Xia Taptara

FREE 3D Head Reference Tool!
Now you can try a free version of this 3D head reference model here!
🌐 FaceRef Studio Lite (Free): facerefstudio.com/
Enjoy!

Blog: idrawgirls.blogspot.com/2026/09/free-3d-asaro-head…

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 4

Xia Taptara

Some of you asked me to do hand drawing. If you missed this video I just uploaded a couple weeks ago.

Stop struggling with awkward, flat hands! ✋⚡ Hands don't have to be intimidating. In this fast 3-minute tutorial, learn how combining dynamic gesture flow with solid 3D box construction gives you expressive, structurally accurate hands in any pose or camera angle.

Video here: https://youtu.be/9EUVWGrsmgc
Updated the old blog post:
idrawgirls.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-draw-hand-v…

The Gesture + Box Hand Formula:
1) Flow & Rhythm (Gesture): Capture the overall motion and arc of the fingers with loose, expressive rhythm lines.
2) Palm Volume (The Wedge/Box): Construct the palm as a solid, curved 3D box to lock in perspective and camera angle.
3) Fingers as Cylinders & Boxes: Break each finger segment into simple geometric forms wrapping cleanly around the knuckles.
4) Anatomy Anchors: Lock in the thumb web, knuckle ridge, and wrist connection to complete the structural read.

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1 week ago | [YT] | 51

Xia Taptara

Improve your portrait drawing skills with a fast daily sketch routine focused on facial proportions, landmark alignment, and spatial distance between features. This one takes me about 10-15 minutes.

Using FaceRef Studio eliminates reference hunting so you can spend your practice time sketching dynamic angles, planes, and head perspective in Photoshop, Procreate, or on paper.
FaceRef Studio: namsondigital.gumroad.com/l/facerefstudio

A short video is up in 12 hours.


💬 How much time do you usually lose scrolling for reference photos before you actually start drawing? Let me know below!

#DailySketch #DrawingTutorial #ConceptArtTips #PortraitDrawing

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 30

Xia Taptara

Two quick portrait lighting studies using the exact same base reference! 🎨💡

Head 1: Pushing a harsh, punchy directional key light from the left.

Head 2: Boosting saturated, secondary ambient bounce to open up the shadow side.

It's amazing how much changing the light intensity alters the mood and form.

Which version reads better to you: 1 or 2? And what makes that one stand out? Drop your thoughts below! 👇

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 8

Xia Taptara

Exploring foliage volume with the cube technique! 🌳🧊

Here are a few tree sketches and early environment experiments using geometric block-ins, along with a look at the 3D modular assets we’re currently building. Honestly? It’s not quite hitting the visual direction I want just yet, but that’s the beauty of iteration.

📺 Watch the quick breakdown on painting trees with cube palettes: www.youtube.com/shorts/dfoIFE...

📲 Get FaceRef Studio (PC) to set up your own lighting cubes:
namsondigital.gumroad.com/l/facerefstudio

Do you have problem painting tree foliages, what did you get stuck on? 👇

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 25

Xia Taptara

Here is the App I use in my tutorials. It’s called FaceRef Studio, and my team and I actually built it ourselves! A short (20 sec) Demo here: youtube.com/shorts/SajWd2X-lN8

I used it to set up dynamic head angles and lighting… 👤💡
Finding the right lighting on heads and faces is very time-consuming, so we designed FaceRef to give artists instant planar lighting, custom angles, and accurate anatomical planes in seconds.

Get it here: namsondigital.gumroad.com/l/facerefstudio
.

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 42

Xia Taptara

Painting high-key side lighting without losing form or depth! ⚡👤

Here’s the exact 5-step pipeline I use to take a portrait from bare lines to full render using planar reference from FaceRef Studio:

1️⃣ Line Art & Silhouette

2️⃣ Skin Tone Foundation

3️⃣ Local Base Colors

4️⃣ Base Shadow Hue & Saturation (Locked in with FaceRef)

5️⃣ Final Highlights & Edge Polish

The biggest trick for high-key portraits is in Step 4: don't just pick a darker, muddy shade—shift your shadow hue and pump saturation along the terminator to keep the skin alive.


🔗 Get FaceRef Studio here: namsondigital.gumroad.com/l/facerefstudio

What lighting setup would you like to see broken down next: dramatic uplight or rim light? Drop a comment! 🛡️

Short video is coming tomorrow (Hopefully!) :-)

#portraitpainting #digitalpainting

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2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 32

Xia Taptara

Tough lighting on dynamic angles used to take me forever to guess and measure... until I changed my workflow. 💡👤
Short video is here: youtube.com/shorts/Q7eDxZ_Ci68

The app I used is FaceRef Studio. We developed it ourselves. I will reveal the feature soon.

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3 weeks ago | [YT] | 28

Xia Taptara

Since there are more likes than usual when I post the ref images for study.
So here we go again. :-)
A couple of Face Reference shorts from the app for you to try out and study.
From my last Short: youtube.com/shorts/yykiWDVLoak

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3 weeks ago | [YT] | 16

Xia Taptara

Some sketches I did for the most recent short with Boxes vs Ref technique.
Here: youtube.com/shorts/yykiWDVLoak

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3 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 45