Ella-May

So here it is, my Mad T Party art book. This sucker is 94 pages of art I’ve drawn over the past four years, and it’s up now new Blurb shop! 

Hardcover Edition

I also made a Softcover for anyone interested

A woman, a queen, a mother.

We don’t even need a disney remake of Mulan. Look at this.

Goth Lapis inspired by this super awesome artwork of her here. And featuring a goofy looking Peridot.

GESTURES. GESTURES. GESTURES!

Studying anatomy is fantastic. Whatever you do, don’t stop! I’m going to suggest gestures but that is by no means a suggestion to swap. Just start implementing gestures as well. 

Okay. So. Look at this.

This is a still from Glean Keane animating Tarzan - and it exactly nails what a gesture is. Just a few simple lines that are full of movement and you can tell exactly what the heck is going on. All with a few simple lines. 

Learning anatomy is great - but learning how to implement it is another thing. If I focus too much on nailing anatomy - the drawing starts to feel stiff, exactly as you’ve stated. 

Gestures are all about forgetting what you think you know about muscles and structure and instead drawing what movement in a body FEELS like. That might sound cooky but that’s kind of how I approach it in my head. It’s all about those lines of movement and contrast and CURVES. 

I think loosening up and forgetting about how technically correct a drawing is and instead embracing something rough and full of movement, and looking at how the lines in the human body contrast themselves will do you wonders. Keep learning anatomy, but look at how we move and look the weird shapes we can make with our bodies. Look at the way we slouch and stand tall. The way we dance, the way we run. Sit in a coffee shop and try to draw the heart of someone’s pose in like 30 seconds. 

Observe MOVEMENT AND RHYTHM AND MY GOD THE HUMAN BODY IS POETRY *GESTICULATES WILDLY*

Even just grabbing a photograph from the net and looking at it objectively - how would this pose break down into a few simple lines? It’s so damn simple to look at something this way. You can endlessly improve your knowledge of anatomy and your technical abilities - but I think so many of us (myself included) stumble at the simplest foundations. 

My last suggestion is a wonderful book (videos are floating around on youtube as well) from Mike Mattesi in which he talks about Force. It’s fascinating stuff! I love this example of a simple gesture being built up on. 

i’ve only made one tutorial (under my tutorial tag)

You are so nice thank you, nice break from people reblogging it and just talking about how they don’t ship them :) (if you don’t like them, don’t reblog it?) In fairness though those people do genuinely counter it by saying they like the art which is lovely but still, I don’t like reading negativity on drawings I do for fun

Rowan Blanchard Speaks at Women’s March LA

WIP WOP