Forum posts by Amarin Reyny

So, after considering your suggestions, as well as the suggestions given by Sivreayyl via a private message, and the various tips I've found after doing my own research, it's pretty clear that there's a common element of learning to make motions with the elbow, rather than the wrist, to practice gesture drawing. As mentioned before, I do have some mental hurdles regarding this, but as I told Siv, I was planning on seeking advice from my therapist to overcome these mental hurdles, and allow myself to be better able to practice using the recommended 30 second drawing exercises.

Unfortunately, a winter storm I was not expecting prevented me from having my scheduled session with her this week, along with preventing me from accessing the internet to any meaningful extent. Since Wednesday morning, I had nothing but one other bit of info I learned from my online research, which was that making lines thicker where they intersect is one way to make drawings less stiff. I decided that practicing that was a better use of my time than doing nothing at all, so I did some additional work on the lines of one of the drawings I have already shown you.

My internet connection has been restored as of this afternoon, though, and even though it's not at all the same as what you and Siv had recommended, I'd like to ask if the additional line work I did, which can be seen here, is at least somewhat of an improvement over what I had done before, and/or if it's at least somewhat of a step in the right direction, regardless of how small of a step it is. Personally, I'd say the eye looks better than it did before, but I'm no expert.

I still plan to ask my therapist for help with overcoming the mental hurdles that have kept me from doing the 30-second drawing exercises, though I am wondering about one other thing... This body I occupy is extremely tense at all times, to the point where I've described its motions as "similar to those of a clockwork automaton meant to resemble a zombified penguin." That said, would such tension cause any problems when practicing the gesture drawing, or would it make no difference? And, if it does make a difference, do you, or does anyone else, have advice on what to do about that?

I'm afraid I'm not so good at the sort of spontaneous, quick thinking that would enable me to draw a pose or expression in 30 seconds, let alone do that repeatedly for 5 minutes. Executive dysfunction from ADD makes letting go of one task and starting a new one very difficult, at least when ideal conditions are not met - there are times when it's bad enough that I can't even get up to go to the bathroom. That, and I'm a rather slow, methodical, analytical sort, likely due to a combination of C-PTSD* and being autistic. I'm great at thinking thoroughly, but I get overwhelmed easily, and often shut down, when I have to think quickly. All in all, for each drawing, it took several days in a row of anxiously ditting at the table, trying to gather the nerves necessary to finally put pencil to paper.

I'm not saying that I absolutely won't practice in the ways you've suggested; rather, I was wondering if you had any alternative suggestions which might work better for me than the ones you've suggested already.

That said, I thank you for your reply, and I appreciate your willingness to help.

*(More details here, which provide further useful information for figuring out a better alternative for me to use for practice, or if such an alternative even exists, but which may be triggering to some readers)

So, as the title says, I've spent about two years unable to draw due to medical problems. Now that I have some equipment to make those medical problems easier to deal with, I've started to get back into drawing. So far, I've made two sketches - one in the more "comic book realism" (not sure what else to call it) style I'm more accustomed to, and the other being my very first-ever attempt at making a "chibi" drawing.

How did I do? Anything I did wrong? Anything I could have done better? Anything I should practice going forward? Anything I did right?

The first picture is here. Content warning, though - it does depict a face with an open hole in the cheek.

The second picture is here.

Thank you!

So, uh... As I had mentioned in the replies to my first post here, I had wanted to begin with the simplistic style first, both for the purposes of the intended drawing itself, and because I believed it would be the best way to ease my way back into drawing after about 2 years of being unable to. However, I've never really drawn in the simplistic style I was thinking of (basically chibi), so I quickly found that the mental hurdle of starting off with that was insurmountable, leading to several days of just sitting at a desk with blank paper, holding a pencil that would never touch said paper.

Thus, I decided that it would be best to start with a more-or-less quick sketch of something in a style I was more familiar with, just to get past the first hurdle of actually making markings with said pencil. Here is the product of that decision (trigger warning: this picture depicts a face with a hole in it that goes all the way through the cheek and shows teeth). Even without shading, and with the absolute minimum of lines just to show the flow and texture of the hair, it's a lot more detailed and realistic than the chibi drawing I was hoping to start out with.

I'm still struggling with the mental hudle of stepping out of my "comfort zone" and drawing in a new and entirely different style, so I was hoping that people might have some advice on overcoming that, as well as any other advice that might help me.

Thank you for any help provided!

Thank you for answering! I'll look up Understanding Comics when I can. If need be, I could try going to the library to see if they have it. That said, I was actually thinking that the first few panels of the comic would be done in a rather simplistic style, due to the planned layout, so quicker gesture drawings is a great idea for that.

As for how I'm doing tonight, well... same as always, more or less. Granted, that likely means nothing to someone I've never encountered before, so... I guess, things could be better? Due to some rather complicated and tedious-to-explain circumstances involving DID, life kinda feels like a Franz Kafka novel. However, getting back into drawing will (hopefully) make that easier to cope with.

Thank you again!

Hello, everyone. Due to medical issues, I haven't been able to draw in about 2 years, and now that I have some equipment to help me with those medical issues, I'd like to get back into drawing. Over the time since the last time I drew, I've had some ideas for specific pictures, and for the purpose of seeing how rusty I've gotten while also easing myself back into drawing again, I've decided to try drawing one of those ideas. Specifically, it's a comic sequence - something a bit more "cartoony," where fine details aren't necessarily as important as they would be for a single picture, and which would thus be less frustrating/depressing if I don't do so well at it.

I already have a pretty solid plan for the general layout, so that's not an issue. However, one of the things that I want this comic sequence to include is an emotional "bait and switch" with the two depicted characters, and this is where I'm not sure what I should be doing. Basically, I want the first few panels of the comic sequence to depict the two characters in a way that deceptively suggests that they're being hostile to each other, only for the final panel to reveal that the characters weren't being hostile at all, but rather, they've been flirting with each other in a "teasing" sort of way the whole time. I'm just not sure how to go about pulling this off.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.