#trying to learn how to make concept art which means i have to draw it bad in order to learn

[cultoftheswag]

wip thing for an au

[aurumacadicus]

A concept:

Tony has mostly learned not to ask too many questions when he's around teenagers. He doesn't understand most things, and quite frankly, it's just easier to claim ignorance than confusion at this point. (Peter has explained "skibidi" to him three times now and he still doesn't get it.) He just tries to provide a safe place for him and his friends. Sometimes that means he's bewildered, but it's better that way. He figures it's just a rite of passage. He still remembers how flabbergasted Jarvis looked when he described something as 'tubular.'

He's just grateful that there weren't so many cameras when he was a kid. It seems like they're everywhere, and there are so many video trends it makes him tired. Luckily, Peter and his friends seem to at least be aware that the internet is forever, so they're not doing stupid shit like doing drugs or throwing slurs around. Mostly they just post pranks. Most recently, he's pretty sure MJ and Ned duct-taped Peter to a door so he'd startle anyone who opened it. Which seems. Harmless? Whatever.

But his practiced chill all seems to backfire when he walks in on them in his kitchen "because the lighting's better here than in a conference room" with pictures taped to sticks being stuck in cake. "What is this?" he asks tiredly, because he knows it's too late to pretend he didn't see them.

"It's a hear-me-out cake, Mr. Stark," MJ answers in that way of hers that is somehow both flat and mischievous.

Tony blinks at her slowly, trying to figure out what reaction would please her least, then gives up. "Why are you doing it in my house."

"Because I don't want Aunt May to see I've put Doc Hudson from Cars on a hear-me-out cake," Peter answers.

Tony squints at the pictures already on the cake. "You've got a lot of nerve to put a picture of Timothee Chalamet on a cake and say 'hear me out' about it," he finally says.

"It's specifically Timothee Chalamet in Wonka," Ned defends immediately.

"And Doc Hudson is just a good-looking classic car, it's not weird," Tony continues, ignoring him. "I have a Hudson Hornet. I'll take you kids out for a ride when the weather gets better."

MJ holds up one of her pictures while Ned and Peter gape at him wordlessly. "I have Lady Tremaine from Cinderella."

Tony leans closer, putting his hands on his hips and huffing in offense. "You chose a picture of Cate Blanchett instead of the original cartoon. You guys. You can't say 'hear me out' about conventionally attractive people, no matter how mean they are in their roles."

"Oh yeah?" Peter asks defensively. "Then who's your hear-me-out, Mr. Stark?"

"Hexxus from Ferngully," Tony retorts, and then, "At least bring me a piece of cake when you're done." Then he grabs his coffee and heads back for the workshop.

He only realizes what a mistake that might have been when JARVIS tells him that his Twitter is blowing up but he only really understands when he sees that Tim Curry himself has responded to the video Peter posted of him with "The highest of compliments, surely."

"Pepper is going to be so mad at me," Tony breathes when he sees people are already drawing fan art of it.

[meanbossart]

ASK COMPILATION: just answering to some sweet messages and casual questions!

I'm not sure what you mean ���� I just started talking about DU drow and my thoughts on BG3 because I got bit with the writing bug. I figured out how to best tag things as I went!

Thank you! I use the Artemus brushes from CSP assets to do my lines, and I'm a huge fan of many of the brushes from the DAUB packs, especially the PIGMENTO set.

Thank you so much! I've been drawing since I was a child, but I started taking it seriously in my late teens. How long a drawing takes depends on many factors and varies a lot, but much of stuff in this blog took anywhere from a few hours to 1-2 days to complete.

So glad you've been enjoying the patreon, thank you so much for your support!

I'm crafty by necessity, mostly LOL I'm a cheapsteak so I have some minor skill in a few areas like carpentry, sewing, general home-upkeep, that kind of thing. It's not as artistic as it is just practical knowledge, though I'm sure you could argue that there's a lot about it that overlaps with the way I approach art. Drawing has indeed always been something I did, and I was definitely the "kid that draws" of the class growing up.

The concepts for Sad Sack and Sortie were the brainchildren of my partner, @barbatusart, so I'm afraid I can't really speak to that question specifically. BUT I would say you pretty much nailed it already: you have to do whatever you're passionate about in that moment and hopefully that will attract the attention of others with similar interests. Overthinking whether or not something will be well received when it has barely been conceived yet is kind of a creativity killer, in my personal opinion. Dance like nobody can see you and you are bound to impress at least a couple of people with confidence alone.

You're incredibly sweet 😭😭😭 I'm just trying to have fun here! The BG3 community in general is incredibly chill, to be fair, which makes it easy to follow suit. We're all adults trying to ponder the orb and the five million different universes where we romanced the same 2-to-3 people, you need a level head to deal with that, I guess!

The visuals here are a little dated, but perhaps it being from a time when I was drawing more realistically could actually be helpful in this case! Either way I think the written advice is much more helpful and it holds up to the way I learned/do things still.

LOL, minus the body scars that I add in my art DU drow is 100% all larian homebrew, so I always figured someone, somewhere, would eventually make an exact carbon copy of him by accident except name him Greg or something. It's totally fine and I would be crazy to get upset about it 😂😂😂Frankly, I'm surprised it isn't more common! When I made him I really felt like I was just playing Generic Beefsteak Generator 2000.

[epiicaricacy-arts]

without the sour the sweet wouldn’t taste

why are you as a man eating another man’s ear after you failed to make him eat his ex girlfriend. 🤨🏳️‍🌈⁉️

im allowed a bit of toxic yaoi. as a treat

process discussion utc ⬇️

for those familiar with my work you’ll know that i like trying a lot of new styles and experimenting in order to achieve a certain vibe. usually those are heavy painterly styles such as the sunday art inspired by Yuming Li, which is what i’m familiar and comfortable with, both traditionally and digitally

what im NOT familiar with is watercolour. i’ve never had a good time with it 🥲 i just cant seem to wrap my head around the process since its requires me to work backwards (light to dark vs dark to light)

for this piece i just couldn’t imagine myself rendering it in my usual style. i needed to do something new so that i’d stay invested enough in the piece considering that it has two people, meaning double the work. for some reason i thought it’d be fun to do double the work with a style i am completely uncomfortable with but oh well!! i managed to do it ��‍♀️ i was specifically looking at the works of Ko Byung Jun, an artist i’ve seen all over my pinterest feed

while i didn’t end up really following the style super closely i still learned quite a lot just by looking at it while i drew. i tried my best to stick to watercolour brushes and an ink pen but as i was nearing the end i needed to make some alterations that i wasn’t bothered to try fixing with the watercolour brushes so i just went over it with my digital ones 🫡 i did my best that’s what matters!!!

i had to repaint rody a few times cause i just couldn’t get it right and the colours never ended up matching vincent. i painted them separately and i think i got possessed while painting vincent cause it happened in like. 40 minutes. and i couldn’t get it to happen again 😔 it didn’t really matter cause i ended up going ham with the curves tool as always but you know 🤷‍♀️

here’s the image without all the effects:

i find lately it’s been more and more common for me to be sketching several iterations of a concept for days, even weeks before i land on something i like. i have an entire separate canvas that i’ve spent 5 hours just doing thumbnails trying to figure out how i wanted to pose these two in a way that would showcase the characteristics that mattered in the story of this piece.

that’s my process for coming up with drawings: i find inspiration somewhere, i figure out the key concepts/characteristics/symbols etc i want highlighted, and i work around those. sometimes i have a composition in mind or just a general vibe i want to portray. for this one i wanted to make sure the towel, rody’s injured finger and vincent’s face could all be clearly seen, while also portraying the fight scene and the vibe i get from the reference song. almost all of my work revolves around a specific lyric from the song which drives the story of the piece. here i interpreted the line “without the sour the sweet wouldn’t taste” as a connection to all the little actions vince takes with rody that can be seen as “sweet.” drying rody’s hair, bandaging rody’s cut. i then asked myself how i could take those actions and make them “sour” or show them in a different light, in which vince is biting the finger he bandaged and pulling rody closer, preventing his escape with the towel he used to dry his hair. what im trying to communicate in this illustration is the idea of “if it weren’t for how i’m treating you now, you wouldn’t understand how kind i was to you then” in an attempt to illustrate the complexities of the way vincent acts towards rody.

i’m truly in love with the story telling of this game. it’s hard to really say anything about how the characters acted during the story because it’s so complex in how it’s done. it’s very hard to summarize their relationship because there’s so much about it i can’t explain without just quoting the game directly. i think it’s such a beautiful portrayal of obsession and just being fucking weird about someone. i wanted to ensure the elements i mentioned in the above paragraph because i didn’t want to be portraying vincent as solely a villain and rody as a victim. i wanted the storytelling of this one illustration to live up to my impression of this beautiful game and i hope i did it justice.

thank you for reading this if you’ve made it this far. i love rambling on all my art posts cause i think it’s so valuable for artists to expand on their work outside of the result alone. i hope what im saying is at most helpful to someone and at the very least a good read. i’m probably gonna take a bit of an art break after this since it took a lot out of me, plus im on the last days of my trip. thank you again for reading!

here’s my dog

[jojo-schmo]

hi jojo! im just wondering but ive been wanting to make a comic for a little while but im not too sure where to start 😅. i really love your style of art and your forgotten land roleswap, and i was wondering if you had any tips for beginners?

Hello, hello! Thank you for enjoying my Forgotten Land Roleswap comic, it means a lot! <3

I'm very honored that people have been asking me for tips and advice. All of this is coming from a hobbyist who draws these comics purely for fun outside of my regular day job. Some of my methods would probably deal psychic damage to a professional, LOL. But I'm more than happy to share some things I've personally learned! :)

First of all, the book, "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud ROCKS. It literally gave me a new dimension to understand the medium of comics and how it presents ideas and emotions to readers! And I haven't even had the chance to finish it all the way! I'm very happy I own a copy and I recommend having one of your own if you can, but it's archived here if you want to read it :D

I also like analyzing other comics and thinking about how they get information across to me as a reader. It's helped me learn more effective ways to visually tell a story, like what to include in a frame, how zooming in or out affects the feeling from the panel, maybe building a scene by focusing on other stuff if someone is talking a lot... etc.

ANYWAYS-! Some other tips I've learned through my personal experience-

I had to overcome a lot of negative self-talk in order to tackle a huge comic project like this and stay committed. I was a pretty severe self-deprecator for most of my life so far, and getting help has allowed me to catch myself when I'm slipping back into those habits, look in the mirror, and go, "NO, JOJO! You pour your heart into what you make and that is a wonderful thing! You are appreciated and loved and you deserve to have fun making something you are passionate about!!" Some examples of the negative self-talk I catch myself in....

"I'm a noob at writing and making a story interesting... What's the point of even trying?"

When it comes to starting a project, whether it's 2 pages or 2000 pages, is to just jump in and start! It's okay to be a little insecure or nervous about your technical art skills, writing skills, etc... But writing a "bad" scene is better than no scene- because you can always edit a "bad" scene down the line, but what can you do with nothing? Nothing!! I also put "bad" in quotation marks because I am trying to use that term less, and instead call them "early drafts." or "works in progress."

The first Roleswap scene I fleshed-out was the first Bandee boss fight, in May 2022. I made this drawing on an impulse, getting my ideas down on the page without thinking about the technical stuff like comic panel borders. I consider it like a "pilot episode" almost, haha. The final project is going to be very different from how things play out here. But it got me interested in the concept and excited to see where I could take it, and I made the decision to commit to an entire game plot's worth of AU comics!!

Also, what's the point in trying you ask? The point is to have fun! Making a fan comic in my free time means I don't have restrictions like deadlines, nobody's telling me what I can and can't write, and I can make the story as long or as short as I want! I have full control, which means the world I'm writing is all mine to create! Yes, with a fan comic there is a pre-established world with existing characters. But a universe like Kirby has enough open-ended concepts for people to take basic concepts in the world and take them to whole new levels! I think that's why there are so many amazing fan interpretations of Kirby characters and OCs. The rules are so vague, you can just make up your own a lot of the time!! And it's a wonderful exercise to learn skills for someday building an original world with all original characters from scratch! Magical!!!

"I'm not good enough to make a comic. I don't understand perspective or color and other stuff. Anything I make will look bad.

I once read a two panel comic on here. I can't find it anymore but I remember most of it. First panel showed the artist looking at what they're drawing on their tablet, looking defeated and sad. "Man, I don't even know how to draw this....."The next panel was like them smiling and shrugging, I think rainbows and sparkles were coming out of their tablet, ".....I GUESS I'LL JUST HAVE TO DRAW IT SHITTY!! :D "

IF ANYONE KNOWS THIS COMIC I'M REFERENCING, PLEASE TELL ME AND I'LL LINK IT!!! Because it permanently and positively changed my brain chemistry.

No kidding, making the decision to just do my best even if it's not perfect, helped me a LOT. I was always waiting to "reach a certain level" to tackle a huge project because I felt like I'd never do it justice at my current state. Except I had been telling myself that kind of stuff for years and I still didn't start any projects!!

So the day I said, "Oh well! If I draw backgrounds shitty, then it is what it is! I'll learn from it and draw the next background a little better," Was the day I could commit fully to the project. I'll keep studying how to draw them better for my own benefit, but I won't let my skill issues stop me from even trying!

And for my limited confidence in full-color art, I solved that by making the comic in black and white with no-to-minimal shading lolol. Because I can only address one skill issue at a time before it takes me 25 years to finish this HAHAHA.

It saves a BUNCH of time to work with skill issues rather than against them! Because at least experience is gained in other ways, and who knows, maybe that new knowledge will help address the skill issues someday! So identifying your personal skill issues and deciding which one to try to grow stronger, and which one to work around, could help with big projects!

"Nobody will read this. I'm going to put months or years of my life into a dumb little thing nobody will even care about."

Learning how to draw for my own enjoyment instead of somebody else's was one of the biggest breakthroughs I ever made. Enjoying the feeling of being challenged artistically and just doing my best, even if it's not technically perfect, is the reason why I was even able to start this!

And just because someone doesn't directly like, comment or whatever on a post doesn't mean nobody saw it! I used to get really down on myself for the lack of engagement on my art on other websites.

I was a lurker for pretty much my entire teenage years and never posted my own stuff or commented much. But that didn't take away the fact that I really enjoyed the things I saw online. Those positive feelings were real to me, even when I didn't know how to articulate it in words. Granted, I grew up into a Words of Affirmation main, and I use words to tell people the positive things I think about them as much as I can! But I know not everyone prefers words to express themselves. So I think about the people that I don't know enjoy my work- that just because I don't see it doesn't mean I didn't make a positive impact on someone by sharing my stories.

THIS IS GETTING LONG-- UHHH, STORY TIPS!!

If you work best on technology, start building the story in a Notes app, or a Google Doc! If you work best with pen and paper, start a notebook and rearrange stuff as you need to!

Or if you're chaotic like me, a mix of tech and paper!! I bought a notebook with ring binding so I can remove and rearrange pages of drafts as much as I wanted to! Like here's two very rough concept pages of one Chapter 1 scene made months apart.

I'd say planning out the biggest basic plot points and then filling in between as I went was most helpful! I also have separate notes for character motivations, important story-changing events, etc... So I can have my own reference when I'm writing new scenes!

Okay this was a lot, sorry about the yapping! Hopefully it helps even a tiny bit. If you have any specific questions I'm happy to talk about my experience in the creation process! Or elaborate on anything I said above.

And finally, because I'm not a professional there are probably plenty of other tactics that could work better for some people. My ADHD probably doesn't help with the chaos of my process either, HAHA. But thank you for reading this far and enjoying the peek into the rainbow glitter and soap bubbles that inhabit the right side of my brain, heehee.

[yl0w]

PAGE 5 :: CHAPTER 1

<< PREV | NEXT >>

cover page and title reveal! both of which im going to probably redo again and again cuzz:

i have a massive perfectionism problem and i need to tell myself

"this is not going to be perfect!"

its probably going to suck ass!

more than anything, this weird comic will be a playground for me to experiment like heck. a fun place to make mistakes, and learn! the dialogue might feel cheap, the art might look scrappy, but im learning all along the way

the quality of the pages will probably fluctuate since il try my best to just. keep. drawing. and posting pages, even if i cant quite polish them

i love comics, but ive never really committed to one before. id hate to take forever to finish my first one! this is only my first, and i dont want it to be my last. :>

THAT BEING SAID: i spent a LONG time working on the lore holy shit

okay BUT WHY "RAINBOW FACTORY"?

because i love it duh! i want to use this comic to express just how aggressively that song and fanfic captured my imagination. a love letter to edgy "grimdark" fics that i never grew out of!

what do you mean "AN RF REMIX"? this isn't a song!

this story will involve all the parts of the original that made it Rainbow Factory, but it wont be a retelling of that same story. i like to think of it as a "remix" because it takes the concept of the rainbow factory and all the cool stuff about the pegasi and spectra and spins it into a different direction (which hopefully turns out to be interesting...)

that also means that none of the events that happened in the original fanfic happens here, unless stated so in this story!

(however, i will say that this story sticks closer to the lyrics of the songs, rather than the fanfics by the original author. and none of the sequels of the original fanfic are important to the lore of this story)

basically, you probably dont need to have read the original fics to understand whats going on here :v

so yea ! !

come along while i lose my mind over rainbows and horses :DD

(aaand if youve read this far i deem you worthy of a peek at the kid who kept runnig)

lyrics from "The Wolf" by Siamés

[whitebookposts]

*skitters towards your ask box autistically* do you have any teth headcanons :3

OH MY GOD I JUST REALIZED ITS BEEN A FEW WEEKS AND I STILL HAVEN'T ANSWERED THIS. I AM SO SORRY I LIVE IN SHAME EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Anyway, Teth! Our deeply beloved forest cryptid. I have to be honest, I don't have as many headcanons about her as I do about some of my other fave elders, which is a thing I should work to change because Teth is awesome. But here are some I do have for now:

CAAAAT I think my good buddy @krillking has already spoken about Teth having cat traits in his animal elder post, but yeah. While in my headcanons, the animal traits are less defined, Teth still very much has cat behavior, like her irises widening or narrowing like a cat's, and she likes to sleep in the sun (which is trouble because. Forest is 90 percent clouds and rain. Thankfully she has the yard behind her temple and the sunny forest segment, though due to the whole thing happening in the kingdom, she could visit those comfort places less and less :<) and most importantly - purring. Which she is a bit shy about, so she rarely does it. If you get to catch her purr, it means that she trusts you enough to do it next to you, though she will still be embarrassed if you mention it out loud. (Also do not leave her anywhere near fancy furniture she will try to rip it with her claws. Yes, lamed learned it the hard way.)

TRANSGENDAAAAAAAAA Idk how to explain it but Teth is just so transfem coded. Goes by both she\her and they\them. It just makes so much sense that I don't even need any proof to know that, she has told me this herself. Gotta give @dogedepan for this one though since I stole this idea from her (like many others. Can't help it Chi your headcanons are awesome)

BEEFCAKE Let's be real, TGC is a bunch of cowards for making her slim. How can you look at this woman, who is a blacksmith, and can catch a giant flying hammer with one arm like it's no big deal, and not think that they have some impressive muscle? If you draw Teth buff I am forever in your debt. PLEASE I WANT TO SEE MORE BUFF TETH ART PLEA-

BESTIE Teth and Ayin are literally fated besties, be they platonic or romantic. Even in early concept art, Ayin was described as "Teth's friend" and held the key to her realm, just showing the level of trust between them. Their realms also work with each other really well, with Ayin being the main supply for Teth's factories which is what allowed her realm to grow. I like to think of them being childhood best friends, and that they have been by each other's side through the good and the bad. Remember that headcanon about Teth enjoying sleeping in sunny places? Prairie is perfect for that, and if she decides to take a nap while visiting it is no rarity for her to choose Ayin as a bed for that (soft). I don't really see em as romantic because I already ship Teth with someone else, but as an aromantic person, it's important for me to show intimacy like that even between friendships. Ayin is always there to lend an ear to Teth, being there for her through her worst, and Teth is Ayin's "EXCUSE ME THEY ASKED FOR NO PICKLES". Although, if we go to the sadder territory, their friendship did suffer a falling out during the turbulent era of the kingdom, with Teth closing off from everyone, including Ayin, too caught in her work and darkstone production to meet the ever-growing demands, and that led to Ayin also drowning in work to keep up the light supply. That is not to mention the different world views about light creatures and how worthy they are of preservation.

CRYBABY I just like to think that despite appearing cold and serious, Teth is a very gentle soul underneath the hard facade she forced herself to create due to her position. But if you get to know her you will find a very soft, shy, and caring heart that makes it easy for her eyes to water, be it a happy or sad occasion, even if she is trying to hide it. She is also a pretty big introvert and starts getting nervous during events with big crowds, esp if they have to do a speech as an elder or something. This gentleness and softness hidden behind a cold surface is one of the things that attracted Priestess to her, which leads me to the next point:

LESBIANNNNNN You may know this already but I'm a big PriesTeth truther, which is the ship between Priestess (the original elder of the Valley from concept art, never made it to the final game but there is a pretty popular fanon that she is the mother of the twins) and Teth. Again, I was enlightened about this ship thanks to @dogedepan she is literally the CEO of this ship god bless. I know it's a bit silly to ship her with an elder who never even made it to canon, but I fell in love with the dynamic of the "serious and cold at first glance but soft and gentle on the inside x extroverted, energetic and mischievous but deeply caring and kind" that exists between them. Priestess was Teth's firework, the bright and colorful in the grey and cold of her life. Never had the elder of the Forest loved someone like she did this bright, giggly, and open girl who managed to always make Teth smile. And it hurt all the more when Priestess was lost. After the death of her partner, Teth closed off completely, lost in her work, just to not feel the pain because the grief was overwhelming. She couldn't make herself go to her backyard anymore, because it was the connection between Valley and her forest and where the two met most of the time, being there was just too painful. Some ancestors say that the rain became much more frequent after this loss.

Milf As I ship priesteth, I also headcanon that Teth is the other parent of Sah and Mekh. Unfortunately, their relationship is very rocky. Priestess died when the two were very young, and due to Teth being too lost in her grief, she simply couldn't care for them, causing the two to be raised by other elders (mainly Tsadi, who is their uncle) and kicked around from temple to temple until they were old enough to live on their own. This caused feelings of betrayal and neglect in the two, and it came to the point that they rarely acknowledged Teth as their other parent anymore. And she feels too guilty before them to try and get them back because she believes she deserves this for her mistakes. But perhaps not everything is lost, and some of this relationship can be salvaged if she finally gets brave enough to reach out.

WORSTIE She and Tsadi have a beef. That's it that's the headcanon. It's not anything serious, it's literally a "cat and dog" type of beef, the two can't even tell when it started, it's just that both will use any opportunity to roast each other. Why do I have this headcanon? Because it's funny.

INSANE SITUATIONSHIP Let's just say that the situationship between Teth and Nesting guide still left the latter one staring at her pictures every day for hours.

Hobbies Other than being a blacksmith, Teth enjoys all types of crafts, like sculpting from clay or woodworking. Girlie doesn't need any IKEA, she can make all the furniture herself (I mean, the Nesting guide had to learn this from someone)

Anddddd.... That's all for now! There's probably more headcanons but I can't remember them all rn. I hope these were written good enough and sorry for any grammar mistakes! AND SORRY FOR MAKING YOU WAIT SO LONG I PROMISE I DIDN'T IGNORE YOU DJHGDJGDJ Teth is best forest mama, and I really should put more thought into her, thank you for sending me this ask so i can brainstorm about this gal.

[spacedlexi]

how'd you get good at environment art? i've been tossing around the idea of going into concept art, but i've been afraid of getting into environments. what would you suggest to start out with to someone new to it?

learn perspective!!

its not as hard as it may seem once you understand how vanishing points and horizon lines work. i was lucky enough to be taught perspective when i was young and now im trying to get good at doing it free hand. i never liked how Perfect using rulers and grids made things feel, and by doing it free hand i feel like it adds back that more organic feeling that a real environment has

sometimes the vanishing point isnt even in the frame. my trick is to put my scene in a box. the box itself gives the perspective lines for you to follow and you can still imagine where the vanishing points are or even draw them if you Can see it. something about the box method just really helps me visualize the space im working in. ground, sky, and depth. and put a grid on it! in perspective!! itll really help with visualizing depth. heres an example of what i mean:

straight lines!! i dont know why because it kind of contradicts my last statement about perfect vs organic 💀 but using a straight line tool changed the game for me. on CSP i just turn my post correction all the way up and it makes my lines straight which i prefer so i can still use the same pen and im not locked to a grid. i'll turn it off for organic things in the environment like plants and stuff, but for inorganic things i use straight lines and it always makes it feel Right to me. some people are good at drawing inorganic things freehanded and they still look Right (and leans into that organic environment feeling) but not me for some reason 💀 i love you post correction

UUHH hmm. another little note that isnt necessarily about backgrounds but definitely helps when i draw them is: draw the Effect of the detail, NOT the Exactness of it. especially when youre drawing an environment things are gonna get muddied as they get farther out of focus (hard edges and soft edges are important!! not everything needs to be crisply in focus and itll detract from where you Want people looking anyway if it is). dont think about what you Know the thing is supposed to look like, with all its details. its more about the Feeling of it. ie the Effect of it. with my sketchy style i have a lot of fun with this concept aha i love my scribbles :)

good luck anon!! i hope this helps you in some way!! 💕 also dont get too intimidated by actually drawing the objects in a scene. the box method works for individual objects too. i basically imagine everything as some kind of weird cube or cylinder 😂 break things down as simply as you can and work from there. AND USE REFERENCES

[mintaii]

hiii i love your art it feels so edible to me and this might be a dumb question but i love your work so i wanted to ask someone who i looked up to: how do you know what you wanna make?? i want to make more art myself but usually all i know is “i wanna use these colors” or “i wanna try painting w this technique” but i don’t know what i wanna draw, if that makes sense. how do you pick an end goal, or even an idea?? how do you get ideas in the first place yk??? idk if you even have this issue. thank you for reading this!!

hi!! not a dumb question at all, don't worry!! and yeah. thinking of ideas sometimes is a PAIN but i'll try to answer this as best as i can...

i think u can look at it like there's 3 main starting points to jump off from: character, scenario, object(s).

with character, i usually figure out what i like about them or if there's a facet of their story that i want to portray. or maybe it's an emotion i associate them with. however, u can also pick out a specific design element u like about them and expand upon it. if the character's main color palette is black and white, why not try painting a portrait of them only using that limited color palette?

scenarios are where u can go 'i want to draw this interaction', 'i want to draw this outfit' or 'i like this specific scenario/setting, why don't i draw something in relation to it?' sometimes i work backwards from 'i want to draw them in this specific type of genre' and then think of a scenario would get the characters into that genre LOL

with objects, i kind of mean it super broadly so it includes like. the stars. pretty architecture. a microwave idk. but if there's something out there that u really like the design of, u can try to figure out what u want to do with it and combine it with a separate concept.

i.e, pretty vintage music box designs -> i could draw something from the nutcracker, since the combo gives off christmas vibes -> i could draw something also inspired by the phantom of the opera, since the musical featured a music box and the combo gives off a certain atmosphere that reflects the story as a whole. tasia.m.s on instagram does a series where she draws women in dresses that are inspired by inanimate (typically vintage) objects.

i unironically think using tarot cards– specifically the major arcana– as art prompts help with practicing idea generation for original art LOL

the names of the cards can range from abstract to very literal and each of them are tied to specific meanings and are chock-full of existing symbolism, which can assist with learning how to craft ideas in response to them

really hope this helps!! sorry it got kind of long...

[alena-draws]

Phew, I’ve uploaded some concept art on Twitter, breaking my chain of endless fanart with some professional seeming stuff, and I wanted to show you here, too:

These are sketches for the concept art I’m doing for my master thesis project! I’ve got 2 main settings in my hypothetical 2d movie, the Forest and the City, and I wanted to work out the visuals of the forest by going for some atmospheric drawings. Overall there is only few light shining through the branches, so the deeper and lower you are, the less light from the sun is there, until only mushroom will illuminate the area. I wanted to give it this vast, eerie feeling. Though at the bottom of the forest, you will find the ruins of the old world on which it is rooted, and the heart of the fungi network, a rather magical looking place that I wanted to make the setting for the finale of the story. I will make one properly worked out illustration for that place and then get back to the city, before I lose too much focus of my time frame that I still have left..

(for the fungi core, the bottom drawings, I am referencing the Kulturpalast Dresden, a philharmonic hall with quite interesting architecture! It fits perfectly with the stage and the different layers of the seats!

(on another note: everytime I look at other amazing art/movie references I get another cool idea how or what I want to do. I recently watched The Emperor’s New Groove and let me tell you, every background in that movie is just soo amazing, and the movie works so well with these stylised bgs, that I got the idea: Maybe I could go for smth more stylised, and not try to make the scenery seem so much like a “real” room, but more think about how the characters could be placed in it and then think about creating the better effect. Know what I mean? The more I learn and see the more I find out how little I know about this, but it’s all interesting and fun to work out! I just wished I had more time, not really needing a result in..uhm 2 months. *sweats* )

[pbeltarts]

I've admired your work for a long time and personally love your art style, it looks so top-tier and professional! I'm trying to get back into drawing, do you have any tips on how to develop art skills? Maybe your journey as an artist?

My journey has been going since I was a little kid. I've always drawn, so a lot of it is self-taught stuff building up on itself. However, I think these things can really help speed up understanding art as a process: 1. Use references, please god. I did not use refs for a majority of my life as a self-taught artist and though I got there in the end, references saves a world of headache in both anatomy placement and just posing. You don't have to draw 3/4 standing poses for all your practice/sketching!

Gesture drawing is a rly nice way of also getting faster while learning to dissect a reference quickly. You understand what makes the pose readable in a few strokes, vs trying to nail down every muscle and bone placement. They're good to warm up to (which you should always warm up, be nice to your poor hands.) 2. Don't just admire, learn. When you see someone's art you like, take the time to think about why you like it. Why is it affective, what parts of it are clicking with you? If it's sketches and comics of someone's ocs or fanart, why is it resonating outside of being about a special interest you have? What about the ART is doing something? If it's a finished illustration or painting, there's usually choices the artist is making to get ideas or moods across. Being able to dissect and pay attention to art that we admire and like builds skills in doing it to our own. When we're unhappy with something, we can critically ask ourselves why instead of just saying it's bad. Just saying something is 'bad' or 'good' is ineffective in learning anything.

3. Be optimistic in learning! It's perfectly fine to enjoy drawing just as is, and not to constantly analyze what you and others make- but being open to studying, critique, and learning new and old concepts makes us better artists. Being receptive to knowledge is a good thing, always! So try, when studying, to enjoy the process of making the art and learning about art as much as the final product. If you hate making the thing, or just find it as a means to an end, you're gonna burn out quickly. Fall in love with the act of making something. Because it's a labor of love! Fall in love with learning about it, discovering new ways to do it, and so on because you can enjoy it more.

[capn-twitchery]

do you have any tips for drawing expressions? it’s one thing that I always notice about your art, I love how expressive your characters are.

thank you so much!! it really means a ton bc expressions are one of the things i've focused & worked the hardest on over the years :D ♥

which ALSO MEANS--HA, YOU ACTIVATED MY SPECIAL INTEREST TRAP CARD i am now going to talk at you all for far too long about it >:) buckle up!

prefacing this by saying i Love animation, this makes me biased as hell with where i get my sources + how i study art. anyway!

i think my biggest #1 tip is don't be afraid to get goofy with it--characters don't have to look cool and stoic all the time, they can be silly! if an expression reads better, but looks a little off-model, do it anyway! make that guy look weird!

i draw little thumbnail expressions a Lot, whether for actual art or for just fun doodling. i don't have any recent ones to hand-- but here's some from a while ago. they help a ton to figure out what works quickly without worrying about actual facial features

they also help to see if i can push an expression further, it's easier to test out weird things on a tiny round doodle and then translate that into an actual drawing later on. pushing expressions To The Limits is a really good exercise in itself!

gonna put the rest under the cut bc it's getting long & i have a lot more to say

ok this in itself is a whole topic i can go on about for hours, but i'll try to keep it semi brief--i Love considering how different characters would show emotions! how one character would express sadness, how that would be different to another, how one character would smile vs. another, stuff like that!

related, giving characters individual expression quirks. twitch's :3 mouth & lazy lidded eyes if you could see them anyway & Very Smug Eyebrows, while grace has heavy low eyebrows & sad puppy eyes & usually looks at least 10% unsure at all times. it makes every single twitch smile look slightly not genuine and makes grace look. well. you know. the quirks are really fun to think of, and it makes drawing expressions feel a lot more fun when you personalise them!!

expressions can be easier to think of when you put characters in scenarios & consider how they'd react. it can also help to think of the character Moving/talking, instead of as a static image. mini comics or just adding dialogue to art helps a lot with this, i've only just started doing it and i'm having a blast!!

ok this one is weird and hard to explain and might only be applicable to me bc i can't see images in my brain-- but i'll throw it out there just in case! lots of artists make faces in the mirror to reference their own expressions, but it's never worked for me

i Do still act stuff out in my brain & make faces irl, but instead of doing it in the mirror, i just make the expression & consider how my face is moving in Words? ok for example This Comic, last panel for twitch--i'd run through the dialogue in my head and move around how i feel like they would, and list it off in Words--raised eyebrows, closed eyes, tilted head, etc etc. then i have a framework to base the expression on! and i don't need to stare into my own face in the mirror for reference. no mirror needed at all, actually. win/win. i do this for body language too

(yes this makes you look insane btw. sorry. if you do it too long best case scenario you get very dextrous eyebrows and worst case scenario you might start making cartoon character faces irl (or both) (i'm both))

not sure how much it helps specifically with expressions outside of animation, but it's a fun exercise--learning the limits of a character's face, animation calls it squash & stretch. drawing a face in the two most extreme states. so on character expression sheets you'll see weird faces like this⤵️ that's what that is

another exercise, i always have a ton of art saved that i like the expressions of. usually a lot of concept art for films. i'll do studies of them & redraw them, and/or take ocs and redraw them with those expressions! it's a great way to look at how other artists do stuff and yoink bits you like.

you'll hear this a lot if you look up Any art tips, but references & studies are great. i get a lot of inspo from disney concept art bc their artists are very talented people, but currently i hope disney studios' own hubris eats it alive. i want to see mickey mouse buried in a hole, the rat bastard. anyway some places i personally take inspiration from:

i look at a lot of animation concept art, some good sources are characterdesignreferences, livinglineslibrary, there's pdfs of animation art books all over the place too.

specific concept artists i like are jin kim & shiyoon kim !! they do Great expressions.

outside of film industry, tealin and tracy butler of lackadaisy cats are some inspirations! tracy butler has a great expressions tutorial here

if you find this stuff interesting & like reading, the illusion of life by ollie johnston & frank thomas is an incredible insight into the thought process behind stuff like this! there's a pdf here, unfortunately just a scanned copy but worth a read if you like this stuff!! specifically chapters 'character development', 'animating expressions & dialogue', and 'acting & emotions'

sorry that was an essay and a half but hopefully it was a little bit helpful!! i always love talking about this stuff so if you want anything clarified/just wanna talk about it more i am Always ready to go off >:3

[determinate-negation]

Hii. I'm not sure how to phrase this question, but how does one draw the line between the most effective way of getting people into engaging critically with art and politics (which is imo, being nice and encouraging and yes coddling a little bit people's fragile egos) and expressing your own discontent with people's lack of curiosity and desire to learn and form well funded opinions beyond base level takes, paired with an immovable conviction that anything that isn't immediately comfortable (such as your blorbo show (?) Being criticized) must be Evil.

What I mean is that as an individual you'd want to basically shake these people who shut down every discussion with the slogan Let People Enjoy Things, and rightfully call them idiots for throwing a tantrum at the grown age of 36 because someone said maybe watching something other than Steven universe would be good or whatever, but on the other hand telling people they are unintelligent for exclusively engaging with surface level ideas/ uninspired art does Not encourage anyone who does that into going beyond that comfort zone. At the same time tho it does feel like you're doing airplane sounds so the baby eats the pudding without crying. You cannot condescend anyone into critical thought but the fact that so many people are unwilling to engage in it out of laziness is making everyone's life worse. How do we get out of that point ig is my question. Sorry if that made 0 sense English isn't my first language :P hope you're having a good day/night

idk i honestly get very annoyed by watching people or interacting with people who respond to any mild critical thought with some iteration of 'let people enjoy things' and 'youre being elitist for not liking the popular thing,' and a million other things. ngl i dont think tumblr is also the greatest place for like... scholarly discourse although it can actually be quite productive for it somethings. but a lot of people genuinely dont want to look into shit. theres an attitude here (not just on tumblr but i just think in the capitalist west) of incuriosity and its difficult to say how to overcomme. for example ill post links to books and essays about a topic and have people complain that i dont specify what chapters to read. this pisses me off to no end and i end up ranting about it and probably coming off like a dick lol. thus the posts...

i also do post like essays and articles and shit that i think explains my position on this and the theoretical basis for it, and if people ask questions ill try to explain any concepts and give recommendations for stuff to read about mass culture and cultural criticism. i think this has been more productive, idk. i dont think political education and class consciousness will rise from social media though, which is where these tendencies are allowed to develop to the extreme. organization and education irl will be the most fruitful, but still i just think to show people the stuff that influenced me and how i think of it is a net positive. ty and same to you

[quibbs126]

(Sorry if you already did this)

Could you do a dark choco x caramel arrow fankid? It’s a rare pair but I love it:DDD

(also I love your art)

For all the people who requested this, here you are, this kid is Caramel Fudge Cookie. He was actually a bit up in my requests, but since so many people were asking I thought might as well do him early. I’ve been skipping around a bit

Now, for the name, I know there’s definitely a bunch of things with chocolate and caramel around, I just had to find something that was just called “chocolate caramel”. The original name I was going to go with is something with syrup, since I know both chocolate and caramel can be made into syrup, but I didn’t end up going with that, since he didn’t give me that vibe. Now, what he reminded me of were brownies topped with caramel, along with marshmallows and maybe some graham crackers as well (my family’s made those before, they’re delicious and now I’m hungry). Well the marshmallows and graham crackers make it a s’more, but the chocolate brownies with caramel are called turtle brownies. So, I named him Turtle Fudge Cookie (the “fudge” part isn’t part of the food name, but I didn’t think Turtle Brownie worked as well, so I just put it in instead. Also there is turtle fudge, but I was thinking of the brownies). I was also debating changing it to Caramel Fudge, since I thought the “turtle” part didn’t fit, but after asking my friend she says turtle sounds better, so I’m going with Turtle Fudge

Turtle brownie/turtle fudge:

I really want brownies now

Anyways, on to his design, I think he looks cute, but also I worry he looks too much like a mini Caramel Arrow and not enough like Dark Choco. Maybe it shows more when he gets older. Currently he’s like 8. He also originally had black eyes like her, but I wanted to change it to look more like him. Purple eyes like his grandfather was also an option, but my friend told me the red eyes looked better

So on to him himself, so he’s determined to become a Watcher and is basically starting early, since he lives in the Citadel. He’s always trying to train, he goes around telling people when their shifts change (he knows when they do, he’s not making up times to change), and he’ll spend hours (or at least he’ll try to, he’ll usually end up falling asleep) looking atop the wall for any sort of threat. Thing is, he’s a little kid and basically just looks like a tiny Caramel Arrow, so everyone just finds him adorable. He’s so sincere in his efforts that no one can bring themselves to be annoyed or mad with him.

I gave him a spear just because those are another weapon in the kingdom and I wanted to give him something different from his parents. He does know how to use a bow though, he’s just not the best at it

Oh yeah, another thing I was going to draw as a sketch but forgot to, I had an idea that he might have some weird connection to the Licorice Sea. Like, he can’t help but stare out at it, almost thinking something in there is calling to him. Not sure if I’m keeping that or it just stays an early concept

Another potential plot point is that he comes across Affogato Cookie sneaking into the Citadel, not knowing who he is, only that he’s trespassing. Affogato sees him and immediately thinks “is that a tiny Caramel Arrow??”. Upon asking if he’s related, Affogato learns that this kid is the son of Caramel Arrow Cookie and Dark Choco Cookie, which by extension also makes him Dark Cacao’s grandson. Realizing he has an opportunity for revenge against the people who screwed him over, he kidnaps Turtle Fudge. How successful he is (he escapes with Turtle Fudge, I mean how long before he’s found or even if he’s found) and what that revenge entails I’m not sure. But there is a possible scenario where Turtle Fudge grows up to be a loyal servant to Affogato, either not knowing his parents or thinking they abandoned him, probably due to brainwashing on Affogato’s account. If anyone wants to do anything with this concept, feel free

But yeah, I think that’s about it for Turtle Fudge. I’ll be honest, I feel like I focused more on the Carrow side of him and basically nothing about Dark Choco. I’m half debating whether or not Dark Choco is even there, or if this is an alternate universe where they had the kid before Dark Choco got banished, meaning Turtle Fudge just has his mother. I’d like him to be there, but it feels like how I wrote him Dark Choco either isn’t there or is just in the background

But anyways yeah, hope you like him!

Edit: I just realized the second one asked me what I think of the ship. I mean, I get the ship, but personally I like to see Dark Choco and Caramel Arrow as having a sibling relationship, so it just doesn’t work out for me personally

Also I am just now realizing the second person might have been asking me to draw Dark Choco and Caramel Arrow and not a fankid. Sorry about that, I’ve seen so many of these that if you give me a two characters and ask about a ship I’m probably going to think you’re asking me to make a fankid

[superbecky]

Meet Aislinn - Soriel Fanchild

>Please do not re-post or use my work in any way without my permission! Re-blogging is ok. Thanks!<

(CHARACTER INFO BELOW!)

My "first" art post of the year! Honestly, this kind of art is something I always shied away from making, at least regarding posting it online… but, I guess here we are! Nothing wrong with going into the new year trying out something new. Allow me to introduce to you, Aislinn! She is my attempt at an Undertale fankid for Toriel x Sans (because yes, Soriel is amazing and I love it so much).

The concept of this character actually dates back years ago as a little collaboration between me and a family member. I never was planning to make her known about, but during Soriel Week 2023 (so back in August), I decided why not? Thus, I started updating her design and did a sketch. However, during that time Soriel Week 2023 was ending and I got too busy until I eventually forgot about this kiddo. That is, until a few days ago when I got inspired by that same family member and decided “you know what, sure let’s just do this for fun”! So yeah, here she is!

I did have fun drawing/designing her, but I also think it is a little bit tricky when creating fan characters because, at least for me, I want them to feel like a natural inclusion to the world they are supposed to be from. I think overall I did good though at this goal!

Anyways, if you are interested in hearing more about her character, the family/story dynamics, and my design process, then keep on reading! Otherwise, I think she turned out cute and this was a fun little project to work on! I wouldn’t be opposed to drawing her again or even with other family members, but I think it will ultimately depend on if people would want to see that. Oh, and if you have any questions about her you want to ask that I don’t have answered below, then feel free to ask me! C:

🤍💙💜🤍💙💜 So… if you are reading this, then you are wanting to learn more, yeah? Well, buckle up because boy do I have a lot to share! Does Aislinn exist within an AU/alternate timeline? Well, I feel it would be more appropriate to consider her inclusion as being part of an alternative timeline because it’s more so my head canons/my take on a possibility of what could happen after the events of a pacifist timeline if Toriel and Sans end up together. Like, there isn’t anything drastically changed to what we know from canon other than me throwing some head canons into a pacifist timeline, so it feels incorrect to me to call it an AU. Do I have a name then for this alternate timeline? I guess if anything, you could consider her inclusion as a follow up to the stories/events told in my other Undertale alternative timeline, Scrapbooktale. Why the name Aislinn? Why not use a font for her name? Well, technically if you google “Aislinn font”, there is a font that I think fits her pretty well. But basically, Aislinn’s name means “dream or vision”, which I felt tied back to things in Undertale like “hopes and dreams” (Asriel) and just how like I feel that with monster kind being freed, they are able to pursue their dreams. Toriel and Sans are both shown to be very family-oriented, so why wouldn’t a possible dream of theirs be to extend their family? That’s where my inspiration came from. Her nicknames are Linn and Linny. Does she speak using a font like Sans and Papyrus?  Nope. More information regarding your design process for her?

So going into more details regarding her physical design, her head and part of her neck is completely bone like Sans and her hands are also skeletal. The only thing on her face that has fur is her little floofy eyebrows! The rest of her body is more like Toriels. She wears a big, green headband/bow as I decided that I wanted to give her some sort of visual element that would give the illusion of ears. I knew that I wanted to give her horns, but instead of just giving her horns that look like what Toriel has, I thought it would be cool to give her horns that resemble Sanses Gaster Blasters. Her eyes in shape are more like her moms, but they are just more so glowing pupils like Sans has (or in her case, glowing ring lights). Her eye color has a slight blue tint to it as I was inspired by Toriel’s official Nendroid design, which has blue eyes. One of Aislinn's most treasured items is her gold flower hair clip that was given to her by Frisk. She always keeps it clipped on her favorite headband/bow.

How old is she? How tall is she?

I find it hard to give an exact age for her because how monsters age is a bit… unknown in terms of canon? But if I had to give her some sort of age, Aislinn is 5 years old, and I think Frisk would be roughly 14 years old around this time. As for her height... well she is just a lil kiddo, so of course she is rather short! I imagine when she gets older though, she would be taller than Frisk. What is her personality? Likes and Dislikes?

Aislinn is cautious and sometimes can come off as shy. While she loves her family, their antics definitely freak her out from time to time.

She is very polite thanks mainly to Toriel. Sans tries to loosen her up a bit, but it is something Aislinn just can’t help!

She tends to keep to herself.

She can be very curious and playful, but won’t do anything that she deems unsafe (unless convinced). Because of her age though, she still struggles with understanding sometimes what is actually considered safe and unsafe.

Her favorite color is green, and her favorite food is snail pizza.

Some of her hobbies include playing with her toy trumpet, drawing, reading and hearing stories, and playing/hanging out with Frisk.

She likes puns and jokes. However, she is terrible at making them.

Aislinn dislikes fighting and dangerous situations. She also does not enjoy getting super messy.

Aislinn and Frisk's Relationship

Aislinn idolizes Frisk. Even though she has a hard time understanding them sometimes (especially regarding all the shenanigans Frisk seems to get into) Aislinn still thinks that Frisk is the coolest person in the world. She loves hearing about Frisk’s adventures, especially the ones of their time Underground. Even though Frisk has a hard time understanding kids close to their age or younger, they still enjoy hanging out with Aislinn and sometimes envy her naïve nature. When Aislinn was a baby, though initially excited, Frisk ended up having a hard time of feeling like the "lesser child" since they are adopted and struggle with self worth. Luckily, thanks to Sans and Toriel, Frisk began to learn over time that they are just as loved and cared for as Aislinn. Though sometimes, they may fall back into this mindset. On the other hand, Aislinn sometimes feels like she isn't good enough compared to Frisk. After all, she is the sibling of the human who changed history by freeing monster kind! Aislinn and Frisk really do love each other though at the end of the day. Aislinn and Sanses Relationship

I am someone who head canons that Sans raised Papyrus and later on helped to raise Frisk after marrying Toriel. By the time Aislinn comes into the picture, Sans is a natural at the whole dad thing... or at least, he likes to hope so. For Sans, it definitely helps to have such a cool wife by his side and to have a kid this time around who is a lot more chilled out. Sans finds that raising Aislinn has actually been way easier than raising Papyrus, and especially Frisk mainly due to Aislinn staying out of trouble. That being said, Sans sometimes worries that he is not doing enough with Aislinn considering how much he seems to be keeping an eye on Frisk, because wow that kid is always getting into trouble and next thing he knows he is asking "uh kid, how did you end up flooding the bathroom... again"? He does make an effort though to make sure that Aislinn knows that he cares for her, and he tries to set aside time from all of the commotion around the house just for her. Though Aislinn is terrible at telling joke, Sans will always be proud at her attempt to tell one. Sans is the one who got Aislinn into trying out a musical instrument (her toy trumpet). He also came up with her nicknames Linn and Linny. Sans will call her baby bones, just as he did for Papyrus and still does for Frisk.

Aislinn and Toriel's Relationship

Aislinn really looks up to Toriel with how she presents herself. Graceful, polite, elegant, and sometimes just goofy. While Sans may be stuck watching Frisk all the time from almost doing god knows what, Toriel is the one who makes sure to keep more of an eye on Aislinn. Toriel enjoys teaching Aislinn things throughout the day, such as "72 uses for snails". Aislinn loves it when Toriel reads her stories, even if sometimes she does not understand what the heck is even going on in said story. When it comes to needing emotional support, Aislinn will usually go to Toriel first.

Aislinn's Magic Her magic consists of fire magic that is shaped like bones (so instead of a typical fire ball, it’s a “fire ball” that is bone shaped)! She has no blasters like Sans, nor can she teleport like he does. She can however use dark blue magic (gravity manipulation) like Sans. She can only use this magic to make someone still for a small amount of time. She cannot use this magic to push or move anyone. Aislinn also has the ability to use green (healing) magic, but is not really good at it. The most she can heal is up to 0.5-1hp, but over time as she gets older and learns her magic better, she will be able to heal just as well as Toriel does! At her current age, Aislinn's magic is still pretty weak and she is still learning how to use it properly.

🤍💙💜🤍💙💜

PHEW! Ok, I think that is all the main information I wanted to cover. But yeah, if you have any questions or want to learn more, then please feel free to ask! 💜

[veinsfullofstars]

hey just wondering, how do you draw daroach? i wanna figure him out for myself but dont feel like i get down how he looks well enough. thanks for the help if you have any, if not then thanks for just answering

Thank you for the question! And, yeah, I totally get it - that rat can be a nightmare to draw sometimes, haha. I definitely struggled with him a lot at first (you can kinda tell if you compare my earlier works to my recent ones). I think it’s because so much of him is obscured by his outfit in official art? The way the brim of his hat dips over his face or how his cape likes to defy physics - all in service of a cooler silhouette, sure, but taking away a lot of readability and foundation to work from in the process. I’ll try to offer some tips that work for me (though I’m hardly an expert on this, and teaching's not exactly my strong suit, so please bear with me if things get muddled, haha).

The main piece of advice I can give is gather and study as much reference as you can. Official art, concept art, promotional stuff, sprite sheets - whatever you can find, just grab ‘em and put ‘em somewhere you can easily pull up when you’re drawing. I get most of mine from Wikirby, Spriter’s Resource, and official sites like the Kirby JP Twitter, as well as screenshots taken directly from the games (a great way to get in-motion poses and back views, I’ve found). Here’s what my ref sheet for Daroach looks like (I also have a separate one for color swatches):

Kind of a mess, yeah, but very worth it, I assure you. The more visuals you have to work off of, the easier it will be to detect consistencies in design. Which brings me to my next point: shapes!

Most Kirby characters are, at their core, just a buncha simple shapes. It can be hard to tell sometimes when they wear clothes (like with our rat buddy here), but they still have similar foundations of circles and other rounded features. A way I've found that helps with this is to try redlining (that is, take a piece of reference and trace over it for the purpose of study, learning where lines connect, how silhouettes look, how different parts overlap, what shapes are used, etc.). Here’s an example:

This is a great way to find those design consistencies I mentioned before. I did these a bit messy for a better sense of movement (and ‘cause I’m practiced enough to sketch a little quicker), but you can always start slower and cleaner if it helps you see the shapes and layers more clearly. You can even do them multiple times to familiarize yourself with the design and eventually try copying them without tracing, like doing gesture drawings or life studies.

In Daroach, I’ve found that his head isn’t a perfect circle shape, but more like a rounded diamond, with his ears connecting at or just above the “points” on the sides. His body is a bit smaller than his head, and his snout smaller still, each having sort of a teardrop-like shape. His eyes are bigger than I expected them to be, half circles tilted down slightly, often cut off by his snout and hat to create a shaper angle (meant to make him look more intimidating perhaps?). His ears are taller than his hat, though they can tilt back to look shorter. There are also a lot of arcs and triangles present in his design, especially in his cape when it sits across his form or flares out, and the brim of his hat pointing down from just past his ears to right over his snout. Also, unlike many Kirby characters, he does in fact have a neck - it's just hidden behind his collar and bell most of the time (don't ask me why I spent so long verifying this, no I don't have ulterior motives, don't look at me).

Of course, these observations aren’t set in stone. Kirby characters rarely stay perfectly on-model (see Dedede for proof of that), and Daroach is clearly no exception. I mean, just look at these official pieces (all collected from Wikirby):

Even the folks at HAL Labs are not immune to style inconsistency. And that’s not a bad thing! We love a little personal flair in this house. There’s nothing wrong with altering the design a bit to fit your own style - in fact, it’ll probably happen naturally the more you practice, especially once you’re comfortable enough to work without a guide. Here’s some studies I did recently, no tracing, just observation (with different colors used to help me figure out layering):

I’ve seen other folks take their own designs even further than this, adding more fur or sharper shapes or even realistic rat features to our favorite thief. Nothing like stretching those creative muscles once you’ve got the basics down! On that note, don’t be afraid to be inspired by unofficial sources as well. If an artist you like draws Daroach (or any character) in a way you find appealing, ask yourself what it is you like about it, study it as you study official works, and find ways to incorporate elements of that into your own art - “steal like an artist” as the saying goes.

Another thing I recommend for Daroach specifically is studying how real top hats and capes look, especially from various angles and poses in motion. I find it helps to see exactly how fabric sits on a figure or what sides show at different positions. It might seem weird to use human reference for a cartoon rat, and it might take some finagling to get proportions right, but it’s surprisingly effective. I do this with fighting and athletic poses all the time to help figure out weight distribution and line of action. Don’t be afraid to expand your art repertoire into other fields - you never know when it might come in handy!

And, of course, the key thing to hammer home here is practice, practice, practice! Do studies, do gestures, draw with and without references, build muscle memory, do sketches you show to no one, draw memes, draw angst, take your time, fill pages with messy doodles or just drop one in a corner and call it a day. The more you draw this smarmy rat, the better you’ll get. That’s the long and short of it with any skill, creative or otherwise. You gotta try in order to get good, you gotta make mistakes in order to improve, you gotta be kind to yourself in order to do what you love.

Anyway, I think that’s all I got for now. Forgive me if this got a bit rambly or incoherent - I have trouble putting my thought process in words sometimes, haha. I sincerely hope this helps, and I wish you the best of luck with your own future rat-creating endeavors!

Sketch started and finished 06/14/24.