art guru!!!!

ART GURU.

BUT NO in all seriousness, thank you! You’re a sweetheart! ;O; Proportions are pretty awful to get down when you’re just starting out, and while there are a bunch of ways you can start practicing with it, it’ll be difficult to be absolutely precise. I still struggle with proportions occasionally. Fun fact: I don’t post all of my work. I only post the work that turned out okay aHA. So basically don’t be frustrated when every single piece doesn’t turn out. Here are a few tips.

Let’s use this picture of Laurence and Hugh because why not.

They’ve both got eyes, a nose, and a mouth, so why do they look different?

These lines are the generic way of mapping out where to put things together. I used this when I was starting out and it’s a helpful way of getting your hand and wrist to work together. At this point they both nearly look the same. I say this a lot, but I think it’s important: shape is what puts a drawing together.

Compare features of the face to help you figure out placement.

For example:

The bottom of his ear lines up right to the middle of his nostril. His tear ducts line up right at the corners of his mouth. Then you can get super technical and say, oh, the outer corner of his eye lines up with that fold in his collar and then from there you can see other things like the approximate distance from the edge of his mouth to that connecting line from the eye to the collar. They don’t meet so his mouth is smaller than the width of his eyes, etc, etc. Whatever works, man.

This is a favorite technique of mine so lemme use another example:

Eventually you get to the point where most of your proportional accuracy will come from just looking. You will eventually adjust your eye to see what makes a person who they are by the shape of their features.

Laurence has narrow, oval shaped eyes, while Hugh has more of a diamond shape. Not everyone has perfect almond shaped eyes. You can capture an entire character personality through their eyes alone, so shaping them out is extremely important.

The way you draw your lines is also important. Sharp and smooth lines will give your drawing personality. Reveals the character, in a sense.

Other things to consider: the shape of the nose.

Mads’ is flat and goes down in a steady slope, while Hugh’s juts out in a smooth, almost concave curve.

SHAPES SHAPES SHAPES. Use shapes and structure to find proportion.

I did a lot more than I anticipated omg. Oh gosh and I have a feeling I kinda just rambled and didn’T MAKE ANY SENSE AH. Let me know if you need more help or if I was speaking gibberish I am so bad at putting my thoughts into words aHHHH. But gosh I hope this was at least vaguely helpful. You’re a darling and thank you for your kind words!

Good luck on your artistic endeavors! /hugs