How do you begin drawing zoids?

[Shadow Fox]

How do you begin drawing zoids? Like what techniques do you guys use? Care to share them to a newbie?

[GhostLiger]

Blaze would be the best one to ask for that. In fact I think she's got tuts somewhere.

My method is really slap dash and it's tough to explain it.

[Pirate]

I start off with a sketch of the animal I want to draw then draw the Zoid parts over the top and keep building it up.

I actually made this post on tumblr a while ago about it, it's still a little vague but there are pictures so that might help: littlemure.tumblr.com/post/23789875155/have-some-process-images-too-i-started-off-with-a

[Daft Punksworth]

Original zoids or regular zoids? I do regular zoids like I draw everything. Usually around the "eyes", work on the head and go down. I don't use shapes because I do nearly everything freehand. (I could do a Livestream and post it tomorrow using a Command Wolf.)

Original zoids are ... different. It usually involves going "I want this and this," slapping them down, then adding details around them. I could see if I have old KJ pictures to show the progression of him through the ages... Nyoxi are on the same process so when I get my new Nyoxi on paper, I'll post it. (Nyoxi being my own metalic species.)

Old Knight Jackal:

Basically it was, Anubis-jackal face, Horus-eye armour and multi-jointed tail.

Current(ish) KJ:

I added some more Egyptian-themed elements, such as the shin armour being the Egyptian i/y/e (a?) reed hieroglyph. XD What it stands for seems to be rather broad... but you can see what I based it on here: www.sciencephoto.com/image/185357/350wm/E9000331-Phonetic_Egyptian_hieroglyphs-SPL.jpg


Edit 6/30, 10:30 AM, well it seems Livestream turned into a bitch and won't save my videos now. :/ And it's 15 minutes, too long for youtube or photobucket. Eh, oh well, like I said, I do freehand. Comes from studying the models. If you're a shape person, I'm not the teacher for ye.

[Shadow Fox]

Thanks for the advice you guys. But when I tried drawing out the head of my Energy Liger, I sort of had trouble with the perspective and actually copying the head details.

[Pirate]

All I can recommend for that it getting as many photo references as possible and practice practice practice. It helps if you actually have the zoid you're drawing to look at in real life, but I know that's not always the case c:

[Shadow Fox]

I've been told that many times and honestly, have been trying as hard as I could the past few months but I just get frustrated why I'm not getting it right. I've tried forming the base shape of Energy Liger's head at every angle and when I try filling in the details, it just didn't look right. Do you think drawing without any guidelines will work this time?

[Daft Punksworth]

I never use guidelines, I'm a freak like that. *shrug* If Livestream wasn't redone and now a bitch, you'd see that my command wolf is very (very) basically done. What you see in the following picture is what I drew, nothing extra got erased unless I erased it completely and started over.

(Shitty looking because it was only meant to show how... But LS is officially a bitch. -_-)
Oh yea, and 98% from memory. The other 2% was me glancing up and looking at my model to figure out where the legs go. Lol.


ETA: 7/1 I'm looking at it now and noticed that the three-section part on the bottom of the neck is pointing the wrong way. XD Proof that 98% of it is from memory WHOOPS.

[GhostLiger]

Also practise is a must. There's not a technique in the world that would allow you to get it right overnight, so just draw it over and over again.

[Daft Punksworth]

I agree with Ghostie. X3 Practice is always good.

Oh, and don't forget to check proportions. Proportions are hidden most of the time, but once you start studying and finding them, it's surprising how much they'll help.

Example, I just took a line drawn from the tip of the wolf's nose to the first corner of the cockpit, copied it and rotated it around the head:

Same distance from the tip of the ear to the corner, to the bottom of the 'beard' to the corner. Don't be afraid to take a picture and use a ruler to draw lines to find out the proportions. :3 Hope that helps.

[Shadow Fox]

Thank you guys.

[Blaze]

... Uhhhhh... OH! Lemme see if I still have that Rayse Tiger tutorial... ok yep I still had it in storage in my old DA account XD But uh, yeah. That's my way of doing things. It's a good way to get proportions and size right from the start. If you go into detail right away, you might make a mistake later and will be a pain to fix. Also just like what everyone else have said, LOTS OF PRACTICE.

[Shadow Fox]

Thank you for the tutorial, Blaze!