#tips for artists

[thequeenofthedisneyverse]

Hey artists! Here's a new app for ya!

Tiny glade!

Like what the screenshot says, you can build all sorts of houses and buildings (mostly houses).

If you're someone who struggles to imagine a house (or has trouble putting it on paper/screen), I recommend using this game. The full version comes out September 23, but the demo is out now (some stuff is limited but you can still have fun with it).

Here's a little cottage I made (it's fun once you get the hang of it)

Tutorials below (which I recommend watching before using the game)

@teawizard

[erika-xero]

Beware, the long post incoming. Pro tips for artists who work on commissions!

DISCLAIMER: I do not have, like, a HUGE online following and can’t be called a popular or viral artist, but I do have some experience and I’ve been working as a freelance artist for more that five years, so I could share a few tips on how to work with clients with my fellow artists. Scroll down for the short summary!

First of all, you always need to have your Terms of Service written down in a document that is accessible for your potential clients. And by terms of service I don’t mean a set of rules like “I don’t draw mecha, anthro and N/S/F/W”. There is much more into it, than you may think when you first start drawing commissions.

You’ll need to understand how copyright law/author’s rights in your country works (for example, US copyright or Russian author’s rights, be sure to check your local resources). There are a bunch of sites where you can actually read some legal documents (. I know it might be boring, but TRUST me, you WILL need this knowledge if you choose this career path.

Russia, for example, is plagued with shops selling anime merchandise. The merchandise is usually printed somewhere in the basement of the shop and the shop owners literally rip off other people’s intellectual property. If the artist ask them to remove their IP from the shop the owners usually try to fool them with lies about how the IP works. They will tell you, that you have to register copyright on every single drawing and if you don’t do it anyone can reproduce and sell your artwork. In reality, copyright law in most countries simply doesn’t work this way. Once you create an original work and fix it, take a photograph, write a song or blog entry, paint an artwork, you already are the author and the owner. Yes, there are certain procedures of copyright registration, which is only a step to enhance the protection, but you become an author the very moment you create a piece of art, and no one have a right to take your creation from you. Knowing your rights is essential.

Some of your commissioners may try to scam you too, but most of them might simply not be aware of how copyright law works. I literally had people asking me questions whether or not the character I am commissioned to draw becomes MY intellectual property. I literally had to convince the person (who was legit scared, since the commissioned piece was going to be a first image of his character ever created) otherwise. If you have an idea of the character written down or fixed in any other form such as a collage, a sketch, or a concept art -- the character is yours. Artist may have rights to the image they create, but not the character itself. Your potential commissioner must acknowledge that their characters, settings and etc. is still theirs, while your artwork is yours, if your contract doesn’t state otherwise. You can sell the property rights on your artwork to your commissioner if you want, but it is unnecessary for non-commercial commissions. And I strongly advice you to distinguish the non-commercial commissions from commercial ones and set the different pricing for them. Even if you sell ownership of your artwork to your commissioner, you can not sell the authorship. You will always remain an author of your artwork, thus you still have all the author’s rights stated in the legal documents.

Another thing that is absolutely necessary to be stated in your terms of service is information whether (and when) it is possible to get a refund from you. You absolutely have to write it down: no. refunds. for finished. artworks.

You have already invested time and effort to finish an artwork. The job is done and the money is yours. I’ve heard stories of commissioners demanding refund a few months later after the commission was finished and approved by the commissioners, because, quote “I do not want it anymore”. Commissioning an artist doesn’t work this way, artwork is not an item purchased on shein or aliexpress that can be sent back to the seller. It is not a mass production. It is a unique piece of art. Example: My friend once drew a non-commercial commission for a client who tried to use it commercially later on. She contacted him and reminded of the Terms of Service he agreed with, offering him to pay a fee for commercializing the piece instead of taking him to the court or starting a drama. He declined and suddenly demanded a full refund for that commission via Paypal services. My friend contacted the supports and showed them the entire correspondence with that client. She also stated that the invoice he paid included a link to the Terms and Service he had to agree with if he pays that invoid. The money were returned to her.

However, partial refund can be possible at the certain stage of work. For example, the sketch is done, but something goes horribly wrong. Either the client appeared to be a toxic person, or an artist does not have a required skill to finish the job. I suggest you keep the money for the sketch, but refund the rest of the sum. It might be 50/50 like I suggested to my clients before (when I still could work with Paypal), but it really depends on your choise. I suggest not doing a full refund though for many reasons: not only you make yourself vulnerable, but you also might normalize a practice harmful to other artists this way.

The main reason why full refund when the sketch/line-art are done must not be an option is that some clients may commission other artists with lower prices to finish the job. This brings us to the next important point: you absolutely need to forbid your clients from altering, coloring or overpainting your creation or commission other artists to do so. This also protects your artwork from being cropped, changed with Instagram filters or even being edited into a N/S/F/W image. Speaking of which. If you create adult content, you absolutely need to state that to request such a commission, your commissioner must at least be 18/21 years old (depending on your country). And as for the SFW commissions you also have to state that if someone underage commissions an artwork from you it is automatically supposed that they have a parental concern.

There is also a popular way to scam artist via some payment systems, called I-did-not-receive-a-package. Most of the payment systems automatically suppose that you sell goods which have to be physically delivered via postal services. This is why it is important to state (both in the Terms of Service and the payment invoice itself) that what commissioner is about to receive is a digital good.

And the last, but not the least: don’t forget about alterations and changes the commissioner might want to make on the way. Some people do not understand how difficult it may be to make a major change in the artwork when it is almost finished. Always let your commissioners know that all the major changes are only acceptable at early stages: sketch, line-art, basic coloring. Later on, it is only possible to make the minor ones. I prefer to give my commissioner’s this info in private emails along with the WIPs I send, but you can totally state it in your Terms of Service. I do not limit the changes to five or three per commission, but I really do appreciate it when I get all the necessary feedback in time.

To sum this post up, the info essential for your Terms of Service doc is:

- The information on whether or not your commissions are commercial or non-commercial. If they are non-commercial, is there a way to commercialize them? At what cost?

- The information on author’s and commissioner’s rights;

- The information on whether (and when) refunds are possible;

- The prohibition of coloring, cropping, overpainting and other alterations;

- The information on whether or not you provide the commissioner with some physical goods or with digital goods only;

- Don’t forget about your commissioner’s age! If you work with client who is a minor, a parental consern is required. And no n/s/f/w for underage people!

- You may also want to include that you can refuse to work on the commission without explanation in case you encounter a toxic client or feel like it might be some sort of scam.

- I also strongly suggest you work with prepay, either full or 50% of total sum, it usually scares off the scammers. I take my prepay after me and my client agree on a rough doodle of an overall composition.

- I also include the black list of the themes: everyting offensive imaginable (sexism, homophobia, transfobia, racism, for N/S/F/W artists it also might be some certain fetishes and etc). Keep your reputation clean!

- Ban N/F/T and blacklist the commissioners who turn your artworks into them anywayss, don’t be shy <3

These are the things that are absolutely necessary but are so rarely seen in artists’ Terms of Service that it makes me sad. Some of these tips really helped me to avoid scams and misunderstandings. I really hope it helps you all!

[indieyuugure]

Love your art and how you tell stories!!! Any tips for young artist?

Thanks!

Um, well I mean other than hours upon hours of just practicing by drawing hundreds of whatever you’re learning to draw, here’s a few things I learned that helped me immensely:

Anatomy is a daunting subject to take on but I promise you this, whether it’s people or animals or both (or both at the same time depending on what you’re working towards), I guarantee you that learning it as soon as you can will dramatically improve not only the way it looks but also teach you how bodies work and will help you in posing and in drawing action especially. Nothing bad will happen if you learn anatomy, so why not start now?

Pintrest! PINTREST MAN JUST HEAR ME OUT! The amount of art tutorials on there for every concept you can possibly imagine is absolutely invaluable to a beginner artist and even a more advanced artist! People say art school will help you but they are just wrong. Pintrest has everything you could ever want to know and for free! Do yourself a favor and it check out!

It’s hard, but ask some you trust to point out flaws in your art. It took me a long time to be able to take criticism, but it’s extremely important to have someone who’s not you point out the flaws in your drawings. Not only can they see flaws you can’t, but it’ll help you get a list of things you need to work on! This can be literally anyone! Friends (online or in person), siblings, parents, partners it doesn’t matter, just someone who can give it to you straight. Just remember, making mistakes doesn’t mean you’re a bad artist, it means you’re a learning artist! Don’t give up, keep refining your skills!

Hopefully young artists find these tips helpful! Some are easier than others, but I promise you that if you can use even one, your art journey will be much easier!

Good question! :]

[blurrymind11]

Teeth! (My first fav thing to draw)

That’s just what I kinda noticed, this isnt really for guidelines but more for visualization, but its for anyone! I’ll try to do more if thats what people like, i just want people to enjoy and learn art! (Did this without my pencil lol)

[mibyledraws]

alt text 101 for artists

I’m not an accessibilty expert, but I gathered these tips here and there, and it has really been helping me writing better alt texts - and I hope they will help others too!

Alternative text is a description of an image that can be read by a screen reader. It also can help the understanding of an image for people who don't use screen readers.

What do you write?

It all goes down to including what is relevant to give the user an accurate idea of your artwork:

the medium you used to make the artwork (is it a digital illustration? a traditional oil painting? a graphite pencil sketchbook doodle?)

the subject of the artwork

anything that is relevant for understanding the meaning of the artwork. For instance, is the lighting important, or does it bring a particular meaning or mood?

Write sentences - don’t just throw away key words. EDIT: don't write full sentences, but phrases and fragments to keep your description concise

adding one more thing after getting feedback: keep it concise! Under 125 characters (even 100 is best)

Where/how do I add it?

The alt text feature is more or less obvious on the apps we usually post on. In doubt, please just search for it on a web browser, you’ll find how to add it in the blink of an eye :)

On Twitter

enable the alt text reminder! Everytime you post an image, it will remind you to add alt text if you forgot it. Go in your settings, then “accessibility, display and languages”. Then “accessibility”, and in the media section, check the “receive image description reminder” box.

on web browser: once you’ve uploaded your image, click on “add description” under it.

on the app: once you’ve uploaded your image, click on the “+alt” bubble in the right bottom corner that appeared on your image.

On Instagram

at the bottom of the posting page, go in “advanced settings”, then “accessibility”, then “write the alt text”.

On Tumblr

once you’ve uploaded your image, click on the three dots icon that appears when your mouse is on the image, then click on “update the description”.

On Mastodon

once you’ve uploaded your image, click on the “description missing” message that appears on it.

On your website (portfolio, shops, etc)

Where and how you can add it depends on the platforms but there’s always a way! My tip for this would be to schedule yourself an alt text audit of your website to take a moment when you would search how to do it and when you would add all the necessary alt texts! I’d also encourage you to pay attention to some other accessibility features - for instance contrast between background and text. There are lots of ressources out there and I admit it can sound overwhelming: digital accessibility is an expertise, a job field in itself after all. In my opinion, taking it a few steps at a time is a good way to go! For instance I like to do little accessibility audits of my portfolio every once in a while and check a new area that I might have missed before.

I forgot to add it, what should I do?

On some platforms, you can add it after posting if needed - it’s the case on the Instagram app for instance. Always try to see if you can add it afterwards. If you can’t, add it in the replies (if it’s on twitter for instance) or edit the body/caption of your post if you can change this but can’t change the alt text.

Adding it as a “simple description” instead of an alt text that will be read by a screen reader in lieu of the image isn’t perfect, but having it somewhere very close to the image in plain text that will get to be read by screen readers is way better than nothing to my knowledge :)

It's Disability Pride Month (July, when I'm writing this)

I wanted to take some time to encourage you to take some time and energy this month, and at anytime of the year, when you can, to learn about Disability Justice. I’m not the best at explaining what it is, and how much there is at stake. I’m better at this, making small guides about what fellow artists can do to make their work more welcoming to disabled people. But it doesn’t mean Disability Justice isn’t close to my heart and that I shouldn’t even mention it.

There’s a documentary about the Disability Rights movement that I can only highly recommend - it’s Crip Camp. It’s on netflix, and even watchable in full on Youtube.

Pay attention to us, disabled people, to what we have to say. ”Nothing about us without us”: our perspectives and opinions are those you must focus on when it comes to disability and to our lives.

[acrylicalchemy]

Here’s a quick and simple art hack for dented canvases that works like magic 🪄 Join me on this artistic journey for more tips, recommendations, and all my artist audios 🌈🙆‍♂️❤️

[blueboxbeagle]

Don't post you art on Tumblr as PNGs!

Ok this is important: Tumblr, at least in my experience, will desaturate PNG images but not JPEGs! For proof here's screenshots of some of my art as both a PNG and a JPEG on Tumblr.

Top is PNG, bottom is JPEG. Notice the difference, especially on warm colors.

PNGs might be better for storing images but please upload them to Tumblr as JPEGs!

[cocoafloodsthemetro]

♡ Body type diversity ♡

[kosss369]

Do you have any tips for drawing? 

uhh well i developed my art style by looking at other peoples art

when i first began seriously drawing i was about 11, and i traced a lot

back then i didn’t know what tracing was so pls don’t blame me lol but tracing helped me a lot (if you trace don’t claim it as yours, ask permission and make sure the og artist lets you, credit them always)

i cant really help honestly because my style is a bit strange (and isn’t really similar to any artist i’ve ever seen) tho i suggest to look at refs

for people, anatomy is really important, unless you wanna have your own anatomy style thing (blocky legs, etc)

sorry if this doesn’t help lol i dont really help with drawing tips often

another thing that helped me with anatomy a lot were collab art pictures

this is one, i just got it from google . you can download ibis paint x, which is free, and has these collab art thingies where you can trace over and find your style

if you wanna do anything like anthropomorphic related i cant really help witht wht lol i don’t draw furries

i usually draw people, and for anything else, i use refs (items, backgrounds)

[getvalentined]

Oh by the way, to keep tumblr from turning your images into lossy, shitty JPGs, give it at least 5 pixels of transparency and save it as a PNG. The system will wrap it up into a PNJ, but it won't actually lose its format and there will be no gross crunch artifacts.

I do this by extending the canvas on my art by 1 pixel vertically, causing it to have a transparent row at the top or bottom, or by making my watermark or a little accent somewhere partially transparent.

[eyezdrawz]

Tips on making elderitch horror(no matter story or character) that work best in your opinion, go👀👀👀

my biggest tip is go crazy with any creepy person or monster you wanna create. Gore, body horror, and weird creatures are a big thing in eldritch horror, not so much shock. And when creating Monsters, monsters have no limits, add wings, add tentacles, add a tail, add scales, add multiple mouths, add multiple eyes whatever, horror is horror so do what you want with it as long as its unsettling (thats just my personal idea tho)

Another tip is when making an eldritch horror story don't jump into the action, build things up, add things that you need to figure out in the future, and/or add things that you could have only known in the past, in eldritch horror, from what I've seen and what I personally go by, it's great to emphasize the unknowable and the incomprehensible. Make things straight up strange.

Thats all I got for now, once again this is just my personal opinion, horror can really be whatever you feel it could be, thanks for the ask btw!!

[novelcain]

I have a small head cannon now with my version of reader that I wanted to share with you:

She has a lotus pin in her hair due to her association with Quanyin and it has the added bonus of extra protection (like a protection seal)

Just wanted to share, now I’m going back into my hole to finally finish a fic that’s been giving me writers block for two months now.

*gets slapped with writers block in the face*

Gosh darn it….

(By the way any tips on how to overcome writers block?)

That's a pretty interesting idea. Like a lil fashionable talisman~

And good luck with your writing hope you can get through the writers block

As far as tips go, I unfortunately can't help much in the writer's/artist's block since I don't really get it.😬 If anything I just get bursts of laziness where I don't wanna pick up my laptop cause that's too much effort and so end up curled up in my nest scrolling through tiktok all day. But to remedy that, I just force myself to pick up my laptop or @lovesick-ritz will kindly hand it to me so I can get things done.

So here's the tips that I could think of:

Set a designated area or method for writing (ex. I only write on my laptop bc I've assigned it mentally as my preferred place to write)

Make it as easy as possible for you to write (ie. leave the writing tabs open. I personally never have word closed there's always at least my notes tab open but I usually have at least 3 word tabs don't ask me why I'm addicted to keeping tabs open)

Try to get rid of as many distractions as you can like unneeded social media (having a tumblr tab open is always my down fall cause I get distracted by asks)

Since I have adhd and autism complete silence honestly distracts me more than anything so I like to play this 10 hour thunder storm video on YouTube (this also helps with my tinnitus in case anyone else got that)

Another thing I've been told that help is just start writing little notes or just anything at all and maybe that'll spur you into what you want to be writing

Also some random tips if found useful when it comes to writing/drawing:

If you hyperfixate on writing and drawing for long periods of time like I do (like I'm talking about 8 hour sit down don't move sessions) get water and a couple snacks before you start and be sure to stretch at least once an hour

Remember to specifically do full hand stretches to avoid carpal tunnel and writer's/artist's arthritis

Try to get up and walk around as much as possible (if you can as someone with walking issues I know that isn't always easy or even possible)

One thing I like to do to rest my eyes and brain is after a few hours I'll go to Spotify and play a few songs (or in my case one song on repeat I've been particularly obsessed with the Epic sagas since they've come out and have been constant listening to Survive in the Cyclops saga) with your eyes closed. Staring at a screen all day can be harmful to your eyes and brain.

And for drawing with adhd, if you're working on a long piece it can get frustrating to work on one part for long periods of time so keep in mind that if you're start to feel bored or tired with the part that you're working on it's ok to move to a different part. (ie. you've been working on the hair for a while and start to feel understimulated to move to the face or even a completely different area so get that stimulation) It's not like a story where you gotta remember plot points and continuity the whole thing is right there so just work on whatever part catches your fancy. Or hell if you get bored just draw lil scribbles for a second in a corner somewhere until you feel up to going back to the piece.

Please keep in mind while reading these that I by no means have healthy habits. As I stated I hyperfixate on projects and will often neglect my human needs for extremely long periods on accident; however, I am lucky enough to have a very attentive partner that reminds me and encourages me to take care of myself and helps me when I can't. (Love you Ritz. Literally couldn't live without you~ mwah💜)

HOWEVER! Because of this I am extremely used to living with unhealthy habits and have an OBSENE amount of tips for dealing/living with them so if anyone wants some autism/adhd/depression/anxiety (all of which I have kinda extreme forms of) life tips lemme know and I'll write a whole essay for you. Tho again I will say these tips are not cures. These conditions are permanent so these tips would just be ways to make living with them a little easier. (Honestly I might just make that post even if no one asks for it on the off chance that helps even one person)

[alexfdesign]

more and more with less and less

[jaelendilla]

Tip for Artists: Remember not to compare yourself with other artists. You don’t know what type of devil they made a contract with to become so talented.

[onewhobelongstotheforest-blog]

Art Tablets

Could someone impart their wisdom please?

I'm in need of some advice from the artists of Tumblr. I have always been a purely paper and pencil sketcher. I have several sketchbooks with drawings dating all the way back from my middle school days to today. That's how I've always done it. I don't intend to stop using my sketchbook, but I wish to try out drawing via Tablets. I like the idea of being able to completely erase unwanted pencil marks that refuse to disappear (Stop Pressing Down So Hard, Hands!!) and saving initial copies of my drawings that I can change in different ways and see which version I like best.

Problem is I haven't a clue of what I should be looking for. I don't have any experience with Tablets for drawing. So I thought I should ask on the opinions of all the various experts here! I'm looking for one that feels like you're drawing on actual paper and will only be using it for artwork. Doesn't have to be anything too high-end or fancy, but still reliable and good quality.

If anyone can share their thoughts and/or recommendations on Art Tablets, that would be greatly appreciated and a big help!