#once i know how draw and color my line art its ON

[justalittlelilac]

Me: yeah, I'm just bummed because there's not a huge amount of content for Our Life out there.

My girlfriend: Well, then that just means you'll have to make some.

Me (stuttering): well...no...that's not...but like...I...

[snekdood]

people always gotta lot to say about comic artists and about how they need to be "posting more frequently" but you sit them down and tell them to do the same shit and suddenly they're "unprepared", etc. 🙄 yknow this shit doesnt get shat out over night, right? find a hobby in the meantime while you wait, goddamn.

[vetyr]

hi, i ireally love your work and i don't know if you've answered this before but, what kinds of studies do you do or how did you learn color theory? i wanna get better at rendering and anatomy but im having trouble TT TT

Hi! Long answer alert. Once a chatterbox, always a chatterbox.

When I started actively learning how to draw about 10 1/2 years ago, I exclusively did graphite studies in sketchbooks. Here's a few examples—I mostly stuck to doing line drawings to drill basic shapes/contours and proportions into my brain. The more rendered sketches helped me practice edge control & basic values, and they were REALLY good for learning the actual 3D structure behind what I was drawing.

I'd use reference images that I grabbed from fitness forums, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and some NSFW places, but you could find adequate ref material from figure drawing sites like Line of Action. LoA has refs for people (you can filter by clothed/unclothed, age, & gender), animals, expressions, hands/feet, and a few other useful things as well. Love them.

Learning how to render digitally was a similar story; it helped a lot that I had a pretty strong foundation for value/anatomy going in. I basically didn't touch color at all for ~2 years (except for a few attempts at bad digital or acrylic paint studies), which may not have been the best idea. I learned color from a lot of trial and error, honestly, and I'm pretty sure this process involved a lot of imitation—there were a number of digital/traditional painters whose styles I really wanted to emulate (notably their edge control, color choices, value distributions, and shape design), so I kiiind of did a mixture of that + my own experimentation.

For example, I really found Benjamin Björklund's style appealing, especially his softened/lost edges & vibrant pops of saturated color, so here's a study I did from some photograph that I'm *pretty* sure was painted with him in mind.

Learning how to detail was definitely a slow process, and like all the aforementioned things (anatomy/color/edge control/values/etc.) I'm still figuring it out. Focusing on edge control first (that is, deciding on where to place hard/soft edges for emphasizing/de-emphasizing certain areas of the image) is super useful, because you can honestly fool a viewer into thinking there's more detail in a piece than there actually is if you're very economical about where you place your hard edges.

The most important part, to me, is probably just doing this stuff over and over again. You're likely not going to see improvement in a few weeks or even a few months, so don't fret about not getting the exact results you want and just keep studying + making art. I like to think about learning art as a process where you *need* to fail and make crappy art/studies—there's literally no way around it—so you might as well fail right now. See, by making bad art you're actually moving forward—isn't that a fun prospect!!

It's useful to have a folder with art you admire, especially if you can dissect the pieces and understand why you like them so much. You can study those aspects (like, you can redraw or repaint that person's work) and break down whether this is art that you just like to look at, or if it's the kind of art that you want to *make.* There's a LOT of art out there that I love looking at, probably tens of thousands of styles/mediums, but there's a very narrow range that I want to make myself.

I've mentioned it in some ask reply in the past, but I really do think looking at other artist's work is such a cheat code for improving your own skills—the other artist does the work to filter reality/ideas for you, and this sort of allows you to contact the subject matter more directly. I can think of so many examples where an artist I admired exaggerated, like, the way sunlight rested on a face and created that orange fringe around its edge, or the greys/dull blues in a wheat field, or the bright indigo in a cast shadow, or the red along the outside of a person's eye, and it just clicked for me that this was a very available & observable aspect of reality, which had up until that point gone completely unnoticed! If you're really perceptive about the art you look at, it's shocking how much it can teach you about how to see the world (in this particular case I mean this literally, in that the art I looked at fully changed the way I visually processed the world, but of course it has had a strong effect on my worldviews/relationships/beliefs).

Thanks so much for sending in a question (& for reading, if you got this far)! I read every single ask I receive, including the kind words & compliments, which I genuinely always appreciate. Best of luck with learning, my friend :)

[ryanseslow]

How to Create Paper Cut-Out Reliefs: Tips and Techniques for Beginners

Back again with another lil' series of 2D wall relief paper cut-out forms. Both of the pieces below follow the same process and technique. Im really happy with the process and outcomes. Im working on animating them as we speak. I'll add them to this post later. My paintings inspire my drawings, and my drawings are inspired by those same forms found in my paintings. It makes sense that every so often I want to make those forms "pop out" and off the surface of a flat plane. Alas, it all starts with a quick sketch. See below, just a series of light loose free flowing lines take the lead, forward ->

Here we have a dude posing for a profile style portrait. Most likely, this is inspired by the NYC B-Boys from the years 1983 - 87ish. Either way, it's nostalgia for me. Once the sketch feels good, I'll break out the paper and x-acto knife. I keep telling myself that one day Ill work with another material other than paper for these works, perhaps wood or metal.. It will happen, I can foresee it for sure, hang in there. Im using a white bristol paper for the cut outs, I believe it is the vellum type and not the glossy, but either or will work just fine. I love to cut paper and the whole medium of paper art in general.

Paper cut-outs, also known as paper cutting or Kirigami, is a traditional art form that involves cutting shapes and designs out of paper. The history of paper cutting can be traced back to ancient China and Japan, where it was practiced as a folk art. The Chinese and Japanese would create intricate designs, often featuring animals, plants, and mythical creatures, and use them as decorations for festivals and special occasions. I always loved it and have felt inspired by these pieces.

Using the sketch above, I apply the "map" of the shapes and forms that I see. Sometimes I redraw those forms on the paper that I will cut out, and sometimes I just "draw" with the x-acto knife to recreate the forms. Sometimes, it's a combination of both of those techniques. There is also a series of "out-take / byproduct" cut outs that do not make the final piece, those can be saved and used for the next piece, obviously!

I layer the forms on top of each other to compose the arrangement as a whole, its fun to watch it all come together, in the next phase, you will need some kind of durable tape or you can make little paper forms that can be pasted to both sides of the forms as they stack, this will create the gauge and depth of the piece once it is placed onto the wall.

This is the final composition above, I love it! I used a roll of duct tape to make small cylinder forms that connect the pieces together, the piece as a whole comes "off of the surface of the wall" by about 1.5 - 2" inches - you can play with this a bit but keep in mind, the tape makes the piece heavier and it will want to comply with gravity :)

I hung the piece (also temporarily adhered via the same duct tape) for the photoshoot and to also get a good look at how it will function on the wall. I have an old painted fire place in my studio that is a great surface for hanging things, I love the contrast of textures between the bricks and the paper, as you know, the shadows will be super cool to see too.

Once I had the whole piece constructed I took a few pictures of it. I immediately wanted a clean vector line drawing of the whole character. I brought the photo into adobe Fresco and used a vector brush to draw this lovely variation. This is how my brain works, I switch paths because I know they are really pipelines to the "next thing" that I will push this to, so forward we go.

Then, it was light source and photo shoot time. Im not really happy with these picture as traditional "photographs" as I know I can do a much better job, but, as a series of "sketches" for a planned photo shoot, these will really help to make those plans a reality. I love neon colored lights. I have a bunch of them from various places and spaces that I found on the internet. Amazon has a great selection of flashlights with various colored light options. Get a few and play around with how the light can effect your work and the shadows that it creates. This is where the depth and gauge of your pieces play a role. The photos below are also a part of the same session, which all took place over a few days.

Here is another variation with a different character.. What do you think? Shall I make more?

[snugglycactus-the-great]

timeline of me trying to draw the same thing for several years straight

Figured I'd go through my own old attempts at Joy Ang's style and review them publically; not only would it probably help someone, I get to giggle at how bad my old art used to be! Onwards.

This was attempt no. 1, and it SUCKED. Thin neck, absolutely no chest, overdid AND underdid all of the shading, didn't even get Toad's colors right, FORGOT THE NOSE RING. Beautiful, beautiful stuff.

Attempt no. 2 was significantly better, although the anatomy was deeply fucked and the eyes were massive. There are definite improvements over the other one, but overall the line quality remained poor and the anatomy was horrific.

ATTEMPT NUMBER THREE. This one was so much closer than the other two, but still a swing and a miss overall. The eyes were once again oversized, the shading was patchy and still didn't match Joy Ang's style, and the head was perhaps too angular. There are still a lot more things about this that I like, though, and we can only go up from here, right?

WRONG attempt number four SUCKED. The lines were awful and the face was too short and narrow. I kind of like how I did the bottom jaw, though. Portrays the snout being narrower than the end of the face. Let's try this again.

AUGH oh god those scales why are they so small. And, I see we have reached the opposite problem we had before, with the eyes being TOO small now. Also too far down. <3 Let's take a break from this, for a few months, and then try again.

And, for reference of where we are now, this one. It has its own dedicated post, but I figured it needed to be in the timeline, too.

something something practice makes perfect something something. okay carry on with your day. let me know if you want me to do the same thing with mike holmes' style, there's... actually a lot more attempts for that one

[beybuniki]

would u ever consider posting a time lapse vid of a drawing ? its totally chill if not, i just think its neat to see different artists processes

either way i hope u have a lovely day ur art is so so cool :]

ehhhh tbh i dont know.... my process is very simple and boring fdnvbhf but i know how you feel im also so nosy when it comes to other artist's processes like baby what do u do...... i might try that once i have enough storage lol (csp crashes on me all the time i need an sd card...)

in the mean time, here some step by step if that helps you! I do my line art first, fill it in with this base color, then i shad eit very roughly in a color i like, rn its this teal? then i do the colors and as u can see i keep them very simple and limited, then i add a pinkish overlay + grain texture and thats basically it for most pieces! also i use the same brush at each step i am not an experimental artist vjckdvn

[doppel-doodles]

It's doodling time fellas

I wanted to give myself a bit of a challenge so I decided to draw the ocs of a few people here on tumblr, with the added challenge of doing it fast-

Minimal erasing and redoing, basically whatever is slapped on the page first sticks whether I like it or not. And there is a little time limit on how much I can spent on each character so that I don't get distracted as easily.

Just a little exercise so that hopefully it'll get easier for me to throw down a sketch using few lines and not taking literal hours-w-" I know everyone has their own pace but I would like to be a faster artist.

Anyway my yapping aside and without further delay: The girlies💚💗💜❤

Now to who these lovely gals belong to:

Haiyang: @riptide-pools

Nawa: @auburnitzy

Suki: @peachy-puddin-cup

An he: @lumidotexe

For anyone interested I'll include some thoughts on each of these below the cut:>

Haiyang

The first one I did and I think it shows>~> I was basically more focused on just figuring out how I wanted to do this so I spent less time and energy on how I wanted the character to look in my style. In the end I settled on doing the basic shapes in pencil and then switching to colored fine liners for details.

With the colors also matches the way I draw digitally just a tiny bit more! Buuuut if I end up doing this again I definitely wanna redraw her, I wanna do this gorgeous character justice after all!/'w'/

Suki

Suuuuukiiii! I did draw her before so I decided to do this version, which I believe to be just her shadow form! While drawing I didn't actually give myself time to look it up cause ya know, no distractions which is why there is a question mark-

But my stupidity aside- here is where I started drawing a lot faster, I was in the zone if you will, so I spent what time I had left adding some variation to the line art. I do like this one and honestly she would probably be so much fun to render digitally so I'll see if I can if there is time:>

Nawa

NOW THIS IS WHERE THE FUN REALLY BEGAN-

Nawa just was such a blast honestly, probably because I was getting really comfortable at this point and let myself play around more with how I stylise the characters! I love me some funky eyes, its probably the most recognisable part of my style.

Also granted I don't know much on Nawa yet(fake fan I'm sorry-/j) I only recently followed the creator so I need to find time to just really browse through their blog and consume all the knowledge there is, but once I do I'll be unstoppable!>:D

An He

Last but certainly not least we finish with An He, who was a just a chill and nice lil drawing perfect to round out this doodle session-w- now I have actually read ERHS(shameless plug, read it it's so good- just need to find my attention span as I haven't caught up with it SOBS) so I have more knowledge on her.

For that reason I attempted to do a slimmer face shape, i wanted her built overall to read as visibly more thin and petite. Along side that I went for rings in her eyes as an allusion to sound waves as I didnt just wanna drop in a music note and call it a day.

however maybe I'll experiment more another time because I just dont think it reads that well:'<

That concludes my silly ramblings! Thanks for sticking around and if any of the creators of these lovely ladies see this- YOU HAVE AMAZING CHARACTERS AND I HOPE I DID THEM JUSTICE!- ahem.

If I do this again I'll definitely go for some male ocs as well for the sake of variety, it was a happy accident that I only drew girls here.

[gnawe]

hi can i ask what helped you to get so good at shapes and colours :o i love the atmosphere ur arts have

wow, thank you! that means a lot to me esp bc i've been trying to improve those areas in my art so i'm glad it comes across 🫶

i approach shape from a more graphic than painterly viewpoint (i can't escape graphic design even when i draw 🥲) so i think about shape in terms of functionality and readability. i really recommend looking into design theory, i liked sinix's videos about this when i was first learning about how to drawe.

my main strategy to create good shapes comes from working strictly in black and white. this makes you focus solely on trimming down the main values in your piece and creating more expressive and readable silhouettes. i love comic art, so when i do this i go heavy on shadows and sharp contrast but thats also just my taste. also when doing this i prefer lasso tool over brushes so you have no choice but to create shapes not lines. either way, limiting your drawing to a couple values will tell you right away what shapes are reading correctly and which need more work.

as for color, the main tips i have are to be aware of contrast and pick intuitively. once your values are in place you can pretty much do anything! i start by picking a main few colors i think overall represent the tone i want to portray in the piece (melancholy, joy, etc) these are totally up to personal interpretation. imo the majority of impactful color schemes are just variations on complementary duos. after i pick the colors i know i want to use for sure, i let the color wheel dictate the rest of my palette.

i also found being mindful of color vibration actually helped me pick better colors. its basically when colors next to each other are too similar in value and creates this haloing effect thats difficult to look at, you see it a lot with super saturated hues. when doing digital art, it happens more subtly and noticing when to up the contrast while picking colors has helped me understand color better.

also experiment with layer modes! if your values are right in your blocking stage you can gradient map that sucker and use it as an overlay to create more fun color combinations. when you work in rgb the world is your oyster

thanks for asking! heres a process gif that will probably explain this better than i have

[pastadoughie]

hey how do you draw hands so good ok thanks bye

honestly my approach to handse is prettyy standard liek, i tryu 2 simplify thingse into basik 3d shapes that i simpley join 2gether, veiwing it liek this makes perspectiv alot easior

i think that alot of artists, when trying 2 teach othors how to draw hands go for the approach of like, adding guidlines?? like this

they simplify the hand into circles or dots for joints, and then connect them with lines and then are like ok just draw the outline of that to make a hand, and i think that this is a really damaging and unhelpful approach that sadly alot of beginners use becaise its liek, easy 2 wrap ur head around or atleast easior then being like "ok well first learn how to draw basic 3d shapes" witch is my advice

if u want to draw like, literally anything good u have to have like atleast a TINY bit of knowlage of perspective and forshortening, and honestlea i think the best place to start with that is learning how to draw spheres cones and cubes in different perspectives, and then once ur really comfortable with that u can do slightly more complex shapes, like the sort of tapered oval cylender thing that i use as a base for the palm.

its really annoying when people are like "ok well u need to learn fundimentals in order to make good art and know how to stylkize things" even though its true. like, trust me i am not doing life drawings of fruit or whatevor but you do have to have atleast basic knowlage of these concepts to be able to make good shit

its rlly7 hard 2 liek, get ppl to actuially listen 2 you, the reality is alot of easy art tutorialse r just teaching you bad habits, so many tutorials about preportions and perspective are like "ok now draw three million basic shapes as guidelines" generally circles for joints and lines across various areas of the body to denote placement and its like? thats rlly not useful, you cant just start with a bunch of random flat lines and circles and then magically get something with good perspective by drawing over it

tbh i dont even really use many guidelines, and the ones that i do use, (for complicated poses i do draw a sort of ribcage esque 3d shape for the torso) are already like, 3dshapes, i draw things with perspective to start

tbh i dont really liek art tutorialse that much, atleast the ones that are like "how to draw hands" and "how to draw eyes" because alot of the time they just fail to teach you the actual fundimental concepts that go into that, witch is just gonna hurt you in thea long run

ive been drawinmg for literal yrs and ive put alot of time into learning proportions and 3d shapes and stuff like fat distrobution and weight and stuff like color theory and shape languadge and whatevor and regardless of how many paragraphs i write these r skills that take *yearse*, ur not gonna magicaley be able to draw hands by listening 2 mea badley explain it

[eggwishing]

hello … what are your best tips for improving your art? i want to study and learn more but i’m lost on where to begin!!!!! big fan of your work by the way it’s a big inspiration to me! ☀️ i hope this isn’t a bothersome ask!!!!

My biggest tip is to learn first and foremost how to enjoy the learning process. When you do that you’re pretty much set for everything else. The biggest roadblock i and a lot of other artists seem to encounter is not Not knowing how to draw something, it’s not being able to make yourself get up and tackle learning how to head on. A lot of it is just your self talk or mindset when you broach it. viewing improvement as a chore or unachievable makes you reaally not want to do it, so you end up delaying it and just avoiding it altogether. I’ve done that a few times. You basically just have to hype yourself up, even if you don’t fully believe any of what you’re saying, it’ll still influence you in the same way self-deprecative humor can influence someone’s self esteem. And give yourself a treat every time you try :) build up that positive association! It’s tough early on, and it can feel like pulling teeth, but teeth don’t just get pulled for no reason. You’re making a step forward! Decide small goals for yourself. Saying you want to just “improve” is pretty vague, and most of all daunting. It doesn’t happen all at once in that way. You need to build up the bases. If you want to improve, be specific, say you want to get better at composition, color, lighting, anatomy (which must be further broken down to learning how to draw things like arms, legs, hands, because anatomy is a whole thing in and of itself lol.)

and that brings you to actually learning. My suggestion is to draw from life whenever you can. There’s no faster way to understanding three dimensional forms than having a subject right in front of you. This is something i do very often, whenever I go out i bring a little sketchbook and draw friends, surroundings, etc, and it’s what has helped me improve the fastest. Use contour lines to your advantage! Draw a form and try to find its dimensions. It’s mindless and gets much easier the more you do it, while also still being very informative. When you understand the dimensions of something, shading becomes easier too. and ofc study art that you like, deconstruct why you like it and try to apply it to what you draw. Watch speedpaints and pay attention, try to pick apart the process of the artist! I recommend yt channels like ethan becker and sycra for composition and anatomy/design lessons.

thanks for the ask! I really appreciate it and your kind words. Good luck!! You can do it! ^_^

[trungles]

Processing Process, and More Processing

I made this post free and publicly readable on Patreon, but I'm reposting the whole thing right here too because, well, it's a free post, and I don't want to make you click away from your dashboard if you don't need to. But also if you want to support my work, here's the link to the post.

It's a little bit about cartooning, a little bit about drawing, and then it turns into a eulogy for a chicken.

I wrote “process” more than once, and now the word looks funny and is beginning to lose its meaning to me.

This post is about a few things, and it’s a little bit on the sad end of things. Nothing dire! No worries. There’s just a little mention of death, just as a heads up.

Before we get to that, though, I’ve been doing some work and had some thoughts.

I’m often asked about how I draw the noodle hair on my characters, and the answer is typically that I draw each and every line with my hand. But there are considerations of movement and volume that go into it beyond its texturally decorative purposes. I love being able to convey shape and motion with it. It’s less evident, I think, in my illustration work, but I think it’s much more obvious when I do sequential work. In the above image, you can see me working out a sequence of Angelica having a series of thoughts. Her head sort of moves, and her eyes follow. You can see I’d planned out the general shape of the hair and how I’d like it to move.

I wound up moving the drawings a little bit so that the readers eyes will actually follow the character’s eyes as it moves gently rightward on the page. The hair is there to accentuate the movement, like so:

It’s a consideration I employ in all my drawings, but especially when I’m drawing hair and fabric. I don’t use a lot of action lines, so this becomes an important way to give the reader the information that someone is moving through a space. Resistance, gravity, and motion are all things I have to keep in the back of my head when I’m doing these little drawings. I think the planning actually takes more time than the inking, which can happen pretty quickly once I map it all out.

In other news, I’m starting to take my extracurricular artistic development a little more seriously in the silliest way possible.

You wouldn’t know it, but I studied painting college—a medium I switched to after the printmaking professor and head of the Art Department at the time told me I probably shouldn’t be an artist (he gave me a hard candy for my trouble). I recently bought a bunch of little dolls, dressed them up, and am returning to my painting roots. It feels really nice to work in big blobs of color instead of lines. It’s an exercise I came up with in response to a common lament from art students.

One of the more aggravating generational tensions described to me by art school students is when professors describe a student’s portfolio as “too anime” without much explanation. I know what the professor means. They’re trying to get at how referencing your favorite anime or cartoons means that your style becomes a simulacrum, an imperfect copy of a copy, and you never learn to develop your own sense of judgment about where a line or a shape needs to go. And we can tell. It’s a way of working that is perfectly fine for cartooning because cartooning is closer to hand-writing than it is to drawing. I always turn to Charles Schulz’s work for an example. Those figures aren’t literally depicting children—with their little chessboard-pawn proportions and bread-loaf feet—but we read them as endearing children because we’ve come to a consensus between us, the readers, and Charles Schulz, the author, that those shapes mean those things. There are no whiskers or paws in the shape of the word “CAT” but you look at those three letters together, and you know the thing to which it refers. That’s an aspect of cartooning, too. Of course, what elevates it from mere writing is, in part, due to the fact that those little figures do not lose their meaning the more you depict them.

To really draw well, though, you have to do those fundamentals. You have to draw from life. There’s no way around it. It helps you develop a stronger sense of where you like to lay down your lines and shapes, no matter how stylized you like to work. It grows your judgment, and every artist’s best tool is their own well-honed sense of artistic discernment about their own work.

But that doesn’t mean you have to surrender the stuff you like or the things that inspire you to make art! I tell students that if they want to hold fast to their anime style AND hone their fundamentals to develop their eye as an artist, they should buy little figurines and toys of their favorite characters, prop those up against a light source, and draw them as still life objects. Like, yes, do the vases and the figure drawings and all those, I still think those are important. But if this is what you need to keep you interested in drawing from life, having some toys around is a great way to do it! Also, bless those sculptors and toy designers. They’re the best.

I think there’s something to be said about remembering to imagine the physicality of the things we draw, in all its dimensions and in the way it catches the light or casts a shadow. It helps sentimentalize things, too. Makes them feel more real, even emotionally.

Edwina died on Tuesday night, after a few final snuggles, surrounded by her favorite treats. She was about five years old, which is old for a chicken, and she had a very comfortable life. We buried her this morning. She was a good hen, J’s personal favorite.

It really feels like the end of an era. She was the last surviving member of our very first flock. After the other hens died, she really seemed to prefer the company of people over other hens. She is survived by Snooki and Nelly, our two other young birds who get along quite well together, actually.

A baby chick costs between three and five American dollars, typically. An egg-laying hen could be between twenty and fifty bucks, depending on the breed. There are roughly 26 billion chickens living in the world today, about 518 million of them here in the United States. They come pretty cheap. And a part of me was moved to cynicism, entertaining the thought that it might be strange to feel sadly over a little animal that, at most, might be roughly equivalent to the price of a fancy lunch and a coffee.

I watched the 1974 musical version of The Little Prince recently, and I remember it mostly because Bob Fosse was in it and scared the crap out of me as a kid—he played the snake that would take the Little Prince back into the sky when his body gets too heavy to take with him. Gene Wilder plays the Fox whom the Little Prince befriends and tames among a garden of roses. The Fox explains that he is like any other fox in the world, but he is changed—made special and particular to the Little Prince—with time, effort, and patience. So, too, is the Prince’s little flower special to him. Out of all the flowers in the universe, she was the one he watered and protected under a little glass jar. And that’s enough.

I knew my little hen would not live that long. It could be very easy to take a broad view of the life expectancy of a hen and distance myself from it by virtue of its mortality and its commonness. People who raise livestock do it all the time. But I also think it’s wonderful that we should all be capable of loving very small, very brief little things. Edwina is not, to my mind, the rough equivalent of a fancy lunch and a coffee. She was our little hen. For her whole life, she was ours. And I’m so happy she was here.

[onebadnoodle]

Hey, Noodle!

I just wanna say that your art is cool. Seriously

Your colours, composition, linework, etc. It's just pleasant to see your drawings. They're full of life

However, I wanna know more. What's the most important thing for You to considerate in art?

Color palettes, poses, composition, line?

What would you tell somebody to get better at art/ is inspired as you and want to do something similar to you?

if i had to choose its composition thats most important to me when making art though color palette is a very very close second. when i work with composition i really like to think about how i can fill every corner of the canvas as much as possible almost like fitting piece in a puzzle with no gaps between them if that makes sense lol. i really wish i had more advice when it comes to composition maybe one day ill work on compiling some of my thoughts on it. I did try to once before but that didn't go well...

[hools]

Sorry if this is a weird question, but how do you come up with your drawings? What does through your mind while making them? I find your compositions so gorgeous and intriguing but I can't really figure out how you approach things since everything's very shifty and abstract. It's really gorgeous work, I'm so glad I discovered your art :,)

hey first of all this isnt a weird question at all & i'm really glad you enjoy my art heheheheheehe. there's an incoming large largely unformatted block of text that i hope you dont mind!

Honestly there are a billion things going through my mind at a time while I'm drawing and they all sort of bump into each other and cancel each other out like opposing particles. If you've seen any of my streams i'm usually very fast and iterative in a lot of my process and i rarely ever slow down even past the early parts like thumbnailing and sketching. i kind of let my hands do the talking more, yknow? but even then theyre never talking about a single thing at a time. everything interacts with everything, which is probably why i always end up getting lost and meandering. composition is not independent from color & value and neither are they from texture and perspective. its hard thinking of all of the ways they mesh and react to one another so i spend less of my energy thinking and more of it doing, and then assessing once something interesting comes about it. i guess then i prioritize my Hand Movement Actioning and Eye Vision Seeing over my Brain Neuron Assessing. but even though iterations can come and go quick this kind of informed throwing-against-the-wall isn't really the Fastest. but its fun. and you get to stuff all the unused ideas in your pocket for later.

even though i did say how connected everything is i always seem to start with composition. it kind of affects and informs everything the most at least on an individual piece level. with thumbnails & composition in general i think youre supposed to think huge right. so i Always think huge. push everything as much as you can. start with a crazy angle (not necessarily angle meaning "perspective" but like an angle between two lines) and border your scene within it. take an already steep foreshortening and steepen it further with the transform tool & see what shapes form from the empty & filled space. shrink your subject to only fit 3/4ths of the canvas and build around it to make it work. blow things up (enlargen) and blow things up (remove & obliterate). with composition you have so much room for fuckery if you give yourself the grace to accept the fuckiness.

and i guess this freedom to fuck around and iterate and build and build and build upon comes from how most of the time my initial ideas are very. vague? abstract like you've said. sometimes its Just a song or a song lyric and nothing else (no characters to attach to just the feel and my gut). sometimes its a less than 5 word phrase i felt strongly about throughout the day. in my me-only discord server i have messages in #to-draw channel that just say shit like "something about guitar straps" "thanks for knowing me!" "angel don't look at me" "DITHER QUEEN" (<-been meaning to make something with that). for things that have specific guidelines i spend more time thinking conceptually (the "rare animal" coelacanth drawing being an example) but otherwise it mostly comes out after. again. the first strokes. after you put the meat and bones on the canvas. an artist at a workshop i was at last year when i was in my own head about Needing to have a fleshed tangible Profound concept before being able to start something told me not to underestimate the stories that can be told just by your hands. and i think thats what stuck with me the most.

& one last thing i wanna mention is how despite how much i revel in the chaos of the process ive found how important limits are. i don't like cutting back on everything but i like cutting back on some things. sometimes i cut out backgrounds for solid fills and i love them that much more. sometimes i have little subconscious rules in a piece that i try not to break to keep a little level of consistency. if somethings a big wonderful mess already then i love a limited pallet and i love keeping parts empty and i love being able to breathe a little. yknow. but still go over the top in the other parts you have so much permission to. less is more but have a little more in your art than less. YKNOW?

but yeah thanks again for your kind words and wanting to listen to me talk. i havent been drawing much at all so these arent too fresh on the mind but i think i got a lot of what i wanted to say out. i hope u and others can get things out of this! if i made any sense <3

[lotus-lamps]

COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN! first three people get discounts :)

-> KOFI LINK <-

Discord user: cozmiccupcakes

PLEASE TAKE THE PRICES WITH A GRAIN OF SALT!!! even i'm starting to disagree with them now. it's mostly decided by complexity of character(s) and how detailed the artwork is. i will not strictly follow the chart i provided!

its my first time doing commissions, so sorry if i mess up a lil! i didn't plan on opening them until i got a larger following, but a pal said they were interested so i decided to put this up.

text ver. only plus a more detailed description under the cut! thank you!! (i may come off as a little cold and blunt in the rules section, sorry! i was just trying to keep it as concise as possible to save space. please do not feel scared of commissioning me!!)

p.s. if you want to, please reblog! :) thank you for the help!!

WILL DRAW: ✅

OC's (if they do not belong to you, please get permission first!)

Fanart (any type of media/fandom!)

Ship art (no proships. if it makes me uncomfortable i will turn it down. <- this usually just applies to overly toxic/questionable ships. i will draw ones that i simply don't really ship for you though!)

(and yes, ship art includes OC x OC and OC x canon!)

Light gore + Body horror (not too good at this one, but i can try!)

Animals + Furries (not too good at this one either, especially furries, but i will also try!!)

WON'T DRAW: ❌

NSFW + Nudity (i can draw things that contain mild sexual humor/references, but i wont draw anything past subtle suggestivity.)

Heavy gore + Body horror

Everything else is (most likely) fair game! I will warn you that I'm not particularly good at drawing furries or mecha, but I will give it a shot :) Detailed backgrounds are also allowed! Feel free to ask about whatever, I'm totally fine with drawing most things!

(i will not be making a text version of the prices estimate, as im starting to consider it inaccurate.)

PROCEDURE + RULES:

Dm me on Tumblr, Kofi, or Discord (cozmiccupcakes)

Please try to be fairly specific with your request! no need to get too detailed, but enough for me to work with. Please also provide references if you can! If not, moodboards and text description work too.

50% payment upfront (Kofi only, USD only.)

Prices are loose and negotiable!! as i said before, i no longer particularly agree with my pricing, so it won't strictly adhere to my chart. feel free to discuss prices with me!

No full refunds once I've started. If I haven't yet, I will refund the money to you. If you would like to cancel your commission once I've begun on the artwork, I will keep the 50% you paid initially, unless I am already close to finishing. In that case, you will have to pay the other 50% as well.

I will send progress updates, which is when you can request changes. I will only change things regarding that particular stage! For instance, if I'm on the coloring stage, you can ask for changes with color, but nothing before that. I will not make any changes to the lineart. You can ask for more progress updates if you'd like!

The commission will take around a week or so to finish, more if I have other commissions due before yours. I am also a student and have other things I need to do. Please be patient! I will let you know how many people are in line before you.

Please try to pay the other 50% within a week after I finish the artwork. You cannot commission me again if I do not receive full payment!! I will be flexible with when you send me the money, but know that if it takes far too long (more than 2-3 weeks) then you will no longer be able to commission me as well.

The art still belongs to me. Do not claim it as yours. Feel free to post it on your social media, but please still credit me regardless. Non commercial use only. You cannot use my art for any sort of profit. I will provide you with a non watermarked edition, but I will post it with a watermark. I will usually post the commission art I make, but feel free to tell me if you are uncomfortable with me doing so and I won't do it! I will usually also say who commissioned me, especially if it contains their oc's to give credit, but if you prefer to stay anonymous please let me know as well!

That's all!! I apologize for writing so much, I just wanted to make sure everything was clear :D Thank you!!

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Hratgrog

This week's installment is once again coming kind of late in the evening -- and a bit less wordy than usual -- because I just got back from the ICMS conference at Kalamazoo last night and have been running around doing stuff all day. So, sorry about that.

Anyway, also worth noting that a surprising number of people have indicated that they know this one.

If you aren't sure what this is about, you can find an explanation and previous posts at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

You can also find the entry people are working from here:

If you want to participate in the next installment, you can find the entries posted under the tag maniculum bestiaryposting. Also, to make it easier on y'all, here's the current one:

Anyway, art below the cut in the order it was posted:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) took the description of the animal's behavior and designed a bird who could feasibly fit that -- if you want the details on what birds went into this and why, they're in the linked post. I particularly like the iridescent effect on the feathers.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) also drew a bird, but went in a different direction with the references, eschewing them entirely on the grounds that the monks probably didn't have any references on hand. I think the "colour of a wild sea" comes out well here.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) decided to resolve the issue of the wings being sapphire but also "sheathed in silver" by making the Hratgrog a beetle with silver elytra, which I think is quite clever. Again, the colors are very good in my opinion -- and as usual, you should check the linked post for an explanation of the design.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has, as per usual, done some amazing medieval stylization. I find this landscape really pleasant, birds aside. The design of the creature is also really solid, and you can find an interesting description of why it looks the way it does in the linked post. I would particularly draw attention to the interpretation of how this bird "does not live by theft", which you will have to click the link to find out.

@strixcattus (link to post here) gives us a bird that appears to be waving to us. Again, I like the coloration here; the many lines really add to the effect. Clicking the linked post will get you Strixcattus's modern interpretation of this animal, which includes a brief explanation of why it's necessary to specify that this bird does not eat corpses.

All right, to the Aberdeen Bestiary:

Or, rather, a dove.

(The distinction drawn between dove and pigeon in modern English is not formalized or universal, but the translation I'm using says "dove".)

The description for this page in the digitized manuscript notes:

This rather plain lifeless bird does not do justice to the luscious pictorial descriptions devoted to the dove on ff.26-30r. However, raking light reveals a lustrous silvered quality to the paint.

Since the description goes on so long -- like I said, I was excerpting bits of physical description from a lengthy sermon on symbolism -- there are actually multiple illustrations. It looks like there were originally four, but two have been cut out of the manuscript. The other surviving one is as follows:

That would be the Hratgrog on the left -- the bird on the right is its antagonist, the hawk. No word on why this one doesn't get any coloration.

Anyway... how do I end this one?

Go forth and contemplate the pigeon. It's what the bestiary author would want.

[stormio2407]

Ello! ʕ⁠っ⁠•⁠ᴥ⁠•⁠ʔ⁠っ♥️ Im secretly a big fan of your art work and was wondering if you'll do a tutorial on how you make your art work, I love them all very much 💞

Oh, thank you. 🙇🙇 I’m so glad to hear that! And sure, I can make a tutorial real quick. :))

1.) Before I start doing any art, I do this to my canvas. Having a solid fill layer on color burn with low opacity gives a nice outline effect on your pen. As someone who sucks at putting lineweight at the right spots this is a life saver (or if you want to make your linework better, that works too.lol) All color bases and renderings stay above the lineart layer on multiply (I also use clipping mask a lot for rendering.)

2.) I give myself some time to research for poses on Pinterest. If I can’t find anything, I use Magic Poser on my iPad to make all of the poses.

This is a link for the web version.

Here is also the link to the brushes I always use for my drawings.

I’m going to use this old sketch of Ava with his hair short. For this example, I didn’t find a pose. I only referenced the hair style.

Generally I create the basic shapes for everything- the head, wings, body, etc (hair is kinda the exception to this). I don’t go too deep with adding line weight just yet.

3.) I add the base colors in this step. Sometimes I’ll stop here with my drawings, but with my personal art I continue. I tend to explore a lot of color schemes, so I like seeing how other artists approach this. I can take the longest on this cuz I get so indecisive of what I want. 😅😅

Sometimes if I don’t like my colors overall, I’ll add a solid color layer on Hue at around 30-40% opacity to harmonize every color. This layer stays above all other layers.

4.) Step 4 is a bit of a continuation from 3. Here I start adding more detail with the coloring, and putting those FX that I want. If I want to, like in this example, I also extend the drawing to show other elements, if I feel like the composition is a bit empty.

After this, I take a step back from my iPad and come back to my drawing the next day. Sometimes doing that helps me find obvious mistakes that I wouldn’t have noticed immediately.

5.) Sure enough, I saw the the mistakes on his face, so I fixed them. I prefer using the liquify over the transform tool when I need to retouch some things; it prevents the linework or coloring from looking “choppy” or torn apart with its resolution.

Once I got the final touches done, I send it off !

Don’t know if this is actually considered a tutorial but maybe seeing this process step by step can help a bit. 👏 good luck, and have fun with what you create!