Character drawing

[Regular]

The challenge got me thinking about how deficient my skills are in drawing characters of any kind (art in general.)

I found out by experimentation that Ctrl 1, adding shapes, is quite handy for making a composite of drawings into a character.

Is this a bad way to approach character drawing?

Also, are there any tutorials for Xara that can help me along in this endeavor of learning to make characters (cartoon or otherwise.)

Thanks in advance.

My first add shapes character.

[steve.ledger]

Definitely not a bad way to approach drawing.
Working with ellipses for example, to create an organic shape is a time tested method.

I posted a thread July last year which explored this also.

http://www.talkgraphics.com/attachme...1&d=1215676488

[gwpriester]

This is called drawing with primitives (putting simple shapes together) and is a very good approach to drawing.

[Ron Duke]

This is called drawing with primitives (putting simple shapes together) and is a very good approach to drawing.

I'm primitive, but not very well put together...

[Regular]

Oh! Thank you very much all! And thank you Sledger for that guide!

I guess myself being the proverbial 'blind pig' can find an acorn.

I shall explore what you have posted and practice, practice, practice.

[a4hire]

I do not draw characters this way at all. Sure you can do it but I don't think its the best way. If I draw a character, usually I sketch it out on paper. Then I will scan the sketch and save it as a bitmap file. Then I can bring the bitmap into xtreme and trace it and add out lines shapes, color etc... and the black line art work is only lines, I do not make the black outlines into shapes. Only the colored parts are shapes and they do not have an outline. I will attach a sketch and then the finished graphic after tracing and coloring in Xara xtreme for you to look at.

[Regular]

Marvelous A4Hire!

I hope to be as accomplished as you one day.

Unfortunately my scanner is down permanently and I have no free hand skills.

I made a hand sketch of an anthropology dig site our class visited. After the Professor turned the paper in several orientations, he remarked, "Just what am I looking at here."

I then knew my sketching skills were deficient.

[a4hire]

Thank you. Well you can stick with the primitives or get a pencil and paper and keep practicing your freehand sketching skills. Many people do their sketching with a graphics tablet too. Then you don't need the scanner.

[Regular]

Thank you. Well you can stick with the primitives or get a pencil and paper and keep practicing your freehand sketching skills. Many people do their sketching with a graphics tablet too. Then you don't need the scanner.

Recommendation for a graphics tablet that's not too expensive that works with Xara Xtreme 4?

[remi]

See also Bob Hahn's video about freehand drawing with Xara Xtreme.

Regards,
Remi