#digital art's got me worked to the bone

[swampbangle]

Brain decided it wanted to tell me a raw ass Dusknoir line so I had to get out of bed to make this at 3am.

Ouughg my wrist hurt

[kustar-ryumi]

oogh currently thumbnailing !!!!(for a rq :333)

[lorcan-chan]

Commissions are open. $40 for full figure drawings with backgrounds. $30 for just full figure. $20 for upper body only. $15 for head shots. And $65 for realistic-ish. DM me for more details if interested. Payment is upfront before you get the product. Digital copies only, no prints.

[idreamofneonsheep]

Trying out some new styles for a project [that I'll hopefully stick with] and vibed with this one so

Could be better but the vibes r there methinks

[michealscorneroftheinternet]

ALRIGHT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!!

IT'S ABOUT TIME I GIVE SOME LOVE TO MY FAVORITE CREATORS!!!

And by love I mean scream my lungs out-

@strange0-0storm

Bro your character SMG8 has me in a chokehold!

He had me with music. I mean hell I'm listening to music right now while writing this (Digital Hallucination by OR3O) and was when drawing this. I listen to music constantly for inspo. I can imagine sitting and vibing with SMG8 just sharing music together.

Your art style specifically is a big love of mine. I very much envy how you draw SMG8's teeth-

@ominus-potato

BRO....

I literally originally started lurking around your page just finding Marware a fun crack ship but at this point you've dragged me into this ship full on. I'm a sucker for idiot with a charismatic partner. Will always remind me of Roger and Jessica Rabbit.

I continuously look forward to any post of yours! <3

@purpdrawsthings

WHERE TO EVEN START WITH YOU BUDDY-

BRO I SWEAR EVERY TIME I WAKE UP AND SEE A MENTION FROM YOU I GET A GOOFY ASS SMILE ON MY FACE! YOUR ART IS CONSISTENTLY AMAZING!

Your love for all my Aus and me and my friends au brings a smile to both our faces!!!!

@misskamilyvision

YOU.

WHEN I FREAKING GET YOU!!! YOUR LITTLE LORE BITS HAVE BEEN DRIVING ME INSANE!!!

I SWEAR ONE MORE AND I MIGHT COMBUST!

STOP BEING SO GOOD AT SAYING SO MUCH AND SO LITTLE IN ONE POST!!!

Not to mention but the fanart you have done for me in the past still brings a smile to my face whenever I find it in my fanart folder!

Never stop being so dang creative!

@grinnames

Hhiiiiiiiiii buddyyyyyy~

Fun tid bit about God Box AU Michael.

They know we exist.

They can see us.

Past the screen.

Teehee! But that out of the way your GodBox AU posts are always a pleasure to see! As someone who loves some good horror I lovingly enjoy each post!

I look forward to another lore drop on those bois. Especially maybe more of Mario as I'm intrigued about our spaghetti loving Italian.

@its-a-me-mango

Aye it's the doc!

The one and only Mango!

Your art is consistently just great eye candy for me.

Though I must repeat as I did to KamilyVision....

STOP DROPPING SUCH VAGUE LORE WITH LITTLE CONTEXT!!!! /J

IMMA FUCKING LOSE IT WITH THIS SHIT!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU MAN?! FMSKKDNFBDKWLKJFOSLWJBD

@tiredsmashbros

YOU....

I GOT A BONE TO PICK WITH YOU BUCKO!!!!

STOP JUMPSCARING ME WITH FANART MAN!!! YOUR GONNA FRY MY DAMN CIRCUITS!!! YOU MAKE IT SEEM LIKE ITS NOT A BIG DEAL!??!!?! AND YOUR MOST LATEST ONE BEING FOR PRACTICE?! FUCKING HELLO?! LOOKS LIKE A FULL MASTERPIECE TO ME!!!

SO IN RETURN IM GIVING YOU FANART OF YOURSELF WITH ME FUCKING TEASING YOU!!! BITE ME!

@coralalala64

Youuuuuuuu........

Your damn angst almost every FREAKING TIME feels like you are personally putting your hand through my chest and yanking out my heart and squeezing it like it's a damn squeaker from a squeaky toy!

STOP BREAKING MY DAMN HEART!!!!!

YOU ARE SO STUPIDLY TALENTED AND ITS DRIVING ME INSANE WITH ALL THE WORK YOU DO!!!!

Keep up the good work but if I see another angst post anytime soon I'm going to implode and I'm taking you with me. /J

Okay that's all of you!

But yeah, hi all you lovely creators! You all are big inspirations of mine and I adore all your works in a unique way. Plenty of the things you all create have inspired me within my own art and series Change in Script! You guys are honestly amazing!

I can't wait to see what you all continue to create within or outside of the SMG4 community!

[thereweredragonshere]

Any tips for getting better at drawing?

Oooooh that is a very broad topic.

If I’m being honest I find it hard to put my art journey (that I am still pretty young in) into words. It all depends on so many things- experience, medium, your ability to understand anatomy, objects in a 3D space, colour theory, how joints work, lineart, comprehensive understanding of form etc etc. There is a lot of stuff involved with art and it would be hard to just compile it all into one topic. But I’m gonna assume you mean drawing as in pencil, paper (or the digital equivalent) and an idea.

My main tip, which you’ve probably seen over and over and over again is just practice. It’s disheartening to hear the same thing repeated until your ears are bleeding but from personal experience, it’s how I improved my understanding of form/linework. But don’t just practice the same thing. Go on Google or Pinterest, find reference photos of real people, trace over the human skeleton, divide complicated structures into easy to understand shapes. There is no wrong way to study art, do whatever works for you!

Another one is to look at other people’s art, see what about it you like and you dislike, and how you can apply that to your own work. Someone use a particular brush for outlines that you like? Try it out! Do you like the fluidity/connectedness of colours within a particular piece? Have a go at it!

And not everything you draw will be amazing, or even good. I’ve been sat feeling frustrated with myself because I couldn’t get a face right, or the way I was drawing a hand looked weird a squiggly, and that’s completely normal! No one posts the fucked up looking pieces of warmup art that they abandoned because they couldn’t find the right angle to draw a character’s cheek bones at (Cough cough). Trust me, everyone that draws has art they will never post.

Finally, progress takes time. It’s a long, frustrating, gruelling process that has massive highs and lows where you feel like the worst artist in the world or the fucking reincarnation of Picasso. It depends on the weather.

For example, my art at the start of 2023 looked like this:

And now it looks like this:

It took my two years to get that far, and fuck knows what my art will look like at the end of 2025.

Your art journey never stops, it only becomes less confusing and frustrating as time goes by. To everyone that feels like they’re in the art trenches right now, you got this, I believe in you and I promise that one day you will crawl out from the mud and filth with a clear understanding of the colour wheel (because fuck me I do hope I get out of that trench soon)

[the-s1lly-corner]

Can you do TADC x skeleton reader?

TADC cast x skeleton! Reader!

Skeleton characters my beloved

Love skeletons sm I wish there were more appealing characters in that category for me to add to my collection

Fr though imma work on art after this

Short since it's so sso cold in my room, I cannot warm up for the life of me and I'm in mobile

CAINE:

Teeth?

Teeth!

You guys click your teeth together and it makes everyone cringe thanks to the sound and what they imagine it feels like

Rmemeber we have nerves in our teeth, it's not just the roots! Imagine how it would feel if you clacked your teeth against someone else's!

He makes tons of skeleton puns

POMNI:

Is a little put off by seeing the bare bones of the brains mech suit/j

No but cartoony or not I think it would put her off because she would be all too aware of the "this is a person, this is a real breathing person" thing

Like sure she also understands it's your digital body, but seeing a skeleton next to a chesspiece and ribbon feels weird. It feels oddly familiar... does offer to help put you back together

RAGATHA:

HATES when you lose one of your limbs and leave it skittering about, trying to find the rest of you. Centipedes and skittering rouge limbs, that's what would do it for ragatha... bonus if you have a centipede crawling in your bones, be it as just your default or because one crawled into you at some point.. makes her weary to hug you when when gets that information..

But assuming you're bug free, shes more than willing to hang around you! Also offers to help put you together! Has probably guided your body back to your head after it got knocked off, saying it from having to blindly wander

JAX:

Similar to caine he makes a ton of jokes and puns. Has probably hit you with the bowling ball . You made the rolling pin sound effect

Has probably snagged your arm to scratch his back. Like he did to zooble.... maybe that's part of tje reason why zooble is sour all the time...

KINGER:

In an event where he needed to grab you and run, he may or may not have just

Popped your arm or hand off and bolted with it... probably makes a fair amount of distance before realizing the rest of you arent there

Despite what many may think, I dont think he would be bothered by a skeleton person, unless you're like. Hyper realistic for some reason, but considering the digital worlds style and kid friendliness I doubt you dont look cartoony! Actually kinda finds it cute, like those old cartoons he used to watch.. at least he thinks he used to watch.. you feel nostalgic somehow

ZOOBLE:

You guys exchange limbs/j

No but I feel like you guys would bond over not being fully "stable", ie you guys can be disassembled and broken apart with relative ease. You guys have each others backs when something threatens to break your bodies up. Be it Jax, or an IHA, you guys will try to protect each other in that regard... usually ends in you both falling apart

It sounds like clicking n clacking when you guys kiss

GANGLE:

Very similar to zooble, you guys are fragile. Gangle is ribbon, and you're just bone. You two are both prone to falling apart! You guys fuse together with gangle holding your bones together with her ribbon/j

But actually... I can see that as a funny side gag for "teamwork" for a IHA...

Sometimes her ribbons get stuck between the joints of your hands

[sasaleletrebol]

I found you by total accident…

Meet my OC Luna! This is the only good drawing I have of her, and I forgot the ink splotch on her cheek.. but I’m to lazy to fix it lol

I’m still learning how to draw skeletons, so if you have any tips I’d love to hear them TvT

Your art is very edible btw :D

WHAT'S UP POOKIE? DID YOU THINK I FORGOT ABOUT YOUR CHILD? NUH-HUH

Two versions because I didn't know what to do for the background lol

So... you discover I can't draw wings... you... why

Nah, nvm. It was a lot of fun and also I really like dragons but can't draw them lololololololololol

So... Tips???? Man I wish I knew how to draw skeletons too. But ahí te va some stuff that help me be a little good at it:

Ok, I'm not the biggest expert on this. But I'll try my best!

I'll devide it in sections

Study: If possible try to understand the basics of the real thing. Ya know, so your brain have a more clear vision of what your hands are going to draw.

Studying is (for me) an important part of the creative process. It's the "why are things the way they are?". Once it's explained, you'll have more confidence in what you're going to do.

Big Shapes: Now, obviously you're not going to remember all those bones by heart to draw a silly skeleton. That's what big shapes are for.

Try to look at them not as lines, but as objects. Objects have perspective. It doesn't have to be exaggerated or perfect. But knowing it can greatly improve your drawing skills.

I'll recomend watching some tutorials or drawing practices for this.

Details: this it's the fun part! Now our skeleton has a face! Yipie!.

Here I want you to remember to FLIP THE CANVAS NOW OR LAMENT IN THE COLORING. Now we are working with finer lines (depending on your style) for the smaller but not less important part of your work.

Technically it's the "lineart", but I don't know what that is *proceeds to whistle at just cleaning the sketch (but that's personal taste)*.

Style: Here's where personal taste comes into place. It's the pencils that you use, the lines you work with, what's best looking aesthetically to you.

I'll add and extra tip here... it's... STEALING!!! MUAHAHAHAJ. Ok no. Don't do that. What I mean by "stealing" is to see references of styles that you really like and try to implement elements of them in your work!

For example my biggest Inspirations are Jakei, x_nzlian and fanarts I really like!. I study really deep what I most like about those styles and use it to improve my own!

Like, how they draw the noses, the eyes, the shapes of the mouth they use, how they draw clothes interacting with the bones.

Take care and have fun. Don't compare yourself to others. Don't be sad if it doesn't work at the first try. Just keep going, keep learning, keep looking, learn from your mistakes and take care of your hand omg please. Do some wirst warm ups (that you can look up on YouTube and stuff) before grabbing a pencil. And your eyes, if you're a digital artist. DON'T DRAW ON A PURE WHITE CANVAS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

And also you can do whatever the heck you want! Don't follow all of this at the point of the letter. What I mean it's have fun and do whatever suits best for you. I'm just some silly clover in the internet who thinks that they know what they're doing.

That's it. Sorry if it is too long uuuhhh. Here, you got a cookie as a reward for reading all of that rambling→🍪. Thank you, and take care of yourself💕

[cod-sins]

𝑫𝑰𝑽𝑰𝑵𝑬 𝑪𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵

.ೃ࿐ Paring: Simon "Ghost" Riley x Black!Artistic!Reader

.ೃ࿐ Ratings: SFW. Very Fluffy.

.ೃ࿐ Reader: Undisclosed.

.ೃ࿐ Format: HCs .ೃ࿐ Word Count: 536.

[A/N: What started out as drabble in my notes turned into full headcanons :>. Also non-blacks y'all are allowed to interact with this post just don't be weird.Also I didn't proofread n just kinda threw these out there.]

Going to start this off by saying Ghost supports you 100% whether you do it as a hobby or as a full-time job. He isn't going to be going around bragging to everyone about it but he would definitely look at some artwork and be like 'Huh, Y/n could make something 100x better.'

If you work with clay/pottery he likes to watch your hands carefully dip and curl shaping whatever object you're making. He also asks you stupid questions.

"Why are you fingering it?" "Simon." - 😐. "Just wanna know why you're trying to give it an orgasm love." Feel free to kick him out.

Got really jealous when he found out you made Price a custom drinking glass. He never told you but he always glares at it whenever he's in the room with his captain.

Ghost has a lot of money from working in the military so he has no problem buying you new art supplies. Even if you insist on getting a new sketchbook despite you having several others that you didn't finish. Ghost is still pulling out his wallet for you.

Suffering from art block? Ghost is your muse!

You'd have so many drawings and paintings based on him. He's so amazed at the way you're able to capture every little detail. You actually end up boosting his confidence/ego because of this.

Would pose naked if you asked, but he gets jealous if you use other naked people as art references. "Simon I love you but I need a female body. Not a six-foot British man." "Use your imagination."

If you're a digital artist Ghost is constantly telling you to get up and stretch. You only agreed to this because he wouldn't stop calling you shrimp-related nicknames.

"Oi, shrimpy ya need to stand up for me." "Hey shrimpback time for you to stretch for me." "Your back looks like the letter C."

'It's you. 💻🖋️🦐' He would text you.

Doesn't understand why you're crying head down on your computer until you tell him your program crashed before you could save your progress.

Ghost is so amazed with your ability to create masterpieces just by using your head and references.

Would let you color on his tattoos and draw on his back and arms. He enjoys watching you doodle little crossbones on him. Or when you go all out and draw bones on his hands

If you were a painter Ghost would hang some of your artwork around his house. It would be such a surprise when you came over to visit. He'd smile softly watching you get all excited over it.

Ghost however can't tell the difference between different tones and shades.

You frowned slightly and furrowed your brows as you picked up the small tube of paint from the white bag. "What's the matter?" He asked. "I wanted lime green this is yellow green..." "Bloody fucking hell mate what's the difference? It's just green." "Pfft, what's the difference? Simon, there is a huuge difference," you exclaimed before continuing on. "It's like trying to use a sniper optic for a pistol." He chuckled at your shitty analogy before kissing your forehead and promising you to buy the right one next time.

[despazito]

Idk in my idyllic world the use of ai could improve animation workflow and catapult junior level artists into creative leads roles faster if there's less menial work to be done.

We could have artists still in charge of creative decisions and drawing vis dev while the computer assists with the most labour intensive steps of making shows or movies.

For simpler shows for instance it would be neat I think if you could run your storyboard through a script and have the machine import all relevant assets staged to the best of its abilities instead of manually having to drag props and rigs into your shot and scaling everything before you can even begin to animate (does that tech exist already? Probably).

Like nowadays we already have animation programs where you can set deformer limitations.

i could imagine a possible future where software includes or does subscription services to ai trained on work by artists who got paid to draw or animate template motions or anatomy references. something like generating smart bones could become an automated feature. i can maybe even foresee tech that can look at a character model or design sheet you've drawn and generate a rig for it. in all these scenarios you would have to correct stuff and tune things to your liking, but it gives a considerable head start to the work.

More dynamic shots could be made on smaller budgets if we gave ai props or backgrounds and said "give me this but rotated a little" instead of drawing the same damn chair from 10 angles as a prop artist, I refuse to believe anyone's passion in life is to make prop turnarounds or clean up inbetweens.

what if you had an ai that was trained on drawings of heads at every angle, animals in every angle, a slew of expressions and mouth shapes, then gave it a character ref drawn from a few angles and bam it makes the vtuber rig for you.

this still leaves space for original art and would still require a skilled creative to make something look it's best, that could be a gig. more animators could potentially begin their own smaller studios if cartoons are way easier to make. if anyone could potentially make their own movie in the future, charge people to do it right! no computer can replace a human knowledgeable in film or drawing to guide it in the right direction. without creative people at a production's core, i think the future of ai film is just a very, very, sophisticated version of goanimate than can also do art theft.

this could become the weird futuristic version of "i wrote this children's book can you illustrate it for me?" but instead your mom's friend wants to commission a show pilot they wrote a screenplay for.

When animation was drawn on cels we had entire painting departments whose job it was to paint each individual frame by literal numbers, and it was tedious!! Now we have the paint bucket tool for digital coloring, and software like Toonboom lets you color in one frame then generate the coloring for the proceeding frames. We still have a colour and painting department, it's just different work now. but now we also have people making full color cartoons from their basements because Flash was released for personal computers with said digital tech along with computer generated motion tweening for animation!!

Junior animator and junior bg painter or prop artist roles will probably face an overhaul where more work can be done with less people. But the utopian outcome would be these junior artists can sooner take up lead or supervisor positions where they get to execute their own ideas instead of someone else's. more shows or movies could be produced with less crew for less money, slashing costs when deciding what to greenlight or to take a risk on new talent. The problem is capitalism would make it suck because it only cares about exploiting workers for those cheapest costs possible and forego the necessary human crew required to make the difference between machine-assisted productions and pure ai generated slop

[dead3zine]

BLOOD, BONES AND TYRANNY: A DEAD THREE FANZINE

interest checks for a zine surrounding the dead three and their chosens are OPEN until january 17th (may close sooner depending on how much interest this gets!)

some common FAQ's:

(full FAQ's can be found here)

Q: will this be a physical or digital only zine?

A: this zine will be a free digital zine!

Q: are all durges allowed or only default durge?

A: all durges are allowed - custom and default

Q: how will application / pitches work?

A: once applications are open another form will be needed to filled in. this will include what role you wish to have (artist or writer) and a section where you can detail your idea/s. this is to give me an idea of what will be involved in the project though you are welcome to change your idea at any point after that! this is also the time to say whether you wish to be considered for the role of cover art (art for the front page), a spot artist (art that fits around a work of writing) or if you are a writer whether you want any spot art

from then, a discord server will be made (or, if you dont use discord/dont wish to be part of a server yet still want to participate, an email address where i can contact you would be useful) where ideas can be confirmed for our first check-in. you may create 1 piece for this zine which will be further detailed in a handy "zine guidelines" doc i will create and have linked to in the second form!

mod roles will be open before applications, so if you wish to be a mod for this zine, keep an eye out for that form!

got a question that hasn't been answered here? let me know by sending me an ask!

[st-rarepairbang]

Stranger Things Rare Pair Big Bang 2023 Round Up

Our thanks to all this year's participants for their hard work! Please take some time to read the fics, enjoy the art, and make sure to leave comments and kudos for both.

If you’d like to be notified about next year’s big bang, please sign up for our mailing list. We’ll let you know when the 2024 schedule is set and when sign ups begin!

2023 Works

All the Right Reasons (All the Wrong Places) by @hilarychuff Podfic by @reena-jenkins 20k, Teen, Robin/Chrissy, Robin & Steve, No warnings

Monsters, Time Travel Conspiracy, and More! by Snowbutterfly Digital art by @peachypurr 49k, Mature, Argyle/Jonathan, Warnings here

Ashes Will See the Sea story and art by @faithfulcat111 10k, Mature, Max/Lucas, Warnings here

the princess and the pub by @mcplestreet Digital art by @im-not-batman 16k, Teen, Nancy/Eddie, No warnings

City Full Of Suffering, Take Me To The Promised Land by Gala_apples 27k, Explicit, Steve/Eddie/Robin/Nancy, Warnings here

Hot for Teacher by @lorifragolina Art by @alicetallula 13k, Explicit, Billy/Tommy, No warnings

the sea calls to me (with salt on her lips) by brakers91 Digital art by @im-not-batman 11k, Explicit, Robin/Chrissy, No warnings

Ceramic Hearts by @thatgirlwithasquid Art by @alicetallula 64k, Mature, Chrissy/Heather, No warnings

Back in the Saddle by @violetkaos Art by @whataboutthefish 48k, Explicit, Steve/Eddie/Dmitri, Warnings here

Take Me Away (A Secret Place) by @jordyn-undead Art by @whataboutthefish 49k, Explicit, Steve/Dmitri, No warnings

the stars look down and know by kittyphoenix12-xx Traditional art by @thatgirlwithasquid 25k, Teen, Argyle/Billy, No warnings

A Siren's Refrain by @karadanverss Playlist by @pterawaters 98k, Explicit, Jonathan/Steve, Steve/Tommy/Carol, Warnings here

A Tale of Ranching and Fossils by @it-gets-worse-at-night Art by Slythay 17k, Mature, Wayne Munson/Scott Clarke, No warnings

you've got a smile that could light up this whole town by @hullomoon Moodboard by @freedom-in-darkness 10k, Explicit, Robin/Chrissy, Warnings here

It's Snowing by star_madison and Xirayn Podfic by @cactusboyband 10k, Teen, Jonathan/Steve, Robin/Kali, Warnings here

A Kiss That Feels Like... Finally by @mrs-steve-harrington Digital art by @stevethehousewife 10k, Teen, Chrissy/Steve/Nancy, No warnings

Before I Bury You by @astorytotellyourfriends Digital art by @starboygrove 44k, Explicit, Chrissy/Eddie, Warnings here

Dry Bones and Bleeding Hearts by BriarLily Art by RoxyMoronDraws 16k, Explicit, Chrissy/Eddie, Warnings here

Beguiled by @ectocoolerkeg Moodboard by nomadicwolf 76k, Teen, Eddie/Jason, No warnings

Perfection by @pterawaters Digital art by @stevethehousewife 19k, Mature, Jonathan/Chrissy/Steve/Nancy, Warnings here

Reuniting, Reconnecting, and Renewing Relationships by SalamanderGoo Podfic by @reena-jenkins 20k, Mature, Dustin/Max/Lucas, Warnings here

We also want to thank our team of beta readers. Thank you for making our works so readable! We appreciate you!

[pigeonstab]

Hiiii! i recently (scandalous i tell you) discovered your blog and intently fell in love with your art style😭😭💜, do you have any art tips or the way you draw the skulls and body of the skeles or the lighting or just anything i would love to know. -anon 🪐💜

That's so sweet! ofc!

Well first off, I'm gonna say something no one likes, for skulls, practice is just the best thing to do.

Skulls (I'm talking specifically about Sans' skull not anatomically correct ones) were like the hardest thing to draw at first just because it's got weird proportions, I wanted to make sure the cheek bump out was the right shape and size both in width and heigh compared to the rest of the skull and honnestly it's just a mess, then you have to figure out where to put the features on top of that. So to me those are things to look out for, proportions and placement on the face also angles!!! drawing skulls from different angles is hard and you should use reference, either from real pictures or from different artists! (I often find myself trying to replicate skull angles by looking at Theskeletongames/Poetax's art who's like a god at making perspective work (though obviously if you do any sort of copy or tracing don't post it as your own, but that goes withot saying))

I think a circle is the best base, use the circle to draw forehead, then add the bump-out on the bottom half of the circle.

In terms of drawing the skeleton I'd say using reference is a good start but a few things to keep in mind is that the upper arm and the thigh are made up of one single bone, while the shin and forearm are both made up of two bones. also, Ribs go downwards from the spine

I also have a tutorial on how to draw sans (it is outdated now I think but it could still be useful)

Lighting!! Lighting is lovely, the way I learned is to pick somewhere from which the light is coming from, then have everything in shadow and carve out the light, think about the volumes you're working with, what will be hit by the light and what will stay in the dark, is there any object that's projecting a shadow on something else? etc

and general tips If you ever want to learn how to draw anyhting your way out will be volumes, break objects or anatomy down into simpler shapes, trace over something, from multiple angles, here's an example of me doing this.

for color one thing that helps me tons is figuring out values (this is mostly for digital art) value is the intensity of a color basically and you can check that by putting your colors in black and white, If in black and white your colors are too close together and you can't tell the difference between them it means there's no contrast and that can make a design hard to read, so use contrast to your advantage to lead the viewer's eye, make a more cohesive design and have an overall more appealing art peice

(everything I say here is to be taken with a grain of salt, these are basic rules that I feel are not only important but interesting, when you know the rules you know how to break them to make something new and creative)

thank you for letting me ramble about art lol <3

[flightyalrighty]

What have been some of your big inspirations/points of education* with your comic work?

*could mean learning resources but also just, good advice you got once or improvements to your workflow you figured out

Thanks for this ask!! :]

I went to the School of Visual Arts, where I majored in Cartooning! A lot of what I learned, I learned from Indie Cartoonist Jason Little and DC/Marvel Editor Joey Cavalieri, both of whom taught multiple classes I've taken (mainly fundamental stuff but there were also some extra classes with them like Jason taught my Digital Comics course and Joey taught my History of Cartooning class). I learned how to draw trees from Jason. And from reading Pogo.

I've drawn a lot of inspiration in my storytelling from both Bone and Hellboy, mostly! Both Jeff Smith and Mike Mignola are masters of pacing in comics, and if you happen to be unfamiliar with their works, I can't recommend them enough. Besides those two, the rich, moody internal monologues of Spider-Man: Blue and Spider-Man: Evolve or Die are things I often think about when it comes to dialogue writing. That and (at least when it comes to writing Rouge's dialogue) my older sister. Just, like, in general. Pay attention to how the people around you speak. It helps a ton when figuring dialogue.

Hellboy is getting mentioned again because Mignola's heavy inks are something I like to look over in order to learn from and improve myself. Hellboy, Carl Barks's Donald Duck comics, Asterix & Obelix, Will Eisner's various works, Calvin and Hobbes ALL have this beauty in their inking that can really inspire. Personally, I'd like to get a bit messier with my inking. Messy inks feel so alive. They're so visually interesting.

For colors, I highly recommend this book. I've read it and re-read it as much as possible. It may be for painters, but cartoonists can and should learn from all kinds of art forms. The works of Moebius were also mega foundational for me in learning how to color my comics. The man knew his palettes and how to not confine himself too much to what's "realistic". Speaking of painters (you may roll your eyes at this one) I'm also a fan of Frank Frazetta.

For panelling, I only have one true inspiration, and that's the work of Tess Stone. I grew up reading Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name. It changed how I viewed the limitations of panelling forever. Of course, it may be harder to find that comic these days, so here's a snippet:

Basic advice: really really take your time taking in art that you like, and try to reverse-engineer how it was made in your head. Heck, even if there's art you DON'T like, overall, but has elements you DO like, you can learn from that, too!

Okay! Sorry for rambling! Now here's the thing you're actually here for:

How To Think When You Draw collection of REALLY GOOD tutorials for whatever you need, these guys helped me out a ton when I was figuring the jungle scenes early in Infested.

This Pinterest Which Has Absolutely Everything You Can Possibly Think Of For References And Inspiration Sources.

An Extremely Good Font Site That Is Used By Professionals In The Comics Industry To Letter Their Comics.

The Most Important Book Any Cartoonist Can Read

A Different Book By The Same Man About Making Comics (for free, thanks Internet Archive)

Perspective For Comic Book Artists, thanks again Internet Archive

As for workflow... Man, I wish I could give you any kinda advice on that. I'm struggling with it, myself. I guess I've got two things?

If you have multiple deadlines for, say, multiple commissions or something, or you're trying to put out a weekly comic, but you're also doing something else, break the day up into time slots for each project, and switch the moment it's time to. Keep yourself on that schedule. I'm not very good at this.

I draw pretty detailed thumbnails, so sometimes I'll skip the penciling step in comics and blow up the thumbnail to ink over that. It's faster for sure! It's not always the right solution, however.

Thanks for reading! I hope any of what I've said helps at all!

[antia-calviz]

Genuine question, where did you learn to draw? I get that tons and tons of practice helps and all that but where did you learn to understand coloring and shading and lighting and anatomy and all that? Did you watch certain youtube videos? did you take a course? Did you go to art school? did you read certain books?

I adore your art, by the way. You are awesome. Have a good one.

thank u so much for your interest and for the compliment! this is gonna be a bit long but bear with me

im mostly self taught, however ive had the privilege of going to art school (animation and digital arts) + i got a full scholarship to take a masters degree in concept art and storyboard, so its really been a mixture of both. ive been lucky enough to have great teachers along the way, but the "tons of practice" is like 90% of what will make you a good artist

i think the most valuable part of art school is the people you meet / the networking. not everyone i went to school with had talent or even drive, and many talented people i work with today didnt go to art school. art skills can be learned by anyone, but it does take a lot of time and effort.

about my specific experience when learning skills like color, lighting anatomy etc :

color:

i used to be very scared/intimidated by color, but what made it more accessible were those color pallette challenges from back in the day, where people would pick a pallette and a character and you had to make it work. so, in this case limitations helped me undestand many things.

i still dont feel like i have the best grip on color theory yet, my use of color has always been very intuitive which is not the best. however having a color wheel is always handy. This one is my favorite. It even has options as to which kind of combinations you can use (Triads, Complementary colors, Adjacent, etc,). using the color wheel is a way to ensure your colors are always in harmony.

shading/ lighting:

lighting is quite the topic. i had a teacher who was a director of photography for stop motion and he mostly taught us traditional photography terminology such as this. The same terms and concepts apply to painting, so getting familiar with these can help you understand different kinds of light and what theyre commonly used for.

studying the masters is a must. throughout art history there have been artists that became legends for their specific and often disruptive use of lighting. off the top of my head, some artists that master lighting are: rembrandt, joaquin sorolla, vermeer, john singer sargent, maxfield parrish, caravaggio, etc. There are many excellent contemporary painters, if it's any help, i like to collect ref and inspiration in my insp blog.

animation color scripts can also help understand how to sythetize light in drawing AND especially to use lighting to evoke emotion.

anatomy:

there are a trillion options on studying anatomy from books, which i feel are very helpful when you need to understand how bones and muscles work. I dont have a particular rec for this, but most are accessible in bookstores/libraries and will give you a decent notion of the mechanics of the human body. same goes for animal anatomy.

anatomy is one of the fundamentals that you need to practice most. figure drawing and gesture drawing are two great ways to practice. theyre not the same thing, but complementary. figure drawing focuses on anatomy, proportion, line of action, while gesture drawing focuses of the action of a person (what they are doing, how they are doing it, and what they might be feeling while doing it).

a live sketching session with a model (preferably nude) is one of the best ways to learn, however this option is not very accesible so here are a few alternatives.

going outside and sitting at a cafe, at a park, airport, public transport or any public setting where people gather is a great way to practice. since people are always moving and shifting, this tecnique will make you focus on drawing loosely and quickly. and after a few sessions youll notice you start to focus on capturing the essence of the pose, the proportions and the general gesture of the person youre drawing. this will help you synthesize better and quicker.

another thing that works well (and is even more accessible) is sitting down with your sketchbook or tablet and sketching times poses from Line of Action, its quick and easy and even 10 - 15 minutes of practice a day will make your anatomy skills improve a lot.

A few useful books (these are animation oriented, but art fundamentals nonetheless) :

Color and Light by James Gurney

Framed Ink + Framed Ink 2 by Marcos Mateu-Mestre

Layout & Composition for Animation by Ed Ghertner

How to Draw a Character The Foolproof Method by Soizic Mouton

The Complete Color Harmony, Pantone Edition Expert Color Information for Professional Results by Leatrice Eiseman

Learn from 100 Famous Artists by 21 Draw

How to Draw drawing and sketching objects and environments from your imagination by Scott Robertson and Thomas Bertling

The Character Designer by 21 Draw

The illusion of life Disney animation by Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston (this one is mostly abt animation, but having an animation background can influence the way you draw, so depends on what you want)

The Silver Way Techniques, Tips, and Tutorials for Effective Character Design by Stephen Silver

100 Tuesday Tips by Griz and Norm

i have most if not all of these in pdf, if anyone's interested i could send a .zip with the files via email :)

i hope this helps!! if you have any other questions im happy to answer! happy drawing!

[blackrevell]

// WIP WHENEVER AND FOREVER

Been tagged by @ouroboros-hideout, @olath124 and @wanderingaldecaldo recently, thank you!

2D | 3D | Writing | VP

The last several days over here were quite turbulent and I suppose I gulped a bit too much of negativity, as nothing I did so far felt right or decent. That's why this journal will re-cap everything that's piled up in my project files since the previous WIP Whenever post: (x)

// Digital Art Still thinking of So Mi x Myers painting, the sneak peek of which you saw the last time. I think of it daily, I promise. Some day I will finish it.

Beyond that one, there's also a Myers' study that I'd want to complete. Been a while, but who knows.

// 3D

Modelling felt much more dynamic lately. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Blender is awesome, and I've had a blast working in it again.

For starters, I embarked on an endless highway of finally fleshing out my OC. The progress on the character herself is slow (well, at least there's no deadline and no rush). In terms of looks, she is a connoisseur of sunglasses and gathered quite a wide collection over the years. Here is one design out of the 4 planned:

Planning is not my natural forte, though, which often produces unexpected results. Had a night when I went too hard on caffeine and couldn't sleep, decided to spend the extra brain-overdrive time modelling a dress I saw on Pinterest. It's not even within my character's usual clothing style, but who's gonna stop me? Me? :pain:

What you see above is a low-poly preview, there's still lots of work to be done even in terms of mesh, much less texturing and weight painting (which is going to be a total horror).

Last, but not least — one of my frens on Discord was looking for sock garters to port for a character, so I thought I could help out a bit. Currently testing it for mesh clipping; texturing here is a "demo" solely for preview purposes.

// Writing

My friends and co-brainrotters somehow pulled me into writing, even though I've been notoriously bad with it my entire life.

At the moment, there's one ficlet in progress focused on character exploration for my OTP Nightwing (OC x Kurt). It is a wild mix of text with bits being deleted, and changed, and added, so I'll keep it under wraps for now.

The sad sack days did lure me into writing out small shards of feelings, which I have no idea how to classify. Vesna and I have a terminal disease called "Rosalind Myers and Kurt Hansen are bitter exes", and their tragic relationship just doesn't let me go:

Lies, lies, lies, how have I been blind to The knives cutting my sanity That you brought with you And I thought would only undo The enemies we could Conquer together and Share their bones and Share our hearts Too bad the taste of my blood Was your favorite hue In the palette of what I could Ever bring you

There's been a couple of other small writings that I won't dare to post (cause extra cringe)

// Virtual Photography Not much to report here, just want to say that it's been a pleasure to finally try my hand at proper VP with Kurt and his peachbutt (x).

I hope I'm capable of learning better and better, because photography has been a tempting idea for me since I was a kid, and I have already got concepts for several photo sets to do in Cyberpunk.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Not tagging anyone in particular, my brain is not functioning today. Just wishing everyone a nice day and evening. <3