Painting & Rendering Tips

in response to an ask about how i do rooms! here you go! it’s super simple and fun~!

sorry i didn’t go into a huge amount of detail, i hope it’s not too “draw the rest of the owl” lmfao

Hey friends!

Meg here for this week’s TUTOR TUESDAY! This week I go over just a little trick that I like to use when drawing and connecting arms/hands/legs/feet ect. This helps me with foreshortening as well. I hope it helps you folks as well! I have tutorials that talk more specifically about hand/foot/leg anatomy here. If you have any tutorial recommendations send ‘em in here or my personal. Now go forth and I’ll see you next week!

How to draw FEET, SHOES and BOOTS tutorial by STUDIOBLINKTWICE

Ay yo binch, how you draw teeths so good. They look great

Thanks! :^)

Usually I just start by filling in the mouth (all black since I mostly sketch in black and white) and then I use an eraser to make the shapes for the insides of the mouth (teeth, tongue). Since Ruby has monster-ish teeth, I draw them pretty sharp.

Draw different shapes and fill them in!

Hi Fer! I simply love your blog and tutorials so much, but I was wondering on how you draw masculine bodies? My drawings have been female and slender men, and when I try... it just doesn't look right. So any tips can be really helpful because I want to try and draw different body shapes. Thank you so much! <3

easiest thing is probably to widen the shoulders and up the muscle mass! it really helps to study anatomy so you know which areas to exaggerate. a more muscular/masculine person will have a more defined sternocleidomastoid (in blue) and bigger traps (green); basically a thicker neck. playing with the shoulder to hip ratio will help as well. i guess if you want a super manly man just make him look like a dorito

Can you make like a little color picking tutorial, my drawings always look so out of place when i color them >.<

Okay so this is probably not the best coloring tutorial and I’m sorry ahead of time because I’m not the best at explaining colors nor am I any expert lol. I don’t actually use color palettes but I highly recommend them, esp to keep a whole artwork consistent with color schemes. You can easily just google “aesthetic color palettes” or “90′s anime color palettes” which is my go to types of colors heh. 

Anyway, I made an explanation/tutorial on how I usually achieve the colors on my art. There are plenty of other ways but this is some basics on filtering. 

And after that, if I’m not satisfied with the colors I just go to Filter -> and adjust the Hue of the opacity or the multiply layer. 

Once I’m satisfied, I just merge all the layers and clean the art up, sometimes I add even more colors and blend them. (This probably deserves an explanation on it’s own but I wouldn’t mind explaining how I paint! ><) 

And here’s somewhat of the finished art lol;;; (sweats) 

Cleaning up my files and forgot that I had all these wing studies from circa. 2015 so thought, y’know what, I don’t need to hold onto these, so have this as a little gift from me to whomst ever needs some quick wings for their OC’s, AU’s, and Art.

Obviously, I’m not the best with drawing hands. But that basic shape helped me with drawing hands best. (Circle works for me too but not as good as that ‘fan shape’ my professor taught our class).

Don’t forget to keep practicing and using real life references–It’s the best way to draw good hands! Take your time drawing them! Don’t rush (unless you really wanna) It’s not a competition.

Got questions? Feel free to ask!

How to show expression with the mouth!

This was a request and at first I wasn’t sure if I had anything to provide with, but as it turn out it got a little longer than I expected because there were actually things I had to say!! Wow!! 

Anyway, this is some guidelines I follow when I try to make the face expressfull, more specifically the mouth! It is often neglected, since it’s actually pretty hard, I’ll admit. But I’m here to help (hopefully…)! A mouth expression tutorial as per request. Enjoy and hopefully it will help some a little. ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

Draw the teeth at the right angle. 

This is super important. The upper jaw follows the angle of the head, and the lower jaw will depend on how open it is. Make sure you have a rough estimate of where the teeth are, and how much of them you’re going to see!

The lips will VERY roughly follow the same angle as the teeth. It really depends on the character, but it gives you a sense at least. 

If you DON’T do this, you’re going to lose so much volume and the mouth is going to end up looking unrelatable. I showed this example in this tutorial:

It’s not just the lips! 

The cheeks, chin, and tongue play a role too! 

Try look at your own mouth or references! I have a very pliable and large mouth, so that’s one reason why my characters have it too lmao.

ASYMMETRYYYYY (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง

I cannot emphasize how important asymmetry is when drawing expressions. It applies not only to the eyebrows to achieve the Dreamwork Face™, but also the mouth. Seriously if you draw a symmetric mouth I will deliver myself to your mailbox and then shout at you until you fix it. 

Look at the difference between these two for example: which one has more “life”? 

I think you get the idea.

Push and squish - give it flow

Here’s an old drawing I have but it illustrates how I think when I squish the mouth, and use folding and wrinkles to my advantage.

Look at your own face and see where skin bundles up, where it creases the most and when bumps appear on your chin. Subtle details makes all the difference! 

One VERY effective detail is illustrated in the first sketch, where I pull upwards on one side, and downwards on the other. That’s a good detail to use when the character is making a skewed expression, or is extremely frustrated. I encourage you to play around with that concept bc it’s ~super effective~!

EXAMPLES:

Happy: Your entire mouth is pushed upwards, not just the corners of your mouth!

I tend to draw a :3 mouth bc I’ve been drawing Lance too much….. You don’t have to but it’s basically imprinted in my motor memory by now. 

Pouting/frowning: corners are pushed down, middle pushed slightly up. Sometimes, there’s a slight dip in the middle too. It can give a sense that the character is biting their lips.

Showing frustration/intimidating/is intimidated: basically showing a lot of teeth. The corners are as open as possible and the middle sorta more squished. An extremely important detail here is showing some of the gums, and open space between the cheeks and teeth. That way it looks like the mouth it open to it’s full potential. Here is also where you basically MUST add folds and bumps, or else it’s not going to look relatable. 

(Here I am again with the pulling upwards on one side and downwards on the other, as illustrated on the last sketch)

And then again, here’s just another doodle showing how important it is to show the gums. It’s the same face twice, but the second one looks slightly more frustrated doesn’t it?

(from my other tutorial on how to draw facial expressions)

As you can see, this last one is very versatile and I draw it a lot. Play around with the basic shape and see how much subtle details makes a lot of difference! 

That’s it! 

I hope that cleared some things up and was somewhat helpful! Enjoy drawing ✨