Anonymous asked:
Any tips on drawing the senshi? Like how do you manage to draw them in a simplistic style while keeping core designs?
I do!
In fact I can walk you through some of my notes and design insights I lean back on when I'm looking to stylize or break down these characters for super simple doodles.
Before I start I wanna say: this is my personal approach for the way I draw and stylize these characters. You do NOT have to follow my approach, this is not meant for you to memorize to a tea. I'm just going through my process to show how I apply certain principles to give characters different features. For example, I associate Makoto heavily with round and square shapes, if you don't like that or think something like triangles and squares would work better, go for it! This post is headcanon heavy! :)
I'll say for the girls' designs there's 2 main things you wanna look for to differentiate them from one another and give them extra quirks/personality: eyes and hair!
(counting you're not doing colored illustrations for the sake of this argument given how that is a whole 'nother major thing)
The girls DO have canonically different eye shapes, even if they tend to be somewhat inconsistent across animation directors (Ami and Rei are the most prominent and easy to spot).
You can look at the canon designs and break down the shapes to exaggerate or stylize certain features. Shapes are the fundamental of character design, so remember:
Circles are associated with friendly, harmless and innocent characters
Triangles are associated with dangerous, angry and dynamic characters
Squares are associated with stable, strong and reliable characters
Let's talk about eyes!
I'm not going to talk about all the characters equally. Characters I don't go as in depth in are ones I'm still figuring things out for, keep this in mind throughout the whole post. I'm still playing and experimenting with most of these.
Also the eyes shapes down below were for another project, I did not make these for this post, so that's why some things are off.
(Like why some have wrinkles, or why Haruka is not there or even why Venus has a different eye shape than the one above, it's all for the sake of lore reasons for the project. But I still felt it was good at illustrating my point so I added it)
You might ask yourself: what do more realistic/complex eyes got to do with a post asking about drawing the senshi in a simplistic style?
Well, if you see the shape and understand the main focus of what you're going for with the character, you can apply that same logic to both the realistic AND the simple drawings.
For example: Rei, is often very irritated. Her eye shape is more triangular, naturally reading as more "aggressive" or "fierce" by default, you can use that principle and apply it to super simple doodles. I like drawing her often with tighter "pissed off" eyes and dots for irises, keeps the idea, but makes it MUCH easier to draw on a whim.
Another example: Mako! She's generally a very laid back character. If you're doing a simple doodle, drooping cartoony closed eyes fit her well! It's VERY easy to draw but it still conveys her chiller attitude in most situations, she's not worrying about much at the moment, she's happy but she's not jumping or grinning like Usagi or Minako. (idk if this makes sense but hopefully it does at least a lil bit)
As I wrote in the post, if you like the Ami with glasses hc I HIGHLY recommend drawing her with glasses. It's a GREAT cheat for having her simple design instantly pop out, like "Oh, round glasses! That's Ami!" (you also don't have to worry about drawing her eyes if you don't want to or want to keep the doodle simple. Win/Win!) Also I recommend keeping her glasses fully round, but up to you. I find it much easier to draw and again, it goes back to the shape thing.
Let's talk about hair!
Goes back to the shape idea: Ami, circles; Rei, triangles.
And again, don't stick exactly with what I do, a lot of stuff I do goes against of what is presented in the show. Ami in the show is most often not drawn with a 'cowlick', I like adding it because it makes her hair a bit messier and fluffier. Contrasting her with Rei's very slick style, but not making it as messy as Usagi. Little additions like that do a lot for conveying hair texture, the character's grooming habits, etc..
Fun fact about Usagi's bangs: the right bang is ALWAYS shorter than the left one in the 90's anime. I'm not kidding, someone made a full thread about it and once you see it you CAN'T unsee it.
This is where I go back, again, to the "you don't need to copy what I do" thing cause I draw Minako with curly hair. She has straight hair in the show, I just took that idea of Minako having hair that is not as straight as say Rei or Setsuna's and pushed it to make her more unique fo my design.
Also another thing about Mina, but you can use her bow to accentuate emotion in doodles and simple art! Is she excited? Have her bow perk up! Is she sad? Have it lightly sag! It's good for readability and effect.
Don't forget Mako's side bangs those are super important and, not as important, but Makoto's bangs on her forehead are not in the same pattern as Ami and Usagi's! Theirs all curve towards the center, while Makoto's all curve towards her ear (if in a 3/4 angle, if front usually it's towards the right).
Hotaru's is definitely the design I pushed the most, but I'm really happy with it. I'm not the first one to draw her this way! I've seen at least a couple artists draw her with this type of stylized vibe and I loved it!
My drawing of Haruka is flipped for the sake of fitting it into the page, that's why the parting is on the left and not the right.
The reason I like Michiru's hair to cut off at one length is because it is an intentional design for her as the Sailor Neptune and it's brilliant! Having her hair shorter and having that sort of cut-off is meant to make it look like an ocean wave when it's flowing in the wind! You can really see it well in this gif, this effect would not be possible if her hair was scaled. (also it makes her hair look different that Makoto's, i's much cooler this way imo)
Last note since some character do have similar-ish hair. This is how I work around it! For me it's just natural at this point but I've also been drawing the girls for like.. 6 years if not more so I'm used to spotting some differences.
This stuff all seems minor, but especially for a cast that doesn't have much in terms of body diversity, stuff like this is CRUCIAL for allowing yourself and others to tell them apart even when stripped to their most basic elements. It's just up to you to choose those elements, the ones that stick out to you the most and work best for each of the girls' personalities. (it's the same principle that allows you to see Mickey Mouse the character just by having two round black circles on top of a half circle. Very simplified explanation but that's what it is)
If you ever seen AI images of the senshi and wondered "uh.. why does this look off?" even when they're 'relatively accurate' to the show, this is why. They don't get the bangs right, they don't get the eye shape right, they mix those elements amongst the whole cast and throw out an amalgamated garbage because it is unable to tell what small elements actually allow them to be distinguishable.
Ok, that was it! Ty for reading and ty for the question anon! This was very fun and hopefully you guys find it at least a bit informative! <3
