#tips and stuff

The parts that are interesting to keep in mind are the bones, for articulation and so, posing, and the three different parts of a wing: the primaries, secondaries and tertials feathers. These make drawing easier since you can simplify it per section.

In short, this is how I picture it when I draw wings:

For the feathers, you simply add a few layers on top of it, with each coming from the center of each section. I personally like to do a gradient between pointy long feathers and rounder short ones:

Let's use Kim Dokja as our quick guinea pig for angel wings, because why not. Though it's not perfect because I struggle to simply draw sometimes too. But you get the idea.

As for the individual feathers, I simply don't detail it most of the time, otherwise it's too much visual noise for my style. There is already a lot going on with the layers and even more when there are colours and shading. So I keep it very simple, only adding a bit more when they're detached from the wings.

At first, I simply drew and copied what I liked, like a typical school kid holding some pencil (it was 14 years ago, my back hurts). But then went to what is called a (public) "vocational high school". Basically it's not the usual high school and in this one you had additionnal classes like graphic design, art studies, classes about printing machinery and so on. It's not a must-have of course and it's actually a very special case but I personally loved it and already learned a lot there! So right after this, I spent 1 year in an art school to pursue a degree in illustration and animation.

Didn't managed to survive there. Art schools aren't for me and I was severely depressed all the time so I left right after the year ended. However I did learn a lot there to improve on my own. So even though art schools and/or classes aren't a need if you want to improve, I do think professionnals often have something interesting to tell you.

And to complete that statement I'll strongly advise anyone to check out Marco Bucci's 10 minutes to better painting which is a series of 10 videos about some art principles that are essentials to keep in mind (imo of course). You didn't asked for this one but when it comes to comics, Scott McCloud's books are a must as well.

I don't actually have a lot of books and such to recommend. But other useful tips I could give you (from art school or from personal experience) are for example:

to avoid using the colour black. Not as a universal rule you absolutely need to follow no matter what, but simply to force you into choosing other colours other than "this colour + black" when it comes to light and shadows. It helps you actually think about the palette you're using. As for me, I'm actually doing a lot of traditional art too so simply putting away the black pen or pencil is very effective to make you think differently. You are free to do whatever you want in art but sometimes, rules help you get even more creative.

get into live drawing. As for gesture drawing, I already covered this topic here(though it got a bit old now). It's more than just drawing nude people (some websites even offering clothed options) and it's more about confidence.

do studies. May it be colours studies, texture studies, anatomy studies etc... I know. It looks boring. And it kind of is sometimes, but trust me it'll still help you a LOT. Knowing how a bone structure works or why this light reflects onto another will help you way more than you'd think. And so in the same vein: take references as well. Keeping in mind how our real world works gives you the right keys to decide wether you want to keep, distort or break these rules.

practice from time to time. Some people like to draw every day, some people don't. Some people force themselves to (because it's their job perhaps) and some people don't even like to do it in the first place. It's all valid. But even if it isn't a drawing every day and if your goal is to improve: grab your pen and do something from time to time. Especially in the beginning actually. Because you might not consider this when you're a beginner but drawing has to do with muscles too. You can have a perfect understanding of art theory but struggle to put it into pratice. Then in this case let me ask you: do you use your arm (or whatever, you could use your feets for all I know) enough? Are you doing warm-ups? Like a marathon runner, you actually do need to build up your muscles to get more confident in your lines, physically speaking. This is perfectly normal and fine to find it difficult to draw a single line without trembling at first! That's also why you need to practice regularly, take breaks in long sessions and do warm-ups (the first lines of the day sucks, that's normal) to avoid getting hurt.

take inspiration! You always have favorite artists, may they be from our modern age or from back then. Personally, Moribuden's art has a huge influence on how I approach digital painting (yes that's a YGO GX Jaden artist) as well as the abstract artist František Kupka. But these are only two names among the many artists forming my personal art board. So do yours! It can have as many inspirations as you want!

if you fully are a digital artist: try traditional art. It's scary, yes. But digital art makes you a bit too used to the layer and filters system, separating each part of your drawing rather than seeing the piece in its entirety or even seeing the process itself. In traditional art, there are no layers, no multiply or screen filters, no gradient map, no neverending colour palette, no Ctrl Z button. But is it that bad? What if you actually chose your colours and tackled art with paint on your fingers (or not, I hate it too actually) and chose this green pencil to replace your multiply layer? Or if you chose to keep this mistake you can't erase, and continued on with it? You can experiment and discover more about art and/or yourself. Nobody has to see it anyway. It might sound silly, but Bob Ross's series of videos, the Joy of Painting and specifically this one episode, actually helped me a bit to have another point of view on my art. Now you don't put a stroke because "it looks better this way". You do it "to give this tree a friend". And by simply flicking your brush, water suddenly appears. It makes you rediscover that the process itself can be enjoyable.

make choices. Now this one is very vague and that's intentional. But what I mean by that is that your art tells what kind of person you are. Not talking about visual style here, but about your art in general. What colours you like to use, what artists you prefer, how you hold your pen etc... all tell something about you and will naturally lead to your identity. Choose whether you want to be a professionnal artist or simply a hobbyist. Choose between watercolour and coloured pencils, or pick both because this also is a valid choice. Choose between this green and this blue. And if one doesn't lead up to something you like, choose the other one or reflect on it.

have fun. It's the most obvious one to me. But there is no use in forcing yourself to do something you hate. The technical side of art sounds boring and not so fun. But it is still a part of an art journey, so make it fun! Search for a way to find the boring enjoyable. Perhaps this boring apple study would be funnier to do with pastels. You're still learning. Do what you like, but also do what you don't in a better way. And if you still hate that much and don't especially wish to work on this one side of thing, then maybe you don't need it anyway (especially if you're a hobbyist) or need something else.

This ^ is an actual live drawing session (5min. each pose) I did back in art school. It's far from perfect but at one point, I tried to use my tiny box of pastels (there is like 4 or 5 different colours in it) for these figure drawing. And absolutely loved doing so. It was so much fun to do. Looking back at it, even though it's like 7 or 8 years old (wait hold on uh- what), I still really like these in particular.

So "how did you learn" is a mix of everything mentioned. I tried a lot of things, met different people, made choices and continue to do so. It might sound more abstract than an actual "technical" answer but I do think an art journey has a big part of it happening in your own head. What you feel, what you think, what you like, it all matters and you need to keep some balance in your own mind to go on, because it's already tough as it is and you will want to f*cking cry because it looked so damn ugly that one time.

Yet this is also so satisfying to see the result of your work coming to life and reflect on everything that happened in your art journey, giving it so much more value. In an era where an IA can spit out a complex piece with just a few words given, I think it's important to keep this in mind and that the act of drawing doesn't just mean "pretty stuff on paper".

As a reminder, here is what my art looked like back then (it's generous, this is one of the best and the one with most okayish colours) vs now:

But those are whole compositions and we're not in a composition class either. However, when it comes to a single pose, the same principle can be applied. This force line can guide your whole body and even become your literal spine. As the spine is the most essential part of the human body (and non-human living body), it will act as the central part which the rest will follow naturally. Don't be shy and use a stickman for your overall structure! If you have a hard time simplifying the overall movement of your figure, try drawing it in a smaller size first. It doesn't matter if it looks ugly, you'll clean it up later.

If you're still struggling with your understanding of structures, try to decompose a reference picture (go check Pinterest, it's a true gold mine) with simple lines to determine where and how are positioned the spine, ribcages and main bones then transpose it to your own drawing as a guide.

"But how do I get those dynamic lines and cool curves??", you may ask. Well, have you tried figure drawing and more specifically gesture drawing? You can of course take a class with a nude model (they don't bite don't worry and you will focus more on the art part than the nude one), but you can also do so with tons of videos, pictures and even websites such as Line of Action, which allows you to have a custom built-in timer when drawing. To have only a mere 30 seconds to draw may sound terrifying but trust me, it's not that difficult. The point of drawing a whole figure in 30 seconds (or more) is to force yourself to simplify and avoid to focus on unimportant parts that aren't essential to the overall understanding of the pose. This will put you in a focused state of mind as well as training your hand muscles (this is a great warmup exercise). Feeling a bit uncomfortable on your wrist or feeling like you can only do tiny strokes one at a time instead of big elegant lines? Well firstly... stretch your wrist regularly, drink water and stop drawing every once in a while, this is very important, may you be a beginner or a professionnal artist. Secondly, try drawing on a bigger format! It will train you to use your elbow and shoulders to draw big lines more easily, like getting a bigger compass to draw a circle. I for example draw mostly with my elbow and shoulders, even unconsciously, as this is way more comfortable for me.

That's great we are talking about a lot of technical stuff. But what about the actual drawing you want to do? Well first, you need to decide which feeling you want to convey. Is it a scary scene? A gentle one? What do you want to depict? Is there something in particular you want to focus on? Something is needed to act as the solid base and this applies to everything, not only posing. Let's take a look at some examples with what we have seen with force lines and see more of the thought process behind my own poses.