#trying to get better at stylizing realistic looking characters

[hnnny]

Take an old set of Baldur's Gate 3 doodles.

[theswedishpajas]

The man truly can’t take a genuine compliment 🙄

[oobbbear]

Hi!!!!!!

I really love your art and I was wondering if you had any art tips?

I'm pretty good at drawing realistically, but I struggle with more stylized or cartoon-y stuff...

Here I’m going to talk about the two, in my opinion, the most important aspects of stylization is: ‘Simplification’ and ‘Exaggeration’

First, simplification,

I took this picture of a man holding a hammer, if you just look the silhouette, it is very complicated the pose is stiff

Try summarize the pose with only two simple lines, one representing the head, torso and the leg, the other representing the arms. This is the line of action. Now you got the two lines, play around with it try make it flow better. (Google ‘line of action’ you can find a lot more better examples)

The next step is to simplify the previous drawing throw away all the bumps and little details, take what you think is the most important and draw it based off the line of action you just acquired. this step might take a lot of practices so look at tutorials and draw a lot you’ll get there (Go on YouTube and search ‘life drawing tutorial’ they teach this step really well)

This is how you simplify a complicated pose! I’ll talk about how to simplify character after the next point

Second is exaggeration

I’m using the same photo here again blocking the person black so we can see the silhouette clear. This time we’re not finding the line of action, we’re reducing this person into a simple shape, to me, he looks like a rectangle.

great, now we try drawing this man with only rectangles

After blocking out the simple rectangles, exaggerate them, make the big ones even bigger, the small ones even tinnier.

Make the main focus of the drawing clear and easy to see, the audience needs to be immediately on that thing the moment this drawing shows up! What’s the focus point of the drawing? The hammer, it’s too small for one to find so let’s exaggerate it make it huge.

Tada, now you have a clear and cartoony silhouette, the rest you can fill in however you like

To cartoonify a character is easy, similar to how you cartoonify poses, you take out the little details and leave what you think is the most important, the things that makes the character unique, and exaggerate them

((Here I’m using a genshin character because their character designs are known for being a hell to animate (genshin fans don’t come for my ass this is only for educational purposes))))

I’m… not the best at explaining things so if you can’t understand any of these please let me know!!!!!!!!!!

[patheticbatman]

I haven't seen any posts about this yet but l've seen some fan art that makes me feel this needs to be said:

Don't forget Leah Sava Jeffries has darker skin when making Annabeth Chase fan art!

She is much closer to Lupita Nyong'o than Zoe Kravitz when it comes to shading, reflection, and complementary color usage :).

Lighting for dark skin is different on light skin. Light skin gets changed by lighting, and dark skin reflects the lighting. Below is a lovely shot of Nyong'o's character from Wakanda Forever in mourning. The filmmakers emphasize the umber qualities of her skin in contrast to the funereal white and (arguably harsh) light across her shoulder below.

Try to pick spots that aren't directly in or near the light, and try mixing 3 or more! You can put it into a color mixer online, or even color pick, lower the opacity, and lay the shades over each other until you find one that fits. And of course, the more 'realistic' you want to go with shading and lighting, the more shades you're going to want to be able to explore vivaciously :D.

Let's take a look at the same 3 beautiful actresses I mentioned at the beginning, with a bad color picked area and a better-ish color picked area. (Please keep in mind, these are not perfect comparisons, as I was not able to find pictures of all 3 actresses under the same kind of lighting.)

Kravitz's has a clear difference between the two, but they aren't too far apart, in comparison to Nyong’o’s and Jeffries’s. Note the dullness in the poorly picked shades as opposed to the better ones. Also keep in mind that while Kravitz has a rosy undertone (at least in that picture - it’s from The Batman, which has stylized coloring) Nyong’o has a slight cool undertone (I can’t pin down quite what, but the picture is definitely not stylized like Kravitz’s).

Jeffries runs more ochre or russet, but neither of those are pink. They are more red than terracotta or umber, but to call Jeffries’s face rosy would be wrong. Err more towards the golden when drawing her.

^^saved an image from a writing tutorial long ago, but can’t seem to find it. If someone recognizes it, I’ll link it. EDIT: it’s from this post. Thanks @autumnrowancollector ! <3

And also, the darker skin gets, the less likely warm undertones are going to appear. Don't be afraid to use blue or purple or even green on occasion!

Additionally, cool lighting on dark skin is always a win imo.

(I was going to use that picture of Jeffries as Annabeth by the lightning bolt, but then I realized the lighting on her face doesn’t quite match up with where it should hit from that angle, and I realized they kind of just turned everything bluer, so screenshot time!)

(Also if you want another really great live action example, check out anything Aldis Hodge is in, like Leverage and Black Adam)(and of course there’s Spiderverse <3 but I want to post pictures of Hodge)

Now, to here’s a list of more experienced people’s advice:

Black facial features & hair

Shading digitally for a (somewhat) monotone Black character

Stylistic choices and places to start looking for inspiration (besides a search engine).

Coloring Black people’s lips

A better coloration tutorial

Also a nice tutorial for Indigenous skin tones, just in case yall want to draw Piper or use this information for other dark skinned characters :).

EDIT: Some actresses who are closer in skintone to use for Annabeth, provided by the lovely @blackfemmecharacterdependency ! If you can’t find a reference for Jeffries in a specific lighting, maybe check out these ladies’ pictures! It’s a reblog, so scroll down.

TLDR: Don’t make Annabeth pink and pale, make her dark and golden.

[ferretrix]

hey, long time admirer of your stuff! ive just been wondering, though, how exactly do you do your eyes? like.. obviously they're different from character to character, but how do you usually form them and whatnot?

thank you ! - 💥

heya thank you :) it's been a while since i answered one of these in depth but for you good anon i will try my best..... Here's the simple answer:

Here is some more thought-process/behind the scenes stuff:

Obviously head angle determines many things about drawing eyes; I've been trying harder to keep it in mind when I'm putting lines down, and it'll generally make them look more grounded/offer better depth. The main takeaway from head angle is how are the eye sockets oriented. Doing drawovers of photographs is a cheap+easy way to get a feel for this, but I wouldn't worry about 100% anatomical accuracy; what I'm trying to get a feel for is the placement of eyes versus the brow/nose bridges.

The amount of detail I put into eyes is wildly inconsistent haha it rly depends on the piece and art style, but the (for lack of a better word) "definition lines" and spots of black in deep shadow make up most of the detailed stuff. I'm still not great at drawing massively distinctive eye shapes but I try to maintain a general sense of one for different faces (ex. Rectangular, narrow, round, angled up or down). I'll also be the first to admit it takes a lot of conscious thought to reproduce the same line variation/angles in someone's eyes each time you draw them, but if you're looking for advice on consistency those are examples of traits I'd keep in mind.

That's it for the most part.... I don't think the way I draw eyes is particularly unique lol so here are a few things that have gotten me where I am:

other people's art, a lot of which is manga. when I say naruto taught me to draw im only half joking hwheeze. my art tastes lean towards manga/comic stylization so none of this is hugely realistic overall....

that being said, I do like the more realistic side of manga/comic art so photo studies/anatomy tips have still been useful to me

this tutorial by sinix is one of my favorite things ever, because it explicitly discusses both anatomical knowledge AND how to translate that into shorthand

thanks for the ask!

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

How do you (personally) balance designs looking cool and practical/realistic? I feel like I get stuck on my spec bio that I lose the fun in designing. Or I can't find anything neat from the animals I use for inspiration to add and don't know where to look for other ideas.

you gotta add life and whimsy. sounds kinda weird and maybe doesn't make sense, but it's true. you can spend all sorts of time making a perfected realistic looking design and if there's no life and whimsy in it, it feels flat. you can practice this by drawing very fast gestural poses, putting your character/creature designs in Situations and drawing how they'd react, and just practicing expressive faces.

Make a whole character out of your creation. doesn't have to be a character you give a name to and keep around forever as a new story protagonist or dnd character or whatever. you just have to breathe some individuality and life into it for a bit.

I'll try to illustrate what I mean.

(image description: two sketch pages of an orc and an elf. on the first page, they are drawn beneath reference images of a wild boar head and a macaque. here, the orc and elf have more realistic facial proportions and match their reference animals better, but they look a little dull. on the second page, the orc and elf have been redrawn. at the top of the page are sketches of each of them laughing. the orc's mouth is wide open, making their snout wrinkle a lot as they lift it in their laugh. the elf's mouth is only a little open, with the lips pushed forward in an O shape, and they are squinting happily. below this are full body sketches of the orc and elf, fully dressed in casual outfits, crouching to snarl at each other. the orc is baring their tusks but keeping their mouth closed, while the elf has their mouth wide open, putting their long canine teeth on display and also holding their tail straight up. end description.)

body language and facial expression are so important! you gotta be loose with it to learn how to create more dynamic and lively designs. and for characters, it's also important to explore things like culture and personality so you can individualize them.

I don't know exactly what your art style looks like or what it means for you to be hitting roadblocks in the design process as you try to find that balance between looking both cool and realistic. My art style is semi-realism, and I do think stylization plays a key role in crating interesting designs. the closer you get to photorealism, the more difficult it is to create dynamic designs, in my experience. it's not impossible! but getting to that skill level in realism is harder than i think some people assume it is.

I have seen a lot of photorealism art that was clearly done by skilled artists who know all the technical things about making art, but couldn't bring out the life in their subjects. it's easy to get stuck on the technical skills, to fuss over making the shadows of a portrait match the photo reference, to get so skilled at texture that you forget about gestural posing. maybe getting so invested in realistic and practical design you neglect the whimsy. fantasy is inherently whimsical! I know this blog is all about making fantasy anatomy more believable, which often means curtailing the whimsy if it gets out of hand. but the whimsy is essential! it just needs to be cultivated and pruned occasionally if it's getting in the way of your goals. and on the other hand, so does the realism! perfect realism can't really exist in fantasy, or it would already be reality, you know what I mean? if the realism is a roadblock to designs you truly enjoy, prune it back. cut the realism down to size and make room for some whimsy. that's the balance.

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

Hello! Do you have any tips on stylizing/drawing real people?? recently ive been trying to draw from my favorite shows but they either look too realistic or just not like the person at all. I love all your twd art and its really inspiring!

Omg thank you so much, it’s actually so funny you should ask this because this is exactly what I’ve been struggling with/researching for like 6 months. In fact I had an independent research project at uni that I told my prof was gonna be all about learning how to make background art for my final film project. But I got SO into learning how to stylize real people that I forgot to do the project at all and just submitted all of my walking dead fanart and stylization research and somehow got a B+ 

So strap in, you are about to get blasted with a hyperfixation that was so strong it almost lost me my bachelors degree but instead (somehow!!) got me one of the highest grades this prof gave out this semester

I’m still learning and trying to get better, this hyperfixation isn’t over it just has to be on pause because I WILL fail my final year of university if I let it take me lmao

First of all, here are my project slides (PLEASE ignore my cringe-ass writing, most of that shit was done in a panic at 5am)

this was a good leaping off point and now I know their features like the back of my hand, but they're missing a lot of character imo

"I thought highlighting his eyelashes and freckles would bring out-" blahblabla, truth is I just think he is very Eyes and his freckles are cute but I can't just be saying ''it's about the VIBES sir''

I highly recommend looking at an artist called @geitonas. They were actually my biggest inspiration in this project because personally I think they’ve mastered stylizing real people and their art is how I want my walking dead fanart to be. They know exactly which features to push and which to downplay, so if you’re familiar with the subjects you can recognize them immediately. 

But the biggest thing to note is that their features aren’t replicated exactly, they just have the right energy.

I guess my biggest advice is pick a focus feature. For Carol I think her most defining feature is her nose. It's an odd thing to say but she has very distinctive nostrils. So no matter how stylized I draw her I try to keep this feature in mind, even if everything else goes out the window

Keeping an eye on someone's unique mannerisms and facial expressions can go a long way too. Rick's squint, Michonne's stare, Daryl's scrunch...

This turned into a ramble. My thoughts were more coherent but too many of them wanted to come out all at once. Hope this was helpful anyway!

[tossawary]

I think SVSSS as a 2D cartoon would be the best moving medium for it imo.

I mean, personally, yeah, that's how I'd enjoy seeing it as well! My ideal slightly pretentiously artsy SVSSS screen adaptation would probably look only a little more detailed than linograph prints (2D or shaded 3D?) (someone hit me up in like two weeks to draw an example of what I mean, if I don't remember on my own, I don't have access to art stuff right now), very stylized and vibrantly colorful, because that's one of the art styles that I particularly enjoy.

I'm not a personally a fan of the 3D SVSSS show because I find the characters a little too doll-like and same-facey for my tastes? It's fine! It works! It's serviceable! It's just all, backgrounds included, a little... safe? I tend to like over-the-top bright colors and intricate details and impractically weird shapes and yet also coherent world production design in my fantasy, which is a lot to demand of any production, perhaps especially with animation productions, which are always squeezed for time and money.

(EDIT: I know the SVSSS show was under heavy constraints and the results are impressive considering their resources; it doesn't change the fact that I just don't like the art style and nevertheless find the results underwhelming. I don't like a lot of "realistic" modeling / rendering styles, not just "anime" ones, even if they are extremely technically impressive. Believe me when I say that I know the vast majority of the entertainment industry is overworked and underpaid and creatively restrained.)

Slightly tangential general note: I don't think 2D is inherently superior to 3D (EDIT: NOT trying to imply asker is saying this, just having some general thoughts), especially because, with the realities of production, each have their advantages. 2D has a lot of stylistic advantages still, but 3D shaders are catching up and doing some incredible things these days! More advanced puppet controls and particle effects and such are doing some beautiful things for 2D shows as well these days. A lot of stuff has been subtly mixed media as soon as 3D became possible. It is potentially possible (note: not saying any studio would actually greenlight this) to do an equally slightly weird and artistically stunning 3D SVSSS show, given the freedom to work. (Good boarding and writing is also sooooo important in both mediums, obviously, it's not just about the art design. You can get away with incredibly limited animation with good boarding, writing, and art design.)

Another slightly tangential ramble: both 2D and 3D have the potential for stiff animation and poor character acting, which also comes down to production limits and animator skills? (I often think of character animators as a type of actor!) There are a lot of 2D shows that I don't really like because I find the animation incredibly stiff, both puppet and handdrawn (there's great 2D puppet stuff out there these days), which pretty much always comes down to production limits (deadlines and budget and software, saving up their animation for the coolest scenes). One of my favorite things about Studio Ghibli films (which as features get a lot more space to focus on art compared to the demands and restraint of television) has always been the squash and stretch in otherwise relatively realistic action, making things like hugs look SO nice for example. But 3D stuff is getting better at that these days! The ways characters slumped into each other in "Nimona" for example was great. And it's just fascinating to look at the elasticity / stylized sculpt of expressions in "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" compared to the technical limits of the models / rigs in "Shrek" or "Shrek 2".

Adding these side notes because I want to be clear about my respect for both 2D and 3D artistically! A lot of video games are doing cool stuff in 3D that looks very close to 2D with stylized shaders, which you can sometimes spot by the large or small rotations in character action / acting, which is difficult (and therefore often expensive) to do in 2D with all of those extra drawings / angle poses. Also, I think the current push towards funky shaders in 3D is so cool and it's hard not to gush about them!!!

[blueskittlesart]

Question abt drawing: been trying to attempt learning how to draw forever but I always have trouble getting over the obstacle of having to learn/study things like anatomy and shading, which then causes me to stop drawing and have a harder time picking it back up. I know it's important for improving your art and yourself as an artist but I can't help but see it as tedious and overwhelming, especially the anatomy since it's more on the science side of things and science is not my thing lol. Do you have any advice on how to get over it or work thru it?

i think there's a couple facets to this question. firstly i'd recommend you consider what exactly your end goal is in learning how to draw: do you specifically want to be able to produce anatomically accurate figures and true-to-life shading, or do you just want to be able to make something for fun that looks good to you? one of the most helpful things I ever learned at art school was that accuracy doesn't matter if it looks good. 99% of my art isn't strictly anatomically accurate, and part of that is stylization, but even when i'm doing realistic figure drawings i like to lengthen limbs and exaggerate curves in order to make my drawings look better. So if your only real goal with art is to make something that looks good and enjoy the process, my first piece of advice would be to stop worrying so much about stuff like perfect accuracy! if you use references and keep pushing yourself, the skill and understanding you're looking for will come naturally with time. before I was ever classically trained, I got pretty far just by drawing my favorite characters in different poses and situations over and over again, and that experience laid the groundwork for when classical training did become available to me. Just because you're not necessarily doing serious figure studies doesn't mean you're not getting valuable practice--what it means is that you're having FUN while you're practicing, and having fun with your art is the most important thing!!!

Secondly, you mentioned anatomy being on the science side of things, which suggests to me that you may be looking in the wrong places when trying to do more serious anatomical study. if you look up 'anatomy' or anything similar on a web search engine, you're likely going to get a lot of very complex scientific illustrations. and while those aren't necessarily devoid of artistic value (I took a class all about scientific anatomy for artists last semester and it was GREAT) for a beginner who's just trying to learn how to make a body look like a body, they're not what you're looking for. what is going to be much more helpful for you are sites like line of action or quickposes. these sites are basically repositories of figure drawing images, and you can set them to automatically switch to a new image after a certain interval of time. if you really, desperately want to improve your anatomy specifically, what I recommend is going to one of these sites, setting it to the shortest interval possible, and trying to copy the pose as closely as you can before time is up. this might sound crazy, since the shortest interval is usually somewhere between 30-60 seconds, which obviously isn't enough to get much down. but what this will do is force you to look at how these models' bodies are constructed and translate it onto the page quickly and without overthinking it. be warned, your first maybe hundred of these are going to look like shit. but if you do this enough, you're eventually going to gain an intrinsic sense for 1. how a body works and 2. the easiest way for you personally to construct a body when drawing it. even without knowing the scientific names and anatomical rules, you're going to get a FEEL for how things work, which is much more important and useful to you as a character artist.

Finally, i think the most important thing to remember is that no art is bad art, even if you're not satisfied with the end product. when you're first starting out as an artist, you're going to make things that don't look right and you're going to be frustrated with yourself because of it. i vividly remember crying over a sketchbook at maybe age 11 or 12 because I was so upset i couldn't put exactly what was in my head on the page. Skill comes with time and practice and that is a frustrating fact of life, but no time spent doing something you enjoy and are passionate about is wasted. It might look bad now but you are laying the groundwork for your future success, and someday you're probably going to look back on your past work and say "I can't believe I thought this looked bad back then. for my age and my skill level i was doing AMAZING." And as previously mentioned, it's a lot less discouraging when something looks bad if you had fun making it, so try to have FUN with your art. draw things you enjoy and are passionate about and don't worry if it looks bad. focus on the experience, the skill will come in time. you've got this!!

[fipindustries]

not a question but basically any time i remember your art exists im looking it up and down and trying to take inspiration from it. your expression work is always top notch, and the way you depict faces is the perfect balance between cartoony and well defined

oh my god this is such an amazing compliment! thank you so much!

you know, i think this has been a long time coming. im going to take this as a chance to go in depth about how my style works, why i do what i do and how i do it. do keep in mind that none of this is me saying "this is the objectively correct way of doing art" but rather just how my own process works, what I like to see in my own art.

that balance that you speak of comes from a commitment to underlying structures. what im going to call the stylization sandwich

i start with a clear, well defined solid structure, i add whatever wacky cartoony features i want on top of it (none the less strongly tied and guided by the underlying structure) and then i refine by adding as many more realistic, grounding details i want, although you can go too far with it so i gotta be careful or ill end up with those shitty "cartoon character IRL would look scary!" clickbait drawings.

(quick aside, this trend fucking sucks, its obvious the artist went out of their way to make the drawing creepy, this pretension that "actually the character would look scary irl" deliberatly misundertands the principles of stylization, its as creatively bankrupt as jokes about mario eating mushrooms)

getting back on topic, the point is that, as long as the underlying structures are solid you can build whatever you want on top of them and it will make sense

a key tool here is internalizing the way the proportions on the face work. and i say internalize because obviously i dont actually have the golden ratio memorized inside my head nor do i stop and measure and calculate all the proportions in the features. i just read a lot about drawing, i drew a lot, i tried to always keep a critical eye to what im drawing and see if it "feels" disproportionate. once you get an eye for it then you know how far you can push things before they complitely break

let me give you another example of what i feel is a botched execution of this.

if you look closely at the face on the left there are a lot of things that dont make sense. the corners of the eyebrows dip down into the eyes when usually the eyes are enveloped by the eyebrows, the way the beard grows around the nose is just not how facial hair is distributed, the mouth is too big, etc. on the left i used photoshop to reorganize the factions into something that makes a bit more sense to me

(another quick aside, the real big problem at the heart of the original drawing were not so much the proportions but the tangents, when different lines touch each other like this that is usually a big no no but that is a topic for another day)

also a lot of it is just me cheating. yeah i cheat. you ever heard how people say there is no innate talent and its all practisce and hard work. well, yeah, that is mostly true, but is also true that some people are born with inherent advantages. either taller or more predisposed to being thin or with better facial structures or better innate hand-eye coordination. i was born with an uncanny capacity to visualize stuff. i have whatever the opposite of aphantasia is. i can borderline hallucinate things if i want to. and that goes coupled with the visual intuitions i developed through practisce and training.

so first come the learned wisdom, and then comes the innate talent that helps me exploit that learned wisdom to its full potential

on top of that is corporeality, i try to draw in such a way that it conveys depth and weight to the things im drawing, certain kinds of stylizations dont care about that and choose instead to have their drawing look flat, a classic one is the UPA style

is a very fun style! very cute, very dynamic, very expressive in its simplicity. it became very popular in the 60's and 70's. personally i choose to go in a different direction. i draw in such a way that if one were to turn my drawings into 3d models not a lot would get lost in the process.

whereas other artists....

...not so much

but yeah, ultimatly it all goes back to underlying structure. any drawing can work

as long as you have a strong foundation underneath.

PS: if you like my style i cannot reccomend enough the art of @rezuaq i feel they follow a lot of the same principles i talked about here but i could be wrong.

they have been my biggest inspiration as of the last 4 years, i shamelssly stole the design of one of their characters for jennyffer. go to their blog and give them a like

[meowkavian]

So I’m around 5 ish hours into DAV, and I’m honestly not impressed. I started playing DA back when Origins first came out and still consider its story to be incredible. I hope this gets better because I really want to enjoy the game I’ve been waiting for for TEN DAMN YEARS.

Some thoughts so far:

- The dialogue is so incredibly exposition heavy and repetitive that it started turning me off from the first minute. It is the extreme “tell not show” and I feel like I’m watching some sort of information dump in the most hand-holdy way. I don’t need Harding to tell me there’s probably another blight pod—I need to be allowed to look for it myself.

- In that sense we don’t get time to explore the world state and understand it in our own time—just getting slammed with information through overly direct dialogue and not actual, you know, world building. If I wanted to hear everything explained three times in each dialogue I would go watch a lore explainer video. Plus, the voice acting feels sub par for several of the NPCS but it may just be their dialogue. Like Bellara stating how she’s a rambler when it’s OBVIOUS because she just was rambling?? Generally people stating obv things about their personality or traits that would be 1000% more effective if we learned it for ourselves through play instead of having it spelled out for us up front.

- A lot of the facial animation feels stiff for a game as stylized as it is and as new as it is.

- Where is the nuance or consistency in world building? Why are the Crows suddenly more freedom fighters than assassins?

- Lucanis being possessed by a spirit and mage rook barely bats an eye even with the aggressive options? Anders has a whole thing where there was an entire scale of how Justice affected him and we’re just supposed to take this in stride?

-Eluvians being ancient tech powerful enough that Merrill is basically shunned for attempting to create one in DA2, but Bellara basically just can tinker with them and other artifacts with no one giving a second look, and the veilguard just uses them as portals without any sense of fear or danger?

- Why am I supposed to care or feel attached to ANY of these characters so far? I’ve had no opportunity to start getting to know them aside from some flashy introductions which feel more like opportunities for quips than actual dialogue that gives me insight into their characters. And it’s not like you can really talk to them so far outside of their predetermined intros so far. We’re all just buddy buddy immediately? And no real insight into how Rook and Varric got to be close? How Harding is an integral part of this? How our backstories connect to everyone else in a way that makes sense?

- the overly explanatory dialogue “memories” and how they seem shoehorned into later conversations as if an AI is saying “I remember you said X….”

- I preface this one also by saying I’m trans and nonbinary— what is with the hamfisted dialogue about rook being trans with the mirror? There has to be a better way to discuss how you feel about your body. It already starts out like a monologue to nobody—no one SPEAKS LIKE THAT. I want representation that feels right and realistic, PLEASE. (Plus, the concept of being trans is approached in a different way in DAI with Krem it just doesn’t feel lore friendly??) Not all of what they do with Krem is Good at all but like, it was at least established as a concept. Also the phrase nonbinary implies that binary exists in Thedas which has implications?

- inconsistent vallaslin designs???

- no way to have a completely flat chest + top surgery scars with a “feminine body type” that I could see

- the level design so far feels very railroady even without the quest markers. I know there’s limits but even in Origins and in DAI it felt like there were places worth trying to explore.

- the world state import being so incredibly limited that it feels like nothing I did in DAI matters one bit? When that’s the entire draw of the game??

- there’s more but this is making me frustrated. I want to like this game. I want to. But I’m having trouble.

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

I don't know if you've ever been asked this question, but I was wondering:

Did you learn to draw somewhere, or were you self-taught? Maybe you have some tips or hints for beginners? What was your favourite thing about drawing?

Sorry if this ask is too personal, but I really like your drawing style and wanted to ask some advice :D Have a good day! 🌸

it's a mix of both, really! i grew up loving art from the very beginning, like. im talking about making teletubbies fanarts and asking my dad to make me learn to draw characters from w.i.t.c.h. and tomb raider fandsndfs, according to my parents i had a pencil in my hands before i even started talking -- and that's what led me to actually learn to draw "properly", first in a art-centered high school (that. did less than good to me tbf but it was a matter of 90% of the art-related teachers being garbage) and the comics academy in torino where i think i started to truly "understand" what i wanted from my art style

if i may give some advices other than the good ol' "keep practicing and try to at least doodle something once a day", i could go with:

don't compare yourself to other artists negatively, especially those younger than you. it's probably the hardest part, but you need to "force yourself" to be positive. if you find yourself thinking "this 14 years old draws better eyes than me", go with "i love how they draw eyes, let's see if i can learn from it"

copy copy copy copyyyyy!!!!! copy from references, copy from photos, copy from comics, copy from movies. of course don't plagiarize people and then present that stuff as your own, but try to make a pose yours and learn to take pictures of your own hands, feet, face or ask people to pose if you can't find the right position

your art will look like shit to you, a LOT of times, but know that at one point you're going to quit. if you don't like what you're drawing, either quit there or restart, don't try to "fix" it because you'll just end up noticing more and more issues with it - issues that, most of the times, aren't even issues to begin with. letting go of perfectionism is very difficult, but at some point you'll have to do that--

and about perfectionism, a VERY good exercise we did in comics school was being forced to "draw fast". this isn't me telling you you NEED to draw as quick as possible, but it's an exercise that forces you to learn quickly where certain body parts go, to prioritize specific details rather than others. we had a model, and at first we had to sit there for an hour drawing her, then the hour became 30 minutes, then 10, then 5, and at the end 1. it took us a few lessons to do that, but at the end the super sketchy 1 minute copy went from ???? to a stylized human figure!!!

learn to draw realistic anatomy, and then make it your own style.

for the love of god learn prespective it's a bore it's a chore but as soon as you learn that everything becomes SO much easier

for shading, just. put a point in the canvas where the light source is and go from there!! if the light is on the right, the shades will be on the left

if you're coloring, play with the shades' colors. a good idea is to use the opposite color you use for the lights - if the light is yellow, the shades look great in purples, for example just don't use pure black unless you wanna go for a more dark/noir aesthetic oh my god

professional comic artists retrace a lot of their backgrounds. i'm js. use this as you wish :)

learn to draw different body shapes!!!! like getting out of the anime phase of "fat people are just like thin people but with a huge belly" can be difficult, but it's very satisfying

go out of your comfort zone. if you have problems drawing horses, spend a few days learning to draw horses. take some pics and try to understand them.

body proportions are so fun once you realize how so many things are the same. generally speaking, your spread hand is as long as your face, your feet and half the size of your arm; the outer corner of your eye is at the same level of your ear, and the inner corner is perpendicular to your nose and the corner of your mouth; if you leave your arm on your side, your elbow is at the same level of your bellybutton, and your fingers reach halfway your thighs. it's so fun

and yea, i can't stress it enough. it'll take time. art is painful, art is stressful, art can be discouraging. take a step at the time, accept some failures and celebrate any good thing - even the smaller ones. you learned to draw hands today, and you should be proud. i tried to draw a cat for the first time and it looks wonky, but the cat you will draw tomorrow will look better. i believe in you

[calware]

I love your young!Rose design with the braids & hair beads, it reminds me of the Black girls i knew in elementary school (2005-2011), so its deffo “period accurate” and also a delightful choice. The way you draw the human kids in general is really nice, youre really good at conveying specific features with minimal lines (like her & Mom’s nose shape). Do you have any tips for how you draw faces to make them not same-face or repetitively “white” features, especially when drawing in a less “realistic” style (i dont wanna say your style is cartoony but idk what i would call it tbh)? I took a life drawing class back in 2019 but we mostly drew the same two models or our classmates, and it was both a limited pool of features plus feels hard to translate into art that isnt attempting to be 100% realistic.

Sorry if this is rambly. Congrats on 10k. Love ur new icon, tho i miss the Horb. Do you take commissions? I think i asked this before but i forgetful af.

thank you for the ask :)!! i'm really flattered that you think i'm good at avoiding same-face syndrome because i am VERY LAZY when it comes to drawing and i could definitely be doing a better job ;^^ i'm also not the best at drawing people diversely(?), it's just something i have to get better at. there are people way more qualified than me to give advice about this... but i can try giving some tips

the first is that, like with anything, if i'm not confident that i can accurately portray something or a specific feature i will usually look up a reference. i like paying attention to things like the position of the browbone, height of the cheekbones, shape of the chin, shape of the eyes, length/width of the face, width of the nostrils, shape/position of the bridge of the nose, roundness of the cheeks, etc. when i draw characters (specifically the homestuck characters i like, because i think about them a lot) i have an idea in my head of how they look and how they differ from one another. for example i see jade with a longer diamond-shaped face while rose has a shorter heart-shaped face, so i do my best to depict that in my drawings

(idk if this illustration makes ANY SENSE bc like i said i think that i also struggle with pushing myself in regards to this and i think i still have more to learn/practice)

i think it comes down to paying attention to the proportions/types of specific facial features and adjusting them each to create a unique face

that said when it comes to stylizing what you see from photographic references, i understand that it can be tricky to simplify it. i really don't have any advice for this.... i just play around with it until it looks good while also being recognizable as the specific thing i'm trying to draw.......... so in that case i think it helps to use other people's art as a reference too! i don't really care about sticking to one "style" so i don't mind drawing in a slightly different way if i want to do something another artist is also doing. so for example if you're struggling with drawing 4c hair i recommend looking at other people's drawings of characters with 4c hair that you like and playing around with if you can incorporate their techniques into your own art.

i hope this all made sense ;^^ there are definitely a lot of tutorials out there that are way more informative than this one

also, to answer your last question, i plan to open up a few commission slots next week! (as long as i have enough time to that is)

[norcani]

people complaining abt art direction/style in the new game...like you can like it or not, but saying its "not dragon age" is silly, the games have been aesthetically a mess for a long time.

dao... maybe uncharitable but it was just generic (dark) fantasy, any piece of it individually could be in any other fantasy property. it did not have a strong visual identity. even it's unique monsters darkspawn look generic (other entires tried to fix this but made them look worse imo). its my favorite game but nothing much to look at.

da2 tried to carve a visual identity, you might like it or dislike it (i personally dislike it) but you cant deny it tried. much more stylized look, a lot of things were complete reworked to be more unique to da, like the darkspawn, the robes and uniforms for the chantry/templars. grey wardens have an unique look now (ironically i kind of liked how dao made them look identityless i feel like it fit them but i get why you might want to have a grey warden look tm) , elves look completely different suddenly

dai tried to find a happy medium with the two while also going for a more realistic approach. it took a lot of the concepts of da2 forward while trying to make it look natural. elves have some mildly different features and bigger ears, but mostly look like humans again. more unique faction armors and coloring but no comedically huge shoulderpads or spikes, etc etc... characters faces were just generic "realistic" though not especially good at it. they looked fine.

dav no matter what it looked like would never look like a da game becaue there is no such look... i was first put off by it too but then thought that stylization in general is good, and it definitely looks better in motion....

id say it has the potential to be the best looking most coherent dragon age but thats not really saying much since they range from "okay" to "nothing". saying something doesnt look like dragon age is nonsense though.

[calypsolemon]

do you have any tips on how you draw kitty and puss? I really like how you draw them and I'm struggling a bit since I don't draw animals alot ( also i don't wanna accidentally fall into the sexualized female anthro animal trope with kitty )

Honestly, before this movie, I didn't have much experience drawing anthro-ish animals, or even just animals in general. One scroll thru my art tag can probably tell you that Im not really much of a furry artist, and I mostly draw people. So starting out attempting the characters, I really just did a bunch of sketchy screenshot redraws, trying to find shots from different angles to get a feel for the proportions and how I personally wanted to stylize them.

(redraws of the doctor scene, practicing him undressed and from the side)

The good thing to note is that if you know how to draw puss, you know how to draw kitty. Kitty is literally a modified model of Puss (all the cats in tlw are, according to the artbook), therefore without accessories their sillouettes are basically identical. This makes sense considering Puss and Kitty are... not really anthro animals? The most humanoid things about them are their paws being slightly more hand-like than is realistic for a cat, and the fact that they stand just a little too straight when on 2 legs. Otherwise they are basically just normal cats. Which means you can also use the internet's extensive plethora of cat images as body reference as well.

(literally cats just look like that when standing like a person. its ridiculous)

So I basically use the same base for both characters. Most of the differentiation of them is in details, for me. I personally make my Kitty have softer angels than Puss, especially in the face. I also give Puss longer, wavier whiskers. But these are all personal stylistic choices. If I were you I'd look to some of the concept art as well. The artbook is really great to have tbh! But obviously if you can't afford that, like 99% of the art in there has been floating around on the web anyways. You can get a better sense for how various artist chose to stylize and simplify the characters, and experiment from there.

(jesus alonso iglesias's puss concept arts. I personally take inspo from these for my own interpretation)

so that's about it? really all this advice boils down to is "use reference and take stylistic choices from other artists" but that's basically how you learn how to draw anything, so mileage may vary. The real answer to this question is go back in time and hand your ten-year-old self a copy of Warriors: Into The Wild so you already have a way to draw cats etched into your psyche.

[practically-an-x-man]

What visual medium would your fics be best represented by? (i.e. TV or Movie, live-action, traditional cartoon, anime, 3D animation, etc)

Oooh thank you!! This is super interesting!

So the short answer is that I tend to write my fics with the intent for them to "fit in" with the tone of their canon media - even in writing, I try to match the tone of whatever it is I'm writing about, so it really feels like a part of the established universe. My goal in writing is usually to make the reader forget that my OCs aren't canon characters and really to envelop them in that world as if they're reading something that belongs to canon.

That being said:

A Love Once New (Rae): I would say a movie to match the rest of the X-Men movies, but so much happens in this fics that I feel like it would be better represented by a TV show - I wouldn't want to miss the details or try to cram everything into a movie, so a TV show would help with that pacing. Live-action with practical effects and some CGI

Symphony in Silver (Robin): Live-action movie like the other X-Men movies, fit in somewhere between Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix.

Smoke and Mirrors (Madison): I could see this as a TV show, and honestly could go either way on live action vs animated. Live-action would fit the way I've imagined it more, but I think it could also be fun to see an animation similar to the classic X-Men cartoon (and animation would be better for Madison's mutations, since there are a lot of them and CGI could make it look a little wonky)

Catch and Release (Ophelia): I'd want the main thing to be a live-action movie (you're gonna hear this a lot... like I said, I generally try to match the tone/pace to canon), but Hobie's cameo would still be animated like he is in the ATSV.

Gia's fics: I don't have much written for her yet, but I could see her added to the Hawkeye TV show!

Heartstrings (Jasper): Live-action TV show, I've basically just added Jasper to AHS Coven

Taking Flight (Kestrel): This is an interesting one... a fic based on a book series, with no real visual components. I've heard Fablehaven may be getting a live-action reboot, but I honestly think Taking Flight would look best as a series of animated movies - either tradition 2D animation a la Brother Bear or Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, with painted landscapes and expressive but realistically-drawn animals; or a stylized 3D animation like we see in The Wild Robot. Either way, animation would complement the magic and natural themes of the fic, and be stylistic but not overly cartoony.

Who Waits Forever Anyway? (Katherine): I'd love to see a blended live-action and animated movie, where the main story is told in live-action but Katherine's interactions with the gods are a sort of artistic, stylized hand-drawn animation in the style of historic art (like the opening scene in Hercules with the Muses on the amphora, the flashbacks in Kung Fu Panda 2 that are like traditional Chinese paintings, the scene in Prince of Egypt with the hieroglyphs, etc.)

Desert Song (Quinn): All of my 6 Underground fics are based on the fact that 6 Underground was set up for sequels that then got cancelled, so it would be a big-budget live-action sequel like the first movie.

Eris' fics: Hm... Again, I'd go a little stylistic with it. In the main timeline, they do effectively fit into the 2021 Suicide Squad movie, so I see those as scenes implanted into the movie. But AU fics like Years Ahead or This Phantom Life, I could honestly see as animated in different styles - basically just give the script to a different animator each time and see what they come up with, like Star Wars: Visions.

Nikoletta's fics: Similar to Eris, I see some of her fics just being implanted scenes into The Suicide Squad, but I think I'd go the route of a spinoff TV show (a la Peacemaker) for the others. Her story's a bit more linear than Eris, so a traditional TV show would work better than an anthology for her.

Heart in Your Hands (Jimmy): Live-action movie! It follows the plot of Frozen Empire with the inclusion of Jimmy, anyway.

Vivienne's fics: This one's tough. Yes, it's based on a horror movie and will incorporate the plot of that horror movie, but I'm honestly writing it a bit more like the book! I'd definitely want it to be live-action, and go strictly practical effects for things like Vivienne's siren traits (maybe a little CGI for her eyes, like they do in The Shape of Water, but everything else should be makeup), but whether the pacing would be better with a movie (or series of movies) or a TV show is what I'm still not sure about.

Spider's fics: I'd want a live-action movie with a few "game-ified" elements, like Scott Pilgrim or Guns Akimbo - overlays up on the screen as Spider's categorizing his tapes, animated flairs or sparks surrounding his tape recorder, "+1 can of soup" as he picks up resources for survival, things like that. Basically, I'd want it to be live-action but with a focus on Spider's point of view, and his point of view is inspired by a lot of other movies and games. Oh, and the sound design had better be KILLER!

Terra & Pluto's fics: 3D animated TV, in line with Arcane itself. I mean, I designed the characters that way, I even made my best efforts to try and draw them in the Arcane style, and it would just fit best as part of that world.

Prometheus' Fics: Here's the thing... we're not supposed to SEE Prometheus. They don't have an established physical appearance beyond their clothing, and I want to keep it that way. They're meant to reflect the reader, and I wouldn't want that to be ruined by casting an actor and having people then imagine that actor when they think of the character. The solution... how about a first-person video game? It's about the only visual media I can think of that's commonly in a first-person perspective, and I think it could be interesting to give the players a level of control in Prometheus' story - that's the point, the first fic even has two endings so people can choose which they want to focus on!

Bolts and Blasters (Indigo): Live-action TV show - going back to ALON and S&M, there's a lot of plot to cover and a TV show would just help with the pacing more than a movie would. Plus, Star Wars has already done some high-quality TV shows, so I think a "spinoff" from the sequel movies would work here.