shrimpmandan:

proship-miku:

serious question- how do you learn to draw?
ive never been able to draw ;-; my drawings look like a childs, seriously
but i want to get to a good level
ive started roughly sketching 15 minutes a day, but is that enough? should i do more? im so lost edjfhd

Professional artists stress the fundamentals. For example, if you wanna draw good anime, you gotta know how to draw a good realistic human figure – knowing the rules before you break them. If you wanna learn about the fundamentals:

Source 1
Source 2
Source 3

Something I personally indulged in was art analyses (Solar Sands is an excellent Youtube channel for this) and just looking at the art of other people and see how they did what they did – things like speedpaints, but with more attention paid to the process. 

Also, if you struggle with proportions, I’ve found it’s easiest to consider everything relative to each other. For example, the human hand is roughly as big as the face, and at resting position, the wrists are always a little below the hips. Even if your drawing isn’t 100% accurate to a real human being, applying these proportions keeps it from looking “off”. Just be observant in general! Look at a picture of someone and just… stare at it. Look at the curvature of their neck, the dips of their shoulders, the arc of their nose. Being observant is an incredibly useful attribute for drawing – and if you find yourself hitting art block, seeking out new experiences in the form of travel, media, and emotions can breathe new life into your creativity and give you a richer visual library.

Drawing consistently and practicing is pretty obvious, but it’s also good to push yourself and experiment with art. If you catch yourself drawing the same things, same faces, same poses over and over again and not improving, that could be a sign that you need to try drawing something more experimental.

As someone who’s been doing art their whole life, even though I rarely post mine here, I’d recommend starting with finding a process that works for you. Some people start out with a stick figure base and build up. I like to start by a bubble figure that looks kinda like those pose-able reference men you see everywhere, and then slowly build upon shape that like a sculpture. Whatever makes the most sense for you, do that. You need a process to be able to make art consistently.

Once you have a process, I’d honest to god recommend tracing photos, but building up the whole process over whatever you’re tracing. (Sketch out the setup for your canvas. Block out basic shapes. Break the basic shapes into more complicated ones. Smooth those shapes into something more recognisable. Detail. Etc.) It trains your hand and your eye to know where things actually go in relation to each other rather than just guessing. It also helps you learn to draw what’s there and not what you want to be there.

I’d also recommend learning and frequently using calligraphy. Because it’s basically drawing letters. It helped me a lot with the fine motor control I need for the detail work I do. (Plus I have the added bonus of my handwriting looking super cool)

Above all else, patience is key. My art is barely recognisable from where it was two years ago.

Don’t expect masterpieces to work up quickly, either. I’ll spend over 12 hours on a drawing not even six inches tall.

rabbit-rays:

i mean this so seriously if you have any sort of creative project you can and should be a little obsessed with it. you should reread your own writing and look at your own art and brag about your ocs its literally good for your health

elidyce:

I’ve been listening to another book on writing - Save The Cat! Writes A Novel - and while I greatly enjoyed almost all of it, and found it very helpful, at the very end there was a phrase that made me want to punch the wall. 

“There’s no such thing as writer’s block or plotter’s block. There’s only perfectionist’s block.”

The author, Jessica Brody, gave credit for this nonsense to another author, Emily Hainsworth, and I freely admit that I wished both of them great ill at this point in the book. 

I’ve made posts on this subject before… I think?… but never mind, I’m going to do it again. 

People who say ‘there’s no such thing as writer’s block’ or ‘just push through it’ are like people who say ‘there’s no such thing as PMS’ or ‘depressed people could cheer up if they wanted to’. Only someone who’s never experienced it would say something that stupid. And those of us who have tend to react something along the lines of ‘I HATE YOU, YOU SMUG BASTARD, I HOPE YOU DIE DIE DIE’. (One of my PMS symptoms is intensely homicidal thoughts! Fun!) 

But I think part of the problem is that ‘Writer’s Block’ is actually a blanket term, like ‘mental illness’ or ‘chronic pain’. There are multiple types, multiple causes, and multiple ways of handling them. No one approach will work for all of them, and what works great for one will actively worsen another

Here are the four kinds I know about. There may be more, but these are the ones I’ve experienced personally. 

Keep reading

lesbianfairie:

orteil42:

as a creator you shouldn’t have to feel like you constantly gotta one-up yourself. consider one-downing yourself instead. keep producing worse content to make your previous work look great by comparison

jonny-dykeville:

jonny-dykeville:

having a bit of an ego is essential to the artistic process

its mostly died down now but i am still really sick of the culture that tends to perpetuate around digital art where your art is never good enough, everyone else’s work is better than you, your art or your page or your name being some variant on ‘trash’, ‘garbage’, bad… 

i don’t really think it helps anyone! to be so constantly self deprecating all the time, because the nature of art is that it’s never going to quite look like it does in your head because the human imagination is a fickle thing, and this constant ‘aaah its not Good’ instict is going to halt your progress, because you’re never going to get to that stage where it looks perfectly as how you imagine it.

accepting your art as it is and understanding that just because it’s not like your imagination doesn’t mean it’s bad, and appreciating the way it looks and that You Made That is absolutely vital. and i think being proud of yourself, being proud of the stuff you make and your improvement is hugely important because that powers you forward… i love thinking about, ‘oh, this will look so cool when i’m done’ and more often than not i finish and i’m like yeah, damn, this DOES look so cool! and trusting that what you make is good will help you explore more, branch out, etc.

thinking you’re kinda hot shit or you’re talented or you’re good at what you do is super super important

stuffdone:

itsforexposure:

Don’t work for free kids. Not unless it’s a gift that you genuinely wanna give

Little Things Pre-Posting Checklist for Character Artists:

• body/facial hair
• freckles
• scars
• tattoos
• makeup
• fingernails (size, shape, colour)
• glasses/spectacles
• jewellery

You’re welcome.

a-selkie-abroad:

liv3r-transplant:

It’s never too late for cheeky corpse puns

can I ask how you did the patterns in the background? they look very cool

Sure! It’s pretty simple but kinda hard to explain in writing. I basically created three large colour blobs in the back that I felt complemented the characters nicely in varying colours and sizes. I then took those colours and created a barrier between them with a lighter, differing colour so it stood out more. Next, I created a clipping mask over each blob and took misc texture brushes and went to town- before using a colour picker to make them cohesive with the background of each section. I repeated that process for each area, and tadaaa.

Sorry if my explanation was needlessly complex. I use basic procreate brushes for pretty much all my illustrations. As for picking brushes to texture with, try choosing something subtle but still visible. You don’t want it to become overbearing or stand out more then your character/drawings focal point- though there are a few instances in which that could work. Anyways, hope this helped!

onlinecounsellingcollege:

1. Set realistic and achievable goals. These should be something that appeal to you as it’s hard to go after another person’s goals.

2. Think of meaningful ways to reward your progress.

3. Expect to have set-backs and to encounter obstacles. When that happens, focus your mind and renew your determination. Refuse to give up.

4. Decide to be a positive thinker. Refuse to stop believing in yourself. When you feel discouraged, decide that you’ll fight on.

5. Share your goals with others, and seek encouragement when you’re finding it hard to keep going on your own.

6. Practice saying no to other options and distractions that may seem appealing – but distract you from achieving your goal.

7. Post inspirational quotes in places you can see to encourage you to work to achieve your goal.

8. Practice self care so you don’t burn out. You need to pace yourself if you are going to reach your goal.

zzleigh:

pissyeti:

• there’s always gonna be someone better than you. try to work less on comparing yourself to their work and instead learning from them and turning envy into a personal challenge for your own stuff. i know its hard, trust me.
  
• the best way to get better at art is to practice. there is no special trick to improving, no secret method. practice makes perfect is a tired old saying that im sure you dont want to hear but unfortunately, its true.

• draw as much as you are able to. i wont say draw every day!!! because i know that there are folks that dont have this sort of luxury, whether it be because of physical or mental restrictions, or simply because they dont have time. draw whenever you can and have the strength to. try not to be too upset if you miss a day or a week or even months. shit happens, do the best you are able to.

• if you get bored or stuck, try another way. change mediums if you can, flip the canvas, do something weird that you wouldnt normally do. sometimes this is the best way to un-stick yourself from art block.

• dont be afraid to ask for help. this is so important! its ok to ask for assistance from other artists you admire (given that they have time to give pointers.) even if asking for help is straight up asking for a redline of your work, its ok to ask for it. improvement doesnt come without outside assistance, more often than not.

• references are 100% a legitimate resource. i’m not really sure where the idea came from that real artists dont use references, but its not true. every renaissance painter used references in the form of in-house models. disney artists use references of animals and people to correctly model and then correctly exaggerate their designs. you cant learn to draw the world around you without actually studying it. use references, even if its just google searching.
• your art is not an island. you will pick up styles from other people like tape picks up pet hair. its inevitable, and its not something that should be seen as a negative. artists inspire other artists. use your discretion, and study what you like about another artist’s work. every artist’s style is a mashup of a hundred other artists. its ok, experiment.

• youre not going to make masterpieces all the time. youre gonna suck more often than not. but youre putting effort into something you enjoy and in the process you are getting better, slowly but surely. you arent going to see your stuff improve overnight, be patient.

• please be kind to yourself. you are making a unique form of artistic expression, regardless whether you see it that way or not. youre doing fine, please keep going and pat yourself on the back for getting this far.

Many things that I often have to remind myself of.

fangirlinginleatherboots:

things i did that forced me to be a better artist:

• used a reference for everything
• thinner line art (you think thats thin? go thinner….)
• sketch, then do a cleaner sketch, THEN start finalizing
• THUMBNAILS
• color research, picking a set palette or light/dark for each work
• you like that pose? redo it one more time
• USE A DAMN REFERENCE
• do not rely on stylization as an excuse for anatomy
• draw the goddamn background you coward
• just draw the hand- a bad hand is better than a hidden hand
• the rule of thirds WORKS
• take a considerable break between sketch and lines/paint
• know that art takes longer as you get better at it
• draw the seams on clothes
• stop aiming for accuracy and focus on fluidity and motion, accuracy will come with practice of those two concepts
• just…do the chiaroscuro. just DO IT. no excuses it always works
• stop making excuses, make yourself an art schedule/set weekly(or daily) art goals and just DO IT.

I recently gave someone a bit of an insight on how I am approaching drawing/sketching of r6s operators/gadgets/clothes and everything i.g. and it got quite long.

So I thought, I could post it on here as well!

I hope this helps some of you and hopefully inspires y'all to draw!

First, I don’t really think about the stuff I draw and how I do it a lot, so it was really challenging for me to write it down.

(Because at this point most things are already instinctive and come from a lot of practice and observation/studying.)

But I tried my best to explain it anyway! (below)

(Disclaimer: I will use a pic of Kapkan, to explain the process, this will be a description on how I analyze a picture in my head and use the newfound knowledge in my drawings.)

1. In my sketch I always start with an oval for the head an go from there (cliche, I know).

2. I will look out for prominent lines, like borders.

3. I try to catch a mood, like angry or sad.

4. Analyzing anatomy and structure (this is very instinctual) and how does it work? basically.

[4.1. beforehand I already have some kind of pose or idea on how it’s supposed to look, then I try to see where everything is and apply it to the pose.]

(don’t mind my typo in the pic, structure is literally the only word I will always write wrong even tho I generally know how it’s written.)

5. Adding details (pouches, locks, weapons)

6. And this is a 5 min sketch, I did and may serve as a result of my analysis of this Kapkan picture.

Most of these steps apply for gadgets, gear and weapons as well, just in a different order.

For gadget it goes like this:

1. perspective/idea 

2. shapes/structure

3. prominent lines

4. details

I was asked about how I do details specifically, so concerning things like clothing and folds, besides practicing I looked at pictures/people a lot to try and understand how they work. Essentially I try to be aware of how the pose is and try to make it visual on the clothing with lines so that it shows the volume.

For gadget it’s almost the same, I try to understand how it works, I imagine different angles (like a 3D model) and use as much reference as I can find.

A few things, which really help me out are:

- Min size = brush thickness + sensitivity, so I can create expressive lines (good for folds in clothing and outlines).

- A lot of try and error to get as accurate to my original idea as I can.

(Before I even remotely come to things like outlines, I have at least 5 sketches, which start really rough and get more detailed, sketch by sketch.)

This is very superficial and does not cover everything, but serves as an general overview of how I work.

(I didn’t even try to cover coloring and shading, because those are two whole different topics and it would have taken me to long.)

If you have any questions, to clarify some things for example, just ask and I will try to answer and be as helpful as I can.

mauesartetc:

In a recent post https://mauesartetc.tumblr.com/post/650139669708800000/what-the-hazbin-umim-supposed-to-feel-bad-for I criticized fans of Stolas from Helluva Boss for being so enamored with his design that they’ve ignored the awful ways he treats those closest to him. It got me thinkin’: If I removed appearances from the equation, could I still convey my own characters’ personalities with text and generic stick figures?

I referenced MIT’s 638 Primary Personality Traits http://ideonomy.mit.edu/essays/traits.html to gather some specific facets of personality for my ocs. Obviously, the list isn’t perfect; some traits are a bit redundant for having too-similar meanings, and a couple aren’t really personality-based (such as “attractive” and “sexy”). I might revise it at some point for a version that’s more useful for character development. But if you have a cast you want to flesh out with unique traits for each character, this is a great resource to start with.

I ended up picking 140 traits from the list, enough to assign ten characters five positive, five negative, and four neutral traits each. (If you try this, you can pick any amount you want, as long as everyone has the same number of positives and negatives so their personalities are balanced.) From there it was just a matter of matching the descriptors with the characters (color-coded, natch) they’d fit best.

I then drew stick figures in poses the characters would make, because, importantly: Character design isn’t just about unique appearances. It’s also about unique poses. It’s all well and good if you’ve avoided sameface/samebody syndrome, but if all your characters pose in too-similar ways, it means they think in too-similar ways. You don’t want your main cast to be a boring hive mind. I also avoided drawing faces, as I wanted these to be as bare-bones as possible, with no form of expression but the body language.

Posture’s an important factor, as is the position of hands and feet. A useful tool to help with character posing is the power center, described in detail here: http://www.animatorisland.com/perfect-posing-1-listen-to-the-character-and-to-physics/

You can also take a trait from one character and ascribe it to another to create a potential bonding experience for them, or pair a trait someone has with someone else’s opposite/near-opposite trait to create conflict.

So yeah, just one method to flesh out characters. Hopefully I was successful in expressing my ocs’ personalities, as well as making them interesting and sympathetic despite the lack of unique appearances. It’s crucial for every character creator to remember that if your lovelies aren’t well-rounded and balanced aspeople, your audience will soon find them grating, regardless of how they look.

(Or at least that will be the case if said audience possesses critical thinking skills and actual standards for their entertainment.)

Thanks for reading!

I made a video about digital art habits to avoid as a beginner artist. Please watch & share with others. Thank you <3

I hope you find my advice helpful!