Line Sculpting Mini-Torial

It's ya girl back with another epic Minecraft tutorial.

Okay for real, this is a super important skill that I think isn't taught enough to digital artists. Do you find doing Lineart to be difficult; being unable to keep a steady hand and dissatisfied that your lineart never looks as organic or natural as your sketches? Well Line-Sculpting might be for you!

For a brief overview, Line-Sculpting is a method of creating lineart all on the same layer as your initial sketch, rather than creating lineart on a separate layer. I find that it creates much more natural posing, figure, form, gesture, etc., at least for me.

Step 1: Your initial sketch

This is kind of hard to teach, since creating your initial sketch has a lot more going into it than I can teach with one tutorial and one drawing of a chode. But basically, for line sculpting, you want to use a fairly thick, fairly low-density brush. Try to use flowing, omni-directional lines rather than scritch-scratchy back-and-forth lines. 

Step 2: Erasure

This step is, to me, the most satisfying. Basically, try to thin out the initial sketch to the shape you desire using a mid-density eraser tool. During this stage you can define bumps, creases, etc. Try to use the direction of your strokes to define flowing shapes.

NOTE: I strongly advise copying your initial sketch onto another layer, just so that you can try again in case you mess this up. Additionally, for Challenge Mode, try your best to do this phase without using the Undo (Ctrl+Z) tool. Having to commit to things usually ends up making your forms more organic.

Step 3: Rebuilding what you have destroyed

This part is kind of nebulous, but I'll try to explain it.

Basicaly, use a high-density, smaller brush tool to go back over your lines, giving them weight and texture. You should strive to use a wide variety of line-weights depending on relative position to the light source. Try to think of how the lighting would work in 3D space. A huge hurdle to get over with art, even of the cartoony variety, is that creating 3-dimensional looking characters and shapes with presence goes beyond "shading." Shading is a multi-faceted process.

I mention "pinch-points" in this, which is a term I just use in my head to describe points in lineart where two lines intersect and create a sort of concave shape. Sort of like the two lines are being pinched together. Anatomically, think of points like your armpit when your arms are at their side. If you've ever squeezed your forearm and your bicep together to form the shape of a butt, you'll know what I'm talking about.