Sup my fellow beautiful artist.

 

I will be teaching you how to approach drawing poses that are dynamic and proportional using some traditional art tips and Clip Studio's 3D drawing figures.

How to Sketch

Before we begin this tutorial, you need to understand how to hold your pencil or pen and why this is good practice.

 

There are two ways to grip the pencil.

① A tight grip - Tripod grip

② A loose grip - Overhand grip

A tight grip is used for detailed drawings and a loose grip is good for free, rough and sketched out drawings. A tight grip is controlled by your wrist and a loose grip is controlled by your shoulder's movement.

 

I advice that when sketching from imagination (or in general) draw with a loose grip.

 

This is something I had to learn the hard way, and after trial and error, I realized that a rough sketch (which is the foundation of most illustrations) should be drawn loose and free. And then you can add the details with a tighter grip.

 

As a beginner artist, it is very common to forget this simple tip, as we fall into the habit of drawing how we write. Though you can get away with sketching with a tight grip, sometimes it's almost impossible to transfer our imagination to paper if we have such a rigid hold.

 

Learn how to loosen your fist and let your pen and your mind guide you.

 

 

Here are some assignments you can try. Draw as many as you want, it's simply a quick exercise to loosen your grip.

 

Try using your wrist and using your shoulders to draw.

 

Drawing Poses Using References

A reference is any visual you use to get your bearings or improve your accuracy as an artist.

 

Here are some of the best places to get references.

■ Pinterest

■ Sketch fab

■ Google images

■ Personal pictures

■ Live studies

■ Your reflection in the mirror

■ Instagram

 

Here are some websites that I use for gesture drawings:

■ http://reference.sketchdaily.net/en

■ https://line-of-action.com/

 

 

 

 

Recognize the relationship between the head, hips, wrists, feet and joints. Don't worry it's not that complicated. You need to map these areas using simple shapes.

 

Place circles on the head, shoulders, and knees. Then Place triangles on the hands and feet.

Next we will replicate step one on our own drawing, while also connecting the shapes.

 

Roughly estimate the distance of the shapes to get a dynamic and creative pose. Don't just copy and paste the shapes from step one.

Reinforce your sketch, on a new layer. Here you want to tie actual form to the rough lines we had before.

Finally you can add more details to complete your sketch.

Check out these links to get more copyright free poses. You can set timers on your sketching to restrict how much detail you get to draw. When I practice gesture drawing, I set my timer to 30 seconds, and if I want to do a more detailed study I set it to 2 minutes or more.

 

Drawing Poses Using 3D Figures

I will have one of my characters from my graphic novel assist me.

 

This character is short, has wide hips and a small torso, she also has a round head and a long neck.

These proportions are important to know because ClipStudio's Figure tool allows you to tweak the 3D models shape. This is handy for getting very accurate poses.

Step 1: Tweak 3D figure to match our character

■ First open the "Sub Tool Detail" box by clicking on this button.

■ For our character we want to make her short. To do this I will edit the "Height" value.

■ Now I will make her thinner by editing the Full Body options.

■ I will make her head bigger by selecting and adjusting the Head option.

■ I've repeated the same steps for her neck, hips, shoulders and waist.

Here is the final.

 

Step 2: Posing your 3D figure

I want my character to look powerful, with her legs closer to the camera than her torso. I also want her wings to be stretched out, like she is about to fly.

 

Here is a rough sketch of that composition.

 

Clip studio has preset poses that are great for those who find it too cumbersome to edit the 3D model. You can either find a preset pose that works for you or you can find a pose in the Asset Store (there are a ton in the store, so make sure you check.)

 

If the starting pose you found is perfect then you can skip to sketching out your pose.

For my characters starting pose I found this original CPS preset called "C_standing 03"

 

I dragged and dropped it unto my tweaked 3D figure.

If you drag and drop it on the workspace it, will create a random new 3d figure, which we don't want.

My starting pose is nothing like my desired pose. So I'm going to tweak it.

 

Since explaining every single button deserves a tutorial of its own, here is an official tutorial by CLIP STUDIO, explaining how to tweak your characters pose.

Step 3: Sketch your pose

Now that we have our 3D figure posed correctly, and the proportions are as accurate as we can get them. We can treat it like a reference image.

Step 4: Add details to sketch

Now with a tighter grip I will add more details to my character.

Final

I went on to line and color my character.