#but thats so much work and lineart is Fun Sometimes

[evercelle]

Hi! Me again! Thanks so much for replying! I actually do have two things(elements) I'm working on at the moment. Line art and coloring are what I struggle to do the most. My sketches come out so nice until I try to do my line art. And I have issues with lighting, shading and such. Thats all I truly need help on. The positions and anatomy I'm sure I could work on my own. Oh! Thanks again for offering help! It means a lot to me(Also I'm not expecting anything professional from you! I'm just a person who likes to learn different ways a styles that might help me tis all! So don't stress, please! Thanks again!✨💖💖💖🌸💖💖💖✨)

ok that's a lot of different things haha so let's look at lineart✨!! because that's the part i like doing the most... here's a picture i drew as an example! i'll put the "tutorial" part under a cut since it's long...

"my lineart comes out way stiffer than my sketches" is a huge mood O(--( when you're sketching you tend to be a lot looser, and drawing lots of overlapping lines creates visual ambiguity where your eyebrain kind of fills in details automatically. then when you try to draw a single line on top of a mass of vague details, it looks weird...

sketch for the above picture; i think there's a few things you can try to retain the looseness from your sketch page:

1) don't even do lines lmao sometimes i just clean up a sketch with eraser and call it a day

2) i like using a pencil/textured type brush to do lineart now! you won't be able to bucket fill for coloring anymore, but for me it helped deal with the too stiff/too clean feeling.

3) i don't do this myself, but i've seen some people suggest blurring the whole sketch layer so you can still see the original sketch as a guide, but don't feel constrained to redrawing exactly on top of it

i also don't bother connecting/closing all lines, it's easier on the hand to not redraw one super long unbroken line fifty times lol

for this one, i redrew the lineart on a new layer. pay attention to areas of high detail density (where you have a lot of stuff going/lines intersecting). e.g., venti's hand, his braid, xiao's bangs... is it easy or difficult to see what's going? check for line tangents, adjust thickness, add more negative space to clarify what you're seeing. small adjustments can bring more visual clarity too; for example, even though xiao's hair falls over his face, i like drawing the eye/brow underneath so you can still see the shape of his expression... to make it easier to follow the line of his bang, i erased a little bit of the brow/eyelashes underneath so they don't intersect his bangs on both sides of the line, which helps create more depth and makes it easier to see the hair line

you can also vary line width to create depth! i highlighted in red where i drew with thicker lines, because these are the big important shapes that are the central focus. highlighted in purple elements that are further away from the viewer (the hair on the other side of their face, xiao's necklace) or finer details (venti's nails)

contrast makes things fun and easier to look at it...! i like using thicker lines around the main shape/contour of something and drawing the interior details with finer lines

fill + lines colored: this is less of a good example because it's all grayscale, but i think coloring your lineart also helps contribute to contrast and depth o: you can retain details but make it easier for the eye to parse

those are the main things i think about for lineart; hope that helps (at least somewhat)...!

[animalinvestigator]

if someone already adsked these sorry hehe 23 & 5 & 8

ZILLAYyyyyyyyyyyy thank you fo rhthe ask i smiled. Clyde beat you to 23 but ican still do the other two.

5. least favorite thing to draw

anything requiring clean geometric shapes and lines and shit ~_~ My wobbly hands and terrible eye for these things make me genuinely unfit for drawing architecture which boils my blood because architecture is like important to me. i've been working on it but i make slow process because i'm just reallllyyy bad at keeping things uniform. its not just that im bad at it though i love drawing things im bad at drawing its mostly taht i get insanely frustrated. someday i will fix this about me.

8. what's the most fun and the least fun parts about your process

MOST FUN is certainly painting and sketching. You can kind of definitely tell because this is all i really do whenever i can help it. i love fucking with color , i have so much fun just drawing casually unpolishedly. i love painting and its relaxing and satisfying for me to basically have infinite chances to just do an area over by throwing more color on top of it. thats the best part about it. LEAST FUN is Everything else. correcting mistakes and polishing shit destroys my soul i want everythingto be so messy all the time. having to do lineart destroys my soul. i have extremely little patience for it. so i simply stopped. But sometimes it cant be helped........and i hate eery second of it.

BTW do you want to hang out with us later. Thankyou for the ask i smiled : )

[pandemique]

hI!! i love your art and was wondering if you could make a tutorial showing how you paint stuff? only if you can! it's just really pretty !!

hi nonnie! thats very flattering !! i’m sorry i dont think i’ll be very helpful bc i’m a mega noob as well :D but i’ll try my very best <3

my process is very tailored for speed instead of quality (oops soz LOL) so i do suggest this for if u have short doodle breaks ⬇️⬇️⬇️

thumbnailing (for comics) -> lines (sketch who?) -> bucket tool/color drop in the base color -> color in the lines -> one multiply layer for a “base” shadow (in the vid below its purple!) -> one (1) render/paint layer a.k.a lawless no man’s land

full rendering process & more general painting tips below the cut‼️

NOTE: i’ll be focusing more on traditional/fundamental tips for stylized art because i’m sure there’s a much more effective way in digital. I truly do only use one normal layer for render... i think this is bc before i made this blog, my only prior experience in drawing is middle school art class, so all i know is traditional painting on one layer.... pray i can answer this again in the future with something smarter lmao

🌺 MY PAINT PROCESS

1. Choose a color scheme!

It doesn’t have to be set in stone like below, but i at least keep in mind the color range i’d like to use depending on what i want to convey (ex. soft pastels for soft fluff, or warm colors for happy vibes). I try to be as limited as possible for base colors because I tend to go ham when painting, you’ll see later AHAHA

2. Base coloring + Base shadow

Base -> bucket tool in the color scheme (I know other artists are against this but when i discovered the bucket tool in digital art I immediately divorced manual coloring i’m sorry i loved you tho bae) (this is why my style and lines are simplistic as they are, so the color drop works!)

Base shadow -> in theory, warm-colored light creates cool-colored shadows and vice versa. because i’m a fluff addict i mainly use warmer light, so i like using blue/purple as the shadow. generally u can’t go wrong with complementary colors!! (yellow light & purple shadows / orange light & blue shadows).

I make a new multiply layer (decreased opacity just bc i like things soft okay) and clip it on the base layer, then block in the areas i think would get blocked from the light.

3. Color in the lines!

for simplistic styles i swear this works wonders. i just clip a layer to the lineart and manually color the lines with a darker but more saturated version of the base color. it just tends to look more dead i guess with low saturation lol (ex. u can see above i use both peach and red or pink for lines of skin, i guess it implies the blood under the skin too. or something :D)

4. RENDERRRR

when i’m not in a rush i just paint things completely (and mindlessly), but here are the things i almost always do:

line the shadows with a saturated color! i’m not sure this is common but i love it lol, in almost all my doodles just check the shadows—on the edges, there’s bound to be a wild color :D (usually its the light color, shadow color or a color scheme color but sometimes i’m just like boY do i loVe piNk)

my art major friend told me about saturated colors on desaturated bases and my life was changed forever lol. u can see below even when my base is very grayyy, my rendering is very gay :D ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

make the shadows darker where i think they should be darker. usually i can just colorpick from that darker, saturated lineart color!

if it’s a more realistic piece i usually make the highlights lighter, but in simple doodles i find it unnecessary, and i dont like how light/white it looks :( i tend to just make the areas exposed to light more saturated

color in the rebound light~ in reality there’s usually not only one primary light source, at least there’d be secondary light from where light bounces off objects. in art we just emphasize that! so in large shadow areas, or in areas close to other objects/colors, i like to ‘splash’ other colors on

yeah this part is less intuitive for beginners and u have to learn a grasp on the concepts over time, like for lighting and structure. values can be more important than color, so i do suggest learning shading first before coloring, but only if u like (u can always be like me and just pull up references when u dont get how the light would fall on some materials :>). i have more general paint tips below! don’t give up okay, i believe in u nons, we’re all still in the eternal learning process together ( •̀ᄇ• ́)ﻭ✧

5. OOOOHHH SHINY ✨🤩

this step is just me being mesmerized by how easy it is to play with lighting in digital. i play around with the layer settings (multiply for shadow, overlay for light, and often try out the other settings too!). my favorite effect is the highlight glow thing, where u just make a copy layer of the highlights below the original layer, and blur it slightly so it looks like glow ✨✨🤩 overpriced acrylic could never

6. COLOR ADJUST / EDIT

Truthfully i usually skip this step, but my more pro friends really vouch for it!! i think definitely an incredible thing with digital is that u can edit proportions and even color after you’re done. i think they usually use like the curves adjustment layer in photoshop until they get colors they like, but for me, well, in a reaally diligent day i like to slap on the “auto” fliter in the iphone’s photos edit button lmaoooo

🌺 GENERAL PAINTING TIPS

learn basic theory: i think theres free courses everywhere online, but heres a few things u might like to have a basic understanding of: color, perspective, shape language, lighting, composition. don’t sweat it too much tho, it should be fun to explore the concepts!

and for drawing hoomans: proportion, gesture, expression, and veery basic anatomy. i find that overall forms are so much more important to learn than like detailed anatomy bc u can always look it up lol

but remember, u mostly want to learn the rules so u know better ways to break them :)

uuuuse manyyyyy referencessss every time u draww!

^this includes other people’s art — when u see good stuff, figure out why u like it and apply it to ur own art

get feedback!!!!

draw tons!!! brainrot helps !! ;D

aaand thank u for coming to my ted talk! sorry for the ramble nonnie, i hope u got something out of this lol

[meringuejellyfish]

Hiya! May I ask how you plan out your color palettets? They're so vibrant and purple :3

i must start this off by saying that where ive gotten with art thus far has been mostly through bullshitting and just messing around. and i wouldnt have it any other way. like yeah its good to have a basic understanding of color theory and what not but ... heres what i do :^9

most of these apply to digital art specifically ... so keep that in mind

-one way that i sort of got an eye for picking colors was through creating a basic color palette, filtering it to my liking, and working from there.

(layer modes here were ‘lighten’ and ‘saturation’ over that, but thats not really important + the names of layer modes/blending modes/what have you differ from program to program)

i found this to be a lot more enjoyable than coloring a piece with a basic palette and putting filters over it, and like ive said it gave me an understanding of how colors work together in ways you wouldnt expect. any of the colors in the filtered palette may look odd on their own but work well all together. this is just a really good way to start with working with more interesting palettes, and i still find myself doing this from time to time. since most of my focus has been on cooler palettes, ive been thinking about doing this method to get some warmer palettes to work with and attempt to understand those.

-on the topic of filters, theres absolutely no shame in using them to your advantage. filters are cool and fun to mess around with and i dont understand why some people are so stingy with them. even though i dont do the previous trick as much these days i still like messing around with filtering an otherwise finished piece. i drew something recently which looked so much more fun and vibrant after upping the saturation, and typically i like to put ‘brightness’ or ‘luminescence‘ filtering over a drawing. like i said ... just mess around from time to time and you’ll figure out some cool things you can do.

-never underestimate the importance of the color of a background/lineart/any other element of a piece. a colored background can heavily alter the mood of a piece. and if you do lineart, think about changing the color of it (typically i do a dark purple or blue because i think it looks nice :^9) and also consider filling in a subject in a piece with one color before coloring over it with the actual palette, your ‘underpainting’ if you will. even as someone who doesnt use this for painting, i find that this still helps me.

- substitutes !!! think about using blue in place of black, cyan in place of white, and so many other possibilities. and on another note, dont be afraid to use pure blacks and whites in palettes, not everything needs to be soothingly pleasing to the eye. there are no limits to what youre “allowed” to do with art. even though i typically use a dark purple and what not, sometimes i experiment with black lineart, and i find that it looks very striking. just dont lock yourself into a certain way of always doing things

-im sure this doesnt need to be any longer ... final general notes of mine are .. dont be afraid and hold yourself back from trying out “weird” palettes, sometimes an experiment turns out and sometimes it doesnt. the biggest mistake you can make is stifling yourself in fear of making something “bad”, just go crazy. and remember that youre learning even when you arent drawing, consider collecting artwork from others with palettes that inspire you and putting it all into a folder that you look at from time to time, and take note of how others go about things. every artist has inspirations, and mine are a huge part of where ive gotten with art and the things i want to continue to experiment with.

like once said in sonic adventure 2 .... live and learn everybody

[valdotpng]

any tips for regaining confidence in your art/overcoming art block and improving?

tbh.... i dont have a consistent way of dealing w/ art block myself lol. which is valid, i think! ppl become artblocked for different reasons, and everybodys experience with this Very Vague concept are gonna be different. i do have a couple of suggestions, but please keep in mind that i myself have no idea what im doing 99% of the time, so my advice might be Bad actually, and my confidence in.. well, pretty much anything, is oftentimes low as u can probably tell sudfgsduf

-the most common tip is, of course, try to keep drawing. doesnt really matter what-- any little doodle still counts and might end up being a catalyst for you! 

-if youre dead set on improving your art skills, then you could do some studies! figure drawing, sketching, painting, etc etc.. theres a lot to pick from, and it can be quite overwhelming, so dont forget to take it easy and take one step at a time. learning anything takes a lot of time and effort, but even if you dont see any immediate progress, remember that its not in vain: your understanding of certain subjects improves with every little sketch, and so does your muscle memory/general art skills. you could also try watching/reading some tutorials on topics youre interested in

-try new things!! coloring, shading, lineart, art styles.... in my experience, its usually really fun to experiment w/ that kinda stuff. try picking smth that you think you would enjoy doing!! and dont be afraid to be messy, or ‘lazy’, or weird w/ your art in that moment. just try to have fun :]

(additionally, i’d recommend trying out new things when youre not artblocked too obvs, cuz then you can discover funky new techniques outside of your comfort zone more easily)

-if youre particularly frustrated/are running low on energy/nothing else seems to help, then consider taking a break? idk if it works for everyone, but sometimes im just able to like.. wait out an art block. and like, duh. sometimes thats all it takes! burnout is a rather common problem, and its healthy & encouraged to take breaks when you need to

(if youre afraid that the break will end up being way too long or will kill your motivation/want to draw, then at least try to like.. ease into drawing again. draw smth youre good at drawing! doodle smth you Really enjoy doodling! do smth that will remind you of what youre good at already. pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is good for improvement (which is important, so dont forget abt it), but when youre running on fumes, so to speak, being extra self-indulgent might be what will reignite that artistic spark of yours!!)

oh and watch kikis delivery service. /hj  sdhfuisdhf.... when im going through an especially nasty art block i come back to it cuz its got a nice message abt this kinda stuff, among other things. plus its a feel-good ghibli movie, so it might cheer you up idk <:]

hope this helps at least a little bit!!!!

[antia-calviz]

hi! i am a ridiculously huge fan of you art. just want to ask about your creative process and what advice you’d give to those trying to find an art style or start out digitally? any tips really on creating digital art! (and lastly, your most recent artwork of the handler blows my goddamn mind, the colours, the style, everything, it’s perfect)

hello! thank u so much thats so sweet! ill answer in parts!

creative process:

i think most times i think some shit up and i save an unhealthy amount of reference pictures, and based on that i try to figure out a cool/harmonious composition. i think the most important part in my process is mapping out the basic shapes / silhouettes, cuz its a “quick” way of knowing if yr design will work, like if it’s visually engaging. it’s gotta work from the silhouette stage. then i pretty much just fill in the details (face, lineart, clothes, BGs, etc).

art style:

art style comes on its own tbh. developing an art style has more to do with experimenting with stylistic and aesthetic choices so dont be afraid to try out different styles and tecnhiques! i cant stress this enough though, style is not as important as hard drawing skills like anatomy, lighting and color theory. id say start with the “boring” stuff and work your way from there! it will make your art exponentially better. master those pillars and then go crazy, go stupid.

digital art tips (ill do my best): 

theres’ a lot of hardware out there, ive only ever used Wacom and theyre really good! the simplest wacom tablet is guaranteed to do the trick and last for YEARS on end

try to not break/lose your tablet pen. theyre expensive

if you can, try out different software! tbh i only use photoshop cuz im a pussy and Clip studio scares me BUT please try different programs

WEAR GLASSES. even if you dont regularly need them, get you a pair of screen glasses cuz vision deteriorates quickly (been there done that), protect yr eyes

experiment with layers and blending modes! its really fun and you can achieve some crazy stuff by using them, dont b scared of em (i was)

if your software offers tools like 3D models, or some other stuff that will make drawing easier, USE THEM. it’s not cheating, and it will save you a lot of time and frustration

if your computer can take it, work in 600 dpi resolution at least (just learned this the hard way recently)

when doing personal work draw stuff you ENJOY drawing, pick things you can look at for 6+ hours without getting sick of it

try to practice on the tablet as often as possible, do it regularly, not only to keep growing/improving, but especially to maintain the progress youve made

draw things that scare you. most times its just a mental barrier, youll be fine even if you think its shit the first time. just keep going

progress is not lineal. sometimes youll like the result, sometimes you won’t and that normal and healthy. be prepared for that

when analyzing/critiquing your own work, pretend it’s somebody else’s. youll be more honest with yourself and less destructive

KILL YOUR DARLINGS, dont get attached to drawings. if you dont like something / a sketch is not working, it’s better to ditch it and start over

dont be too hard on yourself, and have fun!! 

this ended up being really long! i hope it helps! <3

[batz]

you’re a big inspiration to me! I idolize both your line art and shape language in your characters. If it’s not too much to ask, what’s your process for constructing/drawing a character? shapes n stuff? your style is very simple yet conveys forms with fluidity!

thank u so much omg !!!! ;u; 

uhhh my process is kind a like... like using Fast Pen Strokes and Shape as a main thing kinda? like one sec lemme show u a step by step drawing of tommy n that basically encapsulates how draw stuff.

step 1: shapes!!! u kno em u see em!

ok get a shape in ur mind and sketch it out REAL fast its ok if its messy as long as its the shape u want it to be ur GOOD i draw tommy w long head long face syndrome so i sketched out ths bean shape. one of the things i learned from taking Drawing Naked People Class is that getting the basic sketch OUT super fast, disregarding messiness and mistakes, is th best way 2 keep ur art lookin dynamic n shit. its all about the movement babey!!!! im still struggling w that tho but m getting there! drawing tommy def helps tho hes like a tall noodle boy. but yeah like stay loose w ur drawing in those first steps bc u can get some realy nice fluidity there.

step 2: details n other shit 

ok yeah self explanatory add details remember being messy being fast is a-ok bc being fast means ur getting all those good less controlled shapes that make drawing FUN remember: loosey goosey arms babey!!! u dont gotta be super restricted to these details if u dont want to be, this is like a Vague Concept of where u want to put the things. sometimes i’ll start this EXACT process again on different parts of the drawing just to get it right. its all trial n error n stuf.

step 3: LINEART or at least a version of lineart i like 2 do like sketch lineart idk

so w this instead of drawing onto another layer i actually erased all the messy lines to create like, a nice messy lineart kinda look where its solid enough that its lineart but because it wasnt drawn on another layer, tracing over ur super fast shape concept, the drawing stil retains the shape it had in the sketch process and retains its fluidity. if u do this and the lines art still too light for ur liking just copy the layer and put the opacity at any percent u like so then u end up w the same lines but darker ig. an example of cleaner lineart would look kinda like this 

which, YES the lines are cleaner and thicker which is good for certain times of drawings but i find it looks a lot more flat and its not exactly my preferred go to kinda thing (altho it is sometimes easier!) i dont typically LIKE doing actual lineart w a separate later bc it RLLY stiffens up my style, BUT i like to do it for like comics or Specific Illustrations or, in one case, th animatic, bc its just a lot cleaner of a Look.  w both versions i basically fixed a couple things wrong with the basic sketch, added more detail, slapped on some color for aesthetic purposes and added everyones favorite iconic tommy quote from hlvrai act  5 icarly edition: )

ANYWAY YEA thats like essentially it! im gonna do another art stream this saturday (and since im not working on animatic it’l actually be fun to watch and epic!!! requests n stuff maybe!!) nd u can seehow i make cartoons REAL!!! anyway ya thank u hope this isnt completely nonsensical n make sense n stuff!!!!

[ankhisms]

the always wonderful shelley @shanheling tagged me to do this thank u so much!! i think that everyone i wanted to tag has already been tagged to do this but if you feel like doing this feel free to consider urself tagged by me!! im putting this under a readmore bc its long and i ramble a lot

the piece i was tagged to explain my process on is this oc piece! unfortunately i have a habit of deleting my original clip studio file once ive finished my art and saved it as a new png file, so i dont have the file to show the sketch and different stages of this piece. but I still can go through my general process and talk about how i did that piece!

1. planning

honestly i think about the art that i want to do a lot, and in this last year or so ive thought about the art i want to do more than ive been able to actually create and finish that art that i want to do. for my planning i tend to do a lot of different thumbnail sketches for the art im thinking of

these are some examples of thumbnails, a lot of times ill do thumbnails just on pencil and paper and with some of these theyre done quickly with my fingers on my phone note function on a day where i was feeling too bad to get up and draw on paper but still wanted to get the thumbnail ideas down. two of these are for the same songxiao piece that i still havent finished and i have more thumbnails digitally on clip studio for the same piece, i do a lot more thumbnails when a piece isnt working the way i want it to and theres times where ill completely scratch a thumbnail or a sketch and start over in order to do more thumbnails because i dont feel happy with some aspect of it.

two of these are small gouche painting thumbnails for two pieces i did maybe a month or so ago, i did the thumbnails and then tried to expand on them digitally and im wanting to do more thumbnail paintings like this in the future because it was fun

for the piece of my oc trio it was based off a series of ask prompts i got for a few different outfit prompt memes i had reblogged, so i based their outfits on the ones in the meme. when im drawing figures i tend to try and get the movement down in the poses when im sketching, i do several rough sketches of the pose before beginning to start setting down lines (if im doing lineart at all because sometimes i dont like doing lineart and do a more lineless painting kind of style). i really try to get my art to convey some kind of emotion, in the oc piece i wanted it to feel fun and like youre seeing three best friends while theyre out on the town having a fun night

2. creating

this is the only real example i have of a piece in the middle of being filled in and created, this piece is one that im really not very happy with & have had lying around for a while and ill probably scrap it and try to come at it from a different perspective at some point. but anyway it still shows what i do, i lay down a kind of neutral gray color underneath my final sketch/lineart if im doing lineart in that piece and then i start picking out the colors that i want for the piece and kind of setting out a pallette for myself. i dont do this color pallette thing 100% of the time but i do it really often, especially if im working on a commission or a larger piece where i know theres going to be a lot of colors or if its a piece where im not sure exactly what color scheme i want so laying out the colors together helps me kind of decide what kind of scheme i want. i am sooooo picky about my colors in my art i am genuinely obsessed with colors in art and there are times where i really have to stop myself from working on something forever just constantly adding more colors or putting little tiny changes and gradients in the colors.

after ive got the colors i want down i tend to try and block out parts of the piece with the base color for that section, and then i start to paint with the colors that i want to go on top of that base color from there.

once im satisfied with the colors/shading/rendering and everything ill go back and look over things and will fix things that look off or sometimes completely redo segments if they dont look right to me. when i was younger and mainly doing digital art using my phone and my fingers i would use a lot of filters and overlays on top of my art once i was done, and honestly im glad to not be doing that anymore because i dont think it made my art look any better. i do color adjustments and sometimes will put on a color overlay or a layer to emphasize the shadows and the light in the piece, but i try to keep those layers to a minimum and like i said before i have a tendency to obsess over the colors and ill spend a good amount of time in the color adjustment tool of clip studio and then ill just decide "actually it looks fine as it is" so yeah!

3. posting

i feel like i dont have a lot to say here gbfm i mean i honestly have a lot of thoughts about the relationship between artists and social media and how social media changes our views on art including our own art and how we can feel like we constantly need to be posting new art and just become content machines churning out new stuff. but ill save that rant for another time. i used to be really concerned about how many notes my art would get when i was younger, and i dont at all blame anyone who still is very concerned about that bc it sucks when u work hard on something youve created and then you dont get a lot of recognition for it, but honestly within the last two years or so i feel like ive begun to have a lot healthier relationship with posting my art. i really just post my art on my art blog, reblog it to my main blog, and then thats that yknow! i do really appreciate any and all support people give me, it means the world to me, but for me having the mentality where i dont need to post all the art i make and i dont need to be posting every day or every week or every month even has been a lot healthier for me because then im not constantly asking myself why didnt this get notes is my art awful??? and yeah i just kind of post it and my brain goes okay were done with that art we gotta make more

ive honestly been struggling a lot with art thru the pandemic and if youre reading this and have been struggling with creating in any way recently or even before the pandemic, please know theres no shame in having trouble creating and it doesnt make you bad at whatever it is u create!

thank you for reading this, feel free to consider urself tagged by me again if u want to do this!! love u all

[mspainttaz]

Do you have any art tips? Asking for a friend

i took a while to answer this one because i had a hard time coming up with any specific advice to this kinda broad prompt

a few things ive noticed about how im drawing lately, that in sharing might??? give you the advice youre looking for:

get inspired by other artists. let your art style evolve as you pick up new ideas and see new ways of doing things. practice doing the things you see that you like! 

i hate clean linework and need to work on that... part of it is a long history of never finishing my art and having years worth of doodles lying around. what i do in the meantime is im trying to get better at sketching, which for me means, confidence.

one way to improve your sketches and help you do them faster, cleaner, and easier to work off of, is to practice anatomy,and also tracing references so you can get the motions and sense of space ingrained into your mind. references arent evil. they dont make your art less valid, use them! tracing isnt evil either, as long as youre making it your own! several of the pieces ive put on here i did blocky tracings of to get the shapes down, then did a first sketch over that, then final lines over that. it just means youre starting from a good place. i cant tell if im making sense anymore its two thirty am. why am i like this. 

lighting can really bring your art to life! stuff like how to shade and how to use the glow tool too much and how to uhhh.... yeah i just have been leaning too much on messy lighting lately ill let you know when i actually refine that. a simple bit of lighting to single color or flat colored art can really bring it to life and its just fun

flip your canvas so you can check to see if it looks good. i tend to tilt my head and hold my tablet at an angle i KNOW THATS NOT GOOD ART POSTURE SHH and sometimes it makes my art come out squished. flipping my canvas keeps things in check. ill draw like a respectable person someday dont @ me 

greatest art tip: forgiveness. let yourself accept your art for what it is and be proud of what it is, instead of being upset with it for not being what you thought it would be. thats okay. now you have one more finished piece of art that you didnt have yesterday! getting hung up is the number one way to let fear keep you from not only doing art, but being happy with it. this kills you as an artist.

one more tip is, if youre feeling a lack of creativity or drive to do complicated stuff or practice any of the above skills, let yourself play in a different art space.for example: pull open mspaint and do a purposely silly or badly done doodle. laugh at it. accept it as done even if it still has mistakes. let the perfectionist in you take a break for a bit. decide you find joy in this. think “hey i could do an art blog about this and it will help build my confidence as an artist until i get out of this deep depressive/creative slump.” do a few and then rarely ever post again because oh yeah youre in a depressive and creative slump. realize a few years later that you like art again. start doing more involved/challenging pieces that are only complicated because you refuse to practice lineart and anatomy as much as you should and keep skipping ahead to “ooh pretty colors and glow tool” stuff. publish them. get confused feedback because youre not supposed to be a real art blog. you know, relate able stuff. dear lord why am i awake.

[happikattwuzheere]

What is your process working on art for Ghosts? How do you choose which scenes to draw, and how do you go about capturing that essence when you’re drawing? I love your art and I look forward to seeing every doodle and full piece each chapter :’)

ayyy fun art skills question 

okay sO. here’s a cut because there’s gonna be a lot of screenshots probably. 

edit: hey tumblr why did you eat my cut--

so for choosing scenes: well i’ve got a hard rule that there’s one for every flashback, because consistency is a good thing, and as a result of that i actually have a whole file that’s JUST concept sketches for flashback pictures, but i’ll get into concepts in a second here. Other art for chapter is largely just me looking for striking visuals; moments we have planned in the chapter that i feel would translate well to art, and which i could enhance the weight of with an image, or failing a good moment sometimes as with this past chapter i’ll go for something a little more abstract to capture a general vibe of the chapter. The picture of astrid w/ trent behind her, with her in his shadow looking dangerous--A lot of the tension in Ghosts is gonna come from that; from the ambiguity on where Astrid stands in all this and what she’ll do if/when she learns certain things, etc etc 

anyway though! that’s how to choose things; the next step is for me to do some sketches until i hit on a concept/composition that i like. These sketches are sometimes very small at first, because thumbnails are a great way to get composition down without worrying too much about the details, and when i do that they look like this: 

(Both of these were attempts at the art for chapter 6′s flashback; the one on the left was scrapped, and the one on the right i ended up using!) 

Sometimes i don’t go small at first though, it varies. Sometimes I get a sketch I like on the first try, too, but other times it takes a LOT of tries--chapter 5′s went through three attempts before I got one I liked; and these were also all drawn before the actual flashback was written!

here was attempt 1: 

which has an ok composition for the basic theme of “the boys are being romantic and astrid is being an annoying little sister about it”, but i wasn’t in love with it, plus it broke a rule that i’ve been using for the art that i can’t explain without spoiling some stuff but trust me it just doesn’t work. 

then we came up with the idea of the kids specifically hanging out at soltryce around this dried up fountain hidden behind some bushes, and that worked out better for this scene; the first attempt at it looked like this 

which was getting there but still not really interesting composition...and then, hey, third time’s the charm 

im just gonna keep using this picture as the example because its absolutely one of my favorites i’ve done. but anyway 

from this stage then i copy the whole sketch and move it onto its own file, and i collect whatever reference photos or palettes i need and start cleaning up the sketch a bit so i can lay down base colors! 

...i apparently dont have the rough flat colors for this image anymore, oops, but i can at least give you an idea of what those would’ve looked like and what a somewhat cleaned up sketch looks like! 

(i always sketch astrid in red, bren/caleb in blue, and eodwulf in green at this stage; it helps make it easier as my sketches get more complicated to determine where one person starts and another ends) 

and then this first pass of flat colors is 100% purely to determine if i like the composition still when it’s colored, how the lighting/shading works, if the characters look like they really are in the background, if the mood is conveyed through the color scheme chosen, etc. it’s not supposed to be neat or look at all polished yet, in fact a lot of the time this stage can be REALLY sloppy. this is purely just making sure the overall feel is what i want

and from there every other step is basically just cleanup and tweaking! like, lineart and everything else are technically a lot more complicated than that, but i mean, the hard part of conveying the mood and getting the composition down are done and the rest is usually pretty smooth sailing, aside from the occasional hiccup of “why wont you LOOK RIGHT” and spending hours looking for more references, 

anyway thats how the art happens! :D 

the whole time, also, ed @tactfulgrimalkin is getting spammed with wips. just. so many. 

[b4kuch1n]

hi your art style is amazing??!?!?! like holy shit??!!??!??!?!?! Your usage of sharp angular lines and pencil shading is fantastic!!! If you don't mind me asking, do you have any tips for art and sketching? (Also I'm sorry if I used too many ?'s and !'s but I'm just,, really excited rn)

!! thank you very much!! I’m really glad you like the way I do lineart haha,, 

about tips; honestly I’m. not incredibly mindful of how my art comes to be, so I usually have nothing for questions like this one,, I have some speedpaints up on my Youtube channel (that I will hopefully update soon if I remember to actually record the stuff I do) if you wanna check out my process!! otherwise I just did like. a few small sketches separately while actively look at them djskh and here’s what I got out of that:

- at least in your own time, it’s better to get it done than to get it perfect. I literally just tell myself repeatedly “leave it to when you do lineart” while I sketch, and then when lineart comes I have literally forgotten about all of my expectations. that might just be my brain at work but also like. in general I think your art will outlive your first idea of it. tldr Just Do It™

- if you want a small ink piece to look pro you just gotta be mindful of where the light source it, be vaguely aware of the shapes that make up your figure, and black the shit out of the side opposite to the light source. I genuinely did that so many times, like sketching the general shape, doing a quick outline, then paint bucketing the whole thing. nobody knows whether you have a specific plan for that black mass or not. sometimes not even you. magic

- you know why I do a lot of straight lines and angular shapes now? it’s because I got tired of drawing the same curve over and over trying to get it correct to the sketch. you can’t fuck up a curve if it’s made of smaller straight lines. and it has the bonus of making curves pop when you do use them! so fuck it why not

- the way I’ve been breaking down the blackout ink side of the recent pieces, or the transition space between, is honestly purely decided by instinct. but I guess that means that I go with the things I find interesting or fun to look at? I love triangles/fragment-like shapes in art, so I just put a lot of them in. if you like something small that you’ve seen someone do in their art, I think you should put that in your art too. 

- flipping your canvas definitely helps. blacking out the whole shape you have going on also helps. especially if you want a gesture your character does to be clear. 

- if there’s a shape you have a hard time drawing, the best way to do it is to develop a mildly unhealthy obsession with it and never stop focusing a bit too hard on it in every piece you do. thats me with shoes. every time I watch gokaiger I spend the whole opening staring at their boots. you just gotta condition yourself into practicing. even better if you can skip the conditioning part

- before you start a piece you have the intention to finish, it’s good to open a small canvas and just do squiggles and parallel lines and quick circles. like just expel all the shaky hand juice outta you before you start. I’ve been doing warmup like that before commissions recently and it definitely helps immensely

and that’s it for the time being I think!! I hope any of that is of help to you at all,, and thank you again for the really nice ask!!

[necromosss]

For the artists ask! (I’m so sorry I can’t ever ask one or two things) 2,5,7,9,15,19,27. thanks love u—I mean BYE

COME BACK I LOVE YOU TOO--ahem anyway!

2. How long have you been drawing? To be frank, I kind of had quite an early headstart since my parents encourages me to draw since I was very young. Though, things weren’t serious until I reached JHS and decided to take drawing onto a serious step. I started practising and looking for tutorials & references on the last year of my JHS.

5. What’s your favorite thing to draw? People! Faces, hairstyles, body-builds, fingers; if it’s on a person then it’s a very fun thing to draw, explore, and... experiment on [que some mad-scientist background music and roaring thunders]

7. How often do you use references? As often as I could. If I want to get something RIGHT (or at least neat-looking) I have to make sure that I did it right by checking on the referenced piece. Sometimes I even blatantly follows the reference for the sake of studies. And of course, not always; especially not on heavily fictional stuffs and doodles (like the swtor comics/answers) and you can see the huge difference between them. I just like to half-ass them doodles, and the wonkiness adds the humor tbh

9. How much time do you spend drawing on an average day? I honestly didn’t count... But I tend to draw whenever I have a freetime on hand. Maybe around AT MINIMUM 3 hours per day?

15. How long does an average piece take you to complete? Depends! If campus had been a complete a-hole, it can took me around a week or two to finish a whole drawing. If I got the whole day, then a whole day it is! (Paintings usually take me around 6-hours, while lineart could be 3 to 5 hours depends on the complexity)

19. What is the most difficult thing for you to draw? If you guys had noticed, I have been a huge loser in doing backgrounds. (I blur everything the heck out and i am NOT ashamed) Well i do focus myself and let myself specialize in characters & character design, but geez. Backgrounds? yuck. THOUGH I still try to do my VERY best in working on them! I don’t want to be a complete loser so thats that

27. For digital artists: how many layers does a typical piece require? I tend to keep the layer count at minimum best (because I just can’t handle messy screen ;o; ). If its a lineart piece, I try to keep it between lines-flatcolors-shading. If its a painted piece, I try to keep them on a one whole layer (though i always separate backgrounds so I guess that’s two...) 

Hope this answers everything!

[edelwary]

when you were first getting into art, what and how did you draw? (like did you just doodle ur masterpieces on pieces of paper and posted-notes or did you have a proper sketchbook) how did you find motivation? bc ive been trying to draw but I always get unmotivated and stop while still wanting to get better just by doing nothing.

REALLY LONG, LOTS OF ADVICES FOR ARTISTS : 

TL;DR ; skip to the HOW TO ACTUALLY FUCKING DRAW part bc i have a megaton of shit to say lol + The MOTIVATION part 

mmh… I’ll get into details with this one tbh bc it’s a long ass process ahah : 

I live by the sea ; when i was youung i used to draw TONS of boat, but like, dollhouse boats, you could see the insides and stuff ; i loved to add tiny details and stuff, and imbricate everything together !

around 8 or 9 yo, i went to the public library with school and discovered the wonderful world of mangas ! I basically… Copy pasted an entire Mermaid Melody tome x) 

For about 2 years i alternated between reading mangas and trying to copy them ! Then i just kept drawing in the margins of my schoolwork for about… 5 years ! I have a Fuck Ton of sketchbooks of that time, it was… The start. Lol. Never say it’s bad because it’s never bad, just not there yet !!

Around my 13 yo, i went every saturday, for two years, under a bookstore ; there was a cave, and drawing classes ; that teacher was mean and harsh and stuff, but like… Not really. He would take away my eraser for the class, force me to use pencil, to draw something else (bulky boys instead of magical girls). 

I’ve learned a lot, more in terms of How To LEARN to draw than to draw itself, but i still progressed a LOT !! 

Then i kept drawing by myself for a year and i really worked hard on it ; about hours a day, trying watercolors and stuff ; i have a real problem with colors in traditionnal art, but i’m much better with lines (i should scan some RAD stuff i made in the weekend, yall ive never done anything this good i stg i dont know why i always forget im so much better on paper) 

This gets us to my sweet 16 ; i have to year of advance, bc i got ‘’’promoted’’’ idk how to say it ; anyways, i entered my (current) animation school for the first year at 16; vERY IMPRESSIVE AND TERRIFYING. 

And i learned. A fuckmegaton. Of shit there. 

Now i’m going for my third year there and i can make photorealistic marmora blades and cyberkpunk decors if i want to and that’s rad, but here is

 HOW TO ACTUALLY FUCKING DRAW : 

I have one HYPER important advice, and i’m keeping it to heart since i’m like, 11 : Have. Sketchbooks. Please !!! It’s very important. Here’s why : 

You keep everything with you in one place. You have 1 sketchbook, it’s basically easy to take every where (a A5, or A4 are pretty easy to carry, i have like, 12 of those, and around 8 of A3) 

You keep track of what you’ve done. It’s super important, bc first you can cry of laughter at your old stuff bc its cute but not so good, and second, you can just be like ‘holy mama’ and see how much you’ve improved

It’s very important to be organized. I WORK in art, and trust me, if there’s something that i’ve learned this year through tears and missing files and bugs : Be. Impeccable. Now if it’s for fun, go a little loose, and just have a folder for art on your computer, and a sketchbook, no need to stress, but the better you try to keep a record of where is what, the better you’ll see whats wrong

Notebooks are friends !! You can draw, write, glue stuff, make notes, lists, everything !!! I have my life in those. It’s more important to me than any of my phones. 

Be proud of it. Like, not everything, duh ! But try to tell yourself than it’s like a RPG ; even if it’s only 2 xp here and there, one day you’ll beat level 40, and that’s super important : art is. Fuckin. Long.

I cant stress it enough. It’s soooo long !!! SO LONG !! it’s years. It’s like karate and fishing and ANYTHING. To be good at it, it takes time, but it WILL COME if you keep trying. There’s no secret passage. 

You’re gonna me it, believe in me who believes in you. 

Use. References. 

Coming from a little shit who’s got a really good visual memory, that can sound like bs, but i stg everything is always AT LEAST twice as good if you’ve used a visual support. 

I’m not saying COPY EVRYTHING (even though thats a good training) I’m saying, if you really want to do that asian tiger, please have at least two or three pictures of it nearby. Take photos of your hands, and stuff ! 

Make it harder. 

No eraser. 

Paint. 

I draw all my backgrounds on my sketchbook with INDIAN INK; no returns, no refunds. 

Ink, Ink, INK !! Don’t allow mistakes.

And if you make mistakes :

New page, restart

It’s okay

It’s for you

I once started back again a whole EXAM bc it was bad, i got one of my best grades 

You’ll improve and be more assured if you know you just have to DO IT. Trust me. It’s VISIBLE; if you can erase, you fidget and hesitate and ‘’kbeujebez hahhaaa idkkidsd’’ ; stop ; do it, and if you don’t like it ? Try again, there’s no time limit

Draw as large as you can 

There’s no interesting story here, it just helps. Bigger movement of the hand, more place for details, breathing lines

Thin lineart helps

Thinner. Make it even thinner

Break the rules, but not the ones that structure your art 

Big lineart ? Why not

Unfinished lines, vaporeous colors ? Pretty

Cubism is actually based on extensive and intense practice of classical art, it’s not wibbly wooblly ; the anatomy is more correct than you think 

Structure and composition are important, but so is movement and life ; choose your fighter ; mine is fluidity and fun, i’m like, a rogue/archer in drawing. Some people are dwarf fighter. That’s amazing and great. 

Don’t be afraid to do nothing

Pages and pages of my sketchbooks are actually just lance facing right and smiling, you know… 

Sometimes it just doesnt work : two ways :

Take a break, Kiki’s delivery service style

Keep trying, break your art until it obeys and comes back

Take breaks. Breath. 

Don’t compare. I do it, it doesn’t help at all. You’ll make it ; and if you compare, keep in mind that everyone’s different

I’m not gonna lie, it’s NOT easy, it’s even hard 

But I really, really think it’s worth it 

MOTIVATION :

My main bitch 

I’m always pumped for art because i can LITTERALLY NOT do anything else ; i love reading and writing and stuff but at the end of the day i just want !!! to draw !!!! aaaaaa-

Fall in love with it, and with the possibilities ; i have stories to tell, tell me yours ! Do your best, one day it WILL work

Actual advices : 

I have an inspiration blog where i just reblogs stuff i like to draw them later

Find a picture, copy it. Do it again. Change the characters (i have 2 ocs and Lance and Keith as default characters) in the pic. 

Like an artstyle ? Break it to its very core, analyse it, copy it, redo it, trace it and ABSORB it. Don’t copy/past, LEARN from your heroes.

Do what you like. I have 86578 pieces of voltron, this is not a coincidence. I have ENDLESS ideas for this show, wtf. 

Try new things. Buy indian ink im begging you. It’s so cool. 

Have a game with yourself, or a challenge. STICK TO IT. 

Study. When you’re bored, usually it’s because you’re stagnating. Make it harder or do hands until you cry. 

Love your backgrounds; make backgrounds, study trees, and tokyo streets, and venice’s bridges. Decor is just as cool as characters, if not more

Mess a little with everything. My roomate more than one found me stained from head to toes trying to DO STUFF 

Draw outfits. Draw what you want but can’t afford 

MAKE YOUR LIFE A COMIC. Remember those sketchbooks ? Make a comic a week/month/every full moon, whatever, and draw your life (mine’s the roomates au lol) 

Prompts blogs are cool too 

Make fanart of a fic you liked ; you have the characters and the pose already, you just have to illustrate ; double bonus, you probably will make a writer’s day, if not year !

That little movie that plays when you listen to your favorite song ? DRAW IT

Your favorite scene in your favorite movie ? Redraw each shot. On post it. Plus it looks awesome afterwards to have the infamous TREX scene of Jurassic Parks in post it

Get bored. That’s inevitable. Dance, scream, get back to it. Walk, draw everything you see. 

Make a paper google map street view : Take a walk : every 50 meters, draw what is in front of you. 

Snapchats your friends. Draw their snapchats when they answer 

Draw maps. Invent places. Invent bikes, and hovercrafts, and monsters. Make your everyday inventory. Make your life a video game, and do the concept arts of it. 

FETCH your inspiration. I have approx. 20 artbooks, full of drawings and concept arts of my fave movies/games ; take what you like and add it to the story you have since you’re 8. We all have one. 

Ask for it ; your sis, your mom, me even ! If you dont have ideas, someone will have them. 

WELL i’m gonna stop there, even though i got like, 9864567 more to say, but with this you should be fine ! Anon, i’m rooting for you ! we all start somewhere, just hold on!!!! 

[the-space-case]

Also!! (It's the Bill's jumper slut here) I recently got into digital art but I am,,, really bad. Can I get any advice for it? Like with colours and shininess and backgrounds because ugh background and stuff? Idk what exactly I want advice on but please help because I am,, really bad and you are definitely the opposite of that

Yo!!! Thats a lot. Digitial art? Just as hard as traditional; it has its own rules. I can give you some tips but the most important thing out there is ehhhh TWO things.

1.) USE REFERENCES, DRAW FROM REAL LIFE. I hate doing this because I feel like a cheap printer, but think of it this way if you do too; if you use references and draw inspiration from real life, you’re making a base for what you make later one. Practice drawing one thing often enough and you have it memorized so you never have to look at it again/can warp it to your own exaggerated devices. You can’t draw anatomy if you don’t understand it! You can’t draw perspective if you don’t observe it critically! You can’t walk until you crawl yadda yadda yadda do as i say not as i do lmfao

--this is helpful for basically everything, including backgrounds and colors and shininess

2.) LEARN FROM EXAMPLE. There’s tons of artists from around the world who put their portfolios online. There’s tons of youtube videos based on learning art! Check out art throughout history, even! Check out your favorite styles, be it traditional or cartoon, and observe what you like about them specifically. Test it loads of them yourself; after awhile of trying style after style your personal preferences will develop.

Aside from those two, here’s some of my personal tips. They might not work for you! I’m not a professional here, these are just some things I enjoy doing with my art.

COLORS:

-if you use a color once in a picture, use it again to balance it out.

-made a character and colored it in but having trouble deciding on the bg colors? Use the ones already on your canvas/in the character. unite that canvas under one palette. Even just an abstract shape in the bg of one color is better than a blank; make it the least used color in the character if thats the case, or at least one not near the edges.

-try analogous color schemes or monochrome schemes to get a feel for colors you dont normally use. 

- try coloring without lineart too, thats a fun exercise. 

-sometimes if you put yellow next to blue it looks green. either decrease the intensity of said blue or adjust the yellow; same with other odd pairings. your brain is weird just go around it.

-if two colors of the same intensity are right next to eachother your brain might blend the line between them; again depends on if you want it but it happens with painting so i mean have at it i guess. 

SHININESS:

-make sure you know the direction where light is coming from; that dictates where lightspots go

-putting lightspots against areas of intense color makes em pop

-try making them not just white, but also pastels or just intense color. It’s good to experiment! 

-A hard lightspot gives an area a smoother, almost rubber like or wet texture. making it jagged makes it look a bit more leathered? Again, experiment as to what you like best. I enjoy putting a hard blot of white on a darker bg and then airbrushing around it to make a nice glow effect. 

-if the lightsource is anything but white, make lightspots that color. 

-BACKGROUNDS:

-I prefer to use references for backgrounds. rough out a few examples of various angles or object placements if you need to. I actually made a sort of room scheme for the parlor in Recovery, as seen below:

(its ok they can be shitty and still be useful)

-know that for bgs there’s the foreground, mid-ground and background, and it makes more sense to have all of them haha

-also good: make your characters interact with the bg/environment! Really brings the whole thing together. 

-most digital art programs have grids available; use those for making buildings and such, much easier than dragging over a bent-out-of-shape ruler and hoping for the best. 

MISC:

-if you know you’re bad at something in particular don’t shy away from it. Don’t avoid drawing hands bc you feel like you’re bad at drawing them! You gotta practice that shit, even if its hard/you dont like it. 

-generally if you’re going to draw something hard just do it with enthusiasm; a sort of fuck-you to despair. 

-if your wrist hurts stop until it doesn’t, Repetitive Strain Injuries are Bad and so is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. 

-flipping the canvas after drawing one eye lets you draw the other one without making it crooked, but if you’re lazy like me you can just...copy-paste it and reverse the layer and also maybe transform it to fit LMFAO. Still though flip the canvas just in case. 

-for some reason if you’re drawing a stack of objects start in the middle or do the contour first it helps with sizing. 

-draw at least once a day unless in pain lmfao

-Praaactice makes Peeeeerfect

-tbh anything goes in art, i’ve seen cheese with hair stapled to it in a museum just do what you want just get the basics down first makes things easier haha

[memedokies]

(almost) every anon ask since fall 2016

if u havent noticed i am BAD at answering asks so here’s a Big Dump of most of the asks i’ve gotten in the past few months

ps; i’ve excluded pokemon suggestions bc i plan on getting to them at some point

Hihihi!!! What brushes do you use in fire alpaca??  i dont do much in firealpaca (esp not lately lol) but when i did use it a lot i just used the fill bucket and the standard/default brush to fill in gaps n such lol! i dont really draw in it, i used flash/adobe animate for the lineart and just fill in color in firealpaca :3

when did you start animating?   uhh when i was around 11 or 12 when i started digital art i guess? i just used photoshop for the longest time then got flash when i was like 15 or so

 How did you get flash?  i got the creative cloud dealie, its technically required for my school :—-0 

 hello!! what are you majoring in in vcu?? im thinking about going there for college  im in communication arts! omg cool lmk if u come here ill tell u where to get the best bubble tea

 how many fps do you use for your wiggly animations? i work at 24 fps in flash on twos but just end up using photoshop’s 0 second frame delay/ “no delay”?

 Hey love your animations! What do you animate with?  adobe animate 2017! (previously flash) 

You mentioned a YouTube channel but I can’t seem to find a link to it? Do you post processes on there? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCovvoZxlQjFaIA7A3w_94Zw theres not much atm but i plan on posting a lot more, including process/speedpaints! 

i really like your art style gosh darn!!! everythings so fluid and stylized and nice aaa (also ur animations are goals) do u have any tips for someone still developing their artstyle????  WAH TYSM!!!!! compile art you already like and incorporate aspects from their styles into yours, BUT dont limit urself to one style! if u like something then try it out! do straight up copies (as PRACTICE, DONT CLAIM IT as your own ofc) of stuff you like to see how they work and what you’re clicking with. spending time on fundamentals is MEGA helpful so keep going back to that too! USE REFERENCES!!! draw …from ur soul…what makes u ..FEEL good

 how do you make that burn effect on your lineart? it makes it your pieces look sharper and even more interesting, it’s super cool!!  when i used to use flash for lineart and firealpaca for coloring a lot, setting the lineart layer on BURN with the coloring layer seeping a lil past the lineart would get this effect automatically 

(like on the whiskers. u can see it gets a brighter brown(?) and the warmer yellow on the ears)

but since then i’ve been using sai+photoshop more so i just do it manually! i’ll use this funny pic of me and my cat as an example lol

^i select the lineart/everything i want the funky color around

^slam that INCREMENT button a couple times

^make a new layer under the lineart

^fill that puppo with ur preferred color! something brighter works best, or even straight up white

that’ll give you something like this

then i open it in photoshop

and i mess with the pink line layer’s blending mode..color burn usually does the trick but depending on the Look you’re going for, saturation, multiply and overlay have some similar effects that look cool. 

i also usually get rid of the outermost edge of pink line that’s visible around the lineart, just so it looks a little cleaner? to do that you just select around your lineart, increment/expand selection, and delete/erase in the selection of the pink line layer

uhh yeah! lmk if anyone needs clarification on this, i have some other #TIPS on makin ur art look crusty and funky so…lemme know if you’re interested :—3

What do you use to animate? And, a more specific question, how do you make transparent animated gifs? adobe animate 2017! (previously flash) i export my animation from flash as a png sequence then open it in photoshop, where the background will be transparent and save it as a gif from there nyaaa

if anyone needs more clarification lmk and i’ll make a proper walkthrough :-0

 Hello!! Ur art is rlly pretty and so inspirational and nice to look at!! 💗💗 I was wonderin’ if ya had any tips on choosing shapes for characters? Like, when you draw shapes for a certain character, it looks rlly like it fits with the character’s personality n stuff!! ( e.g: Your Love Live! drawings!! The characters look so good in your style.) I’ve always admired how u did that n was hoping for some tips maybe?? Anyways, have a good day!!💛💖💟💜💝💞💖 HOOGA!! TYSM!!! and YEA you basically guessed it, i mainly just think about the character’s personality and translate that into a shape or Pheeling… 

especially for anime characters i look at the Very Subtle differences in the character’s original design..or possibly canon implications…for example kotori has slightly different eyes (it also says on her wiki page she has soft droopy eyes!) so i make sure to incorporate that Detãile

 anime wiki pages that have details like that is nice, for love live they have cute lil “charm points” which is really cool n helpful! listening to how a character is described in their world can give clues to what differentiates them which you can make more clear in your design

taking into account each characters context is good too, what they do/hobby/personality and how that could affect their appearance/posture/attitude

 YEAH its really fun to figure out certain characteristics and make it evident in their appearance! or. idk thats just what i do lol. hopefully this helps!

Have you ever seen the anime jojos bizarre adventure? alas i have not..i have some friends whom are into it so i’ll prob end up watching it sometime lol

sorry if this is obvious but!! are you the creator of Fork and Knife: Food Fighters?? your gif of fork is super cute btw!! yes i am!! wah tysm!!

Hey my little sister found your animation on an online art gallery and she really loved it! omg cool, thanks so much!!

Your style is so lovely!! OHG thanks!

your blog is so precious i love it a lot! your art is so cute too ^u^ waa thanks!!

Your art and animations art really cool! Keep up the good work! You are amazing!! aahg thank you!! :’333

 your art is fuckening amazing hh broe…tysm

 Oh my gee, I used to follow you on Deviant Art, and now here I am, finding you on accident. You’re still as talented as ever. =w= b hUIOpugh deviantart, my homeland..my origin.. thank you!!!

- O mg I love your art! 💕💕💕 thank you!! heart emojis!!! 💖💖💖

- your art and animations give me so much inspiration, thank you! everything about your style is so fun and it cheers me up omg this validates my top tier goal in life, im so glad!! thank you SO much!

Your style is so charming and adorable ;__; thank you!!

ur art is so gross in the best way possible this is the biggest compliment ive gotten thank u so much. i love making gross squishy awful drawings

IM SO HAPPY I FOUND YOU!!!! IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU FOR AGES!!!!!!!!! I LIVE FOR YOUR BEAUTIFUL ART!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! BHOLY CRAP THANK YOU!!!

 your art style is very cute ! 🌱 oohg thanks!! thanks for the little sprout emoji, i love her

GOOD ART!!!! good art good art good art EVERYWHERE I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! OHHGG THANK YUO

how do ya draw such cutely its driving me nuts Nuts NUTS !!! I LOVE SPARKLES AND BRIGHT COLORS AND FUNNY ANIMALS..its my lifeblood..thank u.. 

You’re a really rad artist! I’m Glad there’s some cool artists that are local! Have a good time at VCU! oh wow thanks!! 

Ur shapes r so good thanks i LOVE a nice wholesome shape!

I rlly like ur art style my dude thanks!! 

hi! just wanted to let u know that you’re wonderful and i wish u well in everything u do this is making me bVERY HAPPY THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

 Im love You!! IM L OVE YIOU

that meowth boy is so good. i love him as he is my son THANK YUO i too, love meowth a Lot

 I love how your art is basically lines and curves, it’s very cute oo thanks! 

i love your art style so much!! it’s so zesty? i cant think of a better word to describe but its like. zesty & refreshing & rly rly cool !!! THATS A BEAUTIFUL ADJECTIVE I LOVE IT thank u so much!!!

You seem like you would watch Osomatsu-san. I could see you drawin dem bois in you hella rad art style. osomatsu was the wildest ride of my life. tho i dont think i could physically be able to sit down and draw them seriously ever… 

 Pls make more angry cat comics theyr so halarious plllls 👀 more are on the way!!!!!!

Have you done a meet the artist i sketched one when the meme was still poppin..is it too late lol? maybe i’ll still do it

[the-space-case]

Hello, yes, hi, I recently found your art and account and I love what you do. I'm turning 14 in April and I've asked for a drawing pad, but I have no idea how to use one as of yet. Have you got any tips or anything? Because I've wanted to try digital art for a while and your art makes me want to even more lmao. Thanks! - B.A.

BOI OH BOI DO I GOT SOME TIPS FOR U

(I’m not sure what kind of comp you’re going to be using, so I’ll list for both.)

FIRST: Drawing Programs; the free and the great.

-Firealpaca: Lightweight drawing program. I draw Recovery using this! It’s easy on the RAM if you have a weak comp/are paranoid about yours like I am, it is mainly for basic comic making, and has all the basic brushes you need (pen/pencil/airbrush/symmetry/etc). You can add your own brushes as well but they’re p basic settings. Has basic Animation/Gif making as well using Onion Mode! Layout is a piece of cake. Please note that If you leave it open for a week it’ll crash on you, even if you haven’t anything on it at the moment, and sometimes the brush sensitivity just stops working so you just have to close and then open it again. (Also I have no idea how to update it aside from deleting it completely and just downloading the new version from scratch, so thats a thing.) Mac/Windows

-MedibangPaint: This is basically FireAlpaca But Better. Has tons of screen tones, brush patterns, and tools. I don’t use it much because I’m used to FA’s layout and get confused with the the placement of tools in here, so if you can I highly suggest just going with this first. Also has basic animation/gif making! Has storage for the website as well, and you can upload more preset brushes. It’s v anime. This program has waaay more in terms of basically everything, so it just takes more RAM. NBD, you don’t have to have every brush downloaded from the storage ^u^. Mac/Windows

-Clip Studio Paint: Okay this one isn’t free, it’s a pricey one, HOWEVER once a year they take the price way fuckin down by at least 75%. Sign up for the email list and it’ll let you know when that precious day comes. It’s how I got it @u@, around christmastime? This program is basically MedibangPaint On Steroids. I do all of my digital-yet-tradition-style-painting on here! The brushes all have some neat af settings to play with, you can make your own brushes, has tons of screen tones, pre-made panels, and settings. You can save projects as basically anything you need, is a hardy program that almost never crashes, and It’ll take a nice chunk of space on your comp depending on how much memory you have but hey, its worth it. It’s much more complex layout-wise than the other two here, but you get used to it after playing around and watching tutorials haha.

-Mischief: It’s a 25$ app, has like four brushes and five layers only but is vector-based with an endless canvas. Not really worth having unless you like the vector thing. UP TO YOU. I spent forever with this one doing all that homestuck stuff, so it’s not really bad so much as it is a basic bitch. Mac

-MyPaint: I used this a bunch when I still did digital art on my windows laptop before I upgraded to a Mac. It’s easy on the comp and has plenty of brushes and settings. You can also get brush packages if you don’t feel like you have enough that comes with the program! Also has endless canvas; pretty sure you can just select an area and then export as is. I barely remember the rest but It’s pretty great. Windows/MacPorts(which I hate)

-GIMP: I hate this thing. I cannot figure it out for the life of me. It’s got loads of shit though, can handle layers, has plenty of brushes, and can do basic animation/gifs if you ever figure it out. Windows/mac

I’ve heard good things from paint tool SAI and Krita as well, but have never used them myself.

***You can always pay through the nose/use a student discount for the photoshop series and pay that shit monthly, those fuckers have literally everything, but I am a cheap college kid making minimum wage with a car payment; I’d rather just pay once/not at all.

TABLETS: treat that shit like a newborn babe 24/7

-I have literally only ever owned a Wacom Intuos4. It has lasted me six years, and at least five moves across many miles. I broke one of the cord ports the day I opened it by holding it wrong, have one left, and now treat it like it’s going to die if the cord moves badly. Please be aware that if you break both ports, you better either sodder it back together yourself or upgrade to smth else because it costs about as much as the tablet itself was bought at to be fixed. Good news, though, it comes with at least six extra pen nibs, has programable buttons on the side (that I have never bothered to use) and a scroll bar in case you’re too lazy to use the keyboard (…I don’t really use that either unless I’m just scrolling through tumblr LMFAO).

-I would die for a Cintiq.

HOT TIPS: its useful.

-most of the programs listed use the same keyboard shortcuts. MEMORIZE THEM. It’s pretty easy, since you’ll use em a lot. [cntrl/cmmd+T] lets you resize what you just drew on that layer, and [cntrl/cmmd+z] is undo. I use those the most, for obvious reasons.

-vector-based programs are pretty great because when you resize an image it looks prefect. You can’t do that with a program that isn’t, so I just resize the base roughdraft and draw the lineart again on the layer above so I don’t get weird JPEG quality lines.

-You can use a ruler with your tablet, just slap it on and go, but honestly most programs have settings for that. just use those.

-You can also trace stuff on your tablet, so long as the paper isn’t too thick. I just scan/take a photo and then open it up in the program, though. much easier.

-SAVE CONSTANTLY. Art programs like to crash on you, even when they’re hardy and you have a good comp. make it a habit to quick save your work.

-Use a desk and have good posture. You’ll be able to draw a hell of a lot longer if you do. I personally keep fucking up my knees by sitting on my legs as I work out of habit, and don’t actually have a desk chair. Keep your screen at eye level and at a fair distance to prevent eyestrain and also neck-strain haha

-Chances are you won’t be used to the tablet right away. Most places you buy from say it’ll take a couple of months to get used to how weird it is to draw while not looking at your own hand, so don’t be frustrated If your drawings look a bit off at first.

-if you draw at least one thing every day, by the end of the year you’ll have improved exponentially. I literally made this blog to make myself draw once a day.

-don’t be afraid to check out speedpaints and tutorials. It’s always good to get more familiar with the program you’re using and new techniques previously unconsidered.

-get familiar with clipping layers. They are insanely useful; you clip one layer to the one below and then when you draw it only shows up on the drawing of that layer below. Shit is a godsend if you’re bad at coloring in the lines/lazy. The bucket tool is also really useful, and you can adjust the expansion by pixel so you don’t miss anything between the lines.

-experiment with your brushes, shit be fun af

-warmup your wrists before and after drawing. prevent swollen veins and such. dont want hand pain/numbness, its reaaaaally bad.

—basically if your hands hurt stop for the day.

-PNGS are for internet, JPEGS are for printing/fucking with quality (cough hack homestuck)

-resolution doesn’t have to be much more than 350 dpi if its just going to be on a webpage. Maximize that shit if you’re going to be printing, though. Especially if you put stuff on redbubble.

-DeviantArt has this thing called Sta.sh where you can dump art, keep it in perfect quality and just share it with certain people with a link instead of all of the website. Great for storing commission pieces, its the only reason I have DA in the first place.

-you get a different audience depending on what site you use for posting art, so keep that in mind for the kind of feedback you want.

-after awhile of drawing using a tablet, you may lose patience/forget that in traditional art there isn’t an undo button lmfao It’s cool; you don’t have to choose one over the other or anything.

-Honestly you can work around almost anything. You just invent new ways and techniques for yourself and you’ll do just fine.

Aaaaand that’s all I got for today! Thanks for sticking around