January 07, 2009
How To Draw Snake Scales like a Champ
In the past i always had a hard time figuring out just how i wanted to go about texturing scaled animals in my work. For the most part i would just add a few shapes to kind of generalize the details of the skin but recently on a project i decided i was going to go balls out and draw every scale. holy crap right? Well I put together my own little method for getting the tedious task done so i didn’t rip my face off or potentially damage any of the equipment in my office hulk smash style. Don’t get me wrong, its still going to take patience, but hopefully this will help. Oh and this is my first video tutorial so go easy on me in the comments.
this is awesome. mad respect for you, Deal!
Thank you. Don’t be shy big guy. I want to see more of this. Well done sir.
Deals voice makes me swoon!
Awesome tutorial dude, great seeing how you work. Here’s hoping for more!
Nice work Deal!
Thank you!
thanks for a lot for the feedback everyone, more to come for sure. Also, i gargle with a warm water, salt and baking soda solution to give my voice that little extra moxy.
Hey awesome tutorial! And love the website too! :D I just had a small question though :) the ehm first image you showed on the tutorial did you make that with painter or did you draw that by hand with ink or something? I’m really curious, because I’m planning on studying illustration for the next 3 years or so and I wanna do what all of you are doing as well ;) xx
hey tracks, id suggest playing around with different methods for creating your linework. That particular piece was done in painter with a tablet but ive found that lots of artists have their individual way of working that seems to be best for them.
Awesome piece Derek, and the art’s not bad either - ha! Nice tute, always interesting to see an artiste at work. Curious, what type of tablet do you use? I’m thinking about getting one, ‘cause all the cool kids are, but I’ve never used one before.
thanks stinky! i use a wacom intuos 3 6x8. There’s definitely a learning curve but i don’t know what id do without it now.
derek…that is fucking amazing that you shared that…thank you so much!!! I’ll be checking back often for more!
wow, I love this tip.
Love the tutorial :] Just letting you know, you can rotate the images in CS4, so painter isn’t the only one that can now :P
this rules, thanks for the insight man, i never even thought to make guides, i’ve always just fumbled through snake scales. thanks!
Until I saw this I was drawing scales twice as hard and 3 times uglyier–thanks a lot man!