For African American History Month I Thought I Make A Small Tribute Piece To One Of My Favorite Cartoon

#658 Greninja

Woohoo! I love that Ninja!

I need this

“What have you been up to lately?” THIS

This will be a big help, thank you

Faces! Part 1- Specifically the ‘circle-thing’

Remember this? If you’ve done any classes or seen any tutorials, you’re bound to see this thing. I personally fell in love with it. It’s very easy to get a feel for the movement of the face & jaw, the general placement of the head and how the character will look.

There’s not too much of a wrong way to do it. Just remember this:

The circle is not the whole head, it only encompasses what would be your skull without the jaw attached (if you wanna draw a skull tho, you need a bit more than the circle. Those things are more complex than you think.)

Add a jaw before placing the guidelines. 

The neck connects to the jaw with a small pouch, important for profiles. (See an example below.)

The guidelines, to me, are really for seeing the width of the motion, the placement of the features. Occasionally, I don’t even use the guidelines. Sometimes I put features like the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth to remember the expression later when I go back and finish the linework (which tends to change slightly).

Use the guidelines in whichever way you want. I tend to do one of two things:

Put the eyes on the line, using the end of the triangle to find the end of the nose

Put the eyes under the line, using the triangle more for determining the size of the eyes and expression.

Whatever feels right it what you should do. More you fiddle with it the better you get:

Remember this when making expressions- squash and stretch.

The longer the jawline, the wider the mouth is, the thinner the face is.

Look at references of real people with different expressions. How does their face squash or stretch? 

Common expressions with stretch: Gasps, Yawns, Ear-to-Ear Smiles, Any Time They Yell.

Common expressions with squash: Pouts, Frowns, Closed-Mouth Smiles, Clenched Jaws, Furrowed Brows.

The only time I don’t make the circle first is when the head is tilted up and I need to see some of that little area under the jawline.

Reminder: This is my personal shortcut and what works for me might not work for you! Don’t worry if it doesn’t work for you!

I start with the jawline then curve up to the top of the head and make the circle last, just to get a feel for where everything will go and the curve of the head -I usually make the back of the head too small- then you can add the features. I suggest always connect the head to the neck before doing anything else.

(It all gets easier with practice.  Look at references- I don’t suggest looking up ‘drawing reference’ or you’ll get a bunch of drawings, which may help for in-style work, but, looking at real humans always beats drawings. look up ‘figure’ ‘face’ ‘head’ and ‘art reference’.)

A related point:

Children have tall foreheads and a small area for their facial features. I remember one tutorial that helped me with children was that you don’t put the eyes in the circle like you would with an adult/teen, but under it.

Welp, that’s about it. The best teacher is time, and the more you do it the better you get! Have fun and just keep at it!

Part 2 for faces: Guidelines & Features

Want to see more tutorials? Tell me what you’d like to see me cover. This confuse you or you’re stuck on something? Tell me and maybe show me what you’re working on and I can help to the best of my ability!

yes I love this, the curved background, the perspective in the bodies. and the designs of the octolings and agent 3 are just so... FRESH! nice work

Finally used up all of my splatoon hype as we now wait for the new Octo Expansion pack.  I just love the new designs for the octoling characters that we’re now able to play and it gives such a refreshing spark to draw more splatoon again. And the potential lore for the subway system and these newly colored octoling soldiers just leaves so many theories to for the mind. 

cosplay poll

So last weekend I was at Cincinnati comic con, and i had a blast i even took a lot of pictures of people in cosplay that I made a poll where people can vote on the best. And the best one gets drawn in full color. want to know more? click on the link for the poll. (don’t worry it’s only 5 questions long)

https://apps.facebook.com/my-polls/coolest-cosplay-to-draw-block-a?from=admin_wall&seed=901

Honestly I like this story the voice actors and I just love BW’s design

Please welcome Amber Midthunder as the voice of BW! 

Amber is an extremely talented young actress.  Mostly known for her main role on the FX produced Marvel show “Legion” portraying Kerry Loudermilk.  She’s also been featured in such films as “Hell or High Water”, “Priceless” and TV shows such as “Roswell, New Mexico” and “Longmire”. Her first speaking role was at the age of nine opposite Alan Arkin in the indie film “Sunshine Cleaning”.

She also has a hand at writing and directing, her 2013 short film “Don’t” won 1st prize at the Native Cinema Showcase.

Amber brought such a natural, down to earth sense to the character, something we wanted to contrast with the cartoonyness of the rest of the cast.  We’re extremely grateful she could bring this character to life!

if you would like to contact me for commission please fill out this form, I also do gif’s and 10$ is just the base price extra. One more thing I only accept PayPal s such as character shot, or style will cost extra https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Rn-MDDBqVzX6rHb9f6Lrl6vD9JINBC-bEitZiLka52U/viewform

I heard of the octo expansion and I figured Tetrox would greet all the new octolings with a party and not tell Arnick because that how she rolls. 

Fyi you can Sr. Potter getting all the action

Tetrox and Arnick belong to Tamrinfrog

Splatoon is owned by Nintendo

I could use this practice

Pose/perspective practice stuff