#and how certain artists/art styles influence so many people

[babysgarage]

i think it's really cool how you can see mini art movements come and go on this website

[intrusivethoughtsblog]

How to be a Solar Punk (And a Leftist) ☀️🌱:

1) Stop buying fast fashion and boycott.

I use Depop, Etsy to support small businesses, and you can purchase from small businesses or organizations via other channels. You can also transform your clothing. If a t-shirt is too small, make it a crop top or wear a long shirt underneath! Also look up boycott lists (e.g. BDS movement list) so you know which companies you can or cannot support.

2) Censor and Spread.

Carry around a sharpie or a tube of paint to cover ignorant (e.g. racist) graffiti and scribbles. (I’m not going to refer to it as art). You can also spread information via graffiti.

3) Reuse and Recycle.

I use grocery bags as garbage bags, tin cans to hold things, boxes from online orders, you can even get more creative and make pins out of bottle tops!

4) Get involved physically (if possible).

Volunteer to help people who are lower income, get involved in “beautifying” the community (e.g. displaying the cultural backgrounds of the community, gardening, and protesting).

5) Get involved online.

I sign and repost GoFundMe campaigns, donate what I can, and post information regarding current events. Don’t be apolitical. This is a leftist ideology.

6) Educate yourself.

Go to trusted sources to educate yourself on facts regarding certain matters so you can dispute false claims. There are many PDFs online, podcasts, and overall resources you should take advantage of to increase your awareness and to also help develop a better understanding of those who need your help. Education is what will set us free.

7) Support your local library.

There are so many resources and programs they offer that people are not aware of. And because people are not aware of them they are shut down and underfunded. People who can’t afford computers need to have them available free at cost. Not only to enjoy them leisurely but to do things like job search. Children also have reading assignments which brings them to the library, seeing activities and programs they offer children will help to cultivate a love for learning. The next generations are our future.

8) Learn languages and about cultures.

Certain issues are not limited to certain communities or areas. We need to unite in order to make an impact that will enact change. You will also understand how to positively influence certain people that would otherwise not be receptive due to a different communication style.

9) Take care of your mental health.

“A sick person cannot help a sick person.” -AA saying

You also need to take care of yourself because, simply, you are valuable. Being healthily selfish exists.

10) Be confident.

We unfortunately have to enter spaces that will make us uncomfortable and it will be difficult to be vocal, but it is necessary. In this area, focus on practicing efficient communication methods and building your self-confidence.

11) Confront your own bias.

Everyone is biased in some way shape or form. It is our job to rid ourselves of these biases. Take moral inventory (as they say in 12-step programs) and analyze areas you need to work on.

12) Credit artists and writers.

Being an artist and/or writer should not be a struggling profession. They are an integral part of our society. It’s easy to forget, especially when we take so many screenshots a day, so keep this in mind! I sometimes forget so I can attest it’s not the end of the world but it is a good habit to form.

13) Be anti-A.I.

It is not possible to incorporate A.I. into a leftist environment. It inherently promotes late-stage capitalism.

13) Be a good human. :)

Please comment what I missed! Thank you for reading.

Flag credit: @Starwall@radical.town

[sakrafka]

I love your art so much, it inspires me to draw in my own style that isn't influenced by other popular styles typically liked. I love how you use vibrant colors, and the silhouettes of the critters you make are so fun. I also only got Tumblr so I could view all the art you post. 🤭❤️ But, I just wanted to ask how you developed your art style, if you had any influences growing up, and generally how it came to be. THANK YOU‼️‼️

Thank you so much for the kind message :DD I really appreciate you!! Multiple people have asked me this before so I'll try giving a more detailed answer!

I have been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil, I'm autistic and drawing has always been my "safe-space" and the only thing that really relaxes me! I think my main inspirations that affected my style the most were the Dragonology books, I had them when I was little and I was obsessed. I kept tracing over all the art and mimicking the style (around 8-10 years old). Petson and Findus is another one! I first started sharing my art and seeing online artist at the age of 17; I made a Deviantart and I really loved Z-doodler and Picolo-kun (I think those were their names?). I'm also obsessed with Károly Reich, I grew up on books illustrated by him! These things specifically don't really inspire my art anymore, but the basic foundation of it was, I think, built on these styles!

Then, for some reason I got obsessed with trying to develop an art style that is unique to only me, as much as that's possible. I regularly sat down, and tried to create new stylistic choices by forcefully thinking of new ways of drawing. I tried to forget everything I know, and come up with new ways to convey something.

I also have an "inspiration folder", with random pieces of art. I sometimes took 4-5 pieces that were my favorite, and tried to adapt little stylistic choices from their art to mine, and combine them. I did this very sparingly, because I don't want my art to look like anyone else's (again, as much as that's possible, since styles overlap and stuff)!

I developed certain characteristics in my art style that I have never seen before, for example the way I shade with these little triangle shapes. This is something that I "came up with" and didn't see anywhere before. They only started appearing a few weeks after I started sharing my art with this shading, and all the people who did it were followers of mine haha (it is completely possible that someone else did this before me as well, though - I'm only saying that this is something that, as far as I know, I came up with!). I'm attaching a screenshot of the shading I'm talking about:

So yeah, I would really love to try and make up new things that are unique to me (again, as much as that is possible), and I don't have any specific inspirations as of right now; the most inspiring things to me are totally random things, like a nice leaf, a song, or anything really! I have that type of imagination, I don't know the name, where I can rotate the apple in full HD 4K and even smell it lmao. So it often happens that random pictures just pop up in my head, completely unprompted, and I often draw these.

Also, I know my current art style is not very unique; this is because in recent years I focused on making my art style a bit more "digestable". I started selling my art, and I became a bit forced to make things that *most* people like. So, it is very hard to balance my will to make an art style that is super unique to me, while also drawing in a way that is nice for most people and easily consumable. But if you srcoll back to the beginning of my blog, you can see more unique pieces where I really tried to experiment!

Here are some artists that I like, aside from the ones I mentioned! (all instagram handles)

esztter_t

sournoodl

artkaisucks

lillaboleczillustration

foliveli

salamispots

clarelewlew

tudi.juli

gyunyuya

clara_winnie_

apple_toast And many more probably!

[eurothug4000]

INTERVIEW ON THE MAKING OF THE CANCELLED MMORPG NINELIVES

Ninelives is the most beautiful RPG that was never completed, but can still be experienced as it was left. As part of my video on the game (now up for early access on Nebula), I also interviewed Tota of SmokymonkeyS on its inspirations and development before its suspension in 2016.

What would you say are your main inspirations for the art style in Ninelives? E.g. other artists, film, games, literature, history etc.!

I was a huge fan of Adventure Gamebook when I was a kid. Well, maybe you don't know what that is. Please read the wiki if you need: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamebook. I was reading (playing) translated oversea gamebooks well, and love the inner artwork especially what draw by monochrome. I had never seen pictures like that before, and had a strong impact on me. So, I wanted to make a gamebook by my self. When I started making my own gamebooks, I learned a lot about how games are made. That's because a gamebook is a medium in which the player can see all the source code. At first I started making gamebooks because I was attracted by the artwork, but my interest eventually shifted to making the game itself.

Related to the above, do you take a lot of inspiration from real world cultures and places? Are there any that you particularly gravitate towards?

I like the mixed culture, like Chinoiserie in France at the 17 century. Plus, since I'm Japanese and this country has always been greatly influenced by China. So I'm not limited to any one of these cultures, but trying to create as I am influenced by all of them. Sometimes people say that what I create looks Japanese, Chinese, or Asian, which is neither correct nor incorrect. I try not to be only of a certain culture when I create. That's because I want to create an imaginary world that is somewhat like reality, but slightly different.

Why did you want to make Ninelives?

Ninelives was the first game I ever thought of making, I think when I was about 17.

Do you think Ninelives being in an unfinished state provides a different atmosphere when playing the game and exploring the world?

I don't particularly think so. The atmosphere of the game is still complete. I wanted the game to be a relaxed, free-roamed adventure for players.

I wasn't certain during my research, so I wanted to confirm if Tomomi Sakuba was involved in Ninelives in any way?

Yeah, Sakuba was involved in Ninelives lots of ways. As you said, he did some of the texture pictures for flowers, plants and tree leaves. He also drawn the world map and area maps of the game like below: http://www.smokymonkeys.com/kyrill/index.asp?direct=138 He actually walked around the world by himself to make this. He was one of the most earliest game tester of the game. Oh, and I have to tell you this. He's a voice actor of male Nightbreed and Elf! In addition, his wife did some of creature voices. Her voice is also used on Triglav too!

What are your own personal thoughts on Ninelives? Is there anything you would drastically change looking back on it? Or any big changes you would want to make if you were to continue development at any point?

Ninelives was too much for me in many ways. It was a world I had been thinking about since I was young, but there were too many things to actually create to handle, and in that sense it's exactly the dream a child thinks about. We are a team of two in SmokymonkeyS, but one of us is in charge of programming and system engineering, and the game itself was created completely by myself. I had to create all the pictures, models, terrain, music, and story by myself. Now if I'm going to make something, I don't make it on such a large scale anymore.

Apart from the Switch release for Garage and occasional updates on Triglav that you mentioned before, is there anything that SmokymonkeyS are working on for the future?

Not yet so far.

I noticed your banner on the official website (http://www.smokymonkeys.com/kyrill/index.asp) has a character on a train platform, I wondered if that might be a future game?

Once it was. It was a previous project of Triglav for mobile. But it was going to be on a larger scale again, so we decided to port Triglav before that. There are no plans to make that game now. But I may make another game with that worldview and atmosphere. For example, as a mobile game.

A big thank you to Tota for taking the time to answer my questions! You can find SmokymonkeyS and their games here:

[deepdreamnights]

Hey there, saw your post re: harassment around artists using gen ai and thought it was great esp with the debunking of data usage myths. Would you share your thoughts regarding concerns that models are being trained to copy specific art styles and thus pose a direct threat to the artists whose art styles are being used?

Well, there's several levels to that.

The main one is that on copyright grounds, styles are explicitly non-copyrightable. Moreover:

No one's style is unique

No one's style is unimitatable by analogue means.

The second point is important, because anyone can go on Fiverr right now and and find someone to replicate any given art style, and every competent draftsperson has to be able to do it to some degree or another. No major animation house, art studio, or comic company has ever hired someone because they couldn't find someone else that could imitate the surface-level aspects of their style.

The first point is just a matter of basic reality. Ex-nihlo creativity either doesn't exist or is so rare as to be a once-in-an-epoch thing. Everyone builds on the influences that they learn from, and if you think someone has a unique style what they really have is a different media diet than you.

For example, Don Bluth. Born 1937, aged 15 in 1952.

Same year Time released this this picture of Burlesque Performer Dale Strong.

Someone made an impression.

Marilyn Monroe was also a national sex symbol when Bluth was a teen, putting some context to most of his other ladies, but especially Goldie Pheasant (or maybe she's more Jayne Mansfield, hard to tell through the bird-ness). His art style has obvious roots with Tex Avery and I would guess he read Mad Magazine a lot as a kid.

And Not to hang the guy out to dry alone, I was a teenager in the 1990s, and most of my sexy fictional ladies are 9/10 some combination of Dana Scully, Peg Bundy, and Rhonda Shear.

The point being that style isn't something you create intentionally so much as an accumulation of influences, drawn from the commons. Attempting to claim ownership of such a thing is by itself an act of theft in my view, and allowing them to be protected under the law would mean a judge being shown exactly how many pieces of prior art the Walt Disney Corporation owns that your work superficially resembles. Why, they'll even run it through a style recognizing AI to make sure they catch them all.

But let's talk about style matching.

It just takes one image now, and doesn't require training.

Which I'm sure sounds frightening, but this has been the situation since February for Midjourney, and it was available in the Stable Diffusion ecosystem long before that. If the threat were as pronounced as feared, we'd have seen the impact by now. And we haven't, and we're unlikely to, for several reasons, several of them listed above.

The largest is that style isn't even close to the be all/end all of what an artist brings to a given project. And the kinds of execs who are making a 'replace 'em with a robot' kinda decision aren't the kinds of people who care about art style beyond how much it looks like the most recent successful thing. And nobody's ever needed a robot to ride coattails.

But the next largest part is that AI style imitations aren't really accurate because the robot doesn't see style in the same way we do. It's all just math to the robot, and it prioritizes what it notices, not what we do.

I'll demonstrate.

Jack Kirby will be my example, for several reasons.

He has a bold and identifiable style, he's arguably the most famous artist in western comics history, and he has many analogue imitators and homagers.

Using Midjourney and prompting "an illustration of dana scully by jack kirby, 1968, in the style of 1960s marvel comics --ar 3:4 --s 15"

Using the base model, on the first roll we get three complete style mismatches and one that's kinda close, though I'd say that's way more Sal Buscema or John Byrne.

Kirby's women had a certain, difficult to describe oddness about their faces that the robot doesn't seem to grok, and it doesn't touch on the kinds of wild patterns and bold black/white swatches that make Jack's work feel 'jack'.

Tom Scioli's take on Kirby is a sort of lovingly flanderized parody, but it captures the spirit of Jack's art much more directly even if a lot of individual details aren't period-accurate. He draws Kirby the way you remember Kirby from your childhood, but I don't question whether the page above is trying to be a Jack Kirby homage or one to Sal Buscema.

But Midjourney has style reference, so we can inject the Kirby right in. Using the picture of Sersei dancing from above with the same prompt, we get:

Well, the work is more convincingly period, but again, we're not terribly close to being on-point. In fact, they're not very consistent between each other. Top left is any 80s marvel fill-in artist. Top right is maybe Kirby-esq. Bottom Left is flat out Jim Lee, bottom right is very Byrne-y.

Using three reference images to give the best shot, I'm also moving to using images of a similar color style, and all with a woman as the central focus. I have included the infamous Crystal pin-up shot because as I said, Kirby women have a certain oddness to them (fondly).

Results (MJ 6.1 on the left, Niji 6 on the right):

It all says 60s-70s Marvel, but I don't think Kirby would be the first guess for any of them. Maaaaaaybe the lower-left Dana in image #2 if you squint.

And that's Jack Kirby. Massively popular and prolific with a career spanning decades. If anyone in the comics space should be impersonatable by this thing, its him.

I'm sure you could train a LORA to get closer, and sure, the tech is only going to get better from here, but by the nature of how the system works no generation pulls just from what is referenced. Every generation is both blended with other concepts and emphasizes only what the machine catalogs as relevant, not what we might.

There's not much to stop someone from imitating your style with a machine, but there was nothing stopping them from doing the same with an underpaid freelancer. The results are likely to miss the mark regardless.

If the client wants you, they'll try and get you. If they just want something kinda like you, they've always had an avenue to that.

Fortunately, you're more than your style, and whatever anyone can do with the machine, you can do better because you've got access to both.

[molathesunfish]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOUR RODYA AND YOUR ART GAHHH WHY AND HOW IS YOUR ANATOMY AND LINES SO GOOD. HOW DO YOU DRAW. WHAT ARE YOUR DRAWING INSPIRATIONS. what goes behind thay beautiful brain of yours PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

oughhh thank you so much that's so nice of you to say<33

ACK i dunno i just draw a lot.... like some very specific things have become muscle memory and i just gradually gained a better sense of proportions and line control with mileage.. I keep telling myself i need to study fundamentals more, but beyond watching like a handful of Proko and Marc Brunet anatomy videos i really haven't been keeping up..... that's why the stuff i draw doesnt have any particularly complex poses or perspectives (yet!! one can dream). As always, 100000 references forever!! pull up some stock image, do a twitter redraw challenge with your favorite characters, whatever. Just, love a lot and love strongly, please draw all of your most embarrassing ideas, everything contributes to mileage and the fact you're drawing stuff you like helps with motivation i think!! Read books, watch movies, have fun and the drive to draw sustains itself, or so i've found (<- again, hobbyist)

Re: inspo ummmm honestly I don't know how to put it all in a single post</3 i literally just mass follow and mass like artists on twitter and tumblr (pinterest is good for this too, but i find i often spend more time pinning stuff than getting anything done... these days i just skim stuff off google image searches tbh i havent opened pinterest in forever). Sometimes I just randomly pick a piece that i like and try to copy it in order to take notes of how certain elements are done, sometimes i just stare really hard at a piece while scrolling, see how a certain piece of anatomy is stylised, or at IRL people and try to take mental notes of how their clothes drape and fold, that sort of thing, or i take screenshots while watching anime or vocaloid mvs...

I'll try to provide a few specific examples that i can think of based on recency i guess, but please know that literally anything could work and this list isn't even a smidge exhaustive.

@/xamag-draws and @/ikimaru are people i've followed since my homestuck days, and i'd say they're possibly integral to me as a person dsjhhjdsfh despite never having known them beyond their art. @/sarcasmprodigy is an exception, also from my homestuck days circa 2019 but we're also moots now so

yasutatsu and wooma are artists i found via their work on vocaloid mvs. big fan or their respective styles, i really need to study them more. such is also in this category, i mostly study how the anatomy is stylised in dongdang's mvs.

ponkansoup's painterly style and fun music... minty and melancholic.

ferry's (@/nopanamaman on tumblr) art and music have also influenced me greatly. i really love her sharp, kinda blocky style.

QMENG and VIVINOS, whose series Alien Stage (contains depictions of violence, though if you're a limbus fan you'd probably be fine) has very eye-catching, wonderfully stylised art - both the mainline mvs and the supplemental materials (you can find those in their youtube community tab or their twitter). I also recommend the one-off videos, though please note that many of them feature horror elements and imagery and proceed with caution.

BoAliDead's art, i find their style really cute and expressive.

I'm personally especially fond of the stylised anatomy done by Ryoko Kui. Consider studying the art in her "Delicious in Dungeon" series and its supplemental artbooks, Day Dream Hours. I also really like how she draws clothes, her style is just very appealing to me generally.

Generally, for all the media I've enjoyed it's safe to say the official artwork influence me one way or another, to varying degrees: undertale, homestuck, not exactly a hero (VN-type game), underworld office (similar to prev, same devs), my hero academia, fullmetal alchemist, delicious in dungeon, the persona game series, the danganronpa series, etc. (there's probably more but these are the ones i most clearly remember rn)

Please also check the "art" and "art ref" tags on my other blog @molathemoonfish, since i also hoard a bunch of stuff i like and want to study there (specifically the "rodion lcb" tag too. i promise i'm normal about her (actually, on that note, i'd like to direct you to this post and this post on twitter since i don't think Essie (@/sowedspicebush on tumblr) has posted them on their blog (or at least, i couldn't find either of them). i don't know how to properly convey how much of a hold these two pieces have on me i think about them all the time i genuinely think that black-and-white sketch of her flipped some sort of switch in mybrain. Essie please post them on tumblr so i can rb them. please. ple))

[akzgaj-writing]

Writing Advice

I would like to share my observations and thoughts on writing. I have been writing for 6 years (with small or larger breaks) and so. I hope it will help you.

Contents by @akzgaj-writing

Don't press yourself to writing. If you don't have ideas, don't push yourself to write, becouse it would just give you anxiety and even angry.

Have an app on your phone/notebook. Good ideas can come from anywhere.

Write down some loose and lazy ideas. It may help you in writing plots and stories.

Observe people/nature/world/feelings. Write your thoughts and be open.

Write short stories, write on writing challenges, and read prompts.

Read, read and read good books. Like art artists admire old masters, read and admire old books.

Find your writing style – reading books, choose your favorite writing style and polish it, learn it – don't copy it – just learn and try understand it, and create our unique-own style.

Find your genre that you feel comfortable in.

Listen only to constructive criticism. Many people like to criticise, but it doesn't help. Listen only to those who enjoy reading and who like/respect your work.

Don't write curses and swears! Please! You can write something like this: "He looked at him with fury in his shining dark eyes, and his lips began to curse." Simple? *I often abandon books that have swearing in them. I know people who do the same. Don't do that in your story! More people would like to read your story without the dirty words.*

Vanity is bad. Remember that you learn throughout your life.

If you don't have an idea/muse for writing, don't be angry with yourself. Just give yourself a break and time to relax. You can always write another story.

Listen music and write story inspired by it.

Pray to God for ideas. It work for me ;)

Let your interest/hobby inspire you to write! If you like cycling/drawing/horse riding, put it in your story.

When writing characters, try to understand how people behave in certain situations. Try to be realistic and look at your character's age/capabilities. Don't write 15-years-old-girl who is like Einstein-Marilyn Monroe hybrid, and she can defuse a nuclear bomb with a toothpick. Moreover, she is a clumsy gray mouse, but at the same time she is such a sex bomb that Aphrodite could learn the art of seduction from her. Remember that teenagers are clumsy, irritable, perpetually under the influence of hormones and behavioural changes, and often wear a colours of war on their faces :) I mean inches of make-up.

[dizzyisdizzy]

Okay I didn't say anything at first because I was nervous and didn't wanna be annoying or something but I came back because like,, woah mY GOD I LOVE YOUR ART STYLE

I was going through the hatsune miku tag and just!! Woah the COLOURS the SHAPES the LINEART RARAGGDHAHS CHEF'S KISS

immediately it reminded me a lot of rourow's art (one of those iconic muse dash artists <3) and like,, oh my god they're my biggest inspiration for my art style. I find it funny I could spot the muse dash inspiration immediately /pos

But you also put your own spin on it and AGH <3 both rourow's art AND YOURS is just,, aregsgshh I wanna eat it. I think your art would taste like fruit gushers

I will be taking notes I wish I could absorb your art style into my blood

OKAY THIS IS GETTING LONG SORRY LMAO but if you ever have any more tips or tutorials or even speedpaints I will be there with a pen and paper <33

Rourow art is soooo coool right? The Reimu just stole my heart. The colors were fun, stylish, seemingly unrestricted by any rules or seams in their structure... I wanted a look like that.

Then Miku arrived and the envy in my heart became too much to bear.

Here's my epic Dizzy tips to studying, my fellow Muse Dash enthusiast. I broke down the artwork into shapes, lineart, and color. I noted what I enjoyed and especially how it differed to what I drew. I refined the notes further until I had some main ideas/commonalities, and try to reason the whens and whys for these choices. Do they reinforce lighting, the shape of the subject, to vary the colors present, etc. There were also a lot of 'just because' reasonings (X happens when Y). All those became a 'rulebook' of sorts.

After that was lots of replicating, tracing, etc. Making sure that style was the first thing my intuition and muscle memory jumps to. My first dozen or so original drawings after that were done with many references and notes on hand until I got the hang of things.

The plan was actually to go as identical as possible, but differences were inevitable. I wanted to do my own thing proportions/faces wise, anyways. And it IS great to have people enjoy my work as its own thing AND acknowledge the clear influence.

Still so much I wanna absorb though... The flowy and varied lineweight, and I've yet to reach the sheer elaborateness of the color use.

If it helps in your quest, I don't mind talking about certain choices I make (there's usually a reason for it). Just try to be specific! Makes it easier to choose my words. Thanks!

[cerakuro]

Do u have any favourite artists or inspirations/influences?!??? gorgeous art aaa

i have a ton of people and things that inspire my art! honestly too many to list if im being honest. i can give a few highlights though!

a lot of my style obviously comes from the series i’ve been drawing fanart for…. which is super obvious now cause i just draw yugioh but i think some traces of the things i liked in the past still exist in my art! i used to be a huge dc comic fan and would draw batfam stuff a lot and i think that’s one of the most prominent lingering things just from my like… general composition and how i decide to stylize certain things like text boxes or my use of black for shading sometimes. i also used to draw a lot of danganronpa which i think impacts how i draw eyes the most </3 rip king

for more specific examples, growing up and learning to draw my biggest inspirations were artists like kirvia (which i think you can kinda see traces of in my art especially my older works with how they have those blocky shapes), 02png i ADORE the raw use of colour in their art and they had a huge influence on me in the past, although that’s kinda harder to see now haha, emilyamiao with just the incredible general compositions in their pieces and how dynamic and well drawn their characters are… for ygo specific artists though fushitas is one of my all time biggest inspirations i WISH SO BAD i could draw characters as easily and dynamic as them it KILLS ME. or someone like E_Volution who i want to have my art look like theirs one day 😭 ONE DAY!!!! or Baby999 who i am so obsessed with i saw they liked one of my posts on twitter and i genuinely lost my shit for like an hour. anyway

but tbfh i also just generally get a lot of inspiration to draw from my mutuals since i end up seeing their art the most! like…. emu is deadass solely responsible for me coming back to draw gx because they got into it and i kept on seeing their ygo art on their story or someone like xw who i want to steal their art style so fucking bad bro it’s not even funny i have to contain myself + many many more

anyway! i hope you don’t mind me gushing over other people’s works for as long as i did! im really glad to hear you like my art <:)

[evelmiina]

Hi Eva,

I have a fee questions regarding your wonderful work. I'm currently working on my visdev portfolio, but going a bit insane thinking about keeping my artstyle consistent if i'd ever be hired. I just looked through your background paintings and wondered how you keep your backgrounds in a consistent style. I love your nature studies too, and they look so different from your work pieces... More free and explorational. Is it difficult to keep up the habit of learning new techniques and exploring styles once you're on a job? I'm so full of ideas and feel like sometimes the idea would require a certain style/technique to be pulled off in the best way. Do you feel that too sometimes and is it restricting in a way to then keep the style of the paintings the same.

Would love to hear your thoughts on that!! :)

Hi Eekonis!

First off: don't worry! I don't think consistency is an issue... I feel like any artist no matter the level, feels like their work is all over the place. I think of consistency more like per project, rather than overall my work. 

If you're interested in vis dev, a good way to showcase your work in a portfolio and not feel overwhelmed and all over the place, is to create just one project. I saw in your portfolio the bat story exploration, that's great! Just pick one of the ideas you have. Truth is we never feel ready to do something and we postpone and ruminate, but you have to start somewhere. My friend always says, "vain tee se" (just do it) and that's really all there is. Imagine your story as a film/TV (or game, or comic, but you have to choose one), and make designs and paintings of how you imagine it. You can try searching for visual development portfolios and see what other professional artists have included in theirs, there's so many ways to go about it. From the top of my head I'm thinking Aurelien Predal, Marie Thorhauge, Scott Watanabe, Kevin Roualland, Sylvain Marc. Also art books of movies or shows you like are really useful. There's a lot of art of movies and artists, tutorials etc collected in character design references website, from all around the world.

If your own idea feels too vague or the story is not set and you get stuck on it, you could also choose an existing story like a fairytale or a novel. Try to be intentional with your pictures - you want to be clear and tell a story after all, you want people to feel like they get to know the characters and the world from just one picture, and they really want to know the full story. In your portfolio, I like your bat story explorations and it seems cool, but it's currently missing some characterization and story. It would be a good idea to illustrate story moments or character design that really shows the personality, gesture, acting. And when you create environments, make them feel lived and inhabited, give them just as strong mood and character as you would to characters. 

Consistency within a project is just about setting rules and limitations, some of them come from the ability and skill. Others are more like, what brushes to use, what are the visual goals, influences and references. You can go pretty far in breaking down how pictures are made and what makes a style. For example, why do Ghibli movies look like Ghibli? What kind of color palettes, compositions, camera angles, tools were used? How realistic/cartoony is it? There’s internal logic to everything designed, and with practise it becomes more visible.

I don't know if I intentionally try to learn new styles all the time. I'm generally just motivated by doing what I think is fun or what I want some piece to say about story, character or my own feelings and trying to do it best I can. It sounds simple but... if the goal is to do something really well, then I just do my best to learn it. There are some styles that I really love and think are amazing, but would probably take decades to pull off and I just accept that I don't really want to go that way, and I focus on things that I really want to keep at. It's always possible to switch directions, but to get good at something you have to commit to one thing at a time. 

So yes, I face my limitations all the time. I'm very familiar with feeling like, so and so would do better job, someone is always better than me for sure. Sometimes it is painful to not be able to draw or paint in a way I want. I think this probably never changes, it's just human nature. But I dunno, some people get satisfaction from making AI do their project in the style they want, but if I was able to do something in a snap of fingers, like just get the perfect style for my project, it wouldn't feel good to me. I guess I want the full experience of suffering and joy of figuring things out myself. Sometimes it will suck and hurt, but you learn more about yourself and it'll get easier to recognize what you really want to make. Then, you can always do a little bit better next time.

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Why do you think Dobson's art got noticably worse? I mean so much worse. There's a reason why people often think his older stuff looks better; because it does (okay when he's not making mistakes like wrong number of fingers, angles, inconsistencies, etc.). I know he wanted to move away from his manga-influenced art but I don't think that explains everything.

I think the advantage of his older art is mostly that Dobson was simply being more simplistic in his early days than later on. Only that his attempts to be more detailed and move away from his "manga-influenced" art also involved him mixing too many things together all at once, creating just ugly art in general.

There is in my opinion a bit too much going on as to answer it in just a few lines, but I will try: First, the statement "Dobson was manga-influenced" always rubbed me off the wrong way because I don't think that is quite the case. Dobson was definitely influenced in his art styl and writing by certain mangas he read -Slayers and Ranma 1/2 primarily- but a handful of manga by an even smaller pool of artists to draw from, does not encompose the sheer variety of linework and aesthetics that have been within manga. For example, no one would be able to mistake a Go Nagai artwork for one by Akira Toriyama or Gosho Aoyama, because they have vastly different drawing styles. Confusing an Endo however with an Arakawa would likely be more the case. And don't get me even started how manga is often times writen differently from most western comics of the 70s-90s in term of drama, plot etc. What rather was the case, was that Dobson took aspects of the most simplistic, surface level aesthetics of manga in art and drawing, and hoped it would lead to success. Which it didn't, because of different reasons like a lack of commitment to the writing and nothing making it visually really different from a newspaper strip comic, but with characters making silly faces associated with late 90s comedy anime.

Second, when Dobson tried to reinvent himself, I think he tried too hard to get into more details or add shadows, wrinkles and stuff to his art. It is hard to explain, but the way it looks to me (particularly in stuff like his KorraSami pics) Dobson tried to draw characters at times with more "realistic" details like wrinkles in the face, but because the characters he drew are style toons, they started too look uncanny or exagerated. Which is another problem: When you look e.g. at his Ladybug comics, he didn't even get the proportions of the characters from the show not right by comparison, especially when it came to size of heads and eyes. Which if he had just gone full chibi style wouldn't have been as obvious to most people. But Dobson was always stuck in a weird halfway there state, where the characters were neither cartoonish but proportional, or too cartoonish and unproportional that the former balanced out the later. And he never figured the problem out.

Third, Dobson was just lazy when it comes to scenery I mean, I agree partly with Dobson that at times you don't need to draw a very detailed background when the focus of a story is in one panel focused on two characters looking at something off screen, them talking, or being in thought. But when you really think about it, when did Dobson ever for example really put effort into drawing e.g. a panel where the scenery was meant to tell more of a story or a storybeat, than the characters talking? Or when was a panel ever drawn from a different ankle than simply straight face forward. Like, has Dobson ever even heard of "overhead shot", dutch ankle or POV?

[reygwenwrites2]

I Love Ard1n, and You Should Too With Ard1n

By Rey Gwen

February 6th, 2024

Photo above taken by @666.pastel on Instagram

If I were to describe Ard1n in a word, the word I’d choose in a heartbeat is vibrant. The unique style that they’ve orchestrated turns music into a captivating encounter with Ard1n’s craft, with their upbeat energy seeping into everything that they do. Their dynamic presence on stage parallels the powerful energy reflected in their music. Ard1n turns music into not only art that is full of life, but also an unforgettable experience.

REY GWEN: Could you walk me through your process on curating your sets?

ARD1N: Well, the sound of my set fully depends on the party and what crowd I can expect to be there. I play parties for some pretty different scenes so I need to know my audience, but once I decide on what sound I'm looking for I go straight to Soundcloud and begin digging. Song selection can take up to a week because I want to be 100% happy with the songs I pick.

GWEN: How does your mindset change when working on a singular song versus an hour(+)-long set?

ARD1N: When working on a set, my head is very production heavy. I’m more focused on the texture and sound design in the songs I select as I feel that is what I pay attention to when I'm hearing other people dj. However when making my own music, of course the production is still a huge factor but what matters most to me is if my voice is compatible with the beat. Sometimes people have voices that are better used with certain sounds or genres and that is what i try to get right when making my own music.

GWEN: What role does audience feedback play in curating your sets?

ARD1N: I like to play what I want. Yes, audience feedback can decide what song I play next, but usually I have a setlist I want to get through before I begin freestyling. I think I always have more fun freestyling though. Oh and I DONT TAKE REQUESTS. That shit will irk me. What I consider audience feedback is their reaction and movement to the current song playing or what sounds/beats gets the people to move. That is what will decide what comes next.

GWEN: How do you know when a set is ready to be performed?

ARD1N: I’m never 100% ready 🤣 you can ask anyone of my irl friends and they will tell you that before I go on stage I’m always shitting my pants and worried what I have prepared won’t be good enough. I do think having more songs prepared for the set makes me more comfortable though.

GWEN: What has been your favorite experience thus far in your music career?

ARD1N: This is a hard question to answer! I’ve had so many really cool experiences and opportunities come from music. I think one of the coolest things i was asked to do was play Boiler Room in December of 2022. My good friends at Subculture Party invited me to play one of their Boiler room stages since they were working in collaboration together. It was a great weekend filled with great music and friends. The next best thing would probably have to have been the Halloween party I threw last year. I co-organize a party called Dancing For Heaven with my best friend, HVN, and we worked together with other Toronto party series ‘Body2Body’ and ‘Bambeeno’ to throw a mega Halloween warehouse rave we called ‘House of Skin’. It was absolute insanity and we want to throw another one again next Halloween 🤭���

GWEN: What/who are your inspirations? How do they influence how you work on music?

ARD1N: I'm inspired by any new artist I find with fresh ideas. They inspire me to look outside of the box and try stuff I've never thought of before, and explore sounds I didn’t think would fit in music. I’m also so inspired by my friends. When I see the people I care about doing cool things it makes me so happy and makes me want to do cool things as well!

GWEN: How do you mentally prepare yourself for performing?

ARD1N: I’m freaking out every second until I’m on stage. It’s only once I’m already djing or performing that my nerves go away and I fall into the groove of what I’m doing and I lock the fuck in. It’s like I forget the crowd is there and I’m djing for myself like how I would in my bedroom.

Ard1n on Soundcloud

Ard1n on Instagram

Ard1n on Twitter

[peppermakesart]

With the new year starting and the 2 year anniversary of me beginning to draw approaching, I wanted to take some time to reflect on where I was when I first started, and reaffirm the core principles that have been guiding my progress.

Going into 2023, I was dealing with a lot of stress and received an official diagnosis for an anxiety disorder, so I was looking to find ways to reduce stress in my life.

One of the first changes I made was to quit playing Dead by Daylight. A friend had introduced it to me about a year before that, and I really enjoyed it for the first 3 months or so. At first it felt incredibly immersive, especially for someone who isn’t good with horror movies, but as I got the hang of the nuances it became too much about memorizing optimal play and picking efficient options, and the gameplay can be horribly toxic. I never played MMOs and only played FPS games poorly without a headset, so this was my first experience with real internet toxicity.

After cutting that out of my life, I needed to find something else to fill that time, and I didn’t want to just get into another video game. I had also managed to completely avoid Twitter until 2022 (I kinda live under a rock) joining because of a friend of mine who was a professional artist. So around that time I was finding other artists that appealed to me, and the person who inspired me to start drawing is Stinky Katie.

Seeing that art didn’t necessarily need to be technical to be beautiful art made the barrier to entry feel a lot lower, and you can see a lot of her influence in my early work. To be clear, I’m not saying her art doesn’t require tremendous skill just because it looks simple. It takes a lot of knowledge to be able to simplify something down to its base elements while retaining your own art style, and 2 years later I think she’s even more of a genius than I did before.

My second major influence was the artist who I was friends with, we were only close for a short time, but I got to get a behind the scenes look at someone who earns most of their income off commissions. I gained an appreciation for the effort that goes into gaining those skills, and enjoyed encouraging them and seeing how much the validation spurred them on when they were struggling with deadlines. They had once mentioned wanting to create a discord art server where criticism is banned, and it’s just a circlejerk of people complimenting each other’s art, and I like the energy behind that. I decided to take that energy with me when I started drawing myself, and I try to go out of my way to show support for as many artists as I can. There is benefit in receiving constructive criticism and applying that feedback, but you can get that from someone else, I’d rather just try to spread a bit of positivity. If your one compliment is the difference that convinces someone not to quit, that’s worth more that any amount of technical improvement.

Around this time when I first decided to draw, I read an article that left a big impression on me. It was written by a woman who was a schoolteacher specializing in young children, and she spoke about how her favorite type of art was from a prompt she would have the children make, where they drew their interpretation of “safety”. I remember reading her describe how she would bawl her eyes out looking through what all the children made, and it further emphasized that the most important quality in a piece of art is how it makes you feel, and everything else is secondary. I feel like I can generally divide the art I make into two categories, pieces that I seek to capture a certain feeling or idea, and the pieces where I’m mostly focused on the art itself, either emphasizing the quality of detail in the current work or experimenting with various ideas in hopes of expanding my artistic toolkit.

It’s why I consider the first picture my favorite early piece of mine and not the second. I had just found out a coworker of mine had died, and I was able to capture a snapshot of how I felt at the time, to help process it and separate myself from it a bit. Sometimes it’s easier for me to control my emotions if I put them to paper, once I’ve placed them somewhere it’s easier to feel like I’ll be able to pick them back up later. I’m really proud of the second piece too, I locked in for 4.5 hours for something really clean, and the artist who created the original sprite found it and complimented me on it, but it just isn’t personal in the same way.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Here’s the first Smoliv I ever drew, it’s been my profile pic ever since everywhere publicly. It has symbolic meaning for me, it’s what ties together all the feelings I just described, and I want to stay grounded to where I was when I began.

[arewedoneyet]

Check out my story from "Here's to the Dreamers" campaign and Jeff Satur's Essentials Playlist on AppleMusic!

Playlist Link: https://music.apple.com/playlist/jeff-satur-essentials/ pl.7722c40a507a4309676225594450075

via jeffsaturthailandofficial @ facebook | 04082024

Disruptors, change-makers and boundary-pushers excite us with their diverse perspectives on art and life. Jeff Satur is one trailblazing storyteller whose unique story fascinates and inspires. Since picking up the guitar at the age of nine, the Bangkok-born singer-songwriter, producer and actor has lent his soulful voice to gorgeous ballads whose joy and heartbreak resonate with listeners—assisted by a consummate musicality that draws on a rich, varied vein of experience. Below, Satur shares with Apple Music some insights into his career as an artist from Southeast Asia on the world stage.

What challenges have you faced while pursuing a career in music?

“I think music is the only thing that can bring people together as one unit, creating a shared energy that inspires happiness and a sense of release in their lives. It’s almost like a form of medicine, unlike anything else in the world. Music helps you through difficult times and can alleviate sadness, especially when experiencing live concerts. For me, writing music is a chance to fulfil my purpose, as if I was born to do it—and it places me in the right environment. I have also learned that there is no definitive ‘right’ choice when it comes to music. You won’t know if it’s the best choice until you genuinely enjoy it. It’s like a challenge to stay dedicated and not drift away from your passion. So you just keep going for it.”

Can you share a moment when you felt like giving up on your dreams and what ultimately motivated you to keep going?

“I remember getting older, around 25 years old, and experiencing a wrong feeling that led me to consider quitting music due to the pressures of growing up. I had to get a job to earn money, and at that point, I didn’t believe that releasing a song would improve anything. Live shows and concerts had come to a halt, but despite those challenges, I remained determined to focus on my music. It was my primary source of motivation. I pushed myself to continue, even if the results weren’t perfect. To keep my inspiration alive, I attended movies and concerts, seeking more motivation to write—and seizing any opportunity that came my way.”

As a Southeast Asian artist, what unique cultural influences do you incorporate into your music?

“For me, there are no boundaries when it comes to creating music. In my song ‘Dum Dum’, I use traditional instruments that resonate with my identity and feel authentic. These instruments evoke the sounds I remember from my childhood, tapping into instincts that seem inherent, like an innate drawing that you’ve had since birth. Incorporating these instruments into my music is a way of expressing what I truly desire and wish to explore.”

Have you faced any specific challenges or opportunities as a Southeast Asian artist in the global music scene?

“I used to follow a certain pattern but I’ve learned how to distinguish myself from others because everyone’s style is unique. Why is it different? It’s because I’ve learned from series I’ve watched, songs I’ve been into, and books I’ve read. I try to be as authentic to myself as possible because I believe I’ve already internalised those influences and now want to share my true self with others without fearing judgment.”

Can you share any advice or encouragement for aspiring artists who may face similar challenges?

“As an artist in the global music scene, it’s crucial to leverage your unique background to set yourself apart. There are no boundaries between languages or challenges I’ve faced so far. While Thai may not be as familiar to many when writing music, I remain true to myself. I’ve explored both Western and Asian music and they have intermingled within me, allowing me to create something original that resonates with people—and the melodies flow naturally. The impact these melodies have on people is what inspires me even more.

“To reach a broader global audience, I enjoy surprising myself—for instance, by releasing two versions of my songs. This continuous effort breaks down the boundaries, making them thinner and thinner. My advice? The world’s market is expanding and there’s a lot to discover in Asian music. I immerse myself in Thai music and music from other countries, drawing inspiration and making the music my own. It’s essential to ensure it sounds authentic to myself, as differentiation from others is vital. In the past, I used to fear my music wasn’t good enough, so I didn’t write or produce my own songs. However, I realised the importance of being myself and changed my attitude towards my career, writing my music and embracing my true identity.”

[vryfmi]

Talk Shop Tuesday! You asked me a really really good question about my art style, so I'd like to bounce it back to you! Are there any specific influences on your art style and/or process that you can pinpoint? How do you feel you incorporate new information and techniques to your existing style?

And, of course, what do you like best about your art style?

yes, i really like this question! i like getting insights into one's artistic journey and what started it. so, speaking of mine, i was asking the same question and failing miserably at answering it. it just happened? and i went with it?

as for influences i don't think it was any particular media, tho i have been getting quite a few comments that my artstyle (especially in traditional) reminds people of illustrations from various books. and the thing is yes, i can see that, i love illustrations that are done in ink, i did take a lot of inspiration from artists with similar styles and used their art as references when i liked something about it or the way they draw a certain thing. so i guess that's where it all originated and came together.

there's one influence of which im not 100% certainly about but i really really liked How To Train Your Dragon books as a kid and i always loved illustrations in it and how messy and unflattering yet compelling they looked. when i default to drawing characters in a very simplified manner i think there is a slight similarity or, at very least, similar vibe that could be noticed

[id from alt text: a page from How To Train Your Dragon book with very messy pencil drawings of main characters: Hiccup with Toothless on his shoulders, Fishlegs (hiccup's best friend) with Horrorcow and Camicazi./end id]

tho i specifically remember the turning point in drawing eyes, when i decided to stuck with only upper eyelid and the iris after noticing how many other professional artists simplify eyes in their quick sketches or figure drawings, where eyes are not a focal point but they still communicate emotions just as well and look coherent with the rest of a drawing. i just really like how it looked so i adopted it, plus drawing just two dots is fun.

i wouldn't say i learn a bunch of techniques, im still intimidated by actual hatching and learning process for that, im definitely not a jack of all trades when it comes to mediums and art tools. that said, the easiest (for me) way of incorporating something new is by drawing something one time but as detailed as possible and then finding ways to stylise or simplify it in the future. mostly i use it for character designs but it works with a lot of other things too.

and to round it up, i'd say the thing that i like about my artstyle the most is that it has a good balance between being realistic and stylised. it's versatile and gives me a certain freedom to be as detailed or not with what i draw but also doesn't limits me to drawing just one thing (my hyperfixation does). also i think it became somewhat consistent and recognisable in the past few years so that's also a nice thing to have

[essayofthoughts]

Which version (i.e the comics, cartoon, original campaign art, other fanart, etc.) of Percy and Vex do you typically visualize when you write your stories? Is that version of them your favorite?

This is probably gonna sound kind of arrogant but for the most part, none of them? Like, certain things have influences on how I tend to envision the characters but I'm not a terribly visual thinker or writer; if you look at my fics you'll note I tend to dwell much more in emotion and tactile senses than I do visual. It's kind of why I envy people like my dear friend @cosmonauthill or the excellent @exhaustedwerewolf - both have this fantastic knack for creating a single striking visual that helps you build out a scene or a character in your mind from that.

Like. At the end of the day there's only one art piece that I tend to really look to as a visual guide for any of the characters and that would be This Fantastic Piece of Percy and Orthax from the lovely @agarthanguide, and that's more to do with the artistic style of the piece (which. I just love) and the fact Hannah is a dear friend who's art I've enjoyed for a long time, meaning I'm biased towards her art anyway.

As it is, I don't particularly care for the animated series - I find the designs too simplified to the point that they're boring to me, and I'm someone who likes the animated shows I watch to have a clear style; to me the animated series looks altogether too much like many other shows.

The comics are fine, I guess, but they don't really stick out much to me, and I have nitpicks about a few things in the fanart of others - namely that a lot of people draw half-elves' ears like they're full elves. If they're half elves, then elven ears would be like those of the World of "we have an ear fetish" Warcraft elves and I find those kinds of ears just to just... beggar belief. I need a bit of verisimilitude and the ear size/prominence is a nitpick for me.

I certainly take cues from some art. I used a mixture of the comics art and the group picture done by AnenomeTea to judge the height differences of Vox Machina, which, yes, I did sit down and do, I'm like that, and I love @crithaus' golden freckles idea for Vex, I like the sheer ludicrousness of Vex's hair in @alienfirst's art, and I like how long and awkward Percy's face is in the comics, but I also like the art of @2impostors which always makes him look like his nose has been broken at least once (a headcanon I share) and I also like just how young he looks in the original stream portraits with that round face. It really brings home that he was only a teen when he went through so much. That's another reason I really like alienfirst's art as well, because they similarly give Percy a rounded, young looking face - though I personally tend more towards how Hannah - agarthanguide - draws Percy's hair than anyone else.

And that's before we get to specific AUs of mine - Percy's differently weathered and worn in Delia AU and Ripley's Assistant because he wasn't physically tortured; in Ghost Cass he's much better rested and doesn't look so sleepless, and of course for Tiefling AU, I lean very much towards the lovely art @blorbologist did.

So... yeah. What visuals I do have are very much a mishmash of personal opinion and specific AU, and while I might take cues from this and that it doesn't really create a single coherent image so much as a few specific details I can then write in for people to apply to their own image of Percy. Hope this answers your question!