Doodle Diaries: Drawing style

Drawing style is such a fascinating thing. Everyone has their own style, and even if they started mimicking someone else in the beginning, over time it morphs into something unique, something inherently you.

Crazy personal theory: You can figure out a person's essence or personality from their drawing styles.

There is no supporting evidence or objective measurements on this, but I do feel like you can gauge something about the artist when you look at how they draw.

There are some art styles that immediately makes me smile upon seeing them because they look so warm and full of heart. Some art styles are incredible skill-wise but it doesn't stir up any emotion other than "hey wow that's pretty good". Some art styles look pretty but feel dull, and some art styles feel downright unpleasant.

I have no idea what styles usually make me feel such things because it's entirely subjective and I haven't really found a recurring pattern yet.

Also, just because someone's art style doesn't do it for me doesn't mean that the artist is unskilled. My preferences are not based on skill and that style might just be another person's absolute favorite.

(Although with the "unpleasant" art, is IS more often than not based on skill. Usually the artist has a poor grasp of facial anatomy so their subjects look "off" or slightly creepy)

But when I look at art styles I like, I get a feeling that if I were to meet the artist in real life, our personalities would click and we'd be good friends.

I wonder what my style says about me.

Doodle Diaries: How I draw

For no reason other than "I felt like it", here is a sort of step by step process of how I draw.

First, I do a rough sketch.

I also draw other characters too, I swear.
I just happened to be drawing Jun when I thought I should write about how I draw...

When I'm satisfied with the sketch, I start to pencil.

I notice something off with the posture while penciling. Is it the arms? I arm-stretch in front of the mirror to check. No, that's not the problem. But something is definitely wrong.

I google-image search "arm stretching":

Ohhhhh, the shoulders! (I can't believe I missed that when I posed in front of the mirror) I re-draw the shoulders.

Re-drawing the shoulders ruins the entire composition because the initial sketch and lines were built on an anatomically incorrect posture. I re-sketch most of the body and weep internally. I should have just used references, I think to myself.

I pencil again.

I also re-sketched the legs like four times. Help me.

I don't know how other people do it, but I tend to erase and pencil simultaneously bit by bit until I'm done.

I am more careful and when erasing pencil marks on the more detailed parts of the drawing, i.e. head and face.

I fix more details. For instance, Jun doesn't have a prominent nose like that, and his nose bridge is  a bit more sloped down.

I end up having to re-draw the mouth and chin when I fixed his nose because the entire face line no longer works and changing one thing changes everything.

I use light pencil strokes to portray muscle definition. There is a lot of trial and error because I do not have a firm grasp on anatomy. 

Why did I decide to record the process of a drawing that has a lot of muscles? I think to myself. But it's too late now.

After the fourth or fifth attempt I just settle with what I have, anatomy be damned.

I google image search "training shoes" for reference because I honestly cannot draw most shoes to save my life. I draw shoes.

Finally finished lining!

I "color" my drawing using pencil strokes.

Narrower pencil strokes indicate dark colors, wider pencil strokes indicate medium-toned colors. Non-colored spaces are supposed to be white or bright colors. Light pencil strokes indicate shading.

Sometimes I wonder why I don't just ink and color instead of pencil-stroking all the time, but this is how I roll.

Drawing is now complete.

Sometimes I fix bits and pieces after "finishing" a drawing.

Good example is a picture I drew the other day (feat: Thomas). I sketched, lined, and colored like I explained above and considered this drawing completed.

But upon further inspection, I found that Thomas's right leg, if he were to un-bend it, would be significantly longer than his left leg and therefore anatomically impossible. Also, that's not where his knees should be located. My friend Robert also told me that the vest was too long.

So I fixed all these things. The vest is shorter, and Thomas's posture looks much more natural.

Needless to say it takes a while. If I were to sit down and do the entire process nonstop, it would take several hours. Usually the process takes me a day or two because I stop every once in a while to take a break or do life things like work, eat, sleep, etc.

It's still one of the most fun things to do in the world for me.

Doodle Diaries: Difficulties - What's the point of all this?

I think one of the biggest issues when I'm drawing - other than drawing hurdles and trying to improve - is trying to convince myself that this isn't all meaningless time-wasting in the end.

What are you getting out of this? Why do you even want to do this? Why don't you go outside and explore the world in that time? It's not like this will help you with your career or anything of the sort.

I was talking to a school friend at one point in time - I introduced him to a game, and he got quite good at it, even better than me. Never mind that I'm not really a good gamer to begin with so a lot of people can play better me after some practice

But this didn't lead to him discovering a newfound hobby. He was amused by the game, for sure, but he said he preferred being out and about. "I just feel like, when I just stay indoors like that for a long time - there's so much of the world to explore outside, you know?" he said.

This was about gaming, not drawing. And the tone of voice indicated he didn't mean any offense; he had his own preferences, as did I. But nonetheless that statement stuck with me for a long time.

But you can do some sort of art-related side job, YJS! Make a webcomic or sell prints!

But you see, that's the notion that I have an issue with - that it's not a time-waster only if I can turn it into money. Isn't that the point of a hobby? Something you enjoy without expecting monetary gain?

I get anxious when I think about turning my hobby into a side job. It's something a lot of people suggest to me, like it's something one has to do in life, like getting married or having babies.

Perhaps I only feel this way because I did contemplate art school at one point. I ultimately decided to pursue a writing-related career because while I loved drawing, I absolutely hated drawing when I didn't want to or not being able to draw what I wanted, which is not a good attitude to have for a job.

I certainly do not regret choosing my current path. I do love writing as much as drawing, and I have a much larger endurance for it (and writing jobs don't come any easier than art jobs!) And given my art funk during college years, art school could have been a very terrible time.

And yet I wonder about the road I did not take. The could haves and would haves, all boiling down to constantly questioning myself: What's the point of all this?

Doodle Diaries: Trials and Tribulations - Digital Drawing (1)

So I'm an analog caveman who mostly draws using pencil and paper.

I've always wanted to draw digitally, but as a high schooler I never jumped the gun because standard drawing tablets are over $100 and Photoshop also costs a lot, which sounded like a lot of money back then. There was also the fact that I was technologically challenged.

As I grew older and $100+ no longer sounded like a lot of money I was considering buying a tablet at some point. But then I got a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 when I came to Korea.

Galaxy Note 4 came with a stylus pen, which apparently makes for a pretty good makeshift tablet, according to the internet. So you're telling me I got myself a free mini tablet when I got a new phone? Sweet!

I'm pretty sure artists own separate tablets from their phones, but since I was not a professional and still technologically challenged, I decided my phone was a good enough substitute for the time being.

I downloaded the drawing app SketchBook X and have been attempting to draw digitally since last year.

You may or may not have seen me upload doodles like this on Facebook.

These were easy and fun, but I needed to teach myself how to draw more complicated things and actually learn how to color.

I only attempted "serious" drawings about 4-5 times last year because I was still in a drawing funk, but I did try. My first few attempts were laughably pathetic.

LOL what are layers? Let me color on the same layer that I lined things on!

I have no idea what I'm doing.

I had no clear concept of these so-called "layers" everyone kept talking about or why you needed them when drawing. (I wasn't kidding about the technologically challenged part.) After the first two atrocities, I finally understood.

So I tried drawing again, now using layers.

Layers can make you color backgrounds behind a person without ruining the drawing!

Squiggly spirals of joy at finally figuring out layers at the laughably old age of 25. 

I was trying out different lining styles.

So I finally figured out the deal with layers. But I still had a very, very long way to go.

Also, I'm not sure if it's noticeable, but my level of drawing would deteriorate when drawing digitally. The anatomy is slightly off in places and facial features look rather flat.

Drawing with a stylus feels really different from drawing with a pencil, enough of a difference that it affects my skill level.

The skill deterioration was much more apparent when I downloaded another drawing app Medibang a few months ago.

This was the result of me test-drawing to familiarize myself with the new app:

One word: WHY.

And THIS was my terrible, terrible attempt to draw one of my characters on the new app:

OH GOD. OH GOD. I'M SO SORRY JUN.
OH GOD HIS FACE IS MELTING.

WHY CAN'T I DRAW PROPERLY WITH A STYLUS AND WHY DID MY SKILLS GET WORSE?!

Thankfully, Medibang had a feature that SketchBook did not: the feature that allows you to draw over a photograph.

Pencil sketch

Brought over to Medibang for tracing

Finished result (I was experimenting with lining styles again)

I've heard of artists who line over their pencil sketches when drawing digitally. I wondered why they wouldn't just start from scratch. I finally found out why.

I did a round 2 for Jun to atone for my sins.

What Jun is supposed to look like.

I think I'll line my drawings in this method for the time being until I get a better hang of using a stylus.

Meanwhile, I still need to learn how to color properly.

Doodle Diaries: Difficulties - Hands

HANDS, THE BANE OF MY DRAWING PROCESS.

How do you draw hands?!

I see other people's art and they are able to draw beautiful hands, long and thin and bony and just bursting with movement:

Just look at that hand.

SO BONY AND DETAILED.

Look a these hands doing things!

Meanwhile, when I draw hands they look closer to sausages. I also apparently have no idea how wrists look like, or that people should have wrists at all.

I don't understand: I use my hands as reference to figure out joints and knuckle placement and everything but they still end up looking like stubby sausages. What am I doing wrong???

And then one day I took a good long look at my own hand.

 Oh.

My own hands look like stubby sausages. Let me guess, I don't have a prominent wrist either?

Haha nope! Screw this.

*Cries forever*