Dressing the snowman, and other bad art habits

[AssistantCrone]

I thought it might be useful to have a thread in which to rant about various bad habits we've picked up as artfolk, or any particular thing we might think we suck at. Hopefully we'll be able to swap advice; if not, ranting is fun!

Two things of mine:

1) A bit hard to define, but here goes. I'm working on something, it looks okay, and if I'm sensible I should stop right now. But then I enter that phase called 'I think we should dress the snowmen' and go slowly insane fiddling with the picture. This is a particularly good way to ruin faces.

2) I know I've said this before, but does anyone know how to do all that nice calligraphylike outlining by hand so it comes out crisp and smooth and accurate and not like you had to do it with one inked-up thumb? Because I don't.

[archonix]

Practice seems to be the key to that last one. I've never mastered it. I don't suppose I ever will.

I'm scared of colouring.

[AssistantCrone]

Pay Beb in platinum bars Some sort of thumbnail colour sketch might help plan out what's going to be which colour, like the 'draw little stick figures to get the pose right' trick. If you want something easy to practice on, I highly recommend leaving the sodding background out of it.

[archonix]

You know, I never actually thought about that... it makes sense though.

[Quazie89]

I'm scared of colouring.

Me, too! I also have trouble with hands. They're my weakness, but I guess it just takes pratice, like you said. Still, I don't think it would hurt to ask if anybody has hints for hands?

[AssistantCrone]

I have one hint for non-Simpsony hands: when in doubt, draw your own. Life drawing is the ideal way to get used to how the hand is constructed and how it moves, but if you don't have a model around, a mirror can be very helpful. Even if your own hands aren't like the hands you want to draw, it could still be useful for poses, foreshortening and such.