socialmanickin

[socialmanickin]

Little light/color study I’ve been working on in #procreate . Credit to @maxwbender for the original photo (on the left). #socialmanickin #colorstudy #digitalpainting

[socialmanickin]

I need this for later lol great tutorial!! @heathwind-blog

How do you draw in the dragon age tarot card style? It sounds like a weird question but I've been trying to draw my inquisitor but I'm finding the aesthetic really hard

Hi! I felt inspired to make a lil tutorial so excuse me if it`s way too much (edit Heath here, can confirm, it is).  I`ll just describe what I do point by point and go on a small analysis of existing DAI tarots.

1) Recearch

There is a reason why I always ask for character personality descriptions. There is nothing harder than trying to draw a character you know nothing about. You always need a jumping off point for a design.

When I have a description I start looking for a card that would fit the character I was given. Sites that give short tarot card meaning descriptions are very useful. For example. Way back in the day when I was designing a tarot for my Inquisitor I settled for the Judgment card because it`s description (rebirth, a new phase, inner calling) fit the narrative so well. (Sometimes you can take one element of the specific card and play with it just to give a hint to it without feeling restricted by just copying the card.)

2) Sketches

Just recently I started doing 3 sketches for all the commissions. Putting all the ideas you have “on paper” really helps to avoid an urge to change everything when you are almost done (god knows I have those urges a lot).

These are sketches for the commission I recently posted. Commissioner chose the sketch I finished but the whole idea is to try different compositions and moods. You can see how messy and not detailed my sketches are, and tho I am trying to get better at this, I feel even like this they translate the mood and the composition fairly well.

3) DA tarot style (colour rendering and all fun stuff)

Now to the real question. The answer is really simple tbh. There is no set style for tarot cards in DAI because they had a variety of artists working on them. You honestly can`t go wrong with them. Let me elaborate on this.

I`ll show some tarot sets that look very different and then point out elements that carry over from one artist to another creating the cohesive aesthetics.

Cole cards

simple strong colours creating silhouettes

quite realistic lighting

implied anatomy

close to none ornaments

You can see that Cole cards are about contrast and emotion. They are beautiful in their simplicity, pretty much the only part that is rendered is the face because the emotion the most important to the artist.

Advisors cards (not sure if it`s the same artist but the style is more or less consistent)

realistic anatomy and rendering

nuansed colour

SYMBOLISM

ornaments

Very different from Cole. Less impressive compositions but beautiful anatomy and rendering. Emotion is a secondary to symbolism, all of main character in the cards have pretty blant expressions but all the the attention is on their symbols ( Josie`s pen, a sword for Cullen, raven and daggers for Leliana).

Sera cards

flat colours

VERY close to arcana cards

little to no realistic render and lighting

beautiful use of textures to fill the space

Unlike the advisors cards Sera`s cards are obviously based on certain arcana and they follow if extremely close. All the focus here is on really strong composition and use of textures. Bright colours and Sera herself in those cards create incredible fun mood to highlight her character.

In conclusion.

All of the cards above have some things in common that make the looks cohesive despite different styles.

flat backgrounds

focus on the character

flat elemens on foreground to highlight the important symbols

You can`t go wrong with DAI style tarots, there is no one size fir all. Try finding cards online and look at them while you work in your card.  Compare, analyze and HAVE FUN.

(I really hope I was helpful)

[socialmanickin]

Sorry for all the Florida selfies. Now here’s some art progress #wip #digitalart #socialmanickin #procreate #dragonageinquisition #rendering

[socialmanickin]

Current WIP no.872 hahaha #procreate #socialmanickin #wip #sketch #dragonage #dragonageinquisition

[socialmanickin]

Aaaannnd another one down! Yes! Aerhe Treveylan revisions. Maybe I’ll do a Aerhe-Cullen piece soon cuz I love my lovebirds :) #procreate #socialmanickin #dragonage #dainquisition #trevelyan #digitalart #mage

[socialmanickin]

Have I changed in the past year or what?! I hit a really huge slump after finishing college. I couldn’t draw and wasn’t thinking creatively at all. It was just pretty shitty, considering I went to school for art and it felt like my passion evaporated into thin air. But slowly I’ve built myself back up and I’ve improved I think. More importantly I’m teaching myself how to FINISH things, which is not the motto of any art school. They like to say “it can always be improved” and I just slightly disagree. Yes, the first drawing could be improved upon, greatly. But it was only when I put down my pen and worked on other things that I was able to make the second drawing. I needed to move on from it, in order to revisit it later with fresh eyes. And I’m so glad I did. I love reflections like this 🙂#socialmanickin #wip #digitalart #procreate #yearreflection

[socialmanickin]

I’m bad at quick sketching and having t look presentable. The key is : quick sketch, leave it alone, and come back to it weeks later and you’ll be amazed at how bad it is, you’ll fix it correctly...something tells me that may be wrong #socialmanickin #procreate #sketch #idk

[socialmanickin]

Alittle more #wip #socialmanickin #procreate

[socialmanickin]

It sucks spending hours relearning how to draw anatomy..... but we got somewhere #wip #procreate #socialmanickin #sketch #digitalart

[socialmanickin]

Me screwing around on the plane trying to recreate this photo. I may just have to finish this one :D #procreate #wip #digitalart #digitalpainting #socialmanickin #sunsets #beach #florida

[socialmanickin]

Hey! I wanna do it tooo!!! #artvsartist #digitalart #socialmanickin #busts #dragonage #oc

[socialmanickin]

Reblogging for later. I need to study this

Storyboard vs animation for an untitled project. Music is amber by Craig Armstrong

[socialmanickin]

Sibeal Lavellan aka “Bells”. My rogue elf inquisitor who really doesn’t want to be here and doesn’t trust anyone as far as she can throw them (and that’s pretty far). #socialmanickin #dragonage #procreate #dainquisition #dragonageinquisition #inquisitorlavellan #lavellan #oc #digitalart #elf #rogue #inquisitor #sibeal #bells

[socialmanickin]

For my favorite band! #paramore #procreate #digitalart #socialmanickin #hayleywilliams #hardtimes #afterlaughter

[socialmanickin]

Child at heart #cole #dragonage #dragonageinquisition #socialmanickin #procreate #sketch

[socialmanickin]

“Viv” with a look a disgust. Could be because I just called her “viv”, but her expression makes a lot more sense when I reveal which a squadmate is next to her on my sketch sheet. But here’s a close up #socialmanickin #procreate #sketch #dragonage #dragonageinquisition #madamdedefer #vivienne

[socialmanickin]

Everyone’s favorite dwarf #varric #procreate #socialmanickin #sketch #dragonage