How to Draw Ace Attorney: A AABattery Guide

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AABattery
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How to Draw Ace Attorney: A AABattery Guide

Post by AABattery »

Image
(A AABattery Guide)
Essentially, I was bored and decided to make a tutorial series. This series will contain multiple sections (Over 10, I believe), most of them with their own sub-sections. I will submit them as I go, going from smaller parts (eyes, nose, lips) to bigger and more advanced parts (full body, clothes, animation). Hopefully by the end of all this, I may have helped some of you in creating your own AA fanart, or better yet, original characters!
Disclaimer
This series was made to help those who want to achieve the AA-style in their work and should not be considered as an end-all be-all for drawing anything. If you wish to go further with your art, you are encouraged to seek out more information and learn the basics of the human anatomy.
Table of Contents
(Text with a strike are plans for the future.)
============== Eyes ==============
Shape
Size
Iris
Iris Size
Eyelashes
=========== Facial Features ===========
Eyebrows
Nose
Mouth
Ears
Hair

============== Head ==============
Front View
Proportions
Head Shapes
Three Quarter View
Working with 3QV
Side View

============== Body ==============
Hands
Feet
The Skeleton
Proportions
Front View
Three Quarter View
Side View

=========== Emotion/Poses ===========
Facial Expression
Body Expression
Poses

============== Extra ==============
Group Pictures
Backgrounds
Characters in Backgrounds
Animations
Interesting Characters
Drawing Costumes
Drawing Evidence

=========== Digital Programs ===========
Inking in Illustrator
Coloring in Illustrator
Inking in GIMP
Coloring in GIMP
Inking in Manga Studio
Coloring in Manga Studio
Scanned Lineart in Photoshop
Inking in Photoshop
Coloring in Photoshop
Photoshop Effects



Eyes
When someone sees a character, the first thing they would look at is their face. The character's eyes make a big impact on their appearance. It can make an evil man look fierce or a bubbly girl more adorable. Making the eyes just right can make a big difference.
(This section has 5 parts)
Spoiler : Shape :
To me, this is the worst part when drawing the eyes... Where do I begin? It's hard to imagine how the eye is gonna look like when you're staring at a blank canvas, and that's the trouble I had when starting out. After looking through a lot of books, I discovered that the best way to get the shape of the eyes right was to imagine them AS shapes. This way, you will get a clear idea of how big it will be, it's shape, and it will also help you position the eyes on a face.

I took some different types of eyes from the game and turned them into simple shapes. Enjoy my handwriting:
Image
(I'll continue to use these throughout the guide.)

Now that we got some shapes, we can start drawing our eye. The best way to get the eyes done is to start from the top and work your way down. Here's a step by step of how I do it just to help you out:

Image
(I only did the ones that took 5 steps. Some of them them take more or less steps due to the amount of lines.)

You have drawn an eye! Take what you have learned and keep practicing! What I would really like to see, though, is all of you developing your own style!
Spoiler : Size :
The eye's size can make a character more or less serious. Giving a serious character huge round eyes would make them look weird. Try making Edgeworth with larger eyes and you will see what I mean!

Varying the size of the eyes will allow you to reuse an eye shape without having all the characters look alike. Here's an example:
Image
(Phoenix's eye style is used for a lot of characters.)

Play around with the eye size of your characters to see what suits the character best.
Spoiler : Iris :
Changing the iris can add more variety between your characters than just changing the size. You can have two characters with the same eyes shape and size but with a different iris and they'd still feel different.
Image
(This is really all I could think about when making this tutorial.)

Try out these irises on your characters or design your own. You might find a style that really compliments your character.
Image
(The ones used in the games are the first, third, and forth...)
Spoiler : Iris Size :
This is much like how the size of the eyes work. The size of the iris can make a character look frightening or cute. They can also represent emotions. Smaller eyes can make the character look surprised or furious, while bigger eyes can make a character look sad or possessed (well, if they have no pupils, either).
Image
(Actually, Evil Phoenix looks more surprised than evil...)
Spoiler : Eyelashes :
Adding eyelashes to the eyes will make them look more feminine... obviously...
Image
(Imagine Edgeworth with those lashes!)

There are three ways to make lashes that I know of (all with names that I totally made up). The first is the Thick Lashes. Remember my step by step picture of drawing the eyes? By thickening the first line, you can achieve the look of bigger and fuller eyelashes. The second is the Triangular Lashes, the one Franziska has. You do this by making triangle-like shapes on the outer corner of the eye. The last is what I like to call the Freeform Lashes. This is the style Regina Berry has. You place your utensil where you want the lash to start and, with one sweeping motion, you make a short line going outwards. You can place these lashes on the left, the right, the bottom (but not the top). You shouldn't, however, use all three at the same time. You can do two areas at the same time, as long as one of those areas is the bottom.
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(You can use all three of the styles at the same time. It works for Wellington... :wellington: )
Facial Features
As I've said in the Eyes category, the first thing someone sees is the face. Not only do you have to make the eyes fit, but the rest of their face has to fit as well!
(This section has 5 parts)
Spoiler : Eyebrows :
Other than being something that everyone has or paints on, eyebrows are a tool for expressing emotions. When you're calm, your eyebrows are relaxed. When you're surprised, your eyebrows raise. When you're mad, your eyebrows scrunch together. I remember when I was starting out. For some reason, all my characters looked surprised or happy when I didn't want them to be. It turned out that I kept forgetting to draw the eyebrows...
There is a lot you can do with them, but that doesn't mean you can be lazy! Get a little creative with the eyebrows! Take Roger Smith from Big O. Those eyebrows aren't normal.
Image
(Roger: I'm so bright, I gotta wear shades indoors.)

What should you take from this? Don't just go with the regular thin line eyebrows. Change up its thickness and style every once in a while. Here's some examples from the game:
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(If your character doesn't have eyebrows, make creases where the inner corners of the eyebrows should be. That way they wouldn't look surprised...)
Spoiler : Nose :
The nose is easy to do, mostly because you can get away with just making the nose a checkmark on it's side, but for some characters, this doesn't look good. There are characters, male characters, that will look better when you give them a more prominent nose, for example: Gumshoe.
When thinking about the nose, it is great to imagine them as 4 ovals. Three are for the nose and the forth for the bridge. Here are a few examples:
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(They're all pretty different, right?)

How about drawing the nose at an angle? Here are some more examples.
Image
(Don't be afraid to go out of the norm.)
More to come!
Last edited by AABattery on Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:12 am, edited 10 times in total.
Tap
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Re: How to Draw Ace Attorney: A AABattery Guide

Post by Tap »

Moved to 'Your Art' main forum until the guide is complete. :wink:
Looking good, however, AA! =)
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AABattery
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Re: How to Draw Ace Attorney: A AABattery Guide

Post by AABattery »

Sorry about that. My hate for reading always backfires on me...
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Koda
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Re: How to Draw Ace Attorney: A AABattery Guide

Post by Koda »

Looking great so far, and after all, your style if fantastic. Looking forward to more! :D
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Re: How to Draw Ace Attorney: An AABattery Guide

Post by Sleuth »

It should be An AABattery Guide.

At any rate, this is a great guide, AA. I look forward to seeing more!
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AABattery
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Re: How to Draw Ace Attorney: An AABattery Guide

Post by AABattery »

Shadowsleuth wrote:It should be An AABattery Guide.
That depends on how you say my username. If you actually say the letters (A-A-Battery), then yes, it should be "An AABattery Guide". But if you say my username like the product (Double-A-Battery), which I'm pretty sure everyone does considering what I put as my location, then "A AABattery Guide" works best, but this isn't suppose to be an English guide...

The Eyes category is completed. Tomorrow I'll get to work on the next part: Facial Features. I'll be going over drawing the nose, mouth, eyebrows, and hair (even though it's not a facial feature...)
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deHughes
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Re: How to Draw Ace Attorney: A AABattery Guide

Post by deHughes »

I can learn how to not suck at drawing now~ Thank you, AA. :awesome:
ImageImageLevel:15ImageLevel:5ImageLevel:15ImageLevel:15ImageLevel:15

Tasha Krantz sprite courtesy of gotMLK7.
Phantom

Re: How to Draw Ace Attorney: A AABattery Guide

Post by Phantom »

Using basic shapes to be a reference point in actually drawing the eyes is VERY clever. I've always learned that you use a basic shape outline to help in drawing a face, but to use it for a specific bodypart I wouldn't have thought of that haha

Pretty nice ;)
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AABattery
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Re: How to Draw Ace Attorney: A AABattery Guide

Post by AABattery »

You can turn any part of the body into a shape, although it does get tedious, so it's best to grow out of doing that... XD

Hopefully I'll be able to add more parts tomorrow.
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Re: How to Draw Ace Attorney: A AABattery Guide

Post by Dypo deLina »

Have I said how awesomely this tutorial is coming along?

Because it is. xD
チラセ・マギタ
~Married to Evolina deLuna~ <3
~Loving father to ZetaAzuel~


Proud creator of Cynder Janice, Rex Gladiorum, and Raimpius in Endless Time.

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Re: How to Draw Ace Attorney: A AABattery Guide

Post by AABattery »

I'm sorry that I haven't been contributing much to the forums lately, so I thought I should at least show you guys what I'm thinking about doing on the tutorial so far. All the future projects are on the OP and have a strike through them, and I might add more in the future.

I'm sorry for not updating. I hope I'll be in a drawing mood tomorrow (because I don't have class on Fridays...)
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