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haxxydraws · 2 years

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1, 8, or 9 for artist asks.

Really love your style by the way, a lot of your pieces feel really tribal in a sense. Like seeing them on the side of a drum or in a traditional tattoo wouldn't seem out of place.

Thank you!!! (and per usual, I'll do all of the questions hee hee)

1. Show your most recent wip

Technically my current wip is the fuckmassive version of the netherbound (oc setting I have with friends) map that I'm chunking into pieces so that I can render them in more detail and put them into a google sheet grid... if you want to see that, here's a link to it [here]

Besides that, rather than having wips I mostly just have sketches of stuff that I'm considering making into a complete piece sometime later. Here's one off of my Patreon (I've been thinking abt angel designs based off of the concept of the wire and cloth mother for ages bc I'm a psych nerd, so this was me toying with the idea of the wire mother)

8. What do you like most about your own work?

I like how stylized it is + that I'm able to do what I like to do in art. I used to feel pressured to render things as realistically as I could + follow the usual sketch -> lineart -> flats -> shaded process, but it always felt super tedious to me and discouraged me from doing much more than sketches. A lot of my old stuff never really felt "finished" to me because of that, but now that I've just abandoned the self-imposed "right" way, I'm a lot happier with what I produce!

9. What are you currently trying to improve?

I generally want to continue pushing myself out of my comfort zone. One thing that comes to mind is that a lot of the time when I do painted stuff, I tend to use super basic poses (usually bc I'm just doing character references and stuff), so I'd like to create some more interesting things in that regard. I also mentioned the other day that there are certain things I get frustrated drawing, like architecture and interiors, so I totally feel like I should do some more studies on that stuff when I get a chance

#replies #not art #although technically there is art because I posted that sketch #speaking of which let me know if any of you want to see me work more on that + make it into something finished #ALSO if you want to see more sketches + stuff and provide feedback.... I have a patreon #2022 #(tagging the year just bc of the art)#OH ALSO... i do have some wips rn they're just comm stuff so i dont want to post that

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kim-woonhak · 2 years

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Hi hi hello 💘✨ first of all, I just want to say your art is amazing!! I saw the recent (mingyu I think ? I’m not too familiar with svt) piece and it was lovely !! Like the drawing just flowed so smoothly and it was so pleasing to look at 🥺❤️ (sorry, I hope I don’t sound too weird lol)

I just wanted to ask, how does someone like get into art? I’ve always sucked at it and I’m genuinely curious like how do people start since I’m like pretty sure people aren’t born with this lol. Like ik a lot of effort and practice must’ve gone into this for you to be able to draw so well and so vividly so I’m just genuinely curious. Like how do cool talented people practice lol 😂

Sorry, hope you don’t mind the all-over-the-place question… of course you can feel free to ignore if you don’t feel like answering ❤️ I hope you have a lovely day 💘✌️

omg i genuinely forgot this ask i think i saw it in my inbox when i was out of town but then forgot to get back to it im so sorry anon i hope u still see this bc its a great question aslkdjfaslkdfjadjfsf ur so right nobody is born w drawing skills lol that would be wild LOL it takes years and years to train ur brain to actually work with u to make the drawing u want rather than work against u :')

ive liked to draw n doodle since i was pretty young and my biggest motivation is just having something i want to draw (when i was a kid that wouldve been cartoons n animals n then anime in middle school but since high school it's been celebrities and now idols). i've honestly had a lot of formal education over the years but being a self taught artist is super common too! there's a lot of good videos on youtube (i think proko is a p beginner-friendly channel he's got a playlist on drawing basics and one on drawing a head if ur into realism). for me, collecting references of artists n styles that i could look at or even imitate helped me improve a lot, as well as always working from photo reference because i suck at making up things w my imagination. and ofc just drawing a lot all the time lol

if u see this i hope u have a great day toooo <3 so sorry this is super late feel free to ask more questions i can try to elaborate more if u want asdkljfasdfj

#ask #anon #my questionable advice #i did the math and if i say ive officially been drawing since i was 5 (my first art class)#that means i've been drawing for 20 years #when i put it that way i feel like i should be better at this than i am #two decades of 'practice' yet i still struggle every time :''''')

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cadaverkeys · 2 years

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Hi do you have any advice for someone who wants to get serious about improving their own art? I'd like to actually get better but I'm not sure I really know how to do that or where to start

Hey! I made this another below the cut style advice just bc I like to ramble abt art stuff. All these things listed are practices that would come under "study" or "research" when in a portfolio! (I've provided examples of how these things also look my personal work for reference!)

PART 1 - COPYING (the good kind!)

There is a pretty big stigma in online art communities against directly copying concepts, art styles, colouring methods, etc. I feel that these issues have been greatly blown out of proportion. If you find an artist that displays traits that you want in your own art try to copy it! (You can even trace it to try to figure out how it works- though I wouldn't publicly post any traced art!). Most of the time you will find that your art doesn't actually look anything like the style you were trying to copy- it's a learning curve and no one is a perfect mimic. But you learn something! It's a study! When you try to copy an art style that's when you really realise what is and isn't there. You might realise that this person never draws teeth, or that they never include pupils in the eye, or that they have flowers in everyone's hair- Stuff that might not be obvious at a first look.

This is why I keep an inspo tag on my blog! It has concepts in it, yes, but also certain ways colours, lines, or poses are used that I would love to also embody in my own art. The more you do studies like this the more you realise the smaller differences that add to a personal art style.

Here's some examples of pieces where I was trying to copy another artist! A lot of these are pretty recent too.

Many people worry that making derivative art will lessen the quality of the outcome- but I tend to feel that these pieces where I'm trying to learn something are actually some of my best works.

PART 2- LIFE DRAWING

Unfortunately this is the study most people hate. Drawing people from real life. Double unfortunately, getting access to models is often something that costs money- which is not convenient for everyone. I'm lucky enough that these days my life drawing is provided by my university, however, when I made my art school portfolio I exclusively used online resources! I would recommend Line-Of-Action where you can give very specific outlines abt what you want reference images of for life drawing and Croquis Cafe which do more specifically guided lesson plans. I recommend playing fast and loose with your figure drawings- it's a slow start but over time you begin to realise the basic shapes that make up the body when you try to draw quicker and quicker. Some various directions you can chose to take your study include:

Foreshortening! This is the focus on how poses at certain angles effect the length of the limbs and body. You can see here I'm using a combination of lines and circles to plot out how the body is structured which helps me get a more accurate angle.

Tone studies! This is where you're focusing on where the highlights catch a models body and where the darkest shadows are. I usually use three colours exclusively for this and it helps you begin to see where how to build dimension and textures through lighting and shade.

Motion studies! These must be done as incredibly quick as is possible. I tend to put on Olympic gymnastic routines on at half speed and I will just look up for a second and immediately sketch whatever pose I could see. These are not meant to be literally accurate as much as they are meant to convey the life and energy of the model. This helps if you want to begin creating more expressive poses.

And finally- exaggeration studies. These are great for animators and comic book artists. When drawing your life model try to ask yourself "what features make them most distinct? how far can i stretch that? what if that distinct feature was the only thing left remaining?" on this one I've taken note of the models flat chest, large hips, and long hair. I would generally advise to also consider what types of exaggerations may be considered offensive and to try to avoid replicating caricatures that may be used to demean others. Try to focus on traits that make this individual unique, not just what is immediately obvious about their figure.

PART 3 - SELF CRIT

Self-critique is a very valuable skill for anyone trying to seriously develop their artwork. Its the norm for artists to want to demean their art all the time however it takes a truly critical eye to also see what is good about it. Critique is not just about making improvements on what failed previously but also to make more of the things you thought came across successfully!

Try to hold onto your old art, even if it embarrasses you. It's good to ask "what specifically is wrong with this? have i changed my way of doing that today?"

You can find a character redesign here that I actually made for my art school portfolio back in 2019

Though I never disliked that previous design it was not as effective as I had wanted it to be. So I kept much of the same features and asked if they could be translated better, more obviously, friendlier, etc. My main nitpicks in that previous design was: that the design was too complicated to reasonably animate the colours were too same-y and all the highlights were in the wrong places.

To fix this I greatly simplified the hair and line style, but I also took away her polaroid cameras- something I really loved about her previous design that just needed the axe at the end of the day. It simply didn't work. But also, I took that brightest colour (the yellow) and instead of making it all over her design I located it specifically in the parts that matter. Seeing her shoes when she walks, seeing her hat to identify her as a witch, and seeing her torso to bring the eye forward to focus on the character herself.

________________________________________________________

This is a HECKA a lot of chatty text! But I hope it can still somewhat come in useful! ^-^ You don't need to do absolutely all these things if you're trying to get a more confident grasp on how to make art that fits your vision then these are all reliable choices. <3

#long post #ram asks #anon #tutorial

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ufonaut · 2 years

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you may have already answered this kind of question so i apologize if you have, but i’m wondering what you think a majority of comic fans miss with understanding subtext and characters? like outside of what you’ve already spoken about (personal headcanons and feelings) is it just that a lot of fans don’t have the media literacy they think they do? or just newer fans that have only read the most popular series. i only ask bc sometimes i worry i don’t know if i’m reading between the lines correctly and if you’d share like.. ig your process for drawing conclusions ab characters? i feel like i may have answered my own question here LOL

ah, no, i've never spoken about this at length and i'm honestly flattered you reached out, thank you! i don't have a process per se, i think my interest in engaging with comics the way i do comes from doing film studies at uni and seeing the two mediums as having more common ground than with literature per se due to the visual doing the heavy lifting but i do sincerely believe that anyone can read the text as it's meant to be understood if they only apply themselves -- and the fact of the matter is that many people don't.

i'd say you got it in one, it's a case of both overestimating and underestimating their media literacy and i think a lot of the time particularly fandom-y blogs see things that simply aren't there and try to write meta that serves their purposes rather than shed some light on the text they're talking about. the way i see it, there's three fundamental questions to ask yourself before getting started on any comics analysis worth its salt

1) what's the objective reality of this?

2) is this a common trope/phrase? is it evocative of or a homage to a certain piece of media that has entered the basic pop culture lexicon?

3) how much of the author spilled into this?

and to elaborate on that:

1) before you get to the subtext, it's only natural to build up on a foundation of facts. i mean, the really basic stuff -- who, what, when, why.

for example, looking at my recent posts regarding hal jordan's timeline, take his stories in the flash (1959) backups running throughout #220 - 246. he's coming off a year-long road trip with ollie queen and he's been unemployed the entire time, he's not only broke but living in poverty, he's depressed. none of this is a great feat of analysis, these are all facts verbally stated by the character with the sole exception of the last one -- but how do we know that? several stories have hal's will faltering, several others see him having difficulties scrounging up enough money for food let alone a roof over his head. logic dictates that his circumstances affect his mental health.

sometimes it really is purely about recognising what's right in front of you and putting it in context, you can't talk about these backups without talking about what preceded them (the hard travelling heroes era) because they do not exist in a vacuum. unless you're talking about an elseworlds/one-shot/limited series/complete run from start to finish it's absolutely impossible to properly engage without context, that's also where the common misconception that comic book timelines are confusing comes from.

2) i don't expect people to just be naturally born with this knowledge but i think it's pretty easy to get a sense of what's a reference (even if it's not one you recognise) and what's not and making an effort to research that, even if it's just a quick google search. this is a common complaint i've seen in attempted meta of tom king's work on here so let me bring up some examples from his recent mature books

(the human target 2021 #3)

"booster is booster is booster" isn't merely repetition for the sake of repetition but very obviously a play on the common "a rose is a rose is a rose" phrase, which has been used in all media for decades now and yet was brought up in at least five different posts on here as an example of 'bad writing' (regarding the literal structure of it) rather than just owning up to their lack of knowledge.

and this also applies to shot-for-shot recreations such as mr terrific's scene with alanna strange's dad

and how it's an acknowledged reference/homage to sidney poitier in in the heat of the night (1967)

and all that says about the role mr terrific plays within strange adventures' narrative. again, this is knowledge better researched if not immediately recognised and you'll often find it mentioned in issue reviews if necessary.

3) as we all know, comics are a collaborative effort like nearly no other piece of art. the finished product is not only the work of the writer, artist, inker, colorist & letterer (all of which play vital roles in the process) but that of the editor as well and this is another instance where 'doesn't take place in a vacuum' applies. i'm all for death of the author but the direction a character is heading is definitely informed by the entire creative team's experiences and expectations, i think it's worth investigating what the people in question have had to say about it -- especially regarding an older comic -- after you've formed your own opinions.

there's cases where the writers make conscious decisions to disguise their opinions or where they're coming from and their success varies (take chuck dixon's work on connor hawke vs gerard jones' horrific depiction of arisia rrab) but there's also comics that are infinitely made better because the writer in question relates deeply to the characters they're writing (look at tom king's very personal depictions of mental health or keith giffen's insistence on giving an air of genuine reality to any working class character), that's even setting aside cases of gay characters being written by straight writers and so on. here, i'd sincerely recommend drawing a line between what's just another job for somebody and what's mattered to them intensely and if you want to take your engagement this far then it's definitely vital to check interviews, comic magazines, etc etc.

so yeah, here's a little look into my line of thinking! i hope it helps some and i'm sure you're doing just great if you're concerned about this to begin with :)

#asks #anon #dc #dc comics #comics meta

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yukipri · 7 years

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I never experienced art theft until one of my works became unexpectedly popular- since then, I've found my work reposted, redrawn, and used as reference for cosplays. It's been exhausting, both seeing it, and not knowing WHERE I should stand on the issue. I've let redraws slide (with credit), but I plan on not allowing future ones from occurring. How do you deal with art theft? How do you continue drawing without thinking about the disrespect thrown at you during bad/failed confrontations?

I am so, so incredibly sorry this happened to you, and empathize very strongly with you. Art theft SUCKS, few things can be quite as demotivating as a creator than having something you’ve worked your ass off on swiped by someone else. And unfortunately, given the current internet culture, if you continue as an online artist it’s inevitable that it’ll happen at one point or another.

Because sure, of course part of the reason why we create is because we want to, but a large part of the motivation for sharing it is to hopefully get some response that people like it, whether it be in the form of likes, reblogs, comments, asks, tags, or anything else. That is the tangible PROOF that our work touched someone, and for someone who put in zero effort and has no idea how we felt while creating to receive all of that instead of us…sucks.

I think where you stand on the issue is up to you, and it’s okay for it to change. YOU always have the right to decide how you’re comfortable with people sharing your art, and your feelings are valid regardless of how they change.

Ironically enough, I just had another art theft on Instagram (my Anniversary post) super recently, so I was like HAH when I got this orz

This rant got a bit long, so the rest beneath cut but here’s a rundown about how my feelings towards art theft have evolved over the years.

For example, over the years I’ve gotten much, MUCH stricter. My earliest online art, I just put it up, no url, oftentimes no signature, no warnings in the comments or my blog bio. Admittedly I was starting out and didn’t have much viewers anyway, but the point was I still had Trust at the time.

Then the art thefts began. I started adding my url to all my illustrations, even if it was just small in the corner, as this’d let people at least find my website. Most people are too lazy to type out a url though, and I’ve seen people asking “Who drew this??” on art theft comments EVEN WHEN THE URL IS LITERALLY RIGHT THERE…

And then people started cropping my watermarks. I made my url bigger, and started adding an additional “DO NOT REPOST” to the image itself. I used to allow reposts with credits on platforms I’m not on, like fb, until I realized that people were then reposting from THOSE communities without credit and putting them into their videos and fics and I just…decided it wasn’t worth it.

I switched to no reposts PERIOD. I have lengthy disclaimers on all of my art that leads to an even lengthier FAQ post that, should people wish to look, leads to even an even more detailed post about WHY art theft sucks, as I’m explaining now.

(EDIT: ALSO, reduce the quality of the images you upload, and NEVER upload the full resolution, and try to keep you unmerged original files. This is for several reasons: no matter how much an art thief reposts your work, they’ll never have access to the higher resolution, and if they ever decide to try to print to sell for profit it’ll be shitty quality compared to anything you make with the original. ALSO, you having the maximum resolution with no watermarking with additional unmerged psd files will be proof that you are the true creator should you need to prove it, which I’ve heard is sometimes necessary to show when your art is stolen at say, an artist alley)

I also used to bother trying to talk to art reposters. I’d comment on the post, try to send messages, etc. It’s fucking exhausting, and while there are some exceptions, the VAST majority of art thiefs will feel attacked and immediately get rude and defensive. (the failed confrontations and disrespect you mentioned orz) If it’s a large community, they may even try to gang up on you. I’ve unfortunately experienced this most frequently in communities centered around other languages (mainly Spanish) because of different mainstream attitudes towards art reposting etiquette combined with a language barrier.

You will, and no doubt already have, encountered people who will argue with you, like the people I describe above. “You should be grateful for the bigger audience!” “We just want to appreciate your art, how can you be so horrible?” “We’re all fans together!” “This is fanart and doesn’t belong to you anyway!” Etc. etc. etc. It’s exhausting, it’s repetitive, it’s neverending, and you already felt awful before it even began and the stress just continues to build.

So I personally have just begun reporting people, if the service allows it. Use DMCA takedown request forms (and YES, even if it’s fanart it’s still yours if you drew it). This is stressful too because it sends your real name + info to the reposter (and wow I clearly can’t trust these people to begin with, why would I want them to have that???) but most sites (facebook, instagram, certainly tumblr, twitter) are very efficient and responsive, and in the end the relief of receiving that email that the art has been taken down is worth it. Especially with facebook, they also send a scary official warning email to the reposters which I sincerely hope will help educate them and discourage future art thefts.

I try to avoid posting public urls because yes I’m aware how mob mentality Tumblr can get, but sometimes it’s just too much. There’s no convenient form of getting my content removed (perhaps bc it’s in a compilation with a ton of other content), or for some reason my attempts to communicate have failed. In those times I have occasionally asked my followers to help, with a reminder to PLEASE always be polite and respectful, regardless of the offense. Y’all have been amazing, and this has saved me many nights of crying in the past.

I will sometimes also write lengthy posts (like this one!) to help educate. Because I do feel that art theft will continue so long as people don’t understand what it does to artists, and it’s up to the community as a whole to make that change, which also depends heavily on the consumers not just creators. A lot of art theft really isn’t intentionally meant to harm, but IS super ignorant.

But in the end, all I’ve ranted about so far is how I’ve dealt with actually removing/dealing with the shit. But the emotional pain, it builds. Sometimes, when it’s too frequent and the stolen art gets way more attention than my original that I worked my ass off on that basically flunked on my own platforms, I feel a bit of me break.

And in the end, it’s up to you what that threshold is, where posting art and feeling good about it is overwhelmed by the pain, fear, and anxiety of art theft. I’ve crossed my own threshold too many times, and once had to take an art hiatus because of it (fandom was BH6). This lead to a break in my productivity and motivation and my eventual complete departure form the fandom. I’ve seen many other artists just stop posting art entirely or moving everything to private. It’s terrible, but my feelings are with these artists, and I feel so, so sorry that they were hurt so much to the extent they had to do this.

With my current fandom and followers, I feel that regardless of how niche an audience my content tends to be geared for, I have a community that is really satisfying for me to create for, one that is responsive to me and gives me tons of feedback. This is the number one reason why i continue to feel motivated to post a ton of online content despite the risks.

The takeaway form this long meandering post: Posting online is a hobby, it’s for fun, and I don’t make any money off my public audience (unless they come to Patreon! LOL!), so I’m a firm believer that once the anxiety + misery starts outweighing anything positive you personally may get from sharing online, which for me heavily depends on my audience and their responsiveness, there’s no reason to subject yourself to that anymore and you are in no way obligated to stay. There are various methods to more efficiently get rid of art thefts without dealing with them in person which is stressful AF, and also ways of marking up your content in ways that may look less aesthetically pleasing, but will hopefully discourage art thefts, and at the very least give them very little leg to stand on should they do it anyway. How forgiving you are in art thefts also depends on you, but the more forgiving you are, the more it can get away from you. And in the end, YOU as a human are more important than any complaints about art looking less pleasing or the feelings of art thefts who don’t get to do what they want with YOUR hard work.

Sorry this was so disjointed and literally just me spewing at you, but I hope some of it was helpful ^ ^; Please let me know if I can give you any other advice, and I’m sorry again that you have to deal with this ;_;

(and to respond to your second ask, I do try to respond to most of my asks, but sometimes it takes a while (sometimes even months orz), especially if it’s one that requires a lengthy detailed answer like this one ^ ^; thank you for your patience!)

#YukiPri replies #Anonymous #art theft #I hope this was helpful ^ ^;#started getting really distressed myself writing this haha #in general i'm okay with my art getting little to no attention #i just asked that i don't get hurt for the trouble of posting which i feel should be fair #and sometime yeah it does get to be too much #hopefully won't happen in the near future for this fandom but #we'll see sigh #another reason i like drawing niche hyper specific content LOL #fewer people tend to want to reblog/share it #but fewer reposters are also interested in it haha #long post #longpost

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