Human Figure - The nose

We often don't really care about people's noses. Why should we. But in a human figure composition it's all very important. The face would simply not be the face if everything does not fit in right. It's light putting a jigsaw puzzle together and the nose just happens to be that big piece in the centre.

There's not a lot of noses to draw. But it's important to practise. Look up our list of recommended books for a rough idea of what you ought to do. Click here if you haven't checked it out already.

So how to get your noses right? Here's a bunch of tutorials to get you in the mood.

DO NOT OPEN THESE UNTIL YOU HAVE READ IT UP IN OUR LIST OF RECOMMENDED BOOKS

The holy grail of nose tutorials : Click here

Stock Images for noses : Click here

How to draw noses : Click here

Manga noses : Click here

Not another Nose tutorial : Click here

So get your noses sniffing and hands moving. Cause there's a lot of noses you need to draw!!

-Team CrackDesign

Human Figures - The Eye

Nothing speaks like the eyes of a person! And in a drawing too nothing speaks more than the eyes of a human figure. So when you set out to draw a human figure make sure that it's eyes are a deep reflection of not only that character but your character as well.

The eye is one of the most complex and difficult things to design. Because to be honest there are thousands of eyes you can design. Good old comic book artists prefer to use small dots whereas manga artists want to showcase the eye in all it's depth and then you have the professional portrait artists who are going to spend days just coming up with the perfect eye.

So here's a bunch of tutorials from deviantart which are supposedly the best ones out there:

Here's the drawing the eyes tutorial - click here, here and here

Here's stock images for eyes - click here

Here's different angles for eyes - click here

That's all there is. Obviously there's going to be tons more in the books that we have recommended. If you missed that post click here

So get down to practising those eyes. The more sexy they look the higher are your chances of ending up in your dream college.

-Team CrackDesign

Human Figures - Warm Up

It's a sure shot question in most entrances where they will ask you to draw a human figure in a certain position with a certain expression and it will become a decider in most of your papers because these are the questions which carry the maximum marks.

So here are the basics. Most of you need to read them in depth through the books we have recommended but here's a quick overview.

An average human figure consists of 7 1/2 parts where 4 parts are for the upper body and the remainder are for the lower body. Each part is the same as the size of the head of the human figure. For practise draw a straight line and a head. Then draw six and a half circles and that is the rough sketch of your human figure. Obviously by the time you are going to appear for the entrance this method has to be done away with and you should be able to visualize the human figure in your head and express it on paper.

Then there's the question of various positions. For instance how does a person sit when he eats or when he is sitting on a chair or the position when a person bends to pick up a rock or the position when a person is riding a bicycle or the position when a person is looking at a tall building or the position when a person is looking down at something extremely small or the position when a person is working on a laptop. The possibilities are endless but if you have a fair idea of the positions you will be able to apply the same in practise in the paper.

Here are two online tutorials which are more than sufficient for your basic needs. Obviously you do need to read up on all the books we recommended in one of our earlier posts. If you missed it [click here]

Here are two brilliant tutorials :

TUTORIAL # 1
TUTORIAL # 2

And apart from that here are a bunch of images which show human figures in different positions practise these on paper. Get your creative juices flowing!!

-Team CrackDesign

SHADING AND COLOURING BASICS

The written section in most exams is checked by a computer but there's a human checking your drawing aptitude and skills. And anything that glitters is gold for them. Anything that is coloured adds to the marks you are going to get. So it is essential to work on both your shading and colouring techniques. Mostly you will be using either oil pastels or pencil colours or plastic crayons and these are some of the best and most friendly methods to merge and create some fabulous colours on paper.

So here's how you should get started. Go through all the your shading and colouring books and read up on the techniques that are given out there. Practise the warm up and skill building exercises. The books would recommend you to do them just once or twice but for perfection practise them everyday till your hand starts to flow. If you don't know the list of books you ought to buy [click here]

Second there's wikipedia for anything and everything so read up these two okayish articles on colour mixing and shading.

Thirdly, there's a whole lot of stuff you would learn just from seeing other people's works so do check out deviantart sign up and upload your stuff. Browse through other people's artwork and comment. Learn from others your age or elder to you. Look at the techniques that the use and try to imitate them or better still develop your own. It's not a one day process but there's nothing in this world which time cannot teach.

And if you are too lazy and lack the initiative to do any of the above here's a shortcut. It's recommended only if you are one or two weeks away from your entrance.   

WARNING : Do not open these unless you have a fair idea of the techniques so follow step one at all cost.

Here's how to use oil pastels : Click here

There's a lot of videos and we recommend that you go through each of them slowly and master them one at a time. There's a lot of neat techniques which no tom, dick or harry would know and it is essential that you master them as new techniques always fetch brownie points in the drawing section.

Here's a bunch of tutorials for shading 

Click here, here, here  and here . The tutorials are brilliant and some of the most in depth and extensive that we have seen. But they are no match for those that are there in the books that we have recommended.

That's all for now.

-Team CrackDesign