#anyways. good exercise in trying to line+color more

[syqy]

rafflesia - a flowering plant which emits the smell of rotting flesh to attract that which feeds on the dead

[bunniesanddeer]

Hi! I hope you’re having a wonderful day or night.

I saw your asks are open and I had an idea. What if it’s a protective Alastor x Reader who is the daughter of a protective Lucifer? Maybe she kept in contact with her dad so they are closer and she is older than Charlie. When Lucifer comes to visit the hotel him and Alastor cause some drama

Thanks!

W.P💚

I hope this is what you were looking for? I am very new to doing things like this!

Daddy's Girl

Pairing: Alastor X Lucifer's Daughter! Reader

Tags: Sisterly love, some sexual connotations, spoilers, some angst maybe? idk, swearing, Mimzy.

SPOILERS FOR "DAD BEAT DAD"

Word Count: 1,775

The hotel was eerily quiet when you awoke, so you made your way downstairs to see if anyone was awake. All you could hear as you made your way down the stairs was your quiet footfalls and weird murmuring. As you turned towards the sitting area, you realized the muttering was coming from your younger sister, Charlie.

Charlie was pacing back and forth in front of a pin board covered in colorful papers, and strings. She tugged at her hair, her muttering growing more frantic. As you took in the scene, you realized there were a few people standing and watching her. Niffty was bouncing on the couch, her face full of a strange glee. Husk and Sir Pentious were watching with mixes of bafflement and curiosity.

“Hey, Char Char? Are you ok?” You asked, walking around the couch to get a better view. You saw Angel and Vaggie approach from your peripherals as Charlie whipped around frantically.

“Nope! No. Not really! Haha. Hah…” Her false smile falls as she rips a page off the board. “I have been up all night trying to figure out why the hotel isn’t working! We’ve done every single trust exercise and arts and crafts project I could find! We’ve talked about our feelings and… nothing is working!”

You frown. You knew that things taking so long would eventually get to her, but it was sad to see just how severely. She needed more help. 

You walk up to your sister, and set your hands on her shoulders. “I think…”

Her expression collapses. “Please don’t say it.”

“We should call dad. And ask for his help.”

She winces. She clearly doesn’t want your dad’s help. You can’t exactly blame her, either. The two of you were raised a little separate, and it had affected her relationship with Lucifer pretty badly. Although, you were older, and it had afforded you time with Lucifer before Lilith had started to separate herself from him. Charlie had only had a handful of years before their relationship went south. It showed in her anxiety with him, and Lucifer’s inability to talk to Charlie openly. It made you sad, but you weren’t sure how to fix that rift.

“He’s the reason the extermination happens to begin with! He just let it happen! He doesn’t even like sinners! Why would he help me?” Charlie hugs herself, looking off to the side. “He’s always preferred you anyway.”

You hear some audible winces from the audience by the couch, but you ignore them. You pull her into a tight hug, her taller frame putting you at her collarbones. “You know I would change that if I could, honey.” You squeeze her tightly and say, “We can at least see if he can get you a meeting. Anything to give you the advantage, Char Char.”

She sighs, and hugs you back. “Yeah. I guess we can at least try.”

You pull back. “I think you should call him. I bet he’s dying to hear from you, even though he sucks at showing it.”

Charlie rubs her arm and nods. “Alright. I’ll do it!”

As she struggles to start the phone call, Husk makes comments about her having ‘Daddy Issues’, and you blanch. How rude! (Even if it was true). The others make comments about meeting Lucifer, but you and Vaggie just keep your eyes on Charlie. She seems so nervous, and it makes your stomach twist in knots. 

She finally calls. It rings three times before a faint, “Heyyyy bitch!” rings out on the other end of the line. You facepalm. Good going Dad.

When all is said and done, Lucifer announces he is visiting within the hour, after much cajoling and guilt-tripping on Charlie’s part. Although, from what you could hear, he seemed excited.

Charlie is excited, and so is everyone else in the hotel. You cheer for her, and then the realization hits you. 

Alastor. Fuck.

As the final touches are finished, you sidle up to Alastor with a small grin.

“Please, please don’t start shit. Charlie needs this to work. And I need this to work for Charlie,” you murmur to him. 

He barely glances at you. “Worry not, sweetheart! You know I would never do anything to risk the reputation of the hotel! Charlie will get the help she needs!” His arm wraps around your shoulders, and he squeezes you into his side. For just a moment, his head ducks down, and he whispers into your ear. “Just need to make it clear whose little girl you are now.” Then he perks right back up like nothing happened.

Your face burns hot. How dare he! But you don’t get to do anything in retaliation, because Charlie is opening the door.

“Chaaaaarlie!” Lucifer exclaims, immediately pulling her into a tight embrace. Your sister’s face is full of shock, and you just want to laugh. Ha! You were right! He continues talking to her in the slightest baby voice, and you can’t help but let some giggles escape you. Your dad could be just so silly! “Oh, it’s so good to see you!”

He lets go of Charlie as she welcomes him to the hotel. He spots Keekee first, and pets her. Then greets Razzle and Dazzle. You watch from the sidelines with a small smile. It was nice seeing your dad outside the home. He had been holing himself up for so long… You look up at Alastor, who hasn’t moved an inch since your dad came in.

You elbow him gently. “You okay?”

Alasotr’s expression is tight. His eyes flicker to you for a moment, before landing back on your father. He merely hums in response, making you frown. How odd… You knew the two wouldn’t get along, but for Alastor to dislike him already?

 Then your dad spots the bar. “Oh! What in the unholy Hell is that?” 

Alastor immediately shadow-walks to the other side of the room, and you know it’s time to intervene.

“Oh! Just some of the renovations we’ve made.” Alastor gestures with his mic, before continuing. “Adds a bit of color, don’t you think?” 

You wince, and make your way to Alastor’s side. 

“Hey, Dad,” you say, trying to prevent your dad making any further comments on the decor. That's a good way to piss off Alastor.

“Sweetheart!�� Your dad runs up to you, and tries picking you up. You laugh at the tights squeeze. “How’s my girl?” His hands squish your cheeks, making it hard to respond.

You giggle through the ministrations, and finally push his hands back so you can respond. “I’m doing great, Dad. Figured I should introduce you to Alastor here.” You gesture to Alastor, who looks the closest to not smiling that you have ever seen. It makes your stomach feel like lead, as you keep talking. “He’s our facilities' manager, and my…”

Your voice trails off, and you look at Alastor, as if hoping he has the word you are looking for.

“I’m her lover!” Alastor exclaims, quite loudly. His static drops for a moment and then bursts back up in volume, making you wince. Great. He just announced that to everyone in the room. The ‘everyone’ being everyone who didn’t know. You can hear Charlie ‘whoop!’ in the background, and several variations of ‘what the fuck’. “She’s quite the darling. I just couldn’t resist this sweet face!” Alastor grabs at your cheeks, similar to how your dad did, and squishes them. “See?”

You risk a glance at your dad. He looks ready to kill. Fuck. This is absolutely not how you wanted to tell your dad. He nearly killed the last partner you had for ghosting you. You can see your dad’s horns growing, and you push Alastor back.

“Haha! Yeah. Uh. Sorry. I would have told you before now, but we’re kind of new! We were trying to keep it on the down-low for now but…” You glare at Alastor, but he just has this shit-eating grin on his face, and you know he doesn’t care. 

“Right.” Your dad continues glaring at Alastor. You wince, and decide to go over by the snack table. Angel is just giving you this look, and you know he will be asking about Alastor’s dick, which you have not seen, later. Husk seems disappointed in you, and you absolutely know why. You just give him an apologetic shrug, and watch as Alastor and your dad seem to start a pissing match. 

It ends with Alastor in his face saying, “Fuck you,” and your knees nearly give out. Holy shit. 

Charlie finally intervenes, and Lucifer, after some more glaring at Alastor, get her to introduce him to the rest of the residents.

Alastor lays a hand on your shoulder as your dad greets both the guests and the staff. You can feel his thumb rubbing back and forth, and it sends shivers down your spine. You look up at Alastor, but his gaze is still locked on your dad. Annoyed, you roll your eyes with a huff, and look back to the meet-and-greet. Your dad is looking back at you, his frown deep, and a barely audible growl making its way to your ears. Your dad is fucking growling at Alastor. What the Hell?

A rumble builds up in Alastor’s chest, and you can feel it against your back. This one sets heat back up to your face. Gosh, this man needed to get his shit together. No need to start stuff with your dad! Alastor’s hand tightens on your shoulder, before he lets go and stalks back towards Charlie, who is trying to convince your dad to help her. 

And then they’re singing. Because of course. Alastor joins in, saying some things that seem to really piss off your dad, but you can't hear much over the blood rushing in your ears. Sometimes these two could be so embarrassing. When your dad pulls out the golden fiddle, you nearly die laughing. (He still wasn’t over losing that one time!) Everything comes to a head, with the two men yelling insults in each other's faces, when suddenly-

“It’s ME!” A woman barges in through the lobby doors, yelling and calling herself Mimzy. She’s blonde, and dressed like a flapper. Alastor seems to recognize her, so you don’t worry. 

Later that night, when your dad has finally agreed to help your sister get that meeting, you all settle onto the couches, making a game plan. Alastor sits beside you, one foot resting on the other knee. You lean over and ask softly, “What did you say during that song, anyway?”

Alastor’s grin sharpens, and he presses his lips near your ear, again. “Charlie calls me dad, and your eldest calls me Daddy.”

If you nearly choke on your own spit, you refuse to admit it. 

[leonw4nter]

Magnolia

[RE2!Leon x GN!Reader]

"After several successful nights of studying hard, your doting boyfriend has nothing but words of praise for your efforts <3" [fluff]

wc - 449

After finishing up on checking your practice sets, you hold your paper up in satisfaction. 35/35, a perfect score, a hard-earned perfect mark from all the nights and hours spent doing active recall and solving practice questions. You grin to yourself, feeling confident and prepared for a long test, proud of the fact that you managed to effectively study. You set it back down, slipping your reviewers and other study material back into its designated L-shape folder to place it inside your backpack. Your boyfriend and study buddy Leon reclines in his seat and stretches his arms above his head, his wrinkled white tee’s hem riding up slightly to reveal a sliver of pale skin.

“Congrats,” he softly says as his words melt into a yawn. “I’m very proud of you. That score wasn’t so easy to get, y’know.”

You preen on his words, chuckling softly as you zip your bag closed. “Yep but I managed to make it happen, thanks to your amazing guidance. Thank you.”

Your boyfriend pushes his glasses back up into his nose bridge before raking a hand through his cornsilk-tousled hair. “Hey, it’s all you. I was just here for moral support.”

He helps with organizing your desk, neatening it up as he stashed away other papers, pens, and blocks of multi-colored sticky notes. He offers to wash the mug you used and to throw away the scrap papers you used, ushering you to settle in bed first. In under 6 minutes, he’s cuddling with you underneath the sheets in your bed. You’re facing him, head cushioned by his arm as your own arm is slumped over his torso. You’re growing drowsy, but you don’t want to fall asleep just yet. Leon’s making it hard to stay awake, his free hand gently stroking and patting your head as he murmurs delicate praises.

“My intelligent, hard-working, incredible sweetheart.”

“I know you’re going to absolutely smash that test, you have enough preparation and the drive to succeed.”

“I love, love, love, love, love you. You’re a rockstar, you managed to stay positive and handled the pressure like a pro. You’re so strong for that.”

“You don’t know how inspiring you are, baby. You’re a champ and this will all be worth it, I promise you.”

You lose track of all his other words, falling asleep. He smiles to himself when he feels your breathing slow down, relaxing at his side as he places a silvery kiss to your head. His hand moves to rest on your shoulder blade, a comforting warm weight as you sleep. With a whispered ‘good night’, sleep tiptoes in and his body softens as he gives in to the soothing pull of slumber.

NOTE - Wrote up a short n sweet drabble as a writing exercise since I haven't written in a hot minute! This one's a little different because my usual works are 1-2K words but this one is just 400+ words so yk, trying something new here ;) I'll be gone for a bit since I have exams coming up and more projects after that, I'm going to miss writing for a bit but I'll try to find windows where I'm not really busy so I can write a lil smn smn like this :) This drabble is inspired by an irl experience-- the studying part, not the Leon as my boyfriend one (unfortunately-- I'm chronically bitchless). I came up with this idea after I imagined Leon hyping me up and being lovely after an intense study sesh :3 umm so while I was gone, I got a new iPad like 3 days ago :D I can play RE4 now :D!!! anyway, thanks for reading my fics!!!!!!!!!!! I <33333333 UUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The animated line dividers are made by cafekitsune , the images are made by me (sourced from Pinterest).

[latibvles]

friends.

more OCs? more OCs. anyways hi there, plucking from the HBO WWII Rewatch Prompt list — I figured it’d be fun to use it to throw more OCs at the wall and gesture like a crazy woman introduce characters who have been hiding in my docs! Yay lady-pilots and women in the military. Anyways here’s Viv, here’s Willie, and here’s me capitalizing on one of the 100th’s Training Stories that is deeply amusing to ME. if you remember reading this little number — it's the same crew! :) hope you like it

—

“Heard some of them ended up in Vegas.”

“Vegas? No shit.”

“Mhm, word up the ladder is it’s not looking too good for the Colonel.”

There’s a vacancy in the Officer’s Club tonight that was hard not to notice. Not many had made it to their destination — save for the three all-women ones, talking in their hushed whispers, as though recognizing the obvious would get the wings snatched from their uniforms. There wasn’t much time to celebrate a practice exercise well-flown, even if they’d earned it. Even if they were expected to fail and yet were the only demographic of the 100th to pass with flying colors. 

It was a bad look. Most of the 100th was at present spread across the Western U.S, over half of them entirely missing the airfield meant to be their target. Which, if you asked Vivian, was just telling of how many of the men were able to get comfortable quickly — a luxury that she and her crew didn’t have.

Ah, but no one’s asking you much of anything these days, are they, Viv?

Her gaze lifts up towards the approaching figure, fingers curled around two bear bottles. Willie’s expression gives about as much away as it typically does; which is to say, it gives away nothing at all, lips pressed into their neutral state of a tight line, brows furrowed as she sets one bottle on the table and slides it towards her.

“Here I thought you were standing me up,” Viv offers, which gets Willie to crack — just enough that she’s exhaling sharply through the nose and rolling her eyes with subtle affection.

“Right, cause you’ve been stood up,” Willie fires back as Vivian takes the beer bottle from her. “Fat chance, Savorre.”

“I do love when you sweet talk me,” Vivian coos, to which Willie rolls her eyes once more as she surveys the space, taking a seat on the opposing side of the table.

If you’d asked Vivian a long while ago, she’d swear up and down that Wilhelmina Neumann did not like her — for some inexplicable reason. To which the other women in their bunkhouse would attest to something similar. Her black-haired companion always had that very slight frown to her lips, that furrowed brow that suggested she was either disapproving of something or deep in thought. That, and she didn’t talk much. Nowadays, Vivian was more than proud to boast about her multiple successes in making Willie laugh. Willie, not Wilhelmina, because according to the woman herself, it was just “too many syllables.”

She, like the rest of their crew, knew that when Willie had something to say, it’d be in their benefit to listen.

“Any word on Alkire?” Vivian asks, curiously. Willie shakes her head.

“Heard he ended up in Vegas.” Vivian snorts, then fixes Willie with a look, trying to discern if this was one of Willie’s deadpan remarks as opposed to a serious observation.

“You’re kidding.”

“Wish I was. I think another plane ended up in Tennessee,” Willie looks towards the door, her brows furrowed. “How many of them are losing their wings, do you think?” Irritation creeps into her tone and Vivian doesn’t blame her. Thirty women, three crews, all sitting uncomfortably as their CO says in so many words what it meant for them, specifically, to fail. There was already the doubt in the air that they’d actually see combat, that they’d be doing much of anything besides practice flights over the states. If they weren’t already aware of the uncertainty of their situation — their CO had a specific fascination with reminding them that at any moment this could all get shut down and they’d be sent packing.

“It’s not gonna be us, that’s all I care about,” Vivian shrugs, candid. “Put us in the lead and I bet everyone and their mother would’ve made it to California.”

“Would’ve made it all the way to Hitler’s house.”

“Careful Willie, you’re turning optimistic on me,” At that, Willie smiles, hidden behind the neck of her beer bottle, shoulders shaking in a small laugh as she shakes her head. Rarely did they ever talk like this, rarely were they ever allotted the space to do so. It had to be confined to the walls of their fort — girls whispering secret praises for doing things that the boys did. God forbid they were anything but gracious for the opportunity given to them.

They could embrace these few hours of smugness before reality would sink back in and sour it. Although, after this, Vivian wasn’t sure if she planned on being quiet and humble immediately thereafter. Let them be embarrassed. No sweat off my back. Willie just barely knocks Vivian’s ankle with her foot, then shrugs.

“Is it really optimism? How’re they gonna find England if they can’t find California?” The question hangs heavy in the air, but something about Willie’s face, the way she avoids Vivian’s gaze, has Vivian’s mouth curling into a grin. She’s leaning over the table slightly.

“You know something.” Willie’s brows furrow.

“I do not.”

“Yeah you do. It’s all over your face. Oughta wash it sometime soon.”

“You’re not funny,” Willie narrows her eyes and Vivian’s grin becomes wider. They hold each other’s stare for a few long, silent, seconds, and then Willie looks away once more, sighing in a quiet, bewildered surrender. “Eckley says that Crosby gets pretty bad motion sickness so I’m just thinking about… things like that. Little things. How many crews actually messed up ‘cause of small things or stuff they can’t help,” she shrugs, looking down at the table. “It just…it could’ve been us, y’know? In Vegas.”

“Think we could sort it out before it becomes a problem in the air,” Vivian assures, “if not me or you, then one of the eight other people with us. You better not be getting cold feet on me now,” Trying to weave her reassurance neatly with the joke seems to work, if only a little bit. Willie scoffs and knocks Vivian’s ankle with her foot once again.

“Takes two to fly to Hitler’s house.”

“Exactly,” Vivian affirms with a nod, tilting the neck of the beer bottle towards Willie, who looks at it questioningly. “Call me a bad teammate but I’m gonna enjoy this tonight. Let them figure out what they’re gonna do with their guys who can’t find California. ‘Cause it’s not gonna be our crew and it’s not gonna be us.” Willie nods, clinking the neck of her beer with Vivian’s and then taking a drink.

“Now who’s turning optimistic?”

“Well I’m always optimistic. You’re the one switching things up.” Willie opens her mouth to fire back, but the door opens and her gaze falls on whoever just walked in.

“Why is it so quiet? Someone put on a record — you guys got Goodman?” Willie looks back at Vivian with a wholly bewildered expression — and mouths one phrase as the Officer’s Club seems to fall back into the bustling behavior it was so accustomed to: Guess Egan made it.

[jandoesart]

How to Improve in Art

Improving in art is not something you do overnight. A lot of the time it can take years to get to the more advanced levels. I'm still learning and improving and I've been drawing for over 5 years. However, it is a very rewarding process as you can look back and see how much you've improved each year. I 100 percent recommend trying art and seeing if you like it. Here are 3 basic tips on how to improve.

Don't compare your skill to others.

My biggest tip for aspiring artists is to not compare yourself to others. There's this saying "comparison is the theft of joy" and it's so true. A lot of the time when we scroll Instagram or Tumblr we see very talented artists and may feel we aren't good enough at our craft. A lot of the time though, we fail to realize that those artists we look up to have been practicing and learning for years. They probably started off just like you. You just have to be consistent in your craft and one day you can get there too! You've got it! Let these great artist artworks inspire you, not tear you down. :)

Practice.

Practice practice practice. I know people always say this but never tell you how. I'd advise learning basic anatomy first. Try this video and branch out from there. Once you know how to construct the human body then you'll improve so fast, trust me. Another thing you could do is try line-of-action.com. They have sections for facial expressions, figure drawings and a lot more! Also, drawing characters you're passionate about can make it more fun to practice. These exercises will help with your art journey.

Study your favorites.

If you have a favorite artist, it can benefit a lot to study their art style and how they go about drawing. Maybe pick one of their artworks and try and copy the techniques. Don't trace it but simply have the reference to the side and focus on how they vary their lines, how they use colors and texture, or whatever really captivates you about their style. Then try and apply these things to your art. If they do speed paints that's even better. It will allow you to get an in depth view of their process.

Anyway, these are just a few tips to get you started. I'm sure there are a lot of more in depth guides out there but they can be quite overwhelming so I tried to just highlight a few. Hope this helped. :)

[thegeminisage]

IT IS. star trek update time. last night we did ds9's "the muse" and voy's "the thaw."

the muse (ds9):

the a-plot of this was so fucking stupid. WHY is it always jake and older women...can we please cut him a fucking break...

also, the mysticism around writing. "i can show you exercises and techniques" "you have so many ideas it all seems too big to you right now" come on. the only exercise and technique she needed to show him was how to fucking outline. it's not MAGIC you don't get divinely graced with the ability to write a book you just sit down and do one little bit at a time. i cannot believe writers wrote this. insufferable. they sound like george rr martin i hope he is having a bad day wherever he is

jake and sisko at the end were so cute though...sisko my beloved...

the b plot.............................................

here's the thing. while i have reversed my stance on lwaxana troi, who got much better in her final few episodes (was this the last one or do we have one more...?), i don't want odo/lwaxana to be better than odo/kira and the odo/lwaxana was REALLY GOOD. and ik some people really didn't like the way odo/kira wound up happening in canon so even though idk what happens yet NOBODY TELL ME i am bracing for it to be bad and to love it unconditionally anyway. so that was a huge struggle for me

odo in his little shapeshifter playground feeding off of lwaxana's giddiness...i wish deanna had been able to do the reverse-empath thing on tng, it would have been so much fun

ALSO i cant believe he finally got his first little smooch!!!! GOOD FOR HIM

the thaw (voy)

sigh. so apparently a lot of people really like this episode but i...hated it. one of the worst voy episodes to date actually

whatever this episode THINKS it's saying about fear is lost under the set dressing. and the set dressing IS really cool - i like the wacky practical effects and bright colors. it reminds me a lot of tos. in fact, this whole episode could have been a tos episode, but it would have been one of those tos episodes that makes the top 10 worst ranking or whatever

the problem is the Randumb XD Humor...it's like q, like the squire of gothos. it just doesn't hit for me and never will. like, the actors were good at what they did, the costumes looked great, the set was funky, even the background music really fucked, but things being Randumb XD is just too dated for me. i don't mind star trek being dated most of the time but this is where i draw the line. maybe i'd like it better if i gave it another shot, but i probably will not be doing that

i think janeway called it in, with her acting. like everyone's like damn she ACTED no girl she did a lot of dramatic whispering. and who can blame her. the script was all over the place

i just think if you're trying to terrify people you could do better than the circus theme. yeah, clowns bad, but even tng had that spooky morgue thing happening

also, lost opportunity: if this clown guy can kill people by scaring them to death ie making them live the experience of getting their heads chopped off virtually which gives them a heart attack in real life then why not write tuvok, local expert at conquering fear, into this episode? you could have cut off tuvok's head and he wouldn't have died of fright. it would have been perfect for the metaphor

the ending to this episode would have fucked a lot more if the rest of it hadn't sucked so bad. janeway's murder walk was REALLY good. it's also something kirk would have done, if they'd had the holodeck in tos, and thank GOD they didn't

but yeah, the solution of fear needing conquering and wanting to be conquered just doesn't hit when most of the script...didn't really talk about fear, it was just wilding out

TONIGHT: ds9's "for the cause" and voy's "tuvix"...okay, wait, i'm just now looking at these episode titles. everyone on reddit is always so mad about janeway killing a guy named tuvix but i thought i got it mixed up with tuvOK. like i literally thought she killed tuvok and everybody was like dw about it she doesn't kill tuvok so who tf is tuvix...is this a clone thing or something? like black shirt green shirt tuvok?? please let it be a clone thing

[themuliama]

I've been drawing for a very VERY long time. I've been inspired by artists on the internet and I've been looking at a LOT of beginner drawing tutorials on YouTube. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't improve as much as I wanted. My characters looked weird, and my coloring and lines were horrible…

But if like me you've watched HOURS of drawing tutorials and have been practicing for DAYS, but feel frustrated in your improvement anyways, you're just like me! And do you know why? Because like me, you've never worked on the drawing fundamentals!

Don't worry anybody can learn about the fundamentals with enough practice, effort, and most importantly, good information!!

So if you've been drawing for a long time and you think that you didn't improve enough, or if you want to start drawing but you've never known where to start, this is the perfect article to guide you in your art journey!

Keep reading and let's start to draw seriously together!! :D

The joy of starting!

Drawing is an excellent way of self-expression, a way to become more creative, and a way to see the world from a whole new perspective! You'll be so proud and happy to share your ideas and create beautiful drawings! And you'll learn SO MUCH about the world and the objects around you!

But if there is one thing that you have to keep in mind during this journey, is that everyone starts as a newbie! So don't be harsh on yourself and give yourself some time to learn and practice the things that will make you improve! Being an artist is a wonderful journey! Take some pleasure to live it!

Something else to keep in mind is that material is not an excuse! A pen and some printing paper are more than enough to start! The most important is to actually draw consistently!  Anecdote: I started to draw in my notebook during French class in middle school. (Don't be like me though listen during class)

So now you should be asking…

But what are the fundamentals I need to learn?

And you're right to ask this question! Just drawing every day isn't enough to improve your competence. You'll need to draw things that will make you improve! 

Having a good drawing foundation is important to build a good drawing style!! 

So here are the fundamentals you need to learn as a beginner:

Perspective

That is what will make your line on the paper feel 3D!

Here you'll need to learn about what makes an object feel like it has volume, how something farther away would look like, etc.

I have two exercises for this fundamentals!  The first one is to actually draw objects! Draw cubes, cylinders, and spheres in any direction you can think of!

Here is what it looks like when I do this exercise!

The second exercise is to draw these objects in an environment!  Horizon lines and vanishing points will be your friends here.

Here this will make it clear to you!

Construction

Construction is the ability to build new things with the simple shapes we saw earlier! You'll try to understand how objects would connect together. 

With this skill mastered, you will be able to draw ANYTHING! Because all things and objects can be broken down into simple shapes and volumes! 

Looking at references can be a good idea here! Look at a simple object and try to draw it with the volumes!

This is the way I practice construction

Gesture

I only have one thing to say here: GESTURE DRAWING! What is gesture drawing? Is an exercise! The goal of this exercise? To draw people with a time limit! You'll draw a pose in one to two minutes at first! Your goal is to get the GESTURE of the character in your drawing.

There are a few websites for doing gesture drawing! You just have to select the time and the type of images you want and draw! One of my favorite websites is Quickposes! But I'm sure you could find another one if you search a bit on the internet!

Now you know what to practice! Practice these fundamentals consistently and you'll see your drawing skills improving! 

Of course, you don't have to just draw spheres, cubes, and simple people you can draw things you want to draw! Just draw from good references!

Another thing that can help you with improving your art is…

Drawing challenges!

They're fun, put you out of your comfort zone, and make you draw things you would have never drawn otherwise! Isn't that amazing?

That's why it's such a good idea to participate in art challenges! Plus, having other people participating in the same challenge can help you boost your motivation!!

There is plenty of art challenges on the internet, but the one you should do to start drawing is certainly Marc Brunet's 30 days art challenge!  An art challenge that will help you start drawing in a month! You will practice the fundamentals and you'll see the improvement by the end of it! 

Maybe should I do this challenge? (Btw Marc Brunet's channel is an excellent place to learn from! Go look at some videos!)

In conclusion

You now have all you need to start drawing! You know that you'll need dedication and persistence, you know about the fundamentals you need to practice! You also have a perfect challenge to start drawing! Don't forget that drawing is an enjoyable journey! Don't overdo yourself, practice consistently, and be curious!

Feel free to ask questions or share some drawings so we can all track our progress!

One of the most essential pieces of advice I'll give you in this post is to find fun in the process :D

[bvannn]

Weekly Update June 28, 2024

Artfight is on Monday and I’m really not as ready as I’d like to be but it’s fine. I have a plan it’ll be fine. I was pretty productive this week, additionally.

So the main issue is I’ve been hit with the overwhelming urge to work on music again even though art stuff is more urgent. That’s fine, I have a plan, basically. The plan is alcohol. I’m gonna have just enough that I won’t be finnicky over the lines, and I’ll try to plow through the last of the assets I need to draw in clip studio. And tomorrow I’ll keep going if I don’t finish it tonight, and then finish up the actual animations. Jack is like 80% done I just need to do the BG, mouth, and like one more movement tween, and then Anastasia will be the last one. I’ve already started on her assets, I don’t expect it to be that difficult because she doesn’t have visible eyes. I’d like to push through the last of the ref sheets that I can update, although that isn’t necessary. I’m going to try anyway because I’m nuts. Then I’ll go through the informational blurbs that I have posted and make sure they’re all up to date.

I did do a good amount of work on music as well, I have fixed my volume issue, and learned how to use a compressor, and dipped into vocaloid again, found a plug-in that I can use on the wav files to make the Zolas growl (because apparently they couldn’t before because they’re V3s. I was wondering why I didn’t really hear much of a growl when I got the wav files back). I also learned that you can just import midi files into vocaloid. Which is going to make everything so much faster. So I will at some point sit down and get a bunch of midi stuff recorded, but that will not be sooner than Monday.

Comic is still coming along slowly but well. It’s around 25.5% done, but I’ve only really been able to do sketches, which will probably continue for a while. I’ll try to sneak in some soon but with Artfight that might be more of a challenge. OEB video is in about the same place as last week, although fwiw I did plan out the unfinished segments a bit better.

I’m really hoping Artfight goes well. I want to unload tomorrow and tonight and then spend all Sunday exercising to feel less like shit then go to bed nice and early. I’ll sketch out attacks while I’m at work, line them at home, and color during lunch, then shade at home. Hoping I can get a good amount done. I want to maybe try more tween animations, or pixel art again, but no promises. I’ll post my link as soon as I’m ready, although I’m sure you could search my blog and scroll for it since I did post it last year.

[butcherlarry]

Exercise Fic Rec 10

This is my tenth week doing this!  And still going strong!  I though as a special treat, I would rec some of my favorite fics from the first fandom I got into, Hannibal.  But first, exercise fic recs!  I finished up my reread of “the cost of being a good dad” but then a *new* Superbat fic by Mawiiish was dropped.  I was Very Excited.  In the new fic, both Bruce and Clark are so dumb about their feelings.  So, so dumb.  It was great!  The third fic “end of the line” was written in the point of view of a drunk person who tried to get in a fight with Clark Kent.  Bruce is there to try to sooth things out.  Shenanigans ensue.  The next two fics are still in progress, but the updates were fun to read as I was exercising!

the cost of being a good dad by Mawiiish

Sure Thing by Mawiiish

end of the line by TheResurrectionist

Patroclus by LilyFlowerBat

Just A Little Bit... by HaleHathNoFury

Like I mentioned above, Hannibal was the first fandom I got into and started reading fan fics.  I remember reading the books as a teen and enjoyed them (I was a weird kid, don’t judge me), so when I heard there was a TV show, I was intrigued.  I think I watched the first couple episodes then stopped, but I kept on seeing gif sets, fan art, and memes on Tumblr, so I started watching again.  Then I started reading all the fan fic people were recommending on Tumblr.  It soon went all downhill from there for me, lol.

As someone with a meat science background, I always found the Hannibal books and TV show so interesting.  I remember when Hannibal and Will were discussing meat tasting “frightened”, and my meat sci brain perked up.  Short-term stress in hogs can cause a meat quality issue called PSE (pale, soft, and exudative (watery)).  Long-term stress can cause another meat quality issue in hogs and cattle called DFD (dark, firm, and dry).  I feel like if Hannibal was going to run into meat quality issues with his uhhh, preferred protein, it would probably be PSE, since what he’s hunting is undergoing short term stress.  Well, unless he decides to play with his food for a few days, then maybe he would get DFD meat.  If I remember correctly, he does reference a “metallic taste”, and that’s more prevalent in DFD meat.  PSE meat would be so dry and tough to eat, and not have a nice reddish-pink color.  He would probably have to grind and mix it with other proteins to make something tasty.  

All of these fics are Hannigram, except for “He Who Pours Out Vengeance”, but you can read that one as Hannigram (I think the second story in the series is slash, but it’s uncompleted).  Not going to lie, after going through my old bookmarks to find these, I’m really tempted to reread a few (and by few, I mean all, haha).

Anyway, here are some of my favorite Hannibal Fics!

Ladders series by emungere

What Dreams series by emungere

Blackbird by emungere

Page Six by ThisBeautifulDrowning

Pattern Break by ThisBeautifulDrowning

He Who Pours Out Vengeance by Underground

Shark Tank by xzombiexkittenx

Overcoming by purefoysgirl (I may or may not have this one in book form when the author published it. (I totally do.  They hold a special place on my book shelf))

There are plenty more favorites that I have, but these are just a few.  My AO3 page has all of my fan fic bookmarks, just sort for Hannibal if you want to check them out 😄

My obligatory coffee and pastry photo:

Spring is showing up at the arboretum! 

I just really like this tree that was along the river:

The moss along the path was kinda neat:

This is my favorite spot along the path and I always take pictures here:

A nice picture of a white-breasted nuthatch:

I also stopped by the local plant nursery and got some more flowers to feed my plant addiction.  I almost got a citrus tree, but I was strong and resisted (No I wasn’t, the only reason why I didn’t buy one because they were 60 dollars 😔)

[girderednerve]

apologies dear friends i continue to be: a grouchy old man, obsessed with libraries

my new job is fine objectively like there is nothing wrong with it but my boss is very "do storytime, do more storytime, we must schedule storytime," and does not really listen to anything i say, such as 'i would like to do less early literacy programming so that i have some time to do programs for elementary & early middle schoolers,' or 'please schedule me on the youth desk instead of giving me nothing but unstructured office time, leaving me isolated & uninvolved in the day-to-day operations of the library, with which i need to rapidly develop familiarity,' or 'our desk schedule actually should not be rigidly set a month in advance, because we need to be flexible & can work out desk coverage on a department level,' or 'you actually do need to have a clear & specific plan for emergencies, including severe patron issues, & this plan should be communicated to all staff instead of vaguely stashed four folders deep in the shared drive'. (actually when i repeatedly pressed for clarity on who is in charge at any given time she posted an updated chain-of-command document which listed, for some reason, me? as third in line in case of emergency? which is just bugfuck)

it feels very frustrating & i know that many of these problems will resolve themselves as i begin to actually do programs—i haven't been able to because all programming at this library must have at least 2 weeks' advance notice, and i came onboard right after thanksgiving/needed time to get my bearings at least a little—so we can get some cute kid pictures to placate the board & build more of a sense of what is needed. but i still don't really know how to pull reports so i can't weed, i only just got ordering credentials this week & have had to find $2k of books to add to a library collection with which i am largely unfamiliar & for which i have absolutely zero circulation numbers, & nobody has actually given me an up-to-date budget (i am meant to guess, i suppose?). it feels kind of like a slow ongoing disaster; i know this feeling is partially because i have 2 hours' round-trip commute to worry & stew & so on, but i also am just like. girl you are a bad manager. you have persistent staff issues because you are not good at managing people. every meeting you are in is worse because you are in it. you cannot handle interpersonal tensions by having your assistant make friendly 'reminders' to all staff which are obviously about a single person, that never works. i have really strong feelings about management for a person who does not want to be in management! should probably try to walk that one off!

i cornered the adult services/sysadmin librarian today to talk to him about some stub ideas i have for kid programs about 'learning to code,' because we have (apparently) gotten lots of requests for this kind of thing, & basically everything on offer is just buzzwordy bullshit like 'make a bracelet that spells your kid's name in binary using different color beads!' or 'buy this expensive piece of edtech which will be unsupported in six months & anyway only introduces kids to our very closed environment!' or 'just let them spend some time on the computer, so their elastic little brains can pick up digital literacy skills by exposure :)'. so i had some ideas which seemed less like, um, nonsense, but i don't actually know how to code (am stupid) so i wanted to run them past him to get a sense of whether there was any real content there. i want to build a little model transistor & talk about why computers use binary. i want to use a makey makey to have the kids construct a sort of human circuit by holding hands, so we can model a logic gate. i want to write an if-then chart together & roll dice to determine which dance moves we do (cf. a ucla comp sci prof's exercises with her four-year-old). i want to use a makey makey to make a simple morse code transmitter so we can talk about encryption & transmission. i want to make an escape room so we can practice some very basic math & simple decryption (& also persistence!). i want to have tweens play scaled-down capture the flag to think about security. my boss just wants me to do three storytimes a week into infinity

anyway i am still marinating on my computer skills for kids concepts (it's mostly buzzwordy bullshit! even the stuff i want to do is kind of bullshit, lol) & plotting my wind tunnel/paper airplane prototyping program & figuring out when i can schedule my middle grade graphic novel book club. i am trying to figure out how this job might be doable. maybe someday i will want to go to work. america autem delenda est

[xarrixii]

Chapter_21 : "Gravel" ━━━━━━━━━━━━━

CW: previous chapter | beginning | masterlist

━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▼

“Is this really necessary?” Alph asked as the person held a measuring tape against them. “I’ve never needed the suits before, so,”

“You may have passed the safety tests with flying colors, but you have yet to put any of that knowledge to good use.” Their dad had his arms crossed, Ty doing the same with a really terrible expression of fake anger. “You will have to start putting the suits on, especially once we get a pair fitted to your size. No more excuses that none of them fit right.”

“But they terrify little kids,” Alph argues.

“But they keep us safe.”

“Oh, come on, you’ve met Urban.”

“What you’re trying to do is noble, Al. It really is. But our job is to keep as many people safe as possible as fast as we can. Changing the system is something else entirely. That’s what voting is for.”

Alph sits down when the person finishes measuring their arm length. “Yeah, well, I’m outvoted by a bunch of kineticist easygoers.”

“It does make it more difficult to make change that way. But nothing would ever need to change if it was easy to change it.” Alph’s dad ruffled Ty’s hair. “That came out a little wrong. I don’t think that we should never need to change because everything is perfect as it is. I think that we should always need to change because it’s the right thing and it needs to be done. That doesn’t make sense either.”

“It’s, fine. I get it, Dad.” Alph is visibly cringing and stands up to go sit beside their dad instead. “If stuff was always easy, it wouldn’t ever be as powerful when a difference is made.”

“Something along those lines.” Their dad anxiously moves his leg up and down. “I’m sorry about your mother, Al. I should’ve done something about her sooner.”

“Don’t⸺I mean, she’s an…” Alph looks for how out of earshot where Ty ran off to is. “...alternate name for a donkey. But she seems to have… some sort of reasoning. Not very good reasoning, so far, I hope she hasn’t been paying people to lie to me the whole time.”

“I once thought she had good reasoning once too. Then she bought an apartment and said to stop talking to her or she’d stop paying rent, and I’m guessing she figured out what wine tasted like.”

It took Alph a bit to realize their dad led them off of the original conversation. “That’s hard to imagine.”

“It’s a nice place, right? The one she’s got you staying at?”

“It’s good enough. Wish I had more time to see Ty.”

“Man I need a beer. You want one?” Their dad lightly hit them with an empty can. Ty was making thunderstorm noises over a mini version of the city built with toy bricks.

Alph shrugs.

“I’ll get ya one.”

“Can we go to the playground? Al. Al. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa⸺”

“Yeah, yeah. Bit of a long walk, though.” Alph was getting lost in thought. They were no stranger to the way people would immediately start looking when Ty acted like the little rascal he is and practiced being careful with electrokinesis by shooting sparks at rocks.

Ty waved Alph off. “Long walk long shmauck. Dad says you need more exercise anyway.”

“Do not,” Alph mumbles to themselves.

“Bet!” Ty yells.

“What if I do bet?”

“I bet I can make it there faster than you can.”

“That right? No cheating,”

“No promises!” Ty immediately takes off running forward.

“Wait!” Alph spots someone dash off a bench. “Ty!”

Screaming ensued around the park. Before Alph knew it, their foot was in the jaw of the person that had gone to grab Ty. They collided along the gravel pathway. “Al? Al what was⸺”

“You’re alright?” Alph put a hand on Ty’s shoulder and gripped a little harder than they would have liked, snapping a flame to life in their other hand. How’d that thing Urban talked about go again? Heat, heating up the bloodstream? Damn it. “Ty, I need you to call the cops. You know the number?”

“Yeah.”

Alph slid Ty their phone.

“What’s happening?”

Fuck, fuck Alph couldn’t just ignore this question. “You, you know that game that’s designed to be difficult? That you had to ask me to help you beat?”

“The one with the guys in black that ran at you really weirdly?”

“Yes. I need you to do what I say, alright? Just like when you had to beat that game.”

“Okay. We’re gonna make it to the playground, right?”

“Yeah.”

The guy had scrambled up, saw the fire, and took off the other way. There were way too many other kids here. Alph tuned out the sound of Ty on the phone. Protecting as many people as possible. As soon as possible. But they can’t just forget about the one they leave behind⸺

“Keep everyone else safe here,” Liam’s voice came out of nowhere, and Alph spun to find him. “Hate these guys with a passion.”

Next thing Alph knew, the guy running toward some random kid was swiftly punched in the face, connecting with a thick tree. The kidnapper grabs a knife from their pocket that’s wrenched from their hand by what Alph could only assume is telekinesis at work. It smashes into their skull and they lay quiet.

See any others?

Not yet⸺ Alph is quickly thrown into the gravel, gray dust rising in a fit. Alph pulls a knee into the guy’s groin and rolls them off.

“GET OFF!” Ty screams, Alph’s phone crashing to the ground.

“Ty, remember what Dad said about self-defense⸺” Alph is pulled back into the dirt when they try getting up. Liam, god damn it!

Alph juts their leg into the guy’s skull like an arrow, hearing static and an adult yell before Ty lands back on the ground. The guy fighting Alph backs up, holding their head and starting away at a run. Something shoves itself uncomfortably far into the guy’s arm as they’re sent rolling into a tree. Liam catches it in his hand. It’s a pop-out coffee lid. Of course.

The amount of dust that’s been kicked into the air almost makes it look like the trees had started burning.

“Do you have a nut?” Alph exasperates as they get up, grabbing hold of Ty again. The sucker that’d picked him up was definitely unconscious. Bit overboard.

“Like one of the bolts?”

“No, like, a flammable tree nut.”

Liam shakes his head, but pulls out a pencil. “This work?”

“If you throw it hard enough at that van before they get in.”

Liam lets Alph set the pencil on fire among the wailing sirens, looking at them. “You ready?”

“Go for it.”

The pencil is sent hurtling at the vehicle, exploding the engine on contact with a little help from Alph. The person that had gone to hop in it stumbled back. There were shouts coming from behind a line of trees. Water splashed onto the guy’s feet when they took off the other way, frozen over a second later.

“Now, kid, this is like a super spy movie, alright?” Liam looked at Ty, holding out a pinky. “I was never here. If the common good guys knew, it’d make the mission a lot more complicated and more public, which would jeopardize it.”

“I get it.” Ty pretends to zip his lips closed before shaking Liam’s finger. Liam then disappears from the scene with a smile, leaving nothing behind. Ty turns to Alph. “You know a TE/TK???”

Alph chuckles, picking up their phone, examining all of the new cracks. “Tons of fun stories for later.” Most of which would have to be cleverly crafted lies. Would need to think them up first. Meant a lot of stalling. They cleared their throat, watching as a squad of officers bound hands behind backs. Hand binders, with reasonable justification. It’d switch to plain handcuffs later depending on the identities and records on these people.

Thanks. Alph hopes and doesn’t hope Liam hears it at the same time.

Don’t mention it. Seriously. Those are the kinds of organizations that are gonna start popping up the more Cinder has to put resources toward Storm. They were pretty small when I left originally and warned Cinder about it, hopefully we’ve been keeping them down good enough.

You used to be in Storm?

Yeah. Weird kinetic manipulation, army creating nonsense. Once I realized their plan of overthrowing the system involved taking over the world, I ran.

“Al,” Chief Kepler was walking down from the street, winding water back into a flask on his belt. “And little Ty. I’m assuming most of the de-escalation was you?”

“Chief. None of them displayed any kinetics if they had them.”

“That’s good to hear. Makes my job easier. Where were you all heading off to?”

“The playground!” Ty realizes suddenly. “Oh, but, everyone probably ran away… You missed it!! Alph went like woosh and kicked the guy in the face, and then another one came up and tackled them like grrrrrggrh, and Alph kicked them in the face too, and then a guy grabbed me, and I went like zap! and they fell over! Then Alph noticed them trying to get away, so they sent fire to go shppplooosh to their ugly van!”

“Did they, now?” Kepler gives off a hearty laugh, taking off his hat and holding it against his chest.

“Yeah!! I didn’t know there were so many ways to kick people in the face. Can you join our race? We were going to see who could get to the playground the fastest before all the guys in black started jumping in.”

“Tell you what, I have some things to finish up here, but I can meet you down there after. That sound good?”

Ty nods and punches Alph, starting to run off.

“I gotta,” Alph laughs and bounces into a run after Ty.

Kepler waves Alph off, turning and walking back to the clutter of dispatched officers. Ty was getting too fast for this.

“Wait up!”

“No way!” Ty calls after.

“Cheater!”

next chapter

━━━━━━━━━━━━ ▲ missing a content warning? let me know

man i sure do hope liam can resemble a weird dad guy more than he already does

he's literally not even a father

yet

[archivebottles]

hi hi!!! I'm absolutely insane about your art lolz

what kind of stuff goes into your art? I'd love to get some insight on your style bc I'm definitely so normal about it hahaha.

anyways have a nice day!!! :3

hmm good question! i do actually put a lot of thought into my art (although sometimes it doesnt feel like it when im drawing it lol)

i dont have a fancy tutorial or infographic for my inspirations but for me though a lot of my inspiration is just 'what i think looks nice' i saw thicker lines and i thought 'oh i like that on my art i dont think i like using thin ones' or 'oh textured brushes feel much more fun to use!' ive been drawing for a long time and esp recently ive been taking a lot more time to test out new things and also i have been drawing digitally for a LONG time and that time has helped me figured out my art style

although it appears no matter how different i think im making my art looks people seem to know my style in some spaces ha ha

honestly my biggest think i look at many different things for inspiration. Mediums have all sort of genres in them! books! music! games! movies! other peoples art/art history! dont be afraid to mash things together. think fantasy could have something more? make it from a creatures perspective because you loved to read warrior cats as a kid. i really like character design! and concept art i remember looking at the concept art for metroid prime 2 echoes and being so amazed as a kid and because i like thinking about concepts and 'building on an idea' i like to make redesigns of my fav characters (and also i have ocs of my own ofc lol)

for me it was one thing to build a character from the ground up(i never liked taking an existing character and making them my oc by tweaking some stuff) and its another to say 'hm how i can i add something i like to this design that already exists on its own?' (which i think is such a fun exercise)

as for how i come up with designs that where it gets a little complicated. i sort of got into the habit of doing these designs bc i was reluctant to look up refs so i liked to guess to fill in the cracks. this isnt exactly ideal and i dont do this to so much of a degree now but having a hug backlog of inspirations sets me up for a launchpad on where to look for something i think fits that character (color, setting, style, etc)

unfortunately i do not have a list of famous artists i take inspiration from i played gacha games during my college art history (sorry) but i do like the use of horror vacui in art! its the fear of open spaces so its a lot of patterns and designs all cramped together its my fav thing but im also trying to force myself to leave more spaces open lol

uh this post is long as hell i can be more specific if you need me to the tldr is 90% of my art decisions are 'i think it looks nice :)'

[alinasartsandthings]

Tips and Tricks For Beginner Artists

I want to preface this by saying two things. Or maybe couple more.

One: This is my first ever blog post that I have written. There will be mistakes. I am still figuring out Tumblr Blogs. Deal with me. Thank you <3

Two: I am by no means a professional artist. I am still a student. I have been doing art for little over three years now and I am writing these to share my experiences as an artist that is self-taught. Also because I struggle with the mental aspect of art. I want to share and help people that are where I once was. I wish I had found somebody to give more personal, down to the bits advice to get me into the world of digital art. I am writing about what worked for me and how I did certain things. Enjoy.

(I am largely a digital artist. This is centered around digital mediums and methods. )

This blog post will be more helpful for people that are self-teaching and just starting art.

Regardless of why you want to do art, you need adequate tools to do it.

My first and current graphic tablet is One By Wacom in Small (ought to be replaced soon). I still use it and it serves just fine. It has no buttons on it, plain design. Wacom has excellent support and works smoothly. It was also a good budget decision. If you have a tablet that comes with a pen, work on that. Keep in mind, if you are intently buying a graphic pad or a tablet for purpose of art, buy something that you won't regret too much if art doesn't work out for you and it ends up collecting dust. It is easy to upgrade once your needs require it. Research what graphic tablets are out there and what would work best for you. There is a wild variety to choose from.

Now to the art program. Finding an art program to start on is not at all hard now. There are so many, each with its own quirk. I used Krita since forever. It is very professional, much like Photoshop but also easy for a beginner to grasp. And entirely free. Find an art program that you are comfortable in. Procreate, MediBang, Clip Studio Paint, Paint Tool SAI, Photoshop are only some of the choices.

Possibly in another post I will get more into Krita and how I use it as I am very fond of it.

Set Up Your Canvas

Here I am not going to go way too much into depth on this as it can vary greatly depending on what tools you use and what program but I want to stress the importance of having a workspace that works with you, not against you. Some of the best tips I have gotten for this are:

Set your canvas to a a medium gray color, somewhere in the middle of the gray value scale. Looking at a plain white canvas is daunting and quite inconvenient when you're starting off.

Pick your resolution. Usual choice is 300 dot per inch (DPI). Size of your canvas depends on your screen/machine/program. I usually go between 2000-2500 as my PC is past its prime and doesn't handle things well without sounding like a rocket about to take off. Research what your machine can do without lag.

I will give more advice on using brushes in another post but just going to say, using plain black color is usually bad idea. At least it was for me. It amplifies mistakes and leaves little room for fixing. Instead, try using a gray color somewhere between black and your canvas color. Medium value blue and red also work fine as sketch colors.

Start Comfortably

There is no point looking at all the masterpieces that ArtStation and Instagram has to offer and setting it as your short-term goal. A biggest downfall you can have is from starting too big.

Instead, focus of doing small things. Sketch a lot. Sketch basic shapes. And draw what you love. Art is a craft of heart, at least for me. Detaching yourself from that will make art will like a chore, a cold labor that you do not enjoy.

Ahem. Anyway.

One of the best exercises I have found is to just draw lines. This you can do on paper too as it is an excellent way to warm up. Try to make a straight line. Go not too fast nor slow. Make as many as you need until you get it straight. Do the same for circles. Make them as round as you can. Your hand is the biggest trickster. It does not cooperate with your mind as well as you want it to.

Sketch, sketch sketch, get yourself comfortable with it. Everyone does sketches, one way or another. Of course, you are free to try an entire piece but it can be very discouraging when it turns out nothing like you expected it to be.

I will make a post just on the ways you can practice as a beginner.

Find Inspiration

The biggest foe of artists is lack of inspiration and an artists block. I know it was mine. Finding inspiration is way easier when you are starting off as you often want to draw everything. There are plenty of places where you can get inspiration on what to draw. Pinterest in my all time favourite. You can also look at Instagram, ArtStation, your favourite shows, camera roll, world outside. Jot down what you want to draw when you get an idea and save it for later.

Find Artists You Love

This goes for everyone, but especially if you want to get into business of art. Having artists that inspire you and whose art you enjoy seeing is a must. It feeds your creativity and helps you develop your art style in the long run.

Don't compare yourself to other artists

Often, artists you see that get most views and likes have been in it for years. Do not go into art expecting that it will look perfect right away. Art takes time. A lot of it, often. Those artists whose works seem perfect have spent countless hours on sketches, studies, classes, lessons. Stressing over why your art is not good at the very start will not allow you to move on and better. Instead, appreciate and enjoy little what you created. Everyone's art journey is different and what matters is the road, not the destination

You don't have to be a natural

I never was exceptionally good at art growing up I did have an affinity for all things creative—I had passion for it, but my skills weren't out there. Majority of artists aren't naturals. In my opinion, passion and will is more important than natural skill set. Skills can be taught but without passion and will to learn, you won't get anywhere in art.

Your journey is unique

Everyone learns things at a different pace. What works for somebody, might not work for you. We all have different minds.. That is why everyone's art journey is so unique and interesting. When I started off, I was doing things exactly as I saw others do them and it resulted in frustrations because it wasn't turning out the way I imagined it would. Beginners are inclined towards this and that's alright. But it is important to realize that there is no law out there on how you have to learn the craft. Do it in a way that is most comfortable.

For example, I have quite an attention deficit. I cannot focus on a subject for longer than 15 minutes tops. So watching hour long lessons on Youtube or reading books on the subject didn't cut it for me. I either broke it up into smaller bits and only took what I needed in the moment or looked for compact, one-slide lessons, usually with examples, to tackle a subject. Rather than being told what to do, I needed to be shown how to do it. This might not be a good way for somebody, it really depends and comes down to you. You know yourself the best.

Now for the more practical tips

Outlining

This might be a controversial one out there, but I was never a strong believer in outlining. While it can be fun and it is helpful in beginning stages, it eventually stunts your growth. Instead of simply just outlining, look at how the things work and why does it look the way it does. Break down shapes and study them. Of course, there are instances where it does help to do it and I am not saying that you shouldn't do it, I just never did it. In my opinion, training your hand and mind to follow references is much better way to study and improve.

Use References

Do it. The best of artists use them or have used them for a large portion of their art journey. Do not see reference images as a cheat for artists. Drawing from mind is difficult and not something I would suggest to somebody starting off. Instead, find several references—for poses, shapes, color palette. The more references you have, more you will learn. I use Pinterest for this mostly. As I get can very easily distracted, I usually prepare them couple of hours in advance or a whole day before and store them so I can use them in the future whenever I need.

Don't just look at at the image and completely try to mirror it. Improvise. That's how you learn. Study it. Draw over the reference and then draw next to it. Do it as many times as you want and do it on several references. Sometimes it is enough to do reference thumbnails to effectively improve your art for the day.

Learn from Other Artists

I will make a special post on what artists I watched and learned from and how the self-teaching process looks for me. Regardless of how you study art (art school or not), it is important to find as many resources and sources as you can. Do not focus too much on narrowing it down to a specific thing. Look for lectures on basics that will prepare you for any course you might want to take, especially if you are self-taught.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

This advice I got from listening to my favourite art podcast from Adam Duff LUCIDPIXUL and it gives you this comparison.

If you spend a year reading fitness magazines but never go to the gym, are you going to get fit? No.

Try to make a routine and set the time when you are free to draw. More you do it, faster you will progress and develop your skill. No matter how bad it looks to you, just draw. You don't even have to complete it. Just sit down and put something on the canvas or paper. If it doesn't work, store it and move on. You learned something and will be better next time. It only looks bad if you didn't draw anything.

I hope this tips got to you and that you find them as helpful as I did. Happy drawing!

____________

I am a self-taught digital artist from Serbia. I hope to help people by sharing my art, process and advice that has and still is helping me.

[beltransadie]

A Chat Under the Haitang Tree

Happy New Year! I've been practicing on my samsung tab for the whole past week and I wanted to show the culmination of what I've made with this new years art. This is based off of chapter 58 from 2HA where ranwan spent the entire night chatting under the haitang tree for the new years. I'm still not as good on this tab compared to how I am with the Huion, but I think this is pretty satisfactory. The approach is more painterlike in comparison. I do not have the patience for lineart (I've tried) on this, so it's mostly draw loose then clear it up.

The Journey to This Illustration

What else have I done while practicing? Honestly, most of them are ranwan art. Animatic making had made me proficient in drawing Chu Wanning and Mo Ran gahahaha and they're both fun to draw anyway.

At first, I wasn't used to drawing on a samsung tablet, so most of what I've done are doodles. I also spent majority of my time traveling (like since I got home which was an 8 hour bus ride, I had to go travel again for Christmas and back again, and then the day after I had to accompany my mom for another outing).

Day 1 (12/22)

Here, I slept for 4 or so hours, and find myself having to leave at 5AM. I managed to catch a bus ride home (where, unfortunately, one of my friends weren't able to ride because they waited at the wrong stop), and overall the ride was pretty chill. I spent most of my time chatting with my cousin, sleeping, and drawing. Here's some of what I did during the time. Most of it are Chu Wanning because I feel really comfortable drawing him.

Day 2 (12/23)

I didn't have any place I have to travel to yet, so I went out of the house to draw at a cafe. I still didn't feel comfortable coloring so there's none yet >_<

Day 3 (12/24)

Most of Day 3 was spent outside too coz I had to travel again to visit my grandparents. It was also when I started Yuwu (it has been chill so far, and I'm leisurely enjoying it). I didn't draw anything on the tablet.

Day 4 (12/25)

Back to the drawing grind here. I figured it was about time I try out coloring and I did two! While I had to commute again early morning, the whole of my afternoon was spent chilling at home. The notable stuff I did on the tab is this cute animation of Wanning finding a tiny Mo Ran in his gift, and two colored pieces.

The one on the top right I think was a failed attempt. The colors didn't turn out as well as I wanted, and concluded that it was probably because of the background (which was pure white). I changed it to gray and colored like I usually did, and I think it turned out really well.

Day 5 (12/26)

I had to go out and travel again. Most of the stuff I did during this day were doodles.

Day 6, 7, and 8 (12/27-29)

Gonna compile coz I think most of what I did were at cafes and it all blurs together.

Here's where I actually start getting into coloring. The first thing I colored was the bottom left one. I really like how curly the lineart of Mo Ran's hair is, and the individual groups of hair on Wanning's ponytail flow together. Next is the middle left one, which was just me thinking about how ranwan had 8+ years together idk lol. I drew Mo Ran as a midget there, I didn't know he was actually almost the same height as Wanning by book 1 (179 vs 181) so that was uhh lol.

The sketches for the top left and the right image I did the same day, but the coloring for the right image I did last. Top left uses some rejected designs I had back when I was reading 2HA. I thought it'd be a fun creative exercise if I derive myself of official character designs, and create designs based on how I imagined them while reading the book. (That's something worth making a post about.) Specifically, the designs are post-story. That was also when I started rendering a bit.

It was at the right sketch when I thought I could try a rendering a bit more. Like clean up the lines a bit. Still the same process.

(This wasn't done on the Samsung tablet, but here's the height comparison). Mengmeng and 1.0 are a bit out of proportion i know lol.

Day 9 and 10

All of it leads up to the new years drawing at the top. It was tricky trying to render the two characters, because I had to tilt my pen a certain way so the lines made won't be too broad. I spent day 9 doing the sketch and the rough color, spending time on the background too and Day 10 on rendering the characters and polishing the background.

The app I use (Infinite painter) has a built-in playback function which is pretty neat because I always forget to record my drawing process. I ended up changing the background a couple times because I misread the actual scene lol. But yeah here's the process.

Overall, drawing on this tablet is more painterly compared to how I color on PC gahaha. So many brushes to choose from, and almost no keyboard input >_< it's a bit tedious coz I like having my brushes binded on keyboard, and here I have to move my hand around on screen and sometimes I end up pressing the shortcut for the undo button. But yeah, I think I can make more colored art outside now. Learning to get used on this is fun.

Happy new year, guys!!

[nightmarist]

For the artist questions, 6, 21 and 30 if you dont mind

6. What’s your least favorite thing to draw?

Ironically what people tell me to draw.

It's my love-hate with commissions, where I can need the money but dread what people are going to pay me to draw. However, I do like requests, there's a semantic difference in my brain for a request bc usually requests are framed in ways that people want me to draw something they think would match my art or think I the artist would enjoy drawing vs commissions where people want something I just couldnt care less about but Have to do it.

Since I've gotten more established professionally IRL I get to be more choosy about what I take on as commission, so I might just endup doing a whole "I'll only do commissions if I actually like your idea" since I do want to be paid for my work and I do think people have really cool ideas I would love to pry out of their tangled brains and put to paper or canvas or whatever. But even then, If I do really love someone's idea, I mean. Fuck it. I'd love to do it. I love making things for people and giving them away. The fleeting aspects of art can be art too.

21. Do you like to challenge yourself?

Yes !!! I constantly do shitty little sketches and go to drawing tutorials, ask my art instructor and professor friends for tips, tricks, ideas etc. I do a lot of exercises and recently I've become much less afraid of creating backgrounds now that I have a better grasp how to make them. Similarly I'm trying to figure out painting more, which is both fun and challenging.

I don't want to do Just realism, I would love to experiment with other styles. Now that I have actual income, I can "waste" resources (paint, canvases, etc) practicing. Usually the issue is, if I make something, I can't buy back the things I used to make it, and therefore can't continue making. One of the big reasons I've been doing so much more art lately than the past decade.

30. What inspires you to not just make art, but to be a better artist?

How do you define it? Is it what's the most realistic? I can do realism. I have. Ive been doing it since I was a young teenager, I had galleries and awards and was paid hundreds to nearly a thousand dollars for pieces. My parents kept all the money. Now that I'm an adult, no one gives a shit that some thirty year old man can paint a realistic portrait of a celebrity. It only mattered when I was 13 and 14 using a program no one ever heard of (paint tool sai) or didnt think photoshop could be anything but a photo editor. Realism isnt fun, anyway, at least not anymore for me.

I do think that things like "the basics" - anatomy and realism, still life, color theory, perspective, all should be learned to learn how to make compelling art. But they dont have to be used in polished, aesthetically pleasing ways. Once you learn how and why "oh these colors clash and make people turn away from how jarring they are" you can use that. "These perspective lines are weird" can be just as compelling when you have the knowledge to fuck around with it.

I think the thing for me is, after having collaborated with so many other artists IRL and seeing their work, art is so much more than being "good" or "better" or "best" — it's expression. What you express, how you express it, those are each personal things.

Art isn't just painting. Or embroidery. Or convention. Its this lady in town who makes full body puppet costumes out of scrap blankets and broken ceramics. Is this old woman in the country side who makes masks out of paper and crayons. Its a local punk who learned to silk screen their own T shirts with weird shit.

I guess more or less being a "better" artist for me is coming to understand that there's no actual such thing. You can have your own personal goals, set them, and make them.

In addition, "every artwork is practice for the next"

It's a perpetual cultivated skill that, when you look back, there will always be something you could have done "better"

[garyfischy]

regardless of what mediums you wanna use how you wanna draw ever heres what you need to do

-if youre a cartoonist be very specific with anatomy studies. if youre gonna stick to really stylized cartoony shit then keep anatomy studying to just basic forms, joints etc and focus on figure drawing. id reccomend 'figure drawing methods for artists' but for fucks sake just go on youtube, watch a couple videos they all say the same thing anyways. as long as you're not getting blatantly incorrect info from a guy that doesn't actually know how things work and cuts corners. it's better to sweat and bleed learning how to draw basic forms like the torso and pelvis than do what i did (go through as many shortcut pinterest guides as possible, develop a flawed and stiff understanding of anatomy, use it as a crutch) .

but yeah figure drawing is useful because learning how to set characters up in different poses and composition are useful. for every cartoonist!

-2... i ran out of points to make. Think about artists you like, you don't even have to make long rambly analyses , just jot down why you like their art and what appeals about them to you. anything from that vintage mustang poster you saw the other day, to a 'fine art' artist you'd see in a museum to your favorite blog

3: study practically.

read artbooks, look at tutorials online, watch youtube tutorials from a variety of sources: but remember, regular practice is the goal here. don't get too hooked on watching tutorials or studying and just go outside and draw a little. try and apply those skills bit by bit.

4 here are my (amateur guy that draws online and isn't going to art school)'s random advice bits

supplies i think are a godsend no matter what: one really good pencil. doesn't matter what kind it is. i got fancy ones but in all honesty light or dark you just need one that feels comfortable to write and draw with. practice those artist grips! consciously think about lines: do i want thick or thin lines? and what can I do to change it? Are my lines unsteady? and am I unhappy with that? sure, then try a different grip, or see if a thicker, more bulky pencil works! but hey, i'm just some guy on the internet telling you to do things.

ironically, even as I wax poetic about how fun it is to collect wood/mechanical pencils, my favorite thing to draw with is a #2 pencil.

I could go on and on about art supplies and practical applications but all I can say is if you really like something, splurge on it and if you're not sure about it get cheap ones. It's not really about the subtle intricacies of each medium but if you even like it in the first place. Cheap vs expensive watercolors aren't gonna matter if you don't LIKE using watercolors.

..that being said I think color pencils are the exception to this as each brand varies in quality regardless of price.

here are some artbook reccomendations to finish off this jumbled, disjointed and haphazardly written post

-Sketching People by Lynne Chapman: I tend to lean towards the more practical when it comes to any advice. something that really boils down the way you do something and why to its core. This book is really good for that.

-Figure Drawing Methods for Artists by Peter Boerboom and Tim Proetel: it's a really fun exercise book.

-Space Drawing and Perspective by Superani: once again, practical, well translated , and really fun to do. Don't get superani's anatomy book though it's racist and pervy as fuck

-and so many more that I can't even list here. Just go to your local library and open up one of these babies, grab a sheet of paper, and just jot anything down that seems interesting to you. Capiche?