Just a doodle of wolverine… I’d really like to make a good drawing of this character someday. Keep practicing, and maybe I’ll get there.

Hi there, peeps! Long time no see. Holy crap, I’m drawing a man! But like Rob Liefeld before me, I’m cleverly avoiding drawing his feet… maybe next time. Baby steps.

Whether you’re drawing with a pencil or with vectors, some of the same ideas apply. In my vector drawings, I used to try to be very precise, drawing the finished lines and shapes exactly. Then, after I started learning to use brushes, I saw that I could make much more fluid and interesting shapes by following a larger and looser process. Here are a couple images to show the technique.

• First, I draw with big loose lines, defining the lines of motion, and worrying about intersection points, but not too much about end points of lines.
• I try to create relationships between different lines so that they complement each other.
• Then I add some detail to pull it together. Even with the detail, I don’t worry about defining endpoints very much. This is how a good artist would draw with a pencil, so it makes sense to do the same in Illustrator.
• Once the rough drawing is done, I copy it and start cutting, masking, and applying brushes to bring it closer and closer to a finished drawing.

That’s a big part of my drawing strategy right now. Sometimes it’s hard to sort out all those loose and crazy lines, but I think the result is worth it–a little bit of unique style and a lot of cool in-progress images!