art technique development thread 🎨🖌

[xSuperMario64x]

I got the idea last night to make a thread where people can share tips on art, traditional or digital, and also ask for advice!

if you have any questions about how to draw or use other media, ask them here! and if you have any advice to give or want to share techniques that you use in your art, feel free to share those too!

I also want to say that there is no such thing as "bad" art; art is inherently human, and you don't have to be a professional to make art! this thread is a judgement-free zone, so don't worry about whether or not your art is "bad." we're just happy to see it!

I hope we can use this thread to help each other become better artists! 🖌

 

[Suguri]

I don't have any questions in mind at the moment but this is a great thread idea! I'll be back if I need help with anything. ^_^

Actually... I do have a question lol. Any tips on drawing cartoon/chibi/simple humans? I can replicate Dav Pilkey's style for them (see Chief from Dog Man, for example) but I want to diversify, and I've been flip-flopping around different art styles for humans.

 

[meloheart222]

I don't have any questions in mind at the moment but this is a great thread idea! I'll be back if I need help with anything. ^_^

Actually... I do have a question lol. Any tips on drawing cartoon/chibi/simple humans? I can replicate Dav Pilkey's style for them (see Chief from Dog Man, for example) but I want to diversify, and I've been flip-flopping around different art styles for humans.

I think it’s a pretty general tip, but when drawing anything it’s important to break it down to simple shapes as a starting point to help you better understand the proportions of what you want to draw! And chibis usually have large, exaggerated features like anime, so try making the eyes large and the mouth and nose smaller ^_^ hopefully this was a little helpful

 

[Croconaw]

I mainly have issues with proportions. My head ends up to big and the bodies seem small. I can never get that right, but it’s a little more challenging for me because I don’t have a tablet. I’m using my index finger and a phone.

 

[ZeldaCrossing64]

Mirroring what Suguri said, I think this is a wonderful idea for a thread! :D

I also have a question: Is there an efficient way to draw clothes? I find that when I do, the clothes look like they're "pasted" on the character's body when I want it to look like they're wearing the clothes, if that makes sense.

Also, any tips on how to draw hair would be great! It's something I struggle with but would like to improve on.

Spoiler: My art example, for reference

 

[meloheart222]

Mirroring what Suguri said, I think this is a wonderful idea for a thread! :D

I also have a question: Is there an efficient way to draw clothes? I find that when I do, the clothes look like they're "pasted" on the character's body when I want it to look like they're wearing the clothes, if that makes sense.

Also, any tips on how to draw hair would be great! It's something I struggle with but would like to improve on.

Spoiler: My art example, for reference

View attachment 619043

Hi! ^_^ I’m having fun replying to this thread so hopefully my answers can be a little helpful. When drawing clothes it’s important to think about the form that the clothes take when on the body, especially in relativity to the pose. For example, a loose tshirt would hang and have more gravity to it, and a tight shirt would conform to the figure. Adding folds to the clothing around where your characters joints bend can also help separate them more, like at the elbows. And like I mentioned in a previous reply, always break things down into shapes if you’re struggling. Most clothing has triangular folds so mapping that out can be good. Clothing can be tricky, but studying references of irl images is a great place to start.
In terms of hair, the best tip I can give is to try thinking of hair as one form rather than individual strands, as hair kind of clumps together in a way, it has its own shape language!

Post automatically merged: Apr 19, 2025

I mainly have issues with proportions. My head ends up to big and the bodies seem small. I can never get that right, but it’s a little more challenging for me because I don’t have a tablet. I’m using my index finger and a phone.

I struggled with this forever too. I’m not sure what style you’re going for, but that can impact what you’ll want to do! If you’re going for a more realistic style, the typical advice you’ll see is that a persons head (at least in regards to adults) is about 1/8th of their total height. Loose figure drawing can help build fundamentals for proportion accuracy, so studying lots of different poses and just sketching them out quickly can be beneficial overall. It’s good that you’re able to identify the problem so specifically though, so I’d say try drawing the head smaller than you feel it needs to be and it’ll probably end up the correct size? Lol. And for digital art maybe you could try adding a sketch layer and a lineart layer, that way if you notice the head is too big you’ll have time to change it before things are set in stone

 

[TotodileStars]

Mirroring what Suguri said, I think this is a wonderful idea for a thread! :D

I also have a question: Is there an efficient way to draw clothes? I find that when I do, the clothes look like they're "pasted" on the character's body when I want it to look like they're wearing the clothes, if that makes sense.

Also, any tips on how to draw hair would be great! It's something I struggle with but would like to improve on.

Spoiler: My art example, for reference

View attachment 619043

I'm not sure what your process is, so you might do the first one already, but here's a couple of pointers for clothes:

• Sketch out the body first, then draw the clothes over it. It would help with imagining how the clothes hang from the character's frame, and make it easier for creating more separation between clothes and body parts. It's also useful for practicing proportions.
• References! Even when you usually want to go for a simpler, cartoony style (like your example), I'd still recommend studying photo/real life references on the side, so you know the rules you're trying to break. If you find that you're having trouble studying references, you could start by finding some photos and tracing outlines over them (don't do this for finished artwork - it's just an exercise to train your muscle memory, and learn how to break things down).
• Learning about clothing folds and creases might help. Even in simpler art styles, it can help to have just a couple of lines for them here and there, to avoid the "pasted on" look you mentioned. There's tons of references and tutorials out there for this (or if you have enough money, there's a book about it in the "Morpho" series by Michel Lauricella, which I can't recommend enough)!

I hope any of these help!