El Leon

by SaiTenyo in Sketches and Doodles

Created 1 year, 8 months ago

Rating: G

Medium: Mechanical pencil and Photoshop

Tags: lion

Category: Anthro

Been trying to break away from my bad habit of drawing TLK-styled lions. No idea if this was successful.

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03/16/2007

chlorophyta
chlorophyta is a paid member.

It's a little different, but I think you can push it further. Do you draw from real lions at all? Either at a zoo or photoreference? I find that lions have very long, wide noses and muzzles. They also have fairly small eyes and their manes fluff more 'out' than so neatly, the way disney has them.

If you don't mind me giving you an exercise to try- draw a few lion faces from reference, without making them cartoony at all. just pay special attention to proportions and features and things. After you feel pretty confident that you remember how they look (I'd say after 3-4 drawings, they don't have to be super rendered or anything unless you want them to be.) Then put the reference out of sight, as well as the referenced drawings that you did. Now draw the lion. You can start stylizing a bit right away if you want, but make your own stylizations based off what you now KNOW lions look like. It's important to deviate from reality if you want to develoy your own style, otherwise, if you're always just trying to make it look different from tlk lions, but still based on tlk lions, They'll continue to look like an offshoot of tlk lions.

Hope that helps, otherwise, feel free to just ignore. =)

03/16/2007

SaiTenyo

I recently bought myself a yearly zoo pass so I can go more frequently. I always spend a lot of time at the lions, but so far it's been difficult to undo so many years of training (I drew TLK fanart from middle school through most of high school).

These are from my last zoo trip: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/49874256/

Thanks for the tips on features. I've been trying for the mane fluffing (pushed it a bit in this piece) but I think I'm still making muzzles too small. I'll make 'em larger next time.

This is especially tricky for me because I drew so much TLK during the development of my own style, so it bleeds into -everything- (even non-lions) and I'm really trying to get rid of it. I love TLK, but obviously I want my style to be my own. ;)

03/16/2007

chlorophyta
chlorophyta is a paid member.

I know the feeling. I started out primarily with tlk fanart as a kid, too, though I didn't develop it so far before starting to break it back down to reference. I'm happy for you that you're trying to break away from the disney look a bit, as it will make your art much more unique. =)

Just remember that style doesn't have to be a constant. Don't feel like you have to keep drawing things a certain way because its your style, that's silly! As you develop your art, constantly look at other people's work, especially artists outside the fandom, and think about what you like about their work. If you really admire the way someone uses color, for example, you can usually ask them what some of their color influences are, and they may point you at artists -they- admire, or give you any number of valuable tips or tricks to help you learn color yourself. Make sense? That applies to any aspect of style- don't let yourself feel trapped by what you already do, the point is to keep learning and keep having fun! Beyond that, style can change drastically and no one will fault you for it. =)

03/16/2007

SaiTenyo

Oh, I'm certainly not worried about trying to keep my style constant. I'm happy to see it change at this point. ;)

I've been trying to absorb things I love from a wide variety of other art lately, so hopefully I'll start getting the improvement I'm looking for before too long!

03/16/2007

chlorophyta
chlorophyta is a paid member.

Excellent! Just keep that attitude about it and you'll do great. ^__^

03/18/2007