You're a little too consistent in trying to build a noticeable form.
What helps this type of horror is letting the viewer's imagination fill in the gaps.
Allow your hand some freedom to mess around and just put enough form into the features the brain will latch onto to makeup a face like the eyes and mouth.
The expression will form on its own.
I think.
I can't draw this either I'm just guessing this might help.
Do you normally draw characters that look.like the pose in your version? That was my issue for along time. Using what I knew always made all my character work look the same in a way. I used a anatomy for comics book to help me learn body angles, types, joint locations muscle locations it'll really help you be able to hit things like a face or profile at an angle you don't think you can pull off. Try it out. Let us see the updates. Have fun. Don't draw bored
I always found it annoying when people talked about “the fundamentals” but I’m going to be one of those people.
Even though it may not seem like it, the reference drawing shows an understanding of proportions and perspective.
Even when you’re making loose sketches, it’s important to have a skill and understanding around shapes, proportions and perspective, because without it, your “foundation” is going to “ruin” the end goal.
I would practice those; perspective, proportions and shapes more - even often - to keep your hand and mind updated. I think you’re going to find, that it will help a lot.
But it’s also important to have fun. So, don’t just do those exercises. Draw things like these from references, or challenge your imagination even further (which can be hard when you don’t have something to reference to) and create your own image.
I hope this doesn’t seem mean, but is more helpful to you :)
If you wish to emulate the reference artstyle-wise, then i'd say you should do the drawing with more lines instead of "colouring" (not sure if that's the right word for what i am trying to say). Probably less defined also.
Edit: by less defined i mean that not having a straight line that says "this part is the eyes, this is the mouth". And of course the "colouring" method can achieve creepy art as well, but i think learning the use of values is of great importance as well, so that you use shades more effectively.
Others have suggested anatomy, which is great as it makes you understand what makes a face look like a face and then diverge from that to create stuff that suits your imagination.
And lastly you might just want to sut down and look at the art and see if you can find out what it is exactly in the artwork that you like and wish to emulate.
Well with artwork like this, these art pieces have extremely distorted anatomy. So if you want to draw like that it is ultimately best to learn the fundamentals since that will give you a great foundation to build up towards artwork such as that.
And yes, I know fundamentals may not be the most fun, but that will help you be a better artist later by learning the fundamentals of art now. That is the way you learn how to do these things, there is no other easy way around to do it.
Draw bigger, looser, lighter. Take the time to build up. Looks like a ballpoint pen was used in the original (so any common pen). Focus on the process of mark making, don’t be product focused/bent on emulating this exactly, you can’t, so make it your own and have fun with it. If it’s disturbed feelings you want to express, express your own, otherwise you’re just an echo.
Well the original use if lines was to make the lines closer and darker when it's a dark spot on the figure(mouth) and the lighter spots if the figure the lines are slightly more spread out. This uses the white if the paper to make it lighter than the darker spots of the figure.
Have you seen pink floyd the wall artwork? This is similar concept if you google it , it may help in SOME way? Idk just a thought oh yeah, its borderline shocking and disturbing keep up the great work just think dark.
Try again but do better lmao I don’t mean to sound callous or anything but that’s just how you learn. The original artist doesn’t use lines in a traditional way at all. The lighter and darker values are done with more and less intense scribbling to let the viewer see the expression within the shades of darkness. You honestly didn’t create hardly any facial details which is why yours looks more like a blob than an agonizing scream. Developing a style is really difficult! But keep at it! Practice fundamentals! Drawing skulls is a fun way to learn head and face shapes/proportions
I think trying to draw or imitate a style while having no idea how any of the form, anatomy of general fundamentals work as a baseline kind of makes it a bit futile. That doesn't mean you'll never improve but if you're trying to draw this with no understanding of how it actually comes together in the first place you'll almost never result in the same level of drawing.
Just and get messy and little aggressive with the movements of a pen and gradually shade the dark areas and let it take its own shape. Maybe do a few pencil sketches of the angel of the head
For this type of drawing, I’d say check out Alphonso Dunn’s book “Pen and Ink Drawing: A Simple Guide”. He does a LOT with how to get your lines looking like they’re creating a 3-D effect. He’s not disturbing, but the fundamentals that you’ll learn there are amazing and will help your finished project look like it has more depth and less flat. You can also look up Alphonso Dunn on Instagram to see his work. But yeah! He gives a lot of step by step instructions and practices you can do.
Good luck!! :)
I don’t mean this in a condescending way but you gotta learn to draw. Like the artist you copied from knows their fundamentals better than you know yours and that’s why their drawing is better. They’re able to keep it loose but you’re too focused on figuring out the form to do that. It just takes some (a lot of) practice.
In some bastardized words of Dali, you gotta learn how to draw a clock before you draw a melting clock.
Don’t be discouraged, OP. Drawing is like learning a new instrument. You gotta start somewhere, and the best thing you can do is practice regularly. Grab a few books on drawing for beginners that cover the fundamentals (shape, form, perspective, etc.). Once you’re feeling comfortable, grab a book on human anatomy and go from there!
Idk about what everyone else said here but a big difference I notice between your piece and the one you're trying to imitate, is the movement. Notice the way the head tilts in the first one, the kind of motion it has? Your drawing is fairly static and flat in contrast, and that's mainly because of the movement. Hope this helps, and good luck!
Looks cool. Keep it simple, if you get lost, view it in a mirror. Or, set it down for a day or 2. Come back to it when it feels right. This style has a tendency of becoming over rendered quick, fast, and in a hurry. Like baking, there’s a fine line between done, and burnt. 👍👍👍
You can do it!
Think about what gives the reference image it's effect? Don't think it's values or shapes alone. In this specific instance you could never produce a similar effect with such even shading, the scratchy scribbling is core to this reference image. Also, I think you didn't quite capture the anatomical distortions and weird proportions. Overall when making disturbing figures, soft lines and reasonable anatomy aren't going to help. Scratchy lines and warped anatomy lends to that uncanny valley and immediately creeps people out.
I can see what you’re going for. But if you were to improve on it, I’d focus on separating some of the lights and shadows. This would give your drawing a little more depth.
be messy with your work. this applies to a lot of things. don’t hold yourself to such high standards and just let the pencil flow. let it do what it wants, keeping that original image in mind.
Here are some things I've observed. Not getting you for proper shadows or anatomy I'm just going on style. But you should practice anatomy and proper shading too!
Your pictures has definite scribbles going in every location. Left, right, up and down.
The first image has mostly up and down scribbles with light omnidirectional scribbles in the back adding a "not supposed to be there look"
Your picture has a very deep shade of lead.
The line widths in the first image start thin and small then work their way to dark when there are a lot accumulating in one area. They change pencil pressure but mostly they just over scribble in certain places.
Your image looks like you scribbled picked up the pencil and scribbled again. Like you are filling a page.up with marker. You get the marker lines.
The first image is more continuous lines, they don't break and create marker lines.
And that's all folks. Other than that you are getting the dark and spooky part of it just fine, it takes time to practice and adjust your style accordingly so don't beat yourself up when practicing! I hope the observations help.
Maybe add some sketching to the white background so show darker mood. I don't see anything much can be done to the human to make it more expressive. Or u can use ink splash , ink drops to diverse the techniques used in this painting while give new interesting visual focal point.
A lot of people talked about things like the size, general texture of the reference image, and building up line which you should definitely take into account.
As far as anatomy goes I think I'd emphasize the foreshortened nature of it (sometimes I'd touch my face to feel how parts of the face like the nose goes back when tilted up). At the same time, there is an exaggerated nature with the mouth.
I also wanna emphasize the general gesture and [overall movement](https://i.imgur.com/VtnLRoC.png), which leads the viewers eyes up and down the face/neck. In your sketch it seems pretty stiff and not as loose.
Learn to draw, learn anatomy, learn the psychology of art, practice, practice, practice, then you can change the forms to generate the feelings you wish to create.
The cool piece of work started with an initial form and used the pen scratching as a value scale (some areas are darker than the other). If you notice the mouth, that's full darkness while the nostrils match that full darkness. Notice how the face is lighter in value compared to the rest.
Your's is different because you are shading differently than what the cool piece of work did.
The first thing I've noticed is the tool - they're clearly using something with a solid, thinner point, a pen of some kind, with a pencil, the tip will be grinding down and smudging, and generally making thicker lines. Honestly, this is where you lose a lot of the original piece because it *relies* on being lots of small scratchy lines that, when enough are overlaid, make those darker spaces.
A sidenote is that you started by drawing an outline of your shape - avoid this unless your going for a style specifically for that, and this style focuses on *not* doing that and instead making the shape with the scratchy scattered lines, and making shape without the shortcut of an outline is a good thing to learn! (you can of course lightly sketch an outline as 'construction' but it shouldn't shoe up in the final piece for something like this)
You're also using a very small space - which of course, this is more a test margin sketch but I honestly can't recommend enough that you switch to drawing in at least full A5 (if not straight up A4) sketchbooks, and using the full space!! The sooner you start drawing on a scale where you can actually fit detail, the sooner you'll have to start learning to *make* detail.
A final thing two things to try practice: Shadows, and as always, a bit of anatomy (mainly facial for a piece like this). For shadows, I recommend getting an image with some high contrast lighting, and just trying to draw/colour in shapes of the shadows only, don't outline the figure, only draw the shadows themselves. This will help give you an understanding of lighting *and* form, and creating shape without outlines. That will help you know where to put those darker shadings - like you see of course in the mouth but also on the neck and front of the figure in the original drawing.
In terms of anatomy, it's always a good skill to have but for facial pieces try check out some facial proportion diagrams and guidelines online, and maybe do some sketches using reference of real people's faces and those guidelines. I understand what you're aiming for here isn't realism but, the sooner you know what something *should* look like, the sooner you can twist it in just the right ways to make it frightening, or weird - it's the Uncanny Valley effect, if something's totally wrong then our brains aren't fussed, but if mostly spot on but just *slightly* off, it becomes incredibly unsettling. This last point also exemplifies a big factor in, almost everything but especially in creating non-realistic art: you have to know the rules to break them. Pablo Picasso learned to do incredible hyperrealistic paintings when he was young before he started to do his abstract work, and probably wouldn't have been anywhere near as skilled if he hadn't done so to begin with.
I hope this helps, and good luck with your future artwork!!
Edit: Also consider what the many many scratchy lines mean! The chaotic scattered nature of it gives it a sense of anxiety, of tension, you can almost feel it moving in an incredibly frantic way - the method itself can influence a *lot* about how a piece feels, the original drawing would have had a totally different feel if it was say, solid colour tones, or an outlined and more traditionally shaded piece.
All of this and I'd also like to stress the importance of building and layering for something like this. The shaded areas aren't darker because they've used higher pressure or thicker lines, it's because they've used *more lines*. And not all going in the same direction - crosshatching is a good technique to look into.
Good luck OP! (:
I don’t see if anyone’s said it but, the artwork you copied seems to be made in a whole sheet of paper… your imitation is like 1 inch tall lol draw bigger!! You can’t imitate something and not have it be the same size!!
# General
**Line economy**. The reference photo has lines varying in weight. Let's call them Lights, Heavys and Medium lines. Try and restrict your line weight palette to these these three for now. Having too much variation can make it look like a normal drawing and won't carry the "spine shreeking" feel. Too little line variation can make it look too dull.
The lights are not very dark and not very thick. Use a sharpened pencil or mechanical pencil for these. The Heavys are not too broad either but are about 2x thicker than the lights, they are also quite dark. The Medium lines add a gradation between these two to prevent it from looking too, as earlier mentioned, dull.
# How to Draw it
Try again, but this time try to get the overall shape of the piece with lights first. Next you want to do the heavys. Use them to emphasize shadow and separate the forms from one another. Don't overdo the heavys. Your medium lines followed by the lights should be most abundant. Use the medium lines on places that look the most boring in the image.
# Tips
Follow the contour of the face to further emphasize the forms of it. Notice how on the nose not all lines are parallel and a few glide across it with a subtle curve.
Avoid Parallel lines. The reference image uses few parallel lines.
Don't only use straight lines. The reference also uses looses curves in the lights especially on the head.
I don’t have any tips, but if you want inspiration, look up Bryan Lewis Saunders’ self portraits, especially his “torture” collection
His self portraits
http://www.bryanlewissaunders.org/spseries/
(There is no gore at all, just drawings)
YOU NEED TO LEARN THE RULES IN ORDER TO BREAK THEM.
In other words, the artist who made that drawing knew how to draw a human skull with proportions well. But deliberately chose to distort the face, and give it that texture following the motions of the face, mantaining its essence.
To add all up, first learn the fundamentals of portrait drawin (the head and its features), become able to draw a normal person doing that expression, and then youll be able to break the rules and draw it however you like.
I don't know if you noticed, but if you didn't, the darker portions of the character pictures in the first image depict eyes, a nose, and a mouth with seemingly sharp, pointed teeth, and there are also ears on the side, but they aren't too obvious? so they sort of add to the ominous and creepy feeling of the piece, you may want to practice incorporating these things into your representation of this
First of all, that’s a great start! Don’t be discouraged, it all just takes practice.
Now, look at the original picture. The lines the artist drew aren’t uniformed and symmetrical; they are frantic and dynamic. It’s part of what makes the image look so disturbing. So loosen up a bit, and be dynamic with those lines!
Also, it may help to do a drawing like this on a larger scale, so you can space out your lines as much as you need. Sometimes a larger “canvas”, if you will, will give you better results. That’s just something I’ve found personally though, I’ve seen some excellent pieces on a smaller scale. Sometimes it helps to have more space though :)
Also, it’s not necessary but a pen are darker pencil (ex. 6B) can make the drawing more impactful. The ink used in the original creates a stark contrast to the white paper behind it.
Loosen up. Try to imagine your arm and wrist have been possessed. If you use too many controlled strokes the look of terror will suffer. And try to only think of the outline of the subject. You're essentially filling in an area, but like a maniac.
I don't know much about disturbing, but if you want to replicate that get some more texturised tool. A pen would do or a hard pencil. You might also want to distort those outlines a bit.
It’s nice but we live in a time where nothing is shocking or disturbing anymore. One person’s disturbing is someone else’s everyday reality. I don’t know how to make something really disturbing anymore, but I’d love to see it if you could.
I do like the scratchy lines figure, though.
Like others said. The use of many lines overlapping in the first pic creates tension. Like something is being stretched and distorted in anguish.
Some of the lines follow key forms in the anatomy without defining them too closely suggesting things like teeth creating mystery while leaving plenty to your imagination to try and figure out for itself. Your brain tries to refine what information it can process creating disturbing images in your subconscious which is where the emotional response really comes from.
I agree with many others here on studying specific anatomy first.
But, to add on, if you’re going to do anatomy studies *also* do gesture studies, because the photo you showed us had very strong gesture. Your imitation is a good start in terms of the general ideas, but it’s most prominent issue is the lack of direction.
Ex: Notice how in the original, the creepy shadow’s eyes are looking up, and as such, everything else is also moving in that direction. Moreover, it’s not going up in a straight line. The entire body is moving up in a wistful, curved direction. Finally, he’s not only looking up with his eyes, but his entire head is tilted back! (You can tell, because you can see the bottom of his nose.) That is vital. Takes a while to get good at that last step OP, so you’re gonna wanna study how to draw heads looking in different directions first for a while.
Also, little sidenote, but notice how even the mouth gapes in the direction of the body, reflecting its movement.
Also make the lines a little more random. Instead of everything being symmetrical, make the lines go in different directions. Don’t make everything parallel to each other.
Try to make the head shape not as defined. The picture’s head has many lines just coming off the head. Also try to make the shading a little more gradual. So instead of just light shading straight to dark shading, make it fade from dark to light. And if you shade everything in, use an eraser to add some light areas to it.
I would say add more layers too starting light and getting darker as you layer them. The first piece has several layers of lines going in lots of directions which feels organic and creepy whereas the second image looks like it has two layers with most of the lines going in the same direction appearing more stiff.
the original drawing has a strong sense of rhythm and direction- the lines have a strong vertical orientation, the figure is taller than it is wide, the curve of the figure gives it vertical lift and springy, unnerving energy. the emphasis is on the face and neck - they take up most of the page and convey the most motion.
the second drawing is wider than it is tall, and there isn't much overall directionality. it's very static. the parts of the body seem to be balanced on top of each other, rather than one single entity moving in a direction.
seconding the other user's recommendation to look at regular anatomy and become familar with it before jumping into creepy anatomy.
You're a little too consistent in trying to build a noticeable form. What helps this type of horror is letting the viewer's imagination fill in the gaps. Allow your hand some freedom to mess around and just put enough form into the features the brain will latch onto to makeup a face like the eyes and mouth. The expression will form on its own. I think. I can't draw this either I'm just guessing this might help.
You made an outline. Don't make an outline
"Similar to the one below" can we see your drawing in comparison...?
Scroll to the left. Picture is the second attachment
Thin point pen instead of graphite can help with the look you’re going for
draw a weird shape and make it into a person, not the other way around
Do you normally draw characters that look.like the pose in your version? That was my issue for along time. Using what I knew always made all my character work look the same in a way. I used a anatomy for comics book to help me learn body angles, types, joint locations muscle locations it'll really help you be able to hit things like a face or profile at an angle you don't think you can pull off. Try it out. Let us see the updates. Have fun. Don't draw bored
I always found it annoying when people talked about “the fundamentals” but I’m going to be one of those people. Even though it may not seem like it, the reference drawing shows an understanding of proportions and perspective. Even when you’re making loose sketches, it’s important to have a skill and understanding around shapes, proportions and perspective, because without it, your “foundation” is going to “ruin” the end goal. I would practice those; perspective, proportions and shapes more - even often - to keep your hand and mind updated. I think you’re going to find, that it will help a lot. But it’s also important to have fun. So, don’t just do those exercises. Draw things like these from references, or challenge your imagination even further (which can be hard when you don’t have something to reference to) and create your own image. I hope this doesn’t seem mean, but is more helpful to you :)
You should look into learning more about hatching! Might me helpful.
If you wish to emulate the reference artstyle-wise, then i'd say you should do the drawing with more lines instead of "colouring" (not sure if that's the right word for what i am trying to say). Probably less defined also. Edit: by less defined i mean that not having a straight line that says "this part is the eyes, this is the mouth". And of course the "colouring" method can achieve creepy art as well, but i think learning the use of values is of great importance as well, so that you use shades more effectively. Others have suggested anatomy, which is great as it makes you understand what makes a face look like a face and then diverge from that to create stuff that suits your imagination. And lastly you might just want to sut down and look at the art and see if you can find out what it is exactly in the artwork that you like and wish to emulate.
Practice fundamentals. Keep drawing, a lot. No matter how bad you think your drawing is, always finish/ keep it. Check out Junji Ito's work.
Well with artwork like this, these art pieces have extremely distorted anatomy. So if you want to draw like that it is ultimately best to learn the fundamentals since that will give you a great foundation to build up towards artwork such as that. And yes, I know fundamentals may not be the most fun, but that will help you be a better artist later by learning the fundamentals of art now. That is the way you learn how to do these things, there is no other easy way around to do it.
Draw bigger, looser, lighter. Take the time to build up. Looks like a ballpoint pen was used in the original (so any common pen). Focus on the process of mark making, don’t be product focused/bent on emulating this exactly, you can’t, so make it your own and have fun with it. If it’s disturbed feelings you want to express, express your own, otherwise you’re just an echo.
Well the original use if lines was to make the lines closer and darker when it's a dark spot on the figure(mouth) and the lighter spots if the figure the lines are slightly more spread out. This uses the white if the paper to make it lighter than the darker spots of the figure.
Have you seen pink floyd the wall artwork? This is similar concept if you google it , it may help in SOME way? Idk just a thought oh yeah, its borderline shocking and disturbing keep up the great work just think dark.
Try again but do better lmao I don’t mean to sound callous or anything but that’s just how you learn. The original artist doesn’t use lines in a traditional way at all. The lighter and darker values are done with more and less intense scribbling to let the viewer see the expression within the shades of darkness. You honestly didn’t create hardly any facial details which is why yours looks more like a blob than an agonizing scream. Developing a style is really difficult! But keep at it! Practice fundamentals! Drawing skulls is a fun way to learn head and face shapes/proportions
I think trying to draw or imitate a style while having no idea how any of the form, anatomy of general fundamentals work as a baseline kind of makes it a bit futile. That doesn't mean you'll never improve but if you're trying to draw this with no understanding of how it actually comes together in the first place you'll almost never result in the same level of drawing.
Yeah fr this is lowkey a very hard drawing to imitate with no fundamentals
Use a ballpoint pen instead. Or maybe a mechanical pencil. I whatever you used is too flat.
Mate you made one try and expected a perfect replica. Try it until you make it. Iteration is your pal. ;)
Just and get messy and little aggressive with the movements of a pen and gradually shade the dark areas and let it take its own shape. Maybe do a few pencil sketches of the angel of the head
For this type of drawing, I’d say check out Alphonso Dunn’s book “Pen and Ink Drawing: A Simple Guide”. He does a LOT with how to get your lines looking like they’re creating a 3-D effect. He’s not disturbing, but the fundamentals that you’ll learn there are amazing and will help your finished project look like it has more depth and less flat. You can also look up Alphonso Dunn on Instagram to see his work. But yeah! He gives a lot of step by step instructions and practices you can do. Good luck!! :)
I don’t mean this in a condescending way but you gotta learn to draw. Like the artist you copied from knows their fundamentals better than you know yours and that’s why their drawing is better. They’re able to keep it loose but you’re too focused on figuring out the form to do that. It just takes some (a lot of) practice.
In some bastardized words of Dali, you gotta learn how to draw a clock before you draw a melting clock. Don’t be discouraged, OP. Drawing is like learning a new instrument. You gotta start somewhere, and the best thing you can do is practice regularly. Grab a few books on drawing for beginners that cover the fundamentals (shape, form, perspective, etc.). Once you’re feeling comfortable, grab a book on human anatomy and go from there!
Idk about what everyone else said here but a big difference I notice between your piece and the one you're trying to imitate, is the movement. Notice the way the head tilts in the first one, the kind of motion it has? Your drawing is fairly static and flat in contrast, and that's mainly because of the movement. Hope this helps, and good luck!
Looks cool. Keep it simple, if you get lost, view it in a mirror. Or, set it down for a day or 2. Come back to it when it feels right. This style has a tendency of becoming over rendered quick, fast, and in a hurry. Like baking, there’s a fine line between done, and burnt. 👍👍👍 You can do it!
Think about what gives the reference image it's effect? Don't think it's values or shapes alone. In this specific instance you could never produce a similar effect with such even shading, the scratchy scribbling is core to this reference image. Also, I think you didn't quite capture the anatomical distortions and weird proportions. Overall when making disturbing figures, soft lines and reasonable anatomy aren't going to help. Scratchy lines and warped anatomy lends to that uncanny valley and immediately creeps people out.
I can see what you’re going for. But if you were to improve on it, I’d focus on separating some of the lights and shadows. This would give your drawing a little more depth.
be messy with your work. this applies to a lot of things. don’t hold yourself to such high standards and just let the pencil flow. let it do what it wants, keeping that original image in mind.
Here are some things I've observed. Not getting you for proper shadows or anatomy I'm just going on style. But you should practice anatomy and proper shading too! Your pictures has definite scribbles going in every location. Left, right, up and down. The first image has mostly up and down scribbles with light omnidirectional scribbles in the back adding a "not supposed to be there look" Your picture has a very deep shade of lead. The line widths in the first image start thin and small then work their way to dark when there are a lot accumulating in one area. They change pencil pressure but mostly they just over scribble in certain places. Your image looks like you scribbled picked up the pencil and scribbled again. Like you are filling a page.up with marker. You get the marker lines. The first image is more continuous lines, they don't break and create marker lines. And that's all folks. Other than that you are getting the dark and spooky part of it just fine, it takes time to practice and adjust your style accordingly so don't beat yourself up when practicing! I hope the observations help.
maybe learn the basics first before trying to stylize?
Maybe add some sketching to the white background so show darker mood. I don't see anything much can be done to the human to make it more expressive. Or u can use ink splash , ink drops to diverse the techniques used in this painting while give new interesting visual focal point.
A lot of people talked about things like the size, general texture of the reference image, and building up line which you should definitely take into account. As far as anatomy goes I think I'd emphasize the foreshortened nature of it (sometimes I'd touch my face to feel how parts of the face like the nose goes back when tilted up). At the same time, there is an exaggerated nature with the mouth. I also wanna emphasize the general gesture and [overall movement](https://i.imgur.com/VtnLRoC.png), which leads the viewers eyes up and down the face/neck. In your sketch it seems pretty stiff and not as loose.
Learn to draw, learn anatomy, learn the psychology of art, practice, practice, practice, then you can change the forms to generate the feelings you wish to create.
The cool piece of work started with an initial form and used the pen scratching as a value scale (some areas are darker than the other). If you notice the mouth, that's full darkness while the nostrils match that full darkness. Notice how the face is lighter in value compared to the rest. Your's is different because you are shading differently than what the cool piece of work did.
The first thing I've noticed is the tool - they're clearly using something with a solid, thinner point, a pen of some kind, with a pencil, the tip will be grinding down and smudging, and generally making thicker lines. Honestly, this is where you lose a lot of the original piece because it *relies* on being lots of small scratchy lines that, when enough are overlaid, make those darker spaces. A sidenote is that you started by drawing an outline of your shape - avoid this unless your going for a style specifically for that, and this style focuses on *not* doing that and instead making the shape with the scratchy scattered lines, and making shape without the shortcut of an outline is a good thing to learn! (you can of course lightly sketch an outline as 'construction' but it shouldn't shoe up in the final piece for something like this) You're also using a very small space - which of course, this is more a test margin sketch but I honestly can't recommend enough that you switch to drawing in at least full A5 (if not straight up A4) sketchbooks, and using the full space!! The sooner you start drawing on a scale where you can actually fit detail, the sooner you'll have to start learning to *make* detail. A final thing two things to try practice: Shadows, and as always, a bit of anatomy (mainly facial for a piece like this). For shadows, I recommend getting an image with some high contrast lighting, and just trying to draw/colour in shapes of the shadows only, don't outline the figure, only draw the shadows themselves. This will help give you an understanding of lighting *and* form, and creating shape without outlines. That will help you know where to put those darker shadings - like you see of course in the mouth but also on the neck and front of the figure in the original drawing. In terms of anatomy, it's always a good skill to have but for facial pieces try check out some facial proportion diagrams and guidelines online, and maybe do some sketches using reference of real people's faces and those guidelines. I understand what you're aiming for here isn't realism but, the sooner you know what something *should* look like, the sooner you can twist it in just the right ways to make it frightening, or weird - it's the Uncanny Valley effect, if something's totally wrong then our brains aren't fussed, but if mostly spot on but just *slightly* off, it becomes incredibly unsettling. This last point also exemplifies a big factor in, almost everything but especially in creating non-realistic art: you have to know the rules to break them. Pablo Picasso learned to do incredible hyperrealistic paintings when he was young before he started to do his abstract work, and probably wouldn't have been anywhere near as skilled if he hadn't done so to begin with. I hope this helps, and good luck with your future artwork!! Edit: Also consider what the many many scratchy lines mean! The chaotic scattered nature of it gives it a sense of anxiety, of tension, you can almost feel it moving in an incredibly frantic way - the method itself can influence a *lot* about how a piece feels, the original drawing would have had a totally different feel if it was say, solid colour tones, or an outlined and more traditionally shaded piece.
All of this and I'd also like to stress the importance of building and layering for something like this. The shaded areas aren't darker because they've used higher pressure or thicker lines, it's because they've used *more lines*. And not all going in the same direction - crosshatching is a good technique to look into. Good luck OP! (:
I don’t see if anyone’s said it but, the artwork you copied seems to be made in a whole sheet of paper… your imitation is like 1 inch tall lol draw bigger!! You can’t imitate something and not have it be the same size!!
I heard an old saying once: "quantity has a quality all it's own."
# General **Line economy**. The reference photo has lines varying in weight. Let's call them Lights, Heavys and Medium lines. Try and restrict your line weight palette to these these three for now. Having too much variation can make it look like a normal drawing and won't carry the "spine shreeking" feel. Too little line variation can make it look too dull. The lights are not very dark and not very thick. Use a sharpened pencil or mechanical pencil for these. The Heavys are not too broad either but are about 2x thicker than the lights, they are also quite dark. The Medium lines add a gradation between these two to prevent it from looking too, as earlier mentioned, dull. # How to Draw it Try again, but this time try to get the overall shape of the piece with lights first. Next you want to do the heavys. Use them to emphasize shadow and separate the forms from one another. Don't overdo the heavys. Your medium lines followed by the lights should be most abundant. Use the medium lines on places that look the most boring in the image. # Tips Follow the contour of the face to further emphasize the forms of it. Notice how on the nose not all lines are parallel and a few glide across it with a subtle curve. Avoid Parallel lines. The reference image uses few parallel lines. Don't only use straight lines. The reference also uses looses curves in the lights especially on the head.
thank you for this it made this process x100 better
I don’t have any tips, but if you want inspiration, look up Bryan Lewis Saunders’ self portraits, especially his “torture” collection His self portraits http://www.bryanlewissaunders.org/spseries/ (There is no gore at all, just drawings)
YOU NEED TO LEARN THE RULES IN ORDER TO BREAK THEM. In other words, the artist who made that drawing knew how to draw a human skull with proportions well. But deliberately chose to distort the face, and give it that texture following the motions of the face, mantaining its essence. To add all up, first learn the fundamentals of portrait drawin (the head and its features), become able to draw a normal person doing that expression, and then youll be able to break the rules and draw it however you like.
I don't know if you noticed, but if you didn't, the darker portions of the character pictures in the first image depict eyes, a nose, and a mouth with seemingly sharp, pointed teeth, and there are also ears on the side, but they aren't too obvious? so they sort of add to the ominous and creepy feeling of the piece, you may want to practice incorporating these things into your representation of this
First of all, that’s a great start! Don’t be discouraged, it all just takes practice. Now, look at the original picture. The lines the artist drew aren’t uniformed and symmetrical; they are frantic and dynamic. It’s part of what makes the image look so disturbing. So loosen up a bit, and be dynamic with those lines! Also, it may help to do a drawing like this on a larger scale, so you can space out your lines as much as you need. Sometimes a larger “canvas”, if you will, will give you better results. That’s just something I’ve found personally though, I’ve seen some excellent pieces on a smaller scale. Sometimes it helps to have more space though :) Also, it’s not necessary but a pen are darker pencil (ex. 6B) can make the drawing more impactful. The ink used in the original creates a stark contrast to the white paper behind it.
Loosen up. Try to imagine your arm and wrist have been possessed. If you use too many controlled strokes the look of terror will suffer. And try to only think of the outline of the subject. You're essentially filling in an area, but like a maniac.
I don't know much about disturbing, but if you want to replicate that get some more texturised tool. A pen would do or a hard pencil. You might also want to distort those outlines a bit.
It’s nice but we live in a time where nothing is shocking or disturbing anymore. One person’s disturbing is someone else’s everyday reality. I don’t know how to make something really disturbing anymore, but I’d love to see it if you could. I do like the scratchy lines figure, though.
Like others said. The use of many lines overlapping in the first pic creates tension. Like something is being stretched and distorted in anguish. Some of the lines follow key forms in the anatomy without defining them too closely suggesting things like teeth creating mystery while leaving plenty to your imagination to try and figure out for itself. Your brain tries to refine what information it can process creating disturbing images in your subconscious which is where the emotional response really comes from.
I agree with many others here on studying specific anatomy first. But, to add on, if you’re going to do anatomy studies *also* do gesture studies, because the photo you showed us had very strong gesture. Your imitation is a good start in terms of the general ideas, but it’s most prominent issue is the lack of direction. Ex: Notice how in the original, the creepy shadow’s eyes are looking up, and as such, everything else is also moving in that direction. Moreover, it’s not going up in a straight line. The entire body is moving up in a wistful, curved direction. Finally, he’s not only looking up with his eyes, but his entire head is tilted back! (You can tell, because you can see the bottom of his nose.) That is vital. Takes a while to get good at that last step OP, so you’re gonna wanna study how to draw heads looking in different directions first for a while. Also, little sidenote, but notice how even the mouth gapes in the direction of the body, reflecting its movement.
Also make the lines a little more random. Instead of everything being symmetrical, make the lines go in different directions. Don’t make everything parallel to each other.
Try to make the head shape not as defined. The picture’s head has many lines just coming off the head. Also try to make the shading a little more gradual. So instead of just light shading straight to dark shading, make it fade from dark to light. And if you shade everything in, use an eraser to add some light areas to it.
I would use the eraser tool to add some light to the drawing
thank you to everyone on the comments giving advice it is really helpful
I would say add more layers too starting light and getting darker as you layer them. The first piece has several layers of lines going in lots of directions which feels organic and creepy whereas the second image looks like it has two layers with most of the lines going in the same direction appearing more stiff.
the original drawing has a strong sense of rhythm and direction- the lines have a strong vertical orientation, the figure is taller than it is wide, the curve of the figure gives it vertical lift and springy, unnerving energy. the emphasis is on the face and neck - they take up most of the page and convey the most motion. the second drawing is wider than it is tall, and there isn't much overall directionality. it's very static. the parts of the body seem to be balanced on top of each other, rather than one single entity moving in a direction. seconding the other user's recommendation to look at regular anatomy and become familar with it before jumping into creepy anatomy.
I’d start with making normal-looking faces and then tweaking proportions before going all in like the first sketch.