Where do you like to start when drawing characters? Inner details going out? Pinning down the covers to suss out the baddy beneath? Where did you pick up your preference?
Me, I misunderstood Deviantart body bases. Tracing is frowned upon so of course evry1 just references these, right guys? - me circa 2013. I gotta draw the entire silhouette of the anatomy first, even if it’ll all get covered up later. Makes you feel closer to your art, and a nap, lol. Nah but it’s a trap, save your time and energy.
Parting question, has muse or discipline played a bigger motivator in your work?
Good question and thank you for the ask, Parsio!
When I start drawing characters, it depends really based on what the criteria is. For character design, I look up elements of the character that I like and outfits (if any) that I feel that would work. Adding scars sometimes or tattered ears for example like I did with Koh Ta to tell a story without having to say what happened to them. If its a headshot or bust, I'll start with the face - planning out where their features go especially if its a character design that I have to create from my own observations like the commission of a trandoshan/barabel hybrid of Nat. From there, I use the rule of thumb for proportions to get the shape of their face right along with making sure the proportions of their other features to balance.
As for full body characters in a standing pose, I mostly draw them based on what I learned proportion wise from head to toe though if its a difficult or dynamic pose I will use references to help guide me (multiple refs). It's not wrong to use references or trace so long as you aren't outright tracing the entire piece. You can outline the shapes and where the line of motion is especially if it is foreshortened. A lot of illustrators take that approach in order to meet deadlines.
I unfortunately make my life harder as an artist with drawing the anatomy first before adding clothing/armor on top though I try my best not to be too critical with it because it doesn't need to be accurate/exact to get the vision across. Mostly it helps me with making sure nothing feels 'off' in the piece.
Lastly, for muse/discipline its a bit of both I would think? My drive comes from my passion of making characters especially when it comes to character design, but also discipline from my many years of learning art fundamentals in high school (2 years), community college (2 years), and university (4 years) along with years that I drew art for fun ranging all the way back to when I was little drawing characters from my favorite shows/comics/games like Pokemon, Digimon, Naruto, Neopets, and Zoids just to name a few.
Discipline and muse go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other at least from my own personal experience. It's what keeps the drive to create while growing as an artist. I hope that makes sense!
