darkdumbass

[darkdumbass]

Hi there! This is random, but I really really love the way you do line art! I love how simple, clean, and direct it feels. It has great energy and feels really appealing! I’m trying to improve my own line art right now… I feel like it takes me a long time to choose the “right” lines and end up with clean finish. What to you think has helped you get up to this point with your line art the most? Do you have any suggestions of ways to study and practice? Any favorite artists you look up to for their lines?

I love your work ❤️ thank you

Hello! Thank you for the kind words. I enjoy doing linework a lot, so this is nice to hear :)

These days my line art is more of a "clean drawing" rather than what one usually imagines under traditional line art, which would be opaque lines with varying weight. Right now I like to use a brush that doesn't vary size with pen pressure but varies opacity only. It gives the lines a very soft feeling that I've grown to love.

I browsed through your art, and I was a bit blown away actually, because I think you have a fantastic energy and expression in your drawings, which is something I aspire to have myself. You are very knowledgable about line weight and shapes, so I won't bore you with explaining any of that, haha.

I think good line art comes down to confidence. Obviously, an artist needs a confident hand to avoid shaky lines, to lead them exactly the way they want to, to give them an energy. This sort of mechanical skill is acquired through experience.

But! I've always felt there is a sort of a mental side to this as well, which is best observed during traditional inking. You have to commit to your lines, you have to trust them. You have to sit back and give control to your hand, because with the experience it has, it also has a mind of its own. This sounds pretty out there, but it's about letting go and not overthinking it. I realized this when I looked up to Jim Lee's work as an older teen. There's a lot of videos on YT where you can see his process, which looks utterly effortless. Take this one for example. It's quick, so it's a bit rough, but it does look like his hand is just doing whatever!

I fostered that approach in my art while doing daily drawing from life - straight to inks without sketching. The drawings look wonky a lot of the time, but it gave me confidence where it mattered later. To this day, when I do clean lines in digital too, I adopt this mindset of letting go, which gives the lines more leeway, which also means that if the line doesn't go exactly where it should according to the sketch, I can still trust it. (Although contrary to this, I still put a lot of controlled effort into faces, and this approach comes more easily while drawing bodies and clothes.)

As for suggestions for practice, as I've already mentioned, drawing from life straight to inks (I recommend this over going straight to inks from imagination as that's extremely difficult, at least for me). Have a fast hand, and do long lines even if they come out wobbly. Try to let your hand roleplay Jim Lee here and there - let it do that flick that crosses a line it shouldn't have, let it make a turn with an accidental squiggle, let it pool a bit of ink at the end of the line. Fake it till you make it. At first, I suggest trying this on subjects that aren't your expertise (eg. in my case, draw a bottle instead of a person), so you don't subconsciously compare this to your best work, but make sure you're still having fun :)

Of course, it helps to like doing line art too. I don't know what your relationship to it is, but if it suffers, I suggest busting out the traditional inks with dipping pens, wodden skewers and brushes. It connects me with the process like nothing else.

As for my favorites, I can recommend one of my favorite manga artists - Satoru Noda. Superbly confident and energetic linework. Check out his series Golden Kamuy or Dogsred :)

I hope this will give you a small idea of how I approach my line art. It might be a mess… If you have any more questions as a result of this, or related to anything else, don't hesitate to ask!

#ask

[darkdumbass]

Do you have AO3 or FFN?

I do have AO3 with the handle DarkDumb. I actually write here and there although I don’t actively promote my fics here. 

#ask

[darkdumbass]

Everyone drop everything you're doing and read this right now!

“You asshole.” He digs the spoon back into the broth, nearly spilling it himself. “It’s always—fucking—dignity this and honor that.” Sanji lets go of the bowl to grab Zoro by the chin and jerks his head around to face him. Zoro’s eyes widen in shock, and one hand twitches up, but for once, he’s not fast enough.

“Why don’t you prioritize—” Sanji shoves the spoonful of broth into his barely-open mouth, and later, he’ll feel bad about the way the utensil knocks against his teeth. “—staying alive for once?!”

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a little zosan-flavored (or not! your choice whether to read into the subtext or not) oneshot based heavily on this post by @darkdumbass, which has been living rent-free in my dome for literal years months (feels like years but probably not years)

i hope i did your vision justice! that comic means a lot to me :3

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[darkdumbass]

I'm opening comms, so it's an ideal time to get me to draw something you always wanted to see!

DM me if you're interested or if you have any questions :)

#open commissions

[darkdumbass]

Continuation of my gym AU from here

(Sorry for holding this out on you for so long, I don't open tumblr much these days...)

#zosan #roronoa zoro #vinsmoke sanji #one piece #fanart #comic

[darkdumbass]

Apparently, I never posted this here?

#zosan #one piece #roronoa zoro #vinsmoke sanji #fanart

[darkdumbass]

Preview of my piece for @smokerzine !

The pre-orders are open, so make sure to check out the bundles here!

#one piece #smoker

[darkdumbass]

Mentally I'm stuck in Thriller Bark

#one piece #fanart #zosan #roronoa zoro #vinsmoke sanji

[darkdumbass]

Zosan AU in which Zoro frequents a gym where Sanji is hired as a nutritionist

(continuation here)

#one piece #fanart #zosan #roronoa zoro #vinsmoke sanji

[darkdumbass]

Zoro teaches you about proper swordsmanship

#roronoa zoro #one piece #fanart #comic

[darkdumbass]

#sanji #one piece

[darkdumbass]

You draw the One Piece boys so good! Especially Buggy, not enough love for the trash man <3 So good to see you back on my dash :)

Oh, thank you! It makes me happy to hear people like my fanarts because it lets me know I managed to share my love for the characters :)

(Good to see you in my notifs too, I remember you've been following me for ages, haha.)

#ask

[darkdumbass]

Backlog of One Piece drawings

#fanart #one piece #roronoa zoro #vinsmoke sanji #buggy the clown

[darkdumbass]

hey hey! that one zosan dump part 1 you did, the three drawings of sanji kissing green fuzzball turns back into zoro, where’d you get that idea? Is there a fanfic????? (O//O) will there be one?

Hi! You're actually not the first one to ask a similar question, haha. I came up with that idea myself; I suppose because I have two marimos at home, although I don't kiss them.

I do write fanfic occasionally, but I have no plans to turn this into one. I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't the first to come up with this idea since I've seen art of Zoro as a literal marimo floating around (fandoms are a hivemind). I don't dig too deep into the fandom because I try to avoid spoilers, and I haven't been browsing any fanfics at all, but I haven't been made aware by anyone that a fic or other stuff with that premise exists (if there is, I would love to know!).

That said, if anyone wants to write a fanfic with that idea, they're very welcome to, just send it my way later because I would love to read it!

#ask

[darkdumbass]

One last thing for the OP dump; an illustration I thought I would post separate plus quick Smoker studies I did inbetween schoolwork.

#fanart #one piece #smoker #tashigi

[darkdumbass]

Zosan dump part 2

#fanart #one piece #roronoa zoro #sanji #zosan

[darkdumbass]

I’m not dead, just too lazy to post here. Have a One Piece drawing dump. 

#fanart #one piece #roronoa zoro #sanji #zosan