ssalballoon

[ssalballoon]

my idiot hatchling

#outer wilds #based on the google search trends from the past 24h in the eclipse path #my art

[ssalballoon]

99 and 101

#ryu ga gotoku #rgg #yakuza like a dragon #yakuza 7 #ryo aoki #masato arakawa #ichiban kasuga #my art #i'd like to see ryo aoki wearing a grid suit

[ssalballoon]

🦝

#judge eyes #judgment #lost judgment #yagami takayuki #rgg #ryu ga gotoku #my art

[ssalballoon]

haughty haughty ice pick lovers

#rgg #ryu ga gotoku #judgment #lost judgment #mitsuru kuroiwa #kazuki soma #takayuki yagami #judge eyes #shosuke tanihira looking so innocently jubilant in his pictures is so funny comparing him to kuroiwa #tw violence #my art

[ssalballoon]

What are your favourite art books? 💕💕love your work

thank you! 🌟 oh artbooks?! that's actually a really interesting question hmm... I don't physically own any (expensive ⚰️) but I've seen them online for some games and artists I like! idk how interesting they'll be if you're not into those specific games but nonetheless i think the art is a treat to see even without context! i'll answer under the cut, this ended up being rly long

Dai Gyakuten Saiban 1 & 2 / The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (Kazuya Nuri)

- Nuri's soft lilac shading is so beautiful + unique to his art! I also appreciate that this artbook is mainly full of sketches and renders you don't see in game. They're so expressive, I wish other artbooks had more doodles of the characters goofing off, you can tell Nuri loves these characters a lot hehe (how often can you say the lead artist drew april fool's furry designs + canon animal plushie designs for the mcs)

the doodles that really stuck out to me are spoilers so i won't share those, but they really feel like snippets from a slice of life anime which humanizes the characters so well

Fire Emblem Echoes (Hidari)

- Hidari's designs are so classy and elegant, the way his fabrics all have a palpable weight and texture to them, and his coloring is so warm... there's a good reason why his designs keep getting circulated with praise every once in a while hehe. I really hope they bring him back for another game!

a personal favourite... she's very pretty!!

(on a side note i rly love Nuri and Hidari's female character designs, it's refreshing to see! not to say that modest designs are inherently better than more fanservicey ones, but i find that the female character designs are even more memorable because of it! it's mainly a personal preference)

Fire Emblem Awakening + Fates (Kozaki Yusuke)

- god of drawing armor and anatomy in perspective... his poses are so dynamic because of his mastery of foreshortening. I love seeing his work in Heroes, it only continues to get better over the years! plus he designed Lucina and Inigo so :D

as much as i love his artbooks my favorite art from him comes from fe heroes! his units have the most unique posing in the game, it always makes me excited to see more of his art (i especially love how conscious/deliberate he is with body types in his designs)

Persona 5/ 4/ P4 Arena Ultimax (Shigenori Soejima)

- Soejima's art influenced my artstyle a lot back in 2017(?) and 2021! (I mainly enjoy his b&w rougher style since it's so bold and also a fun style to draw in, although his painted stuff is fantastic as well) I enjoy seeing the Persona designs since they're so different to what I usually draw and it's really hard to capture the grace he draws them with (especially P4's)

this video of Shigenori Soejima drawing live changed me in 2017

persona 4/arena ultimax have my favorite persona designs out of the modern games!

Death Stranding (Yoji Shinkawa)

- It's a shame you don't see Yoji Shinkawa's artwork in the game much (to my knowledge) because it's stunning how vivid, gritty, and yet effortlessly elegant it is. The monster designs are so haunting gahhh it's so cool! The mastery he has with ink and brush is insane he can be so loose with the lines and yet it conveys everything you need to know

the full body ink sketch of die hardman... it's so loose and yet it's very controlled aghh it's so impressive (i saw hunter schafer got her portrait drawn by him and like. imagine yoji shinkawa drawing you. ohmygod)

Okami (Takeyasu Sawaki, Kenichiro Yoshimura, Mari Shimazaki)

- when I was in middle school I didn't even know games could look like this?! The obvious traditional Japanese art influence makes the designs really unique even compared to modern games. The calligraphic brush strokes are so striking and I especially love the subtle ink bleed outside of the outlines, it honors traditional media so well. honestly this game's style in general is one of a kind

love how playful these are! i forgot how much i loved this game

Journey (Matthew Nava)

- (although it is an artbook I've only been able to see a few of the pages! Nava does have an archived GDC talk where he presents the book that I still have to take a look at) I found the color script for the complete story interesting since it shows both the color corresponding with the literal height of the mountain for the hero's journey that the game was so inspired by. Plus the alternate designs for the iconic main character are so cute!

masterfully crafted experience... i think this is the first time i've seen a color script for a game? (although i guess i'm not that familiar with games)

These aren't actual art books but I really like the concept art for them:

Transistor (Jen Zee)

- my favorite Supergiant game! It's a shame there's so little of the concept art out there (I'm pretty sure I saw more years ago but I couldn't find them more recently... link rot grr...) Jen Zee's painterly style is gorgeous and the colors are so warm, so uncharacteristic of the cyberpunk genre we're typically familiar with! her art was also a big inspiration for me when I was younger

Apex Legends

- apex does have an artbook but l mainly enjoy looking at the character designs and the transition screens for compositions (especially the season 4 Revenant's trailer ones, one day I hope my background/environment art can reach a level anywhere close to that). The character designs and overall setting are different from my usual style so it's cool to see the attention to detail in fabric texture, prop design, worldbuilding, etc. and try to apply it to my designs

this transition has such a strong sense of narrative in the illustration, it impressed me so much i drew something inspired by it (i'm not sure who the original artist is, i thiiink it's liam mcdonald...?? i really hope i'm not misattributing it;; out of the concept artists his illustrations look the most similar...?)

I'm interested in Outer Wilds' artbook and Disco Elysium's but I don't think I can look at those without spoilers! both phenomenal games that i really need to finish (i know outer wilds' main story but not echoes of the eye)

hit the limit on pictures 😔 and i've been sitting on this ask for a while... I feel like there are more artbooks that aren't coming to mind ahh I should really keep track of them better! thank you for the ask, it was nice to revisit these again 💞

#my asks #anonymous #this took a while bcs i wanted to hunt down the artbooks + write my thoughts on the art instead of just listing them

[ssalballoon]

NOTICE: PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE VALUABLES INSIDE THE LOCKERS

the arakawa family together :')

comically tragic blunder. it ruined my life

#yakuza like a dragon #ryu ga gotoku #rgg #yakuza 7 #ichiban kasuga #ryo aoki #masato arakawa #masumi arakawa #smth about that phrase on the lockers feels so taunting when masato places his hand over the word 貴重品 #i rly love this final scene... what a story #my art

[ssalballoon]

sample pic of my gale print on thedabshop that's available for preorder! 🌿

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep

[ssalballoon]

“My home is with Astarion.”

✨another beautiful work of art by @ssalballoon that I commissioned✨

#hehe another comm i did #the idea for this scene was so good i'm glad i got to draw something tender and sweet :') #my art

[ssalballoon]

hi i have some bg3 gale drawings of mine available for pre-order as prints here!

thank you to thedabshop for the opportunity 🌟💞

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep

[ssalballoon]

hi i have some bg3 gale drawings of mine available for pre-order as prints here!

thank you to thedabshop for the opportunity 🌟💞

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep

[ssalballoon]

commission for the lovely @arquennial , thank you! 🌟

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #bg3 fanart #my art #tav x gale #bg3 tav #this was pretty daunting so i'm happy i managed to pull it off!

[ssalballoon]

ah yes my favorite rogue ast... vax'ildan? (aka gale has hair envy + hairswap... kinda)

this is purely self indulgent + wanted to try some unconventional (radioactive) color palettes for them

these two r my favs from dnd related media + ylfa from never after but idk as much about it? caleb + jester will probably join this group lol but m9 needs to get animated first bcs... i'm not watching all those streams man

hey isn't this almost the exact color spectrum dogs can see

#every few months i've been searching “vox machina s3 news” bro PLEASE titmouse i need this so bad u dont understand #i've only watched the animation so please don't spoil anything;; #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #bg3 fanart #my art #vax'ildan #legend of vox machina #sorry astarion vax was the first rogue in my heart ... his va was already giving me brainworms (+heartbreak) years back

[ssalballoon]

I desperately need more Gale Dekarios art. I’m begging. You’re my favorite BG3 artist and im obsessed!!!!

I keep wondering what he might look with his hair down, or while pulling it back.. honestly, anything Gale-related. <3 <3 <3

whoa thank you?! you may enjoy this drawing then hehe your ask made me remember that i wanted to draw him tying his hair up!

#i've been drawing a lot of gale for a big project but I can't show any of it yet;; #my asks #anonymous

[ssalballoon]

would he wear silly bandz. discuss 🦕🌟🦋

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #bg3 fanart #my art #received an ask about gale and his hair which made me realize i've never rly drawn his manbun in detail #also yes it's astarion's camp shirt hehe

[ssalballoon]

Wait but how do you draw faces???? ): Do you have more suggestions for that sort of thing?

oh faces! i'm going to assume you're drawing in a semi(?) realistic/ anime-ish style? that's kinda the style i'm familiar with, if you're going for a super 2D graphical style then a lot of my advice won't really apply! i'll put it under the cut

1) I think the most important thing for faces is to always keep in mind the 3D form and planes of the face. Looking at a lot of simplified art (like anime) is a little detrimental for this because it's easy to think the features of the face are just kinda pasted on

Here's a tool from William Nguyen that lets you play around with any angle and light source you desire for heads! It really emphasizes the 3D form and especially the planes of the face. It's helped me out a ton!

Sinix has a video on drawing faces from any angle from imagination (no reference), again focusing on the 3D nature of faces. For individual features of the face (eyes, nose, mouth, etc) he has a playlist of anatomy tutorials!

- I advise against turning to memory and iconography for features of the face (like 👁️ and 👄) Icons like these are useful when the 2D shape is more important for communicating information quickly like in standardized hazard signs. But for more realistic drawing, you want to rely on the 3D form so these simplistic drawings can be jarring in certain styles when in the context of a full human face. This Proko video mentions that you should treat the features of the face like the eye as just another abstract form and not think of it specifically as an "eye" (Proko's channel is also a good general art resource)

2) basic proportions

This is about where specific features of the face are located. I never really studied this on its own, but I think drawing a lot just got me familiar with it. I'm hesitant to link a specific resource here because I didn't really use any myself;; while this isn't as exhaustive as I'd like, I like how Marc Brunet explains it! (Although I'm not a big fan of how he delineates male/female faces and facial features so black and white...? like don't feel obligated to stick to that specific face shape for female characters TTOTT i think it can get pretty redundant compared to the diversity of the male faces he draws)

- Facial proportions change with age! So you should be mindful of it depending on how old the character that you're drawing is

3) expressions

Drawing faces means you're gonna have to draw expressions, even if that expression is a neutral face. I'm admittedly not the best at this, but try pushing the expressions to their extremes to make them more interesting (of course depends on context). 2D disney expressions/concept art accomplish this perfectly and are a good reference to study from (I personally enjoy Shiyoon Kim's concept art!)

- Note how when you cry, the entire face (+body) moves to create that expression. It's not just a tear falling down the cheek, it's the eyebrows furrowing, the muscles around the eyes scrunching in(?), mucus running down the nose, mouth and lips tightening, eyes and nose becoming red, shoulders hunching up, etc.

- as a small aside I want to emphasize the importance of eyebrows because I avoided drawing them/ moving them around more when I started learning to draw, don't do that!! they're crucial for drawing expressions!

4) diversity

Try depicting facial diversity to make a character unique and more interesting!

- semirealism helped me turn away from the hyperstylization of certain anime styles where a lot of these unique features are smoothed away. Things like wrinkles around the brows/eyes/mouth, eye/nose/mouth shape and size, facial bone structure, facial hair, etc really help to individualize a character/ capture their likeness

- also people of different races have different facial features that you should be mindful of. I don't feel knowledgeable enough to give specific advice on this, but if you're unfamiliar with something please use references!!

This can be challenging especially in stylized drawing, since you tend to have to pick and choose what you choose to depict. For example, I find that trying to draw out all the wrinkles of a character, while it may be accurate, it just doesn't fit my style. I therefore have to balance the amount of details to include to achieve a character's likeness. However, stylization also allows you to emphasize those unique features which makes a character more memorable to me!

as another example this is a personal trick i use but i've found drawing the bottom lip helps make a more masculine face, and drawing the top lip as well for a more feminine face...??? idk why this works for me (and it may not work for you!) but yeah try playing around with what details you include/exclude and see what you end up liking!

okie I think that's all I have for faces..? hopefully i'm not missing anything... again I prefer to let actual teachers give specific advice on how to draw, I feel more comfortable talking about general ideas and referring you to better sources that you can learn from first-hand!

also I think in my efforts to explain the key aspects of drawing faces I've kind of made it seem like I follow strict delineated steps... no I truly just wing it every time I draw TTOTT I just think these points are important to keep in mind so that when you amass more knowledge about them you can internalize it to become a habit!

enough yapping from me thank you for your ask! i hope this can be of help to you 🫡💞

#my asks #art resources #edit just realized this may have been more about how i draw faces like step by step and not so generalized TTOTT #i'm sorry if i didn't really answer your question correctly TTOTT;;;

[ssalballoon]

bg3 charas in my style! (template)

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #my art #bg3 fanart #bro holy shit do i have to tag every single one of these characters #astarion #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #wyll #wyll ravengard #lae'zel #shadowheart #karlach #halsin #minthara #jaheira #minsc #personally i like shadowheart halsin n jaheira's portraits the most!

[ssalballoon]

i wanna get better at art but dont know how to start ^^' whats a good way to get into studying anatomy and improving as an artist? tysm 💗 love your art soso much

more art converts 😼 yay!!

i think these asks were sent by different people but they're pretty related + a lot of my advice is the same! so i'll answer these together under the cut (it's so long oh gosh)

ok first of all i'm very flattered that people are asking me for art advice but i'm really not the most equipped person to ask TTOTT I've never been deliberately studious with my art so I feel bad offering advice when I've mostly gotten by with just drawing fanart and ocs a lot... my rate of improvement has therefore been slow, but I've still had an enjoyable learning experience so perhaps from that angle my input may help! i'll mainly refer you to external resources that have helped me

For anatomy + drawing humans:

1) I know I'm not diligent enough to sit down and study muscles, so instead I make it more enjoyable by drawing my favorite characters in a pose that targets the muscles I want to practice! (i default to drawing ppl naked because of this lol) This isn't the most efficient, but it serves as good motivation to get practice in. (honestly a lot of my general art advice has the undercurrent of becoming so obsessed with characters to drive your motivation to draw even when artblocked/ struggling with doubts!)

2) I want to refer you to Sinix's Anatomy playlist! Although Sinix focuses more on digital painting, he gives simplified anatomy breakdowns that include how muscles change shape under different movements/poses, which is crucial for natural human posing. the static anatomy diagrams from Google don't really help for that

3) What's just as important as anatomy is gestures! (especially important if you're used to drawing non-human objects I think!) Making figures look like they have flow to them will sell the "naturalness"(?) to your anatomy. If you have in person life drawing sessions accessible near you I'd recommend trying those out, or if you prefer trying it digitally there's this website!

This helps you not only get a sense of human proportions, but also natural posing! I'd limit the time taken to draw the poses from like 10 seconds to 1 minute(?) for quick gestures, and maybe 1 minute to 5mins(for now!! typically they go much longer) to study human proportions. I'd say don't spend a lot of time on them, repetition is more important!

4) I've also picked up on useful anatomy tidbits from artists online! Looking at how practiced/ professional artists stylize a body helps me focus on what the essential details are to convey a particular form (looking up "human muscles" and being hit with anatomy diagrams full of all the smallest details can be overwhelming! what do you even focus on?! so these educated simplifications really help me) Like Emilio Dekure's work! Look how simplified these figures are, and yet contain all the essential information to convey the sense of accurate form (even though it's highly exaggerated!)

(shamefully admits I've never studied from actual anatomy books so I can't recommend anything in that sense TTOTT)

For general improvement:

1) I highly recommend Sinix's Design Theory playlist and Paintover Pals! (+ his channel in general) You don't have to put them immediately into practice, but I think these are good fundamental lessons to just listen to and have them in the back of your mind to revisit another day. Plus these videos are just fun and very approachable! Design theory fundamentals are essential to creating appeal and directing a viewer's attention, and critiquing others' work/ seeing his suggestions are a good way to practice noticing areas of improvement+ solutions yourself!

2) If you prefer a more formal teaching resource, the Drawabox YouTube course covers all the basic fundamentals of drawing in short lessons. But honestly if I were starting out, this would be a little intimidating for me (and even now it still is! I haven't done all of them) But even if you don't watch them, the titles should give you an idea of the basic concepts that are valuable to pick up. I think it would be nice to keep in mind and revisit once in a while as you learn!

(One lesson I do encourage you to watch is the line control one! A confident continuous line conveys motion and flow much better compared to discontinuous frayed lines which I think is good to practice early by drawing from the wrist and shoulder)

3) As a universal piece of advice: Please please please use references! Use a reference for literally everything, observing is how we learn! You'll find that a lot of things you thought you knew what they looked like are inaccurate by memory alone. Also, trace! This is solely for your practice, tracing then freehanding has helped me grasp proportions when I was struggling! (of course don't post these online if you traced from art)

I've found that being able to compile references into easy to access boards has been very helpful in encouraging me to use references more. For PC, I think they use PureRef (free/pay what you want), and for iPad I use VizRef. VizRef is a one time purchase (which was definitely worth the $3.99 USD price imo)

4) On that note, try building up the habit to observe from media + real life and make purposeful comments about what you see! Like hey, when I bend my knee, the muscles/fat in my thighs and calves bulge outwards, I should draw that next time. Purposeful observation carries over to your overall visual library, and it's a little thing that adds up over time

5) For motivation, get into media you really enjoy, or make your own characters! The way I started art more seriously was by drawing fanart + OCs from anime that I liked ^^ For OCs it really encourages you to draw more because you're the primary creator of their art! Also you gotta see a lot of good art to make good art! Watching visually appealing media (like animation with appealing stylization/simplification) can passively help you learn just by observation.

ok wow I could go on but this is already a lot of information TTOTT my main aim for this reply is basically: don't let anything discourage you from learning to draw!! drawing is so fun and brings me a lot of joy ^^ practicing often will of course help you improve, and the way to incentivize that is by having fun with it! i hope this could help!💞

#my asks #art resources #trying to be concise n failing #i'm mainly worried that like. my art tips make me sound more skilled than my art actually is