#next up is body pose practice so i can draw way more

[drac0line1nn1t]

Hey guys, do we fuck with the side profile slash facial features sketch practice?

[chacolachao]

Character Bodies 1 - Applying "Shape"

Sometimes when drawing a character you might have a hard time capturing their... character. You might see a drawing like this [clean lined image of Super Sonic] and may not know how the artist got to that point. In this case, it's best to start looking at characters not as a series of lines, but rather as a group of objects. Looking at an officially licensed example of Tails, we'll try to break it up into objects first BEFORE looking at the lines. We'll focus on the body for now [Sonic Riders Tails broken up into sections, red as the head and legs, green as the body] This green section is the main body, notice that I don't include the fur on him, only his body- once that's figured out placing fur will be a breeze. Now we need to imagine what this shape would be if it were a 3-Dimensional object... even though these are drawings, these characters' parts exist on an imaginary 3D space next to each other. Start by taking note of which direction this part [the green body] is facing and draw a line- if this little green blob were now a tube with top and bottom defined, as circles, you can begin to see our 3D object.

Now that you know about Tails'Tube, posing his body will be easier as long as you remember that his body is 3D. Tip: Try practicing keeping a simple shape like this consistent while bending it and posing it every which way.

Placing the limbs onto this object's 3D surface instead of just "drawing legs" will help you with more silly poses that you may not be sure how to pull off. The shocking thing about limbs... they are also tubes, so separate them like the body, take note of their front, and then STOP.

Take note of where on our body object these legs are placed. In the case of Tails, these legs start in the lower corners of Tails' body, and start a bit on the side, not immediately under. Knowing where on that 3D space Tails' legs attach can help you decide how to bend, pose, and exaggerate without the character losing their shape.

*Every character's shape defines their "character" defines their shape- so don't assume every character works the same way, using this process to analyze shape will help you properly understand who it is that you're trying to draw in every style. There are billions of styles that have graced these characters so don't feel like your art has to match IDW* or current gen artwork *note: multiple artists with different styles are within IDW

[kozachenko]

Here's a digital sketch dump of some pose/anatomy practices and some 2hu doodles, I think from now on if I don't have any big final piece to post, I'll just post sketches I liked that I did digitally (might also reblog some drawings of mine that I want more people to see, maybe idk).

Artist's Notes:

Ok so after the recent Hifuu fanart I did, I've been hoping to experiment more with how I draw faces, how I render, as well as how I stylize things. In some of the earlier sketches I did, I had an idea for a pose that I wanted to try drawing, so I took a ref pic of myself doing said pose (the leaning one btw) and then did a sketch over top of it just to get an idea for the shapes, negative space, and silhouette. After that, I wanted to do some simpler breakdowns of the shapes so I can get better at simplifying the body (these ended up being the bottom right sketches in the post). I also did some experimenting with how to push certain parts of said sketches to create a different body type (via liquify and then a more refined version based on that sketch), as well as figuring out what makes a pose feel natural and not stiff. This was also a bit of a foreshortening practice just so I can get more confident with it, and I ended up using the arms from the liquified version for the coloured Zanmu sketch I did since I liked them so much (dw I'll get to that).

The next thing I wanted to try and draw was Hisami, mainly because.... I am very bad at drawing her in my style. Last time I drew her I made her look really creepy and spindly, and it is my headcanon now that she can switch between a more human, and more creepy look whenever she wants. I'm liking where the face is going a lot, might have to refine a few things about it in the future, but it's cute (I also made the blush purple which I think is what I'm gonna do with her face from now on). I also like how her hair in the sketch turned out a lot, but the outfit..... not as much... Ever since I started changing my style to something less cartoony, I've had a hard time drawing her outfit in my style. Especially the flower veil thing she has on, which, I did try to find a way to draw, but I ended up deleting that sketch because I didn't like it. I'm also not a fan of using the colour purple, like, pure purple, magentas are fine, indigos are fine, but not strict purple. I also have a hard time with drawing all the little pattern details on her dress. I also need to find a way to draw the flower veil in a way that looks good because everytime I try it ends up just looking off (very similar to whenever I try to draw Zanmu's blue spears). I think the only solution to this problem is to do what I normally do and make my own version of the outfit, but with adjustments to suit my style while still trying to keep core elements from the original design intact (like I do with Zanmu and Keiki, and yes I am going to get to that Zanmu drawing just gimme a minute).

Ok next up is Keiki, my favourite Touhou character who I haven't drawn since the beginning of the year. Since my style has changed a lot, I wanted to just do a face sketch of her to get a hang of drawing her again, and I..... really really like how it turned out! When I drew her eyes, I realized that a good way of keeping faces too same facey can be via varying the sizes of their pupils, so that's an idea I'm gonna keep in mind from now on. I had a lot of fun with her hair, I initially was gonna do it like how it is in the official art, but I ended up not liking it, so now I'm gonna draw Keiki with wavy heir like this because it's fun and it looks nice. I also included my base sketch for Keiki's face since I was initially struggling with drawing her bandanna, and in the coloured sketch I added some more detail into her hair.

Now to finally talk about the sketches for Zanmu. Good lord was I having a tough time with her face. I also did this sketch before I figured out how I wanted to draw hair, so that's why the rendering on her hair is different (I did this soon after the Hisami sketch actually). Since I changed my art style a lot, I had to find a way to translate her face from my more cartoony style to my more detailed style, so while the face shape, nose shape and mouth was fine, I was really struggling with the eyes. I did get somewhere eventually though, and I am super happy with how it turned out. I wanted to lean more towards the androgynous side of the gender presentation spectrum, mainly because I think that makes sense for her character. Also made sure to include the silver hairs and some wrinkles just to bring some signs of her aging into her face because those are just staple features of how I draw Zanmu at this point lol. You will also notice that I gave her some scars on the right side of her face, and that's because I am a Zanmu-with-scars truther, I fucking love it whenever I see someone give Zanmu visible scars like that it just adds so much omg (I also tried to put a wolf bite mark on her arm in the full body drawing but idk if it reads well). While you can argue that her not having scars sells the idea of her being this "powerful, untouchable mastermind who is impossible to defeat," I'd say that instead of those scars representing times she got injured, they represent everyone who has failed to defeat her.

As I was drawing Zanmu's face, I referenced my sketch of to help with contrasting their features since I made Keiki's face more traditionally feminine. I also didn't mention this in my commentary on Keiki's face because I wanted to save it for here, but giving Zanmu scars also plays into the fact that she used to be human, wheras Keiki doesn't have any scars because she's a god who doesn't follow the rules of normal human biology. Plus I'm thinking about the two of them interacting again (return of Zan/Keik??? (I'm a multishipper btw) maybe???) so drawing their faces together will definitely help me in the future if I wanna draw them together (again, maybe as a ship? I've kinda been ironing out the kinks in their potential interactions (romantic and non-romantic) for a while now so idk maybe expect that in the future lol).

And now for the full body drawing, when I was doing the face sketch I did this little snippet of an outfit, had a vision, and the made it into a reality. I'll admit, part of me was worried that it would end up looking too much like Yuugi's outfits in the spinoffs and mangas, but I feel like I made enough changes to differentiate them. I tried to keep a few of the major details in Zanmu's design (i.e. the red tassles and yellow lining on her shirt) while putting a new spin on it. I also dialed up the scars to 11 since without them the whole thing kinda looked incomplete. Also, while I could say that the leaves on her kimono are "a nod to the fact that technically she should be a tengu because back then people belived that corrupt monks would turn into tengu but no Zanmu is an oni and they're maple leaves because...tengu...ahahahaha" what really ended up happening was that I looked up clothing patterns from Sengoku era Japan, liked the leaves the most because the red picked up on the red from the rest of her design and just ran with it. I also always had the idea to put Zanmu in men's clothing from Sengoku era Japan and while the accurate thing to do would be to put her in a Buddhist's clothes from that era.... from a character standpoint, I don't think Zanmu is pious enough to strictly wear the proper monk uniform, and also since she's basically the king of Hell, she would probably dress herself like royalty from that era. TBH, I probably could've been a bit more historically accurate, but again, this was mainly for conceptual purposes because I had a vision and I needed to see it through.

If I were to draw her in this sort of outfit again, I should probably try and use more references, although now that I look at it, if she were to wear it properly this would maybe, probably look a bit closer to a Kyūtai sugata (a very huge stretch, but it just kinda reminds me of that) just without the layers under and over the main piece of clothing (In the website that I searched up to try and compare the outfit in my sketch to, they name the outfit pieces but don't label them on the image, so I don't know 100% what everything is called) so I will definitely have to use that style of clothing as a reference going forward.

Also, I was kind of inspired by the ToTK design for Ganondorf since I have finished the game a while ago and I absolutely love what they did with his design (it's just so fucking cool omg) and I thought that sort of look would look good on Zanmu, so yeah got some inspo from that.

And those were all the notes for each of the sketches, I'm motivated to draw rn but kinda art blocked, so doing these little coloured sketches helps a lot.

[izudeeilo]

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

You can study me

Sero hanta smau

volley-ball player sero x art student fem!reader, no quirks au, college au.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Senior year is finally here! You thought that this time, the teachers would be more lenient with you and your classmates, but not at all. In fact, they even got stricter... They assigned you a half year-long work, which would be worth 30% of your final grade. What does the work consist of, you ask? Making a complete study of the life of a student you need to pick and paint it.

But...you can't pick a friend.

Part .1 • Part.3

Part 2

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Ochaco was right when she said this was something you had to see. All of them were really talented and you couldn’t keep your eyes away from the ball flying back and forth between the two teams. You were sitting on the bleachers, book and paper ready in your lap for a good moment to capture. For the time being you had only managed to sketch some quick dynamic poses of the boys.

They were a bit too quick for you to take at least a minute to sketch out something more detailed.

This sport was amazing to see but to practice yourself? a hard no. You were convinced you’d be on the floor sweating and dying before the second set would start. Your stamina wasn’t the worst, but it wasn’t the best either and you could see from how much they ran and jumped in such a small space that this would exhaust you more than your school work.

And that’s saying something…

The referee suddenly whistled, signifying the end of the first 2 sets. Mina, who you now knew was the team’s manager, handed them water bottles and towels. Hanta hung his towel around his neck before taking a long sip from his bottle. After he finished, his eyes scanned the bleachers before landing on you. He smiled and winked.

You smile back, a little taken back as you feel your cheeks get a little warm. You wave your hand slightly at him. He turned his head back at Mina and their coach standing next to her, listening to whatever they had to say.

Before you know it they went back on the court, finishing their last sets.

The last whistle echoed in the gym and you whipped your head back to the court and clapped your hands. They all let out a sigh of relief, Kaminari laying on the floor and Kirishima soon joining him.

The coach approached Hanta who lifted his shirt up revealing his lean torso to wipe off the sweat of his face. They began talking and your hand suddenly moved on its own towards your paper. Eyes going up and down as you quickly sketch out the pose he was in.

You finally stop going back to him to now focus more on the details.

Drawing thicker lines on the outside of his body, some small shadows here and there to add more depth. Hair strands falling onto his face, ball in his left hand leaning onto his hip—

“How’s it going?” a voice suddenly said, startling you.

You look up, quickly hiding the drawing with your arms as best as you could. Your body leaning forward awkwardly as you smile.

”Hiii, um great?” you chuckled.

”Did you sketch out some things? Did I good ?” He threw multiple questions at you and wiggled his eyebrows in a teasing way.

Looking the other way, you laugh at his antics.

”Y’all were quite quick but yeah I did draw some things and you did great, amazing even!” You turn your head back. “Your reflexes were crazy out there, you must have trained so hard.” you ramble out.

He looks at your face with a sweet smile on his face and you continue rambling about the game. He tilts his head and asks.

”Can I take a peak?”

You stop talking and meet his eyes “take a peak at what?”

”Your sketches ?” he laughs.

Oh right. You forgot all about them while you were talking his ear off.

”Oh..yeah uh here” you smile awkwardly, handing him the paper and turning your head, kind of embarrassed knowing you chose that moment to draw.

He takes the paper in his hand and scans the multiple drawings, smiling as he recognises his friends. He turns the paper over to reveal the more detailed sketch you had drawn.

His eyes widen slightly as his thumb gently runs over the lines.

“Shit that’s…that’s fucking insane. I look so good” he laughs as he looks at you.

You laugh with him. “You think?”

“Of course, man, that's the greatest I’ve ever looked. You really have amazing skills, you’re going to kill that study, I just know it” he wraps his arms on your shoulder, hugging you from the side.

”You mind if I take a pic of this?” he asks.

”No go ahead!” you answer, relieved that he likes it.

“Wait until my ma hears about her son getting drawn by a pretty girl” he says as he runs off chuckling.

Your mouth hangs open before you yell at him. “Your mom?! Hanta don’t you dare—“ You grab your things and try to catch up with him.

After a few seconds, you stop outside, hands resting on your knees as you try to catch your breath. Looking up, you see Hanta way too far from you, waving his hand at you in a teasing way before disappearing behind some bushes.

You roll your eyes and begin walking to your car, which was parked not too far away.

You arrive at your apartment and are greeted by the smell of warm food. You hang your jacket on the hanger and take your shoes off.

”What’s tonight's menu?” you say.

Two heads pop from the kitchen door.

”We made some chicken stew!” Ochaco and Himiko say at the same time.

“Oh I can’t wait” you smile as you go put your things back in your room. Putting up your hair in a more comfortable hairstyle, you make your way to the living room and sit on the couch with the girls.

“What do y'all want to watch tonight?” Himiko says clicking on the Netflix icon.

”I heard that the Addams Family is on Netflix now” you suggest.

”For real— Perfect, let's watch it!” Ochaco says excitedly as you all begin eating your food.

a/n a shorter chapter this time sorry! i wasn't home last week, so i couldn't work on anything 😭

[ekrixart]

hiii rix. actually i am curious about like how you go about coming up with/referencing dynamic poses (especially for full body) -- you are so good at getting across a lot of action & character in static images & i'm curious if there's anything you do to maintain that energy and what the thought process is to express things abt a character visually. if that makes sense

YEAH THAT MAKES SENSE- I don't use references much so most poses come from just playing around with sketches but it's encouraged to have expressive poses while still referencing real photos/figures To make things more dynamic a good thing to keep in mind is the shape of the line of action. I personally learned that you push for "S and C shapes" and avoid "I and W shapes", which basically boils down to avoiding lines of action that have no movement or that have more than 2 directional changes

Personally I don't find much wrong with an "I" pose but using them does mean it'll feel less dynamic, finding places to add slight curves that follow S/Cs adds more weight and movement is still important in more subtle poses. But W poses fucking suck, they get way too complicated and make it so the eye can't follow as easily Oh also more importantly it's good to get across the actual personality and energy of the character in the pose. If the pose reads as dynamic and expressive but isn't something the character would do then what's even the point- A good bit of characterization to spice up the poses adds a lot to the overall drawing. Some examples could be making the character stumble a bit in their movement or give a character sharper lines of action to show theyre stiffer/more focused or give a lazier character lines of action that are more flowy/pulled down. All of this can be played around with to make a character stand out more and give audience's a faster read on their mood or personality

If you wanna practice this I'd personally try short paced figure drawing, where you draw a pose and only have like 15 seconds to finish it before moving on to the next one- But rather than drawing the figure accurately try and draw the pose pushed to an extreme. This trains your brain to see the line of action and simplify the form as much as possible, plus it helps you get faster at drawing

[iztea]

Iztea I need your help💔💔 I'm genuinely trying to find my art style but I'm not very good at art in the first place, I'm a beginner and I just don't feel motivated to draw anymore because I'm not good at it,, can you pls link your tutorials so I can try to follow them the best I can..😓 I genuinely love your art and your a huge inspiration but I can't draw for shit. A lot of the tutorials on YouTube don't actually help me as much as they do for other people so I'm lowkey putting my faith in you to try and help me lmao, I just can't get the proportions of anything right, like I can't draw a body or head,, and when I trace things it just feels like cheating in art like ugghhjjnn,, can you help me😓☹️

If you struggle with proportions, then drawing over the reference photo (which you should totally have, btw) to get a feel for the distance between things is a great starting point. I also think you should have simplified anatomy references, as well as references from other artists. Basically, everything I mentioned here i don't want to repeat the same points

Tracing is not "cheating" if you're using it to learn. It can be very distasteful if it's used for finished art, where it is obviously meant to replace actual skill, or if it's traced from another artist. If you're using it to study and as a stepping stone to improve your skills, then it's totally fine and even encouraged (it's like doing assisted pull-ups at the gym). But you gotta to play it smart—tracing the actual outline without engaging in critical thought leads to ugly, mediocre, commercialized art that we don't want because we're cool based and always striving to improve ourselves

Okay anyways "But how exactly do I trace references in a smart way, iztea?" Well, like I said, you can lower the opacity of your reference photo and draw over it. Use the general shapes and volume of the body as your guide until you learn to draw without them. Don't follow the outline exactly—exaggerate or stylize the limbs to your liking. For example, I like drawing small wrists and long, slim necks because I think it looks more appealing. So whenever I'm using a reference, I (subconsciously most of the time) slim these body parts down, elongate the fingers, and so on. If you're still not sure what your style is, that's fine too. Use this exercise to find out what your hand naturally leans into

I'm not the cleanest sketcher, and it's been a while since I've done this sort of approach, so excuse the messiness but I wanted to show an example of how I'd tackle this technique. If you look closely, you'll see that I didn't exactly draw over the body parts, especially in the neck and arm area. I exaggerated the posture by adding more gestures—I made the shoulders rounder, the skull bigger, and the arms and neck longer and slimmer. I didn't focus on details like the face or fingers because that's not the point

The next important step after creating your guidelines is to redraw the lines from scratch on a separate layer, but this time without the reference. Set the reference aside and focus on copying your own guidelines. Afterward, compare the two drawings to check if your proportions are accurate. If they're off, take note of any recurring mistakes and correct them. For example, I have a tendency to draw the mouth too far down on the face, so it's something I am always aware of whenever I'm drawing. Other times, I draw the eyebrows too high from the eyes and so on. Another important thing to point out is that not all references are created equal—there are such things as bad or poor references. If the body’s silhouette looks like a blob or the limbs are heavily foreshortened, you'll find it much harder to draw so for practice, I recommend choosing poses that are fluid, clear, and expressive, with good lighting and features you can exaggerate. This will make it easier to understand the form and you'll have more fun in general I've provided a little comparison below. I'm not saying the 2nd pose is terrible and impossible to draw, it's obviously not, you can draw anything you want howeveerrr if you're just starting out, painting the 2nd one can be much more challenging due to it not being very clear in shape, value range, pose, gesture etc. So what I'm trying to say is to choose your poses wisely too

I don't remember doing any tutorials outside that hair one unless you consider my rambling sessions tutorials (i don't) but you can also scroll through the #ask iztea: art talk hashtag for whatever art-related question I might have answered I'm too lazy to link everything so YOU put the work and stalk my page

anyways yeah idk this is how i'd start.... so to summarize:

pull up references, from both real-life people, simplified anatomy sheets, and artists you like

draw over your reference photo and treat it as your training wheels

close the og reference, and use the newly traced, much more simplified outline as your new reference, and now draw the pose again, but "freehand" this time

compare the traced and the freehand version, take notice of your proportions and try to correct them

choose good, readable, easy to draw refs

never give up never what

[mqsi]

hey i love your writing and was wondering if you could do one where reader is besties with balde and he brings reader with him to training almost every time they train but reader is bored so they draw while barca train and they cant help but draw more and more portraits of pedri, analyse him and stuff (like gradually catching feelings for him - crush) and one day they leave their sketchbook somehwere and balde and pedri find it and then everything is up to you :) thank you for letting me rant

Hi love, thank you! As an artist myself I’m happy for this request💙

——————————————————————————

You were close friends with Balde so It was expected from him to go and drag you on his practice or anything that included football. You were happy to attend his games but training grounds were something else.

You met a lot of his teammates but watching them train gradually became boring yet you didn’t want to disappoint your friend by not tagging along whenever he calls. You found escape in bringing a sketchbook, at first just sketching Balde in various poses.

You couldn’t help but let your eyes wander on a certain brunette, analysing his form. You respected Pedri as a player and he was also nice in person. But his good looks were a nice bonus as well. You got lost in thought as you pulled the lines on the paper, sketching Pedri’s face. A slight blush crept up your cheeks.

Next time, you let yourself draw his full body. His arms exposed with sweat decorating the skin. You caught yourself analysing his features, the way his nose curved and the stubble on his chin. The way his hair flew in the wind and his eyes turned to honey in the sun.

How he rolls the shorts up and the way he smiles. How he playfully pushes Gavi or teases Ferran. From practice to practice, your sketchbook became full of Pedri in different situations. That’s when you realized that you might have developed a crush for the midfielder.

Just as you placed down the sketchbook on the bench next to you, Balde came running to you, seemingly running away from someone.

“HELP ME” he yelled, pulling you off the bench. You started laughing and played along with the tag game they started on the field. So much that you forgot about the sketchbook on the bench, leaving without it.

On his way back to the locker room, Pedri noticed your little treasure. He immidiately knew it was yours, as he noticed you always holding a pen and 9/10 times looking at him. So the drawings were no surprise when he flipped trough the pages.

Being honest, he did always find you quite cute. The way you scrunched your face in concetration while drawing and how you taught that he didn’t catch your stares.

That’s when he got an idea. Since you already left with Balde, he pulled out his phone and called him.

“We were together 15 minutes ago?”

“Yeah I am not calling for you, are you still with y/n? Can you give her the phone?”

Balde made a face but handed you the phone anyway.

“Hey?” You asked, still completely unaware that your sketchbook was forgotten, let alone in Pedri’s hands.

“Hey hermosa, don’t you think you left something?”

Your eyes widened at the realization. Suddenly, your face was hot and breathing was harder.

“Um, can you leave it where you found it, I’ll come back for it now”

“Uh oh, I’m worried that It’s already in my bag and I’m already in my car so if you want it, you can come over and I’ll give it to you” Pedri said, which was obviously a lie since he was standing in the middle of the field still.

“What?” You nervously asked.

“You heard me, and I don’t see the problem really, it seems that you enjoy looking at me”

You felt your face heat up even more and you tried to compose yourself to speak.

“Fine, I’ll ask Balde to drop me off at your place later today, is that okay?”

“More than okay”

——————————————————————————

a/n: I HAD TO USE Y/N HERE CAUSE THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY FOR HIM TO ASK AND I HATE IT

[megalo224]

How would you suggest to learn art? I currently am only able to draw heads not very well but I try and I'm very inspired by your art, do you have any suggestions or tips?

look at ur favs and try to draw like them! when i wanted to start taking art more seriously i was copying frames off cuphead and the sonic mania intro by eye and eventually i made some art friends who i wanted to draw JUST like. and i basically tried to adopt the artstyles that inspired me during whatever era of my life at the time but naturally my own swag shined through and after many years and inspo from so many different things, i draw the way i do now, and am still striving to get better! so what im saying is legit to just look at ur favorite artists and try to do what theyre doing, study ppls styles copy art by eye for practice, try to push yourself to try new stuff. pushing yourself sucks a lot because it can be quite a demotivator when you try to do something cool but you dont see what you quite hoped but thats experience!

----------------------------------

wear ur inspirations on ur sleeve! some of my fav artists that have inspired me a lot in the past 2 years are bobobazarra, marcoggers on twitter, vintdoo, dakidavekat, evilsk8r, deppa, mettaflix. and those are only just a few! i could literally go on naming people for hours. dont be afraid to proudly shout abt what or who who inspires ur stuff!

when it comes to hard practice and studies, if youre willing to get into certain techniques u can try looking into ways to break down the body, like boxing out stuff like the torso and pelvis and stuff like that to use as construction. to me when the mood would strike me when i was starting out, doing figure studies and copying poses i found on google was smth id do for like 30 mins to an hour, even if they were terrible it was just fun to draw them and move on to the next. and it was experience! even if it didnt feel like it at the time. like, doing something like copying a buncha hands for fun creates a mental library for ur brain to pick from to help make whatever unique hand youre trying to make for your art. its all experience! so do it when you feel up to it!

-------------------------------------

and overall just try to have fun, if you find yourself frustrated enough to feel hopeless about art then just try to take a step back and come back later or draw whatever makes you happy. but when youre able to take on challenge and pushing yourself always try to, and try to have fun and keep in mind that what youre doing is gonna shoot your stuff to the stars and that u just gotta keep going. and get pinterest! that shit helps out a fuckton both with creative inspiration and art studies and practicing and tips.

------------------------------------------ also keep in mind everything ive said here is just my personal experience and whats worked for me. everybody works differently with art. something that changed my perspective a lot was meeting one of my favorite artists last year, and asking for advice because i was going through horrible art block and self worth issues. i was going crazy copying peoples art in my sketchbooks trying to figure out what others understood that it felt i couldnt, trying to figure out what was missing. i was super desperate for improvement and it felt like i was improving so slowly compared to others with the same amount of years spent drawing as

i. so when i asked this artist what they did to study stuff, they told me they barely even did studies on anatomy and whatever. which was crazy to me because it felt like they had such a grasp on that kinda thing and stylized it so well. that didnt make me stop studying though but it made me worry about everything way less, because it made me realize you just gotta do what you feel is right and what you feel is truly pushing you, but most importantly have fun doing it. it made me realize art wasnt this rigid ass process where i was breaking rules or not eating enough art veggies. so with that, i accepted myself and i moved forward continuing to push myself but not worrying as much about improvement right away, just have fun and do studies and shit as i went when i wanted to, and give myself a little push to strive for stuff just a bit crazier than what i felt i was capable of.

everyone is different, theres some artists that start from the feet up or start drawing a body from the shoulder its crazy. but its not because its objectively better to do that, its just how they draw. some artists do full sketch constructions for bodies, some artists do everything from eye. im sure theres some that switched from doing everything from eye to wanting to do construction for bodies and stuff, and vice versa. they did what worked for them, but what makes ppl rly improve is simply that they have fun in the process and strive to push themselves, thats the most important thing, or at least thats my perspective on it at this current point in my life.

so do what you feel is right, have fun, try different techniques out, try different stuff that you feel will help you, keep being inspired.

-------------------------------

best of luck to u, sorry for yapping kinda a lot and thank u a ton for the kind words!

[kenphobia]

PASILYO!

"Panalangin ko'y ikaw."

summary. moving into a new town is nerve-wracking, especially when your new neighbors are quite the eye candy. ( headcanons / 1k wc / read end notes )

contents. human au! welcome home, relationship dynamic is ambiguous and up for interpretations, general fluff, somewhat implied angst

WALLY DARLING!

✦ The surname 'Darling' was not unfamiliar to you. In fact, you recognized it being one of the many famous names in the art industry, a family of well-known artists. So when you found out your next door neighbor was no other than Wally Darling, one of the top selling painters, you couldn't put your shock into words.

✦ He truly lived up to his surname, being quite a lovely companion and always assisting you any of your problems. He'd always ask you to be his muse in return for his help or even join him on little trips to Howdy's Place for more art supplies.

✦ If you asked him to teach you how to draw or if you're an artist yourself and need some constructive criticism, he definitely does well in that department. If you're interested in dabbing into some painting too, he's right there beside you and guiding your hands on what to do, regardless of what medium.

✦ He'd even be your muse too! He'll be a bit embarrassed, not used to getting such attention in a way like this, but he does a great job at staying still and posing in a way that's not too difficult but enough to still be interesting.

✦ Coffee shop 'dates' are a must. Wally doesn't do well with coffee, so he orders tea more often that not. If he does get coffee, he always sticks with you so you can stop him from stealing Howdy's apples and running off. Again. He's ... energetic like that.

HOWDY PILLAR!

✦ Howdy was the owner of the bodega and you boss! When you had stepped into his store, you are set leaving with too many bags hanging from your arms and a nearly empty wallet. It doesn't bother much residents since his products are extremely high quality and worth the price.

✦ When I say he has everything, he has everything. There's nothing you won't find in his store, it's practically a mini mall at this point. Sure, he does lack in some areas but you cannot lie that this man has a lot jam-packed in his store.

✦ He's also one of the tallest neighbors you have met throughout your stay, and had lifted your body up more than twice and made you look like nothing more but a bag of grapes in his hands. Doesn't matter what your height is, he has those strong, finely toned muscles from always several boxes stacked atop each other.

✦ Howdy is the most intelligent when it comes to emotions since after all, he has a lot of siblings and most of them are younger than him and/or looks up to him a lot. You need a break? No problem! He'll lead you right to the staff lounge and offer you some tea. A hug? Someone to hold your hand? He is on the way with blankets and pillows, and there is no way stopping him from making a pillow fort. He will also listen to your vents and comfort you or join you in gossiping and shit talking about the more ... rude neighbors.

✦ Babygirl's always been girlypop like that. And oh, his hugs are the best! Absolutely comfortable and not gonna lie, you often feel as if he had four arms wrapped around you all firmly and sweetly. Sometimes, you can see another pair of arms protruding from his back. but you aren't sure if it is true or a work of imagination.

POPPY PARTRIDGE!

✦ Being Howdy's employee, you're bound to come across everyone's mother figure: Poppy! Though, she was a bit anxious and jittery around you at first, she quickly came used to your presence and would beeline straight for your register if you were covering up for one of the cashiers.

✦ She's incredibly sweet, easily flustered and often gifts you her baked goods or knitted accessories and clothing. She often invites you to her baking sessions, even teaching you the basics of baking if you haven't done it before.

✦ Whenever Poppy isn't feeling well, she'd usually go to the obvious person: Wally. After all, they have a close-knit familial relationship and Wally always knows how to calm Poppy's nerves. But when he isn't around, she comes to you. She calms down easily when she has you in her arms, cuddling on the sofa while the TV plays her favourite show.

✦ It's a bit funny when someone as tall as Poppy picks you up like a little ragdoll cat, shoves her face into your hair and sobs. It's even funnier if you're known to be quite grumpy, but you couldn't push Poppy away without Wally coming after you.

✦ If you ever yourself hurt, it's best to not let Poppy know or else she'll start worrying. It's fine if it's just a little scratch, nothing like a quick, thorough wash can fix. But please for the love of god, keep yourself in check and wound-free for both of your sake. Neither of you would not risk getting white hair in your 20's.

RANDOM HEADCANONS!

✦ All neighbors are somewhere around 25 and above, with Howdy being the youngest, and both Barnaby and Wally as the oldest.

✦ Wally graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Fine arts and Poppy managed to snag a BS degree in Nursing, but Howdy's an undergrad and wasn't able to finish college because of having to focus providing for his family more than his studies.

✦ Poppy used to work in a clinic before completely ditching it the moment she sees the slight of blood. She was willing to endure the grim crimson liquid during her college years, but she'd drink a whole spoon of vanilla extract than see blood again.

✦ Wally had a blue period once, but most of the paintings from that time is locked away in his basement. Only a few of them hung in some art galleries and Barnaby's house.

✦ Howdy spends his lunch break at the community center. He also avoids packing himself an apple because Wally once grabbed it with his teeth and ran off.

notes. this is just part 1!!! im prepping myself for that human au! welcome home x tma because i want to make expand more on their characters!! the story is basically self-indulgent and completely fanon. once the actual welcome home storyline is out, i may or may not rewrite it (again)

also dont mind me inserting the Filipino vibes into my writings. this isn't just half of it. i could make an entire human au! welcome home but all of them are filipinos, but i barely know my country and its people 😔

Anyways!! requests are always open, read my pinned post b4 interacting and have a good day (人*´∀｀)｡*ﾟ+

[truths33k3r4]

Hello sorry to be a bother but I was wondering if you have drawing recommendations? Because Art block has captured me -_- and Body poses are so hard to draw in my opinion so any recommendations?

Again sorry to bother you Have a lovely day Melissa ! ❤

Annie .

Hello, Annie!!!

Oh heavens- you aren’t a bother at all!! I’m so very happy to help other artists in any way I can!! :)

OOoOooOoO Art Block takes another victim~ Dude, I get it- it feels horrible as an artist or any kind of creative when you just feel- STUCK. Stagnant. Dain Bread. I have been there, and I will do my best to help you out of it. :)

So, first off- and I’ll use my own art to help you visualize this- I would go straight to trying to draw two characters interacting with each other.

They can be chatting, arguing, or just sitting in silence.

If you want to try something a bit more difficult, but still pretty fun, you can take things a step further and have the two characters physically touching and interacting with each other like this.

Physical contact between characters is far more difficult to make it look natural, but with a lot of practice, (and ESPECIALLY looking at references), you’ll learn to figure out how to draw the poses. :)

Next would be trying to draw different things and in different styles.

I NEVER draw the 2012 series style. EVER. And believe me, it was ROUGH learning how to draw all the funky shapes and sharp but rounded edges, and the PLASTRONS- GEEZ THE PLASTRONS STILL GIVE ME A HEADACHE

But getting out of my comfort zone and trying to visualize and draw something new was really good for me in growing as an artist. So I encourage you to draw things you don’t normally. :) A character or style from a tv show; cartoony, anime, sharp, rounded, chibi or whatever!

Also never underestimate what drawing silly things will do for your spirit ;) MY OLDER SISTER ALWAYS CALLS THEM FROGS- WHAT THE HECK, MEL?!?!??

And finally. Draw something that goes deep. Draw something that has left an impact on your heart. Something that can make you feel loved, sad, happy, or even mournful.

For me, this was this little sketch of Lotus finally learning to find contentment and joy during her long recovery. This sketch symbolizes my own battle for joy and hope when I’ve spent thousands on doctor’s visits, and return home with empty hands and zero answers. My recovery is still happening, but every day God guides me through. Every day He teaches me to be content and hopeful.

I hope all this helps! :) The best thing to fight art block is to KEEP DRAWING ANYWAY. To keep creating ANYWAY. So don’t give up- don’t give in- keep on going. :)

~ Melissa

[veinsfullofstars]

hey just wondering, how do you draw daroach? i wanna figure him out for myself but dont feel like i get down how he looks well enough. thanks for the help if you have any, if not then thanks for just answering

Thank you for the question! And, yeah, I totally get it - that rat can be a nightmare to draw sometimes, haha. I definitely struggled with him a lot at first (you can kinda tell if you compare my earlier works to my recent ones). I think it’s because so much of him is obscured by his outfit in official art? The way the brim of his hat dips over his face or how his cape likes to defy physics - all in service of a cooler silhouette, sure, but taking away a lot of readability and foundation to work from in the process. I’ll try to offer some tips that work for me (though I’m hardly an expert on this, and teaching's not exactly my strong suit, so please bear with me if things get muddled, haha).

The main piece of advice I can give is gather and study as much reference as you can. Official art, concept art, promotional stuff, sprite sheets - whatever you can find, just grab ‘em and put ‘em somewhere you can easily pull up when you’re drawing. I get most of mine from Wikirby, Spriter’s Resource, and official sites like the Kirby JP Twitter, as well as screenshots taken directly from the games (a great way to get in-motion poses and back views, I’ve found). Here’s what my ref sheet for Daroach looks like (I also have a separate one for color swatches):

Kind of a mess, yeah, but very worth it, I assure you. The more visuals you have to work off of, the easier it will be to detect consistencies in design. Which brings me to my next point: shapes!

Most Kirby characters are, at their core, just a buncha simple shapes. It can be hard to tell sometimes when they wear clothes (like with our rat buddy here), but they still have similar foundations of circles and other rounded features. A way I've found that helps with this is to try redlining (that is, take a piece of reference and trace over it for the purpose of study, learning where lines connect, how silhouettes look, how different parts overlap, what shapes are used, etc.). Here’s an example:

This is a great way to find those design consistencies I mentioned before. I did these a bit messy for a better sense of movement (and ‘cause I’m practiced enough to sketch a little quicker), but you can always start slower and cleaner if it helps you see the shapes and layers more clearly. You can even do them multiple times to familiarize yourself with the design and eventually try copying them without tracing, like doing gesture drawings or life studies.

In Daroach, I’ve found that his head isn’t a perfect circle shape, but more like a rounded diamond, with his ears connecting at or just above the “points” on the sides. His body is a bit smaller than his head, and his snout smaller still, each having sort of a teardrop-like shape. His eyes are bigger than I expected them to be, half circles tilted down slightly, often cut off by his snout and hat to create a shaper angle (meant to make him look more intimidating perhaps?). His ears are taller than his hat, though they can tilt back to look shorter. There are also a lot of arcs and triangles present in his design, especially in his cape when it sits across his form or flares out, and the brim of his hat pointing down from just past his ears to right over his snout. Also, unlike many Kirby characters, he does in fact have a neck - it's just hidden behind his collar and bell most of the time (don't ask me why I spent so long verifying this, no I don't have ulterior motives, don't look at me).

Of course, these observations aren’t set in stone. Kirby characters rarely stay perfectly on-model (see Dedede for proof of that), and Daroach is clearly no exception. I mean, just look at these official pieces (all collected from Wikirby):

Even the folks at HAL Labs are not immune to style inconsistency. And that’s not a bad thing! We love a little personal flair in this house. There’s nothing wrong with altering the design a bit to fit your own style - in fact, it’ll probably happen naturally the more you practice, especially once you’re comfortable enough to work without a guide. Here’s some studies I did recently, no tracing, just observation (with different colors used to help me figure out layering):

I’ve seen other folks take their own designs even further than this, adding more fur or sharper shapes or even realistic rat features to our favorite thief. Nothing like stretching those creative muscles once you’ve got the basics down! On that note, don’t be afraid to be inspired by unofficial sources as well. If an artist you like draws Daroach (or any character) in a way you find appealing, ask yourself what it is you like about it, study it as you study official works, and find ways to incorporate elements of that into your own art - “steal like an artist” as the saying goes.

Another thing I recommend for Daroach specifically is studying how real top hats and capes look, especially from various angles and poses in motion. I find it helps to see exactly how fabric sits on a figure or what sides show at different positions. It might seem weird to use human reference for a cartoon rat, and it might take some finagling to get proportions right, but it’s surprisingly effective. I do this with fighting and athletic poses all the time to help figure out weight distribution and line of action. Don’t be afraid to expand your art repertoire into other fields - you never know when it might come in handy!

And, of course, the key thing to hammer home here is practice, practice, practice! Do studies, do gestures, draw with and without references, build muscle memory, do sketches you show to no one, draw memes, draw angst, take your time, fill pages with messy doodles or just drop one in a corner and call it a day. The more you draw this smarmy rat, the better you’ll get. That’s the long and short of it with any skill, creative or otherwise. You gotta try in order to get good, you gotta make mistakes in order to improve, you gotta be kind to yourself in order to do what you love.

Anyway, I think that’s all I got for now. Forgive me if this got a bit rambly or incoherent - I have trouble putting my thought process in words sometimes, haha. I sincerely hope this helps, and I wish you the best of luck with your own future rat-creating endeavors!

Sketch started and finished 06/14/24.

[ghostlysleuth]

I follow you on twitter & all I gotta say is, I love the diversity in your drawings so much, I hate when people make girls all stereotypes & your art makes me feel so comfortable it’s like a warm feeling not to mention your nsfw art. It doesn’t just show the list it shows the love & affection each character has for eachother it shows how intimate & hot the moment can be but also sweet? I’m not sure I love your art too much it really makes my day to see it, but any tips on anatomy?♥️

thank you so much!! i totally get what you mean by a list, that really is what diversity can feel like sometimes. my weight and figure have fluctuated so much over the years and i've gotten enough shit from family about eating habits and how chubby i've gotten, to the point of dysmorphia, and turning to art (and not to mention seeing the vast majority of fat butch rep) to remedy it has done wonders for my body image, and i'm really glad people like how i do things.

in terms of tips, as someone who went to school for this sorta thing, i'm gonna try to make this as accessible as possible aka free resources.

timed figure drawing!

legit, you gotta draw naked people posed in intricate ways. there's literally no avoiding it, you have to draw from life and not from tutorials. obv, i'm not saying go out and attend a life drawing course -- that's expensive shit -- so here's a few options:

i use a site called quickposes, since most figure drawing galleries require subscriptions.

you can set a timer for how long you want on each pose/reference. i recommend challenging yourself with shorter times as it helps you to get rid of any hang-ups about getting the anatomy exactly right. the drawing's got to get done by the end of the timer, don't focus on the details. just draw, be done with it, move on to the next drawing.

there's also a youtube channel that we'd use in class when a model couldn't show called new masters academy and they have a bunch of timed daily drawing exercises.

as a general rule, don't lean on the amount of time you have. what you're wanting to do is get a FULL PICTURE on your paper as soon as possible, regardless of a long or short time. get the full figure onto the paper then use the rest of the time to fuss over details, shading, editing, etc.

do studies!

kinda similar to the last one but in the more time-consuming sense.

use pinterest. it has a lot of uses for a lot of things but i use it quite a bit for both anatomy refs and costume design inspiration. this is legit what my home page looks like now because of it.

here's a board i made on anatomy, pulling from different body types; obviously i get a little gay wid it, but there's a verrrryyyy clear lack of certain body types in a lot of body refs like muscular women, fat women, just overall people who higher fat content than the lean, almost 0% fat of the figures seen in most tutorials and galleries:

this is where pinterest really shines because you can find literally everything on it.

in particular, there's an account called character design references, that is basically a stockpile of references for artists. i wouldn't normally recommend artist tutorials when it comes to wanting to learn anatomy because it can get a little echo-chambery (side-eyes the male vs. female tutorials that float around on twitter all the time) but there are actually some boards that have genuine studies on the human form, even from a medical point of view.

LITERALLY JUST DRAW A LOT.

I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH IT'S GONNA TAKE A LOT OF TIME AND PRACTICE TO GET TO A CERTAIN LEVEL OF SATISFACTION.

like that's it, full stop, draw often. if you're feeling rusty, go back to basics. if you're art blocked, go back to basics. if you're bored, go back to basics.

[princessozera]

"Would you mind being a nude model for me?"

Completely Safe for work! No smut or other shenanigans here!

Prompt: MC asks them to model nude. The royal/brother/Solomon get embarrassed and doesn't know what to make of it but MC is actually just a very tired artist that needs anatomy practice.

GN MC (They/them) 3rd ppov as always

Word count: 990

Levi

"Of course you have abs, why wouldn't you?"

"I don't think I've ever met anyone that hates abs," Levi chuckles, but he's trying very hard to not run off and find a hole to die in. He's fully nude, being glared at, and his Henry just scoffed at the only feature of his that he's confident it. “You do know that ‘Grand Admiral’ isn’t just a title, right?”

"No, I- it's not- HMMM," MC hums angrily to themself, tapping their pencil to their head. "It's fine that you have abs Levi. You are attractive. I just wanted to practice drawing different body types, you know? If I wanted to draw more abs I would have gone to the museum and stared at some sculptures."

"And you just assumed I was chubby?" Levi’s snark died out as MC began to circle him slowly. Why had he chosen such an open stance? Why couldn’t the vortex be merciful and swallow him whole? The broom stick in his raised fist was a pathetic excuse for wielding a sword, and he even with the sheet loosely draped around his waist Levi was acutely aware of how close he was to flashing MC.

"Cut me some slack, I’ve never seen you lift anything heavier than an akuzon box of manga.” MC doesn’t notice Levi fall silent, but they see his shoulders tense up. They ignore it, more focused on looking for a good position to sketch from before deciding to sit to the far left- back muscle practice it is. “Anyways, you’re much better company than some stone statue.”

A bonus of live figure drawing is the conversation, although it was a balancing act with Levi. Something interesting enough to keep him from running off or fidgeting too much, but it also couldn't be something he was passionate about because he'd lose his concentration and break the pose. So they spent the better half of the next two hours doing a spontaneous media analysis and ranking list of the movies they've seen in the last couple of years.

Levi carries the conversation when MC falls silent, squinting and tilting their head this way and trying to figure out how to work out the shading onto their paper. He kept peeking over his shoulder to look at them work; serious and so deeply focused that they didn't notice Levi staring at them. He's never seen them put this amount of concentration on something that wasn't a life or death situation. Levi couldn't help how his heart skipped a beat to think they were focusing so hard on him.

"Okay, I'm done, want to see?" MC doesn't wait for Levi to respond, turning their sketchbook around for him. He tries to look away- he would rather not see all of the imperfections MC found on him after staring for so long- but MC is insistent, handing the sketchbook over to him.

"Woah," Levi gasped quietly, fingers running over the drawing. The expression from the side of his face was serious, that of someone wise and calm. His jaw was strong, and his shoulders were broader than he realized. The shoulder blades had such a strong shadow that he started to wonder if he had been unconsciously flexing this entire time. "You even managed to make someone like me look cool."

"I get what you mean, so thank you. But also, not really." MC turns away from him to start packing up their pencils and other sketchbooks. "When you see yourself in the mirror everyday it can be hard to be subjective. That's one of the neat little perks of being an artist- you can show others a new perspective. You're a cool dude Levi, so of course drawings of you are going to come out cool too." There's a small choking sound so MC looks to Levi again. He's holding the notebook to his chest with tears in his eyes.

"MC," Levi starts to run towards them, arms open for a hug.

"NOT UNTIL YOU PUT SOME PANTS ON," MC screams, diving across the tub to get some distance between themself and Levi. He runs to go throw on a shirt and sweats before coming back and hugging MC as tightly as he could. Levi wants to take a hundred pictures of the art but is only stopped by the thought that it might come off as something vain- something that Asmo would do. MC seems particularly slow in packing up their coloring supplies although they were left unused, so when their back was turned he snuck a few pictures to keep for himself.

Other tidbits:

-He resisted the urge to flip through the sketchbook, being handed the book was a sign of trust, not permission. He can remember all too well the times that Mammon had gone rummaging through his things and was caught red handed skimming through Levi's own sketchbooks.

-Levi would soon work up the courage to ask MC to draw together, and set up for a full day of drawing. They'd sit at opposite ends of his room in beanbag chairs, MC working by the light of the fish tank as they draw the underwater landscape while Levi sat closer to his computer, lofi music filling the quiet for a relaxing ambiance. He takes the time to repay the favor, drawing MC as they worked. His eyes on lingered on them, trying to memorize their face as he drew. Every so often MC would catch him staring and smile, lifting up their own sketchbook to show their progress. Levi's heart ran a little faster with that smile and he did the same- MC pretended not to notice that Levi only showed them the left page when he was clearly working on the right.

-Levi chickened out of showing them that day, but MC would find the picture tucked between dvd cases and a snack plate that had been left in front of their door the next time they were feeling down.

((Lucifer))

[nitazenes]

Things I wish were told as a beginning artist

1. Your art is not as bad as you think it is.

2. You will develop a natural style (or several) as you continue to practice

3. When it comes to people, break down the body into shapes. What is the head. An oval. You don't have to start with a circle for the head

4. You don't NEED to know fundamentals but having at least an understanding of perspective will help your art be more dynamic and realistic

5. You generally need to know the basics of anatomy before you can start manipulating it to fit a style.

6. There's nothing wrong with using methods from self-taught artists. For instance the Loomis Head Method is only a few simple steps and it enables you to draw a head in any position.

7. 3/4th turns are the hardest to get accurate

8. If you're an artist who uses color (paint, digital, pastels, anything that requires color) do not shade your shadows with black. In fact I would avoid black all together except for line work or yknow objects that are black. But instead use a dark blue or purple to shade.

9. Vary the weight of your lines. The outer linework can be thick, but for details try experimenting with thinner lines

10. Fabric is hard. What I did to learn clothing better is by adding folding lines to the clothes. Is your subject wearing a skirt? Look at a picture of a skirt flowing in the way you want and just practice movement and folds.

11. The spiral method is a perfectly valid method of foreshortening, which is part of perspective. If you don't know what that is, it's a game changer so Google that.

12. Do you struggle with thinking of what to draw? Take a picture of your hands in different poses and practice hands. Make a still life or just draw what's in front of you.

13. Push past the "ugly phase" what I mean by this is there is going to be a point where your art piece is coming together but it's messy and sometimes the colors aren't how you want. You get halfway through a drawing or painting and toss it bc it's ugly. I promise the more you add to your drawing or painting and start bringing in details, you will get past the ugly phase.

14. Finish your art. If you start drawing a person or something, see it through. Even if you think the piece is coming out badly.

15. You will improve your drawings of people if you just learn the general shape of a hand. Don't be afraid of hands. I used to struggle majorly with hands and now I draw hands just fine. Make the palm a stop sign like shape and use rectangles to sketch out the finger positions. You will probably make at least 1 art piece where you draw hands backwards.

16. only accept critique from fellow artists who know how to critique. A lot of people are afraid of having flaws in their art pointed out. That's not what critique is about. Maybe I notice you drew an object that doesn't follow the rules of perspective. I may point that out but I will tell you how it can be fixed in the future, I will also point out things you did well. That's art critique.

17. And finally, don't be afraid if you're 27 and your art looks "juvenile" or "like a kids drawing" don't give up-- as artists we ALL go through this phase.

18. Bonus point here but drawing a person the proper height is 8 times the size of the head. So draw an oval. Now draw 7 ovals about the same size down a straight line. Whatever length that is will be the correct proportions for how tall the body is.

Keep copies of your old art. It may be "cringe" to look back at but that feeling is actually telling you that you see improvement in your art.

Also sketchbooks don't have to be just for art. I kind of scrapbook on mine sometimes

Used mixed media paper, if you draw with alcohol markers put a blank page underneath the paper you're drawing on if it's in a sketch book so that ink doesn't bleed through onto the next page

OK I hope this means something to someone

[brynnamonroll]

I am bothering you with questions and statements.

Do you also sketch what you paint?

How often do you paint?

Are there any pieces you've done lately (or in the past) that you're super proud of?

Is it just a hobby, or do you want to make it more than that? (Nothing wrong with either, just curious)

I swear, I'm not actually the Leanansidhe, and I'm not angling to trade your life forces for inspiration.

Any other artistic impetus besides the need to breathe life into pigment?

Oh! Many questions! Yay!

1. These days I do most of my painting in sketchbooks full of watercolor paper. I sketch in colored pencil (sometimes wax-based where you can see the lines through the paint like Marcille, sometimes watercolor pencil where the lines will blend into the painting like Chappell Roan) and ink and paint right on top of the drawing! If I have a big composition I want to treat with care I’ll draw it on a different piece of paper first and then trace it onto a fresh sheet of watercolor paper with a lightbox.

2. Not as often as I’d like! I did a ton of little paintings during the pandemic but I hit a bit of creative block after I quit grad school and my Horrible Job earlier this year. I got through that by taking up crochet, but the Marcille and Chappell Roan paintings I did recently have help unblock the painting dam a bit. I should paint something this week when I have a bit of free time. I’m ordering some books of stock photos so I can copy the poses since Pinterest (where I used to keep all my drawing references) is nigh unusable these days, between the AI and the ads.

3. As an adult, I’ve really mellowed out about my art being perfectly presentable (and as such the quality has improved a lot.) I’m proud of basically anything that escapes my brain and gets to paper, but I’m especially proud of anything I’ve composed with a background. Riding Home (can’t believe that painting is five years old!) is still one of my favorites and I love the response it’s gotten. On here, my piece with the most notes is this Doropetra piece, which… I think that was my first time drawing something queer? Either way I’m quite proud of it and I know it’s made a lot of people happy.

4. It’s strictly a hobby. I’m addicted to being a W-2 employee and knowing where my next paycheck is coming from. If I drew more high-concept things than fandom stuff, I might try entering into local art shows. My friend is involved in the local poetry scene and I can’t imagine my paintings would be poorly received.

5. >:)

6. I have a big binder full of trading card-sized swatches of all my watercolors and notes on their pigment properties. I am incredibly intense about the pigments, fret not. I like to think that my art is a reflection of my education in art history. When I’m not feeling super inspired, I will go to my local museums and see what bits and pieces I can take for my own work. I think I learned more about how to paint from studying art history than from most of my actual art classes over the years. In practice though, I’ve been drawing and painting seriously since I was about 12 because I couldn’t find a better way to express how much I loved Pokémon, and honestly most of my art since then has been fandom related. It helps get some of the inspiration out of me.

And anyone who knows me from my days of cranking out Fire Emblem art knows I love to draw a Pretty Lady in a Nice Dress. (I love being a Pretty Lady in a Nice Dress too, frankly.) I love making new dress designs and incorporating my knowledge of historical fashion into them.

I have a lot of drawings I want to get too soon (I want to draw a full body piece of Marcille and of Chappell Roan’s VMAs look, for one… Maybe Susato Mikotoba Great Ace Attorney too… and I just started playing Baldur’s Gate 3 in earnest and I need to draw those ladies too. And maybe Wyll for fun. I like him.)

[vyuntspakhkite-l-darling]

Take your time, only if you want to <3

HI yeah i almost forgot about this thanks lmao

So I've been drawing for a LONG time and I've gone through a lotttt of different warm ups and practices and stuff but I'll give you the current one because I've noticed myself improving pretty quickly with it.

And before I get into this, I'm just going to point out that none of these are actual studies even though I should definitely be doing those too. All the exercises I've been doing are about learning the feeling of a body, not the structure of one. I'd definitely recommend not being lazy like me and doing some actual studies where you draw skeletons and try to make realistic replications of references and things like that.

So this site, SketchDaily Reference Site , is my favorite thing. I use it all the time, whether that be for getting inspiration by looking through all the pictures, doing the occasional actual study and trying to draw it realistically like I should do more often, and for the exercises I'm gonna show you. I encourage you to explore this and other reference sites, mess with the settings, find what works for you. Anyway, now onto what I do.

You're gonna want to get a sketchbook if you don't have one already, because these do take up a lot of space. Don't get an expensive fancy sketchbook because then you won't want to mess it up and you'll be scared of drawing bad. Drawing bad is important, let it happen.

Then I go to the full body tab. My favorite settings are gender: all, clothing: nude, pose: all, view: all, not class mode, and either 2 or 5 minutes for time depending on how focused I'm feeling that day. I put it on nude because I care more about improving how I draw figures than how I draw clothes, but if that makes you uncomfortable, obviously you don't need to do that. Just as a heads up, even if you choose the 'clothed' setting, you'll still get some images that reveal a lot, but there is a button you can hit to skip an image if that happens.

Then hit start and it'll give you an image. When you're doing this exercise, try not to worry too much. You have to let go of wanting to draw good and just focus on getting shapes on the page. My best tip would be to look for triangles in your pose. I'm a sucker for a triangle. They won't be in every pose but there are some where it's just. Perfect triangles and those are my favorite because it really helps you proportion the pose. Draw a triangle. Put a guy in it. Boom. Do this until you have a full page or two of poses. The point of this is to get them down quick and learn what shapes make a person look like a person. It's really good for developing your style because you'll learn what parts you like to exaggerate and stuff like that.

When you're done with that, end the session, and go to the body part tab. Select heads for the part, leave gender and view on all, and put this one on two minutes. Hit start and remind yourself that this is your sketchbook and nobody's gonna see this but you unless you decide. Then caricature the fuck outta those faces. Find the big shapes, the characteristics that stick out to you first, and exaggerate them as much as you can. Some of these are gonna look really bad. Some will probably make you think, 'this would get me cancelled on twitter.' That's fine, you learn from it either way. Sometimes you'll make a really good one and then the next one you make will look awful and you'll want to stop- no. Squash that little bug crawling around in your head and keeping drawing until the page is full of heads of varying qualities.

I do those two exercises 'every day,' and by that I mean i want to do them every day, but it ends up being a few times a week and that's fine. Consistency is good but not burning out is better. I'd say just do this whenever you have the time and motivation. They're quick and easy exercises that teach you about shape language, flow, and gesture. I'll put some examples of things I've drawn under the cut. There are some boobs in it, not with sexual intent but there are boobs so be warned.

this was my first day doing this exercise. I think I was trying too hard to make it look like the reference.

After a week or so I started to relax and use broader strokes and bolder shapes.

It turns out I got the same pose a few weeks apart. See how the one on the left looks stiff, while the one on the right has more relaxed shapes? Getting that nice shapely look and finding the way you like to exaggerate bodies is the point of this.

This is one from the last time I did this exercise. I really like the shapes in this one. See the triangle?

These two were from the first time I did the heads exercise. Not the best quality, but they get the message across, I think. It's just playing around with the different shapes of a person's head.

Made this one about a week ago and I'm really fond of it. This was the first one I drew this day and the rest of the page was trash but I did really like this. I think the shapes are really fun.

Here are three I did a few days ago. I'm gravitating towards a more realistic style here, idk why my hands felt like doing that that day, but whatever. Heads.