#and then trace my own drawings on top of the ipad

[zae-heeyyy]

Hiatus

Summary: You meet John during his year away from the gang. Pairing: John Marston x gn!Reader but mostly platonic Word Count: 1,725 Tags/ Warnings: alcohol, violence, mature themes

a/n: Just a little idea I had. I actually sketched/traced the saloon picture on my iPad. (Thanks John for bad drawing skills because I'm not an artist. To be clear, this is my interpretation of John’s sketch of a saloon haha) Something a little different, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading!

hiatus: A temporary departure or absence, often marked by a pause in activity or routine, reflecting a period of separation from the usual path or environment

Rip Van Winkle? Did he take you for a fool? You'd be insulted if you couldn't clearly see the bastard was miserable. It'd been three months since he stumbled into your saloon, throwing a few bills on the bar top. A few bills covered a lot of drinks, but a lot of drinks he had. He would drink and gamble all his money away and would somehow come back the next day with more. You didn't know any fellas around who could make their money and spend it as fast as he did. Minding your business seemed like the best course of action, and that's what you did, mostly. All you asked for was a name, and that's what he gave you. You took the hint and stopped asking questions. 

Until you couldn't curb your curiosity about the tall, lanky stranger anymore.

"What do you do, anyway?" You asked. Nobody around knew him, and it wasn't a big town. People were fishermen and farmhands, and he didn't fit either bill. He'd dodged that question, too. It didn't take long for you to figure out how he made his living when you saw him "accidentally" bump into someone. Just thirty seconds later, he threw the dime he'd presumably pickpocketed onto your bar. You stared at him, unmoving. 

"Well, you gonna pour that whiskey or not?" He learned on the counter, impatient, and glared at you. Intimidating you would take more work than he was probably used to.

"You gonna give that man his money back or not?" You shot back. His face didn't change, and he steadily held your gaze. He picked up the coin and placed it back on the counter, scooting it in front of you again.

"No," he replied simply.

"Then no." You responded with a shrug and turned to walk off to serve someone else. Rip sighed deeply and put another dime on the counter. 

"But I'll buy him a drink-- on him." You wanted to laugh but didn't give him the satisfaction. 

"Now I'm robbing him, too?"

"It ain't robbin. He was gonna buy a drink anyway," his tone grew even more vexed. You were the one loudly exhaling now. You took the money, poured the whiskey, and offered the other man his "free" drink. Rip was lucky you didn't call the law on him, but he seemed to have enough problems as it was. 

He took to you after that, though, always throwing extra change down for you to have a whiskey yourself. You'd thank him with short words, but never poured yourself a drink, knowing where the money came from. Keeping your distance seemed like the logical thing to do.

Then, someone you'd never seen before pushed open the doors to the saloon on a particularly slow night. You'd noticed Rip's posture stiffen as soon as he laid eyes on the man. He placed a casual hand on his right hip, and his eyes moved to yours for only a second before they were watching the man again. You should've felt something was wrong but didn't have time to think before the newcomer approached you, pointing his gun at you from inside his coat.

"All the money. Now. And don't say a word." Your blood ran cold, but before you could move, you heard a click.

"Put the gun down, idiot." Rip had moved from his seat and was standing behind the intruder, his own revolver pointed to the back of his head, "gonna lose your life over this? I hope you ain't as dumb as you look."

Rip diverted the stranger's attention long enough for you to reach for your own shotgun under the counter. You pointed your gun at the would-be robber, and Rip yelled at the few others in the saloon to get the law. You finally let yourself breathe when the man was taken away. 

Rip stayed for the rest of the night, sitting long past his usual departure time. Faint sunlight was beginning to peak in the windows, and your shift replacement had walked through the doors. Instead of going home, you walked around the bar to sit with Rip. Sometime in the night, he'd settled in a seat on the side of the bar, closer to you, still nursing the same glass of whiskey you'd poured hours earlier.

 "You knew that was gonna go down tonight, didn't you?" You'd asked. You noticed his sudden change of demeanor as soon as the thief stepped foot inside.

He shook his head, looking down at the glass. "Didn't really know. Had a feelin', though. Can't explain it. Maybe it was a look in his eye or how he walked in? I don't know, just a feelin'. I knew fellas like him." He paused for a moment, "Hell, I am a feller like him. "

You didn't know anything about him, but you think you understood. A feeling in your gut told you pickpocketing was the more tame of his crimes. 

"I'm surprised you didn't get in on it," Your tone was severe, but you were grinning at him. He scoffed, laughing a bit. 

"I ain't that far gone. I got morals, you know." You had an inkling that he was trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince you.

"Morals." You repeated back to him. You couldn't believe the ridiculousness of it all. "Right"

He threw his hands up defensively, "Do you think I am the type of guy to put a gun in an innocent person's face? For some saloon cash?"

You shrugged, skepticism all over your face, "I can't say I know what kind of man you are, Mr. Van Winkle," you said, adding finger quotes around his name.

He looked down at his glass and let out another sigh. "John-- my name's John...Marston. Since you wanna know so bad," he finally finished off the last of the liquor. You searched his face; he was grimacing slightly.

You hum appreciatively. "It's nice to thank a man with his own name, John Marston. Thanks. You definitely saved my ass tonight. How about some breakfast on the house to show my appreciation?" 

Maybe oatmeal had some aphrodisiac properties you didn't know about, or perhaps you'd finally lost it. Still, somehow, you'd ended up pressed against the wall by the cowboy in a room above the saloon. His kisses were sloppy, and his movements were sporadic and clumsy, even. He'd made a move to pull you towards the bed but stumbled, knocking his head hard into yours. 

"Shit," he stumbled back, rubbing his head. You leaned against the wall, nursing your own sore dome. But the collision seemed to knock some sense into you. 

"This was...it wasn't..." You tried to find the words to let him down softly, but he cut you off with a shake of his head and sat on the bed.

"Yeah, weren't a good idea. Don't worry about it," he gave you a strained but reassuring smile, and you stood there in awkward silence before he spoke again, "I don't know what I'm even doin' these days." He said, eyes trained on the floor. Part of you couldn't believe that he was trying to have a conversation with you after that, but like always, you felt a little sorry for him. 

"How about another drink? For both of us."

He could say no to that, so you made your walk of shame back downstairs. Your colleague at the bar gave you a look but didn't say anything as he poured your drinks. After everything, you felt like he owed you the truth, and he was too tired to argue.

"Ask away," he relented. 

"Why the fake name?" That was your first question, and you had so many more when he was done talking. Almost hanged at twelve, riding with Dutch Van der Linde and robbing trains and banks. No wonder he was so miserable. 

"Left it all, and I don't feel any better. I'm still robbin, still here drinking every night."

"Doesn't sound any better," was all you could say. 

"It ain't. And the worst part? There was this girl, a working girl, who fell in with us, Abigail. Me and her-- well, she was more to me than a working girl, but then she got pregnant. And I got a son, at least, that's what she told me. Don't know if he's mine." He buried his face in his hands and groaned, the weight of it all heavy on his shoulders.

You were silent. You didn't know what to say or how to respond to any of it. All of this, his life, was something out of an Otis Miller tale. A life of crime was utterly foreign to you.

"That's...a lot," was all you could manage. He bobbed his head up and down in agreement. "Did you love her?" Something seemed to wash over him, and he stiffened. It took him a few moments to respond, but he looked off like he was picturing something in his mind's eye.

"I think I did. Think I still do." You could see the turmoil clearly on his face then. You snapped him back, your voice low and soft.

"Think she would lie to you? Especially about something like that?"

"I don't know. I don't know anything anymore."

You pondered for a second. "You said you didn't have a father until Dutch took you in. Want this kid to be the same, without a dad? You love his momma; you think she loves you. Give the kid a chance to grow up with parents that love each other."

You could see his jaw clench, and he waved you off without even considering what you said.

"Didn't ask for advice." 

"Well, I'm giving it to you, miserable bastard." He relaxed his jaw and chuckled.

"Fair enough."

More silence fell between you, and he finished what was left in his glass before sliding a dime to your co-worker and leaving. He returned only a handful of times after that, noticeably drinking less. One day, as he was leaving, he took his hat off and met your eye. 

"I'm gonna get goin' now. Thanks for everything." 

And you knew it was the last time you'd ever see him. You just hoped he decided to do the right thing. You had a feeling he did. 

[the-crow-binary]

Hi! I hope you don't mind me asking, but how do you draw anatomy? It looks really good.

Oh. 🥺 Hello. 🥺 It's okay I don't mind 🥺 And thank you, it means a lot to me 🥺🥺🥺 Here's a messy, quickly-done guide of how I do it

Generally, my bases are even messier than that lol

I always start with a circle for the head and then draw from there. Even if I always end up modifying it, it's a good start (the circle doesn't have to be perfect, nor does it have to be a circle lol, unless you want to draw a bald person with a perfectly round head). I can't really explain the proportions for the torso because I always draw it based on how good it looks, and if it doesn't look too long or too short. With time and experience it just became natural. But I do still sometimes uses little clues for the members such as the arms and legs, based on the torso, to keep it all well-proportioned.

I drew only slender bodies here because the clues I wrote are basically the same for all body types, and it's also the body type I draw the most lol (with the only twist being that I had a little bit of muscles sometimes, wich shows with slightly bigger/rounds pecs, rounder arms, visible abs...) Here's an example of one of the very few muscular characters I drew (i just added the red lines)

The chest and back are much bigger, the arms much rounder, every muscle is more visible, but the elbow stil reach the hip, you still can put one head between the head and one shoulder (the shoulders are just larger), and the hands still cover the face.

If I can give one advice to how to learn to draw the muscles, it would obviously be to use references. I still use some today tbh, especially for the most muscular body types that I don't draw often. One thing that is nice, and that you can use to learn to draw anything, not just human anatomy, is to trace pictures and make your own base out of it. Example:

(found the picture on pinterest)

Now you draw your base however you like, what fits you the best. The goal of this exercise is not to mindlessly trace a form and then draw whatever you want on top, but to understand the forms you are learning to draw, so you can progress. I used a clothed model here but a half/completely naked one works better lol (well, depending on what you are trying to learn). I could've put more details in my own base (such as drawing the parts hidden by the hands and arms to fully get the forms it's suppose to have), but that's just an example. I use digital pictures because I'm on ipad (and have been drawing on computer for a few years before that) but if you draw on paper, you could very well use pictures from books, comics, etc... you can use any source, any media and any style (if it's drawn). Just keep in mind to give credit if you ever post your exercise online!

Of course you can also draw on a blank piece of paper while looking at and trying to replicate the picture, wich is also a good exercise, but tracing might be easier to learn the anatomy, especially at first. This being said, there's a plethora of guides out there and examples of bases, but that's how I do it and learned! Just add a lot of practice and a few blood sacrifice :')

[poemarsviner]

Finalising [Key]

After I had finished my key, the last step was to create a label and draw it digitally.

Using what I had learnt about aging things, I wrote a label for the key and customised it.

I aged the label and string with coffee and graphite on the edges and used sandpaper to weaken the edges. I then used a black pen to write my Captain's name, using a different style of handwriting than my own to make it more unique. I then added lines like it was a luggage tag and added large initials, like he had scribbled them on in a rush.

I personally like the back more than the front as it seems not as 'messy' but when it comes to old forgotten objects they're always really dirty and messy. I'm just too clean for aging things I think.

After finishing the label, I tied it loosely to my key. I didn't want it too tight in case I wanted to remove it later and I think it fits the key.

After that, I took a photo of it and used my iPad and Procreate to draw the key and the label.

I loosely traced over the key and moon and coloured it myself. While not fully realistic, I tried to shade the key and moon like the real one and then added the label on top.

After I coloured it I also coloured the lineart to make it look better and I added light shading under the key to make it actually look like it is in the space.

Overall, I am happy with the end result of my key. I think it looks realistic in its own way and I enjoyed sculpting, painting and finalising it.

Considering most of my previous art was digital, it is nice to have physical items that I created. I look forward to when the board is all set up with our keys so we can see them all displayed together.

[poecharlieodell]

character design (part 1)

First time using photoshop and a drawing tablet

josh had given us the task to edit this image of a shirtless Jack Black with photoshop, to turn him into a pirate.

this is what i came up with, I did this by moving different objects which where on different layers, to bend his arm I selected it with the lasso tool and then bed to it around. Then, to fill the empty spaces I used the ai feature. its not perfect as it was my first time using photo shop. but its going to help me draw my pirate. jack will be used as a base that i'm going to trace over the top of him

here he is so far, again-not perfect but this was my first time using a drawing tablet and It was more of a test run for me, drawing on a drawing tablet with photoshop feels really difficult and unnatural to me.

I dont particularly want to finish this drawing as their are other options and if I continue I’ll be behind.

character design (part 2)

The portal pirate

This time I was going to use an image of myself instead.

But I need to briefly explain my pirate before I show you how I drew him and I’m only explain this briefly here but I’ll go into more detail in later posts.

The pirate crew that I’m making are the pirates of the shattered sea

They’re pirate crew which discover a futuristic chest which holds magical crystal shards. The shards were left by aliens for heros to find, so that they can save The universe. However they were found by pirates instead..

The crystal shards give magical abilities or “superpowers” to whoever is closest to them so the pirates use them for their own needs instead of “saving the universe”

The pirate I’m focusing on today is one of the crew members. Who has the purple crystal shard, the purple shard has the ability of creating portals.

this pirate keeps his crystal shard on a necklace. so when taking my picture I made sure to pose correctly for it.

I started drawing and noticed the same issue as before I’m struggling to draw,it could be the drawing pad ,it could be photoshop either way it feels really weird to draw like this.

I might just need to get used to it and to more practice and I’ll improve in time . For now though I might need to find an alternative way of drawing with this as it’s taking a long time to draw

The purple triangle is a portal

I’ve also decided to switch to drawing this on an iPad as it’s taking too long and I don’t have practice time

Looking at the face I actually don’t like it very much and I want to re draw it with a more cartoon approach because that matches my style better

I don’t like tracing off of images of people very much as I feel pressured to keep the drawing similar to the proportions of the person I’m drawing, which is an issue if I’m making a character who is not similar to the proportions of the person.

Again like the first design I won’t be finishing this as a I want to design and draw him in a different way/method and theirs no point wasting time on a method which doesn’t work well for me if theirs a better way I can think of doing it.

[awwyeah107]

So...I haven't made any fan art in years. And I haven't ever posted it online. But here I am with some drawings of a dress for a fanfic author's OC, and I'm quite happy with them.

These are some mockups of a dress that I pictured Mellótë wearing; she's an OC in the Silmarillion fanfic Daughters of Therindë by @darkfrozenabyss.

(I tried to draw Mellotë's face and hair. I really did. However, that gave me a lot of trouble, so in the end I decided it was okay to simply have the dresses be on a model XD Perhaps one day I'll try to actually draw her features.)

Made with the app Sketchbook on my dad's iPad.

Skirt design (and part of the first top design) is based off this dress. The second top design is completely mine. The third top design with the veil is based off of this other dress, and the fourth is the same thing without the veil.

Further description of why I made these, their inspiration, and my process below the cut :)

This came from a conversation in the comments of chapter 11 of Daughters of Therindë. In my comment, I mentioned that I had noticed a line about Mellótë's hair brushing her shoulder, and it prompted me to ask about what she was wearing. darkfrozenabyss replied, "I was picturing something gauzy and light pink, a one-shoulder gown that flares more at the bottom."

After that conversation, the next time I got onto Tumblr, I got an ad featuring the dress below that immediately made me think of that description—except for the fact that it was not one-shoulder.

It made me think, "Hmm, what would it look like if that was one-shoulder? What would it look like if she did wear it?" And thus my idea to draw the dress was born.

As mentioned above, I used the app Sketchbook to create the drawings. I imported that photo of the dress into the app as a layer, and I traced over the dress and the girl wearing it in a new layer. Then I made use of copious layers to get the texture and design of the skirt the way I wanted it to look.

I had had a couple ideas for what the top design would look like, and I worked on those designs after the skirt. My immediate thought was to move one of the wrap-around sleeves (I'm not sure what to call them) from the original dress up onto the shoulder and make it a bit thicker, so that is the first top design. I also had the idea to make a small little ruffle sleeve over the shoulder with a flower or brooch connected to a top without any additional texture. After I made those, I felt like there was still another possible design I could do that would look/fit better, so I scrolled through the dress website for one-shoulder dresses to use as inspiration. I found this dress with a veil (linked above as well) and really liked it, so I imported one of the photos and loosely traced it. Then I adjusted the tracing and added my own texturing and color to it. I think the design works both with and without the veil, so I included both versions.

Also, I had started on this drawing at around midnight on a Saturday night, thinking "Oh, I'll just start this and then continue tomorrow." Then after intensely focusing on getting the skirt coloring and texture down, I decided I should check the time (it doesn't show in the app for some reason)...and saw it was nearly 3 AM. XD I did continue the next day, gave it a rest for a couple days, came back to it, and then gave it a couple more days' rest and decided the designs looked complete enough that I was ready to post them.

From scrolling through darkfrozenabyss' drawings on Tumblr, I think the third or fourth designs would most likely be what Mellótë would wear out of these designs. Maybe the fourth more than the third. What do you think @darkfrozenabyss? I could be totally wrong in my guess, or maybe none of them would be anything close to what she would wear. XD

Anyway, it was a lot of fun working on these! I'm quite happy with how they turned out. I particularly love the bottom edges of the skirt—I feel like I was able to capture some of the gauzy layers. This is also the first time I've ever done really dedicated digital art, so I enjoyed the experience.

[chickensaredoodling]

Little sketches for @marimocaptain and @merchantarthurn when we met up a while ago

[bluecookies02]

Touya x Reader

-> NSFW content ahead <-

summary: Touya Todoroki with the tiniest, most adorable cock that exists on this planet. How does sex with him feel? What gets him off the most🥴

warnings: facefucking, creampies, squirting, breath play? , slapping, choking, all in all, rough play.

He nudges his cock into your mouth until you're mushed into his pubes, nose pressed flush against him. You can't breathe, you have to gasp and whine around the tiny dick in your mouth, his fist tangled and pulling at your hair.

He'll stretch your mouth with his fingers, pulling at the corners. It doesn't matter that he can barely feel anything, he'll fuck your face like that. He'll cum, he'll cum so fucking hard that way, just because of the sound his hips make when he rocks against you. It's his go-to when the two of you are short on time and when he wants to get off.

More often then not, when  you suck his dick he has the back of your head pressed into the wall, towering over you. He'd be kind enough to tangle his hand into your hair so you don't hit the back of head too roughly. It'll leave his knuckles red, sometimes bleeding from how violently he thrusts into your face. He doesn't care....he doesn't care because the orgasms he gets like that can't compare to anything he ever felt. And your mewling and whining doesn't stop until he has every last drop sliding down your throat, warm and tangy, being forced to swallow because you know he's not letting you off any other way.

Sometimes he'll think you're not struggling enough , pinching your nose between his fingers, groaning at you to close your lips as tight as you can around him. When he feels like your eyes are glossy enough he'll let go, watching you cough with the sickest smirk on his face. If you take too long to open your mouth he has to slap your face a few times, just until your jaw falls slack, then he does everything over and over again

It's not like he's selfish, he makes you cum...a lot.

if he finds out that you can squirt he'll make it his mission to get the sheets soaked every time the two of you fuck.

The things he can do with his hands alone...He pinches and pulls at your clit, slapping it while he fingers you until it's swollen, throbbing and glistening in your cum. He'll watch your puss spasm each time, gripping his two fingers. They're long and perfect, reaching and curling just right. He'll wrap one hand around your neck, leaning close to your lips, mouth slightly open as his other hand speeds up. He wants to feel your gasps on his mouth when you cum, wants to see the drunk look in your eyes when your mind gets foggy without air when it needs it the most.

He knows how to be gentle too, loosening up your pussy until he's sure he could get his whole hand in if he tried. He spreads your folds open, latching onto your clit. The feeling is too much, too sharp, but he doesn't let go, forcing you to get used to it. He likes the way you trash against the mattress, his hand holding you down. And when you start to desperately hump his face he'll get vocal , groaning and grunting.

He won't hold you down anymore, letting you use his mouth as you wish. He's humping the bed, imagining that he's buried inside your pussy, creaming around his cock. And you're begging for it, like your life depends on it, pleading to feel him, to cum with him. When you do cum, he'll start kissing your thighs, occasionally giving a peck to your sensitive cunt. He'll feel you up and trace every patch of skin he can reach. He'll end up laying on top of you, kissing you deeply, your face in his hands.

He'll start rolling his hips, making you part your legs so that he can guide his dick inside. It can barely fit without slipping. You don't mind, it's when he's the kindest, most loving. It's when he has to move slowly and build up his orgasm for a while, focusing more on you and how much you mean to him. Kissing your cheek, whispering the happiest shit that would probably make him sick to his stomach on any other occasion.

He always fills you up. He can go a few times before his cock refuses to get up again. He doesn't cum a lot but it's enough for you to feel every wave and hot spurt and the tiniest twitch of his little dick when he reaches his high.

He loves when you worship his cock. He thought he would be annoyed at the sight of it being completely covered just by one of your hands, but the way your face lights up whenever the small thing pulses in your hand feeds his ego. You're tentative, completely focused and enamored with the precious sight. He leaks so much thin pre cum, and after two or three pumps his cock is already nice and glossy, sliding in and out of your tight fist with ease.

He times his breaths, always focused on not cumming too early...he wants you to enjoy him like he enjoys you. So it doesn't matter that his muscles end up sore from flexing and tensing up, palms adorned with small moonlight creases from his own nails. You figured early on that pulling and tugging on his balls makes him whine the prettiest. And when you know he's about to cum, you can just flick them a few times with your fingers and he's creaming all over your fist, thrusting into it until he's fully milked.

Makes you lick it all up, even the small droplets that trailed down his taint.

He loves tasting himself on your tongue. He cleans up your mouth, savoring it, humming against your lips. He'll make out with you for a good few minutes until he's sure there's nothing left.

You have to drag his ass to the shower before he falls asleep, because he is not bothering to get up once he's nice and comfy.

currently saving up for an IPad so that I can draw holy things on it👀 If you like my stuff and wish to support you can do so here : Ko-Fi | Patreon

Thank you for reading thru my mediocre brainrots, I hope u enjoyed!

[hychlorions]

How did you start drawing, and do you have any tips or tricks you could share please? Here I have Klavier Gavin with me: achtung ja baby ja ja this is klavier gavin you should help this anon out ja

oh mein gott monsieur klavier gavin i am SUCH a big fan!!!!!!!

jokes aside, i'd be happy to help! (regardless of you having klavier or not lmao) i'm gonna put this under the cut just in case it gets too long

i started drawing... mostly because i hung out with anime kids, so subsequently they were art kids as well, but i really only started taking it seriously when i got a good pen tablet lmao. i wasn't very good though, i mostly followed tutorials from books and online, and if you saw my art back then it would just be a lot of whales, dragons and ponies in the same poses every time

idk if i have any specific tips or tricks ? since idk what you're going for with your own art so i won't be able to give very concrete advice or how-to's n stuff like that ? but if i had to say anything, try looking into doing gesture drawings! they help improve how you understand poses, how to exaggerate them, just overall something quick u can do daily to improve lmao. i mostly just look up poses on pinterest then try to get the flow of them. i just got started on em so inevitably i'm still kinda bad at it but here are a few just to give a quick example

an important thing to note is that u get more fluid poses when you find a line of action first. i used to be really confused when trying to go about finding them, but then my prof defined it as "the longest line of a pose," and even said it's not always the spine (as most people would think). sometimes it's the line from an arm to a leg, or a leg to a leg, even. it helps to draw a circle for the head as well. u could even draw all the lines of the limbs if you want then simplify from there

another tip is to keep reference boards of art u like! dissect how they color, how they portray depth and different angles of the face, etc. just know when to draw the line between picking out things you like about art styles you see and straight up trying to draw exactly like that one artist. i keep a reference board of how artists i like draw klavier, for example, because i want him to have the same jawline maybe, or i like how they color, but i never try to draw him just like they would. tldr the way i draw is just me frankensteining artists i like and combining them with my own art style, and it's not something i'm ashamed of, bc people can still tell it's me, and it's not like i'm copying their ideas or tracing their art lol

related to the last one: download pureref lmao it's literally free and a lifesaver. it makes it so much easier to put collages together and everything is so customizable AND u can even make notes on it. it sits on top of all your applications, and you can move it around, make it as big or as small as you want, and even change the opacity of it??? if you've seen this post, i fr just threw the images together last-minute and took screenshots to add to the ask. if you work on ipad and you're willing to spend a little extra money (because procreate's reference thingy can only hold one image at a time n i don't feel like making a new photo every time i want to add something to my reference board) then vizref is like four dollars and it's almost the same

that's probably all i can offer you ? if you want an arsenal of tips n tricks for art, i always go to @/artist-refs if i'm looking for something specific. the tagging system there is just. amazingly organized, and they even have writing resources too. they haven't been active in a while but it's still a huge archive of resources regardless lol

[dausy]

I just accidentally made a ridiculous amount of purchases all at once.

I've been talking about how I've been a bit inspired by retro-y type colors and then saw that schmincke had a neon specialty set inspired by the 80s and I was like "WHAT". So I got them. And hooboy they are indeed neon and I'm unsure what to do with this information.

and then I got this lovely artbook by my childhood idol. She was one of the top tier artists back when I was on tlkfaa back in 2002ish and now she has her own artbook and I think thats super cool and I'm super excited to have it.

I did also get a new cellphone stand for filming. I haven't had the opportunity to put it together yet. My husband is in town for a brief period of time so I'm not sure I'll put it up this week. This ones got like a massive ring light and its supposed to be able to hold my ipad or phone..that sounds amazing and I don't believe it so we will see lmao.

I don't have any original drawings at the moment to film. I was thinking though..I was thinking...I have several coloring books that I've collected over the years. I was thinking maybe I should professionally color a coloring book page. My only issue is the paper. I don't know if it would be cheating to trace the coloring book onto watercolor paper?

[my-deer-friend]

Hi!! I am literally in love with your lams art, especially historical since I love historical lams more than anything. But that last one you did of John for the "he ded lol" day literally broke me, ha ha. I literally had to stop what I was doing as that particular one made me emotional-

But I was wondering how long it takes you to complete a piece like that? And what program you use for your drawings/tips? I want to start doing my own lams art digitally now that I have my Wacom tablet but I don't know where to begin and I'd thought I'd ask an expert-

Awww, Liz! That's so incredibly sweet of you to say! My goal as a creator is to make people have Feelings, so I'm glad I managed to accomplish that. 💕

These days I draw on Procreate on an iPad Air with Apple Pencil. It's honestly the best investment I've made in my creativity and I recommend it entirely if you can afford it, but before that I was drawing with Autodesk Sketchbook on my phone and still managed to produce some great stuff and refine my style. And Wacom tablets are great! I'll leave it to others to recommend desktop software but I will say - avoid Photoshop, since it's expensive and clunky for drawing.

A piece like that will take 8-10 hours over several days - the days are important because you need to look away from it and come back with fresh eyes to see the little flaws and bits that look iffy.

Some tips!

Use references. It's not cheating! All artists do it at least some of the time. Eventually you can draw a face out of your head but goddamn I'll never be able to draw a tricorn hat.

Play around with poses, angles, expressions... some artists become perfect at doing a 3/4 profile but can't do anything else, and that's not a good place to be. Yeah, your first tries will look shit. But that's fine!

Do a rough sketch, then put it away for a few hours before you come back to it. The weird-looking things will jump out immediately. (Bonus point 1 - flip your canvas for the same effect.) (Bonus point 2 - ask a trusted friend, not necessarily an artist, to look at your sketch. They'll see stuff you don't.)

For digital - layers. Layers! Layers. Layers let you test out ideas, stack effects on top of each other, adjust lighting, experiment without damaging your existing work, etc. etc. etc.

I really recommend keeping each character's line art, colour and shading/effects on their own layers (in a group - so I'll have a "John" group and a "horse" group), so that you can move the whole character around without damaging the other one.

Play with textured brushes, especially for shading. Skin, fabric, hair, it all has texture, and that's a great shortcut to adding dimension.

Tiny details really matter! Adding a gradient to a background, or a little touch to a face or piece of clothing, or a little extra lighting, really makes things pop out. (Put them on different layers!)

Be inspired by other artists but also allow your own style to develop. It takes time. But don't be afraid to make it uniquely yours.

Just... draw a bunch. Play. Mess around. Trace. Draw memes. Try something new every time, even if it looks wonky.

Oh and, if anyone's interested, I'd be happy to share some process shots as an example of the steps I take?

This is long...! But I hope it's useful. Feel free to shoot me more questions! 💕

[acaseforpencils]

Mark Ulriksen.

Bio: Over the past 30+ years I've been published in most of the (then) leading newspapers and magazines in the country, such as The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, The Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, Reader’s Digest, The New York Times, The Wall St Journal, The Washington Post, etc.

I’ve also done ad campaigns, theater posters and books, including my own book I wrote and illustrated, Dogs Rule Nonchalant-ly.

Find this print here!

My favorite cover may still be this one, “Love the One You're With.” I like the composition, humor, and political incorrectness. Plus, it’s complement to a very famous Art Spiegelman NYer cover.

Tools of Choice: My work starts with pencil drawings, and then gets transferred to becoming a painting either in either acrylic, egg tempera, gouache, oil, or a digital drawing on an iPad Pro with an Apple pencil.

I’m very particular about my pencils. I use a mixture between a 4B, 2B, HB or 2H pencil and I used to (past tense) use an electronic lead pointer to sharpen the tips to a very, very fine point. However my last lead pointer sharpener broke and I can't find any replacements anywhere!

I have a sheet of transparent acetate taped to a white illustration board that I then place tracing paper on and draw there. I like the glassy smooth surface I get from drawing a top acetate. When the iPad came out and allowed you to draw on glass it almost mimicked my pencil setup.

Tool I wish I could use better: Oil paint for sure. It can do so many things and can be used with some many different mediums that it’s a bit overwhelming. Plus I want to be as tight as a Flemish painter but I’m not that good or as loose as Max Beckmann but I’m too uptight to get that loose. I’m forever NOT being who I’d like to be as a painter.

Tool I wish existed: A paint brush that also had a Command Z bottom so I could go backwards whenever I made a mistake.

Tricks: My trick is that once I get a thumbnail drawing done that I like I then do a tight sketch in layers on tracing paper. One layer for the face, one for the body, another for the background etc. It helps me maneuver my composition and come up with some hopefully happy accidents.

Misc.: One thing I was glad of when starting out was that I was 37 years old, having been a graphic designer and art director previously. It took about 20 years of illustrating before the art buyers out there tired of me. Eventually a new generation of illustrators, cartoonists etc., as well as art directors comes along, and whatever you had been doing may become out of style. I would advise folks to worry less about style and more about ideas. Styles change, but good ideas are good whatever generation they occur in. And also having been an art buyer myself as an art director I know that to not receive any feedback may just be a factor of timing or a possible client being too busy to respond. Hanging in there is the key.

Website,etc.: Website

Instagram

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If you enjoy this blog, and would like to contribute to labor and maintenance costs, there is a Patreon, and if you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee, there is a Ko-Fi  account as well! I do this blog for free because accessible arts   education is important to me, and your support helps a lot! You can also  find more posts about art supplies on Case’s Instagram and Twitter! Thank you!

[shoutogepi]

Did you make that beautiful banner yourself??? If yes where/how did you make it, asking cause I'm trying to make my own stuff for my blog 👉🏻👈🏻 (which currently looks disgusting haha...)

i did nonnie!!! thank you for admiring it hehe 💜💜💜 i’ve been trying to get some skills with digital art lately, though honestly it’s been a slow and steep learning curve LMAOO... i made it using Procreate on my iPad :D if you’re starting out using that software as well, i recommend using manyyyyy layers. for example, i used one layer to sketch out the positions i wanted for the banner, then i did the rough drawing sketch (do this in a color that’s not black so you can trace over it), then the black outlining and make sure to bring this layer to the top. after that i used a bunch of dif layers to shade, one for sho & togepi’s base skin tone, one for sho’s hair, one for shadows, one for details, etc. once you’re done, just group them all together if you want to move them around the canvas!! oh and then i did the lace border at the very top at the end so it would go over the bottom of the sho drawing as well :) IM NOT SAYIN IM AN ARTIST but that’s just how i’ve been doin it~ good luck babe!!

[neotericbitch]

this was a start of something that then got derailed and i abruptly stopped. but what a waste of words if i don’t share it, you know??

There’s peace to be found in Valkyrie Cain’s house. It’s not immediately obvious, it doesn’t jump out at you, nor does it leave a trail behind to be followed. There’s no map to it, one just...finds it. They carve it out for themselves, or it comes to them. There’s the definite impression that the house doesn’t hand out its peace to just anyone who walks these halls; the peace is earned, and that’s what makes it special, makes it an extra peaceful sort of peace, the peacefullest peace, and now the word peace feels weird so Omen sits for a second thinking of a substitute.

Calm. Yes, it’s calm here, and he appreciates it all the more these days.

Omen sits up straight and cranes his neck from side to side, links his fingers together and stretches his arms up high above his head. Something in his left shoulder cracks and he has a moment of mild panic, and he reaches behind his back and pats for injuries, feeling nothing but his own hand inelegantly pawing around. Omen places his hands on his knees and looks down at the coffee table in front of him.

It’s more paper than table, really; nothing more than the vague idea of a structure, something holding all this mess up off the ground. The surface is completely covered by an array of spread-out old newspapers, held down to the edges with some strips of clear tape. There are two chopping boards over here on Omen’s side of the table, one wooden and one acrylic, the latter serving as the designated space for putting his failed scraps of paper, the former he uses as a base for his homework – because of course he forgot his own board back at Corrival, like an idiot.

No, Omen, not like an idiot, he tells himself. Like a forgetful teenager, which he is allowed to be. Yes.

Although Omen doesn’t know anything about paper quality, he thinks this cardstock is pretty alright – much better than the printer paper that occupies the other side of the coffee table, at least. The card puts up a good fight against his carving knife, which needs to be sharpened and more resembles an implement for spreading butter at the present time, but Omen thinks this is good for the time being. All his cuts are slowly and carefully made, kind of janky where the blade gets caught but probably better than what he’d manage with fast slashes. Those can get...pretty bad.

Another positive thing about his crappy carving knife is that he feels better using it around Alice than he would a sharp one. Not that he’d ever leave it where she could get it, not that he’d ever let her have a close look, not that he’d ever not practise expert knife safety – but, y’know. One of those things.

He jabbed his index finger about forty-five minutes ago and was so relieved when there wasn’t any blood.

As he hunkers over to get back into it, it’s Alice’s turn to straighten up. She puts down the colouring pencils she’s been dual-wielding and shuffles over to the couch – she’s been sitting on the floor, leaving an iPad of indeterminate owner to sit next to Omen, which Alice takes now and fiddles with until the Frozen 2 soundtrack stops playing. There’s the metal tinkling of a dog collar as Xena lifts her head, looking to see what Alice is doing from where she’s laid herself halfway underneath the table. Early Taylor Swift starts playing and Alice returns to her space at the table. 

Xena settles and lets out a big sigh, not her first one for the day, and Omen again wonders for how long could dogs do that and how had he not known, why had no one told him, and what does it mean? Do dogs sigh for the same reasons as people?

He puts this piece of card over on the failure board and gets another, swapping his knife back for a pencil. It’s a yellow one from Alice’s collection that she’s allowed him to borrow, citing it as being too bright, and he uses it now to draw out the same sigil design for, what, the millionth time? This part is easy, it’s been easy for the whole set he’s been working on up until now. Omen can draw the sigils like the best of them – though not really, he has to remind himself to keep from getting a big head – but the drawing isn’t the purpose of the exercise, it’s the carving. He’s still thankful that he’s allowed to trace the way he has been doing, even if it really doesn’t feel like it’s been helping him any.

Alice taps him on the arm twice after he’s finished drawing, immediately withdrawing back into her own space and gathering her hands in her lap. She’s been quiet today. Omen hasn’t known what to do except occasionally look over at her and feel bad, not having a clue on how to comfort little kids – or okay, maybe not comfort, but, reassure? Something like that. Anyway, he almost fully turns to her now, making his eyes wide in the belief that it’ll come across as super accommodating and non-threatening.

“Hey,” says Omen awkwardly. “What’s up?”

She points across the table, to the scraps on the acrylic board. “Can I colour those?”

“Oh! Yeah, sure, let me just–” Omen gathers the scraps up into his hands and sets them down with Alice’s printer paper. “There.”

She examines the little cardstock squares. There’s dozens upon dozens, many test runs and failures from his work over the day. Omen looks at the stack of completed carvings he set at the top corner of the wooden board and sags at how few there are. So much waste for so little work. But Alice doesn’t seem to think of it as waste at all, not as she looks through them and sticks her little fingers through some of the cuts in the paper.

“Are you making snails?”

Omen blinks rapidly as he tries to process this – kids are on a different level. He looks down at the collection of half-carved sigil drawings and attempts to find something snail-like about them. One of the designs is heavily reliant on spirals. Is it the spirals? It could be the spirals.

“Uh, no,” he says. “They’re like,” he pauses to think, “kind of like letters? It’s for one of my classes.”

“What language is it?” asks Alice, setting to work filling between the lines of one of the sigils with a nice powdery blue. She sounds brighter already, at the very least more eager to talk – not looking at Omen probably makes it easier. “Is it a magic language?”

“I don’t know,” he badly lies.

“Oh.”

Silence passes, and Omen shivers at a nonexistent breeze. “It’s like a code,” he offers.

“Oh,” Alice says again, though in a completely different way. She finishes with the powdery blue and starts filling in gaps with a pale green. She nods at the card in a most knowledgeable manner as she reveals, “I know about codes.”

It must be a good thing that she’s talking to him now, right? She’d been looking distracted today, focused elsewhere, on something beyond her own drawings. Maybe nothing at all. And that had worried Omen a bit. Like, Omen likes Alice, she’s a good kid, he doesn’t want her to be sad or anything. He’d have struck up a conversation with her to see if it would help, it’s just that he doesn’t know how to be friends with a kid. What’s even a good thing to say to a kid? Valkyrie’s rule – magic is okay to mention, but not demonstrate – stresses Omen out enough. He worries he’ll say or do the wrong thing and ruin Alice forever. More than he already has.

“What codes do you know about?” asks Omen.

Alice lifts her head and taps her chin for a moment, then shrugs and goes back to colouring in another sigil. “My dad can speak pig latin, he’s really good at it. That means I must be good at it, too.” She meets his eye, looking a little chuffed. “I’m good at lots of things.”

“I bet!” Oh god that sounded so fake.

But Alice beams, and Omen breathes a sigh of relief. Perhaps that’s the trick he’s gotta use – kids respond well to exaggeration, don’t they?

Alice goes on, “I’m going to be so good at whatever I want when I’m a grown-up. That’s what Stephanie says.”

“She’s right! You’ll be great, whatever you do!” Okay now this is a bit much. Omen sucks in a breath and tries to tone it down, tilting his head at the girl. “What, er. What do you want to do, Alice?” Because that’s something you ask kids, yeah? He gets asked it all the time.

...he used to. He used to get asked it all the time. No one asks him much of anything anymore.

“I want to do magic,” admits Alice a bit shyly, and Omen realises this is like a big moment for her and he shouldn’t get so caught up in his moping. “I think about it loads, and I know exactly what I’ll do! I’ll have a big wand with a star on top, and I’ll have fairy wings and definitely be able to fly, and when I wave my wand at someone they have to do what I say.” She turns one of her pencils in her hand, trying to find a good spell-casting position, miming fancy flourishes. “I’ll make shooting stars with my hands, and people can wish on them but I’m in charge of what wishes actually happen.”

He nods along dumbly. “Rad.”

Alice feels the same way. She climbs up to her feet. “I’ll show you. I’ll do like this.” She waves the pencil at Xena, who lifts her head, ears pricked and tail starting to wag. “Xena,” Alice says. “Stand up.”

The dog obeys, fully coming out from under the table. She looks between Alice and Omen expectantly, like playtime is about to begin – which Omen dreads. But when Alice tells Xena to sit again, she does, and now they’re cycling through all sorts of tricks. Roll over, shake hands. The whole arsenal. It’s very impressive, but Alice grows bored with the demonstration soon enough and wants to keep colouring. She retakes her place on the floor, only now with Xena lying beside her with her head on her leg.

Omen clicks his tongue against his teeth and looks towards the entryway to the living room. He puts his hands back on his knees and rocks himself into a stand.

“I think I’m gonna go look for your sister,” he tells Alice. “Are you okay staying here?”

“Yes,” replies Alice mindlessly, before snapping her head up at him. Panic swims in her eyes. “You’re not going to tell on me, are you?”

Omen balks. “Tell on you for what?”

“Doing magic,” she cries. “I want to wait until I’m really good before showing Stephanie.” She points her pencil at him with utmost seriousness. “Don’t tell Stephanie!” Alice commands.

He raises his hands defensively, eyebrows shot up as far as they can go. “Hey, it’s cool. I won’t.”

“You better not!”

“I won’t, Alice, I said it’s cool!”

She seems satisfied with this, and returns to drawing little stars around one of his sigils. Xena doesn’t lift her head, but she looks at Omen with her dog eyes, with a very...doggish look. You know how sometimes a dog’ll look at you and you know they’re thinking something? Omen feels like he’s been looked at that way by many a dog. He offers his hands to Xena, speaking quietly, almost as if he’s afraid of addressing her. Not in a scared-of-dogs sort of way, more in a scared-of-librarians way, but now that Omen is thinking about it he figures dogs are kind of like librarians. A silent authority.

“You stay there,” he says. “Good girl. I’ll be right back.”

“She only listens to me,” Alice claims without looking up.

Omen doesn’t know what to say to this, so he just turns and heads out of the living room.

The strange, special peace of Valkyrie Cain’s house slowly returns to him as he makes his way through it. It’s not quite an exploration, as he’s been here before and has a general idea of what goes where, but it’s definitely not a search either, he moves much too unhurriedly. He thinks maybe he shouldn’t, maybe he should hurry. Maybe the reason why Valkyrie’s been gone for so long is that something terrible happened, there’s some monster or serial killer loose in the house–

Omen takes in a deep breath and squares his shoulders. There is not a monster or serial killer loose in the house, he very calmly tells himself. Something terrible has not happened. Valkyrie has been gone only twenty minutes. Maybe she’s in the toilet. Omen pulls a face at the thought; in the toilet for twenty minutes, you fool? You think Valkyrie Cain gets constipated? You think she wouldn’t have that worked out? Flustered at his own line of thinking, Omen needs to rapidly decide what she’s been up to. Valkyrie’s been– she’s been... He catches his reflection in a mirror, and the peace has fully evaporated once more.

“Avoiding you, probably,” he mutters. “You stupid git.”

She must have only let him hang out here out of pity. She must’ve read his message and scoffed at how pathetic he is. What kind of guy wants to do his homework at barely an acquaintance’s house? What kind of guy can’t handle the school library by himself anymore?

Perhaps because that’s what he is; by himself, most unavoidably. Unwanted wherever he goes, promoted from dumb idiot friend and brother to an even dumber idiot third wheel. A useless lump of a person with no aspirations, all the more useless now that the world is done with his family. What he’d give to be there for his brother in this time, to help him through it – but that spot’s taken for Auger, and resultantly empty for Omen.

He points at himself. “You need to quit whining,” he nearly snaps. “And you need to stop being so hard on yourself. You dumb– fucking…”

Omen has a little sit in the hallway for a few minutes, fists pressed against his mouth as he looks at the weird and wonderful design of the rug. In fact, he can spot a few sigils weaved in there, that’s pretty cool. Did Valkyrie pick out this rug? Was it a gift? It’s in good condition but it’s probably pretty old – the faint smell helps attest to that. Maybe her uncle had more to do with this rug than she did, or maybe it was here way before either of them. Who knows! The mystery of the rug.

Gordon Edgley, Omen assumes, probably loved Valkyrie very much. Certainly enough to leave her this big house and its peace. It would be nice to be loved, to be left something. To have peace. He gets up.

Valkyrie is one floor higher, in a slightly unkempt yet clearly underused office. She stands at the desk, a journal splayed open on its surface as she takes pictures of the pages on her phone, sending them off somewhere. Omen watches her do this for a minute, wondering if he’s become good at sneaking around; thinking perhaps she hasn’t noticed him.

“You right there, Omen,” Valkyrie eventually says without looking up, not asking a question as much as she is crushing his dreams of stealth.

He sags and takes one step into the office, but comes no further than that. “I was just, ah… I just thought– I thought, you’d been gone a little while. Alice might be missing you. Or something.”

Valkyrie stuffs her phone in her back trouser pocket, then immediately takes it out again to check the time on the lock screen before putting it back. “Should get her home before long.”

Omen reverses back into the hallway. “Oh, yeah, um. I’ll leave soon, too.”

She fully turns around, leaning against the desk, and actually, properly looks at him now. Looks and sees, maybe even comprehends. Not likely on that last one, though; no pity has crossed her face yet. “Yeah, if you want. But no rush, Omen, you can chill here as long as you need.”

His first instinct is to argue for something he doesn’t even want. He clasps his hands behind his back instead. “Thanks.”

She folds her arms over her chest and tilts her head to the side. “You sure you’re alright?” He hadn’t said he was. “You seem a bit lost, there.”

“Oh, you know.” Omen fidgets and tries for a joking tone, “Aren’t we all?”

Valkyrie nods sagely, reaching to the desk behind her to close the journal. “Wise words, Darkly.”

Something about this little exchange has made him feel better. Maybe it’s this new, more positive energy that Valkyrie is radiating, how she smiles unbidden at her phone when it buzzes at her for something. Omen almost feels comfortable enough to attempt a more meaningful discussion, but there really is no easy opener for any of what he has on his mind, nor a point to saying any of it aloud. Despite this good mood she’s been in, she probably wouldn’t care in the slightest.

Which is fine, because she is a grown woman with her own life and her own problems, Omen is sure to tell himself.

Valkyrie pockets her phone again and straightens up, exits the office and starts going down the hallway. Omen watches her, and she must hear that he’s not following because she glances back and waves him over.

“Get with the program,” she says sharply, but with good humour. “When I was your age and people started walking away, I knew it was time,” she snaps her fingers, “to get fuckin’ moving.”

“Sorry,” says Omen as he hurries up beside her. “Am I annoying you? I’m probably just getting in your way.”

She looks at him and laughs. “I just asked you to follow me! Relax, Omen, you know I like you.”

“Right, gotcha. Thank you.”

“Some of the time.”

He blinks. Valkyrie nudges him with her elbow.

“More than some of the time,” she says like she’s paying him a compliment.

“Ha,” Omen replies, feeling bolstered but still kind of stumbling on his next words, “I guess there’s times where I can stand you, too.”

Valkyrie’s laugh is a roll of thunder. “You cheeky fucker!”

they were gonna come back to alice and see that she’d started colouring in omen’s proper, completed homework sigils and accidentally activated one (just a little glowy thing, nothing dangerous), and after taking her home valkyrie was gonna ask omen about it and he was gonna tell her about what alice said about doing magic – but then it’d turn out that he literally can’t. when she waves her wand at someone they have to do what she says.

i also wanted to explore valkyrie and omen being friends now that valkyrie’s up for it. she’s taking pictures of werewolf entries in gordon’s books and sending them on to skulduggery, fyi, then smiling when he texts back a joke or some shit. valdug was gonna have a werewolf adventure. and ofc omen dealing with post-prophecy angst.

but alice accidentally doing magic!! HOOH BOYy

maybe i’ll try in comic form.

[kyidyl]

Can we talk about art for a second?

I’m pretty sure none of you are following me for art content because that’s just not what I do normally, but I’ve been working on some stuff and I just wanted to share. Here’s my current WIP:

I’m using sketchbook on my iPad Pro, and...can we just talk about process for a second? I’m gonna put this behind a cut just in case it gets long and because this isn’t my normal content. 

So I’ve been drawing almost my entire life, but I didn’t really start teaching myself anything good until around 9th grade (which is like...14 years old.). I started by copying Disney characters and then I was introduced to comic books and I copied those. I was in college when digital art start making its way into the art world. People would color their pencil drawings (this was shortly before tablets, so...with a mouse.). I grew into an artist around the time people like Aimee Major and Stephanie Lostimolo were really starting to stand out. And I don’t know about other fandoms, but I was in the gargoyles fandom and from what I can tell...a LOT of modern digital art has its genesis in that fandom. Anyway, what I’m trying to say here is that I started using photoshop with version 3.0 and I’ve had a Wacom tablet almost since the day they came out (gen one graphire tablet represent!).

I’ve never, in all that time, gotten the hang of digital painting. I have a hard time with tablets because you can’t tilt them like you can tilt a paper and it takes a weird sort of hand-eye-screen coordination that I just never mastered. But digital art is so beautiful that I’ve always WANTED to be able to do it. I can make graphics and edit photos but I have a hard time with painting. I have seen the million myriad ways of doing it, and most of them start with the same idea: lay down flats and then lighten or darken as necessary. And this never worked for me because a, the airbrush tool isn’t painterly enough for me and b, it takes for goddamned EVER. For. Ever. And I’m a fast artist! I can spit out a whole line drawing in like a half hour-45 mins with traditional media. But I have adhd, and so finishing long term large scale detailed projects is often not in the cards for me. So dumping like 48 hours of work time into a painting isn’t going to work for me.

But recently I’ve gotten back into art again and I’ve been watching the sky artist of the year and I decided I was curious about oil painting and, well, one hyperfixation later, here we are. I don’t have the money or space for actual oil painting, so I went to sketchbook to see if there was an alternative, and there is! So because I wanted to learn how to oil paint I finally figured out how to digitally paint and I’m gonna share that with you in case you, like me, struggle with the time input and focus required to do digital art.

First, I started practicing poses by drawing an outline over any image that caught my fancy. I have a good understanding of human anatomy because of my science background, but my poses aren’t creative and I especially struggle with perspective and multiple figures in an image. So I started to do line drawings over an image. Here’s the stock image I used for the WIP:

Look at all that fabric! Look at the movement! I love it. So I traced it:

Yes, TRACED, because tracing is a tool like anything else.

Then I choose colors. I pick 5: a midtone (the color you want the thing to be perceived as. In my case, you can see it in the WIP at the top.), a slight dark, a slight light, a blackened tone for deep shadow, and a very light tone for highlights. I always default to white light when choosing these colors, and I’ll get to my reasoning further down. The palette for the robe looks like this:

(Ignore the tan and blue, they’re for another project)

Then you start to lay down flats. Now, I do this with the synthetic oil brush in sketchbook because I like the texture (this image though I’d laid down the flats with the airbrush months ago and didn’t want to redo it, hence the lack of texture and the 100% opacity.), and as with oils, my approach to digital now is to layer rather than cover. Staying in the lines isn’t important. In fact, you should go outside of the lines because it will help you get shadows and highlights along the edges later. What IS important is putting everything on different layers. When in doubt, new layer. I work from back to front, which means that the base layer is the background. In front of that is the skin, in front of that is the robe, in front of that is the teal inside of the robe, in front of that is accessories. Hair varies depending on what’s going on with the image. Here I’ll probably put it between the skin and robe. Ask yourself: what is this covered by? And the use that to decide layer placement. Special effects are a whole other thing, as are highlights. I’ll get to that in a second tho.

The next step is to create an oversketch. This serves much the same function as an undersketch in oil painting, only in reverse because your reference photo is under - and covered - by your work. I started doing it because as I was painting I was flicking the layer on and off, making it transparent, whatever just to see where the shadows are on the reference image. It was a real pain in the rear. So I started making the blobs and borders of the highlights and shadows with an oversketch. You don’t need a method for telling which boundaries are for shadows and which are highlights because for that you can just turn the layer on and off. Just mark where the General shapes are. Here’s the oversketch for this drawing:

See? Blobs of General Area. When you’re painting, use them to lay down color and then turn them off when you’re blending because they’re not part of the final image and you don’t want to end up with gaps that were covered by the over sketch. To do this, I use the 9b pencil tool and black, but tbh just se whatever you like. That’s just my preference.

Now, for the shading. I started by trying a bunch of different natural media brushes but I eventually ended up sticking on a kind of weird choice: the fan brush. I keep the flow around 20%, which gives me these nice textured marks to lay down color, but then if I don’t lift the pencil up it stops laying down color and instead starts to blend. This means a, I can make it as smooth or painterly as I like with one tool and b, I can paint and blend with the same tool. No more muddying up my drawings by over-blending with the smudge. No losing the texture while blending because it blends with the texture. And the shape of the fan brush allows me to be smudgy with I like, but also will do hard edges. Plus the blending thins out the colors so I can get neat effects by laying down colors on top of each other because it stays a little transparent. You end up needing to lay down a lot of “paint” to get opacity but that’s ok because it allows you to make more complex colors. That’s good, because things like skin aren’t a color. They’re chemical: they’re melanin in cells over blood vessels and muscle and skin is transparent. Even very dark skinned people have undertones. So when you build up paint this way you can capture undertones without ruining your painting. Which, I’m pretty sure, is how it works in oils. But it translates well to digital.

So at this point, painting your image is basically a calming adult coloring book. You lay down color, blend, check your reference, repeat. But a few things to keep in mind:

- Take note of the darkest and lightest areas of the image. Nothing should be lighter or darker than these areas. Nothing in the drawing above will be darker than her back because that’s the darkest area of the painting.

- See the trees and the forest. Sometimes a detail doesn’t make any sense until you’ve seen it in context. Trust your guide and your photo reference. But also make sure that you don’t get so stuck in the details that you can’t relate one area to another. A fold that goes through two areas should be consistent across those two areas, even if you painted them separately. An area might seem dark in comparison to what’s next to it, but it isn’t as dark as the darkest area of the image so don’t go whole hog. Keep it in context.

- Folds in clothing aren’t nonsensical. They are a result of the movement and weight of the fabric. Ergo, the shadows and highlights that create them should also make sense.

- If you’re having a hard time figuring out where the highlights and shadows are, make a copy of the reference image layer and desaturate in, then turn off the colored reference layer.

Lastly, I’m finding it helpful to keep the highlights from colored light on its own layer. I didn’t used to do this, I used to use the colored light as one of my highlight colors. But the truth is that most objects are shaded by more than one light source, and so I’ve decided to do all the shading as white light and then the green (which will eventually be from some kind of green magic.) is on a different layer. My reasoning for this is that it helps keep the integrity of the shading and it prevents the colors from bending too much and getting muddy. So if I add a green highlight and I don’t like it then it’s easy to remove. I don’t have a highlight and shading that’s now ruined by green because I’ve been using light flow brushes. So colored light on its own layer. How much of a highlight you give it entirely depends on how strong your light sources is and whatnot. So far I’m satisfied with just hitting the high points, but I may change that later on.

When you’re done painting the area, go ahead and erase all of the excess paint around the edges of it and clean it up. I like to leave the black outline as part of the image, but if you don’t want to do that you should turn it on and off as necessary while painting so you can make sure to fill in gaps and get clean lines between the areas of color.

So if you made it all the way down here, thanks for reading my ramble. :)

[coco-chip]

Do you have any advice for someone who wants to try digital art? Like‚ is there anything you wished you knew when you first started or what programs are best for beginners? I want to try it I just have not idea where to start. Sorry for the stupid questions. (I really love your art btw)

Sure! I’m not the best with this since I’m not professionally trained but I’ll tryThis got long so I’m putting it under a cut

Program

For me the best free program out there for digital artists is Medibang Paint  It is very extensive and constantly getting updates! I would still be using it if clipstudio pro wasn’t so good. 

Speaking of Clipstudio, It is a very good program but I wouldn’t recommend it to beginners because it does not have a beginner friendly UI and it is not free.

Tablet

As for starting out what to draw that’s up to you but personally I would start out with a cheap and reliable tablet! Some people prefer using Ipads but I like having pen pressure. So the best cheap and reliable tablets is Huion. I honestly think Huion is miles ahead of wacom. 

For your first tablet do not get wacom. They are much more expensive than they need to be and not even better quality.

I would still be using Huion if they had pen computers but only Wacom has that right now. My first tablet from Huion was this one (which isnt on their official store for some reason?) I think this type of model that’s cheap and has no shortcut buttons is perfect for a beginner! but there’s a wide variety you can get for a good price! Size is important! I wouldn’t get anything smaller than 8x5 inches. You need enough space to comfortably move your arm. Not just your wrist, that’s how you get cramps

Shortcuts (your best friend)Why do I say no shortcut buttons on a tablet is perfect for a beginner? Because Keyboard shortcuts are so so much better and easier. There’s a lot more buttons you can use and hook up a certain shortcut too. Even if you do get a tablet with shortcut buttons I suggest using the keyboard shortcuts. Use Shortcuts Here’s a good video on the medibang shortcuts 

Stretch

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a serious issue. Always do a quick stretch before drawing and I’d suggest just doing it sporadically throughout the day

here’s some good stretches

Anatomy

Anatomy is tricky! I still don’t get it and I’ve been drawing most of my life

When I started out I watched and followed these videos

I would also suggest doing plenty of body studies. Something I used to do is just input terms like “egyptian model” find a random image from that and draw that person. or I would put in “cutest dog” and draw that image. These are just studies for practice but if they spur an idea thats all the better

I think the most important part of figuring out anatomy is the ability to break things down into shapes. This tutorial series helped me understand shapes better but there’s plenty of good tutorials out there that break the body into shapes like this

I do have a dedicated art tutorial tag that you can peruse

General advice

Use Layers - the best part of digital drawing is layers! When starting out a piece use one layer per item. First do the sketch. Then do a layer on top of that of the body. Then of the hair. Then of the clothes. Don’t be afraid to make a new layer just for some extra details. I always merge finished layers (never with the sketch) for easier tracking but you don’t have to. 

The internet’s your friend - The best thing about this modern age we live in is the vast amount of information we can get! If you ever think “man how do i draw x?” Hop into a search platform and type in “how to draw x” read as many tutorials as you can and you’ll always know a little bit more than you did before (though you should make sure safesearch is on)

it’s okay to trace sometimes - A lot of people say don’t trace! but there is a tme and pace to trace. When you’re learning its okay to take real life pictures of objects or people and trace over them to understand porportions and feel. However, never post anything you trace and claim it as your own. Don’t trace for every picture. Tracing should only be used as a learning tool, just like anatomy practice

You don’t need shading - if you’re like me and you hate shading you really don’t need to do it! Look at all of my art pieces I think I’ve only shaded for like 3 or four of them? and I only shaded for effect. Shading is really not that important. If you have nice lineart you don’t even need color! 

The bad advice

here’s bad “advice” I got from art tutorials when I was younger that you should really ignore

“men and women’s bodies look drastically different, women are all curves men are all hard lines” - this is so so so wrong I don’t even know why tutorials say this. If you want to draw people look at real people! I think it’s best to think about the type of character you are drawing. If you are drawing lets say a short man type in “short man” into a search platform and draw from there. If you want to draw a muscular women search up “muscular woman”. this is also good for drawing characters of different ethnicities

“Don’t use oversaturated colors” - saturated colors are super fun! You jsut have to use them right, when drawing or coloring with saturated colors make sure to keep the color palette consistent. Aka either draw in all satruated colors, Or have only one thing in a saturated color to make it pop, or have only one thing non saturated for effect. Don’t have an even mix of unsaturated and saturated colors that can look confusing

And that’s everything I can think of right now! Thanks for the ask and for the compliment! I hope some of this helps you! 

[regretsdelusionstoughluck]

PART 3

WEDNESDAY MORNING

While Damon was online looking for odd jobs he noticed an add for dancers needed. He’s had a stripper license since he was 19 and used this as a means for extra money when not deployed. He sent this to Oliver in an email prior to calling him on his way to the pharmacy.

“Morning”

“Check out the email”

As he pulled out his iPad, he saw the email

“What the fuck is this?”

“Strippin....you already do way more,  plus a bachelorette party would get you a killing. I used to dance at a few of them when I was home”

“Got anything else?”

“Banquets, I know a lot of companies. I can send you a list of catering companies you could do work for. What you got going on right now?”

“Laying on the couch, going into the office”

[Really? That’s the best you got? What part of “I want out of this life do you not understand?]

While he wasn’t thrilled about it, he took some time to think about t and he realized that bachelorette parties are for the entertainment value and he did keep his body in shape. However, didn’t want his current situation to mirror that of “The Players Club”.

Oliver got up from the couch to fix himself an omelette while continuing to talk. “Yo, I got you on speaker phone, doing some stuff in the kitchen”

“Man, remember when we were young and we would see vacationers out here, we vowed that one day it would be us taking trips with our families?”

“I do, and when I look at where I’m at, I think to myself “What the actual fuck?”

[We were lied to. In 2008, when we were in high school, we were told to go to college. That it was the ticket to a successful life. What they didn’t tell us is that the economy would tank. They didn’t go cover any alternatives. They never went over the cost of living and the fact that people here are working three jobs. I should have seen this with my own parents. Dad worked for the state and then worked as a janitor in the evenings. Mom still works as a financial aid officer at a state college. The preparation sucked. What the fuck am I gonna use creative writing for? Why was that in school?]

He cut the conversation short to eat his breakfast and get a shower in before work. Afterwards, he ironed a pair of pants and a golf shirt and heaved to the office where the direction informed him and Claudia:

“I have a project for the two of you. Our event is coming up at the mall. You two are going to be drawing outlines to these animal pieces on the construction poet right there. We’re expecting about 200 kids”

“No problem” Oliver said looking at the green construction paper in front of him

“It’ll be a breeze” Claudia assured him as she took a pair of scissors and the elephant trunk and demonstrated. 

“So it’s like build a bear type of think but with other animals but they’re decorating their bags with them. That’s cute”

“Yeah, so are you gonna go to the career fair next week”

“The one at the convention center?”

“Yea, I heard there’s going to be several companies there.”

[Resume-FEMA, fucking, and non-profit]

“I plan on it. Do you know if any government agencies are gonna be there? I couldn’t find a roster anywhere”

“Not sure”

They continued working while talking about goals and aspirations when he noticed an alert on her phone. Knowing the conference due to getting the same alert an hour earlier, he asked her how she knew about it? Somewhat embarrassed, she snapped “What are you doing looking at my phone?!”

“I merely glanced over!” he exclaimed before taking her aside and confessing to being involved in the worlds oldest profession “I hate it. One would think attractive people and pleasure but there’s no real live and frankly it feels like a modern version of slavery. I can’t get a decent date to save my life”

After a moment of silence, she admitted that she was a phone sex operator and that she worked in evenings. “I have a friend who also is in high class escorting”

“High class?”

“Let’s talk about it later? How about we meet for a drink after work? We need to get a bit more of this done.”

Meanwhile, Damon was scouting on the web when his eye caught the attention of a webcam modeling website.

 He though about his current life and how he’d mange to file his taxes. He normally got a 1090 at the end of the year. He also though about the repercussions of this and the thought that the clientele could  be from his local area. He had a flashback to being deployed in Germany where he and some buds where in a night club, partying surrounded by beautiful women. “We are like royalty!”  He thought about a conversation he had with his peer about wanting to serve for eight years and then retire and start college. Little did he know that half way though that time frame that he’d suffer a back injury along w/ PTSD from witnessing the death of a friend at the hands of a grenade.

He applied for work with multiple agencies and thought about how he could sporadically work vs checking in daily. With webcam modeling he could set his own schedule. With that in mind he decided to text Oliver.

“Who was that?”

“My friend Damon”

“So about how long have you with with this company?”

“About six months. I’m trying to start grad school”

They chatted while filing paperwork. They talked about politics, racial issues, economic issues, and the like. Claudia made for good company. She graduated with two degrees. She majored in English Education and Journalism and worked as a teacher’s aide for a period. She was tired of the work with virtually no pay. She responded to an add. Currently she works for a phone sex. One has seen the commercials late at night. She’s one of them. Definitely more conventional than Oliver’s current job. 

As he was getting ready to eat lunch, she Claudia asked him if he wanted to eat while they worked. “Sure” he said as he went to grab his lunch out of his bag. 

“We work with several schools in their special ed departments”

“What do y’all do?”

”We will be finalizing contracts for events mainly. But we do outreach and after school programs on social etiquette and speech practices our goal is to  help those with autism be as integrated into society as possible” Noticing Oliver’s garden salad, she asked him “you health conscious?”

“Yep. Grew up like that. My parent’s rarely fried anything, but they didn’t ban them from the house. My mom was always big on vitamins and drinking plenty of water. I practice that today, to keep things under control. Being a diabetic, I have to watch it.”

Shocked at the revelation she asked him when he was diagnosed. He was diagnosed at 6 years old.

“I’m trying to lose weight, but I find myself emotionally eating more than I should”

Trying to avoid saying anything that could be interpreted as offensive, he simply said that he had his days too, hence the reason he goes to the gym six days/week, doing a combination of cardio and weights. After they finished eating lunch, they cut more construction paper and bagged it. They filed folders away for about an hour when Oliver signed out.”See you tomorrow?”

“You’ll see me in a couple of hours.”

The sun was beaming as Oliver drove home. He rolled down his window and plugged his phone in to have some music playing. He checked the mail and saw the electric bill was in. “Shouldn’t be this much” he said “I’m never home”

He checked his email as well as his escorting profile receiving three request including one overnight stay. Booking these trips back to back, he thought about his weekly check at $8.75/hr at 25 hrs per week along w/ the money from the three client’s that he’d earn. He’d have enough to pay his final payment on his only student loan and to pay his car note.

He kicked off his shoes to give his feet some air and called his mom.

[I’m being nice. This place is a shithole, in fact the only reason my unit isn’t laden with roaches is because I frequently buy those foggers and then I have to open the damn windows and door risking my shit being stolen. Also, Bengal and Boric Acid along the cracks and corners have done wonders.]

He looked up and realized that it was time to meet Claudia. He traded in his work outfit for a pair or black cargo shorts, a zero-nineteen tank top from K-Mart, and a pair of flip-flops and headed out. He got in the truck, turned the air on and arrived to the bar 20 minutes later. Locating Claudia at a table in the bar area we walked in to meet her when the waiter took their drink order.

[She’s a pharmacy tech and she still needs to be a lady of the evening by night? I’m fucked-literally and figuratively]

She advised him to update his profile to include massages and casual dates at a lower rate. While they were talking, A woman walks up, dark skin, about 5′9, in her mid 20s. She spotted Claudia and walked in the sit next to her.

“Hey chick!”

“Hey!”

“Hello, I’m Aya, how are your doing?” she said as she reached out to shake Oliver’s hand

“Oliver, I’m good. How about you?”

“So this is the guy? He’s cute”

“He’s taken”

“Actually I’m very available”

After ordering a drink, she begin to explain to Oliver how she got into her current part time job.  “I started off escorting however a client of mine introduced me to a coworker of his that owned a matchmaking service. I showed up to a mixer I went out on one date. I never saw the guy again afterwards. That said, he did mention to me that he had utilized services where one would rent a dates for events. I eventually branched off and begin advertising on craigslist and the like.”

“So do you still...….you  know?”

“Sporadically, but that’ll cost extra.”

Later that night, he decided to update his profile w/ additional services offered. He decided to try out a couple of speed dating events himself. He might even snap a client or two.  Perhaps, he’d been looking in the wrong places, maybe it was time for more upscale social functions. His current evening work was not a glamorous job and frankly it was quite dangerous. 

[Prostitution can be traced back as far as biblical times. Not a new profession and it’s a profession that’s always been available for the money. Sometimes, we use it to pay off a loan or some sort of debt. For others, it’s the love of sex. Some just like the temporary luxury that comes with being one’s bitch. Me? I’d like nothing more than to settle down. I know there’s a way. It may take a while to find it, but I refuse to have THIS be my stop.]

STORY SYNOPSIS

CHARACTERS

PART 4 TO FOLLOW