critic. When you look at your own drawing right
after you've drawn it (or while drawing it), all you can see is the flaws. In a way that's good,
because you'll learn from your mistakes. But if it causes you to crumple up the paper and go
watch TV instead, that's bad. Have someone else look at the drawing before you give up on it.
The 'zine editor and editor-in-chief will probably drool and say
"That's wonderful!!!" (and yes, you can hear all three
exclamation points). They have rescued pieces that I was about to throw away!
Keep in mind that although the flaws in the art may be real, your
perception of them is probably exaggerated. For years, when I thought back to the last
illo I did for
Robert Delaney's
story
"Dreamfinder: Legacy of the Starcrossed"
(Figure 16), all I could remember about it was that one of Dreamfinder's boobs came out bigger than
the other. I had been very frustrated with the drawing. I almost didn't submit it.
But recently I happened to take a look at it after not having seen it for several years
and I thought, "Hey, this isn't half bad!" The flaw is a small thing, really,
but it's tough for an artist to be objective about his or her work at the time that
it is produced.
Figure 16.
So, in short, send in anything you do! It is probably better than you think it is.
And if not, well, a page of the 'zine with the worst drawing in the world looks better
than a page with a blank white space, or a page with nothing but text. The editors are
greedy for all kinds of art! Seeing your work in the 'zine will encourage you to continue
drawing and improving.
Return to Sweetwind's Home Page