DISCLAIMER I do not claim to be an amazing artist and in fact I still have a long way to go. I'm posting my studies basically in case anyone wants to learn too. I learn from copying really and then applying whatever knowledge I gain. Hope it's useful! So you wanna learn how to draw? Well, I do too. I recently just played the Last of Us and it's amazing so I decided to do some drawing studies based on the game. (And some help from its artbook) GESTURE First thing we think of drawing usually is people. To draw people effectively you need to learn gesture. It's the most basic thing. Gesture is what helps your person not look like a cardboard and breathes life into it. The power of gesture is so important that animators even use it to convey emotions through sacks. The orange line is what animators call the Line of Action. We're attached to our spines so our spines give us a general direction of our gesture. In the drawing, there's an example of someone standing perfectly still (which we avoid) and someone whose weight is shifted. COLOR VALUE It's basically how you play around with lights and shadows. This is really important in setting the mood, time of day and things like that. Here, I'm drawing Joel from the Last of us. We need to capture his personality through gestures to make him seem real. From how he stands, to how he holds a gun. The little things matter. And this one's Ellie. Here, I wanted to show how simple lines can define the overall gesture of a person. The color values here are more prominent making it feel like she's in a dark place. That's it for today. Hope it actually helps!
This is amazing, Nick! But no matter how many guides you make, best I can do is still stick figures.