So I'm trying to emulate the akira toriyama style. He mainly did works such as dragonball z and games such as dragondquest.
I already did some of the sketch and started some of the painting process. I posted the start of the picture on my facebook recently and a friend said that the lines closer to the camera need to be thick and lines in the back need to be barely visable. If so how do i execute because after looking at pictures I don't notice that in toriyama's style, i could be mistaken though.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated have a nice day

This is the start of me refining the lines but it looks off. I started with the legs

sorry if my lines painted lines are sloppy, i'm using a mouse lol .

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I posted the start of the picture on my facebook recently and a friend said that the lines closer to the camera need to be thick and lines in the back need to be barely visable. If so how do i execute because after looking at pictures I don't notice that in toriyama's style, i could be mistaken though.

It's true, they are called line weights and they can be used for various reasons. This isn't something limited to Toriyama by the way, it's a technique that most artists who use linework know how to do.

Notice how the close up shot of Gohan has very thick lines, whereas the full body shots of the other characters have thinner lines. Because we can see the entire body of those characters, this would imply the camera is farther away from them. I don't recommend going to extremes with this on a single character unless there is some exaggerated foreshortening going on, It's best to use this for more then one object in the scene to show off their varying distance from the camera. Of course you can add your own flavor to a piece and do what looks best to you, notice the really thick lines on the major shapes of Gohan's hair and face? I assume Toriyama purposely did this to pop them out of the picture and draw your attention to the focal point, Gohan's head.

Another way to use line weights is to make the lines on a character slightly thicker where there is going to be shadow, likewise they'd be thinner where there is light. You can see a good example of this on the pants of Gotenks.

By the way, you might not have noticed this if you were looking up pictures from anime. This is because there are thousands of frames that have to be inked in anime, it'd be pretty ridiculous to expect all the frames to get this treatment(although you do usually see a difference for closeups as stated earlier). You'll mostly only see this much care in the lines if you look at finished illustrations.


As for critique on your picture, I'd say you did a pretty nice job on the pose. It looks like you're having a bit of trouble with the structure of the head and hair though so watch out for that. Good job with your foreshortening though, it's easy to tell his left leg is close to the camera and his right hand is farther back.

WOW all i can say is thank you! That has to be the best critique/tips i've ever received! You rock dude. I can truly tell that you know what your talking about and it shows. If you ever need anything and I mean anything let me know. I'm going to take what you shown me and do my best to put it in practice and post back later tonight with it.

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No problem bro, there is plenty of things everyone can work on in their art, even the "fundamentals" encompass a lot. It can be quite overwhelming(it was for me), that's why I'm trying to do studies of one subject at a time instead of tackling it all at once. Of course, that doesn't mean I don't watch tutorials on other subjects I enjoy while I'm at it .

I'm really thankful for YouTube artists like Sycra and Sinix for actually addressing questions us noobs have always been asking. I try to be like them when I can by helping out on subjects I actually know, and I try to avoid talking about subjects I have no expertise in so as not to spread misinformation(though maybe I've been guilty of this a time or two, who knows).

Okay i started drawing again now that i got supplies, but drawing makes me frustrated as all hell.

Drawing makes me mad?
I seriously used to go into drawing with no worries and it was relaxing to me. But now that I'm older i can't draw to save my life. Yes other people in school will say wow you are amazing, but compared to other artist out there it doesn't cut it.

I'm always looking up tutorials, watching videos, etc. and getting no where. I will be signing up for a new class soon, but i have a feeeling it will frustrate me like it's doing now.

I will sit for hours just erasing the basic stick figure pose i will be doing, because it doesn't look right and is disproportional. I will look at proportion guides, but when I'm trying to draw a cartoon/anime person with perspective it throughs the guides out the window.

I will spend hours just trying to get the basic outline of the person without even adding details because i mess it up so badly. My page will be full of eraser marks because i get frustrated. I try to relax but simply can't because i have to draw a watered down version of my idea in my head.

I understand that i can't just make a perfect picture, but its so hard to look at the imperfections in my pictures before i even get to add detail to them. It just drives me nuts. Even after i decide to just settle on the pose of the person, i will then look to see i screwd up the proportions of the figure. I try to learn anatomy and all that,but looking at anatomy and performing it is one thing. Yes a good understanding of it comes from practice, but how can i practice when i'm driving my self nuts.

No matter what i do i grow mad, whether it be listen to music, taking breaths, or taking a nap, i grow mad. When my family tries to talk to me i explode on them because i have so much rage in my veins from drawing. I am usually not a frustrated person but DANG this will be my career someday and i can't even draw a pose anymore. This has to be the worst rut i've ever been in my life



I will post the sketch i did eventually, but I'm avoiding it because i already can point out all the issues, its just i can't improve it at all. I tried to improve it but i keep erasing non stop and it seems its never ending




Sorry if this seems whiny as hell, I just don't know what the hell to do. This is the career i loved as a kid and what i'm going to college for and to see that my love has converted towards hate because i can't express 1/99th of what i'm trying to. In my head i'll have crazy cool terrains with close up camera shots of characters with their faces looking off into different directions and such, but i can't draw perspective. Funny thing is i can draw perspective perfectly with cars, buildings, objects, etc. But when it comes to people i can't. The proportions come out terribly and its hard to suck it up and continue drawing when i know the end result will be garbage.

Hi Mike ,
I've been there before. Trying to get it out of your head and onto the paper and it just doesnt click . All I can do is tell you the things that helped me and maybe one of them will help you.
First have a family member or friend hide your eraser on you. Your going to make mistakes with your basic gesture poses (stick figure pose) . Just draw over it. I also found doing my gesture poses with a light
blue colored pencil helped loosen me up because you couldnt really see the mistakes , and I knew I could correct them with my final pencils. I try not to take more than sixty seconds on
drawing the gesture pose. It forces me to stay loose . You do all the detail work with your final pencils.
Second I would get a basic notebook and every day draw something in it with a pen. Drawing with a pen can really loosen up your drawing because when you make a mistake in pen we tend to just work it
into the picture. Also no one cares about wasting note book paper.
Third I would just draw doodles and thumbnail sketches like crazy . Sometimes these things start to work themselves out. You might be doodling and all of a sudden be like " Yeah! Thats kinda what I wanted to draw".
It also never hurts to use reference material. Sometimes its just hard to work out certain poses in your head.
I find having a cool sci fi DVD going in the background helps me chill when I'm drawing.
As for perspective.... its hard . I like to just block out my character in a scene using blocks because its easy to draw blocks in perspective . I'll use that as a guide for the perspective and lighting and then flesh out my figure on top of it.
Perspective can be tricky and I find it the easy thing in drawing that people over think.
Dont give up . Like I said Ive been where you are . Once you clear this hurdle youll find another. Thats how we get better.
My hurdle right now is drawing digitally and finishing drawings . I tend to get bored after spending an hour on something and Move on to a new drawing. Dont get me started on my anatomy problems.
I'm my own worse critic but thats what makes me strive to get better.

HOLY CRUD D BRYANT that was amazing advice!!!! This is why i love this forum, such good thoughtful members. I swear if i told any of my friends that i'm having this problem they'd be like oh your art looks good,don't worry. But i think as a starving artist, you want to improve and improve. Its the same motivation an athlete has to achieve the best. Thank you so much, i don't know how i can repay you. I'll post back by the end of this week or next week telling you if i see any improvement, because i think with the eraser technique i will make rapid progress, if i put the time into drawing. Thanks

Hey guys sorry it has been a while since i posted in here, just doing a lot of drawing in my art class or should i say doodling because i get my assignments done in an hour (btw my class is a four hour class lol and the assignments are short). But anyways i can't scan them in since they are on large sheets of paper but here is something i did a month ago for a friend of mine. I was experimenting with painting in photoshop and got stumped with how to brush the various values of the skin. I just turned the opacity down the color of the brush but that was it.

Second question: What are your thoughts about using brushes you find online for photoshop, is it cheating and if so how do you achieve some of the various textures with a pen. DUn Dun Dun

another random picture that my friend wanted me to do. He basically wanted me to draw my adaptation of a my little pony character

a quick sketch of tyler the creator.

another quick sketch for a friend. this one didnt come out as well as i wanted it to. I went back like six times trying to fix it but it didn't come out right.

I see no problems with using other people's brushes if they shared them online.

thank you for the response I appreciate it. Yeah ill have to use more brushes in my stuff.

Im super fed up with my inability to improve my drawings. I keep practicing but at the end of the day i just can't draw whats in my head. I'll imagine drawing the subject matter in a certain stance and then i'll sketch it out. The perspective is skewed when i try, then i erase and erase and erase, to the point where i rerange the picture in an entirely different flat stance that doen't have much perspective because i can't draw it. So basically i have to alter my ideas from my head in order to just get the idea on paper, alter the stance, the perspective, the proportions etc. because i can't draw the ideas i have. I'll fiddle around with the head shape till the point where it doesn't resemble what i originally wanted. I'll try to use reference material, but often times the references are in different poses so the heads are tilted differently from the desired position i want it to be in. So i'll play around with a few possible faces, but nothing comes together.

This picture is an example of what i said. I wish i could show you the original stance i hand in my head compared to this watered down version. I wanted his legs to be farther back like he's charging forward and i wanted his right hand show his knuckles towards the viewer as if he was ready for battle. I also wanted to appear charging forward at the viewer. But in my original sketch i drew out the stick figure and it looked fine, but when i started working on the face, i kept erasing and erasing until the head matched the body. But in the end it didn't so i'd erase the picture to the point where it was simple enough to draw. I erase the hair because i didn't know how to draw links style of cap because it would look funny for his hat to be in perspective, but not the rest of the picture.

This is exactly why i hate drawing now. Not because i'm struggling but the fact that i have awesome ideas that become watered down. My friend suggested the topic i was drawing (link as a pirate) and it puts even more pressure on me to spend hours on it because i know she will critique the crud out of it. No escaping it. I put way too much time into a sketch that shouldn't mean anything

i just feel stupid

I will keep trying and trying. for now i'm just going to go to bed and try again with a refreshed mind

Building up a pose from scratch with no reference is very hard work. Unless the stance is plain, I usually have to redraw limbs a couple of times to get it right. It's hard to keep track of where they are spatially. I only know one guy that can get complex poses without references in one try. I'm pretty sure he averages around 8 hours a day of just drawing traditionally (no digital drawing or painting), and he has been doing it for 4 years.

Thank you so much Fenix

Here is one of my better sketches in a while. I was pretty proud of it till my friend showed me how she would draw it. Either way i still like it. But the face is the biggest downfall. I drew Jessie from toy story

Maybe arts just not for you.not a put down,most of us here are/amatuers, which means we do it for love,not money. Is there something else in life that you rather be doing More than drawing? If so, maybe that's your bag. The trouble is we have to try things to see if we like them, so don't jump too fast. It's hard to get expert at most things!Thats why we all are amazed by great art, we know how hard it is to make. Hard but not immposible

Sgt-just a p.s. after read king some of your advice received. Forget a finished drawing, your're not ready. O.k. , now try to just make the pencil do your will. Practice drawing straight lines full length of paper, horiz. And vert. And diag. Then try circles andcirles inside circles, flowiwing wavy lines draw all these from the shoulder or elbow ,very important skill from the shoulder or elbow. Wrist a and fingers are for fine small details. Also practice writing the abc's print and cursive.turn your pencil on its side and do shading and all of the above...use this as a 20 minute warm-up daily. Get that control An:d THEN WORK FROM reference.

The reason i am hating art more and more is the fact that it has transformed from a hobby of expression to a job that your being constantly judged. I miss the feeling of just drawing for the sake of loving it, but now since i'm doing it in school I feel like i have to compete with everyone. Its wrong to compare but its hard not to especially when you know that these are the same people you are going to face after college, when getting a job. Your right i am doing it for money, but not for a lot, i just need it to get by. Why wouldn't i do it for money, its what i love why shouldn't my hard work get me money down the line.

I think the other reason I hate my art specifically is because i have grandiose ideas, that i can't reproduce and it frustrates me. I know in the back of my head that it takes time to draw exactly what you want, but the perfectionist side of me refutes drawing garbage. Thats partially why i don't post all my sketches on here, because my perfectionist side would go nuts because everything i draw is wrong to some extent. I am not going to give up as an artist because I've been told by tons of people thats what i'm meant to do and i would be letting them down. But most importantly i would be letting myself down.

Marvel those are great tips and i do those every day. I feel like my eyes/mind know what to draw, but my hands can't do it. I think part of it is because i broke both my wrist recently. One of which i may have to get a metal plate in my arm. It seems since i've had that happen its frustrated me immensely.

I think the other reason I'm frustrated with my art is because i can't find the answers i'm looking for. Yes i do tons of google searches, youtube searches, books,etc. but i think speaking one on one with a teacher or artist helps you immensely. I saw a burst of improvement a while back when i saw sycra's video about his coming into art and such. I think part of me wants the level of improvement i had when i was a kid. That happened when i wasn't as critical of my stuff, no one judged my stuff, and i drew ever day nonstop. Which i am trying to draw everyday but you know how that plan can get subdued. Thats why i try to doodle when i'm eating dinner, or doodle in class so i keep my hands active.

Sorry if that was super super self analytical, i think writing it out could make me not seem like a complete idiot and explain more why i'm so ADD about my art.

The reason i am hating art more and more is the fact that it has transformed from a hobby of expression to a job that your being constantly judged. I miss the feeling of just drawing for the sake of loving it, but now since i'm doing it in school I feel like i have to compete with everyone. Its wrong to compare but its hard not to especially when you know that these are the same people you are going to face after college, when getting a job. Your right i am doing it for money, but not for a lot, i just need it to get by. Why wouldn't i do it for money, its what i love why shouldn't my hard work get me money down the line.

I think the other reason I hate my art specifically is because i have grandiose ideas, that i can't reproduce and it frustrates me. I know in the back of my head that it takes time to draw exactly what you want, but the perfectionist side of me refutes drawing garbage. Thats partially why i don't post all my sketches on here, because my perfectionist side would go nuts because everything i draw is wrong to some extent. I am not going to give up as an artist because I've been told by tons of people thats what i'm meant to do and i would be letting them down. But most importantly i would be letting myself down.

Marvel those are great tips and i do those every day. I feel like my eyes/mind know what to draw, but my hands can't do it. I think part of it is because i broke both my wrist recently. One of which i may have to get a metal plate in my arm. It seems since i've had that happen its frustrated me immensely.

I think the other reason I'm frustrated with my art is because i can't find the answers i'm looking for. Yes i do tons of google searches, youtube searches, books,etc. but i think speaking one on one with a teacher or artist helps you immensely. I saw a burst of improvement a while back when i saw sycra's video about his coming into art and such. I think part of me wants the level of improvement i had when i was a kid. That happened when i wasn't as critical of my stuff, no one judged my stuff, and i drew ever day nonstop. Which i am trying to draw everyday but you know how that plan can get subdued. Thats why i try to doodle when i'm eating dinner, or doodle in class so i keep my hands active.

Sorry if that was super super self analytical, i think writing it out could make me not seem like a complete idiot and explain more why i'm so ADD about my art.

I understand how you feel. Four years back I was the same. I was really afraid for my future back then, (I still do kinda) because when I decided that I want to be an artists there was no one who could help me. And yeah, just like you, I hated my art because it was far away from what I wanted to draw. I still far from perfect though.XD But you know what? Just don't give up and don't be too depressive about it! If you love what you re doing, you get there, I promise you that!=) All you need is time and practice. Practice hard, and you can fast improve.