#yeah it’s fun and all making a sketch and line art and colors and anatomy and compositioning and whatever else

[hep-heptagon]

It only took me 24 years but I think I finally got the hang of this drawing thing!! ✍️

[possumsinpeoplesuits]

Holy shit I was working on this since late October, and I'm the most proud I've ever been of a picture I've drawn?

Details and graffiti transcriptions below the cut! 'Cause I worked on that shit for like three entire days, and I'll be damned if I don't show off some environmental storytelling word crimes.

So, first we have a couple closer looks of Sasha! Their outfit was pretty fun. I haven't done modern outfits in... probably ever, and it was nice having a lot more references to work off of.

Their sefirot necklace was fun to draw because I have one almost exactly like it. The flannel was the first time trying to do plaid by hand with a new little technique (Base colors+Multiply layer for dark stripes+Overlay layer for light stripes) but it went way faster than the god damn quilt?

All in all, my favorite detail was doing cosmetics, because I got to do little chips missing in the nail polish, and that's probably the first time I've drawn eyeshadow and willingly shown the result! : D

Next we have the little rat family in the background, with the wall-dwelling Rat King peeking through the wall, which is where I did dipped into tracing a couple photos instead of just looking at references.

Generally my process has been doing anatomy lines over a reference, then working off of those for about... three to four layers for body->clothes->hair->Full sketch, then another with whatever brush I wanna do the lineart with (usually a watercolor detail brush from one of two sets on Krita), but I'll note where I skipped that process and committed some art crimes.

The two background rats (Pestis and Mortar) are from a pair of stock photos from Getty, while the one in the foreground (Yersinia) is a mix of a pic that pops up in meme dumps from time to time of a smoking rat and a few bits that weren't in the original image. (Jewelry, the legs that were covered by an ash tray in the original pics, the "Buns and Roses" lighter she clearly stole from Sasha.)

Time for some graffiti transcriptions! Most of the variation in the graffiti came from switching the size of my brush and trying to mix up my handwriting, but there's a few segments where I use a font, then outlined the font with a 2px across brush to make it fit more into the art. Mostly, this was through screenshotting google docs, but some of the fancier fonts are from cooltext.com.

Top:

This is really high

No it's not?

Top Right:

A drawing of a clown that clearly used to be titties

"What's wrong with Bipo's eyes?" (Referring to the tape over the nipples)

"Their titties, bro"

"What about them?"

Top Left going down:

"Hail Satin" written next to a six pointed star

"Rong star, dumass"

A sticker reading "Apologize to your English teacher"

"Yeah, get a brian, morans!"

"You're just as bad as the other two!"

<The URL for the Wikipedia page on sarcasm>

Bottom Left:

Gazebos ate my ass

Bottom center:

"My sister turned into a bird but no one believes me."

"That's rough, buddy."

Bottom right:

A sticker of a possum with "Live Weird" written on it.

A sticker of a more poorly drawn character wrapped in blankets with "Seep eeps" written on it.

...So I made up a fake BDSM club for this one and named the majority of the bands dirty jokes, but I will die on the hill that there should be an all-trans metal band called "The Book of Dead Names."

CHOKE POINT

PRESENTS

LIVE MUSIC

THIS SUNDAY

CUNT MUNCHIES

THE BOOK OF DEAD NAMES

SOME GUY NAMED STEVE

FIST FUCK DUMP TRUCK

WOLFGANGBANG

THE PENIS MIGHTIER

A sticker with a set of vampire fangs that says "Got Blood?"

"Parasitic fucks"

"U got beef w/ Count Chocula?"

"Bro, vamps suck."

"Duh"

"So does your mum.

A sticker of a cross made out of a bunch of interlocking parts with some mirrored Hebrew in the middle. (I'm really proud of making this shape up on the spot. I had an idea for a religious monster hunter group named after the Watchers from Enoch, but I've got no idea if this story will ever happen.)

"Your Hebrew is backwards, you twatwaffle"

A sticker reading "Deus Vult"

"I fucking love Powerwolf"

"VULT DEUS NUTS, GOTTEM!

A cut off poster telling people to vote for, I presume, their favorite chainsmoking rat, clearly.

A sticker of the Autism Creature

"Rizz 'em w' the Tism" with the last S being the one everyone draws in school, but also backwards.

"It's like if Kirby was a centaur"

"I will never unsee that."

"It looks nothing like my vaccuum"

A paper with "Missing Printer" and a cut off phone number written in sharpie.

A meme of a bear in a suit (Partially a trace of the actual meme template) with "You have seasonal affective disorder because you need Vitamin D. I have seasonal affective disorder because one of my ancestors fucked a bear. We are not the same"

"Is that how it happens?"

"Oh, sure, this dude's ancestor fucks a bear, he gets a meme, BUT WHEN I-"

"Going insane by yourself, handsome?"

Three pieces of paper with "Yes" "Yup" and "Yass" written on them, two stuck on with tape, while the third is stuck to a wad of chewing gum.

"You guys seriously pay to print out memes just to vandalize shit?"

"No, I stole the printer, too."

"YOU"

"Paulie never died"

A sticker of the Mothman

"TAX FRAUD"

A large printout with a dramatic portrait of Mitch McConnell with "ARE YA BREEDING YET?" written below it. Several tear off strips are missing, but the remainder all say different variations of "Yes"

A cut off sticker of a smiley face

A sticker of a machete

"BURGLE TURTS"

A sticker of a crying laughing emoji.

A sticker of a pot leaf

A sticker with a picture of bigfoot with pasties on her boobs walking up to a stripper pole with "I want to believe" written in the X-Files font

"Whoever gave Bigfoot tits will never enter the Kingdom of God"

Three notes pointing to the previous message with "Noticed the tits first" "Weirdo" and "Your preoccupation with cryptid mammaries betrays your discomfort with your own sexuality. Consider meditation, therapy, or possibly fucking yourself!"

"Weirdo" pointing to the previous paragraph before being crossed out and replaced with "BASED"

"K, but y tho?"

"No one insults the Bigfoot big naturals on my watch"

(She has them in the Patterson-Gimli footage, too)

"BIGFOOT BIG NATURALS" "NOW LORE ACCURATE"

A swastika being covered up by a peace sign

"Degenerates should be purged" "AMEN" "U FIRST."

A drawing of a penis that's been turned into a weasel in a familiar pose with "Dick weasel" and "Had to do it to 'em" written next to it

A sticker of a stalk of corn labeled "CORN"

"See? Iowa is with us!"

And, finally, "Does reading this hurt your back, too?" which was the last thing I added because I literally spent two days just doing graffiti for this shit.

So, the map behind Sasha is made up on the spot, with some inspiration from a map of the Seattle Bay. Kinda proud of just how dirty this fucking place is, but the final, and greatest achievment in making this picture look grimy...

THE RUST

I didn't exactly nail the perspective on some of these (The sketchy layer for the floor grating was done once, then dragged into place and warped with the perspective... and then completely fucked that up) but god DAMN do I love texturing the fuck out of things!

There's like six Multiply layers scattered about because it turned out it's a phenomenal way to make the shading of multiple textures make sense without losing that texture, and I feel so god damn powerful!

Oh, right, the posters.

Not much to say about them. The righthand one was 95% traced from a mafia stock photo, while the hands in the left came from another stock photo.

Honestly, I drew the frames, then had no idea what to put in them. There was briefly gonna be a pic referencing a cosplay photo I have of myself, but eh...

The rats and the guy in the wall were originally referencing a Vampire the Masquerade character I had named Pretty Paulie, who was a mafioso turned nosferatu who dubbed his crew the Rat Pack. I figured if there was some kind of dramatic, Scarface-esque movie about him, he'd definitely find a way to keep the poster nearby, and I wanted to slap in one of those "Give blood!" posters from the Red Cross except... not from the red cross.

I don't really feel like I put in much effort into these (compared to the Graffiti-a-thon with several subplots), but hey... they covered the tile, which before shading was boring and very flat, so they did their job.

I'll leave you with some zoomed in textures, because I do feel proud about those! I make them via a combo of oil paint and watercolor brushes, usually with a whole lot of different coats of varying opacity until it looks like the thing it's supposed to be. :)

I've only just started drawing again this year (I've been editing a looooot longer) so there's a lot of spaces where I have hiccups, but I'm figuring out the areas I do well in.

...Also sweet Jesus this started as me trying to figure out what a character looked like. It says 3 full days worth of editing was done in Krita on this file, and I don't think it's counting the idle time.

[kimeoshi]

‘Twas both 👁👁, but yeah honestly I’m very interested cause damn- (sorry if I seem awkward I’m not good with online interaction 😭😭 LMAO)

NAH no worries you're doing fine!!

It's a pretty wide array of topics but touching the surface of it, I'll go into my art process.

Here's a short thread where I went into this similarly!

I pretty much follow the steps of what I mentioned there, but it varies a little bit based on the style I go for too: painting whole illustrations or design or more simple fun things.

I could describe what I did in each frame of my process gifs which I've posted before but I would need some time. With big pieces, the steps I go by (read slowly, it's a pretty dense text):

thumbnailing -> sketching with bigger shapes to get the line of action/feel (that is, I'm just blocking out the composition) -> refine that a bit -> hide BG, draw the characters (lineart) and add the base colors of them. (then merge & rasterize a copy of it for later) -> put them back in the environment (unhide BG), make them grey -> add shading in greyscale style (multiply layers, glow dodge layers, you name it) -> get that previous rasterized layer back and put it on color mode -> those characteristic shiny parts get a new layer with overly saturated + high brightness colors -> color BG with a new color layer -> then rendering/refining for concerning amounts of time -> add effects and change color/brightness/contrast curves + gradient map -> profit???

For software, I generally use Paint Tool SAI (I adore blending/painting here), I use Clip Studio Paint for the 3D posing library/sketching/lineart, and Photoshop for final effects. (Update: I mostly do all things in CSP now)

(if you have CSP, try out this brush... it saved my life)

As for improvement:

I experiment, watch a lot of youtube videos (I personally like the ones which analyse an artist). I suggest thoroughly understanding how something moves and works (for anatomy I can recommend the book 'Anatomy for Sculptors'), I also study and jot down important pieces of advice or insights to a collective document, rather than saving them to my device where it is highly likely to be forgotten.

I believe if you put great importance on colors and composition, that can cause the most noticeable, 'fastest' improvement, at least if you view it from the lens of social media. (While online environments provide significant reassurance, it must be engaged with in moderation, as it is easy to fall into a lot of negative mindsets, taking the enjoyment out by perfectionism, comparison, or seeking validation, etc.)

Another improvement technique you can try is to slow down a speedpaint video of your choice and follow along with the artist. Extremely useful, I recommend, put your artist under a microscope.

Of course I don't do all of these things every single waking hour, it's just a side hobby to my unrelated studies in real life. Even if you don't actively draw your visual library and knowledge can improve passively, I find that so fascinating. I don't touch a paper for months and there's a sudden jump, like damn what. (Not saying you should do this, active learning is still better ofc) Either way my point with that is, that improving does and did take a lot of time for me as well.

Apologies if this goes all over the place, I tried to touch upon every subject that came to mind at the moment, in not too much in detail, overall I hope it makes sense

If you have any specific questions related, feel free to ask! Or if there's any specific problem you'd like to tackle but find yourself lost, same applies!

[cupcakestreets]

Fren wants more ask game emojis??? Okay.

☕️ and 🎼 plus 📚

Yeah, dynamism is a bitch, so I don't blame you at all for getting nervous about it. Of course, the biggest change you can make is foreshortening and perspective, but that takes finding a source that can teach you in a way you understand, a lot of studying, and then trial and error. Which is worth doing, we (I'm saying this to myself too) really should study that. And it's a nightmare because first, you gotta find a source that explains the material in a way that makes sense to you, then you have to find a way to make the studying more fun and worst of all, you have to actually commit and do it. With foreshortening and dynamic posing in particular, the study can take a long while to complete because it does demand an understanding of anatomy, breaking the body down into simple volumes, applying perspective to each piece then knowing how to shade each volume correctly. So, depending on where you are with all those components, you may have to backtrack further.

So, what little changes can be made to increase dynamism in the interim? A pretty easy one is Rim Lighting, pure white is common, and so is really dropping the color values paired with a vibrant colored rim light (red, cyan, magenta are popular). Pushing the shading a bit more will help accentuate bent limbs, rotated torso's, overlapping body parts without having to go ham on foreshortening. Exaggeration of shapes like how Sonic uses big ass hands and big ass feet. Or the Big Pant Big Jackt meme and its variants from Twitter/X. You can try making frames and having feet, limbs, weapons or the top of the character's head extending past the border (typically the more, the better because if it's too little, it reads as a mistake than a choice). Line weight variation is pretty easy (thicker lines towards the shadows, thinner towards light source). Or extending certain lines past the outline and into the shape to create a more 3D look. While the whole trend of "fixing" other artist's art is controversial, one good thing I've learned from watching a few vids is the idea of using the Liquify tool on a finished piece to exaggerate the line of action on something a bit too static.

I hope you don't mind the ramble. If you're interested, I can send you a link to some vids or my playlist of tutorials I've saved.

Spice.

☕ Do you do warmup sketches before drawing? (Bonus: do you have any to share?)

No I do not do warm up sketches i just get straight into it usually. So no bonus sketches but he's a doodle page of my robot oc L-11AC

🎼 Your favorite music to draw to right now?

Future Funk music! It keeps me awake and i can groove~

📚 How many layers do you typically use?

Max i use is 50 layers, but i think i use 20-30 layers daily

Also thank you for comments too! These are literally all the things i think about. Still i do try to teach myself new stuff when i can

[stiffyck]

you inspire me a lot as an artist <3 when you were still figuring out your style and learning basic stuff, how did you keep yourself motivated? im at that point where im still learning basic anatomy and it frustrates me enough to make me lose all motivation

Honestly I have no clue. I was mostly drawing for myself and never actually intended to like. Become an artist? I tried to apply for an art school (high school, not college btw. No clue how other school systems work but yeah) and I somehow got in? And we had figure drawing and stuff so I HAD to do this sorta stuff for school basically.

Tbh art school taught me that I most likely do not want art to be my job I just want to draw stuff for myself.

So uhhh this is very bad advice because I don't really have any advice djfjrkfj I just had to do my school work which was art and figure drawing and perspective (I HATED perspective. My god the amount of times we've had to draw a cube.... )

So I guess try to like... figure out what you like drawing and try to get better at that? You can tell yourself that when you get better you will be able to draw stuff you can't do right now or idk.

I'm rambling I don't know how else to put any of this FJVKRKGKKE

Just have fun, look at references and try to figure out how stuff works and why it looks the way it does.

One thing I did like doing in art school that we had as homework most of the time were the quick few second sketches.

Take a pen or a marker or something, some nice color if you want, go sit in a park or somewhere and try to sketch people in the park. Literally just quick sketches, no erasing or correcting, just do a few quick lines.

That's supposed to make you get a grasp a little bit of grasp at anatomy and capture movement. If you combine this with something like figure drawing where you just focus on doing studies of anatomy, best done with a live model, you'll get better and better.

I should keep doing these things too probably but tbh I don't really care if my art gets better atp I just like doing this for fun.

Hope you like my non-advice because I got real rambly. It's 1 am I have an excuse.

[that-sweet-jester]

HELLO :D I have a few questions regarding your art-

First off- how do you render? Specifically when choosing the differences in material lighting? There’s just a sort of dramatic lighting that your art has that always makes it look extremely epic

Second off- What’s your method for anatomy? Like, Do you use a much of ovals/rectangles, wing it like a madman, or etc? And how do you define each part of the body? (Or separate hair segments?)

And Thirdly- how do you add volume and consistency to your work? Every design that I see of yours just looks like it jumped straight from a 3D movie screen, and really curious as to how you do all that!

Also- holy cow I freaking love your art so much- like I just found out you drew like half of my favourite art pieces out there. And I just love looking at it. It’s kind of like a golden caramel apple, if that makes any sense!!

And thank you for your time!!!

Thank you so much :DDD <333

Hoo boy where do I begin :'D

The first statement I need to make is that my main method is 'fuck around and find out'. Literally. Also sorry if some of the explanations don't make any sense, English is not my first language.

Here's kinda step by step of how my drawing process looks like.

Sketch, then rough cleaning and adding monochrome colors, it's totally unnecessary, but I like to do it just to see how the drawing would look later with dynamic lightning. Then move onto lineart, used to draw it on another layer on top of the sketch, but I switched to just correcting the lines and eareasing what I don't want from the sketch. It's kinda more fun and takes less time. Then come the base colors and adding shadows. What I most often do is add shading on the color layers and then on top of all of them draw a full shadow.

Like this, then multiply and fuck around with opacity. This makes the characters pop out even more and adds depth to them. Then add lightning, and sometimes effects from saved pngs. For example, I often use this site for material textures: https://www.transparenttextures.com/

2. When it comes to anatomy, I most often use existing pose references, not fully copying them but like putting them together like a collage. A head here, hands there, I have full boards on Pinterest dedicated solely to different body parts. In the past I was heavily using whole sketches and body pose references, but over the time I was able to somehow figure out the anatomy on my own. To some degree. I still have no idea how to properly draw hands. What I'm saying is that it's good to base your art on existing references (NOT COPY THEM) but use as a guide, until you get a hang of it.

3. Lately to do something more stylistic and to bring out the volume I started doing this notion in the shadows:

(also a sneak peak of next piece ;3)

I have no idea how to call it, but it makes things pop out.

Anddd I finally got around doing more dynamic poses and dramatic positioning. Bringing parts of the drawing forward, and leaning some further, going wild with blur filter and using black as guides and contrast.

So that might be why it looks more like screenshot of some movie, which is such a big compliment to me imma cry.

So, yeah that's kinda how I work :') Hope it helped and made sense to some degree.

[garyfischy]

regardless of what mediums you wanna use how you wanna draw ever heres what you need to do

-if youre a cartoonist be very specific with anatomy studies. if youre gonna stick to really stylized cartoony shit then keep anatomy studying to just basic forms, joints etc and focus on figure drawing. id reccomend 'figure drawing methods for artists' but for fucks sake just go on youtube, watch a couple videos they all say the same thing anyways. as long as you're not getting blatantly incorrect info from a guy that doesn't actually know how things work and cuts corners. it's better to sweat and bleed learning how to draw basic forms like the torso and pelvis than do what i did (go through as many shortcut pinterest guides as possible, develop a flawed and stiff understanding of anatomy, use it as a crutch) .

but yeah figure drawing is useful because learning how to set characters up in different poses and composition are useful. for every cartoonist!

-2... i ran out of points to make. Think about artists you like, you don't even have to make long rambly analyses , just jot down why you like their art and what appeals about them to you. anything from that vintage mustang poster you saw the other day, to a 'fine art' artist you'd see in a museum to your favorite blog

3: study practically.

read artbooks, look at tutorials online, watch youtube tutorials from a variety of sources: but remember, regular practice is the goal here. don't get too hooked on watching tutorials or studying and just go outside and draw a little. try and apply those skills bit by bit.

4 here are my (amateur guy that draws online and isn't going to art school)'s random advice bits

supplies i think are a godsend no matter what: one really good pencil. doesn't matter what kind it is. i got fancy ones but in all honesty light or dark you just need one that feels comfortable to write and draw with. practice those artist grips! consciously think about lines: do i want thick or thin lines? and what can I do to change it? Are my lines unsteady? and am I unhappy with that? sure, then try a different grip, or see if a thicker, more bulky pencil works! but hey, i'm just some guy on the internet telling you to do things.

ironically, even as I wax poetic about how fun it is to collect wood/mechanical pencils, my favorite thing to draw with is a #2 pencil.

I could go on and on about art supplies and practical applications but all I can say is if you really like something, splurge on it and if you're not sure about it get cheap ones. It's not really about the subtle intricacies of each medium but if you even like it in the first place. Cheap vs expensive watercolors aren't gonna matter if you don't LIKE using watercolors.

..that being said I think color pencils are the exception to this as each brand varies in quality regardless of price.

here are some artbook reccomendations to finish off this jumbled, disjointed and haphazardly written post

-Sketching People by Lynne Chapman: I tend to lean towards the more practical when it comes to any advice. something that really boils down the way you do something and why to its core. This book is really good for that.

-Figure Drawing Methods for Artists by Peter Boerboom and Tim Proetel: it's a really fun exercise book.

-Space Drawing and Perspective by Superani: once again, practical, well translated , and really fun to do. Don't get superani's anatomy book though it's racist and pervy as fuck

-and so many more that I can't even list here. Just go to your local library and open up one of these babies, grab a sheet of paper, and just jot anything down that seems interesting to you. Capiche?

[mossy-paws]

OHOHOHHHHH THIS IS FUN!!

🐟) I began drawing at around 4 years old, I only really got involved in digital art at around ~10-11?

🫧) I like both, I’m not too big of a fan of traditional *drawing* with pen or pencil, but I’ve always ADORED watercolors and painting. Digital art is my go-too though for sure

❄️) Around 2000x2500 or 2500x2500 pixels!

🌊) sometimes!! I wouldn’t call them warmup sketches but concept sketches I’ll do every once in a while… I RARELY sketch pieces out beforehand though and prefer to just skip the sketch phase all together

(the bonus’:)

💧) MMMMMMMMMM THIS REALLY JUST DEPENDS,,, i think probably front-facing views? Ive always had difficulties when it came to figuring out side profiles so YEAH LMAO

🌨️) varies on the piece but generally 4-9, I get stressed if I go over that amount :’DD

🪼) just stuff in hyperfixated in, I don’t generally enjoy drawing vent art or gore because it makes me feel worse (even though I do have a particular fondness for gore and horror content in art) so drawing either is a bleh, I’ll just draw whatever comes to mind!

💍) yeah 100%, honestly I think i draw my oc’s less the more i like them LMAO

🦋) Looking at my art GENERALLY I lean towards more warm colors, it’s not intentional though

🐬) J-pop for DAYS or podcasts like the Magnus archives, rslash, video game playthroughs, etc etc

🐳) drawn with my right hand :’D

🐋) trying to figure out what this means but. I think I probably enjoy drawing fur or feathers the most when it comes to lines

🫐) UHHH not really as much as I’d like if that makes sense? I do like my drawings when it comes to stuff like that but it’s INCREDIBLY inconsistent aesthetic-wise, if anything I would probably want to aim for a more studio ghibli-themed look to my art, I just struggle with anime styles- I am learning though :3!

🧊) no lol

✈️) way too much for my own good 💔… approximately 2-6 hours a day although it varies

💎) DEPENDS but generally night

🩵) My main art posting site is generally Twitter or @/mossypawsss ! My general tag for art though is @/mossy.paws :3

💙) I wish my art was more just,, better, I guess is the right word? I mean, I’m happy with it of course but I do wish I could do things like comics/animate/etc, I’ve just never been able to hold the motivation down for that long. I also just wish my art had a more whimsical feel too it, like landscapes/forests/natural stuffs

🧢) anatomy :’DD, most specifically arms and legs drive me INSANE, hands/heads/body/etc are fine, but figuring out positions for arms and legs is the most aggravating process ever

🐠) Someone in bogcom gave him chocolates to help sooth his cramps 😔🙏 (/ij /silly)

🌼Artist Ask meme!🌼

There’s probably a lotta these out there but I wanted to make one of my own! Hopefully these are fun<3 

Send an emoji for each question!

 🖍️ When did you start drawing? Do you remember?  

 ✏️ Do you prefer traditional art or digital to relax?   

📏 What’s your go-to canvas size?

☕ Do you do warmup sketches before drawing? (Bonus: do you have any to share?)

🙃 Which is easier: faces facing left, right, or front view?

📚 How many layers do you typically use?

🐻 Your go-to things to draw when you need comfort?

🎁 Do you prefer drawing fandom stuff or your own characters?

🌈 Do you use more warm or cold colors?

🎼 Your favorite music to draw to right now?

🙌 Draw a doodle with your non-dominant hand

📐 Whats your favorite kinds of lines to draw?

💐 Do your drawing suit your aesthetics?

🦋 Do your drawings resemble you?

✨ How often do you draw?

🌗 Is night or day better for drawing?

🍭 What’s your main art blog / what do you tag your art with?

🍀 You wish your art was more..(fill in the blank)

🌊 What’s the hardest thing for you to draw? 

🙊 Share your latest silly doodle with no context

[strudeldoodlearts]

[artvsartist2024]

Featuring a picture of me from a spontaneous Halloween barcrawl with my friend group. Now I could cross that off my bucket list and never againn~

Here are the pieces and why I picked them.

[ignite and enlighten] was one of the biggest eurekas for my artstyle and creative process. I started incorporating little shapes and doodles into more "painted" sections with less line art involved. Also staring at fire and making shapes out of them did wonders.

[sharing the tea] was a picture I had to restart from a wonkier draft while remembering how I stylize people drawings/anatomy. The frustration was overridden by focusing on the goofy cookie faces and posture details.

[crow gang] was drawn quite loosely as the birds are distant and in motion. I wanted that cheesy journal sketch vibe with the added text and something to convey a group of misfits/found family/close friends.

[long wheek ahead] was drawn during a particularly busy part of my life. Working on it made the week feel a bit lighter. I even became so invested in the idea that I reworked the layers to make a second version with the tunnel removed. This would reveal two guinea pigs. I briefly thought about adding a third guinea pig. But at the time, I couldn't think of a third pattern/pose for the third one during the time crunch.

[snail space] turned out decently, even though it wasn't as elaborate as I expected it to be. I also had to rework the shape of the shell! >w<

[clam fairy] is loosely based off of a concept from a DnD game when our group was more active. And also inspired by a huge shell I saw in the trash one day. It was surprisingly in-tact in all of the chaos!

[hydration sloth] dabbled in ominous positivity. I mean, who could say no to a baby sloth with an upside down smile and a slightly unnerving stare?

[palette mix 2] was a simple-yet-fun color study and one of those art pieces that become *yummier* as you add in the details~

--

And yeah! That's a wrap for my art in 2024.

Now onto the low's. I intended to jump onto the bandwagon of Threads, Shopify, and the business side of Pinterest accounts while work was picking up for me. It was hard to balance managing all of these things at once. Over time, I've come to realize that I treasure art more as a hobby and would rather have the more low-key, experimental, hands-off approach to putting my work out there that RedBubble allowed me in spite of its problems.

It's hard to monetize/market something that's your escape from your work life/self. With that in mind, I will be phasing out the Shopify shop and migrating works from there over to RedBubble. Bots/AI/Stealing threats be damned. If people want to buy something and leave me Kofi tips, that's appreciated but not really as much of a main goal in my art creation anymore.

I miss the more whimsical times of old Instagram/the internet and can't really keep up with the content demands artists have to do to make it big, and that's okay. While I've made a lot of posts saying, "aghh, I'm traveling again. There's no art this week!" I genuinely am enjoying my life during those breaks. They help me creatively and mentally. That time is a luxury in a way. Because it's hard to create under a scarcity mindset where you're constantly trying to outrun time and people.

To my supporters, thank you for for your encouragement/engagement with my little art corner/doodles! I hope that 2025 is kind to you 0w0

[shirecorn]

how about 17 and 24? what inspires you and how do you deal with art block?

Long post warning.

Art block...

I don't actually get art block, which is probably a combination of neurodivergence and drawing every day for the last 3 years

I wrote an entire tutorial about how to do that, but didn't feel like illustrating it. Would people want to read it even without visuals?

Maybe... I'll just start rambling.

There's a couple different types of art block, and it's really just a philosophy puzzle to get past them. I'm going to assume that the things I think of slow days, or art mud, is a milder form of art block and work through that.

Art block is a symptom, not a disease. You probably have something deep inside that you don't want to face, or don't know how. Sometimes you need to discover the cause, sometimes just power through.

Method 1: Rest

Let yourself just Exist. The act of consuming art is part of the process. Watching shows and playing games, taking a break and going gardening or focus on school. This is what you need for burnout-induced art block.

Method 2: Action

I always choose action, sometimes it means a tiny 2 min sketch per day. Ugly or super simplified. As long as I don't stop moving.

Toss everything. Start every piece thinking you will throw it away.

The act of drawing moves you forward; pinning it to the fridge does not. Don't work things until they are perfect. Work them until they are there.

Art block causes and solutions:

- No Inspiration

Not sure what to draw, nothing seems appealing. Art won't come out like it used to.

Do studies from life or photos. Sketch, paint, digital, traditional, doesn't matter. Rocks, fruit, figure drawing, landscapes, buildings, anything.

Study and copy professional's work. Old masters are best, like rubens, michalangelo (only his men tho) etc because they will teach you anatomy while you work. If you copy someone with a lot of flaws, you will repeat those flaws.

Trace to learn, not to earn. Trace photography and art from anyone you want. Don't post it unless you have the artist's permission or they are dead, whichever comes first. This is strictly work for yourself, on yourself. It's not about the finished drawing.

Find an artist with a fun style and try converting stuff into their style. Don't make that your new style though and especially don't start selling it. Your style is a chimera of everyone you love, not a clone of one person.

Take blurry photos. You don't need a fancy camera or good skills or beautiful subjects. Doing studies from your own photos can spark life into your workflow.

Make challenges for yourself. Randomly generate things to combine. Try fusing characters! Don't try to make it look good, just be fun.

Doodle patterns, swirls, lines, random stuff. Try looking up art warmups and doing some of those.

- Everything Sucks

You finally see how bad you are. Or somehow you got worse. Every piece is a fight and you spend hours trying to get something right only for it to be stiff and disgusting and STILL wrong.

Why are you trying to draw good? It's enough just to draw.

Accept that your art is bad. Every artist can see flaws in their work. Your problem is that those flaws outweigh anything remotely worthwhile and hurt to look at.

So what? You're in a period of growth, not a period of production. Keep that wonky second eye. Let them have hot dog fingers.

Show everyone! Show no one! No piece of art can ever be a reflection of the artist. Not their worth, not their skill. The only thing your art says about you is "Held and moved a pen for a bit."

Make bad art. It's ok. Most of the time, the pressure to perform and get things Right is what made them wrong in the first place. Relax.

- No Motivation

The #1 killer of artists everywhere. On some level you think you should draw, on every other level you think you should stay in bed.

You are not lazy. You wouldn't have read this far in a post about art block if you were lazy. You wouldn't CALL it art block if you were lazy. Laziness is wishing you didn't have to do anything. A block is wishing you were doing something. If you think you can namecall Yourself into productivity again, you're wrong and You need to unionize so that you don't treat You like that anymore.

Consider Mental Illness. Losing interest in something that brought you joy can be a symptom of depression. I know it seems obvious, but if you're waiting for a sign that it's "bad enough," it's bad enough. Seek care if you have the means. Forgive yourself if you already know this.

Selfcare. Examine yourself for neglect. Nutrition, exercise, enrichment, social need, and sleep are all part of the art process. Eat three meals and sleep 8 hours. That's your gaymer fuel. You deserve it, I promise. Depriving yourself of your needs will make your blocks worse, not kick you into making them better.

Identify potholes. Sketchbook falling apart? Tablet cord frayed? Half your pencils missing? Chair uncomfortable? Desk hard to reach? There's a lot of things that you tell yourself to work around and get over. Just because you CAN workaround something, doesn't mean you SHOULD. A difficult work environment can cause secret dread deep inside that you don't recognize and just think you're lazy. What you think of as "no motivation" might actually be "I don't want to deal with my tablet disconnecting every time I move it wrong and I have to wiggle it for a few seconds to make it work again." These little things are like potholes in the road. Sure you CAN still drive through them, but eventually you're going to look up and realize you haven't voluntarily left the house in weeks.

Repair potholes and roadblocks. You might feel bad about buying a new pencil, headphones, tablet, car, etc because technically the old one works if you hustle. But if you're running into so many potholes you've ground to a halt, it doesn't Actually work anymore, does it? Invest, save up, request, and require working equipment and suitable conditions. This stuff isn't just cushy privilege, it's an investment in yourself and your art. You are worth the effort it takes to clear the way. If you can't afford reliable (reliable! not perfect or luxurious) equipment, then say it. If cardboard is all you can afford, draw on cardboard. But know that you deserve canvas, and one day you might be able to make the jump. Acknowledge that sometimes, if you don't have it in you to smear burned twigs on wet cardboard, the problem isn't motivation, but opportunity.

- Haven't Drawn in So Long

A unique type of art block that self perpetuates. The thought of starting again is so stressful you can't do it. Or maybe you'll do it tomorrow. Yeah. Tomorrow for sure.

Face your fears. Are you ashamed of your lack of drawing? Are you anthropomorphizing your paper and thinking it's going to judge you, like "oh NOW you come back >:/" I internalize voices I hear and project them onto other people, concepts, locations, and inanimate objects. Your paper, computer, WIPs folder.... none of that is judging you.

Reframe your WIPs. Do you feel shame when you see "unfinished" projects? Why? Who says you MUST bring everything you start to Finish? You don't have to. A sketch is a finished art piece; it's called a sketch! If a sketch is a fully realized creation, pages that are half colored, 75% lined, or partially rendered are all fully realized creations too. Unless paid otherwise, art is done when you're done working on it.

Lower the stakes. Draw a chibi or grab some crayons. Get messy and slowly ease yourself back into the flow over the course of a couple days. It's fine.

Get a buddy! Find an art meme, do an art trade, get a study subject, or just wing it. Drawing art alongside someone can help you get past that block.

Pretend you never stopped. Don't think about the gap, how long it's been, or rustiness. As far as anyone knows, you drew the mona lisa yesterday and didn't break a sweat. Today, you drew a starfish on your hand with a gel pen. Keep up that streak, good job!

Just keep drawing. Make a goal to do one sucky drawing per day on the back of a napkin. Don't make up for missed days, just pretend they didn't happen. Who's going to judge you? The calendar? That's pieces of paper; it doesn't have an opinion. Draw a cat on it. Done. Keeping up the momentum is a great way to prevent art blocks in the future.

TLDR: Draw imperfectly and toss it. Selfcare is king. Draw often and don't judge yourself.

Art is a process, not a product.

[majachee]

how draw..

HO HO HO? AN EXCUSE TO SHOW MY ART PROCESS?

Behold! How I draw!!

I start off with a very light, messy outline like so (rough recreation cuz i lost the og, has more detail than this)

This helps my brain out with posing and rough proportions without getting too overwhelmed.

And then I go over it on a different layer and essentially clean it all up!

I fix anatomy, i add clothes, i basically mess around with it until it looks Just Right.

Now, sometimes I just go ahead and color in the sketch because I don't feel like doing lineart, sometimes I plan out a rough color palette for bigger pieces (ex: zine pieces and gift art usually)

The clean sketching process is also when I use references the most, I look up character and clothing references, I look up posing refs, this is also when I do start looking up color palette ideas for character designs and bigger pieces.

But for lineart, I tend to drift towards textured brushes like the soft mapping pen (bleed) and soft school pen (bleed) in Ibispaint, and the marker brush in FireAlpaca with some adjustments!

I don't like going too far off the finished sketch, but I will absolutely make adjustments if necessary!

I do draw in the little white shinies of the eyes on the lineart layer, I just think they look cute!

I also use the pen to shade tiny areas like the neck/chin area, wrinkles, small gaps like the mouth and sleeves, etc. etc.

And then I lay down the colors!

I shade the eyes on their own layer, and the blush is also added in as part of the base colors. I use a lot of clipping masks during the part - selecting inside the lineart and essentially creating a base layer for the color layers. I use the selection tools, the lasso tool, or I just color along the inside of the lines to make an outline and then use the paint bucket tool to fill it all in!

This is also when I add in clothing patterns and such.

And now! Basic shading!

I use desaturated, grey-ish colors for shading. I pull all the color layers into one folder and/or merge them and I use a clipping mask on the folder for shading. For this drawing I used a desatudated light blue, but I also use other colors like red, pink, peach, purple, and green for some pieces. Really depends on what tone the piece is and what colors would look good.

I have my shading layers set to multiply and I mess with the opacity a bit, but usually it's 50-85% opacity for the main shading layer.

And then I go over that shading layer with a darker color!

Pretty much adding flavor to the shading by adding extra dark bits where the shadows might be darker. I also like to occassionally outline the shading cuz it's fun.

I didn't do this with this drawing, as it was a reference sheet, but I add a soft "glow" to my drawings after this stage. Basically, I take a really pale color (usually yellow or pink) and draw ovals where the body is being hit by the light source more, blurr it, and then set the layer to "soft light" and lower the opacity until it's barely noticable - just a soft, glowy fuzz that makes my eyes happy.

I also color in the lineart at this stage, usually going in with darker colors to make it a bit softer than the harsh black, sometimes I add a blurry glowy red or pink to the lineart around the face like I did in this pieces:

But like... depends on the vibe.

If the piece calls for it, i'll add a background, though if its a bigger project w/ actual scenery the background wouldve already been lined, colored, and shaded alongside the characters or before the characters were shaded

Year old example but yeah, my scenery techniques involve a lot of obsessing over perspective and texture and getting feedback from servers I'm in lmao

I can absolutely draw rocks and small plants, I'm just in too much pain to do so 🧍‍♂️

But yeah! That's a rough explanation of my drawing process, hope u enjoy Cyokie my bestie 💗💗💗💗

[chimchiri]

art anon - you’re right, if it’s for everyone and to help others than id be glad to ask! ofc i probably can’t even begin to ask everyone’s questions, i don’t mind getting the ball rolling (didn’t mean to make it seem like i was trying to hoard the secret crabby patty formula shdkdkdnf) um ig first question is your sketching? like how you start your rough start? your anatomy is really good to me and consistent too! and do you use procreate or any other online art app? (i use procreate)

No worries, didn't think that was your intention but publicly answering still just feels better for me :>

(Also please keep in mind I'm a self learned and not a professional artist)

I guess I'm gonna show you some current WIPs, some uhhh rather lemon-y lmao

Because I usually don't keep my very rough sketches on a separate layer and just draw over them. So it's not easy to show them later on lol.

Usually I've got a specific idea in mind. Either a pose, a vibe or something so I know what I want in the end. It's important to me to get it down with the first, rough sketch. The first rough draft is usually done with very lose, soft and rounded lines. The second sketch on top is usually to clear up any anatomical mistakes and adding in clothes, faces, details etc. Then finally, linework.

For example I wanted to draw Sal in lingerie below. It's all very rough, with few and usually rounded lines to get the whole body in place. Anatomy doesn't really matter at this point, what matters to me is the vibe and body movement. Also I still do the + cross on the face and usually chest as you can see below lol. Gives a good idea of the angle.

Another example for the rough idea (placement of hands, feet etc.). Body shapes are kinda wobbly lines, all pretty soft except for few sharp edges (knees for example).

Another rough example with more details filled in already. Still very rough, like Larry's hair. I wanted a swoosh kinda feeling?? Lmao, just like softly falling. (Also as you can see: when I'm feeling like filling in some details I just do that and will finish the other body parts later. This doesn't always work out though lol and ends in much work later on. Don't recommend it. But it's fun.)

If I'm struggling with something I will usually just add another layer on top and try try try until I kinda like the rough look of it. For example, I was really struggling with Larrys legs in this piece and it took quite a few tries until I got what I wanted (didn't find a ref I liked). Same with the hand.

Then usually I will do second sketch. (If I'm having a very good flow and day I usually can use the first sketch immediately but it's rarely the case). The point now is to fill in hair, faces, clothes, details and get the whole anatomy right. On the left I also moved part around as you can see because I didn't like the position. Also did quite some corrections for the second sketch on the right. (Looking at it now the anatomy still is kinda eh... but way better than the initial sketch)

And then sketching is done and I will probably go to linework.

Also as for your second question: yeah, I do all my artwork in Procreate. Some color correction is done on Clip Studio Pro on the PC because the colors on the PC don't match the colors on the iPad usually.

[pandemique]

hI!! i love your art and was wondering if you could make a tutorial showing how you paint stuff? only if you can! it's just really pretty !!

hi nonnie! thats very flattering !! i’m sorry i dont think i’ll be very helpful bc i’m a mega noob as well :D but i’ll try my very best <3

my process is very tailored for speed instead of quality (oops soz LOL) so i do suggest this for if u have short doodle breaks ⬇️⬇️⬇️

thumbnailing (for comics) -> lines (sketch who?) -> bucket tool/color drop in the base color -> color in the lines -> one multiply layer for a “base” shadow (in the vid below its purple!) -> one (1) render/paint layer a.k.a lawless no man’s land

full rendering process & more general painting tips below the cut‼️

NOTE: i’ll be focusing more on traditional/fundamental tips for stylized art because i’m sure there’s a much more effective way in digital. I truly do only use one normal layer for render... i think this is bc before i made this blog, my only prior experience in drawing is middle school art class, so all i know is traditional painting on one layer.... pray i can answer this again in the future with something smarter lmao

🌺 MY PAINT PROCESS

1. Choose a color scheme!

It doesn’t have to be set in stone like below, but i at least keep in mind the color range i’d like to use depending on what i want to convey (ex. soft pastels for soft fluff, or warm colors for happy vibes). I try to be as limited as possible for base colors because I tend to go ham when painting, you’ll see later AHAHA

2. Base coloring + Base shadow

Base -> bucket tool in the color scheme (I know other artists are against this but when i discovered the bucket tool in digital art I immediately divorced manual coloring i’m sorry i loved you tho bae) (this is why my style and lines are simplistic as they are, so the color drop works!)

Base shadow -> in theory, warm-colored light creates cool-colored shadows and vice versa. because i’m a fluff addict i mainly use warmer light, so i like using blue/purple as the shadow. generally u can’t go wrong with complementary colors!! (yellow light & purple shadows / orange light & blue shadows).

I make a new multiply layer (decreased opacity just bc i like things soft okay) and clip it on the base layer, then block in the areas i think would get blocked from the light.

3. Color in the lines!

for simplistic styles i swear this works wonders. i just clip a layer to the lineart and manually color the lines with a darker but more saturated version of the base color. it just tends to look more dead i guess with low saturation lol (ex. u can see above i use both peach and red or pink for lines of skin, i guess it implies the blood under the skin too. or something :D)

4. RENDERRRR

when i’m not in a rush i just paint things completely (and mindlessly), but here are the things i almost always do:

line the shadows with a saturated color! i’m not sure this is common but i love it lol, in almost all my doodles just check the shadows—on the edges, there’s bound to be a wild color :D (usually its the light color, shadow color or a color scheme color but sometimes i’m just like boY do i loVe piNk)

my art major friend told me about saturated colors on desaturated bases and my life was changed forever lol. u can see below even when my base is very grayyy, my rendering is very gay :D ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

make the shadows darker where i think they should be darker. usually i can just colorpick from that darker, saturated lineart color!

if it’s a more realistic piece i usually make the highlights lighter, but in simple doodles i find it unnecessary, and i dont like how light/white it looks :( i tend to just make the areas exposed to light more saturated

color in the rebound light~ in reality there’s usually not only one primary light source, at least there’d be secondary light from where light bounces off objects. in art we just emphasize that! so in large shadow areas, or in areas close to other objects/colors, i like to ‘splash’ other colors on

yeah this part is less intuitive for beginners and u have to learn a grasp on the concepts over time, like for lighting and structure. values can be more important than color, so i do suggest learning shading first before coloring, but only if u like (u can always be like me and just pull up references when u dont get how the light would fall on some materials :>). i have more general paint tips below! don’t give up okay, i believe in u nons, we’re all still in the eternal learning process together ( •̀ᄇ• ́)ﻭ✧

5. OOOOHHH SHINY ✨🤩

this step is just me being mesmerized by how easy it is to play with lighting in digital. i play around with the layer settings (multiply for shadow, overlay for light, and often try out the other settings too!). my favorite effect is the highlight glow thing, where u just make a copy layer of the highlights below the original layer, and blur it slightly so it looks like glow ✨✨🤩 overpriced acrylic could never

6. COLOR ADJUST / EDIT

Truthfully i usually skip this step, but my more pro friends really vouch for it!! i think definitely an incredible thing with digital is that u can edit proportions and even color after you’re done. i think they usually use like the curves adjustment layer in photoshop until they get colors they like, but for me, well, in a reaally diligent day i like to slap on the “auto” fliter in the iphone’s photos edit button lmaoooo

🌺 GENERAL PAINTING TIPS

learn basic theory: i think theres free courses everywhere online, but heres a few things u might like to have a basic understanding of: color, perspective, shape language, lighting, composition. don’t sweat it too much tho, it should be fun to explore the concepts!

and for drawing hoomans: proportion, gesture, expression, and veery basic anatomy. i find that overall forms are so much more important to learn than like detailed anatomy bc u can always look it up lol

but remember, u mostly want to learn the rules so u know better ways to break them :)

uuuuse manyyyyy referencessss every time u draww!

^this includes other people’s art — when u see good stuff, figure out why u like it and apply it to ur own art

get feedback!!!!

draw tons!!! brainrot helps !! ;D

aaand thank u for coming to my ted talk! sorry for the ramble nonnie, i hope u got something out of this lol

[mandoposting]

1, 9, 25 for art asks?

1. Compare your first and last pieces from this year! Where do you think you improved?

Oh wow. Yeah, definitely got more confident in my style and pushed myself to finish more pieces. So many of my previous works just sit unfinished, but I finished SO Many this year I honestly struggle to believe it sometimes. Also became more confident in my ability to draw from memory! Wolffe was drawn 100% from memory, whereas the Mandos were all referenced in some way. And while my recall isn't great, I'm happy with where it is.

9. Explain the process behind one of your pieces, if you remember!

Putting this under a cut because it ended up getting quite long :')

Whoof, OK. Let's give this a shot! So this piece is one that isn't perfect by any means, but definitely had the most planning put into it!

I knew exactly how I wanted it to look, but I knew it would be trickey to execute because of how tied to background elements it is, which I struggle to integrate with the main characters a lot. So I thumbnailed several variations on the pose and placement and ended up combining the results of two into the final piece.

Obviously these look like uhhh shit, but I just wanted to rough out the basic elements.

Then I gathered some references of the Havoc Marauder's interior and this Black Series set of props!

Then I basically traced over the traditional sketch, adjusting any wonky anatomy that I saw and tried to make it as readable as possible while maintaining a kinda sketchy look that I like.

Then I generally like to have a looser approach to how I drew backgrounds so I basically freehanded the rest without line art, just kinda blocking in color and refining them until they look right. With this one however I did end up going over the panels with lines because of how geometric they are. I remember constantly checking references to make sure I was getting all the buttons, all the little details, all the right shapes. What was also fun to experiment with was how to make the buttons glow! I ended up going with an airbrush layer of colours with an Add (Glow) layer on top that I slightly motion blurred. I really like how it came out!

I then colored in The Fellas. What's quite fun about Bad Batch armor is that it has a bit more texture to it than reg armor, so I gave the armor its own noise layer to emphasise that, as well as just generally scuffing it up.

After that it was pretty much just messing around with blending layers and such to get the nice darks and glow effects in the ship. I did play around with giving each character their own glowing rim, but it ended up being more distracting than anything, so I just outlined the lineart in white where the highlights should be.

And that's it! I hope that was interesting.

25. Did you have any art goals coming into the year? How far did you achieve them?

I did indeed have art goals this year! As with most years, my goal is to complete more pieces. Lineart, color, shading backgrounds, the whole lot. And this year it the first year I've really done it! Which I'm super happy about. Another goal was to do more non-fandom art, but between university work and the stuff I made for here, I didn't really have time! While I am happy with the pieces I made for university, I wish I had done more non-fandom art outside of it. But doing fandom art makes me happy, so I'm still glad I did it! Balancing I guess.

Thanks so much for the ask!

End of Year Artist Asks

[texasthegreatdestroyer]

Ya know... I pick fun at dumb people on the internet, but uh... I don’t pick a lot of fun at myself. I think it’s time to change that...

What kind of post is this? For once, not a Sims 4 post bitching about how custom content creators are scummy, because oh my gosh Tex, how many times can you actually bitch about shit most the people who follow your blog already know? What can I say? I’m a broken record. No today, I’m doing another art drop, this time doing an art before and after, poking fun at the old piece I did over a month ago in comparison to a brand new piece I finished up just a little while ago.

(oh muh god, the cute cheak swirlies~ I do not know what eldritch Lovecraftian abomination possessed me to leave the adorable swirly cheekies out of the first design, but it’s fucking blasphemy, I am an uncultured swine! :’) )

For context, I own a role play server that is steampunk oriented of about 100 plus people, and I write for a range of characters ranging from my own original characters, to characters from other fictional works. This here is a steampunk/Victorian adaptation of Marlya Noel from the anime, Fairygone.I finished this about an three hours ago and oh muh god. She beautiful! She majestic! Her uh... grip on the rifle could be better, but at least her hands look nice, All around, the sketch was done so much better and it really shows through on this piece. (Fellow artists. The sketch matters. Never dial it in on a sketch, because while you can fix minor errors in a sketch later on down the line, you cannot fix the foundation of it without having to pretty much redo the whole thing. Put effort into sketches, don’t make the same mistake I did and have to go back and eventually redesign a piece you absolutely despise.) That and thinking back now, I could have probably done good with a black lace headband for the goggles considering how light her hair is and I might fix that since I didn’t merge all my layers, But I really love this piece, it did justice towards a lot of the issues I had with my last version of this, which I’ll go into soon. My biggest accomplishment? Her body size. I’m used to drawing very busty women, hell, my tumblr account persona is based on my main original character who is a very busty woman, so believe me when I say this character was a challenge, because I don’t draw a lot of super petite women, and uh... here’s the original piece of reference art of who I am drawing.

Uh yeah. She a stick. She a cute stick, but still a friggin stick. As you can figure, there’s a reason I made this 2nd redesign. I did not do well at portraying her body type, and there were also quite a few anatomy errors/mediocre portrayal. Allow me to just post that train wreck now and promptly tear it apart.

Right off the bat, a bunch of issues.

MUH’LADY, YOUR HAND IS BACKWARDS! WTF??? That thumb do no go there! Hands do not work like that! That do not do the thing that your thing is doing! God, she must have an awful time using that hand for ANYTHING. I’m so sorry queen, what did I do to you??? 

I absolutely failed at adapting to my paper texturing, and it shows, because everything is darker than it should be, and it’s awful. That thing I mentioned about a black lace head band in comparison to the beige one? Yeah, woulda done me sooo much better to use the beige one for THIS piece, because Marlya’s hair was made so fuckin dark that you can’t hardly tell that her goggles are put on a lace head band. And don’t get me started on the hair’s shading, it’s fuckin abysmal. What’s the point of doing lighting if it’s gonna look so damn dull and hardly there, that and it’s one flat, boring color? Her eyes, although coloring wise, I do like them, are not accurate to the actual original reference, even then though is a bit dull, and neither is her hair or skin, because I failed at adapting to the texture I frequently use to make things look nice and soft. Oh! And those boots? YEAH! THEY’RE FUCKIN STUPID :D I wanted to go the route of a lacy, curve fitting dress, with some sleek, skin tight, modern looking elements to it, so uh YEAH! LET’S JUST ADD SOME BULKY ASS, HIDIOUS, BROWN BOOTS! :D Tex, what the actual fuck were you thinking??? You’ve just committed an act of mental torture to yourself and all who bear witness to this atrocity and over all to the name of fashion...  The legs are cringe. Yall don’t have weird pointy spots sticking out of the side of your right leg? BAGH! BLASPHEMY!

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-”

Ma’am, you look quite perturbed and a little dead inside. It’s okay, I am too. I’ve been dead inside since I found out that Sims 4 builders think they’re entitled to money for building houses out of other people’s cc, oh and also since I found out that MAP supporters actually exist. :D

Jokes aside, her expression really isn’t that terrible, it just doesn’t work in the context of what I was drawing, but it is accurate for the type of art I was making, It’s a character ref, and I don’t want the character I’m trying to show off to be overly expressive, as I want a clear as possible image of the character I’m portraying, but like... The pose I tried to do just doesn’t work for the minimal expression. A pose like what I was doing requires more facial expression to not make the pose look super forced and stiff. It just looks really uncanny and awful. As a result of that, she legit looks fuckin dead inside. Me too Marlya, me too. The pose for the redo looks so much better, because it doesn’t require a whole lot of expression to work, that and in this AU I put her in, someone I role play with frequently expressed interest in the rifle she was using, because I described it as having a mahogany butt, and they’re like “Sounds super old, antique, and cool AF” so I’m sure he’ll be pretty stoked to see the actual rifle in question. So yeah, definitely if I’ma do a pose like I did in the 1st drawing again, it needs to be a lot more expressive. I cannot stress this enough. The FUCKIN AUDACITY to leave out the swirly cheekies. It’s a signature part of my art style at this point, and even the dudes have them, which is saying something because I try to reserve more cutesy traits for women or feminine appearing individuals, and I didn’t put it on a woman??? What crack was I on when I made the artistic decision to leave it out? Cause I need to steer clear from that shit.

As I mentioned before actually posting this shite ass pic, there was some struggles with the body type I was trying to draw. My biggest issue was that the image I was referencing made her look like she had relatively curvy hips, and so I tried to heavily emphasize those hips to make it stick out, but by doing this, she ended up bustier than she actually canonically is, and I’m trying to make a reference piece for her, not prep her for fuckin r/34. So yeah, she ended up with tigger ol biddies than she actually has, and wider hips than she actually has. Also doesn’t help that the dress I made for her does emphasize the chest a little, so I knew breast size wise, she was going to look bigger than she is, but it’s really obvious that I over did the curves in an attempt to not overdue the curves, and clearly the dress is not THAT impactful, because I managed to pull it off in the 2nd redesign. So uh, yay me for being absolutely friggin counter productive! GOLD STAR! :D

What actually really ended up helping me is that I stopped focusing so heavily on the hips and just tried to get down the basic, general, slim yet curvy feel and just left out the usual effort that I put in like when I do with drawing bustier women, and that helped significantly, so in short, I learned not to overthink it. I need to put in as much effort as there is mass. Bigger girls need more effort, smaller girls need not as much effort. I really friggin hated the first piece I did. I just pushed through it in using it what it was made for because I didn’t feel like making another one at the time, and then the thing that actually set me off and made me redo it was that hand, like that’s a fuckin rooky mistake for myself, someone’s actively been doing art every day and seriously practicing to improve since I was 7 years old and really awakened myself to my potential skill. 5 year old me be like: “Ooo! Pretty colors neat scribbles!” 7 year old me: “Oh hey! I semi drew anime! I think I can keep going with this!” and did. I’m an adult in my 20′s now. I’ve doing art for awhile, so that piece REALLY bugged the shit out of me, especially because these pieces are again a month apart. I could understand if maybe the piece was a few months ranging to a year old, but a single month?... I expect much better from myself than the garbage fire that was that first picture. That and I could tell I really got tired of that image towards the end of drawing it, because I really just fuckin threw in the towel. The Shading was so basic bitch, and the details were non existent. where as this recent one had a lot of details, the dress was made to look so much better, so much prettier and working very well with the style I was trying to go for, and you could really tell I gave a shit about what I was drawing there. There’s still some mistakes in it, I mean, no piece is ever perfect, but still, I love it for what it is, and it’s not only a testament that I can always do better, but it shows a difference between me when I’m passionate about a piece and when I’m not. If yall got any criticisms for either pieces, feel free to leave em, because contrary to some people’s beliefs, I actually am very capable of taking criticism when it’s legit actual good, well informed, criticism. But also, while I won’t be a dick about it, if I do see criticism that isn’t the best, I’ll do my best to explain why it’s not the best, because as much as some people don’t want to admit, there is such thing as trash criticism, but if it’s legit criticism, I will take it to heart and try to better myself. Ya don’t have to worry about me being a butt hurt bitch over it, OBVIOUSLY because I’ll sit here and tear my own shit apart without the help of someone else.

Oh, and I went ahead and swapped out the beige band for the black since it works for her hair color now and doesn’t get overshadowed by how dark her hair is. Feel free to tell me which one ya like better.

[collisiondiscourse]

my art process: a simple(ish) guide to how i (kinda) do things

okay!! so, i said i was gonna post my art process after i finished doing the danny phantom piece so... here it is! the drawing i used for a step by step process explanation is actually... simpler? less clunky than how i usually do things. i must preface this entire post by saying that i am fully self-taught for anything to do with art so if there are some things here that are exceeding no-nos... very sorry OOPS

The drawing took an estimated 4 hours total and for software I used FireAlpaca. My tablet is One by Wacom (aka the tiny ass red one). Without further ado... here’s my narrated guide on how i kind of do art!

1. Sketch Layers

sketches, are ofc, one of the fundamental steps in art. Some artists do them differently, whether they do color blocking/splotches first or silhouettes or your standard messy-lineart-before-the-actual-lineart

i personally do 2-3 different lineart/sketch layers, each layer specializing in different aspects. i took this technique from julia lepetit, a host from the drawfee show--a channel that i really recommend watching if youre an artist, like art, or just generally like having fun background noise while you work on something because... untreated adhd lol

this is the first sketch layer! i color coded them for reference and i use the yellow sketch layer to figure out poses. i use this gesture sketch layer to figure out where i want limbs to go and how i want the body to twist.

after i figure out the posing, i move on to my second sketch layer. the green layer is my refined sketch layer where i figure out the form and anatomy of the sketch. this is also where i start planning how expressions, special costume bits, and hands work!!

the red layer is my last and final sketch layer. technically, the red layer sometimes also doubles as my final lineart! the reason why i do this final step instead of doing the final lineart simply is so i can work on details of the costume. i end up refining certain portions, or even stretching/free transforming the whole body. 

The red helps with the refinement of the drawing bc the ink being a color that isnt black kinda,,,, tricks my brain into not believing that its all permanent. its easier for me to go back and erase/change some parts when my brain doesnt think that everythings final. when im finished, i simply go back and change the color of the lineart to black with the protect alpha function.

this is how the final lineart looks! be sure to close the lineart (aka make sure that everythings connected) so that the bucket tool can work and make your life 2000% easier. 

2. Coloring

my coloring process is kind of... a mess LMAO its super dependent on how i feel like coloring on that day, but this is the usual method i use when im not thinking too much about it.

first are the flats! i use the magic wand tool to select all the areas around the lineart and reverse the selection so that all the areas inside your lineart is selected. color it with a base color, turn on protect alpha, and begin chunking in all the colors.

all of the flats excluding the pupils, background, ectoplasm rings, and danny phantom logo are on one layer. once that is done, we move on to shading!

for shading, i use a combination of the normal pen tool and the airbrush tool to smooth out the edges of the cell shading. since all the flats are on one layer, i simply set this one to clipping mask so that i dont have to worry about coloring within the lines. I only use one color really for shading (here, i used purple) and then protect alpha and add splotches of other colors (pink, orange) in relevant areas.

once i finish doing that, i set the layer to multiply and adjust the opacity so that it looks softer and more attuned to the colors of the actual piece

its at this point that i fiddle with the hue/saturation/brightness settings on the flat color layers to my taste, seeing what works and what doesnt.

i then lightly go over the piece with a bright color (very very very light cyan) and put focus on the areas i think should glow like his freckles, eyes, and ectoplasm rings from where he’s coming out of a wall.

i rlly rlly love layer effects, so i set that one to add and again adjust the opacity to how i want it to look. 

3. Finishing Touches

...yeah i know it looks like a hot mess but hear me out.

on a new layer, make a CRAP TON OF GEOMETRIC SHAPES. ALL OF THEM IN NEON OR PASTEL. i get comments about my coloring methods sometimes and honestly im pretty sure its all due to this step. i make all these goddamn weird shapes, colored according to levels of lighting (yellow in lighter areas, turquoise in areas affected by the glow, purple in shaded areas etc. etc.) and also clip this layer. 

i then set the layer effect to either hue, overlay, or add and set its opacity really low to make it unobvious and cleaner to look at. this is a method that i learned from tumblr user zephyrine-gale who is... exceedingly talented and pulls this off way better than i can WKSDJSKKS

after that... ur basically done!! i add a few more layers like the noise layer for extra texture and sometimes some very light gradients (usually yellow to purple bc of something something color theory)--but after that, the piece is basically finished!

thanks for sticking around and reading this monstrous thing!! i might do more posts like this in the future, so who knows?

if you enjoyed this tutorial, want to support me and my art, or just wish for a way to pay for me to shut up... you can tip me 3 dollars or commission me here at ko-fi

(also reblogs are much appreciated. thanks <3)