Category: Tutorials

Action Sketching: Using an LED light tablet for tracing

Posted in Tutorials - 12/04/2019

My objective in creating this blog is to inspire soccer fans to draw the game as well as view or play it. The best way to do that is to show you how to quickly and easily get into the sport of action sketching.

A problem with learning how to sketch action figures is seeing three-dimensional subjects (people) as “flat” so you can draw them on a flat piece of paper. The only way you can do that, without years of unsatisfactory results, is to view three-dimensional actions through flat reference material, like photos or other sketches.

Amazingly, tracing will not limit your artistic growth. Rather, it informs that growth so in a short period, you’ll be able to draw physical maneuvers without always having a non-moving image as reference.

Start your artistic growth journey by using a LED Light tablet together with photos or other sketches. Tablets generally look like the one below.

LED Light Tablet

LED light tablets, which feature LED lights behind a glass panel, are sold online and in some craft stores. Buy one that advertises it has even light coverage across its display surface. For most people, the panel should be around the size of printer paper, but smaller and larger ones exist.

To use a LED light tablet, turn on the lights, place a printed image on top of the glass, then a blank piece of paper on top of it. Depending on how thin your paper is, you’ll be able to see the printed image through it, enabling you to trace key lines (reference points) on the blank paper.

The example below shows a video snippet I used as inspiration for a finished, watercolor sketch. Production time was less than a half hour, which is important if you want to produce images for manga, cartoons, or manuals, not to mention for your own portfolio. In terms of physical stance, my drawing is not perfect, but I can use it as an illustration for my next blog post.

video image and resulting sketch

Sorry! Tracing alone will not achieve satisfactory output. It might, however, make you an expert in drawing body outlines for murder mystery novels.

simple trace

Hopefully, by this time you acquired an artist’s manikin and a LED light tablet. (If you cannot afford the LED light tablet, at least acquire a manikin. Future blogs will show you how to work freehand.)

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Please Support Our Mission:

We encourage people to participate in sketching, whether by themselves or in groups, knowing that what they sketch reveals the truth about form and motion.

Shop at our online store, Sketch-Views.com, for originally designed merchandise, many topics of which change over time.

Author:

This article was written by Karen Little as part of an ongoing series of blogs on Action Sketching.

Contact:

Reproduction of this article is free to non-commercial websites (or other media) with permission and attributes to Littleviews.com and the article’s author.

All material on Littleviews (with noted exceptions) is copyrighted on the date of publication.

Questions? Ask Karen Little at karen@littleviews.com.

Action Sketching: A supplies list

Posted in Tutorials - 11/27/2019

Sketches that are appreciated by others are usually based on an artist’s ability to correctly depict proportions. Proportionate work does not need to be photo-realistic, but it should not look like a non-skilled child drew it, either.

Leonardo Da Vinci, for example, was able to accurately draw subjects because he did not guess at proportions; he measured them. With the right tools (all inexpensive) and techniques, drawing becomes easy, appealing, and fun.

have fun sketching

While Soccer Sketching won’t teach you how to draw exactly like Leonardo, it will greatly improve your action drawing skills to the point where you will want to share your work quite possibly for the benefit of your team.

Supply List:

In preparation for future tips, I recommend the following tools. If you can afford it, buy all, even if you currently do not know how to use them:

Any inexpensive mechanical pencil and printer paper. Store your sketches in a file folder or 3-hole binder. Negligible cost.

Possibly, better paper. I recommend Canson Mix Media Paper as it can be erased and it takes ink and watercolors relatively well. Optional.

A rubber kneaded eraser. Do not get a polymer eraser. 3 for $4 or similar prices.

An inexpensive swing-arm protractor. It will help you see perspective. $4 to $7 for a set.

An Accurasee Artist Proportional Divider. This is a “must have” that will change your artistic world. $12 to $13.

An artist’s dividers, calipers, or compass. These are easy-to-use measuring devices. Optional.

An inexpensive kit of French curves. Smaller ones are better for sketching. $8 to $10 for school-grade curves. Optional, but handy for smoothly drawing curved lines.

A Circle Template. How else will you sketch soccer balls? $10. Very handy!

A fully-jointed artist’s mannequin , such as a COLOR-LILIJ or Body-Kun model, as previously discussed. This is a “must have” that will change your action-drawing world at around $20.

A LED Light Table Panel (not a light table box). Highly recommended at a cost between $30 and $120.

A Small Photo Studio Light Tent. This is optional, but handy when taking photos of the artist’s mannequin. $15. Optional, but useful as a backdrop for photographing your mannequin.

The estimated prices are from Amazon. Most items are available in local craft shops, art stores, and other online stores.

As we go forward, I’ll go into more detail on how to use these tools, emphasizing speed of sketching versus traditional studio work.

Links:

Please Support Our Mission:

We encourage people to participate in sketching, whether by themselves or in groups, knowing that what they sketch reveals the truth about form and motion.

Shop at our online store, Sketch-Views.com, for originally designed merchandise, many topics of which change over time.

Author:

This article was written by Karen Little as part of an ongoing series of blogs on Action Sketching.

Contact:

Reproduction of this article is free to non-commercial websites (or other media) with permission and attributes to Littleviews.com and the article’s author.

All material on Littleviews (with noted exceptions) is copyrighted on the date of publication.

Questions? Ask Karen Little at karen@littleviews.com.

Action Sketching: Prepare for fast and really good sketching

Posted in Tutorials - 11/20/2019
Sketching to achieve your objectives is a skill you need to develop, much like playing effective soccer. Contrary to many myths, however, it does not require hours of study to produce illustrations that are appreciated by your mates.
Over time, great artists whose works appear in museums, used “tricks of the trade,” some of which I’ll show you in this series. They certainly did not struggle to achieve pleasing illustrations, nor did they argue about what right or wrong methods to use when drawing!
My objective, then, is to show you how you can integrate action sketching into your passions with soccer and be proud of your work.
In recent blogs, I’ve showed you how to use aids, such as a dynamic soccer photograph and an inexpensive, lifelike manikin, both of which can be traced.
Unfortunately, people who rely exclusively on tracing produce work that looks like what you see below, which is similar to what’s seen in training materials.
example of tracing the human form
A plain trace can be informative and it certainly does help the sketcher master proportions, but it is not dynamic. Soccer, of course, is dynamic.
In my last blog, I showed you how to pose a manikin similar to what you see in a still image, in this case of soccer player Collin Martin.
example of posing a manikin
After the manikin is posed, it can be viewed from many angles, all hidden within a single action shot. The manikin below, for example, is the one posed like the photographic reference, but seen from the front.
Example of a soccer player in action via a manikin
While I can draw without tracing, I cannot imagine all the different angles that take place during a split second of fast action. By lightly tracing the above manikin photo onto printer paper with an inexpensive BIC mechanical pencil, then embellishing the drawing with clothing, convincing action can be created similar to reality, but entirely based on imagination.
Example of a quickly drawn action sketch on Soccer Sketching on Soccer-views
I’ll discuss different sketching techniques in the future, but rest assured, even if you do not have drawing skills, by using “tricks of the trade,” you can quickly and easily learn how to draw like this, much to the delight of your teammates and others.

Links: 

Action Sketching: Using a photo reference and a mannequin

Posted in Tutorials - 11/13/2019

A new sports practice device named DribbleUp shows real-time ball drills at foot level on a large-screen TV set. By simultaneously seeing and feeling one’s actions, a person using this device can quickly detect, change, and improve behavior.

The same can be said about improving skills by sketching soccer action through the use of reference material (photos or stop-frame video), a mannequin (as described in blogs leading to this one), and various sketching techniques (future articles).

Reference photo of soccer player,

The only way a physical stance, such as seen in the above photo of soccer player Collin Martin, can be accomplished is through power and rapid motion. The only way it can be studied, however, is through still pictures, and then, you only see one side of a view.

Example of a manikin duplicating the action of a soccer player

The photo above shows that I positioned a mannequin in Martin’s pose, right down to the bend of his feet.

The following photos show the play from different angles, all of which were hidden in the initial photograph and probably in any videos of the play taken at that moment.

Example 2 of soccer action

Example 3 of soccer action

Example 4 of soccer action

I’ll use these mannequin photos in my next blog where I will begin to show you various ways to capture what you see and feel through sketching and how sketching leads to more fully formed knowledge on the subject under your hand.

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