Art Lessons

[Dolce]

Hey everyone, unlike the tutorials and resources thread this is where we'll be holding our own art lessons. Now these lessons are an opportunity to learn and grow as a community, and share our artistic knowledge with one another. The purpose of the thread is that we all grow and learn together, so through the use of lessons we hope to help you learn and achieve new techniques that help polish your own work and grow as an artist.

How this thread will work: A new lesson will be written and posted to this thread detailing one specific area of art. It can be a very simple lesson about supplies and their uses, to more complex lessons on the basic human anatomy.

If there's any questions about the lesson, or you wish to learn more just let us know and post it in thread. Or if you need help and wish to improve upon your own work, then feel free to ask in thread since we're here to help each other learn.

To quote Robert Henri:

The real artist's work is a surprise to himself.

So let's find what surprises you have up your sleeves, and venture down the road less traveled.

As to who will be writing the lessons, it'll be the art gallery staff along with anyone else who wishes to participate. If you wish to write for the section then just message either @Dolce or @michemagius asking to join in on the fun. For the lessons we'll cover, there will be no strict guidelines. Every lesson will be artist's choice, so even if it's done before and you can expand upon a prior lesson then don't be afraid to.

Lesson Index:
None yet!

Our first lesson will cover "Character Design", and posted by Juicy soon! So let us know what you guys think, we'd appreciate the feedback.

 

[michemagius]

Character Design


In this, lesson, I’ll be writing about character design. I typically start with a character in mind, then design them, so that’s the angle I’ll be talking from.

The biggest issue I run in to, is how to make my character’s look and feel different. For this lesson I’ll be using three pre-existing OC’s as examples. All three are Female, Caucasian, in their 20’s, with Brown hair, and blue eyes. If this was all the information I gave myself to design these characters with, they would all look very similar. So, we have to use their personalities and back stories as inspiration for differentiating these designs. The three characters are named Jetta, Elle, and Florence.


-We’ll start with Jetta. She’s a bass player in an indie band, who’s confident on stage but introverted in everyday life. She’s very athletic, filling her time outside of band practices with dance and cheer. In fact she probably fills up a bit too much of her time, often leaving her burnt out. Jetta is also the only OC on this list who’s a Pokemon trainer, as the daughter of a former Gym Leader she’s got a lot to live up to. With so many different activities, she rarely has any free time, not that it bothers her. She’d rather be working hard than relaxing, though, this can sometimes come at the expense of her health.


-Next, Elle. A free spirit who works as a chef during the day, and a bar-tender at night. She’s quick witted and sarcastic, preferring not to take life too seriously and going wherever the wind takes her, but if there’s one thing she’s truly dedicated to, it’s her family. Orphaned at a young age she acted as a parent to her younger siblings which in turn made her want to be free of responsibility as an adult.


-Finally, Florence. A martial artist who can talk a mile a minute. Most confuse her cheery attitude as being friendly, when in actuality she’d gladly break your arm with a bright smile on her face. She and her older sister are both mercenaries, and while her sister, Harley (who she idolizes), is arguably more deadly, Florence is no less dangerous. All this being said, she’s actually quite peaceful when not on a job. While not to fond of other humans, she has a great appreciation for wildlife and nature.



How do we portray this?



The First Step Would be Body Type:


-Jetta is always on the move so she’s pretty fit, if a bit thin, but she’s also fairly average in terms of height,

-Elle I imagine is very fond of food and alcohol, but not so fond of working out, so she’s a bit heavyset. I also imagine her being on the tall side.

-Lastly, Florence, she trains extremely hard, so her figure is likely short and boyish.




Next, Hair and Skin Tone:



-Jetta probably prefers the great indoors, so she’ll have the palest skin of the bunch. As for hair, I think she’d naturally have wavy hair but have one half shaved off. I think it fitting of the image she tries to put forth.


-Elle probably spends a bit less time inside then Jetta, so we’ll deepen her skin tone a bit. I always have her hair as being frizzy and uncontrollable much like her personality, but her jobs require it be pulled back.


-Lastly, Florence, who probably spends the most time outside, so we’ll give her the deepest tan. Because she’s always moving about, her hair is tight tied back tightly, but with a pop of pink to add flare.



Facial Features


-Facial features can be random, but I like measure the severity by personality. Sharper features often invoke a sense of intelligence or maturity. Villains more commonly have very sharp features. On the other side, softer features convey a sense of innocence or openness.

-Eyes can also say a lot about a character. Dark eyes show evil or distrust, dull eyes show sadness, bright and vibrant ones are lively. For Example, of the three, Jetta is likely the gloomiest so her eyes lean more towards a Flat Navy, while conversely Elle’s are sky Blue.



The Final Step is Clothing:

There are many directions you could take clothing as everyone has their own sense of style, but I like to base clothing design on occupation, and color scheme on personality.


-Jetta’s overall design covers up the majority of her skin, but accents a few key areas: the shoulders, thighs, and midriff. It shows that while she prefers to be covered up so as to hide from the world around her, she’s comfortable with her body.


-Elle places comfort above all when it comes to clothing. Her clothes are simple and unrestricting. Her colors, light blue and white, are representative of her free flowing way of life. I would have drawn her in work attire but I figured that she would stand out next to Jetta and Florence. (See Side Note)


-Florence is of course, dressed to be active, so her clothes are designed for a workout. Her colors are Red, which I feel invokes as sense of danger as well as confidence, and Pink which is bright and energetic.


Side Note: Uniforms are actually great for showing a character’s personality, especially if you put two side by side. The little things a character does, to make a uniform their own speak volumes about who they are.



Thanks For Reading!




Optional Activity:

Now that you’ve read how to make characters with similar base designs look and feel different, do your own set of characters (2+) and show how you’ve differentiated them!

 

[michemagius]

All right! For my second Art Lesson we’ll be talking about a subject that’s very near and dear to my heart, Gijinkas! I’d say the type of art I make most is Gijinkas, and while I won’t call myself an aficionado, I’d say I know enough.

FYI: This Lesson will be posted in 2 Parts.


A Gijinka is a humanoid version of a non-humanoid, like an animal, or in the case of this tutorial, a Pokemon.


To start we have to pick a Pokemon. The degree of difficulty shifts from Pokemon to Pokemon. Elements such as body shape and color scheme factor in greatly, so I’ve chosen Pokemon with varying degrees of complexity in their designs.


Let’s start with Garchomp. Garchomp isn’t terribly complex, but it’s got enough detail in its design to put on the higher end of the complexity scale. Designs with a lot of detail can be hard to transform into Gijinkas because you have to find a way to translate a lot of elements into humanoid traits and clothing.


Next up is Chandelure (I had to, it’s my favorite Pokemon), a good example of a Pokemon on the middle of the complexity spectrum. They’re, in my mind, the easiest to design for. There’s still design elements to translate, but fewer of them, making the task a little less daunting. Though it’s important to note that fewer design elements means it’s more important to incorporate all of them. For example, you can get away with using one set of spikes on a Garchomp gijinka rather than two , but you probably couldn’t forget Chandelure’s yellow eyes.


[FONT=&amp]Lastly we have Diglett. Diglett is perhaps the most simply designed of all Pokemon. And much like very complex Pokemon, simple ones can also be hard to design for. With fewer or almost no real details or design elements to replicate, it can be easy to take artistic liberty, but difficult to prove that you’re making a Gijinka rather than a sketch of someone only wearing brown.


[/FONT]When making a Gijinka character I like to incorporate their Nature and Characteristics into the design, which I might talk about some other time, but for today I’m just sticking to basic design.


First we need a base, just bodies to add features to. Generally, you might want to make smaller Pokemon have smaller bodies, and when I usually make Gijinkas I show a difference in stature, but for the sake of comparison all the bodies are of similar height and are standing. (Normally I’d portray Ghost types like Chandelure as floating.)



Now let’s add the basic outlines for clothing and hair. I’ve marked some key design elements on the sketch. But I’ll speak some about it here.

-Gala (Garchomp): Dropped sleeves, and a tailcoat are used to replicate Garchomp,s wings and tail and to give her a more familiar shape. Rather than having horn shaped hair, I gave her horn shaped earrings.

-Haruki (Chandelure): Chandelure is basically a sphere with various details added on top so it’s important that her clothing have an overall round shape. I gave her flame shaped hair (a feature common amongst most Chandelure Gijinkas), and made clothing covering the arms and legs skin tight to make them seem slim compared to the round torso, representative of Chandelure's long black appendages.

-Hellaine (Diglett): I tried to give Hellaine a very simple shape, since Diglett is pretty much a tic-tac in terms of body shape. Her hair is the most obvious sign of this. No crazy sleeves, or spikes, just a slim simple design. (Though I’ve seen some great Diglett gijinkas that are crazy detailed, it’s usually best to go over to top or very simple when it comes to this Pokemon.)

 

[michemagius]

Here's Part of the Lesson on Gijinkas!

Now that we’ve got our basic designs it’s time to add to add some details to the faces and clothing.

-Gala: I’ve added some of Garchomp’s spikes and detailed the jacket.

-Haruki: Chandelure’s signature eye’s and stitches are now in place as well as adding some long ribbons to represent more appendages, and I’ve separated her hair into two sections.

-Hellaine: I’ve added a knitted pattern to the top and pleating to the skirt. Neither of these details are particularly representative of anything, more so my artistic preference. Though I didn’t mention it on the sketch, I made it a point to add Diglett’s big round nose to her design.


Next is coloring of Skin and Hair.

In general I’ve found skin tone to be less important to a Gijinka than hair. For this tutorial, on Garchomp and Diglett I'l be using skin tones that actually occur in real life, but like how I'll do with Chandelure, any skin tone that you feel fits the design will do.


-Gala: Her skin is tan, but not for any reason (I’ve drawn her with a wide variety of skin tones before, because no one has seemed to fit better than the other). More important are her hair and eyes. It’s common in gijinkas for the body and all other elements to be fully humanoid, but for the eyes to remain the same as they were in the Pokemon’s original design. So, Gala has black sclera and yellow pupils. Her hair is shown to be naturally blue but shaved on the sides, and dyed blond on the top, to represent the yellow star like patch on Garchomp’s forehead.

-Haruki: I usually make ghosts very pale or give them white/transluscent skin, so it’s the same for Haruki. Much like Gala, she has Chandelure’s original yellow eyes with no pupils or irises. Most of her detail comes through in her hair with is black with varying shades of pink and purple tips and highlights. (Chandelure’s color scheme is cooler shades of purple and blue, but I usually add brighter pinks and purples to the hair for a bit of a pop, it’s just my preference.)

[FONT=&amp]-Hellaine: Diglett’s body is tan, so I made her skin tan, but with a design as simple as Diglett it doesn’t really matter. Her hair and eyes are brown however to match Diglett’s coloring.

[/FONT]

Now it’s time to add color to the clothing.

This is usually when I make edits to the original designs, since color can bring flaws to light or present you with new ideas.


-Gala: I made the most changes to this design. Mainly fixing a few mistakes, I changed the nose to the one I usually draw her with, and added a detail to the sleeves. Outside of that I used primarily shades of blue in her design since Garchomp is almost entirely a greyish-blue with red and yellow accents. I made the patches on her shoulder and zippers/buckles on her jacket red and yellow respectively to show this. Garchomp’s spikes are white but I made them light grey so that they would stand out against the white background.

-Haruki: I stayed true to Chandelure’s cooler color scheme for the clothing since adding too much pink would stray a little too far from the original design. Her inner dress is a pale blue, and the outer is pale purple, since Chandelure hase a blue light shining out on to a purple body. Her arms, legs, ribbons, and stiches are lack and dark grey like Chandelure’s actual appendages, and the buttons on her dress are yellow like Chandelure’s eyes. (I usually wouldn’t represent the eye’s twice in a design, but because Chandelure’s eyes are key part of its design I’ve represented them both on the body and the face.)

-Hellaine: The clothing on her body is varying shades of brown to represent Diglett’s brown body, but her socks are grey like the rocks around Diglett.


Finally, we add a few more details.

-Gala: Most of the details to her design were done in the initial coloring stages, but there’s still some to add. I’ve made the sleeves red, rather than blue like Garchomp’s original design, but I didn’t feel like she needed any more blue, the shape was representative enough. I’ve also made the laces on her boots red and the piercings on her eybrow gold to help them stand out.

-Haruki: I’ve done some light highlighting on her dress to represent the fact that she’s a literal light source, and I’ve given her ghostly aura for the same reason. I’ve added a bow to tie together the ends of her dress for no real reason other than I wanted to.

-Hellaine: Not much detail was added to the design. I textured the socks since they’re supposed to be rocks and put light brown barrettes in her hair.



This concludes the lesson on making Gijinkas! Thank you for reading! The challenge attached to this lesson is to design a Gijinka of your own and explain some of design elements you chose, you can post your creations in this thread!

 

[NoirGrimoir]

Art Lesson: Drawing From A Reference

Hello, I'm NoirGrimoir and I love to make art. It's been quite a while since there was an art lesson posted, so I hope this one is worthwhile. I don't know everything about fine art making or drawing, but I'm happy to share the experience and knowledge that I do have with you guys. Hopefully something I have to say is useful to you in your creative efforts.

One thing that is sometimes difficult, especially for beginning or less experienced artists, is to try to draw something unique, using an image as a reference, but without making a copy of said image. This lesson aims to get you in the right state of mind to analyze reference images in a way that will help you to make your own unique art from them. This skill is especially great for a fandom like ours where often we are trying to draw pokemon in our own poses using official art as a reference, but skills like this are also useful in drawing anything from any kind of reference image, and is even useful in drawing from real life. Hopefully even if you are a skilled artist you might pick up a trick or two you didn't know or hadn't thought of.

Today I've decided to draw a Tyrantrum wearing an Ermine Coat. Yes, it's silly, but I thought of the idea independently of this lesson and have a strong desire to draw it. This is helpful for you guys though because I have never actually drawn a Tyrantrum before, so we'll be going through the process together. It's also rather complex a figure, so can get an idea of how these techniques might be useful, rather than in a simpler figure where these techniques might not be necessary. Also I'm adding things into the image that I won't find on any kind of reference, so it's impossible for me to simply trace or draw directly from the references.


Step 1: Gathering References

So the first thing we need to do is gather reference images. Go on Google or DeviantArt or whatever image bank you like and start searching for adequate references. Try to get multiple images of your subject from as many angles as possible so as to get a full picture of what the subject looks like from all points of view. Preferably you want at least one full view, as well as an image depicting the side, the front, and maybe one from the back or a three quarters view. You also want them large enough so you can easily make out the details, so try to find larger images. If these don't turn out to be enough as you go on, you can always go back and look for something else but this is enough to start. If there is something you want to add to the subject that won't be in any of your initial references, you should look for images of that as well. In my case, it's the Ermine Cape.

After gathering your references, if you are working with pen and paper you may want to print the images out or keep them in different tabs in front of you on a computer, or if you are drawing in a computer program, you can drag them onto a layer of your canvas. This is what I have right now:



Note that I'm drawing with a Wacom Tablet in Painter Sai, but you can use paper and pencil or whatever computer program you prefer, just as Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or Painter.


Step 2: Analyzing References

Using references may seem as simple as just looking at them, but that's not quite the case, especially if you are a beginner. In my personal opinion, this is the most important and often ignored step when it comes to learning or even teaching drawing. The goal with analyzing the references is to get an in-depth idea of the shapes that make up the subject you are trying to draw, as well as the three-dimensionality of it. You are gathering knowledge about your subject so you can transfer that knowledge into your drawing. With a keen eye, some analysis, and knowledge of how three-dimensional shapes and bodies fit together and change from different viewpoints, an artist can look at an object and reproduce it at any angle. Here are three methods to help you start thinking like an artist, each helping you to gain different kinds of information. You can do one or all of them, but with these methods you can put yourself in the best position to create an accurate drawing.


Method 1: Simplify

First, look at the references you have and pick out the individual shapes that make up the subject. If you've ever tried to draw from a “How To Draw” book, then you might be familiar with this method, as many of them have you do this in reverse by drawing various shapes and then fleshing them out into an object. If you are experienced, then you can do this step an even others in your head, but if this is your first time trying this method, you are a beginner, you want to practice, or if you just feel like what you are drawing is rather difficult, you may want to actually draw the shapes onto the image (in another layer, if you are on a computer, or on a duplicate printed image). I'm going to do this so you can get a good idea of what I mean.



You can use as many or as few shapes as are useful to you. There's no need to limit yourself, or add shapes where you don't see any to meet some kind of quota. Just make sure there aren't so many that you can't make them out. I used two dimensional shapes like ovals, circles, triangles and rectangles to make up my figures, but if you really want to flesh this exorcise out, or practice more, you can draw three dimensional shapes, or even turn the figure into something like a wire-frame figure, like you might see computer animators doing when they begin to create a figure that can be animated in a program. These later exorcizes are especially useful when drawing complex poses, or when you are adding the shadows and highlights in the painting phase.


Method 2: Quantify

This method is really easy, you just identify patterns in the image and make note of recurring shapes and in what number they recur. In my case, I'm going to count out the plates on Tyrantrum's back, the number of prongs on his crown thing and how many tufts are in his collar-mane thing. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing to have drawn a great image and then realize you have the wrong number of claws or spines? This step makes sure that won't happen. Here is what I ended up with.




Method 3: The Big Picture

Maybe this has happened to you: You decide to draw something directly from an image, so you start at one part of the figure and begin to draw. You are very focused on what you are doing and draw line after line, just like the ones in the reference. Finally, you are done and you set down your pencil to look at the finished product and notice a problem—everything is wonky and not quite right. Maybe the head is too small, the body is really giant for some reason, the angle of the foot is wrong, etc. Don't worry if this is a problem you've had, it's a common occurrence, especially for beginners. The problem is you were so focused on the individual parts that you didn't think of the image as a whole and how the parts relate to each other.

Now there are probably many ways to combat this, but I am going to go over the method that I know. It is very useful and versatile and can help you to draw from images as well as from real life, even in new poses or sizes much different from the reference. The key is to identify ratios and angles within the image that can help you keep everything the right size or placement compared to everything else. Have you ever seen that classic pose of the painter looking at a landscape while sticking out his thumb in front of it? That is this method, the painter is comparing parts of the reference to his thumb size. That way he can say that this part is one thumb length, this one is half a thumb, this one is two thumbs, etc. and keep everything to scale.

So in your image, identify a prominent part that can act as a reference length for other parts, for example, the head. Maybe the leg is the length of four heads, the arms a length of three and a half, the shoulders two and a half. As you are drawing, you can keep this in mind and measure the ratios in your image to the original reference. That way even if your drawing is much bigger or smaller than your reference image, or the pose is different, you can keep the ratios the same. Angles are done similarly. You can identify the angle of various parts as right angles or oblique angles and so on, and keep the angles the same. I'm going to do this to my images so you get an idea of how you might do this yourself.



Keep in mind that you don't have to draw any of these analysis steps out on every drawing you do. You will begin to think along these lines naturally with practice and then you can simply note them in your mind. But hopefully these steps will allow you to get the absolute most out of your references.


Step 3: Sketch

Decide on a pose or how you want your own image to look, and sketch out something really basic. Don't go into detail. What you are aiming for is getting down the basic shapes and ratios that we identified in the analysis onto the canvas so we can make sure everything looks right before we proceed. Some people like to make stick figures in the correct pose or draw in the shapes like we did in method one of analysis, or even draw just a sort of silhouette. I like to do what you might call a gesture drawing, which is a little bit shapes and a little bit the general outline or feel. I might draw in a few features just so I can make other parts more correct, but I won't do anything small or detailed or decorative, mostly just the body or other large objects in the image. You don't have to worry about any part of it being perfect yet, we will refine it along the way, just make sure things are more or less how you want them to be. Here is what I have now.



You'll notice that I used a few shapes to help me out: the stomach is a big circle, the head is blocky and squarish, the thighs are ovals, etc. In some places I've also just made a line or two, like on the crest or the ruff or the feet, this was more to get the idea of the shapes there because they are fairly complex to simplify into one or two shapes. This way I have a guide for later when I can make them more detailed. You'll also notice the lines are light. This is especially important when drawing with paper so you can easily erase them.

If you are using pencil and paper, you may want to try using a light color or harder grade of pencil if you have them for this step. Harder pencils make lighter lines, while softer ones make darker lines. A regular everyday pencil is 2B. If you have a set of drawing pencils, then something harder like B, F or an H grade might be good for sketching depending on your preference, and a 2B or even softer, like 3B or beyond for final lines. However you don't need different grades of pencils, you can also just be careful with the amount of force you are putting on your regular 2B pencil as you draw. Dull pencils also tend to produce lighter lines than sharp ones and are easier to erase. You can have a sharp pencil handy for final lines and use a dull one for sketching. By the way, the best non-drawing pencils for drawing, in my opinion, are Ticonderogas or mechanical pencils.

Less importantly I did change the size and shape of my canvas, just because as I was thinking of the pose, I realized I needed a differently shaped canvas (portrait as opposed to landscape orientation). The only lesson to learn here is use the right size and shaped canvas or paper for the picture you want to make. You can adjust the size of your canvas as you go in a program. I usually start with a 5 x 5 in square at 300 dpi. If you are using paper and draw really tiny, maybe use a smaller sized drawing pad than the standard, or if you draw very large, get a drawing pad that is a larger format. You want to fill the canvas, but you also want room to draw what you want.


Step 4: Refine

Now you do another sketch on top of the first one. This is the one where we iron out the kinks and put down the lines that are going to be close to the finished picture. It's still okay to be a little messy with the lines, but overall everything needs to be in the position where you want it to be ultimately. If you are using a computer it might be a good idea to lower the opacity of the layer underneath so you can see what you are doing better. If you are using paper, you might want to use a different color or softer grade of pencil to what you used to make the sketch. If you have one available, you might alternatively place your sketch on a light box, or against a window, and put a fresh paper on top, and draw that way. A lot of professional illustrators and comic artists put down their sketches in blue pencil and then draw or ink on top of it in black, and use a graphic program like Photoshop to remove the blue later, creating a clean image. If you have these tool available to you, then you might try it yourself sometime. As for me, I'm drawing on a tablet in Painter Sai, so I'm going to do my tighter sketch on another layer, and change the color of my first sketch to blue as well as lower the opacity a little so I can still see the sketch but also my new lines will be easy to see.



This is my final sketch. You'll see that it's still pretty rough, with some of the lines being very thick or messy, but the details are all there. I made sure to look at my reference images as I went along, and as I filled in details I realized that some of the basic lines I made in the first step weren't quite correct and I fixed them up to the point that I was satisfied. As I added details I often checked the distances and size as compared to other parts of the figure as well as the reference, to make sure I wasn't distorting it. I referred to exorcises I did in Step 2 during my analysis, and considered the reference again if I needed more information. Finally, I used what I knew about the figure from my many references to infer some parts of the pose when needed. Make sure you are happy with the sketch. If you like to draw or paint from an even more finished sketch you can keep making more refined sketches on top of this one until you get something you are confident with transferring to an outline or painting.

Some tips and things to keep in mind: If you are working on a computer, you will want to flip the image occasionally so that you don't acquire any asymmetry or distortions in your drawing by accident, which is very easy to do even for experience artists. They are difficult to notice as you draw because you are used to seeing the image, but they jump out immediately to you when you flip the image or turn it upside down. Similarly, if you are drawing on paper, you can turn the paper around and hold it up to a light or place it on a light box for the same effect. You can do the same thing as you draw to make particular lines or curves. Your hand naturally makes a smooth curved arc open to the right (or the left if you are left-handed) but can struggle to do the same facing the other direction, so don't be afraid to turn the canvas or paper so you can draw a particular shape or line more smoothly and naturally.

Another thing to pay attention to when drawing with paper is the angle at which you are looking at the image. Have you ever seen this particular optical illusion? You, or the camera person, is standing up and looking at the ground in front of them and see a picture of an object that looks as if it's standing up or sitting on the ground. However as you get closer, or change angles, you realize it is a long, distorted image that only appears correct from a particular angle because of the effects of foreshortening (the way long objects can appear distorted when looking at them head on). This same thing can happen in the reverse when drawing on a flat surface, because you are viewing what you are drawing from an angle rather then front on. Be sure to habitually stand your paper up and look at it vertically as you go, to fix any distortions that may occur while drawing. Alternatively, you can draw on an angled surface, like at a writing desk, which decreases the angle of view.



Step 5: Finalize

By finalize, I mean you draw your outline, or if you are using a more painterly approach, you might jump straight into putting down color. Even now, don't be afraid to make corrections from your previous step as you go, and continue to consult your reference to be sure everything is in place and as it should be. If you are drawing on paper you will want to make your final outline with harder strokes and a finer tip, and even with a softer pencil. If you are using a computer, you might use a pen type brush and a dark color to make your outlines. There are other methods to make clean outlines, such as the pen tool in Photoshop or the Linework layers in Painter Sai, so just use whichever you are more comfortable or capable with. I don't like to mess with such things myself, so I just use a brush.

Finally, here is my final outline.



Now, there is still more we can do with this image, namely coloring it, but for the purposes of this lesson, we are finished. I hope beginners now feel more capable drawing from a reference, and maybe more experienced artists learned something as well. Keep developing your analysis skills and learn to look at thinks as an artist would. And remember that the best way to get better is to practice as well as to challenge yourself. No one is just good at drawing without any effort or hard work, and no one is always going to be a hopeless case, provided they are practicing the right skills and putting in the work. Even if you aren't satisfied with your skills now, with time, practice, and an observant mind, you will definitely get better. Thank you very much for reading, and keep on creating!