hyperbolic time chamber of art: how to get in there (Patreon)

as mentioned in my last post i wanted to do some monster hunter AU drawings which meant learning to draw armor. which is unfortunate. so i learned how to draw anime girls, because i decided i wanted to draw this stuff in a particular style.

monster hunter stories has a cutesy anime artstyle that i really really like, and i figured if i'm gonna be drawing some fanart for this thing, i wanna draw it in that cutesy artstyle. there's merit in translating everything to my own artstyle and not always just trying hard to ape the original thing, but in this case i really wanted to ape the original thing. for fun and enjoyment. unfortunately for ME, my art doesn't look like that.

my first try at translating monster hunter stuff into my style isn't the worst. it's perfectly fine. BUT IT'S NOT WHAT I WANT. but, how do you go about learning to draw a completely different way to how you normally draw...? and i will tell you.

you go out and trace a bunch of shit that has the look you want

sources: [1] [2] [3]

(it's really uncool to post things you traced, but i'm taking that hit as a means to explain a method of learning. you should always credit your resources but if you're ever going to post something you traced you Have To credit the original. you Have To. )

halfway through the rudy page i felt like i got the point. it'd only taken a day or two before i'd started whipping through them really fast. i'd refined my brush to a feel i liked, and my hand started to know the shapes to draw and how to land the lines close enough that it wasn't pertinent i edit them, especially his whiskers. i landed all of those things in like, one or two tries max. so, now it was time to move on to doing my own drawings.

i ripped through one babyfaced avery drawing mostly focusing on her hair shapes to figure out what the HELL i was doing with them and my conclusion was "idfk". i also struggled to decide if the style translation was sticking because i didn't draw her angry so she wasn't immediately recognizeable, lol. nbd, go next

sketched two more normal averys that came out WAY too clean but basically nailed the look i was going for, 'cept i'd used my old brush for it and i was very committed to not just doing my same old same old for these, which meant... inking... BUT I'D JUST SPENT 2 ENTIRE DAYS TRAINING FOR EXACTLY THIS, DIDN'T I!!!!!!! i tear through a quick trace of both pictures with the brush i'd made, slap some color down, and boom, all done.

i still don't know how to draw armor, though.