Anyone Have tips for drawing like Dan?

[Chibi 27 0]

I really love Dan Paladin's style of art, but I can't seem to be able to recreate it. So does anyone here have some tips on how I could?

[Denivire 6]

Trace.

Tracing is one of the best ways to teach your hand, arm, wrist, w/e to draw like another person. A professor or teacher of art will say the same thing. After a while, you'll notice your limb that defines your drawing will start to go much smoother to the lines then trying to figure it out on your own. At that point, it's very simple to start doing original work.

And if you're not into tracing or want to draw like Dan now, you're pretty much are not going to succeed in duplicating his style (unless you already can or do draw in his style)

[Keith 1]

id have to disagree with the tracing, the best way to learn anything is just to practice, once you are better at hand control and have more skill in drawing you will be able to adapt the way you draw.

Dans drawings may look simple, but he has been drawing for a long time. Even look at his stuff from when his company started till now, he has made a big leap in quality, and thats because he draws alot.

tracing well, tracing doesn't do anything, traced images don't even look good.

other then that there is no tips for just drawing better right away, you have to work at it and study what you see

[Denivire 6]

id have to disagree with the tracing, the best way to learn anything is just to practice, once you are better at hand control and have more skill in drawing you will be able to adapt the way you draw. [...]

Um, tracing is technically practicing. I mean sure, no one is awesome at first, and tracings look terrible from the start, but that's because your not use to it. Try it out, it will be surprisingly more effective then you think.

This is coming from an art guy who has taken many art classes, from elementary school to college. I have merit to my words

[Keith 1]

no tracing isnt practice. cause you arnt learning anything except maybe to be better at tracing. Im not going to argue about it, im here to help this guy, not get in a fight with you. But tracing wont get him anywhere.

Chibi wants to draw like dan? then he should look at his stuff and draw based on that, even if his drawings arnt too good at first they will have 1000x more spirit and life then a tracing

and please, I WENT to art school. thanks for assuming that i dont know anything and was talking out of my butt

[Rebmob 1]

no tracing isnt practice. cause you arnt learning anything except maybe to be better at tracing. Im not going to argue about it, im here to help this guy, not get in a fight with you. But tracing wont get him anywhere.

Chibi wants to draw like dan? then he should look at his stuff and draw based on that, even if his drawings arnt too good at first they will have 1000x more spirit and life then a tracing

and please, I WENT to art school. thanks for assuming that i dont know anything and was talking out of my butt

Woah you two, I feel heat coming from this thread. My opinion is, try tracing, and once you have traced it one or two times try free handing the same thing you traced. If you don't like tracing.. get a picture of Dan's and draw it, as best as you can by just looking at it. I didn't go to art school, how about that?

And Keith, you didn't answer me last time but I remember playing you in the arena two or three times one night this week.

[Denivire 6]

no tracing isn't practice. cause you aren't learning anything except maybe to be better at tracing. I'm not going to argue about it, I'm here to help this guy, not get in a fight with you. But tracing wont get him anywhere.

Chibi wants to draw like Dan? then he should look at his stuff and draw based on that, even if his drawings aren't too good at first they will have 1000x more spirit and life then a tracing

and please, I WENT to art school. thanks for assuming that i don't know anything and was talking out of my butt

I wasn't trying to start any fighting , but you're suggesting to rule out a medium of training before he even tries it?

Also, I just assumed you were ruling out tracing because you find it pointless. I was trying to say it isn't, because I actually do it for the harder styles for me, and it does wonders for helping me. I wasn't assuming you knew nothing about art.

But to simmer it down, the best piece of advice to give is to try multiple methods before ruling them out. Try tracing, try visual. To rule them out before even trying them is asinine.

[Guest ScottishMo]

From the technical side, Flash, Pressure sensitive tablet, (preferably wacom) and a steady arm.

[Krugun 0]

Use basic shapes (squares, circles, etc) while using a simplistic skeletal structure (stick figure!). The Head is roughly the same length (using CC as an example) as the body, maybe 2/3 bigger. After you get something you like, trace using a pen, get another piece of paper, retrace (in very light pencil) and then go about adding the details (markings, folds, blood splatter, crazed look in the face). The add lines for shading, and either fill them in, or figure a way to get it onto your computer (scanner, or if you draw with a electronic pad-n'-pen, then nm ).

Also, he uses a very light caligraphic touch, and very sharp edges (sort of like the clouds of dust from Legend of Zelda- Wind Waker, or majority of special effects from World of Warcraft).

[Joker B 0]

The only hard part was the heads for me,

But then i found out that they are just Rectangles with curved tops and bottoms!

[Little Big Goatboy 0]

Find your own style. You can use bits you like from dans art but don't copy it completely. Just let yourself draw. Don't think to much about it.

[Jurassic 36]

This is a direct quote from a similar thread:

 

Hey Dan.

I am a massive fan of yours, and for almost a year I have been copying your style, but, as you said, I am trying to create my own style.

This is proving incredibly difficult. The one thing I struggle with most is drawing from my mind, and it stuns me how easily you draw new things so well. I always have an image of what I would like to draw in my mind, but it turns out awful. Another problem is inspiration. I'm never inspired to draw anything. When I copy your style, it turns out great. But that's all it is, copying. If you have any advice for me, I hope you read this and tell me. You are an incredibly talented artist, and don't stop making the games we all know and love 

 

Thank you!

 

Having a style is something that normally tends to develop over a long period of time.  You learn how you want lines to be shaped for this and that until eventually you're tailoring them in a flavor of your own.  I never actively sought out a style, but drew a lot.

 

There's nothing wrong with trying to emulate someone else's stuff and riff off it until it melds into something of your own, as many artists will agree.  But I'm not sure I directly recommend it or not, I definitely don't have all the answers since I only went through it once.

 

Maybe think about how you'd want your characters' weight distribution.  Some artists like to give them really big forearms and regular sized biceps.  Some artists give them twig arms with big fists.  Some artists beef them up the whole way, while others have the arm come to a sharp point with no hand at all.  There are all kinds of ways to draw the same sort of character.  Are the eyes high, middle or low?  Are they far apart?  How long is the nose?  Is there a nose?  Is there a neck?  Maybe take a character you really like and experiment with just that character on all different sorts of heights, weights, and distribution of features until you see what other angle you can take it?

 

I never studied traditionally.  All of my friends who have, or the teachers I know that do, I feel uncomfortable around.  I don't even know any color theory, or how to draw someone's face.  They can draw both like myself and realistic.  So I'm definitely more off the cuff than a lot of other artists, not sure if you want to be asking me for advice specifically.  You might want to ask Eric Haddad.  We hired him about a year and a half ago and he knows all this stuff  

 

Other than that, it's best to start off with a small brush and then make the lines later. Personally it gives myself better results that match his style. Dan and Eric [for in-game sprites] like to use thick brushes with Speed Size Opacity or something similar, they don't much go over their lines they just keep re-drawing till they get the perfect line. If you've seen one of their drawing videos they usually redo and undo and undo until they have the line of their choice. But if that doesnt work for you maybe you should try what I do, maybe it mind find you good?

[CannyImposter 164]

I started with tracing. And I hated it. Every time I traced something of Dan's it would look great, but it never, ever felt satisfying. But I continued to trace because it always looked better than my art, of course it did, he's been drawing so much longer than I have. Eventually I couldn't stand just copying, so I forced myself to draw my own things from my head. But certain lines, arms legs and faces were hardwired into my brain from all the tracing, but because i knew them so well I was able to manipulate them into my own original design. One thing i've learnt is there are rarely original styles. Everyone has a designer they love for there own reasons, and draw the most inspiration from them. When you go on to produce your own work, there will always be remnants from what you learnt from this artist. even now I still reference Dan's images if there is something tricky I cannot draw. It's painful but it's only through copying others that you can really progress with your own work, but there is no better feeling than creating your own work I assure you. I was in the exact same position as you so I hope this helps. 

[STANKwild 10]

Draw the human form as much as possible.

Draw the human form in as many positions as possible.

Practice your shading and highlighting.

 

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

 

Do not mimic Paladin 100 percent.  Always throw in your own style.  Let his style inspire what you can do.

[MooToo 4]

Try drawing with a picture for reference.