The year draws to a close, as does my chosen art theme for December. As I outlined in a backstory post, it was a natural progression from #chibitober to #shojovember to #bishicember, but carrying out the theme for an entire month was much harder than I’d thought. Bottom line, I’m ready for a new theme as much as a new year.
I’ll say it point blank — I’m still mainly reliant on tutorials. I’m careful to point this out when I show artwork to people, and the taglines on my Twitter and Instagram accounts stipulate that I’m not a professional artist (I just play one on social media…yuk, yuk).
This means that my monthly themes will only work as far as I can gather the tutorial resources. Chibitober was perfect as a theme; there are loads of tutorials on paper and online. Shojovember worked out just as well.
Bishicember, however, was a different story. It seemed like I could only find one bishie-ish tutorial for every 10 or 20 on a female shojo character or chibi, and I didn’t think that many of them fit the classic profile of a bishie. There is a difference between them and simply good-looking boys or men.
I didn’t want to be over-posting Christopher Hart figures, his enormous library of published tutorial books being my main source (I’m listing them for you below). So I had to bit the bullet and step away (at least partly) from tutorials into…
…”fanart”. Which is basically copying, but done as a form of flattery or practice rather than for exploitative purposes. I read Black Butler and watched Diabolik Lovers, taking screenshots as references and drawing the characters in all their pretty bishie goodness. I searched online for vintage photos of real-life bishonen (David Sylvian, John Taylor), and even tried my hand at copying photos of current K-Pop stars.
You know what? They didn’t suck completely. Some were certainly better than others, but I made it work. It was a strain, though, not just for lack of tutorials but because I found drawing bishie more difficult than the other themes for some reason. I’m glad I was challenged enough out of tutorials to find a new way of drawing, but to be honest, I love sitting down to a good step-by-step project that holds my hand and walks me all the way through the process and pats my shoulder and tells me it will be alright.
This hilarious Twitter thread reveals January’s art theme, #handuary. I’m armed with reference sources, and can leave the safe zone of tutorials behind a bit more. Plus there is a plethora of possibilities that ought to make it more fun and a better match to my developing abilities. Will you join me and post some of your own hand drawings? Tag them #handuary, or @Julia_Ryder_ (Twitter) or @julia_runswithscissors (Instagram).
Tutorial resources for drawing bishie:
Mark Crilley’s magnificent Sebastian from Black Butler tutorial
Christopher Hart book — Midnight Monsters
Christopher Hart book — Manga Mania: Romance
Christopher Hart book — Manga for the Beginner: Shoujo
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