The Fandom Rages

Drawing from films

Drawing from films is a ridiculously useful exercise. It’s not enough to watch films; it’s not enough to look at someone else’s drawings from films. If you want to be in story, there’s no excuse for not doing this.

The way this works: you draw tons of tiny little panels, tiny enough that you won’t be tempted to fuss about drawing details. You put on a movie - I recommend Raiders, E.T., or Jaws… but honestly if there’s some other movie you love enough to freeze frame the shit out of, do what works for you. It’s good to do this with a movie you already know by heart.

Hit play. Every time there’s a cut, you hit pause, draw the frame, and hit play til it cuts again. If there’s a pan or camera move, draw the first and last frames.

Note on movies: Spielberg is great for this because he’s both evocative and efficient. Michael Bay is good at what he does, but part of what he does is cut so often that you will be sorry you picked his movie to draw from. Haneke is magnificent at what he does, but cuts so little that you will wind up with three drawings of a chair. Peter Jackson… he’s great, but not efficient. If you love a Spielberg movie enough to spend a month with it, do yourself a favor and use Spielberg.

What to look for:

Foreground, middle ground, background: where is the character? What is the point of the shot? What is it showing? What’s being used as a framing device? How does that help tie this shot into the geography of the scene? Is the background flat, or a location that lends itself to depth?

Composition: How is the frame divided? What takes up most of the space? How are the angles and lines in the shot leading your eye?

Reusing setups, economy: Does the film keep coming back to the same shot? The way liveaction works, that means they set up the camera and filmed one long take from that angle. Sometimes this includes a camera move, recomposing one long take into what look like separate shots. If you pay attention, you can catch them.

Camera position, angle, height: Is the camera fixed at shoulder height? Eye height? Sitting on the floor? Angled up? Down? Is it shooting straight on towards a wall, or at an angle? Does it favor the floor or the ceiling?

Lenses: wide-angle lens or long lens? Basic rule of thumb: If the character is large in frame and you can still see plenty of their surroundings, the lens is wide and the character is very close to camera. If the character’s surroundings seem to dwarf them, the lens is long (zoomed in).

Lighting: Notice it, but don’t draw it. What in the scene is lit? How is this directing your eye? How many lights? Do they make sense in the scene, or do they just FEEL right?

This seems like a lot to keep in mind, and honestly, don’t worry about any of that. Draw 100 thumbnails at a time, pat yourself on the back, and you will start to notice these things as you go.

Don’t worry about the drawings, either. You can see from my drawings that these aren’t for show. They’re notes to yourself. They’re strictly for learning. 

I just wanted to give a welcome to all the new followers here ! I have made a bunch of tutorial last years, and here is the list so you guys can check em out easily ;)

Perspective tutorial

Anatomy tutorial

Hand tutorial

Feet tutorial

Draw in volume tutorial

How to defeat Art Block Tutorial

Inking tips

Animated Gifs tips

Difference between comics & storyboard guide

Animation college guide(careful some of the prices i wrote in there arent accurate)

Gobelins Guide

Questions about gobelins(scroll through)

of course there is also my extensive reference list, including PDFs, Videos, books, movies etc about animation and the industry : here

As for how you choose your colours - there’s no right or wrong way to approach colour, it’s down to your process!

You can indeed use a base colour and use layer styles to change them to match the environment, as Gigi explains in this post.

Or you can select colours manually like I do, based on what looks right. I explain how I choose colours in this post - but what it comes down to is basically “what i think looks nice”

Hands!! y’all ask me abt them all the time and like, i never know where to begin haha. 

Also, you can watch a video of me drawing a hand with some annotated tips over yonder.

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anyway, last but not least: i draw hands rly stylised!! like super stylised. Wrists dont actually work anything like i draw them lmao but i like the shape.

Make sure you study real hands, don’t just rely on my hand posts !

I recommend reading the posts in my hand tag on my resource blog, and do some studies using the Hand & Feet Tool on Pixelovely.

I used to just open the tool up and draw a big canvasful (like 3kx5k px) just of hands. Put the timer to like two minutes and just practice. Draw big!

The biggest problem i used to have was drawing hands too small and trying to squeeze in all the details.

I can’t take credit for any of the information that I’m about to share. A lot of these tips are quotes from books by James Gurney, Andrew Loomis, and Richard Schmid, as well as from masters like John Singer Sargent. 

First I need to say that none of this is hard fact, and every rule can be broken in art. These are simply some guidelines that may help you improve, especially if you’re interested in pursuing realism like me. So without further ado, let’s get started. It’s a long one!:

Ahh, good ol’ grey. I love you. You have been so good to my paintings lately now that I’m starting to understand you more. This post is about using grey to your advantage, and how it can make colors more vivid, instead of less.

“The greys make the picture.” It sounds odd, doesn’t it? If you’re using color, why would you want to dull it?! But I’ve have seen this mentioned countless times by countless artists, and I’ve tried it myself by doing grey washes over color to unify my palette. IT IS SO USEFUL. “Try greying all but two colors, or mixing a single color into all but one or two of the others." 

By Adolf Hiremy-Hirschl, The Souls of Acheron 

Look, it’s no secret that we all want to enjoy the art we make. But all too often artists are mired with thoughts of inadequacy, fear, self-doubt, destructive criticism, and just plain lack of inspiration and low energy. 

I could go on and on. There are literally thousands of ways that we as creatives sabotage our efforts to create the work we want to create. How do we defeat these “creativity killers” and actually let our work shine like it’s meant to? I believe that all we need to do is shift the way we think, and thus the way we feel, act, and draw. Leonardo Da Vinci said it best “There can be no smaller or greater mastery than the mastery of oneself.” And with that, I want to share with you 5 ways that I’ve discovered that have been positively pivotal for me in my artistic development.

I’ve made a living through my art and freelancing for over 2.5 years now, and I continue to grow my income and abilities year after year. I say this not to impress you, but you impress upon you that what I’m about to give you works. I’ve taken these techniques from books, other artists, videos, articles, deep meditation, and a bevvy of other sources. I’ve found them to be so effective that I feel obliged to do my part and share them with artists like yourself. So give these an earnest attempt, and tweak them to your liking. Over time you’ll likely develop your own, but please allow me the honor of giving you a basis to work with:

1. Breathe deeply, calmly, and slowly before and during the creative process. Take a minute to gather yourself before beginning. Stop any irrelevant thoughts that may have been floating about in your consciousness prior. Shift your attention toward your breathing and calm yourself with each deep breath. Allow tension to release in your jaw, chest, stomach, neck, or wherever you’re holding it. You can use your mind to ease this tension with every breath. Finally, simply smile–You’re about to embark on yet another creative journey, and whether it’s a quick doodle or the beginning of a 40-hour painting, you’re now in a state that will permit you to access more of your creative faculties. 2. Take frequent breaks, step backwards from the monitor/easel/sketchbook and assess the “impact” of the work from afar. Taking breaks every 25-35 minutes will prevent you from cultivating Repetitive stress injuries, which will detract from your joy when it comes to drawing. I like to use breaks as an opportunity to stand up and zoom out. In today’s day and age people see thumbnail-sized images before they ever take a look at the work in detail. It’s up to you to make sure that the thumbnail version of the work is interesting and well-designed enough to merit a longer look. If it isn’t, then worry not, because these frequent breaks allow you to correct your course before investing too much time in the details. 3. Direct your thoughts into positive (or at least neutral) territory As you’re working, keep your mind on things that are relevant to the piece by asking yourself questions regarding where you want to take it. Don’t allow the inner-critic to berate you or your creation whatsoever. Shove such thoughts aside, as they are mostly destructive in nature. Destruction is diametrically opposed to creation, so we want to immerse ourselves in as much positivity as possible. This is especially helpful when it comes to spotting and correcting mistakes, which brings me to the next point. 4. Profit from Failure Part of being human is failure. From the greatest artists you’ve ever heard of down to the humble child learning to walk, each has failed innumerable times in their endeavors. We largely have a stigma when it comes to failure. We think that it means we’re inadequate or broken in some way, when the opposite is true. We are perfect in our failures, because they’re leading us where the next success is. Life is a series of cycles, ebbs and flows. Success cannot exist without failure. So befriend failure, profit from it. Even if you make the same mistake a couple of times, there’s not need to fret. Clear your mind and probe the dirt of failure until your find the seed of success within– I recommend planting that seed as soon as possible. 5. Use every tool at your disposal We are fortunate to have a plethora of tools in our ever-growing artistic arsenals. These are things like process, references, programs, tutorials, and the like. Everything you need to improve your work rests both within you and outside of you, and they exist in the present. It’s comforting knowing that the wells of your potential are as deep as the ocean, so long as you acknowledge them as such. Many artists treat themselves and their work like they’re hardly more than a pothole filled with debris and muddy water. Shallow, unwanted, and filled with less than desirable materials. But this is only true as the fulfillment of one’s own perceptions. No one outside of you can dictate the way you feel about your art, that administration is yours and your alone. Remember that you can always tap more of your potential and find the solutions to every problem you face in the present. I offer an 8-week Beginner Drawing Course to help you discover your artistic tools and more wield them more thoroughly. Conclusion: And there you have it. I can guarantee that these points will be of great use to you if you’re willing to implement them with earnest effort. Your journey is purely unique, and it does you no good to compare your life or development with that of another. Keep digging deeper into the wells of your potential, breathing deeply and letting creativity and joy flow forth from your works.

It’s a never-ending and ever-expanding development. I would re-read this post daily and practice at least 1-3 of these every time you find yourself gifted with the opportunity to do so, as they all unfold deeper and work better with persistent application. If you want a more solid grasp on basic drawing concepts so that you can express yourself even further and expand your artistic arsenal, I have several courses and tutorials on the matter.

I sincerely wish you the best of luck and fortune in all of your endeavors, creative or otherwise.

Warmest,

-Taylor