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¦Welcome¦
¦Introduction to Art¦
¦Getting Started¦
¦Shapes and figures¦
¦Body Parts and faces¦
¦Colors¦
¦Shading¦
¦Background¦
¦Suggestions From The Artist¦
¦Links and Credits¦
Sorry this page has been put on hold while my computer is being worked on. I will resume work on it in early to late august once my computer is repaired or it has been replaced. Thanks
~Aura
Be sure to check out this tutorial on Neopound
How many times have you wandered around onto a petpage and saw the user's amazing artwork and thought: "I wish I could draw like that." Then how many times have you said to yourself that you can't draw? That, my friend is where you are wrong. Everyone can draw if given the chance. Like anything in life, being an artist doesn't come right away. It takes time and practice to learn and improve. Yes, there are those who are naturally gifted, but on average any artist will tell you - the best way to improve is practice, practice, and more practice! Oftentimes, you can learn a lot just by practicing, but it helps to have a guide to teach you and give you a basic idea of the rights and wrongs of art. With this tutorial I will attempt to outline some of the basics of art to help get you started on your artist career or hobby.
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So what is art anyways? According to the Webster dictionary it's "The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium." In actuality there is no agreed upon definition for what art is. Art, in a sense, is an expression of oneself and one's creativity. It is used to invoke a sense of beauty and emotion as well as adhere to the human mind or spirit. Throughout history, art has been used as a way to communicate what words cannot say. It has been used as a way of writing, storytelling, or just a means of life. No matter where you go art is always around us.
So what would classify as Art? Well art can be almost anything you can imagine in any media you can find. From paint to trash anything can me turned into art… though some are more appealing than others. So what is the right media for you? The best way is to experiment and find the ones you enjoy most. For now we will just discuss traditional mediums and the increasingly popular digital mediums. Each have there advantages and disadvantages.
- Traditional medium such as graphite, paints, charcoal, pastels and others are easy to find at an inexpensive price. Just go down to any hobby lobby and you can find any traditional mediums you want. They are easy to use, and with practice, can have beautiful results. They can, however, also be used up quickly. Some of them can also be rather messy and difficult to clean up if you spill them. But overall, when someone talks about art, the traditional media tends to be the first thing that comes to mind.
- Digital Medias are becoming increasingly popular in our modern world of technology. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop are some of the more common programs of choice among artists. They are a renewable source that will never run out, but they can also be expensive and more difficult to use. We all know how hard it is to try to draw with a mouse instead of a pencil.This is why drawing tablets were produced, however, they too can be quite expensive. If you have the funds to invest in such things, they can be a rewarding source of artwork and provide many job opportunities in the future.
If you're a beginner it's best to experiment and look around to find something that will give you the end product you desire. Finding the media that is right for you can take some time, but overall, you will find that working with a media you like will make working on a picture more enjoyable
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Now that you have chosen a media, you can move on to the first step in drawing. Behind every good picture is an idea. Before you even start to draw, it's wise to have an idea of what you want your picture to look like. This, however, can be the most difficult part of art. Getting inspiration can be difficult, and because of this, artists often suffer from artist blocks. Some ways to get ideas are to listen to music or find inspiration from nature. Everyone has different methods to finding their inspiration. If you're using a traditional media it's always good to have good light source so you can see what you're doing.
 Once you have your idea, its time to sketch it out. Sketching is a good way to find out where you want everything to be positioned on your picture, without worrying about perfection. Sketching, as the name states, is very loose and flexible. Your lines can be scratchy or messy, as long as you can still tell what you're looking at. If you are using a traditional medium, be sure to use something that can easily be erased. If you are using a digital medium, draw your sketch on a seperate layer, which will later be deleted. For some people, sketching is as simple as making a stick figure for their characters, just to get the basic feel of the position and anatomy. Now, not everyone uses sketches, and in some mediums, such as paint, sketching might be a bad idea, as it can show through. Sometimes, after you have drawn for long enough, sketches are not necessary because you have grown accustomed to knowing what you want your image to look like.
One suggestion to get the creative juices flowing, is to play a song that matches the mood of your picture. I find I work faster and more efficiently with a tone that gets me motivated. That might not work for everyone, though.
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 Almost everything, living and non-living, can be broken down into shapes. For example, the human body can be broken down into circles, ovals, rectangles, and triangles. One needs only to look at the shape of a figure to see its structure. The body, for example, is composed of two circles on most animals; one for the chest area, and the other for the abdominal region. Arms and legs are composed of circles and rectangles that connect and bend. Just by drawing simple circles with lines connecting them you can sketch out a any pose you wish.
If you feel like splurging, you can go to any art store and pick up a Posing Doll, which is a small wooden figure that you can position into different poses. They can come in handy when drawing a figure. They are also for the most part, inexpensive. If you're short on cash, you can always use a bag of different sized marshmallows and toothpicks. When your done with your marshmallow figure you can even eat it. Just don't eat the toothpicks. Functional and edible! Yum!
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Now that you have an idea on how to start your sketches and how to create a pose, you can get started on some details. Animals and humans have a variety of different parts that can be difficult to draw. Since there are so many I will be breaking this part of the tutorial into different sections covering majority of the body parts. You can use the sub-navigation to skip through to the section you want.
Sub-Navigation
¦Paws¦
¦Limbs¦
¦Wings¦
¦Bodies¦
¦Tails¦
¦Heads¦
¦eyes¦
¦Nose and ears¦
¦Fur, Feathers, and scales¦
¦Putting them all together¦
Paws
Paws, in general, are relatively similar to human hands and feet. In most cases, they have five toes that bend similarly to ours. However, most mammals walk on their toes, except for horses that walk on their tip toes. There are a few other exceptions in the natural world, but on average this most mammals have a similar design for their paws. Canines and felines paws are relatively simple to draw and have the same basic shape. To draw a paw, sketch out a shape like half an egg on its side. That is the basic shape for the way the toes are positioned. Then draw two lines for the wrist and forearm, coming off at an angle from the toes. You can refer to the example on the right to see what it should look like. Next, draw three lines relatively evenly spaced for the toes. Now you have the basic shape of a paw.
Felines and canines only walk on four of their toes. The fifth toe is off to the side like our thumbs, but unlike us they're not opposable. That toe, when walking, is facing inward toward the body. If you need a reference for where to position that toe, you can always look to your own hand. They will always be positioned the same way our thumb would be when you move your hand.
Even though animals have the same basic shape for their paws, they do vary in a few ways. Felines, for example, have retractable claws in the front. They are the only creatures (living) that have that ability. Cheetah's claws, however, do not retract for optimum speed and traction. It is thought that cheetahs resemble canines more than felines in some ways. Canines have slightly narrower toes than the big cats. They are built for running greater distances for greater lengths of time.
I have a few examples of feline paw shapes and positions for you to use as a reference.
Limbs
Drawing limbs can be a bit difficult to do. One thing to remember about most animals limbs is that they have the same structure as we have. They have elbows, knees, shoulders, wrist, and ankles; they bend the same as ours (except for bats whose knees are backwards). If you're ever uncertain about a pose, you can always look to see how your own limbs move.
 To draw the forelimb, sketch out the structure by using three differently sized circles with connecting lines. A large one for the shoulder, a medium sized one for the elbow, and a small one for the wrist. You can look to my image on the left to see an example of what it should look like. These circles act like hinges, just like the ones on a door. They can be farther apart or closer together, but they do not bend more than a straight line. Making them bend any further causes your leg to look broken.
Now, sketch out the outer shape out your leg by drawing a line from the outside of your first circle down and connecting to the outside of the middle circle. Do this on both sides. Now, some arms have more muscle structures which cause the arms to be wider and bulkier than my example. You can always look up muscle structures on Google to see what they should look like. Now, connect the middle circle to the last one and you have your basic shape. Add the details and a paw, and you have yourself a leg
Legs, and hind limbs can be more difficult for most people, because of the diversity of the structure. When it come to most mammals, we have most of the same parts in our legs, but it can differ in how they bend on in length of each parts.
There are three different statures for the hind leg which will dictate how the animal or person will walk. Humans along with raccoons, opossums, bears, rabbits, mice, pandas, rats, weasels, skunks and hedgehogs, have what is called the Plantigrade stature, where we walk flat on our feet.
The second is called a digitigrade. A digitigrade is an animal that stands or walks on its digits, or toes. Most animals walk this way, such as cats, dogs, and almost all other mammals. This style of walking lengthens the stride of the animal allowing faster running speeds.
The last is called Unguligrade which means to walk on the tips of the toes. This can be found in hoofed animal and few others mammals. By walking on the ends of the toes these animals are some of the fastest runners.
Now to draw the leg is similar to how you drew the forelimb. Sketch out the structure by using differently sized circles with connecting lines. A large one for the hip, a medium sized one for the knee, a small one for the ankle, and depending on which style of stature your trying to draw how ever many is needed for the toes. I provided the skeletal structure for each above so you can see the joints of each grade. I am drawing the digitigrade so you can look to my image on the right to see an example of what it should look like. These circles act like hinges, just like the ones on a door. They can be farther apart or closer together.
Now, sketch out the outer shape out your leg by drawing a line from the outside of your first circle down and connecting to the outside of the middle circle. Do this on both sides. Legs have more muscle structures than arms for the most part, which cause the them to be wider and bulkier than my example. once you get more practice in drawing limbs you will not always need this step to draw the limbs.
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Wings
There are two main types of wings that are used in drawing. The Angelic wing, which is found on birds and Angels, and the bat's style wing which is used for bat, dragons and some demonic creatures.
Angelic wings
I'll start of with the Angelic wing since it tends to be the most difficult to draw. To help you gain a better understanding of how the wings function I will provide a little bit of anatomy of the wing, so that you can reference back to and an see the different working parts. Desipite how difficult the wing is to draw it is actually very similar to our own arms. It has much of the same bone structures only simplified. Just as in our own arm it has the same joints of shoulder, elbow and wrist.
feathers
Feathers on a wing can be very complicated. Each feather can move independently and adjust to flying conditions and the position of the wing. In that the feather it's self is a very complicated structure. Drawing feathers can be a time consuming problem since there are so many on the wings. I have simplified my example for you. There are about 5 groups of feathers. The longest tipped primaries, the smaller secondaries, and the second layer, the lesser coverts, the greater coverts and the scapulars which cover the area near the Aula.
The feathers have four structures. I'm only showing three because the forth is only for displays.
The flight feather is found at the end of the wings. They are the largest feathers found on the wings.
The Contour feather is the main cover for the body and wing. When looking at a bird these are the main feather you will see.
The down feather is like the warm fluff that is used for insulation. They lie close to the skin so they are not seen as much.
Now that the biology lesson is over Its time to draw the wing. The wing I'm using as an example is of a wood duck.
The first step is to make the sketch of the structure. You can use the same method we used when drawing arms.
Next make the basic outline for the wing. The top lines follow the curve of the structural sketch. The bottom arches out more and comes to a point at the end of the wing.
Next add some feathers. This is still a sketch so its not too detailed. The feathers radiate outward from the center line. Remember there are more than one layer of feathers.
Now clean up your sketch to the final structure.
Add some final details and your done. I'll discuss coloring and shading in a later section of the tutorial
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