#not a drawing tutorial just my personal experiences

[e-vay]

Heyo! Do you have any tips for making comics? :)

I've been meaning to get back into the swing of it, but concentrating on such a commitment that takes so much time is tough sometimes haha.

How do you make it work? Are there things you avoid/make easier for yourself just to make the process more fun and do-able?

First of all, I’m very happy for you! I think it’s very exciting whenever we return to a craft we were once passionate about. I wish you the best of luck!

This is a big question and I don’t think there’s really one simple answer since all artists are different and have their own strengths and weaknesses.

One of the biggest issues I face is that I have a million ideas but I simply don’t have the time to do them all. I want to share all these ideas but if I gave each and every idea the same amount of attention and detail, I’d hardly get anything done. So here are some things I've learned through my own comic-making experience, but keep in mind it may not be what you're looking for. Also remember this is NOT career advice. I make comics for fun, not for a living. If you’re looking for professional advice I would suggest looking elsewhere 👍

1 - A comic doesn't have to be fully rendered to be entertaining. Although I love to draw and line and color my work, it’s not always necessary. If I feel a punchline is strong enough to stand on its own, I’ll just make it into a doodle comic. In fact, I’ve found that some of my doodle comics perform better than the fully rendered ones! The doodle comics are still very fun for me to draw and they also serve as gestural drawing practice, so in the end it doesn’t feel like I'm making a sacrifice. I'm still getting my ideas out there and I'm still drawing, I'm just prioritizing what gets more attention so I can better manage my time.

2 - Not every panel needs an illustrated background. You definitely need to show backgrounds for establishing shots and when characters are interacting with the scene. But sometimes the focus needs to be entirely on the character and/or what they’re saying. You can choose to have a solid color background and maybe add a few textures to keep it visually interesting. You're still putting in the effort to make your art pop, but you aren’t losing a ton of time by drawing dozens of backgrounds. Color is also a good way to convey mood. I do that a lot in my comics, like this bit from “My Gal”:

^ I was trying to show a progression in excitement here, so having the colors change from cool to warm does a better job portraying that than if I just had a standard, scenic forest background for all the panels.

3 - Use resources: That's what they're there for! Because I make all these comics by myself, I have had to find resources to help me get through some of the steps faster so I can focus more on the story writing and the artwork. For example, to help me save time on lettering, I use the Onomatopedia font and the Manero Panels, SFX and Bubbles brush set for Procreate. I’m still selecting the sound effects and choosing the appropriate bubbles and tails to suit the mood and scale of the text, but this has saved me a ton of time because I’m not drawing each individual element by hand over and over again. Personally, I purchased these resources but I'm sure there are plenty of free tools out there that you can use.

As far as making it more fun... Honestly, I just love comics as an art form so much that learning about all the 'rules' and techniques and 'SOP's behind comics makes it more fun for me to make them. I recommend checking out tutorials and tips (even if you think you already know it all) and you might be surprised at how much it might ignite more of your comic-making passion. For example, I've spent hours on Blambot's "How-To" page and on ComicDevices.com just to try and soak up as much as I can. They're full of fascinating reads that make me want to try out different things!

I hope this helps! Good luck with your comics!

[yet-another-haven-of-dollya]

can i ask advice ;; drawing wise ? how did you start to anatomy but also w stylization? did you bruteforce by studying every bone muscle etc in art school?

hmm...

First, you must distinguish between two completely different concepts: gesture and anatomy. The stylization and dynamic you often see me doing with my dancing practice is "Gesture". This is an excellent tutorial by Proko about gestures. I practiced gestures very soon when I started drawing, simply because I wanted to draw dynamically, lucky for me it was the right thing to do. This was the main reason why I'm so fast at sketching.

This is my gesture practice, 1 min, 2 min, and 5 min sketch. It's about the flow of the body and which direction each part is going, use "sharp and coherent lines". I practice until it becomes a "natural reflex", a habit when I look at people's interactions.

This below is something I drew 3 years ago (my anatomy was not good sorry), notice how I use many many coherent lines? At the thigh, shin, arm stretching,... all the bigger areas? That's the remaining of gestures.

It goes without saying. Try to find the flow of gestures, even for the hair or clothes. Heh, I drew this 4 years ago, how nostalgic.

You can see how I just create the flow with Lya's hair and body movement in the dancing pics too. Like with Kylar's pic her body is straight up one quite hard mass from head to toe. You know she's leaning forward, seemingly wanting to abandon Kylar with a "pathetic loser like you? With me?" attitude (ouchie sorry Kylar nation). While in Sydney's pic she seems much more relaxed and enjoys how her body parts seem to loosen and more in sync with Sydney's movements. Her hip and legs sway more, and her hair also sways back at Sydney's body, hinting that her moves are relatively close to his body. I don't think I have enough vocabulary to describe, gestures are always just "feelings" to me. If people see what I want to show, that's the success for me.

I know many self-learners started by finding random tutorials that have muscle breakdown or box-like proportions to try and mimic. Mimic is good, drawing is mimicking and remembering what you saw, but without good gesture practice, many people tend to make anatomy very stiff.

Then, you start to apply anatomy to the gestures you've practiced. One way to do it is by learning about muscle position first, and then trying to apply it to a figure, or a model. This is my homework and it's HORRIBLY WRONG IN MANY WAYS. My teacher fixed it for me but I don't have the after with me right now, so take this as an example of how to do the apply thing, DO NOT USE IT AS MUSCLE REF it's very wrong.

In my opinion bone structure is not strictly needed like muscles. Bones are for muscles to hang onto. You only need to remember some important "landmarks" like the collarbone, elbow joint, anterior pelvis, knee, and ankle,… to hang the important muscles to it. After you're familiar with muscles and gestures, you can start to stylize. Applying your knowledge to animated characters with cartoonish design is one great way. THESE HOMEWORKS OF MINE ARE STILL WRONG but ye hope you get the idea. I'm still struggling with anatomy.

One of my all-time fav are AFK ARENA artists and what they do for the game. Aki as the main artist, Kuri Huang, and another artist I suddenly forgor the name as home screen illust. I recommend researching their works if you want a direction on how to stylize your character with great dynamic gestures and shapes.

And

As much as I hate to say this, I was particularly considered a failure, a stone-head, who couldn't be changed for the better when I was still in art school - uni. My chosen major was digital graphic design, not specified in drawing but in designing, that's one thing I regret. I traded 5 years of my youth for doing the things I don't want to do. That's why the moment I graduated, I immediately went and signed up for an advanced art class specified in drawing. I'd be lying if I said the uni didn't teach me anything about drawing. They did, but almost everything I learned during 5 years of uni was self-learning from outer sources. I encourage self-learning the most when I talk with younger artists. Proko is a very trusted source to learn from, go to their YouTube channel, and you might figure out something too.

[txmxkis]

okay but where the fuck does one even begin to learn how to draw i-

[punkitt-is-here]

How did you learn to draw fat bodies but still keep it cartoony? I love how you draw different types of bodies and make them all seem normal instead of certain body types sticking out like a sore thumb next to others. I struggle to draw fat bodies without it looking weird with the rest of my art. Do you have a specific tutorial you followed or something?

This is a really good question! I'm glad you like my depictions of different body types, i worked really hard to get better at that so im happy folks enjoy em!! I didn't actually learn from a book or tutorial, it was mostly looking at fat bodies IRL and learning to incorporate those features onto what I already drew. As it turns out, we're all human, so if you understand the anatomy enough to draw a skinny person, you have the tools to understand the anatomy of a fat person.

So, like, here, this is my sketch of someone with a very average build. If I were to draw a fat body, I would still use all the basic principles I use here. One mistake I think folks run into is "isolating" parts, which can lead to things like this

which isn't necessarily bad, but if its not what you're going for, the issue is pretty apparent. Weight affects ALL of the body, not just the stomach or the face or the limbs. If you think about how that weight affects everything in tandem then you can start drawing fat bodies that work more in your style.

for this, this is the same quick sketch using the same pose and principles as the first one. but! I allowed the weight to be distributed across the body. Notice how the legs, belly, arms, etc all got thicker? The key to drawing fat bodies and making them look like they fit is allowing that weight to affect everything. without it, it just looks like you're adding on features to someone rather than considering everything at once.

my other tip is: don't be scared! things like fat arms or chins or bellies or stretch lines are not something that's bad to depict. if you want to draw fat bodies, you gotta not be scared to draw things the way they are. someone having a fat body is not bad, and you drawing that fat body is not bad either. Experiment! To me, art is about representing ideas, and the only way to get better is to experiment with how you represent those ideas. I'm by no means an expert, and I think you can also get a ton done by looking for resources aside from me, but I hope this helps, and have fun!!

[hellenhighwater]

I mess around with a lot of random art supplies. I have zero training other than, like, primary school and some random one off classes or short series of classes. I follow a lot of different creators in different mediums on social media. I have never been taught to draw or paint or anything and so I don't really know how I'm supposed to learn. And so a lot of what I do is watch someone do something and then play around with it on my own, or decide I want to draw something and trace it or find a basic "how to draw [x]" and I guess my question is, am I violating some sort of "learn to [art skill]" etiquette or is this a reasonable, if somewhat scattershot, way to approach making stuff?

I guess I worry that, idk, someone is going to feel like I stole their thing? I don't sell anything, and I post from one account (not on Tumblr) just because I like to keep a record of experimenting.

If you're not selling replica work in competition with an original creator, then no, no problems with doing this.

It's funny because I was just talking to a studiomate about this--SO much of learning art is repetition and replication. We stand on the shoulders of the great masters who came before us--from cave paintings to cathedrals, artists have been looking to and imitating the work of other artists. So do tutorials, and trace, and try to copy, and do whatever interests you. Yes, it's possible that some random individual may take offense, but frankly that is never not a possibility, and in the grand continuum of artists, what you're doing is a long and storied tradition of learning. If you go looking, you will find centuries of artists copying and mimicking other artists to learn and develop their skills. And if you're not trying to become a really particular kind of professional artist, then there's really no right or wrong way to teach yourself art, so long as you're having fun.

For a good chunk of the "copy" stage of learning art, you're just not going to have the technique to be a viable competitor to most of the artists you're probably copying from, and by the time you do have the technique to really mimic talented artists, you're probably going to have your own ideas you're more interested in making anyway.

As a personal policy, if I feel I'm coming too close to someone else's original idea, I just don't sell that work. I may keep it or gift it, but I don't try to make any kind of profit off someone else's idea, even if it was my work. If you're posting and want to feel like you're giving credit where it's due; go ahead and post reference links for whatever you're working off. It's not required but it's nice to show respect to the work in that way, if you're able to.

[machveil]

You should totally do like a how to draw Konig tutorial for one of ur daily sketches

Chibi or not

But u should totally do it

I neeeeeeeeed ur process

-🦥

notes below the cut - additional notes can be found in this post where I give art tips from my experience

daily König sketch with bonus content♥️‼️post is a little late but it’s due to the info dump below haha, anyways, he’s a little nervous

hi!! thanks for requesting a little “my process” thing - super happy to do one<3

I’ll be using these pieces of him that I’ve done to go over my notes - this is just how I go about drawing him. I’d definitely recommend also going through this post linked above too for additional info because a lot of it carries over!

I think the most important thing for me when drawing König is spacing out his hood ratios. I always start out by just drawing where his eyes and eyebrows are, then I draw the cut-outs around them. after that, I start the stitched neckline - that’s usually an eye hole’s width above his actual eyes, it gives a good allusion to where his forehead would be

they aren’t hard and fast rules I follow, more like a silent guideline that can be meddled with depending on the drawing. I usually follow them because, to me, it looks the best with how I draw him. it’s flexible - same with the sleeves, sometimes they end below his eye cut-outs, sometimes I cut them short and they’re higher

I thought I’d do a step-by-step for the hood folds because just info dumping all at once sounded confusing in my head

I start by just drawing lines down from the corners of his eye cut-outs, then I loosely draw a slanted line to show some bunching of the fabric. the slanted line is usually around where his collarbone would be

best way I can describe figure 2 is drawing folds in a ‘U’ shape. the fabric is falling from his head and ‘pooling’. the ‘U’ shape adds a little depth

miscellaneous little folds around the hem. they follow the way his hood rests, slanting downwards towards the center

if anything, just study how fabric falls and bunches up! a lot of drawing is looking at reference material to figure the ‘why’s and ‘what’s - “why do the folds bunch in certain areas?”, “why is fabric gathering in that area”, “what’s causing the fabric to move like that”, etc

lastly is his body, and as we know, I’m allergic to drawing clothing (read “lazy”). I actually really recommend looking at the post I linked above for this because, in the last figure, I show the Pinterest reference of the man who inspired my König’s body shape (and went into depth on using references)

for arms, in figure 1 and 2, you’ll see me draw an oval inside the bicep and forearm - those are just to add the allusion to muscle mass. if I don’t draw those ovals, to me, it looks a little flat. in figure 3 I go over his waistline because of course I do

I always account for a prominent rib cage line because I personally like drawing a more pronounced rib cage in general. after the ribcage, there’s a slight indent at the waist before it flares back out - that ‘flare out’ is the line for the Adonis belt. again, just personal preference, but I enjoy making the curves a little dramatic so they’re more pronounced and visually appealing to me

I don’t know how helpful that was but I hope I got some information across - uuh, even though I don’t draw his tactical gear and uniform that often the advice I can give is to just look at his model haha. the only gear that gives me a headache is his helmet, but even then I just bs my way through it

for chibi König I just shrink all his proportions and draw a stupid little t-shirt for his head<3 he doesn’t need to think, he’s just a cute little fella. I draw chibi König the way I would draw a puppy, make him look cute without a thought behind those eyes

for additional reference material here’s the link for my Pinterest - I have an absurd amount of reference material for you to browse through

hopefully this was slightly helpful?? I don’t know, as long as you get something out of this I’m happy

[montesmithart]

May I ask for some tips on designing characters? Yours are so cool!! ✨️✨️✨️

AA thank you so much! I’m not a professional really, but as a hobbyist.. I could give you some advices that have worked well for me \o/

Tip 1: Don't be afraid to experiment and try something new! Use and mix the most chaotic colors, combine the uncombinable, and just have fun

(this is my normal process of creating designs tbh.. I just don’t think about it a lot and draw everything the way I feel xD)

Tip 2: If you’ll be practicing making designs all the time, eventually you'll start to feel and understand which colors work well together and which don't. There are also some win-win color combos that always look good - for example, plain black/white with golden parts, or tropical colors (blue & orange & yellow & red & green), or brown palettes with rainbow shades, or black & white & grey & red, etc. I personally found my comfort in rainbow accents, gradients and vibrant colors 💛

Tip 3: Mix different themes! I really enjoy designing reptilian characters and mix them with absolutely any themes I could find :D For example:

plush & cactus & raptor

dinosaur & kidcore aesthetic

peacock & dragon & snake & constellations

raptor & bat & cow and… wooden raptor?😳

…and so on!

Find your own comfort species & themes and mix them with everything you want ^^

Tip 4: If you got no ideas yet, but still wanna design something, I highly recommend using Pinterest for inspiration! It contains a lot of great images/photos which can bring you tons of ideas (not only for characters designs, by the way). I also use it for clothes tutorials, poses references, and lightning/shading guides sometimes!

Tip 5: To improve your visual library, look at others’ characters and adoptables. Analyze what exactly you like about these designs - it can be some special color palette or other unusual choices. This will not only give you an understanding of which palettes and design elements go well together, but also allow you to discover your own favorite elements/details you can use in your own work!

That’s it! There's probably something else I forgot to say, but for now.. that's all my sleepy brain could remember at the moment <D

[fancyfade]

Massive comic bookbinding progress post.

Making a massive bookbinding post with my progress and what resources and steps I use. I do not claim to be an expert and recommend if you want to get into bookbinding yourself you look into any linked tutorials (or find some yourself), because they are made by people with much more experience.

So. When I just got into bookbinding, I was following an instructables tutorial for (link) most of the book. the sewing part, I was following this (link) tutorial. The cover tutorial (instructables) wasn't great for what I currently do, and I changed a lot looking back on it, but it had the bonus of suggesting cheap materials (Cardboard for covers, elmer's glue for spine, any spare fabric for bookcloth) that helped lower the barrier to entry and let me decide if I wanted to buy nicer stuff.

This is the first book I ever bound, using the instructables tutorial.

It's not the prettiest construction wise, but I can still hold it and read it which is at least successful for a first book (tho I did test on comics I didn't care as much about, in case I messed up).

I did a couple more books like this, one being Blue Beetle: Graduation Day (in Spanish) and the other being Artemis: Requiem, and another being Knight Terrors.

Artemis Requiem I think was the last

Next, I found and started using Dave the Designer's tutorial (link) and also got some materials actually targeted at bookbinding. I got bookbinding needles and thread (much thicker and stronger, it's easier to pull the threat through and it feels stronger) and davey board -- though since then I have tried chipboard which is muuuuuuuuuuuuch cheaper and works just as well unless you have a giant comic. Sometimes you have to lay weights on chipboard after gluing it to make sure it doesn't bend though, it likes bending when it is wet a lot.

I did a ton of books in this period. I was mostly interested in making books that had good construction and were good for protecting the comics I sewed together and felt structurally sound. I did not care at all about what the covers looked like, and just wrote titles on them with sharpie. I used mostly linen cloth, buckram cloth, or occasionally spent money on book cloth

After this, my friend linked me this (link) youtube tutorial. It does not get into sewing, because the goal of that person's tutorial is not how to sew but how to rebind paperbacks as hardbacks with fancy covers. The main focus for what I watched is on covers. They use a cricut, I got the cheapest I could find (Joy xtra, not maker or any of the big kinds). It still is expensive (like 150 dollars), and in the linked playlist the youtuber includes how you can decorate without a cricut, though that does leave less freedom for what you can choose... UNLESS you are an artist already!

Shortly before I got the cricut, I did Eric Luke's WW Run

This was when I was getting frustrated I couldn't make the books look pretty on the outside, so I drew a sketch in pencil and colored in with paint pens i had bought for action figure modding (tho im sure any type of sharpies would work).

Anyway, after that I started using the Cricuts for covers. This is the first one:

i messed up on the heat transfer vinyl stuff, so I had to repaint some parts with yellow paint. I haven't had these issues since I started using the bookcloth materials recommended by the cricut youtuber I linked earlier, which are also generally cheaper per unit than where I was getting bookcloth earlier (but shipping is expensive)

Now I do almost all my bookcovers with cricut because once you have the machine it's reasonably priced, the vinyl is pretty cheap, and it's easier on my spoons than hand drawing everything and lets you customize a lot

Lately, I've been trying to make my sewing/construction technique better, and I've been watching videos from DAS bookbinding (link). I tried to do my most recent Huntress comic with the rounded + backed spine with shoulders, not sure that I succeeded, but that's definitely on me because in the tutorial where he explains how to do it without the official material he's like "You should try this with proper equipment first, this is just for binders who took a course and could do the shouldering in a bookbinding course and want to try it on their own without having to buy the proper equipment" and. I have never done a real bookbinding course or used the proper equipment.

Hope this was informative/fun if you made it through!

[drkatz]

Art Videos I've Learned From

Here's some art videos that i greatly learned from. i dont work well with things presented in a specific rigid fashion my brain just doesnt respond to it well so here's some that helped me.

Teaching Myself to Draw for 30 days by Leap Tries It

Even more so than the pewdiepie video this video was what made me feel like i could do it myself, he shows like every step of the way both mistakes and victories, its nice.

Pursuing Art at 30 (as a beginner) by Taylor Losch

This one resonated with me because I'm also 30 and while I did draw things as a younger person I gave it up around the time I turned 18 because my mindset was still that if im not instantly good at something i cry. Its a nice video and outlines his pursuit.

What to study to improve your art by bluebiscuits

lays out the fundamentals in an easy to digest manner. what i appreciate is that she lays it out without assumptions of you going for a realistic style which i feel too many art tutorials fall into on youtube

Draw boxes (correctly) to improve your art by pikat

Lays out how drawing boxes helps you be able to draw in perspective and build up your character to make them look less flat. Ive still yet to learn this but ive been doing exercises of drawing boxes so im sure its just a matter of drawing more and more boxes.

Can a beginner ACTUALLY learn how to draw in 30 days? by pikat

she goes over the pewdiepie video and does an experiment with her partner who doesnt really draw and is a math and spreadsheet nerd and idk i thought it was just fun and cute at times. It does also show some pitfalls.

Theres more but I think these are a good place to start, at least they were for me. Your experience may differ, people learn differently but hopefully this will help some

[salty-sadness]

Quick tutorial for my traditional art :). (Specifically how I made the comic)

I can do a more in-depth process later, but I dont currently have the setup for recording a long-term video yet.

First, I sketch some really loose thumbnail/storyboards. This is where I decide how the scene will look, the lighting, and where it is coming from.

Next, I sketch everything out with a pencil (im using erasable pens in this case). Then, line the sketches with colored pencil or black ink.

I only do this for the comic because a lot of planning goes into it. Typically, I just do some figure drawing sketches to warm up, then jump into a sketch with a pen without doing a draft. (Drawing without a sketch beforehand is good practice and gets your brain to think about where your going to place things!)

Dip pen and ink to line, watercolor, some white gouache, to color.

Painting/coloring is the last step I do and usually takes the longest.

After lining, I usually go back and make certain lines have more line-weight.

An example of lining with ink(without undersketch):🔽

For this one, I did the line-art with colored pencil (also without undersketch):🔽

After all the line-art is complete, I paint with watercolor, typically doing a wash with either a cool tone or warm tone for the underpainting (to set the mood/lighting) over the whole drawing and to make the colors more cohesive.

An example of this would be making the underpainting a cool tone for a snowy scene or making the underpainting a warm tone for a cozy or indoor scene.

(I dont have a video for an example of that because it's more of a long-term thing, and I dont have the setup for that)

Then, adding the flat colors, being mindful of where the light source and where it will shine on the person/scene, and where the shadows will be in contrast to that when shading next.

And Finaly adding the snowflakes overtop with Gouache.

(You can also do this whole process with other mediums, like marker, not just watercolor. Just find what works and looks good typically. it's not a strict process, I loved mixed media.)

Closeup example of finished product!🔽

I enjoy doing traditional art because it is more of a sensory experience, and I LOVE that. I have dabbled in digital art, but I end up liking the traditional process more, and feel more connected to my art when I have a physical version of it. (not all digitaly stored on a computer).

With traditional art, there is more risk of accidentally screwing up an artwork you spent a long time on.. I kinda like that because it makes it more exciting, and working under pressure forces you to sharpen your skills and refine your process, making sure you dont make the same mistake twice.

Also, I really love digital art and look up to a lot of digital creators, I try to replicate the digital look when doing traditional art, it's really fun! :)

[doctorforks]

would it be possible to have a tutorial on how u draw Fyodors hair?. I really struggle w it and im starting to tweak

I'll try my best 🫡

Your first step is to start shaving fyodor bald but also, draw the face first. At least the eyes, because they will serve as a guideline for the hair

Step 2: put an X on where the root of the hair will be, then start drawing the fork bangs from there

Step 3: it looks crazy but it's pretty simple. I personally like to make an indent where the hair's root is, so then I slide down to make the back of the hair. I go back up and do the other side.

You'll notice there's that little outie (idk what to call it) that I like to add during the third step, and I'm used to drawing it directly but you may make the rounded shape first then add that later on. The rest of the hair pieces are just softly rounded spikes.

Step four: final touches. For me it's adding the colored back pieces afterwards, but you can totally draw those in the same color as his hair lol. I sometimes like adding stray hairs too in this step so feel free to do that.

Note: don't hesitate to erase and edit the hair. I dont always get it on the first try and draw multiple strokes before settling on something I like. It takes time, practice and a lot of love to start getting the hang of it.

Also; please experiment! This style suited me more than others, and it could suit you as well, just as it may not. Always play around with style until you find what you like

[willowisdead345]

50 things to do instead of binging!!

coming from personal experience from someone who has lost over 11 kg since I stopped binging a couple moths ago, these have worked for me

Remember binge urges don't last forever. It's difficult to resist them, but if you distract yourself or pass time, the urge can pass without the need for a binge. Stay strong, you can do it!

crafts:

Try embroidery/cross stitching

Make friendship bracelets, even better if it’s red (like the old ana bracelet lol)

Learn how to knit or crochet

Make a pompom

Learn how to make a bead lizard

Paint a clothing item with bleach

Make something out of clay/fimo/foam clay

Learn how to make a new origami design, there are plenty of instructions available

Try macrame, there are loads of easy instructions for it online

arts:

Paint, try painting with a different medium than usual to force yourself to concentrate harder

Draw something, you can use methods like the grid technique

Doodle! Try to fill an entire a4

Try to draw with crayons, have fun. For some reasons crayons make everything lower stakes for me

Make a children's story (not for actual kids though), write it and you can add pictures (bonus points if you make it disturbing)

Make a collage using old magazines, you can include motivational quotes

Make moodboards

Try making found poetry (for example with an old book or magazine)

ed-stuff:

Draw something, you can use your fave thinspo as a reference

Make yourself a diet/weight tracker for the next month (on paper or digitally) you can choose the theme of it yourself

write meanspo/sweetspo for yourself or find some

Try bullet journalling, you can make trackers for yourself (highly recommend one for not binging!)

Make your own motivational quotes, there are lists of “ana quotes” online, or you can go the funny route instead. A tip is to use lyrics from songs you relate to and adding a motivating picture as the background (maybe one day I’ll share my folder of these)

Write down your goals, make it look pleasing to you

Measure your circumferences with a measuring tape, you can write them down and compare later

Make an excel sheet where you can log stats and calories and stuff

Play with excel to make graphs of your weight loss or weekly intake! Lots of tutorials on how to make graphs, learning to use excel is a good distraction (has been really helpful for me to keep motivated and distracted)

Write a haiku/poem about your ed

Listen to triggering music

GROSSPO (ew maggots, mold and stuff like that)

Take bodychecks and compare to older ones

Watch other people binging instead of binging yourself

Calculate the calories of whatever you are craving, this always helps shock me and reconsider

Calculate your current bmr (base metabolic rate, you can calculate it online), calculate your bmr at your ugw too

self care:

Paint your nails/clip your nails. Toenails too

Take a shower or bath (seeing yourself naked helps a lot, and it helps pass time)

Put on a facemask

Do a foot soak

Try a new makeup look, it doesn’t have to look nice, you can even try to make the most ridiculous look ever

Apply body lotion throughout your entire body (again this helps you reconsider by making you self conscious)

get out of the situation and clear your head:

Go outside! And don’t take food or money with you. Just go outside to get yourself out of the situation making you want to binge

Take a walk, motivate yourself with cigs if needed (unless you're a minor). Or go sit and breathe in a forest or isolated area of a park

Go swimming! Yea in the summer, or in the winter. Ice swimming really helps shock your body out of binging

Exercise and do a workout, there are plenty of beginner friendly ones on for example youtube

learn new things:

Learn a new language, make the duolingo bird proud

Learn the alphabet in morse code! Or ASL!

Do your homework if you have any

Play with google translate and learn random phrases in random languages, or try to see what hilarious sentences you can come up with by translating several times

games and miscellaneous:

Play a video game, solitaire and firegirl and waterboy are my faves that are free through google, but find some you enjoy

Word searches! Or crosswords, or sudokus if that’s what you’re into, there are plenty online

Come up with your own list of 50 things to do instead of binging!! making your own list with things personal to you will help better

[arealtrashact]

hello i LOVE ur art! ive always wanted to ask, do u like…plan ur really intricate illustrations? Like thumbnails, color comps, the whole shebang. Or do u just make a loose sketch, color block and go straight to rendering? ur art is so dynamic that i cant picture planning anything like it without getting stiff lmao. ALSO a loooooong time ago u mentioned making a tutorial thingy for CDQ that didnt get published. will we ever see the masters process 😔. feel free to ignore my rambling !

Hello. You are correct ; I don't create thumbnails or color palettes. I'm sure if I did, my art would appear much more professional.

In the case of the type of illustrations you mentioned, I do a loose sketch ( as you said ) and then I just draw on top of it a few times to experiment with character placement and posing. I suppose that's my version of thumbnailing.

This was the sketch phase of the Lavinia illustration. Even as I was coloring it, I was actively challenging the decisions I'd made in my sketches. For an example, Lavinia's pose went through a rather drastic change -- From constricted to open.

I guess when it comes to personal work ( that is, artwork that is not for a studio or client ) I don't want it to feel precious. I want to be able to change it at any stage in the process. I want to be able to scrap elements entirely and feel like nothing is lost or that I'm deviating from a plan I made beforehand. I always start these illustrations with an idea /concept, but I want that idea to remain malleable for as long as it can.

Regarding CDQ : Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing if they did eventually publish my tutorial in a different issue. If they haven't, I'm not sure I could post it. It was paid, contract work ( thus making the tutorial itself no longer mine. )

Ideally, I would stream my art, so I could show you my process but . . . I'm a little shy.

[oililylou]

Omg hi hi, I just wanted to start this off by saying that I love you art so so much (I love the way you draw Caitvi with a passion). But, the other thing I was wondering is what do you draw on and with?

I’ve been really interested in trying to draw digit art (having to start on phone right now) and I’d really appreciate some advice on what to buy to get something like this or atleast make it easier!

Love your art again, thank you so much!

hi !!! tysm 🥺💖

i use an ipad pro 12.9 inches with gen 2 apple pen, this one is kind of expensive but you can find a lot of similar tablets for a more affordable price !!

i definitely recommend having those kinds of device because you can draw everywhere without having to connect it to a pc !! i personally draw on it whenever i'm on a bus or train, in class or even when i'm at the tea shop with my friends :)

for software I use procreate (only available for ios and it costs around 15$ now I think??, but it's a one time payment) but it's (in my opinion) easy to use and you can also animate with it which is very cool !!

for phone, i'd recommend ibis paint, the free version already gives you a lot of cool tools and i myself uses it sometimes when i want to draw and have nothing else but my phone

i don't have a lot of experiences when it comes to tablets you can connect to pc, but if you're looking for those i think xppen is a well appreciated brand ?

okay last thing i can advise you, once you start digital art, make sure to take the time to really explore everything your software has to offer, watch tutorials, look for the shortcuts, for tips etc... to this day i still find new tricks on procreate that could have helped me a lot before haha

hope this helped a little !!

[beffalumps]

hi there! recent art school grad here and i was wondering if u have any tips on learning color + approaching backgrounds? even though i learned a lot, i still find myself struggling with these focuses, especially colors as i never had a class that really taught me that. thanks so much 💗 your work is so lovely

First off, congrats on graduating!! Backgrounds and colors have always been the hardest for me lol tbh I still struggle a lot with colors especially, so please take everything I say with a grain of salt!

Using adjustment layers helps me a lot (especially color balance to make things more unified or complementary).

Another thing that I think has REALLY helped me with color overall is actually switching between color and grayscale.

In photoshop I set up a custom proof profile and then am able to switch back and forth by using the hotkey Ctrl + Y. This helps me check my values which, I've found if you have solid values, colors tend to work so much better even if you don't know much about what you're doing lol. Another way to do this is making a solid black layer on top of all your color layers and setting the blending mode to "Color". Then you can toggle that on and off to look at the values.

One last thing I've played with re: colors is finding a reference that has the colors I like and "crystalizing" it and color picking a palette from that.

This can be super helpful if you're having a hard time visualizing or coming up with a color palette!

As for backgrounds, they became a lot easier for me when I started looking at them like their own character. Thinking about the story I'm trying to tell, adding little details that I think would add to that or be fun and fun ways for the character to interact with it.

That and doing value sketches/just a bunch of really quick and sloppy experiments. 9 times out of 10, they don't work out, but sometimes they spark something that turns into something fun and workable!

This has gotten really long for someone that really just bs's their way through every piece, but I will say one thing that was a big game changer for me (in my personal opinion, who knows if other people think so lmao) and it's just incorporating aerial perspective. Making things a bit more blue tinted (or whatever the sky color is) and lighter as they recede into the background. Has made a huge difference for me when it comes to creating depth!

I really don't know if any of this is helpful because to be 100% honest, most of my illustrations are just product of trial and error lol. But practicing and making a lot of really bad scribbles have (I think) helped me the most, so yeah my biggest advice with anything is just look at lots of art, just draw and don't worry if it looks bad because tbh, it probably will at first. But you'll get better!

@tamberella Has a ton of amazing free resources and brushes, so if you haven't checked out their stuff, definitely do so!

@iniro also has some really nice tutorials on color (and other topics) available so I'd also recommend looking at those too!

But yeah, sorry for going on about my hair-brained process, I hope at least some of this was helpful!

[mistylune]

How I manifested an iPad (without realizing it.)

Hello! It’s been a bit a time since I last made a post. I’ve been pretty busy lately, but when I was thinking about what I wanted to post next, I remembered a success story from a while back. This story is definitely one of my favorites.

So to clarify, when I say that I manifested without realizing it, I mean that I manifested before being fully clear about the law. Back then, I wasn’t a part of the community, so I had no idea that what I was doing was manifesting, nor did I know either of the laws. I’ve come to learn that we manifest all the time subconsciously, and now I know how it is utilized properly. But in this story, keep in mind that this was before I was on tumblr.

So there are two types of LOA. Law of attraction, and Law of assumption. I used to confuse the two all the time, so I’ll quickly define them. I know you all have probably seen them defined a million times, so I’ll keep it brief.

(Also please note that these are my personal descriptions of them, so they may not be entirely accurate, nor make sense, but this is just how I would define them.)

Law of attraction is the belief that your thoughts are what attract things into your life, and by focusing your thoughts positively into the things that you desire, you can attract them into your life. For example, bringing money into your life.

Law of assumption is the belief that your thoughts are what shape your reality, and thus if you change your assumptions about yourself and your life, you can change your reality. In this case, instead of bringing, or attracting the money in your life, you would already have it.

I ended up using a mix of both when manifesting my IPad, so when I say LOA, I’ll be referring to both of them.

So onto the story.

A couple of years back, I got back into drawing, and while I enjoyed traditional art, I wanted to branch out into digital art. Many of my favorite artists that I saw on social media were drawing digitally, and I wanted to experiment in the medium. But the only device I had was my phone back then, and a school computer. When researching on what a lot of artists used for digital drawing, I discovered that many of the artists I admired used IPads for their artwork. And so, I decided then that I wanted to get one.

I remember that I focused a lot on what I would do if I had one. I would watch digital drawing tutorial videos, make Pinterest boards for inspiration, I followed my favorite artists on instagram, and would get inspired by watching speed paints and looking at their art. I remember how I would bask in the feeling of excitement at the thought of having my own iPad and creating my own artwork, focusing on the positive feelings that would arise when I thought about having one. Just thinking about it filled me with joy and motivation. I didn’t think of how, where, or where I would get it. I just knew that someday I would get one.

A few months later, it’s summer and I’m offered a spot on a team for a contest. After accepting, I attended a lot of meetings discussing the competition and preparing, we left two weeks later to compete. We worked really hard, and I had a lot of fun being on that team. When we competed, I was super excited but also full of nerves because we each had a part and I had to speak in front of a crowd. But it ended up paying off.

When the award ceremony came, I was full of nerves again, because I was unsure where we would place, or if we would even place at all. I remember seeing that a team I thought would win got second. At that moment I wondered which team was good enough to beat them for first place. And it ended up being my team. I felt a rush of excitement and emotions as we went up on stage and accepted our medals. It was my first time winning a team competition, so it was fun celebrating with the people I had been working with for two weeks. It was rewarding knowing that our hard work payed off. But the kicker was what happened after that.

After celebrating for a bit, and heading to the awards banquet, we learned what prizes we would receive for placing first. We received three prizes, and among them was…an IPad.

Now, I was in complete shock. I had heard from my mentor that the tech prize would be a computer. But it ended up being an IPad instead. The very thing I had said that I wanted. I remembered thinking it was just a very lucky coincidence, and I joked with my parents that I had gotten what I wished for. But now I know that in reality, I had actually manifested my iPad.

Recently, when I was struggling with manifestation again, and feeling stuck in a loop of negativity, I made a list of all the things I had already manifested to pull myself out of it. Through that, I was able to remember this story. Realizing that I had manifested before I even knew that it was a thing motivated me so much, because I realized I was putting so much pressure on myself to do something I had already done several times.

So I think the best advice I could give is that if you are struggling with doubt and negative thoughts, please remember how powerful you are. You are capable of manifesting anything that you want. I know it seems unbelievable at times. It was for me too, which I why I first saw my manifestation as a lucky coincidence. I’ve realized too that putting a label on the law often adds this extra pressure, because we aren’t sure if we are applying it correctly. But we are the creators of our realities. There is no wrong way to manifest. Just do what works best for you. But don’t give up. If you do, you could miss out on receiving your desires. The law cannot fail, and neither can you.

Thank you so much for reading! I truly hope this post was able to motivate or help you in some way. I’ll see you guys in the next post!

With love,

Lune.