How to Draw...Nichelings!

Learn how to draw the creatures in the game- nichelings! This guide is made by a weirdo who has been drawing nichelings for over a year. So yea. Cool stuff. I just made this guide for fun XD.

Introduction!

Hai! And welcome to my guide on drawing nichelings! My name's Pepper. You can call me...Pepper. As the description of this guide says, I've been drawing nichelings for over a year! Now I shall pAsS oN mY wIsDoM. You may find some nichelings hard to draw. But, hey! Practice makes perfect! No, this guide can't magically make you great at drawing nichelings, you still need to practice! But, I mean, it's almost summer as I'm writing this, so you should have plenty of time to practice! If you ever feel like you want to practice, but just don't know what nicheling to draw, or you can't find the motivation, I advise drawing other people's nichelings. If you have any friends or siblings who play the game, draw some of their favorite characters that they made! Or you could draw some people's nichelings here on Steam! This is my first guide I've made, so I hope you enjoy!
(one last thing!!!!! im writing this 2 years after this guide has been published and im also running off of like 6 hours of sleep at 10:15 pm but i just wanted to say a few things real real quick
firstly - thank you so so much everyone whos read this and rated it and given awards and commented like- its actually crazy how i wrote this guide so long ago and people are still saying how its helped them. to actually be able to help people with the stuff i make and inspire people to do things is just so cool to me, and even if its just some weird little guide i made cos i was confident enough in my art abilities to write down my process, it still means so much to me that people are interested in what i do, so thank you so so much :]
secondly - like i said, it has been 2 years since this guide has been published, and drawing is still my hobby and passion as much as it ever was! that being said, i feel like i have improved in my drawing abilities and cant help but feel like this guide is getting a little outdated. however, i dont really draw a lot of nichelings anymore, i mainly draw humans and humanoid thingies now. uhh im not really sure where im going with this but ig what im trying to say is that part of me wants to make a newer version of this but im not as confident in my abilities of drawing these little guys as i used to be. i might still make one someday who knows, but until then!!!!!! i wanted to link you guys to a newer guide that someone on the stray fawn community forums made. the person who made it is so talented and has a lot of experience with drawing nichelings and i highly recommend you check out her guide if you want something more updated than this thingie - https://strayfawnstudio.com/community/index.php?/topic/13341-nicheling-art-tutorials/#comment-334981
unrelated but she even found this guide when she was making the topic which i find very funny
uhh yea thats all i wanted to say i think!!!!! now have fun reading this rambling i went on 2 years ago. and thank you all so much, i wish you all the best luck in your drawing. i hope you guys have a lot of fun and are able to make something you are proud of <3 )

Prep work! (Optional)

Okay, so let's start! As the section title says, this step is optional, but if you think you're going to be drawing lots of nichelings in the future, I recommend doing this. Get a page in your sketchbook, or a piece of printer paper, notebook paper, you could do it digitally if you want...just something to draw on! Load up Niche, go into sandbox mode, and look at the genetics. Draw all of the genetics you see, like this-




This will help you realize what the Niche genetics look like in your style, so if you're drawing a nicheling with lots of unique genetics, you'll already know how to draw them! But, like I said, if you plan on only drawing a few nichelings in your lifetime, this step is not required.

How to Draw Easy Nichelings!

If you want to draw nichelings with simple genetics, like these two-




...then this is the section to be in, my friend!
Because these nichelings are so plain, drawing them is like drawing a cat with gems. That's what it's like to me, at least! So think of a cat when you draw these guys.
Anyways, like with any drawing, you'll need to start with the sketch first-



I'm going to be doing this drawing digitally, but you can choose to do it traditionally if you want! I'm drawing Raana, that yellow nicheling above, holding a doughnut. Just...don't ask...

Next up is lineart! Keep the lineart the same as you always do, no special arrangements need to be made here! Just remember, unless anything is covering them, include gems!



Next up is the coloring! Again, just color the image in as you normally would-



And add your finishing touches.



So yeah. Nichelings with these easy genetics are very simple to draw- you can hardly even tell they're nichelings! If you've drawn lots of cats, dogs, or any other animals pretty much, then this will be a breeze. If you haven't done a whole lot of drawings like that, you don't need to start with doing that, but I'd advise at least looking at some pictures of cats. Even if they're cartoons, just to get the basics down in yo brain.

How to Draw Medium Difficulty Nichelings!

Okay, so maybe the nicheling you want to draw isn't exactly one that'd fall under the "easy" category. Perhaps it looks a little something like these guys?




This is the section for you guys! Now, obviously, these nichelings don't exactly look as much like cats as our first guys did. However, you should still use the base of a cat, in my opinion. Just think of it as a cat with lots of different thingies on it.
So these nichelings are going to be a bit more difficult to re-create. It may be a bit harder to get nichelings like these to conform to your personal art style. But, like I said before, practice makes perfect!

Start, once again, with the sketch-



As you may see, I've done more in this picture than just a simple character. I have expressions and poses. But don't worry! I'll show you how to make those later! Just focus on making the character now, which, in my case, is Prigo.

Now the lineart-



The coloring-



And finishing touches!



So yeah! Again, think cats!!

How to Draw Challenging Nichelings!

Ya feelin' hardcore, huh? Maybe these guys look like the nicheling you're trying to draw?




The main thing to do here is look at the patterns. Just keep going back to the reference picture, because you're gonna need to. If it's the genes that make the nicheling challenging, remember...CATS! Also, if you chose to not do the prepwork at the start, I'd suggest just drawing the genes this nicheling has so you'll know what to do.

First the sketch-



I wanted to do a different style with this one just...cuz XD
The outline-



The coloring-



And the finishing touches-



So yeah! Just keep checking the reference, and be sure to make yourself at least somewhat familiar with the genes on the nicheling!

Posing!

Let's look at this drawing again-



As you can see, there is more going on when it comes to posing than just a nicheling sitting down. You might think that making poses like this is too hard, but let me show you something-



I didn't show this sketch before, but I made this before I made that other sketch. Just start with basic, blobby shapes. That's what always helps me! There are tons of different ways to work on sketches for posing, this is just the way that helps me the most!

Another thing for posing sketches: don't include the genes. As you can see here, I didn't include Prigo's no paw or peacock tail. Unless the pose might be something that would be impossible to do with some specific gene that the nicheling has, I'd say it't better to leave it out at the start.

If you're not feeling ready for a pose like this- that's okay! Some people feel ready for a huge project right at the start, some just need a bit of a warm up! I never did any ambitious posing when I first started making Niche art. Look-




Wow these look...*ahem*
Anyways, just goes to show you that you don't really need super unique and amazing poses to make good Niche art! But you do need straight lines...

Expressions!

The basic expression I usually give nichelings when they're just standing there is a smile with closed eyes. I mean, look-





Now, obviously, this is fine and all, but I think it's nice to add a little variation sometimes! Usually it's easy to get basic expressions down, like angry or sad, but it helps to look up references for other, harder expressions, like confused or disgusted. Just look up "cartoon [expression you want to draw]". If you have a more realistic style, then just look up the expression you want to draw.

Shading and Highlights!

So...Ima let you in on a secret...
I...
don't really know how to shade properly.
Sure, I put shadows where I think they make sense, but I don't think about light sources or stuff like that.
So, what advise could I possibly give for shading and highlights if I don't even know how to do them myself?
Just make sure to put all the shaded spots on one side, and all the highlighted spots on the other. All things have shadows, but try to think about what surfaces are mainly highlighted. I highlight eyes, gems, horns, and noses. If you're going for a chibi style, then just highlight pretty much everything XD. The shading and highlighting really all depends on your style, but just try to somewhat keep the general laws of reality in your mind.

Thank You for Reading!!

Yep, this is it for now! If you've read this far, then thank you very much!! I hope this guide helped you somewhat in how to draw nichelings. If you have any questions related to the content, leave them in the comments and I will edit this guide to answer them! Again, thank you, and have fun drawing!

[Pollygussie]

LMAO ????????

[Spino, God of All]

yes -peppe

[jARKO]

can i join?

[jARKO]

i just came and i see a roast battle.

[pepper_]

youre so welcome pollygussie

[Pollygussie]

thanaks raanaa the bananna

[Spino, God of All]

[Spino, God of All]

raana is a smoker

[pepper_]

your moms an nft

[Spino, God of All]

nfts :rofl: