#artist tips

[bugofmanynames]

DEAR ARTISTS, PLEASE READ THIS POST I STUMBLED ACROSS

IF YOU ARE NOT DOING THIS ALREADY, YOU SHOULD TRY IT

I even tested it out myself, it works great

[kyri45]

Reminder that my CARTOON CHARACTER ILLUSTRATION COURSE COMING SOON! :D

✨The Waiting list is STILL OPEN!!✨

I put an ungodly amount of time preparing and working on this and I hope you all will like it! I tried to put most of the topics you told me you would like to improve, and made it in a way accessible to beginners but also for artists who want to expand their knowledge!

[8pxl]

Hi! I have recently got into pixel art as I have been learning to develop games and I've been following you for a bit and I have some questions!

How do you create coherent color palettes? I always find myself tweaking it and I'm sure it takes practice but your colors always look perfect, what magical powers do you behold??

Do you do any sketches to get shapes right or do you do it as you go? Again, I'm sure practice is the answer, there's no magical solution, but everything I do looks kinda stiff and dead

Anyway, thank you! Your art is wonderful!

honestly i started by using premade/mono chromatic palettes mostly and focused on values and composition. once i felt more confident in those, i started using color palettes taken from photos, films, or photobash multiple photos into one then color grade it so its more seamless. now its easy and natural to just pick colors. i think it’s important to understand the basics before trying to get too complicated, values/hues/color depth/composition/tones/hue shifting are all very helpful to learn about when being self taught. another tip is when the art is done ill usually add a color filter over the whole artwork so the colors vibe together better.

and yep i always sketch :) usually ill sketch with pencil, take a photo then draw over that. i love the feeling and organic feeling drawing w pencil gives my art. i def recommend bc it’ll help with the stiffness! i also use a drawing tablet and that helps my art flow more organically too. but thank you!! enjoy the journey of learning pixel art 💕

[naariel]

Finally!! This bad boy can hold so much advice.

Learn how to price yourself fairly, avoid burnout, and build a sustainable art career with the Ultimate Artist Guide, available in LESS THAN THREE WEEKS?!

Get notified when it's out via Newsletter

[luvtonique]

Character Design Tip

After drawing your character for the first time, take a break, set the drawing aside, don't look at it

Next time you draw that character, do not look at your original drawing, do not use any reference for the character (aside from pose if you use pose refs)

Try to remember stand-out features that you drew the first time, and just make shit up for anywhere that you forgot

This is what I do with ALL my characters

Why? Here's a quote from a smart guy

"If there's a feature I very clearly remember without needing to look at reference, it's a feature that stood out, and that makes it a good feature. If there's a feature I can't remember off the top of my head, it's not a stand-out identifier of the character!"

-Me I said that

Do this repeated times until you are consistently drawing the same character every time and don't ever need to look at reference. The reason why is because this helps you visualize the character without needing to look at reference of them. You become completely aware of what they look like and how to draw them, and that means you have given them visual features that define them and separate them from your other OCs.

If you're drawing them and you go "I remember purple hair, I remember the bangs, I remember the eye circles, I remember the freckle placement, I remember the woodle stickin' up on the top of the head, I remember the long ears, I remember the gray skin" then those are what stuck out when you drew them the first time.

If you don't remember the little bow in their hair, goodbye little bow, you are no longer necessary.

You're welcome for this, please do this when you design your OCs for the first time.

[drachenmagier]

I have decided. Not only will I pirate any product that uses Gen A/I (you use mine for free, I use yours for free), I will also put it on my Resume under "Concept Designs and Illustrations".

You DID use my art.

It's only fair.

No worries, you will get a LOOOT of exposure! <3

Cheers! dra

[buzzkillchainsaw]

Ironic of me to make this after not posting for almost a month ... I'm still alive btw, I just don't really wanna post the stuff I've made

There's also a huge ask sitting in my askbox which I don't want to get into right now, but I'll answer it whenever I have the energy (sorry dear asker, it might take a while)

[genericpuff]

idk who needs to hear this but if you're a writer looking for a webcomic artist and the best offer you can come up with is a 50/50 split "after gaining revenue", then that's literally asking for free work just with extra steps.

like first of all (and i'm sure people are gonna fight me on this) writing a webcomic and drawing a webcomic is not a 50/50 split, a scene that took you a half hour to write will take them hours to draw so it's literally more like 30/70

but also even IF your comic gains revenue, it's still not gonna pay for that labor, there are comic projects out there that have been going on for upwards of 10 years and beyond who are still maybe only making like $30/month on their patreon... and you only wanna pay them $15 of that?

please just consider writing a novel or short stories, or doing tabletop campaigns, or pitching scripts to comic publishers, or learning to draw yourself (even if you're bad at it! webcomics are allowed to grow and evolve in their art!), or doing RP, or doing anything that will get your ideas and stories out there without being at the expense of a whole ass other human being doing the brunt of the labor for free

no matter how dedicated you are to an idea or how convinced you are that it's truly a unique one that's worth working on, none of that will pay for the labor and time and efforts of people who you're asking to work for free to make your dream a reality. They have their own dreams that they're working on too.

[wberry-foodfight]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but as a painting student I suggest:

Dish soap and boiling water is WAY better than terpentine or paint solvent to fix dried out brushes.

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Put the brushes in a cup.

Pour a dish soap.

Pour a boiling water to the level it doesn't reach the wooden part.

Leave them to soak and soften

Try to separate the hair on two parts, then on smaller and smaller parts.

At the end, carefully try to scratch off the paint and "break" the hair by carefully pushing it over a surface and moving (like over your palm). If you can't, repeat the previous steps.

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Works even with dried out oil paints. Stronger fluid doesn't mean better.

Tho in harder cases you'd have to repeat the steps a few times to restore the brush fully.

So if you can't afford new brushes, don't throw the old away. Even if they seem helpless, there is a hope for them to be like new.

[phenix-00]

Tips for artists of you want to draw a character using a cane (from a cane user)

Remember to add a rubber stopper to the bottom of the cane. Walking with a cane that doesn't have one is impossible because it will just slide around on the floor

An example of a BAD cane would be something like this

See how it doesn't have that rubber stopper, that would be a bitch to walk with if your character needs to use it to support their weight

Now, I'm not saying all canes need to have the stopper because fashion canes DO exist, but if your character needs the cane to walk, it's a small detail that you could add.

Another thing is, if your character needs a cane, put it in the hand that's opposite to the bad leg. If the left leg is bad, then the right hand should hold the cane because when you walk with a cane, the cane is supposed to act as a thrid leg that walks in time with the bad leg so you keep your weight off the leg.

Lastly, the cane should be around hip height to your character, so it's comfortable for them to put their weight on the cane

This is sort of a bad photo because of how I'm standing, but the cane is set to around the height of the middle of my hip bone

I hope these kinda sorta help in some way :D

[cindytranart]

How I go from tiny thumbnail sketch to full rendered illustration! Using my MaoMao and Jinshi, The Apothecary Diaries poster design as an example

1: Making complex compositions is always easier when you start tiny! So I always start with at least 3-4 thumbnail sketches 2: Once I’ve chosen a thumb (which you guys helped me pick, thank you!) then I stretch it to make it full sized (in this case an 8x10” canvas)

3: From there I make a clean sketch on top, sometimes in flat grays as I go for clarity 4: This step is really important and I always regret it if I skip it! Next I block rough values in grayscale to create the exact contrast I want in the final render

5: Using the gray render as a base, I use gradient maps and multiple washes of color to create the color palette I want 6: This brings us to the most time consuming and also fun part: rendering! From here I merge my sketch and color layers and just go to town. Sometimes, I start from back to front, other times I just do whatever I feel like lol

7: Finish off with final details like texture and highlights and she’s complete!

[kyri45]

Hey! Love your comics and your art style!

But I am curious how you know how to format your comics? Like knowing what dialog to put where or to put a pause or how to space out the dialog so it's not rushed, if that makes sense?

I've tried making comics before and my issue was always trying to cram too much dialog into some of the panels, or being able to tell the story I want without lengthy dialog.

On a STORYTELLING and WRITING pov, it's better to act the scene in your head like it's a movie. Would an actual conversation be this long/short? It s technically better if you talk it out. Like you literally say the lines of dialouge your self. You then:

1. Hear how the dialouge sound like (would that be something that a person would say naturally? Or does it feels,ironically, "scripted"?

2. Hear how LONG the dialouge is (like you can time yourself and see how long that is)

3. Understand when to put pauses/make more panels. (Because YOU know which parts of the dialouge are more important, and your voices most likely will reflet that by being higer in tone or volume. So something that is more important might need a panel itself, to reflect the importance.)

On a VISUAL and ARTISTIC pov, you can be really creative with how position your dialouge, but a general rule: understand if visuals are more important or if what is said in the dialouge is more important. You can t have a super lenghty dialoige with a lot of visuals

So:

Either have a lot of info/dialouge dump, but keep resctrictive visuals (show just a details, you can also don't show faces and show like, other details of the environment, or make the characters very tiny

have like ONE super important line and a LOT of space for the visual (a close up of the eyes/mouth, or an expression

In the between, you need to balance 50% space for dialouge, 50% for the visual elements (character on the right, text on the left. Or top and bottom as well)

[8pxl]

Hello! Nice to meet you. Been following this blog for a while and I've become a big fan of your work~♡

So, about this question here, could you elaborate a bit more about using references and "editing" the colour palettes? Also, what is colour dropping?

As a (not digital) painter I also often struggle a lot with finding the right colour scheme to make what I want. I think that's partly why I have trouble finding inspiration too.

color dropping is using the eyedropping tool on an image and taking the colors from it directly!

so basically i find a picture i like the vibes of/think it could be pretty and just edit the color. I draw with photoshop so I edit the colors with it as well! i use the curves tool usually and just mess with it until im happy! above is an axample.

first image is the original then i color edited it, then i used the color dropping tool on photoshop (pictured in the top right corner) to create the palette then i usually edit the colors a bit more!

generally when i color pick i start w the lightest then go darker! this isnt what i do every time, this has gotten me to the point of being intuitive enough with colors that I can pick my own now, but I think its a great way to learn abt colors digitally!

[zer0-devoox]

Love your art style! You have definitely inspired me to dedicate more to learning to draw.

Could you share a little mini process of how you start a sketch? And what basics do you recommend to someone who is starting out?

♠️Q&A pt3♠️

first of all thank you! I don't know how -I- could inspire someone but if I really make you want to draw, it fills me with pride.

Second: Take it easy!

Here we are all in the same boat that we don't know where it's going, we're just making sure it doesn't sink.

If you need help ASK FOR IT, there is nothing wrong with it, personally no one taught me anything and I learned everything on my own, but having a guide is always good, good look with all 💜

=====

Aright... Uhhhhhhhhh

... Ajá also-

My process... Ahm...

#Orsomethinglikethatidk

(Very inspired in sunlit-mess btw LHSM)

Anyway IDK what im doing :D

My prosses is very simple (not easy but simple)

For some speed paint, ah... You probably will found somes in my Youtube, i guees [YT] (i should probably post more of them)

Some advice I can give you

Extras:

•Your art is yours, don't let anyone make you think otherwise

•Learn the basics and then style, no one does this but it is very useful (Anatomy, you don't need to know every muscle in the body, with a basic understanding of where everything goes, how it moves, how far it goes, and and how big is it, that's enough.)

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” – Pablo Picasso

•Don't be afraid! of absolutely nothing, you want post your art? Do it. You want use crazy colors? do it. Do you want to use an anatomical cartoon style? DO IT. "The rule of art is that there are no rules"

•Enjoy, play, experience, have fun!

I hope that helps! Good look✨🌟

[drachenmagier]

Don't get discouraged if you see pretty sketchbooks online.

My sketchbooks are pages and pages of me having no idea what I'm doing and doing EXACTLY that as badly as possible, in ballpoint pen, caffeine, and neon markers.

If your sketchbook looks like you chewed on it, you did it right. <3