How To Draw Like Ken Sugimori People

Aw, yeah. Sugi-way fakemon are my jam, largely considering I can't sprite worth a lick, haha. My whole fakedex website is full of these things. I guess I can show a couple of the more recent ones?

Finolt and takhampos, both pure h2o. Simply finished revamping/redesigning these yesterday (the old ones are hither and here if you're curious).

And then there's the picayune guy in my avatar and its evolution, the ice/poison runnino and rhinovire. Hooray for terrible puns?

I don't think I've really nailed down a consistent personal version of a Sugi-esque way still, heh—a lot of even my newer artwork tends to fluctuate between looking more like one generation or another. Maybe every bit I proceed calculation new stuff/revamping all the erstwhile, ugly, chalky-looking stuff (why is that hideous mega arcanine still on my website aaaaaaaa) I'll eventually settle on something that looks good across the board. In the meantime, eh, shut plenty!

@Pixel Plant Zone, I really like what y'all've got there! I've been admiring the sprites you posted in the feedback thread, and the Sugi-fashion art is just as nice. I wish I had the patience for both this and pixel art, haha. Definitely looking forward to boopsie's evolutions—it'due south supposed to be eevee-like, right? Lots of potential in the base yous've got there!

@Jephed, there are plenty of brushes you can experiment with in any programme if you desire to! Thing is, I personally detect that I don't actually need any fancy brushes for Sugi-way art if that's what yous're after in item. I employ MediBang as well (albeit the Android version moreso than the PC version), and all the brushes I use are in that location past default. You lot tin can easily get away with the pen brush for inking lineart and either the watercolor brush or the pen + a soft eraser for shading/highlights. I practice like using the "mapping pen" castor for lineart these days, equally it gives the lines a slightly "rougher" feel. If y'all zoom in close to a piece of actual Sugimori art (see here for an case), you lot'll see that the lines aren't perfectly smooth; the mapping pen gives something reasonably similar for basically no extra effort. Of course, at the sizes well-nigh people volition be seeing your artwork information technology probably won't exist noticeable without close scrutiny, and then if yous prefer the smoother lines from the regular pen or the program you lot cull doesn't have a similar castor available, that's fine, also!

More or less the just "custom brush" I utilise is an eraser that I modified to accept the same properties as the watercolor brush, simply you tin can do that right in the interface: but look at the settings for the default watercolor castor and then create a new eraser that copies those settings. I like using the watercolor brush and eraser for the shading and highlights, because the reduced opacity lets you layer the color on and I like what it does to soften/lighten the edges of the shadows and lights. Definitely experiment and see what you lot feel works best for you, though! I call up a lot of getting comfortable with any art programme is just playing around with the settings that are already there before y'all worry about angling for exterior tools. User-made brushes are great and can provide a lot of useful presets, but you'd be surprised at how many dissimilar furnishings you can achieve just past tweaking or creatively using what'southward in that location out of the box!

While I oasis't really used it much myself, yous tin besides look at Krita as some other complimentary choice. Or you could try Paint Tool SAI or Clip Studio Paint (currently on sale until tomorrow equally of this postal service, I believe?) every bit non-gratuitous options that are still actually popular and also don't price an arm and a leg/a monthly subscription similar Photoshop. Lots of people I know use SAI for fakemon art in particular, so if you find that you're comfy with the interface and then that may exist worthwhile. Really, though, how much yous like the interface is all that matters, as with enough do you can create basically the exact same art and effects in whatsoever of these, or in something like GIMP or Paint.Net, or whatever.

(I practise also have Photoshop, and while I don't use it every bit my primary program for fakemon art any longer—these days it'southward mostly just some cleanup after the majority of the work is done in MediBang—I used to use information technology for pretty much everything and could perhaps offer some communication on some of the basics and somesuch if you need it.)