Uploaded February 2020 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Start your training here: 2d101.com/manga
Hi, Mark Diaz here for 2DAnimation101.com, in these series of videos we're talking about the elements of a good drawing. We already covered the first one, which is clean lines, then line thickness, and in this video we're going to cover number three, which is spacing. The spacing is the, just a blank space, negative space between two objects. In these very simple example, we're going to check this drawing, this is one of our students. And this is the reference of the lesson and this is what one of our students delivered. As you can see you, you might see this and "yeah, it can improve the curvature of these eyes, not completely oval" and there are a couple of mistakes, but notice this, don't focus on getting everything perfectly, because I got a lot of students who actually email me with that concern. Like I don't, I feel like confused and scared because I'm trying to get everything perfect and it's not getting perfect in the first try. So don't worry about that. They... Don't try to get everything perfect on the get go. Don't. Relax, pay attention to the things you're doing good. And give yourself a high five to yourself because in this case, this student, as you can see, yeah, there are a couple of things. The circles are not very good and some lines are well the ovals are not good, but the spacing is great, right? the
spacing. So that is one of the elements and it's good to know many elements of a good drawing because you can go and actually if you go to the training center and start criticizing other drawings of other students, you can go: "okay, the angles are bad. Your align angles, but you have good spacing. I give you that." And in this case, this student is having good spacing because we need to have an eye in this square and then negative space and then the other eye, right? And this is really well done. As you can see, we have the eye and then we have blank space and then we have the other eye. That's what we meant in the video when we talked about measuring again and again, measure first and then you feel it. You do this again and again and again, and then we start removing the grid little by little, and look at what happens: When you don't measure it enough times, you don't get the spacing correctly. Let me show you what I mean. This is wrong. As you can see, some eyes are almost correct, but they are not correct, in general, like this one almost got it, almost, but it's not correct, because the correct spacing, remember this space, look, I'm measuring. The eye should be on this side. Can you see? So in general, all these eyes are too close together. So all of them are wrong.
And that's what I mean. Like there are a couple of things that in here this student was doing wrong. Like also the shading, the shading of the eyes are not completely okay, but, the spacing is correct. And in here the eyes, this spacing is not correct. So that's what I mean by spacing it's this space between two parts of your drawing. It has to be correct and after you repeat it and measure it and then prove to yourself, okay, the measurement is okay, like I just did, draw it measure it, measure it again and again. That is how you're going to start developing your intuition, measure it again and again, and then try to do it without measuring. Try to do it, like just draw one eye and just try to guess, give an educated guess of where the other eye should be, and then measure it, measured to see if you got it right or wrong. If you got it wrong, try it again. Don't try to get everything perfect. Just try to get one of the elements perfect. In this case, try to get the spacing correctly, forget about the lines, forget about the angles and the... All the elements we're going to cover, but try to get the spacing correct. Okay, so that's it. Now in the next lesson, we're gonna talk about placement. That is almost like the spacing, like this element, but it has to do with all
the other parts of your drawing, it's an object in relation to all the other objects. And we, you, the way you improve is using a grid. So see you in the next lesson in which we will cover placement. See you there.
Start your training here: 2d101.com/manga
Hi, Mark Diaz here for 2DAnimation101.com, in these series of videos we're talking about the elements of a good drawing. We already covered the first one, which is clean lines, then line thickness, and in this video we're going to cover number three, which is spacing. The spacing is the, just a blank space, negative space between two objects. In these very simple example, we're going to check this drawing, this is one of our students. And this is the reference of the lesson and this is what one of our students delivered. As you can see you, you might see this and "yeah, it can improve the curvature of these eyes, not completely oval" and there are a couple of mistakes, but notice this, don't focus on getting everything perfectly, because I got a lot of students who actually email me with that concern. Like I don't, I feel like confused and scared because I'm trying to get everything perfect and it's not getting perfect in the first try. So don't worry about that. They... Don't try to get everything perfect on the get go. Don't. Relax, pay attention to the things you're doing good. And give yourself a high five to yourself because in this case, this student, as you can see, yeah, there are a couple of things. The circles are not very good and some lines are well the ovals are not good, but the spacing is great, right? the
spacing. So that is one of the elements and it's good to know many elements of a good drawing because you can go and actually if you go to the training center and start criticizing other drawings of other students, you can go: "okay, the angles are bad. Your align angles, but you have good spacing. I give you that." And in this case, this student is having good spacing because we need to have an eye in this square and then negative space and then the other eye, right? And this is really well done. As you can see, we have the eye and then we have blank space and then we have the other eye. That's what we meant in the video when we talked about measuring again and again, measure first and then you feel it. You do this again and again and again, and then we start removing the grid little by little, and look at what happens: When you don't measure it enough times, you don't get the spacing correctly. Let me show you what I mean. This is wrong. As you can see, some eyes are almost correct, but they are not correct, in general, like this one almost got it, almost, but it's not correct, because the correct spacing, remember this space, look, I'm measuring. The eye should be on this side. Can you see? So in general, all these eyes are too close together. So all of them are wrong.
And that's what I mean. Like there are a couple of things that in here this student was doing wrong. Like also the shading, the shading of the eyes are not completely okay, but, the spacing is correct. And in here the eyes, this spacing is not correct. So that's what I mean by spacing it's this space between two parts of your drawing. It has to be correct and after you repeat it and measure it and then prove to yourself, okay, the measurement is okay, like I just did, draw it measure it, measure it again and again. That is how you're going to start developing your intuition, measure it again and again, and then try to do it without measuring. Try to do it, like just draw one eye and just try to guess, give an educated guess of where the other eye should be, and then measure it, measured to see if you got it right or wrong. If you got it wrong, try it again. Don't try to get everything perfect. Just try to get one of the elements perfect. In this case, try to get the spacing correctly, forget about the lines, forget about the angles and the... All the elements we're going to cover, but try to get the spacing correct. Okay, so that's it. Now in the next lesson, we're gonna talk about placement. That is almost like the spacing, like this element, but it has to do with all
the other parts of your drawing, it's an object in relation to all the other objects. And we, you, the way you improve is using a grid. So see you in the next lesson in which we will cover placement. See you there.
