how to draw

foreshortening

fig 1. example of foreshortening

foreshortening can be very difficult. when drawing something foreshortened the number one rue is to start from whatever is closest to you. in this example, that would be the horse, or al‘s cheeto-dust-covered-hand, then work back from that closest point. in my experience it‘s simply the kind of thing that just looks like garbage the whole time you‘re drawing it until one time you’re done and it looks kind of ok. then you know you‘ve mastered foreshortening.
if you really want to get super good just do life drawing classes because they always be contorting themselves in odd ways that naturally bring new ways of drawing the body and it‘s many parts at unusual angles and such.

pie lesson

^{fig 2. have a look at this simple drawing of a chef brandishing a freshly baked pie}

fig 3. this is a secret lesson in detail.
Put more detail in the pie and less in the chef‘s shoes and you‘ll be well on your way to making a spongebob cartoon.

repetition

^{fig 4. anyone who’s anyone knows how to draw a strained face from a low angle. it‘s called drama!

practice drawing these faces a lot and you‘ll unwittingly transfuse new heights of terror in future works.}

fig 5. another drawing exercise in repetition. this time, grab any item around the house, (a tape dispenser works well) and draw it at 3 different sizes. if you start big and go smaller- you will have to start culling details from the item. if you start small and go bigger, you will start to find more and more beauty in the simple object as you enlarge your work surface.

lettering in comic books

ever wondered how they do the letters in comics? in the olden days somebody would draw them all with their right hand, but usually nowadays in the industry people use fonts and just type it out into the little balloons

this is an example of big letters in comics. these were often used on title pages to deliver the story title to the reader in a dramatic and tidy way.

if you are going to letter comics on paper, then this strange tool makes it a lot easier to keep your letters the same size and in straight lines. it’s impossible to figure out how to use this on your own so just watch a 5min youtube video like this if you already have one and are interested.

here is an example of a pencilled panel from Tintin. note the text is already there but it is not in English. the artist, herge was actually Belgian and every issue of Tintin was translated into many languages from all over the world.

here is a ‘new yorker’ style tintin comic panel. ol’ herge seems to have missed the letters on this one- better have a go yourself eh? go on, have a laugh.

note the completed panel above.
Even tintin’s hand gets in the way of the speech balloon! nevermind, this letterer has masterfully worked around the obstacle, while still holding to a neat and square balloon.

in a different example from carl barks’ duck comics from a similar era. note the differences in the lettering and balloons between the two panels just shown. whereas tintin uses square balloons and lowercase letters, this panel of scrooge mcduck uses playful intersecting curves to make the balloon, while the lettering uses exclusively capitals and an exclamation point at the end of every sentence!

basically there are no rules really, just a well established framework to use as a launching pad. in this comic, (by yours truly) there are both upper and lower case lettered balloons. in the first panel, which takes up more room than the entire second half of the page, i have used capital lettering for dramatic effect, while the rest of the much-smaller panels have lower case letters to match the lowkey nature of the drawings themselves.

priorites

while it can be a blast to hone in on your favourite detail to draw.....

...do not neglect the rest of the drawing! because then your portraits will look bizarre (like this) and you’ll never make any money
[note: don’t be an idiot[note #2: upload other 98 hair tests]]

backgrounds

who else hates these? cut me a break!

we all know hw annoying it is when you draw a beautiful figure and show it to your teacher and they say, “but you’re figure is just floating in space- you need a background!”... god i hate that. well you might start with simply drwaing a window in the background, or two lines that suggest ceiling and floor- but that’s gonna look like shit so don’t even bother with that..
take a look at the image above and do what it says. placing your figure in the corner of the room can liven up your figure drastially, simply from all the lines behind it that suggest depth. it’s a nasty trick but we all do it here in the biz!

check out the above drawings of spingebob and squidwad at the kuddly krab for a jarring comparison. this animation professor is right in saying “too flat + boring”, the drawings on the left look like a little kids! while the “nice!” draawings on the right appear more like actual frames from a professional tv show. abuse these rules and you’ll add a lot of sneaky depth to those now-grounded figures you’ve been working on.

oldest trick in the book

hold up..

is that bottle of ketchup is being shaken?!
that’s right.

it’s an illusion, and you can master this trick too.

draw the thing you want in motion first, still. then draw it again a bunch more times around the first drawing in the other positions it will be in.
(works best when you don’t quite connect the lines on the ‘motion’ drawings and do them in a slightly lighter tone than the primary drawing)

on the right you will
see some awkward simpsons.
don‘t get ahead of yourself now..
things work a little differently in animation!

colouring

this 3 picture slide from a knowledge book shows superman’s cape in 3 stages of colouring. notice how it is a flat red in the first, shadow is added in the second, and a highlight is added in the third. personally i prefer the frame with no shadow or highlight, but that’s just my traditional view. I actually use shadow and highlight layers a lot in my storyboards- but that’s a whole other lesson
shown here is a page from a powerpuff girls comic book, alongside the 3 girls exact colours to be used.
the colours are listed in CMYK, which is a colouring format used for printing accuracy. RGB is probably what you are more familiar with and is used for digital colour accuracy in programs such as photoshop and procreate etc. when I learnt about CMYK colouring something clicked with me, the colour mixing is really intuitive- you can just mix in 25% increments on each of the channels (cyan, magenta, yellow) and you’ll be swimming in a world of silver age beauty.
Silver age beauty page
from 1972 spiderman comic. notice how the colouring is all flat and there are no gradients or shadows, just blocked in colour and black.
notice this page from tintin makes fantastic use of colour, making wonder out of only a few colours (all warm)
another neat trick is to just pick 1 -3 colours that look good together and stick with them.
when done correctly this will automatically give the work a sense of cohesion and lustre
this page from a graphic novel about andy kaufman has no colour does it?

WRONG.

grey is also a colour- granted this comic only uses one tone of grey
see this page before and after colour is added. note that on the left instead of white, the artist has gone with a murky grey/green/blue instead.
this is another valuable and simple trick to make use of when you‘re short for time or don‘t feel like colouring anything

more on colouring, with more examples

here is an inked page of a comic i worked on. you could say this is done already, but I felt like i could do more with it

for the final version i added a checkerboard of red paint layer over the top of my original work. i also edited the text to white in the red panels for readability

the comic i made after that one was this. I experimented with colour again here. the original page was just black ink on white, which i changed to a dark blue. i then swathshow of yellow to thhoowe frames which sat behind the blue nicely

character design

character design can make or break your drawings, so you better draw something good. here is a fine example of character design that uses the famed ‘7 item rule’ in which your character must be fully distinguishable by 7 items

don’t forget what lurks inside your characters too y’hear? and not just in that sweet heart of theirs- i mean underneath those layers! what are they hiding in there? there sure are a lot of pockets in the world

spiderman is a stellar example of character design- he just is spiderman that’s it! even when an artist has thrown a wrench by dressing him in a business shirt, everyone still knows who he really is

here is another great way to tell if your character is recognizable and brilliant- take out all of that detail and just leave the silhouette! if you can‘t tell who your character is, sorry pal. try again!

know when to stop!

this is what it looks like to draw and change it many times

this is what it looks like to colour in and change it many times

Framing101framing101

i never understood the rule of thirds intuitively at all.
a lot of my compositions were quite bad.
one day, everything just clicked for me, and it’s been a better life since. watching movies helps, especially when you pay attention to the framing of everything.
don’t skimp out on the frame! i’m sure they say that a lot around frame shops

this diagram illustrates the rule of thirds.

“ the stories are endless from that time, i just can’t right now...”

this bun is well framed. note the edge cuts right past where the lower left of the # inner square, these 4 hit marks are what you need to be finding your frames around.

three words, nine by sixteen.

that’s the cool cinema style.

anything can be look “good” if framed correctly.

this good drawing clearly employs the right things to signify that it has rule of thirds framing correctly and well, without fault.

if you’re really into composition, take some photos with your camera, and turn on the #guide, trying to mimic parts of it in your next photographs

see photo above for finding frames at dinner table

another great image utilizing the rule of thirds (taken by none other than moi).

note: tomato, eggshell, eggshell!

also note the diagonal line that
the gutter makes in the upper right-
now that’s what i call composition 2024!

reference imagery

unless you have a photographic memory,
utilizing references are a huge part of drawing

like- how many buttons does a saxophone have anyway?

here’s a brief gallery of images you might like to draw yourself
be sure to always be on the lookout for more images that may prove useful or inspire
and one day you’ll have your own collection too

That’s all Folks!
stay in touch!
or to request any specific lessons,
contact me via my about page