come look at nauma’s drawings

synth agh youre killing me with your kind words, im excited to show you all more!!

nyainou wah hello again!! im very glad u found it helpful TT_TT ya thats me... floating around like some kind of advice fairy. i truly wish i could help EVERYONE but unfortunately im only a human with limited time and energy and limited knowledge about certain things- i only wish i knew how to help ppl draw the best steven universe (i know, where did it all go so wrong) thank u for sticking around!!

i thought today i'd share a look at one way i do studies. sorry for the dogsh*t photo, i promise i moved mountains to make these legible. please just come to my house and view them in person instead. anyway these were made during the anatomyfebruary challenge in 2019. i followed along to a Proko video and paused and copied as many diagrams as i could, you can see some skeletal drawings, muscle diagrams, breakdown of structures, and observational drawings. its vital to have good observational drawing skills by just doing it a lot, and using contour lines to make sure your forms are uniform throughout. also repetition is key - i draw in pencil then go over it in pen to cement it in my mind. idk why it became embarrassing to draw the same thing over and over but its how our brains learn; if you look at any artists' list of works you'll see tons of almost identical drawings but they're all part of the process. tomorrow id like to talk more about what goes through my mind when im making lines, i hope you'll be interested to read it :3

synth thank u im glad to read u enjoy!! also glad my pictures are legible lmao phew. and i dont mind talking abt my influences! i love talking (evidently)

some of my major influences/inspirations: Steve Huston, Mike Mattesi, Alex Toth, Chris Samnee, Nathan Fowkes, Tove Jansson, Quentin Blake, Itou Yuu, Yusuke Murata, Naoki Urasawa, Matsuri Hino, Shuzo Oshimi, Yuki Suetsugu, Inoue Takehiko, Ito Jakuchu, Frederic Remington, John Singer Sargent... i'll probably add more to this list as i remember them lol. i recommend keeping a pinterest board of artists u like! i also look at ancient art/art history a lot (usually im in museums but not recently 😢), lately i follow accounts on twitter that post from the archives of The Met etc; i like ancient greek art, i like the assyrians, i like haniwa and woodblock prints, i'm also influenced a lot by islamic/arab art and chinese art cuz that's my ancestry and i find it super fulfilling to include those influences in my work. thanks so much for your question! i would love to hear other ppls influences too!!

today i'm going to talk about lines! the way i make lines is heavily inspired by Mike Mattesi, who says it way better than i do, so actually i'm not going to talk that much about lines! go watch him draw instead! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyuCq6VWVeA 

a couple of people have mentioned line confidence, and my advice for building that is to draw in pen. not on the computer, not in pencil then pen on top, draw only in peeen. it's going to look fugly and you're going to fill so many sketchbook pages w wonky pictures but it will change the way you think about drawing in ways i can't explain. i also recommend doing continuous line drawings, timed drawings, or blind drawings where you look only at the subject and not at the page. i do most of my observational drawings in pen; it's not about being perfect on the first go, instead take several drawings to really feel out the subject and give it your full attention, aim to create present, appreciative and tactile drawings. atleast that's what i try to do. i'm drawn to a subject bc i appreciate its construction, beauty, functionality etc and i want to capture my love in this moment on paper.

back to posting anime- this is one of my current favourite drawings! from back in june. it’s my girl prya from my original project huran enki. she’s a shrine maiden who are traditionally attendants to the royal family, they keep them happy and healthy by acting as musicians, physicians, advisors etc. so she works very hard, so i like to draw her relaxing. they’re associated with the wisdom of dragons so they wear little horns (senior members get big ones). i think there’s some issues w the horizon line or sth in this pic but i like it still, my favourite part is her hand on her leg n her feet, that area. i also learnt from this pic to use more lines on the bg elements so the whole pic looks coherent rather than an illustrated chara splat on a painted bg.. much 2 learn 

Your anatomy, lineart, use of colour and artstyle overall are amazing, it's very admirable for sure.
The pose, colour and scenery in the drawing of Prya are just... really amazing, hah.

Ainu pattern embroidery workshop? I'm soooooo jealous! 😭

nyainou thank u for the praise!!! 🥺🥺 and im glad u enjoyed the backstory! i think having a narrative behind a piece helps inform your creative decisions and makes stronger artwork... coming up w one is hard though gahaha

Inkagna youre too kind, thank you so much!! it makes me really happy you read through my comic too ^^ the workshop was so so cool, i wish i could experience it again *_* we had the chance to submit our embroidery for display in the new national ainu museum in hokkaido that opened this year. i didnt finish mine in time tho... but i finished it at home... lol...

today i thought id post my faceyourart meme piece. i tried to use coloured drawings only. do i like drawing faces? um. i guess. i like constructing the head i guess but hair is very difficult for me to draw. i sort of feel like there’s a limited amount of angles you can draw that don’t look weird. or especially cuz anime/cartoon faces are simplified you lose some of the markers that give you those slight variations. like have you ever sketched a certain angle but it just came out another profile? yeah. *screaming* i think my favourite expression to draw is kinda like a humouring/engaged smile and upward looking eyes (like bottom right), it’s so alluring lol. lately i’m slowly trying to get comfortable drawing more extreme expressions, like yelling. sneezing. not these.

id love to hear what expressions other ppl like to draw :3

onessu Aw man, that's a real shame... It would be very cool to have it on display at Upopoy.
At least you got to finish it, and the experience of the workshop. :'D

today is a piece that is kind of stuck as a wip. at least until i improve some skills and can come back to it. its my baby canther. riding around the steppe, doing his thing. i feel like theres some issues with the lighting and the values, so like, i know these are areas i need to focus on researching and improving. i like his face a lot though, its very sexy. i think the fastest way to improve is by regularly attempting things outside your comfort zone - although psychologically it's pretty taxing, so make sure you take time to draw stupid shit in between. ill probably post some stupid shit tomorrow. side note, i actually commissioned someone for a 3D model of his bow so now i'm able to draw it at different angles haha, it was a great investment!

nyainou thank you!!! omg you totally reminded me, this piece is like my 3rd pass at drawing this kind of scene- the first was in January 2019 and again in December 2019 (god, remember what i said about artists drawing the same things over and over) (also yas i totally feel u i want to sink my teeth into him-) also in awe of 3D artists, working w one was such a good learning experience and id love to get blender once i have a computer that can run anything more taxing than neopets

lowkey embarrassed to post this omg but yeah lmfao this is learning in action!!! i still think these r cute tbh but i aimed to improve stuff like readability, composition, proportions (yaaas bigger musclez), their horses used to be little (based on Mongolian horses which are so small and cute, but i decided to give them bigger ones for coolness lol), i also learned its awkward to crop animals' faces out like this.. so yeah omg... payoff! never skip studying!! i still have a looong way to go but its fun to see the differences over time!!

nyainou u r right we should not be embarrassed of our old works 😭 in the wise words of ken sugimori...

today i said id post some low effort stuff that i draw in between the big pieces, late into the night when i have 1 HP left and i just want to see my otp before i expire. always otp. i made their outfits into sweaters in animal crossing and i go to my friends’ islands and put them in their shops and i have to say the aftermath is thrilling

must...resist....beefff Xε

just popped to say, 

I enjoy your art! and your otp is CUTE! *jumps out the window*