#sorry this is very late
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I'm pretty bad at drawing dragons, could I have a tip on drawing them.
I don't think there's such a thing as "being bad" at drawing dragons, to be honest.
Dragons can have such a large variety of designs, especially when artists, modern or not, imagine them as something other than your standard fire breathing reptile. Folklore can't even be consistent on what a dragon is. To me, they're not too different than designing a creature from scratch, whether or not you want to make it biologically plausible (aka spec bio). So I can't specifically give you dragon design tips because I use the same process for all creatures I make.
Instead, I'll offer some things I learned about creature design in general from studying animals and from other creature designers.
It all comes down to two questions:
What is the character of this design? And what do you like to design?
It sounds vague but hear me out.
Designing a character and designing a creature aren't that dissimilar. Because by creating a creature, you also focus on what makes its shapes unique from others as you would in a lineup of characters. Think of how you can identify different real life animals based on just the silhouette alone, and the features that give it that silhouette. For example you can tell a giraffe apart from a whale just by the silhouette, right?
What I like to do is make designs that give a good idea on how the creature lives, speculative evolution, and that involves a lot of research into animal biology. Evolution is the most unhinged creature designer, after all.
Ostriches and emus convergently evolved to be built for running rather than flying, and occupy a similar niche in their environments. But if you reduce them down to a single silhouette, you can easily still tell them apart.
Here's two of my own designs to demonstrate this same idea. The left I designed from bears, wildebeest, african wild dogs, and gorgonopsids. It's a pack-hunting species that lives in warmer grasslands. Its arms are also comparatively long for the rest of its body.
On the right is a polar relative, designed from a polar bear, a seal, arctic fox (summer coat), white tailed deer (tail shape), and basilosaurus (for the teeth). Compared to the first design, it's less lean and has more bulk for keeping warm. The ears are also diminished and the snout is way shorter. Despite that they look like they are related species from different climates.
Sometimes I tend to exaggerate a part of the design, such as the neck fluff on the polar guy and the length of the nose on the left one. Even small changes can make a big difference, and sometimes unexpected features can give you the exact design you were looking for. Don't fear ugliness or uncanniness in a design.
Because another fun exercise I like to do is take the body plan of a creature and stretch another creature to fit into that body plan. It may look ugly and cursed but sometimes that's what I want.
If researching anatomy and biology isn't your thing, you still have options. You can always apply chimera rules.
I've also seen this being described as "frankensteining", where you stitch different animal features together without much adjustment. This design strategy isn't invalid, but I don't prefer it.
I know I went with a standard "dragon" look for Pink (and the other diamonds' corrupted designs are getting an overhaul), but that's because that look happens to work for what I wanted.
An easy way to approach any of these methods is to draw small thumbnails in a sketchbook or on a digital canvas while zoomed out. With references handy of course. Being able to find distinct shapes when it's smaller makes them not rely on the littler details to be recognizeable. That way you can iron out the rest once you find something you like. And hands off ctrl+z/eraser (or use it sparingly). I know it's tempting, but try and resist.
I like to use a ballpoint pen for this when on paper, because it makes me commit to the lines so I'm not constantly erasing. I get no progress if all I'm doing is erasing. If I don't like it, I take what I like about the other thumbnails and move on to the next. This process whittles away the features I don't prefer. Notice the little note I left next to the dog in the upper right.
If something isn't working out, that's completely fine. Look at references, build your visual library. Don't get discouraged. Try things out just to see how it looks, even if you end up not liking it. You still learned something from that attempt.
Hang the code. Embrace chaos. Draw and design dragons how you want to.
And to finish this off:
Don't compare yourself to others and let that make you feel bad about your art. In fact, stop comparing altogether. It's okay to be inspired, but you are on your own artistic journey. Give yourself credit for your own progress and let that motivate you.
I see too many people do this, especially when they have every reason to feel good about the stuff they made.
#asks#creature design#hope this makes sense and helps someone out there lol#sorry if this got a bit rambly#but i hope it makes sense#going through the backlog of asks#sorry this is very late#trying to get back into the groove of posting here
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Day 161
I have no clue when the Ensekai account ever boosted this but here’s another bingo for you guys!! Sadly I do not have any of Leoni at cr 88… my highest is Hona at 52,, I will get there one day for all of them!
#dailyleoneed#leo need#leoneed#ichika hoshino#saki tenma#honami mochizuki#shiho hinomori#project sekai#pjsk#daily blog#sorry this is very late#I was dying yesterday
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Girl Genius event week day 7: OC
Completing the trifecta, I made myself a clank-sona. (To go with a Spark and Jäger sona)
I don’t tend to make a lot of ocs, unless they’re a sona or for a story.
#girl genius event week#girl genius#oc#sorry this is very late#also the different versions are partially different outfits but also a timeline#because I ended up thinking up a whole story about them
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gay sunshine SOuP 🌈
what a wonderful kind of soup! 💙
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✹ walking in on them while bathing (Ashley to Darla)
Meme || Accepting!
It seemed like as soon as Darla stepped into the shower, someone walked in. She poked her head out at first, expecting her brother to come in and tell her something. Only to see Ashley instead. Despite the fact they've seen each other in various states of undress, she still blushes. "D-Did you u-um... want to join me?"
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colored some sketches
#my art#dsmp#c!tommy#c!tubbo#c!quackity#c!ranboo#trying very hard to not spiral into depression and quit art aah.....#sorry for the boring drawings lately i dont know what else to draw
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corvidae
#my art#jujutsu kaisen#jjk#jjk fanart#jujutsu kaisen fanart#yuji itadori#itadori yuuji#blood/#yuuji#im not tagging this as spoilers idc sue me . iykyk but i dont think it's obvious enough at all 2 warrant the tag#idrk what this is sorry ive been having a hard time drawing n feeling inspired lately :'>>> so it goes#i find i tend to default to drawing birds when that happens ???#did it with gojo did it with shiro and now it's yuuji's turn ig#sometimes it's helpful to just . mess around with a whole bunch of brushes until something looks ok#and birds and feathers lean soooo well 2 playing around w brushes theyre very forgiving#flowers also kind of so i threw in some camellias bc i figured why not add More Red#i think they mean something that's probably relevant but i was more looking fr the shape of the petals#th rounded tops blend rly seamlessly with the way i rendered th feathers so i am like!!!! nice#just checked also apparently red camellias just mean love and devotion lmao should have guessed#'perishing with grace' also hm hm hm that's kind of wild with th crows#anyway i didn't put too much thought in2 this one so i won't talk fr ages about the symbolism it's all pretty much right there#anyway ty fr being patient with me im sorry draws have been slow :<#ill come out of it ill bounce back!
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ah yes…
my thoughts under the cut (turned out to be longer than initially intended lol)
honestly, kinda mixed feelings :’)
it’s great that the fandom is making a comeback because gravity falls is seriously an amazing piece of media, and all the offshoots that came from the main series are equally incredible. it deserves this second wave of attention and more! still one of my favourites, all the mysteries and secret codes back in the day changed my brain chemistry lmao
as far as personal feelings go, i can’t believe the amount of people i’ve had tell me that i inspired them in some way to be an artist through my old gravity falls art, it’s amazing! and i am so flattered and happy that i could have that kind of positive influence on people. art is my passion and knowing i had a hand in making it other people’s as well is a really cool feeling :’) i read every single message i get in my askbox and some of them have made me legitimately emotional (in a good way)
but then on the opposite side, there are a lot of people— most of whom i have never interacted with— who have a fully formed opinion on me based on actions of mine that are almost a decade old. just knowing that has been crippling, i’m ND and i’ve always struggled with anxiety issues surrounding how others think of me. it feels kinda hopeless and scary, because there is no way my current actions and the ways i’ve changed will ever reach all of them. but i’m only human, all i can do is focus on the positive and keep being kind in both my offline and online lives, and hope it comes back around
the shy part of me wishes i was just another person in the fandom so that i could share my art without fear of hateful comments, but also having made enough of an impact that something i made got acknowledged in “canon” is hilarious and pretty fucking cool (shoutout to @valdevia LOL) i’m just gonna keep doing what i’ve always done: make art because it makes me happy, and share it in hopes it will make others happy too 🩷
#i’ve had a few weeks to marinate#tldr im happy and grateful for the support i’ve gotten lately <3#i’m not very good at articulating my feelings in words i’m sorry#i tried my best
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It's not even actually their birthday
(Based on a conversation I had with a friend + Jamil's 2024 birthday present to the player)
#my art#twisted wonderland#twst#jamil viper#jamil viper x yuu#twst yuu#oc#twst oc#shiokawa mayu#jamimayu#bro made a discovery and had to share#why is he like this#hes very into chemical warfare against those pesky bugs#throwback to the first jamimayu post I ever made#I believe Jamil texts with like perfect capitalization and punctuation#but you can tell he's excited by#subtle hints#things you'll notice if you know him#for example multiple texts in a row is very unusual of him#you may interpret the timestamps however you wish#you may also wonder why I hand draw this instead of just typing#it's cause I drew the first post and now feel I have to commit#it's too late#at least I enjoy the stylized look it gets...#ALSO IM STILL WORKING ON HIS BDAY ART#ITS STILL IN PROGRESS#sorry jamiru i am so very slow
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Ogerpon ko-fi doodle for ₍ᐢ. ༝ .ᐢ₎♡ ༘ !
#artists on tumblr#pokemon#ogerpon#gotchibam arts#ko-fi doodle#im really sorry for the very late doodle ;_;#but I hope you still like it!!#that's the name I saw on kofi so I just copy pasted it... whoever you are I hope you see this!
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@hot-scarian-summer-2024 - Day 4
The Countless Stars in Heaven's Field - Wishing on a Shooting Star - In Orbit
a kiss in the sky
#trying out a new style :)#and avoiding drawing people kissing LMAO#desert duo#scarian#grian#gtws#goodtimeswithscar#gtwscar#fanart#hermitcraft#i can't draw ppl kissing on the lips the faces look weird as shit AND YET im a shipper artist 💀💀💀#the struggles#so sorry for making this stuff late#i'll try and finish up yesterdays later and theres a very small chance i will be able to do todays#paper->digital is so much fun and it always gives really cool textures too#hotscariansummer2024#nhyhu.art
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your manic pixie dream girl and nightmare bad boy all in one I love binggeyuan sooo much. If I'm MIA, it's because I've fallen into quite the rabbit hole lately and going into hibernation!!
#my art#fan art#svsss#danmei#mxtx#binggeyuan#luo bingge x shen yuan#sorry i read so much good fic of them and it's ruined my life.#wolf boy that is a sopping wet dog x secretly very milfy otaku came for my NECK. won't lie!!#ough binghe we're in it now#been particularly mentally ill lately but this is my “nice” account so im hiding it in the tags#read nyoomerr's fics guys. pip is so good!!
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so excited for Kalim to save the day by swiper-no-swiping this dip. you can do it! I believe in you!
god I hope this reads properly
#art#twisted wonderland#twisted wonderland spoilers#stage in playful land#stage in playfulland#i feel like kalim and the marshmallow test operates under roger rabbit rules#whether he passes or fails depends on which option is funniest at the time#anyway HEY things are finally actually happening!#so glad fellow agrees with me there#did he even expect them to make it to the show. did he very quickly have to choreograph a poppy little dance number.#honestly in retrospect i am also shocked that they lasted as long as they did#i mean. floyd is there. c'mon.#speaking of which i did really enjoy floyd going BYE JADE! MAYBE I'LL COME BACK TO SAVE YOU LATER IF I FEEL LIKE IT!#revenge for the popcorn#sorry if this is nonsensical! somehow it became like 4 am while i wasn't looking#i am super digging the evil theme park shenanigans (now that they're actually happening)#it's just Very Late!
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the L and the T love
#her gf is trans so#my art#art#lucy#lesbian#transgender#trans#sorry but lately i feel like i should give some love to tgirls#anyways lucy#very inspired by my fit i took to the pride parade#i got biggest hi fives from a bunch of lesbians who loved my dress and a trans girl rocking the lesbian flag#very cool#demon girls
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I know the sound of your heartbeat
#very normal about them i promise#once again have fallen down the rabbit hole of something and that something this week is supersons sorry#supersons#dc#edit#jonathan kent#damian wayne#jondami#damijon#if anyone has any fic recs of them...send it my way ive been reading so much of them lately LOL
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hi!! I love your art and the jjk atla au has grabbed my brain in Ways That I Cannot Explain. i love them sm. also ty for the inuokko promise, bc trust they are my favorite ship ever (sorry itafushi, you guys are second place). i wish you well in the process and hope that everything goes smoothly for you!!!!
!!! thank u so much I'm happy u like my art and our little passion project <3 <3 <3
also. hm . inuokko u say :>
pov u look up and u see this ^
jjk atla!au with @philosophiums
#answered#ninjnerd-anaklusmos#my art#jujutsu kaisen#jjk#inuokko#yuta okkotsu#inumaki toge#fanart#jjk fanart#jjk atla!au#atla!au: art#atla!au: illust#lmhs#first time drawing yuuta with a face wooooo yay debut yuuta#tfw when ur bf is the most talented airbender of his time n has a flight suit#better hold on inumaki#also sorry fr getting to this late ! when i got ur ask i knew i wanted to draw them floating or dancing or smth :')#they r so peter pan coded and it lends itself very well 2 fun poses bc gravity doesnt exist i make th rules smile#i had fun !! hope u Also enjoy thems#they r supporting chars in th fic but they will b given their time in the limelight fear not fear not#....looks at clock gdi i did it aGAIN GOODNIGHTTT
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