#the sketch is practice for a piece I wanna make

[trappezoider]

Hi! You were the first Hogwarts Legacy fan artist I came across and I wanted to say how much I love your works 🥰

I recently saw an ask about which program you use to create your pieces which got me wondering... 👀 do you have any tips to share with aspiring digital artists trying to learn how to properly add shading/lighting?? I'm happy with my pieces during the flat colour stage, but every time I attempt shading/lighting or other methods of adding texture/definition/perspective, it always looks "off" to me 🤔 so my WIP folder is huge rn.

Thank you in advance for any advice you're willing to share 🙏😊

Hiya there!! Thank you so much for this ask!! First of all, I gotta say how wonderful it is that you're excited about art and want to learn more about it. I just had a chat with a friend about this but I think art is such a fun, vast hobby, full of endless possibilities, and whenever people want to get into it and learn, it's just wahhhhh. Fills my heart with joy and makes me bounce :D Now, full disclaimer, I am not an art teacher so my say on the matter is not that of a professional. I struggle with these things myself as well but I'm really happy if any of my advice can help a fellow artist. Keep in mind that works for me might not work for you, and "good art" is highly subjective. But I understand that achieving that fine balance between knowing how to imitate life and then being able to recreate that imagine in your head on an empty canvas is something a lot of artists want. That's hard af though. But you can't have success without failure, that's why we have so many WIPS xD Lucky for us, our brains and hands are amazing at learning. Eventually those WIPS might become actual realised works. Crying, praying and manifesting for us both xDDD Now, if you're struggling with shading and lighting, I suggest doing value studies. Perhaps take black and white photos with a striking relationship between shadow and light, then try to replicate that without colour picking. Try to observe the whole picture, without paying too much attention to the details at first, Make your brush strokes large especially when sketching out the initial shapes. You can give yourself a time limit of say, 5-60 minutes, for each study, but I wouldn't go over a 1,5h hour limit. I recommend using fairly simple images, with less textures and where shapes are the main character so to speak. Then when you think you're ready, you can do the same thing but this time choose coloured images but still use only white/black. Excercises like these help me a ton when I feel like I wanna update my skills. Doing art is a never-ending learning curve but I feel like that's what makes it so stimulating hehe Below is an example of one value study I did recently. I don't do these often but I know I probably should xD I always just do colour studies nowdays cause that's something I'm most interested in observing at the moment :D But this is just an example of what you can do if you want to learn shading in particular. Now it doesn't need to be perfect, it's just practice that may help you get used to values and how they interact with each other on the canvas.

You can also do colour studies if that is something you're interested in. Those might be a bit more challenging but as long as you keep each study short and use simple images (like literally just an image of an egg on a table or something xD), it shouldn't be too intimidating. Sorry for such a long reply xD I hope you have lots of fun and get all the possible enjoyment from making art! So happy for you!!! Wishing you all the motivation, success and inspiration in the world!!!

[nichiperi]

I've been using this sketchbook since 2018 when I started attending university. But I didn't really use it much until around 2020, shortly before I got back into Invader Zim. Flipping through it recently, I realized that there's a bunch of stuff in here I never shared with anybody (or at least, not a lot of people), so I thought I'd post some of it! :D

Open the Read More to peer into the sketchbook~ ✨📓✨

These were some of the first adult Dib sketches I did when I just barely tiptoed back into the fandom. I was still trying to relearn the style at this point lol, but I still like 'em!

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This is what the interdimensional transporter that Zim and Dib use in my fic looks like! I'd always intended to make a nice colorful reference sheet, but it never came to pass... I'm still working on my fic though, so maybe someday!! The design could use some tweaks first though...not enough wires or cables for my taste lol.

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This is the first overtly ZADR-y thing I'd ever drawn. Sounds silly to admit now, but I was actually really scared to draw it or even talk about it at first. (⁠;⁠;⁠;⁠・⁠_⁠・⁠) Things sure are different now lol. These past few years have been my first time doing this much ship art in general, and it's been really nice to have gotten to a point where I'm not so nervous about it all the time!

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A Space Trash Zim from the @izspacetrash AU! I once had a version of this I'd colored, but I must've accidentally deleted it at some point because the thing is just gone. It is lost to the void. Maybe I should redraw him one of these days... ✨👀✨

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A gaggle of assorted doodles!! I like doing these cluttered messes every now and again to practice with expressions or poses...or even just 'cause I wanna mindlessly put more space bug shapes on paper. 🪳🪳🪳

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A Dib expression that turned out really good. Can't remember what he was supposed to be for, but....he exists. :)

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This was supposed to be a thing with a whooooole lot of Zim's killing each other. I was....feeling A Way. (⁠•⁠ ⁠▽⁠ ⁠•⁠;⁠) Buuut quickly realized that I didn't like what I did with their proportions and scrapped it. When I first started out re-learning how to draw Zim, I tended to give him more lanky proportions. But now, I really tend to favor drawing a more canon-compliant tiny Zim. I think this piece in particular was kinda the last nail in the coffin for my taller Zims. Sorry, tall Zim.... XD

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These last two were going to be part of a comic... The last time I asked for sketch requests, someone sent me a prompt that really just sent my brain into overdrive and I was SUPER inspired.....and then life happened and I didn't end up finishing the idea I had. (⁠༎ຶ⁠ ⁠෴⁠ ⁠༎ຶ⁠) Sorry if you're reading this, whoever you were! Your ask is still sitting in my box and I STILL rotate this idea in my brain quite often!! I'd love to finish it someday!

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That's all for now! But I hope y'all enjoyed! I've been having a rough time irl and seeing all these older sketches really made me happy, so I felt like sharing. Currently crawling my way out of some weirdly selective art block, but I shall have more finished things to share soon~! 💚

[angelicdudles]

Currently stuck drawing his head in only one direction atm lol :/

[chellychuu]

Peachy 💕

[lochlot-moved]

arthur sketch from last night

[haunted-doodles]

flymbo gulloping you are real to me

[cheswirls]

i think (one of) the reason(s) i've been so lethargic abt art this month is i've reached a crux where my eye is trained better than my drawing skills so i don't like how my art looks anymore

logically i know the stepping stone from here is to do studies and a bunch of boring repetitious stuff to improve my basics but i don't wannaaaaaaaa (mostly bc it's summer n the semester burnout is real) so i am currently in limbo

[arolesbianism]

Ok yeah I’m a little obsessed with them

[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 :)

[sscribbl]

just fuckingn sucks not being able to do the thing ive loved doing for my whole life and still do i just like. cant. im just not there yettttttttt uggdgdhhfhd

[rhiannonsknife]

Hiiiii! I'm a huge fan of your work!! May I please request a fanfic of Jackie Taylor x Sunshine! Reader? Reader absolutely loves arts and crafts and does it day long. Jackie and Reader don't have a lot in common but they're drawn to each other. Maybe they even fuck as reader is painting??? Perhaps the reader wanted a painting of them like that?

May I please claim 🦜?

── COLOR ME YOUR COLOR, DARLING

— summary: your girlfriend visits you in your atelier.

— warnings: fluff. established relationship. fem!reader. nsfw content. mdni. didn’t beta read this and kinda rushed through the nsfw part, so it ended up a bit short. anyway.

the smell of paint hits jackie the moment she steps inside your atelier, blending with the scent of coffee from the two cups she carefully balances in her grasp. she nudges the door open with her shoulder, her free hand pulling her spare key from the lock before slipping it into the pocket of her jacket.

sunlight filters through the large windows, casting bright afternoon light across the space that’s overtaken by half-finished projects, watercolor palettes, and more supplies than you probably need but jackie couldn’t possibly name if she tried.

you’re standing with your back turned, too absorbed in the work to notice her presence, humming softly to yourself until a familiar voice cuts through the quiet.

“you know,” jackie says, “i think you’d forget to eat and sleep if i let you!”

at the sound of her voice, you turn, catching sight of her leaning against the doorframe. “is your practice already over?” you blink as if you’re only just registering the time.

jackie huffs a small laugh, shaking her head as she crosses the room. “see?” she teases, and presses one of the warm cups into your paint-smudged hands. “you’re proving my point here! it’s 4:30”

you take a sip, sighing as the warmth spreads through you. “you’re my angel”

“i better be,” jackie smiles. she studies you for a moment before nodding toward the canvas. “how long have you been sitting here?”

you shrug, already distracted by your project again. “a while?”

she perches on the edge of your desk, careful not to disturb the scattered sketches and open books. her eyes scan your latest piece; something abstract, bright, and warm.

it’s funny, really. on paper, the two of you would make no sense: jackie, all soccer games, and pep rallies, perfectly put together and effortlessly admired. you, forever covered in paint smudges and endless creativity, always lost in some new artistic obsession. somehow, against all odds, it works.

jackie grounds you when you forget the time, and you remind her to slow down, to breathe. you balance each other, in a way, and have been together long enough that jackie has a spare key to your atelier and no longer questions the paint you inevitably leave on her clothes when she pulls you in for a hug.

“you really could take a break, you know?”

“i could...” you agree. “or you could keep me company while i finish?”

“you’ve been at this all day!” she protests, pouting. “i feel like i should demand some quality time!”

jackie steps closer from behind. you raise a brow at her over your shoulder. “quality time, huh?”

“before you say anything,” she rolls her eyes affectionately, “watching you paint while i sit quietly in the background doesn’t count!”

you grin, dipping your brush into the paint. “i thought you liked watching?”

“i do,” jackie admits immediately, nudging your arm. it’s not something she has to assure you of: she shows up to your atelier first thing after soccer practice, even when she doesn’t have to, gladly watching you work in the quiet. “but i wanna do something together today!”

you tilt your head, amused. “like what?”

jackie hesitates, then shrugs. “i want to paint too!”

that makes you pause. it’s not like you haven’t suggested it before, countless times, actually, but jackie was always the one to turn you down, insisting that art was your thing, not hers. you turn to face her fully, narrowing your eyes. “i thought you said you were bad at it?”

“that’s why i have you!”

you gaze flicks to the half-finished painting in front of you, then back to her. “you’re not touching this one!”

jackie gasps, pressing a hand to her heart theatrically. “wow. no faith in me at all!”

you laugh, already grabbing a fresh canvas and carefully setting it up, replacing your current work. “it’s not about faith,” you explain as you rip off the plastic wrapping. “it’s about the fact that i actually like this painting, and i know you’d get bored halfway through and start doodling soccer balls in the corner!”

jackie doesn’t argue, probably because she knows you’re right. instead, she steps closer, her hands settling lightly on your waist, her chin coming to rest on your shoulder from behind. “fine, fine. i have a better idea anyway!”

you smile, leaning into her touch as you set everything up for whatever jackie is planning.

“hear me out,” jackie presses closer, voice dipping. “i’ll draw,” her fingertips glide over the fabric of your shirt, tracing soft patterns against your back. “on here. and you’ll paint whatever i draw. team effort!”

you glance at her, skeptical. “that’s your idea of quality time?”

“of course!” you can’t help but shiver slightly at her touch, even as you try to hide your smile. jackie’s hands are warm, her fingertips leaving a trail of heat as they linger on the fabric of your shirt.

“alright, artist,” you reach for your paint palette, ”what color are we using?”

jackie hums in thought. “hmm…blue!”

“dark blue? light blue? sky blue?”

she sighs, dramatically. “i don’t know! the nice one!” her eyes flicker over your supplies, scanning all the shades of blue you’ve got. “you know what? just take pink instead” she nudges the side of your neck with her nose and points towards a light shade. “that one”

you snort, grabbing a brush. “you’re really taking this seriously!”

“i am!” she insists, one hands still resting on your waist and eyeing the assortment of brushes. “take that!” jackie points lazily toward a smaller brush.

“that’s a detail brush, jax. i need something bigger if i’m actually gonna paint what you draw!”

she groans, leaning her forehead against your shoulder. “god, you’re such a perfectionist!”

“i’m the perfectionist? i just take my work seriously,” you counter with a smile she cannot see, but grab the brush she picked anyway, just to humor her. “let’s see what you got!”

at that, jackie perks up, her fingers pressing against your back. she starts out slow, drawing a shape between your shoulder blades. “heart,” she murmurs, confirming what you already guessed. you guide your brush across the canvas, recreating the shape with strokes of pink.

when you finish, you wait for her next move. her fingers jump into motion again, tracing something new, more precise. letters.

j.t.

your hesitate, your lips twitching. “your initials? really?”

jackie grins, her fingertips trailing up and down your spine. “you said i could pick!”

your shake your head, but the brush moves anyway, copying the letters onto the canvas. jackie watches, pleased, her hold on you tightening slightly as she shifts closer. “looks good,” she praises.

hyper-aware of how close she is, you swallow. the full length of her body is pressed to yours, holding you comfortably. “yeah,” you manage, barely above a whisper. “it does”

just as you’re about to dip your brush back into the pink, her hands slide down, fingers grazing lower along your waist instead of your back. you pause, sensing the shift. “jackie”

“hm?” she presses the faintest kiss just below your ear. “i think we should switch colors,”

you exhale sharply, trying to keep your grip steady. “do you?”

“mhm,” she hums. her hands rest against your stomach now, thumbs brushing over the hem of your paint-streaked shirt. “red,”

you feel the word more than you hear it. as much as you want to stay focused and not give in to jackie immediately, it’s impossibly difficult with the way her hands are splayed across your skin, how her lips are skimming just below your jaw. you swallow hard, keeping your eyes on the canvas. “red?”

“yeah,” she murmurs, kissing your neck again slower. “it suits you.”

“you’re trying to distract me!”

“is it working?”

yes. god, yes.

you don’t say that, though, just force yourself to dip your brush into the red paint, feigning focus.

jackie laughs softly. “look at you,” she teases, dragging her lips down.

you squeeze your eyes shut. “you’re-“

“here,” she pushes her hands underneath your shirt, feeling up your chest with both palms, cupping your breasts. “oh?” she whispers teasingly when she realizes you’re not wearing a bra. “try that,”

jackie's teeth nibble on your earlobe as her thumb and forefinger circle your nipples. you shiver, head lulling back against her shoulder. “ah, ah, ah!” she scolds. “paint!”

“wha-“

she squeezes them to cut you off, your words morphing into a sharp yelp. “circles, baby,” she says matter of factly, soothing the sharp sting out of your nipples. “circles.”

you comply, at least, reaching for a larger brush to move it in circles across the canvas. the colors spread evenly over the blank background, creating circular patterns that mirror jackie’s touch.

“mhm,” jackie hums, her mouth brushing your neck. her fingers roll your nipples some more, pulling them into full hardness underneath the fabric of your shirt before she runs her hands downward against your sides until her fingertips reach the waistline of your pants, then dip lower.

they leave goosebumps in their wake as she pushes them into your underwear, all the way down, until her middle- and index finger press against your clit.

“o-oh-“ your thighs part instinctively under her gentle touch.

“paint…” jackie singsongs into your ear, simultaneously rubbing featherlight circles.

you try to keep up with the motions, to capture jackie’s touch on canvas before it passes, but it’s hard when she’s gotten so familiar with the outline of your body: she knows exactly where to press, where to dip and rub to get you close to the edge without actually pushing you over it.

jackie gathers your arousal on her fingertips, scoops it up where it’s dripping from you, and spreads it across your stiff clit smoothly.

“that’s it,” she praises when you, even through the haze, manage to repeat it in soft shades of pink and red. “fuck, you’re so wet”

your knuckles whiten under the force of your tight hold on the brush. “jackie,” you sigh, the painting in front of you shifting out of focus as she presses harder between your legs. “jackie, jackie, jackie!”

your hips jerk forward to chase the feeling of her fingers, to have them where you need them the most. “shh it’s okay” jackie assures. she’s biting her lip absentmindedly, looking down to where her hand has disappeared in your underwear. “it's okay, i got you”

you spread your legs a little wider, your body pulsing for her. a gasp falls from your lips at one particular good motion, her fingers curling against a spot that has your eyes rolling back in your head.“is that good for you?” she asks.

you can only give her a short nod before you throb against jackie again, every nerve ending in your body aching. she feels it, too, the way your cunt convulses against her, gushing slick over her fingers. it’s been mere minutes and you’re already trembling from the force of an imminent orgasm.

jackie uses her thumb to stimulate your clit, pumping two of her fingers into you at once. your body accommodates the stretch with ease, walls fluttering around her while she rubs you in tight circles.

“holy shit- right there! right there!” you cry as your body melts into jackie’s embrace and the brush clatters from your hands, paint splattering from the bristles.

this time, jackie doesn’t scold. she keeps up her pace, peppering the back of your neck with soft kisses while you work your body towards its height together. her fingers are steadily fucking into you and you roll your hips against the heel of jackie's hand. it seems harder for her to pull out all the way now, as if your walls are too tight, sucking her into yourself greedily.

she drags along your soft, velvet walls and pushes against your g-spot in a come hither motion each time, coaxing the pleasure out of you easily. she feels your orgasm long before you do, when your body starts to shiver and you clench around her. “come on, baby” she whispers. “i know you’re close, give it to me.”

and, oh, you do. the pleasure in your stomach tightens impossibly until it suddenly snaps and your back arches into jackie‘s front.

when you cum, your legs tremble with the force of your orgasm. they almost give out altogether, but she holds you upright, working you through it until you have no more left in you and collapse against her.

jackie only stops when your limbs start shaking from overstimulation and her wrist begins to ache. then, she slowly removes her hand from between your thighs, holding you through the aftershocks. once you have caught your breath, you let out a chuckle, wiping sweat from your forehead with the back of your head.

“so,” jackie murmurs, nudging your throat with her nose. “this does count as quality time now”

she tilts her head toward the forgotten canvas, her chin still resting on your shoulder: the streaks of pink and red cover and smear over what’s left of her initials and the heart. “pretty sure we ruined our masterpiece!”

you turn your head, eyeing the painting. “abstract,”

she rolls her eyes, but the smile doesn’t fade. she just tugs you closer, pressing a lingering kiss to your temple.

“c’mon,” she murmurs, her palms brushing down your arms before lacing her fingers through your paint-stained ones. “i’ll help you clean up”

[forcedagere]

I personally really like the idea of Bill x Reader x Ford. This one kinda ties into my previous post, but it’s not required reading. I suppose this would be an AU where Ford accepted Bill’s offer during Weirdmaggedon, or something else went wrong resulting in Bill staying in power :)

Contents: forced age regression, yandere, implied mental manipulation

Whereas Bill is far from the best caretaker (though he tries, in his own way), Ford takes care to create a semblance of structure in your life. He doesn’t have tons of practical experience with children or little ones such as you, but he makes up for it with dedication. He takes to caring for you as if it were a newly discovered, fascinating field of study. In other words… He reads many, many books, and tries all kinds of things to figure out what you like best.

Ford is not entirely fond of the kind of dynamic you have with Bill. It's not because he doesn't want to be referred to with parental terms, that's simply a matter of preference, but that he insists on you being friends above anything else. Considering the dynamics at play here, Ford cannot help but view it…

"As simply pedagogically irresponsible, Bill." The triangle in question rolls his eye. "Oh, boohoo! Fancy McFancypants over here knows what’s up!” Bill glances at you from the corner of his eye. Seeing you crack a smile while you’re sketching away with your crayons, he’s encouraged. “You read one book on how to raise a kid, and now you wanna tell me what to do? Get lost. Kid, c'mon, prove him wrong-- I'm your favourite, right?" You look up from your latest piece of art. You are drawing all three of you, in fact. You're usually deaf to their arguments, it's such a constant that you've grown used to the noise and stopped viewing it as a threat. (Your daddy calls it 'bickering'; Billy, when daddy isn't listening, calls it 'flirting'. That makes you giggle.) But you don't like getting involved in it yourself! So you firmly shake your head, and drop the pacifier attached to your necklace to speak. "No favourites… I love you both," you say with the confidence only someone as little as you could have. Billy's eyelid flutters, and your daddy smiles.

To put it simply, Bill is the ‘fun, rule-breaking parent’ and Ford is… A little less that. One should not take Bill Cipher as the benchmark of taking good care of a human, though.

Ford will make sure your meals are more varied than the endless stream of candy that Bill feeds you, and get you tucked in for sleep at regular times, too. Compared to Bill, who enjoys playing games with you and ‘roughhousing’, Ford prefers calmer activities. He’s definitely up for the occasional board game, but, most of the time, he’ll read to you, make drawings upon requests (or give you lessons!), or toy around with science experiments safe for someone who gets the urge to put anything that looks interesting inside their mouth.

He might’ve taken you for an adventure or two outside, but… The world hasn’t been the same since Bill got his hands all over it. He may be technically immortal now. You decidedly are not, as far as he knows. Either way, he doubts that Bill would let you out of this room to begin with. He doesn’t have to ask to be able to know that. If there is any reason he would keep someone locked up the way he does with you, it must be because you have some form of special connection to him. Ford does not believe he would risk that.

Really, Ford isn’t stupid or blind. It’s not that he’s going along with all of this because he is ignorant of Bill’s manipulation of your mental state. Bill can call it a ‘nudge in the right direction’ all he wants. He’s keeping you regressed. But everything has changed. He has changed, and Ford doesn’t know if he made the right decision. He fears he hasn’t. (Somewhere out there, in an alternate universe, a Stanford must live who made a difference decision. Ford hopes he’s happy.)

Spending time in this little contained room, with something dependent on him and eager to be looked after by him, who doesn’t know better and never will… It’s not good, it’s the very definition of selfish, but it’s comforting to him. Grounding, in a sense. With an eternity of time left ahead of him and the foundations of his previous life all but crumbled, he has something steady to return to. It doesn’t matter how much he rationalizes it. It’s twisted and fucked up, plain and simple.

…He supposes he can understand why Bill finds him so amusing, even now.

A little whimper snaps him from the spiral of his thoughts. Your bottle is empty. He should get youa refill, then pull you back on his lap.

[anime-grimmy-art]

UPDATE: NEW DEADLINE DEC 8TH

Welcome to the Finish this in your style!

In contrast to a DTIYS, where the goal is to recreate an existing piece, the FTIYS is about making a provided sketch your own.

All necessary infos are on the slides, but here a summary:

Deadline is December 1st.

(Can be extended if asked for.)

Sketches can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10xPkvv588FX8mNj5AdNAWT8Y0TW0KRWK?usp=sharing

There’s only 2 rules:

- It has to be the same character

- It should be obvious which sketch the finished piece is based on.

Other than that, you are allowed to work as freely as you want. Just colouring the sketch, actually finishing it, or heck, even going beyond that. You also don’t have to keep true to my art style! You can totally put your own spin on it. As long as the concept is upheld, it’s viable for entry.

Entries should either be posted with the tag #grimmyftiys (and tag me), or dm-ed to me directly. You’re also allowed to work on as many sketches as your heart desires, but mind you, all of them will be counted as one entry.

Prices:

1st place - Full Body, Full Render Character Illustration (proper lineart)

2nd place - Half Body, Simple Style Character Illustration (somewhat messy lineart)

3rd place - Bust, Flat Colour Character Illustration (coloured sketch)

Depending on the amount of entries, I also might do some sketches for honorable mentions!

I made sure to put a wide variety of sketches. I have some really rough ones, some more clean ones, some borderline lineart. Some are never seen sketches, some are sketches of stuff I’ve posted. I also included a ton of different fandoms - e.g. Undertale, Genshin, Trigun or Little Nightmares, just to name a few. I’m sure there’s something for everyone!

I hope you guys have fun with this!!!!

Also, on a side note, you can freely use these sketches for practice or just for fun, even if you DONT wanna participate. But if you do end up uploading them somewhere, do please remember to credit me, thaaaanks.

[ohno-the-sun]

Oh uh forgot to ask in the previous ask (the one with the digital piece of candy and scurrying and stuff)

How do you draw art so good

Like

Is there a method you use or is that just the style you've gotten over time?

you've activated my trap card

I'm just gonna preface that this tutorial is from someone who was not professionally trained and didn't have a lot of free time for art, so a lot of the tips I have is short cuts I use to get the best results quickly

If you genuinely want to get better at art then please look at references and practice that is always the best

However if you are like me and only really do art for fun but want to go faster then these are for you pfppt

Overall I'd say my style is influenced by speedpaints I would watch when I was younger, I like analyzing how people do things and what makes something look "good" to me

I always recommend watching them because they will often have techniques you've never seen before or do things a certain way that you can try out yourself

I consume good art, it feeds me

but seriously it can be super helpful when developing your own methodology, or just generally trying something new

Usually it starts with me pulling some references from artists I really admire and sort of sketching out how they do the things I like

For example 8um8le has like super good anatomy and poses so I focused on trying to replicate how they do that

venemous-qwille is super good at color and pulling focus so that's what I focused on in my study of them

In general I'd say my process is sketch -> silhouette -> color -> shading -> render

I really don't like doing lineart lol

I'd say for the sketch the most important part is using references and just kind of fudging it until it looks correct anatomically/physically

General rule of thumb is spend time on areas of interest, and keep non important areas light (like the stitching on his pants)

I don't do lineart because I think its unnecessary for most paintings I do

I naturally tend to put more time and focus on areas of interest (like hands and feet) and if you use a brush with opacity for the sketch, those areas are naturally going to be darker in the final sketch

Of course this is gonna be different for everyone but it's what works for me

Sometimes I do a really really sketchy layer underneath my sketch/lineart, just so I know where everything is going

Use thumbnails! They are great to help figure out the general layout of things and what pose I wanna do

Next is what I call the "silhouette" layer

This is super important for me cause it helps me refine the figure and make sure the pose/anatomy looks correct, also depending on what color I choose for the silhouette helps guide what colors I'm going to use on top

This piece is a good example of how it works. The silhouette shows me how the figure interacts with the background, how the pose looks and if its any good

The silhouette layer doesn't have to be super clean, as long as it follows the sketch decently well and shows where the figure is then its fine

I also sometimes make the silhouette layer multiple colors to help guide shading and vibe

Next is the coloring layer. I usually make this a clipping layer on top of the silhouette layer, or I change the silhouette layer to alpha lock, either way it saves me time on coloring everything in

Sometimes I am super rough with the coloring too, using like an airbrush or my fav watercolor brush just to generically block in color where I want it

Works out cause most objects have like a bounce light to them from surrounding objects, so this is sort of a cheat I use to get that effect without all the work lol

Also don't be afraid to have the lower silhouette layer shining through, having multiple colors sort of subtly shining through the piece helps lots

Next is the shading layer, this is usually another clipping layer, usually set to "multiply"

The colors I pick here is usually within this range, any color works, just depends on the piece and vibes.

Since this piece is set in a sunset forest I choose a more desaturated orange for the shading layer

I know there's a whole thing about multiply layer being a crutch (and it kind of it) but it is a useful tool when you just want some darker values across the piece but don't want to go through the process of color picking every single darker shade

Also in my opinion it looks better than picking a darker color and setting it to a lower opacity, idk I just think the color has more "depth"

Next is the hardest to explain, sort of the vibes layer

Usually its just a layer of more concentrated color on top of the normal color and I fudge with the settings and values until I get a result I like

Next is the longest step, is the "extra" or the render stage.

Usually I add a background before this step so that if I need to merge the figure better with the background I can

If I render with a white background but he's supposed to be in a dark forest, its going to mess with the lighting severely

Also this is when I add more "vibe" layers on top to get the figure to match the background better

Backgrounds in general I recommend checking out @/derekdomnicdsouza on instagram he's got lots of great tutorials for breaking down backgrounds simply

I'd say general rule for the rendering layer is to focus on the areas of interest and spend less time on areas you don't care about

I even blur stuff out on the edges I don't want people to see, partially to save time on fixing mistakes in areas I dont care about (oop), but mainly to help draw the eye to the areas I do want people to focus on

Theoretically parts of the background should like mesh with the characters, parrallel lines are a no no unless they are directing a viewer to look somewhere, things that are perpendicular help bring things together

tbh I'm still not the best at layout and probably need more practice, but overall this is what I like doing

Overall this is what my layer set up ends up being

Sort of a sandwich with the lineart/sketch as the "meat" lol

Color and basic shading below the sketch, clean-up and rendering on top

I like this method cause it's super flexible if I ever want to try something different or try to replicate someone's style

I can make each step less or more messy depending on the end result and can add a lineart layer if need be. Also if there's a part that is straight up not working or needs to be removed its super easy to do cause I can just paint over it on the "extras" layer, color picking from the surrounding area to get the same vibe

Generally rule of thumb for my style is: get the initial layout of colors, form and shading to look good, then the rendering should be smooth sailing

Really the best advice I can give to get better at art is to enjoy what you're doing and become very very obsessed with drawing a silly little guy

You'll eventually get very good at drawing them pfptpf

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hello! I want to participate in the CBC Black History Month Challenge but im a tad bit overwhelmed and not sure where to start with any piece I do

I know you said qoutes but theres so many qoutes i could choose that im a bit stumped

I was considering doing studies of diffrent hair styles or diffrent hair coverings since i haven't practiced those in a while but im not sure if it would count?

I want to get to actual pieces but again way too overwhelmed with choice to

I'm glad you're finding this difficult, because that gives you the opportunity to intentionally work through it to create a good Black character design!

Let's walk through this with everyone, then, since other folks might be on the same page:

1) Think of this project as a gift. Even though the practice is important, it's not about your benefit- it's about what would make Black viewers of your work know that they are valued by this creator, that they aren't just tools of storytelling or an alien species!

2) You don't have to do a whole bunch poorly, when you can do one well. One well done sketch > 1000 racist pieces. You have 27 more days of this challenge (and really, every day after that!) Practice! Recognize that the effort you're putting in is something many creators might not even consider doing! Take the time to find references and work at it- that's part of practicing good Black character design!

You said you want to do a hair study- there are plenty of quotes, poems, and media on the joy and uplift of Black hair. You're gonna have to take your time to read some of them, and find what expresses the way you feel most connected to what you wanna do. I took thirty minutes today to skim through poems. Do you want to deliver something fast, or something genuine? Which leads to my last and important point:

3) What are you trying to say?

I've said it a few times, but you can often tell when someone creates Black characters or designs to satisfy themselves, and not Black viewers. So: what do you want to say to your Black viewers with this piece? What do you want them to walk away with?

Do you want to say that you value the effort that goes into Black hair (thus your effort into practicing?) Find poems or quotes related to the effort and beauty of Black hair. Do you want them to know that you recognize their value in fan media? You can also just say some nice things outright (don't be weird with it, just be respectful).

This is me trying to make y'all practice purposeful intent with Black character design, with the goal of a Black audience. You can do it! It can be done!

[hetameme]

long wait

@zorangezest I just wanna say sorry it's taken me so long to post, I just wanted to make sure I respected your characters properly, and frankly I shouldve had more sketches but, that can be for next time. Especially since I saw your last oc post and the pink lady is sooo prettyyyyy like ,,, bruh I need to do more

here's an early sketch I worked on, I just like drawing her a lot and really wanted to give her a big hat .. like lady dimitrescu. I think I'll return to this in the future with better sketches for you though! Since I felt this one was pretty lazy .. I didnt even finsiht the color I just realized ToT

another Roro piece .. she's just too fun, and I wanted to draw the Chinese new year outfits when you posted that work a while ago, I just never got around to it .. Though, I did want to make way more Chinese inspired masks (this one is just a butterfly), I do imagine I'll return to give Roro more outfits //

FINALLYY Y !! A Yin piece, I am gonna need to practice his split body waaaay more in order to get him right ...

next is a little mini comic of your guys meeting mine, since you'd inspired me to want to draw my old ocs again

and that is unfortunately all for now .. I've been outrageously tired recently trying to do a bunch of things and keep up with Esports, I just hope next time I'll have a little more to offer ,,