#comic artist tips
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I really wanna make a comic like you did but I feel so discouraged and idk... I wish I had your motivation and discipline :(
how do you do it?
I mean - and I'm gonna try and phrase this as best as I can without sounding curt - 'motivation' as people tend to view it... isn't really how you get shit done. Like obviously I had to be motivated to take on projects like Time Gate and Rekindled but that initial motivation isn't what keeps me going each week. People tend to have the general idea that motivation comes first, action second, but you actually need to take action in order to gain motivation, as the motivation to continue comes best from seeing the results of your work. And those results can only happen if you take action.
Discipline isn't the same as motivation, either. Discipline is not beating yourself over the head to force yourself to "do the thing" - rather, discipline can only come from creating routine. It's what I've done with creating comics, but it only came after a long time doing it. And when I say a 'long time', I don't mean a week or a month or even a year, I mean a solid decade of work. Before Lore : Rekindled, I was working on Time Gate: [AFTERBIRTH]; before that I drew Time Gate: Reaper; before Reaper I drew Uzuki; and before THAT I was in high school just doodling personal comics for myself (i.e. not for an audience). And every single project came with its own learning experience, audience, and results that motivated me to continue (though for some of them, I never did, a big part of growth and succeeding is knowing that failure is inevitable and some projects you just grow out of love with, even routine can't save you from not continuing a project that you're simply not enjoying doing anymore).
Drawing comics and writing is as routine to my day and life as going to work, eating, sleeping, showering, etc. even if I don't feel compelled to work, I'll still find myself picking away at a panel or two or coming up with a story beat to fill in where I'm going next. It's the kind of compulsion that comes not from internal motivation, but from not doing the thing that you usually do and that can only be gained from building habits and routine. I may not get the same amount of work done each day, some days I'll work on comics for 8 hours straight and others I'll only get a single panel done, but I still get something done (which is better than nothing, not getting anything done at ALL in the face of 'waiting' for motivation is where a lot of that discouragement can come from) and that's been reinforced into a routine that now feels effortless to do because I've been doing it so long. Just like building up any good habit like going to the gym or doing a skincare routine or drinking more water, it can feel impossible to do in the beginning, but the more you do it and commit to that routine - even when you don't 'feel' like doing it - the less overwhelming and impossible it feels and the easier it is to see it through.
As you fulfill those habits in the beginning and see the results of your work, THAT'S what gets turned into motivation to continue.
Take the motivation out of the equation in doing what you want to do, motivation is not the first step but the result of taking action. Don't wait until you "feel like it", take baby steps and start moving. If you're wanting to work on a comic, start with something small, like a single panel even. When I started out with Reaper, it would take me a month to get out an entire 18-22 page chapter; by the time I was finished, I was getting the same length of chapters out per week, and that was only possible after years of routine, practice, and polishing my workflow to the most efficient model possible (which only came with repetition and practice).
Of course, I wouldn't recommend people climb up to that output because it did take its toll on me, I'm actually currently in the middle of burnout from working on Time Gate: [AFTERBIRTH] and outputting 60+ full color panels a week, that's not something that a single person is meant to do and now I'm paying the price for doing just that.
But my point is, I'm not where I started - just like everyone else, I had zero clue what I was doing in the beginning, but I stuck with it long enough to finally get to where I wanted to be. This is the same advice I'd give to people trying to write novels, or learn an instrument, or even learn how to draw.
I think the only other thing I can recommend beyond that is finding a support network. Have someone to share your results with, whether it's friends, family members, or other people partaking in your craft online. I'm in several comic creating Discords full of wonderful people who are open to giving me feedback and celebrating when I hit milestones. Think of it like having an accountability buddy - it's a lot easier to pick up new habits when you have someone else there for you to hold accountable and to hold you accountable. At the very least, it helps you feel less alone in that initial suffering of building a new routine from scratch.
It gets easier.
But the hard part is getting started and sticking to it.
And that's not gonna happen with motivation alone. You just gotta pick up your pencil (or whatever tool you're using) and start, even if it's just a little bit at a time. Some progress will make you feel a hell of a lot more motivated than no progress.
#ama#ask me anything#anon ask me anything#anon ama#advice post#writing advice#life pro tip#comic artist tips
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...clearly, he's not jealous.
#pro tip: don’t take dating advice from a demon in a situationship#the book of bill#gravity falls#billford#Art Of The Sun Chip#gravity falls fanart#stanford pines#bill cipher#fiddleford mcgucket#fiddauthor#artists on tumblr#ford pines#art#drawing#fanart#my art#doodle#illustration#procreate#comic#please don't repost my artwork onto other sites thank you!
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[image id: a four-page comic. it is titled "immortality” after the poem by clare harner (more popularly known as “do not stand at my grave and weep”). the first page shows paleontologists digging up fossils at a dig. it reads, “do not stand at my grave and weep. i am not there. i do not sleep.” page two features several prehistoric creatures living in the wild. not featured but notable, each have modern descendants: horses, cetaceans, horsetail plants, and crocodilians. it reads, “i am a thousand winds that blow. i am the diamond glints on snow. i am the sunlight on ripened grain. i am the gentle autumn rain.” the third page shows archaeopteryx in the treetops and the skies, then a modern museum-goer reading the placard on a fossil display. it reads, “when you awaken in the morning’s hush, i am the swift uplifting rush, of quiet birds in circled flight. i am the soft stars that shine at night. do not stand at my grave and cry.” the fourth page shows a chicken in a field. it reads, “i am not there. i did not die” / end id]
a comic i made in about 15 hours for my school’s comic anthology. the theme was “evolution”
#dinosaur#evolution#comic#prehistoric#animal#wildlife#paleontology#biology#poetry#comics#original#my art#archaeopteryx has no direct living descendants i know#but i wanted something aerial and the dinosaur to bird connection is classic and well known anyway#also the chicken over any other bird is very on purpose#its the mix of truth and comedy and genuineness and the fantastic in the mundane#its me asking you to see something so wonderful in something taken so un-seriously#and to love it both ways#also the jurassic park thing#where someone saw the reconstructed gait of a dino#and said. hey hang on. i know that walk.#and pulled up footage of a chicken walking#which jumpstarted the entire study into the link between dinosaurs and birds#in the end take whatever you want from it i just thought id provide some insight#i always like it when other artists do#the point is that i enjoy when people laugh at the end and when they dont#and i like it when they cry. i like it best when they both laugh and cry. eeaao intent#anyway mourn your losses but to live is to change#also hi guys i finally figured out tipping after 5 months so no more annoying ko-fi link#the antidote to despair is awe
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Apparently much-needed reminder that reposting artists' art (by saving the images or screenshotting them and reuploading them yourself) on other platforms without the artists' expressed permission and without credit is theft and an insult to their passion and craft. You are profiting (in views, in attention, in feedback) from someone else's work and ideas, who do not get that feedback for sharing their creation.
If you are an art reposter, you are a thief and I have no respect for you.
#learn basic internet etiquette i am begging but also holding a knife. yes i'm mad. more about others than myself.#do you know how many artists i have seen leave social media because their art started being reposted all over?#tip: way too fucking many#i've had many people tell me about people reposting my art on tiktok#no one ever asked to repost my art on tiktok. ever. they just save super fried bad crunchy jpegs of my art and repost them#they get 20k likes and don't even bother naming me#also a reason i started signing my name more legibly and why my blog web address is always there but apparently no one can even read that#a few people got an ok for translations on other platforms though#i'm going to be annoying with this post and reblog it a few times to try to catch the people who apparently need to be told#tiny skk adventures#nawy's comics#nawy's doodles#apparently those are reposters' favourites so here look at this
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Trouble in paradise #1: coming out
Might change the name who knows, anyway when the main project is too much and you can't handle working on it what do we do? start a side project of course!
#artwork#character art#comic#digital art#beginner artist#character design#dragonblood#enby#non binary#non biney#coming out#closet#lgbtq#lgbtqia#lgbtq positivity#lgbt pride#transfem#transgender#trouble in paradise#TIP
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Here's a lil comic strip about how you can protect your art before sharing it to the public!!!
Against AI and against art theft too!
Click on 'read more' to see the extra tip I mentioned at the end!
Geez been working on this since the Meta AI things blew up but I only finished just now!!
Here's the extra tip I mentioned at the end:
you can use http://haveibeentrained.com to search for your images and find out if your work has been used for AI.
In there, you can choose to opt out, but AI companies are not obligated to respect it so it isn't too much of a protection unfortunately 😭
Also be aware that they are associated with AI and they did try to badmouth glaze so artists wouldn't protect themselves; which's very bad for a company that allegedly are on the side of the artists.
Also!!! There's a new type of AI that I was just made aware of last week, Copainter.
It completes unfinished work, which can be used for 'stealing and claiming it theirs', so put a cat picture in the next wips you post as well!
Funny protective measure I know LOLLLL but here's the tests for yall cynical people:
Perhaps I'll complete this comic with this info one day, but just these 10 slides took a looot of work so probably not happening anytime soon 😭
Thank you for reading everything though, I really appreciate it and hope this will help 🫶 be careful out there, privacy issues have been crazy recently!!!
#mews magical comics#comic strip#short comic#glaze#glazed art#nightshade#no ai art#no ai used#artists against ai#no to ai art#ai disturbance#how to protect your art#how to protect your art online#social media#social media is hell#art tutorials#tutorials#art resources#art tips#art help#art advice#support human artists#support small creators#support small artists#support small business#support artists#artist support
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celestial bodies
#yooooo doin that fun thing i do where i do shit and then dont post it anywhereeee <3#vash the stampede#trigun#trigun spoilers#trimax#drawing#artists on tumblr#my art#illustration#comic#fanart#manga#gold leaf#im still learning (clearly). but i do think im getting better :P#that said im never doing black backgrounds again. fuckin shit that was annoying lmao#something about vash's body and evoking the idea of an eclipse#i bought really shitty cheap brushes and i think that didnt help me with being accurate 😅#the issue is like....... i can only use these brushes once and then the adhesive ruins em :/#i might look into using some adhesive remover or something#if anyone has any tips. would love em lmao
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I have put Gale in so many Situations™ because I always forget I have a potion that can do the exact same thing a spell slot can, sorry bud.
| First | | Previous | | Next |
[[ All Croissant Adventures (chronological, desktop) ]]
[[ All Croissant Adventures (app) ]]
#I also forgot turn based sneaking was a thing#so I sent Gale in after Astarion specifically bc I was like 'you're the only one that can cast greater invisibility enough times to get-#-both of you out of there' lmao#but yeah raise of hands who else hoards items until you forget you even have them#bg3#baldur's gate 3#bg3 spoilers#act III spoilers#croissant adventures#tav#gale#astarion#karlach#comics#also pro tip for all you comic artists out there#if you don't want to draw something just draw a box and put words on it it's a very funny goof#breadweave
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Who’s got two thumbs and having a lot of fun over at Patreon!
ME! That’s who!
Join my pigeon flock and peruse through over 500+ posts of absolute nonsense (or saucy content if you’re a saucy or extra saucy pigeon!)
#illustrator#illustration#digital artist#artist on tumblr#gleafer art#good omens#good omens art#my fanart#comics#spicy and mild content#sketches#Art tips and tricks#fun community#lovely fandom#we have fun here
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Bruce: Jason. son, you said you had nothing to do with the states stocks malfunction last night. Are you lying to me?
Jason: Well, father. That all depends. How do you define lying?
Bruce: When someone refuses to tell the truth. Why do you ask?
Jason: I define it as when an individual reclines their body into a horizontal position.
Bruce:
Jason:
Bruce: Get out of my office, Jason.
Jason: With pleasure, u old bat.
#artists on tumblr#dc#batfamily#inccorect quotes#funny#batfam incorrect quotes#dc comics#bruce wayne#batman#jason todd#red hood#robin#dont for get to leave a tip#tumblr tips#comics
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tragic yuri
buy me a coffee?
#**mine#my art#wlw#butch4femme#femme4butch#art#artists on tumblr#this too is yuri#artblr#digital art#dyke#dyke tag#my comics#skull#femme#just the tips#libido#i feel like this will either get 5 notes or 10k
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I appreciate your art style! It’s very confident with strong shapes and great body language. Who are your inspirations and do you have any advice for drawing efficiency because I always get hung up on the small things and it keeps me held back
Aw thanks so much! Regarding my inspirations, I grew up on a lot of manga, animation, and video games, so many of my inspirations are Japanese artists in the gaming and manga industry. Included but not limited to: Takeshi Obata (the artist behind Death Note, Bakuman, Hikaru No Go, Ral Grad, etc.), Tetsuya Nomura (FF VII, FF X, Kingdom Hearts, The World Ends With You, etc.), and Akihiko Yoshida (FF III, Bravely Default, Nier: Automata, etc.)
But honestly? I kinda tend to just grab whatever I can learn from whoever's art I feel like studying. There are a lot of webcomic artists and modern digital artists who I've learned so much from over the years just by observing their art and identifying what they do that almost feels unique to them. Like, the creator of Two Guys and Guy? I always like how he draws elbows. Or the creator of Alfie, I love how he stylizes eyebrows and body proportions of all shapes and sizes! And of course when it comes to those aforementioned inspirational artists, Tetsuya Nomura's line quality is top notch, and I learned a lot about how to color from Obata.
I really rambled there, but inspiration comes from so many places! <3
In regards to the second part of your question, honestly, that confidence just comes from a lot of practice and drawing the same things over and over and over and over and over-
Anyways, I've been drawing webcomics for a number of years now, so along the way I've sorta had to learn tricks and shortcuts to make the process a bit more efficient and less headache-inducing. I think after all that, the core things I can recommend are:
Learn how to draw from the shoulder and elbow vs. the wrist. This will allow you new motions that can accommodate long, confident lines and shape structures. Tiny strokes are great for detailing, but long swooping lines are the best for getting in gesture, form, and line clarity! Plus it's just healthier for your body all around, helps engage your shoulder muscles and reduces the potential risk for carpal tunnel ;)
Keep your toolset simple! I know it's easy to sort of want to just collect and own every single brush out there (especially if you're a digital artist) but honestly, the best way to be efficient is to simplify your kit and process its strongest tools. You can accomplish so much with just a good ole' fashioned round brush, soft airbrush, and blur/blend/smudge tool of your choice - all the fancy ones are simply there to make your life easier after you've learned how to draw the fancy stuff those brushes are trying to replace, IMO (ex. I know how to draw things like leaves and bark with the round brush... so having brushes to do it for me is way handier nowadays! But it's only because I know how to draw them normally that I can ensure I'm using those tools properly, if I'm explaining that clearly ?)
Always be open to trying new industry tools, there is no such thing as 'cheating' (barring blatant theft lol). I don't think a lot of people realize just how many artists across every art industry use tools and techniques designed to make the process more efficient, like 3D models, photobashing, gradient mapping, color balancing, tone curving, etc. to help speed up the creation process and turn an okay drawing into a great one. Of course, none of these tools can substitute for actual skill, you still gotta learn how to use these tools properly in addition to learning your foundations, but those super efficient artists definitely aren't working from the same process that everyone else is, it's different for everybody and it's all about finding what tools work best for you! And the only way to do that is to try 'em :)
Remember that the core of creating and presenting art is expressing an idea to your audience. There's no pre-requisite to how 'detailed' that idea needs to be to be understood, because 1.) your audience may interpret it entirely different from how you intended anyways and 2.) your audience is way better at 'filling in' the details than we give them credit for! One such artist that I can recommend you look at is WLOP, their paintings are well known for being gorgeously rendered and almost 'hyper-realistic' but when you actually zoom in on their paintings, you'll find many of the 'details' are very basic, often times just splatters of a round brush. Here's an example:
From that first glance, it looks like an incredibly detailed hyper-realistic painting, but zoom in a little and you'll see all the messy brush strokes and where they used brushes that are all incredibly simple (I could recreate the same look of the owl with just the transparent watercolor brush in CSP!) Regardless of the details not being rendered out as much as we'd assume, we still assume that what were looking at is completely rendered down to the last pixel, because our brains are doing all the work to fill in those details. WLOP focuses on shape, color, and form first before worrying about nitty gritty details, and their art doesn't suffer at all even when they don't bother with detailing at all. Pretty neat, huh?
THAT WAS A LOT LOL But I hope that helps ? I try not to keep it at "just practice" because often times that gets misconstrued as just "draw a lot" when if you don't know what you're lacking or what piece you might be missing in the puzzle, then of course it's gonna feel like you're just bashing your head against a wall! It's like teaching someone how to skate or ride a bike or drive a car, practicing will definitely do more than not practicing, but there are additional things you can learn and apply to make that learning process work for you rather than against you.
That's all for now! Best of luck in your journey! Remember that the key is to just take it at your own pace, be comfortable with making mistakes (it's the only way to learn!), and have fun! Being able to make art efficiently is great and all, but having fun and enjoying yourself is definitely the most important thing! <3
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I have learned how much more easier and better it is to plan shots in panels by laying out the area your characters are in, because like, you KNOW where shit is
Just do like, a simple floorplan of the area, at the very least, and it helps a million, I swear
Like this, doesn't have to be as in depth but it helps fr
#art#drawing#artists on tumblr#small artist#artist#my art#web comic#comic art#comic artist#art advice#drawing advice#art tutorial#art tips#drawing techniques#drawing tips#drawing tutorial#comic tips
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Hi, how did you learn to draw Steve's physique?
Ohh what a complicated thing to answer...
When it comes to how I learned to draw anything, it's hard to say anything too specific since it's always a culmination of many years of assorted study and practice... but I can try to do my best to explain some of the biggest things that helped me learn, some tips I keep in mind, and maybe at least some places to start/delve further.
(just a little disclaimer it's not like my drawings here are going to be 100% medically accurate.. they're just to illustrate concepts!)
The main thing about learning various physiques is understanding anatomy. Which feels obvious, but I don't mean proportions; these are important, but perhaps more important is understanding the skeleton and how it moves and learning where muscles connect to bones and where fat grows on the body. When you understand how these function on a more mechanical level, depicting form and movement in a way that feels natural comes in tow.
For instance, understanding things like the pronation and supination of the radius and ulna, as well as the fact that muscles can ONLY contract or relax, will help you understand a bit better which muscles will be flexed and which will not while someone moves. It's inherent to the positioning based on the structural makeup of the body... It's not like you NEED to memorize all the muscles and bones, of course, but understanding and gaining at least a passive familiarity with the concepts really helps.
In tandem with this concept is the way parts of the body flow into eachother. Muscles ALWAYS come in groups because they can only contract. Whatever muscle is there to lift something, there is a muscle on the other side to pull that bone back down. What this results in is a series of straight edges next to curves, which gives us a lot of really lovely "s curves" and dents and folds and so on and so forth just naturally occurring.
I would suggest at least learning the "bony landmarks", which are bones (usually) visible on the surface of the body. things like the iliac crest, the great trochanter, the 7th vertabrae, the acromion process... These can be used to help you understand the parts of the body as angles and relationships, rather than trying to remember lengths and sizes, which vary immensely... (since you asked about steve, he can be our model... also study these on your own don't just take my word for it haha, these are the ones I personally keep in mind)
I've done the same thing with body hair... learning where it grows and in which directions... It helps me make up variations without needing reference, because I have a set of rules I can follow.
The biggest thing that helped me understand all this on a much deeper level was my ecorche course. I sculpted this guy. We started by sculpting the entire skeleton to understand the bones, and then we added muscles on top. Not every single muscle, of course, but the "artistic muscles" AKA the ones which directly affect the surface of the body. Doing this let us see where muscles connect, because we would make a shape, put it on the bone where it actually goes, and then you get to see how other muscles overlap that.
This helped me, perhaps, more than anything else. But I also didn't just start with this course, I had been drawing for years before I even took it. I had been in school for years before I took it. Not that I think it wouldn't be helpful to someone just starting out, but I do think that the more you know going in, the better an in-depth course like this will help you and stick with you. Classes are also expensive, though so I'm not really like... recommending you pay potentially thousands of dollars to take one... But it did help me a lot, personally.
I also, of course, have done many figure, gesture, and master studies...
These just help you quickly gain a stronger understanding of generalized anatomy, and gives you real life examples of and practice with of how people move and balance.
What all this does when combined, is gives me a very solid ability to depict movement and form in a way that feels relatively natural from my subconscious without the need for reference.
The rest of how I've learned to draw his physique is honestly mostly just stylization. I understand the body, and this is how I am depicting it for his level of musculature.
And as I move into depicting him in other ways, either moving in comics or in animation, realistically rendered, or extra stylized, these concepts inform every step of that process for me! When he keeps the same/similar relationships between parts, he gets to still look like himself.
It ALSO really helps when putting clothes on, because the way cloth falls and bunches and lifts is all directly related to the form it is on... So the more you understand that form, the more you can depict clothing and movement in a way that feels natural.
This is all, of course, true when I draw anyone, you asked about Steve so I'm trying to mostly show with him! But because I'm just drawing from raw information of general anatomy rather than trying to study one body type at a time, it allows a lot more "give," I think!
Like, here's most of the cast from TTA so far... actually, they're not as varied as I thought they were nevermind LMAO ignore this part
But, it also makes monster and alien design much easier! It's a lot easier to come up with non-human anatomy when I understand human anatomy, because I can manipulate the knowledge I have...
There is infinite more to study in the world of anatomy... The complexity of the human body goes extremely deep. For our purposes as artists, we need only depict a fraction of it, but more information rarely hurts the process.
I'm sure there's something in here that's wrong on a technical level, I'm mostly going off of memory. But that's kind of my point - I understand enough generally and conceptually that when I am missing something and need to find reference for it, I understand what I'm looking at. It's much easier than trying to learn AND draw at the same time.
I hope even one thing in here helped you! Sorry it's so long.
#asks#somewhereinasgard#anatomy#art tips#anatomy tips#don't like... take my word as gospel OF COURSE#I am sure there's like one thing or more in here that's like. genuinely wrong#but whatever#anyways. I love steve LMFAO#I was thinking about zagan a lot too in this one tbh LMAOOOO cause he's got a similar body type#and when I just did that action animation of him#and people were like how the fuck did you do this so fast#I sort of have been realizing all this knowledge I have about anatomy#and how much easier it makes my life pretty much every single step of the way.#those action poses did not need reference.#I almost never need reference for drawing people#unless its like... realism. but I mean in my comics or animations#when the arm is coming towards the camera I know what's going on in the arm and what the form of it ACTUALLY is so I can properly draw it#there's no guesswork. I know what I'm doing.#which makes it so that when I'm depicting someone like flipping all around or whatever#I just know what the body looks like. how it moves. how it balances. etc.#I would say it comes naturally to me but it doesnt.#it is subconscious at this point#but it is very extremely studied#not a damn bit of this came out of nowhere LOL#ok anyways this was a really fun ask#I got extremely carried away I am so sorry#this is like my biggest artistic passion I LOVE anatomy SO much#I love drawing muscles#I love the technical feelings that happens in my brain when I draw an arm moving and figure out how the muscles are engaged
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Can she even comprehend the lengths I would go
#crazy cat lady posting don’t mind me#my art#comics#comic art#cats#furbaby#original comic#artists on tumblr#procreate#digital artist#sorry if this isn’t really cohesive in how I posed the subjects I tried following this comic tip and idk?? still trying 2 understand comics#but the tip was to not have the subjects be aimed to look out of the comic but rather in? guiding the viewer with where they’re looking#I could’ve done it better if#I remembered that tip from the vet go instead of flipping frames lol
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top down view of the lobby
#wanted to draw a little goofy comic ft. casey jr but got sidetracked with wanting/having to draw myself a guide map ://#which btw tip for all storyboarders/comic artists!!! draw yourself a small map of the scene you're working on!!!#saves you the trouble of having to “remember” where every character is situated#rottmnt subway lair reference#miiukkart#rottmnt
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