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Creature head tutorial — Description

Because human art will always be better than generated slop, here's how I go about drawing a few common creatures.
These are divided into three steps, but don't feel like you have to reach the third as soon as possible; you can add as many steps as you need in between until you feel like you're able to reach that step. After detailing, color, line, or keep refining until you're happy with your results.
Tips from me
- Use lots of shapes and don't be afraid if it looks messy. Simple shaping is simply the base of your placements. The more the better. To get started, I start with a singular shape that covers the main area of the skull. Then, I do another shape to resemble the jaws and another smaller circle to resemble the eye, typically at the end of that shape where it overlaps with the skull shape. Lastly, I plan where the ears go, depending on emotion, perspective, position, etc.
- Don't be afraid to use references. I see a lot of heat regarding whether or not referencing is okay, and personally, if credit is added where its due and doesn't infringe on anyone's rights, go for it! However, I don't personally.
- Challenge yourself to help your natural muscle memory grow. Instead of using a reference directly on your canvas, have it open in another tab or another screen, or only look at it for a few seconds in intervals of a few minutes. Bonus points: look at an image a singular time and try to draw it from memory and see how close you can get
- Draw the same thing over and over until you're able to do it on your own without references. Pressure yourself into drawing unfamiliar things and positions. In the wise words of some dude, JUST DO IT.
- 3D models can be your best friend for difficult poses (again, with credit!) I highly recommend posemy.art for humanoid artists, which is a major help with custom posing. If you're good with 3D resources, I also recommend free3D.com alongside Blender, or Sculptris as an easier alternative if 3D sculpting is more your thing.
- You don't have to be anatomically correct. Despite what I've seen over my years in the art community, anatomy is important, yes, but it isn't everything. This tutorial is the baseline guide of how to get started, and also helps me try and be more realistic if that's the style I choose to go for in a piece. If you want your art to have more or less defining features that aren't realistic, you go ahead. Who cares? Dare to be different.
- If you want to branch off off this tutorial and make certain features have more of a cartoony style, try focusing on facial features. Bigger and more expressive eyes, human-like eyebrows, make the fur fluffier and wilder, dramatize lines, etc.
That's all for now :D
Feel free to use this as a guide/reference to help you learn! This image as a download option, and I'm open to allowing people to trace it to help familiarize themselves, with credit! Please do not repost it.
I'd love to see what people are able to create in their own styles, so you're also welcome to tag me in posts or leave comments below <3
Good luck, and have fun!
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