How to Draw Complex Forms Part 3 - Outline and sculpt forms like Michelangelo

so in this tutorial I'm gonna give you
guys some tips on how you can draw
complex forms in a way that's somewhat
different from what I suggested before
now the good thing is about drawing is
that there are many different ways of
approaching the same thing and the more
different routes you know for example
you know it's like it's like you're
trying to find somewhere and the more
routes you know if getting to that place
the better it is for you okay so you can
choose to use whatever route you choose
that is most convenient at that time so
in this case I had mentioned before
about drawing complex forms so for
example like you know you have a simple
form like that right and you may want to
you know you can combine this form with
several different forms like so right
and you can combine them to this and you
may eventually end up with something
that looks like let's say we have this
form at the front like that say we have
this round if we're going to put this
one in the front so maybe something like
that
this one we could put at the end see so
what I'm showing you here is how you can
actually we can put this one all the way
on top right so it's actually right here
so basically what I'm what I'm implying
is that we've created this complex form
from a combination of these five simple
forms and then it's a matter of just you
know how you do the rendering to suggest
that if they're all attached that's
pretty much it and you'll find this very
useful whenever you're drawing complex
forms things that may have like an
irregular shape or an organic shape you
can still conceptualize it in terms of
geometric basic simple geometric forms
and then you can create that complex
shape out of those simple things and
it's pretty useful
I still use this a lot whenever I'm
drawing see the thing is about this
though is that you have to pay attention
to for example how the light affects
these simple forms so for example if
light is coming from from the
upper-right then you know that the
shadow on this would be here the shadow
and this would be here see so it has to
be consistent and when you apply the
values to this it will also be
consistent as well
and another key thing to point out is
that the value is the the smaller forms
are never completely closed off see they
have to be open just like when you think
of the head as a complex form and when
you think of the nose on top of it or
the ear or so on the lips they're never
completely closed off and that's the key
thing that you tried you should try to
avoid never completely closed off a form
like that see because it separates it
and makes it look like it's a flat shape
on top of this complex form you want to
leave it open so it seems as if it
merges or it's you know it fuses into it
and that is its separate entity now in
this tutorial this is what we had
discussed before but in this tutorial
I'm going to show you another technique
to use when you're drawing complex forms
and I refer to it as to outline and
sculpt okay and it's pretty cool because
it enables you to so in some scenario
like this what you would have is you
have the the the say for example the
silhouette of the complex shape already
there like this and what you would do
now is just outline the basic shapes the
simple shapes see that and then you
sculpt them meaning you model them you
render them you bring them to life at
this point see everything looks flat in
two-dimensional but now I can just draw
them in and then I sculpt them out see
now they become three-dimensional and
how you render it is really up to you
see but the key thing is you keep them
open and they can even join each other
see like this I'm implying that this
connects with this one this is a very
useful technique and you're going to see
how I'm going to apply this to a drawing
done by Michelangelo and you look at you
take a good look at like Renaissance
drawings and stuff like that and you
will see that this is a technique that
they use a lot
they just outline the forms of smaller
forms on top of the bigger form and just
sculpt them to life so you're going from
flat or 2d
you're going from 2d to 3d alright
and that's basically it you just outline
the forms you have that the larger form
you outline the smaller forms and then
just sculpt them and when I say sculpt
them I mean you render them as if
they're three-dimensional forms you're
modeling them so they go from being flat
shapes to three-dimensional all right so
let's see how we apply this I'll do one
in ink and one in pencil so you can
actually see the the ways you can treat
it differently and notice even with the
ink
I wouldn't necessarily do the outline of
the smaller forms in ink okay I would
actually do it in pencil and then I
would render it over an ink so you see
you're approaching complex forms through
different methods here I'm fusing the
smaller forms into this larger form and
here I'm just outlining them as flat
shapes and then sculpting them modeling
them alright right now I'm just going to
sketch out the the outline just like I
did here the outline of the complex
complex shape so here I'm just going to
sketch out the outline of this
destroying its drawing by Michelangelo
so I'm sure you'll be able to recognize
it and then afterwards I'm just going to
draw in the smaller forms and then
sculpt them and you'll see pretty much
how it you know it can be very useful
kind of a technique to use
you
so here I have the outline of the
the large amass okay and what I'm going
to do now I'm going to go in and just
start outlining the smaller forms within
it and then you'll see how I'll sculpt
it and this is a pretty useful set
technique
the key thing is to point out though is
that you have to nonetheless to pay
attention to proportion okay so in other
words here I can arbitrarily do it I can
orbit rarely do it because I'm not
paying attention necessarily to you know
any spit I'm not drawing anything
specific okay but when you're drawing
the figure like here you have to pay
attention to you know proportion and
anatomy and so on so for example you
can't just arbitrarily draw the forms
where they don't belong you have to make
sure that you pay attention to anatomy
and structure and so on so overall
you're still paying attention to the
holistic process of drawing
okay nothing isn't is ever in complete
isolation but I'm just using this as an
example of showing you how you can just
outline the form and sculpt it so I'm
just going to start outlining the shapes
and then I'll sculpt them afterwards so
you can just see how I do it so I'm
going to say okay this is one see
there's a larger shape here it's like
this is like the scapula see I'm just
outlining the shapes here outlining here
you can see the the rib actually can see
the ribs flowing through the back see
I'm just outlining them drawing them as
simple
flat two-dimensional shapes still paying
attention to anatomy okay not completely
ignoring that but what I'm doing I'm
just outlining the shapes as I see them
so I'm going from 2d to 3d
right now I'm pretending they're they're
2d they're flat there's one right here
here's another one here's another one
and so on you get the idea
see so what you're seeing here I've just
outlined these flat shapes they just
look like you know little things like
this see now I am going to go in and
sculpt them to life so the key thing is
I have to pay attention to and I'm
looking at the drawing by Michelangelo
I'm thinking of where is the light
source coming from and it's drawing the
light source is coming from this
direction okay so what does that mean
that means when I'm sculpting the forms
notice here you see them open where
they're open is going to be towards the
light and where they're they're mostly
in shadow like here see where I put the
hatching that's going to be on the lower
right upper left will be light and open
lower right will be closed and and
showing the shadows right so and even if
you look at this drawing is so if you
see that he actually used a similar
technique yes as I said it involves a
lot more than just this but you see this
a lot so you let's just see how I'll
actually start sculpting these forms to
life
you
and that's basically the ideas I'm
essentially just going see my pencil is
actually getting rounded I would you
know generally I would keep sharpening
my pencil as I go along but you can see
like the forms that I outlined all I'm
doing now is just sculpting them in a
you see so it's I'm paying attention to
the areas in shadow compared to the
areas in light so even though it's
almost like even with this look at this
simple of form you have here even though
I have this when I start sculpting it
I'm seeing it now in terms of as
three-dimensional forms see son that's
how I'm rendering it like that and the
shadow would be on this side you see so
I'm doing the same thing here it's no
longer just being a you know flat
two-dimensional shape now I'm imagining
the form going over here's the spinal
column that the backbone see that's how
I'm imagining it and I'm going around
and in these areas I put shadow and
these heirs I put light and I'm going to
do the same thing do another example of
another drawing in ink so you get
another idea of how I'll do it if I were
doing it with with um with pen and ink
just sketch out the outline of it and
that will be the basis of our drawing
you
alright so I've pretty much outlined all
the forms here and now I'm just going to
go in and start sculpting them out
you
that's basically the idea so all I
pretty much did was just start from the
simple you know flat forms and then
eventually just start carving them out
and it goes back to what I said the
simple the same principle here you have
once you have the overall the large a
mess then you just outline the smaller
forms within them but of course you as I
said you're going to make sure that
they're proportionate to each other and
so on there there is if for example if
you join the figure they have to be
anatomically correct they have to be in
the right place so if you're drawing
this that the scapula for example you
drawing the muscles on the scapula you
join you know they have to be
structurally correct and anatomically
correct but the point is when it comes
to rendering to shading to modeling you
can just start from you know outline the
form and then sculpt it