#things i find on pinterest looking for art refs

[angelsdean]

jean jacket hoodie dean???????????? also. tiny. liddol. smol

#you could tell me that's 9x07 bad boys teen dean and i'd believe you #he just looks so tiny and young here ?? #things i find on pinterest looking for art refs

[vetyr]

hi, i ireally love your work and i don't know if you've answered this before but, what kinds of studies do you do or how did you learn color theory? i wanna get better at rendering and anatomy but im having trouble TT TT

Hi! Long answer alert. Once a chatterbox, always a chatterbox.

When I started actively learning how to draw about 10 1/2 years ago, I exclusively did graphite studies in sketchbooks. Here's a few examples—I mostly stuck to doing line drawings to drill basic shapes/contours and proportions into my brain. The more rendered sketches helped me practice edge control & basic values, and they were REALLY good for learning the actual 3D structure behind what I was drawing.

I'd use reference images that I grabbed from fitness forums, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and some NSFW places, but you could find adequate ref material from figure drawing sites like Line of Action. LoA has refs for people (you can filter by clothed/unclothed, age, & gender), animals, expressions, hands/feet, and a few other useful things as well. Love them.

Learning how to render digitally was a similar story; it helped a lot that I had a pretty strong foundation for value/anatomy going in. I basically didn't touch color at all for ~2 years (except for a few attempts at bad digital or acrylic paint studies), which may not have been the best idea. I learned color from a lot of trial and error, honestly, and I'm pretty sure this process involved a lot of imitation—there were a number of digital/traditional painters whose styles I really wanted to emulate (notably their edge control, color choices, value distributions, and shape design), so I kiiind of did a mixture of that + my own experimentation.

For example, I really found Benjamin Björklund's style appealing, especially his softened/lost edges & vibrant pops of saturated color, so here's a study I did from some photograph that I'm *pretty* sure was painted with him in mind.

Learning how to detail was definitely a slow process, and like all the aforementioned things (anatomy/color/edge control/values/etc.) I'm still figuring it out. Focusing on edge control first (that is, deciding on where to place hard/soft edges for emphasizing/de-emphasizing certain areas of the image) is super useful, because you can honestly fool a viewer into thinking there's more detail in a piece than there actually is if you're very economical about where you place your hard edges.

The most important part, to me, is probably just doing this stuff over and over again. You're likely not going to see improvement in a few weeks or even a few months, so don't fret about not getting the exact results you want and just keep studying + making art. I like to think about learning art as a process where you *need* to fail and make crappy art/studies—there's literally no way around it—so you might as well fail right now. See, by making bad art you're actually moving forward—isn't that a fun prospect!!

It's useful to have a folder with art you admire, especially if you can dissect the pieces and understand why you like them so much. You can study those aspects (like, you can redraw or repaint that person's work) and break down whether this is art that you just like to look at, or if it's the kind of art that you want to *make.* There's a LOT of art out there that I love looking at, probably tens of thousands of styles/mediums, but there's a very narrow range that I want to make myself.

I've mentioned it in some ask reply in the past, but I really do think looking at other artist's work is such a cheat code for improving your own skills—the other artist does the work to filter reality/ideas for you, and this sort of allows you to contact the subject matter more directly. I can think of so many examples where an artist I admired exaggerated, like, the way sunlight rested on a face and created that orange fringe around its edge, or the greys/dull blues in a wheat field, or the bright indigo in a cast shadow, or the red along the outside of a person's eye, and it just clicked for me that this was a very available & observable aspect of reality, which had up until that point gone completely unnoticed! If you're really perceptive about the art you look at, it's shocking how much it can teach you about how to see the world (in this particular case I mean this literally, in that the art I looked at fully changed the way I visually processed the world, but of course it has had a strong effect on my worldviews/relationships/beliefs).

Thanks so much for sending in a question (& for reading, if you got this far)! I read every single ask I receive, including the kind words & compliments, which I genuinely always appreciate. Best of luck with learning, my friend :)

#answers to asks #illustration #art advice #art help #drawing #digital art

[asaderichan]

Can we get a tutorial on how you approach your posing in art your arts amazing

I don't know how to make tutorials, but I can tell you what I use.

Of course, I use pinterest to find references and get inspiration, sometimes when boredom overcomes laziness I make studies, it helps to memorize. But I don't use pinterest every time, often the first thing I do is make it up in my head. I only draw by reference when I'm asked or when I can't think of anything.

And often I try to think about an action that a character does, If you have a ready idea of what the character should do you can make some variants of how he will do it.

For example this one was made with the idea that I wanted to make him interesting, not just sitting there sewing up his wounds, but with dynamics, two emotions at once and contrast on the thread (of course I wanted to make it more dynamic and with an overhead view but that all got a little lost in the process)

Also I was given freedom in this drawing, here I needed something emotional. And I decided that the wounded al with bright emotions as in 8 series will be the best option.

For this one I thought for a long time, since I already had poses with a regular couple in love, I decided that a scene involving cooking would look very good on the human version of these characters. But since the idea of cooking together was a little difficult for me, I settled on this simpler one.

If I don't know how to draw something, or I've chosen a pose that is too complicated for me to find a reference, I use DAZ Studio to make 3d ref.

And for just sketches, I just try to keep the dynamic going. Poses usually come out randomly since I don't really think about them, just their action.

I hope I was able to answer your question correctly.

[wasyago]

Absolutely adore your Joel designs Yago <3 [Well, I adore all your designs, but the Joel and Tango ones are very cozy to me especially.] Do you do research / mood boards / etc to get your ideas, or do you doodle around until you find something you like?

UWAAH THANK YOU QWQ !!!!!!!!!

generally i frantically switch between doodling and scrolling my gallery / pinterest in a constant state of panic over wanting to introduce new interesting ideas but realizing i need to think with my own head and not look at other art...

i do have a couple separate pinterest boards for some specific things, like, all the cyberpunk and sci-fi things are in one place, all the armor refs and tutorials in other, animals in other, horses are separate from the rest of the animals bc there's too many of them, real life clothing and fashion in other, etc. yknow for cases where i 100% need lots of references and inspiration. plus i search up additional refs when i know what im looking for / already have an idea for a design and just need it to be accurate.

but most of the time it's just my gallery. i save a lot of art that i like, and when i need ideas but i don't really know what exactly i want to see, i scroll through this massive pile of all sorts of different things until something catches my eye. can never tell where inspiration might come from, so i find that having it all in one place is better than having lots of small organized folders that i need to individually look through.

hmm i feel like im not answering your question at all......... i used to always have clear references and things i deliberately and consciously took inspiration from, and i did research into themes and what could potentially enhance a design. if you look at my older art, design sheets especially, you can see that a lot of them have references in the background, and are more thought through and planned. i've stopped doing it at some point tho. not sure why, probably just got lazy. although i think around that time i was also coming to terms with the idea that i don't need to have a set design that i follow 100% correctly every time, and that instead i can have fun and draw characters however i like and let a design form over time. so that probably had an effect.

nowadays most of the ideas for designs come from my mind and visual memory, plus inspirations from the gallery, though it is less deliberate and more of a "oh wow that's cool". that's also where the frantic switching and panic come in. which makes it a lot harder to track down or to explain...

uhh yeah

👍

#yagotalk #silver im sorry i hope you got some of it at least #im gonna go sleep my brain is refusing to work

[xianta]

Hi! your art is so cool, im struggling with drawing faces, hair and limbs, any tips?

-@mossy--wizard/@mossy--wizards-art-lore

Honestly the main thing would be to use references! Don't be afraid of using them definitely, especially for blocking out foundations! I use Pinterest to compile a bunch of references that I can look back to all the time! Whether it's a bunch of poses or particular close up photos of hands etcetcetc

Something that helps me a lot too is look at 3D models of anatomy, particularly 3D character blockouts like so

because a lot of them colour code the different muscle groups it helps a lot to visually breakdown what makes up the different parts of the body! You can even find 3D blockouts of hands and heads too, the main idea is to break up the different sections into more basic shapes and add detail from their, once you have a steady foundation of the anatomy what you put on top will fit together much more nicely!

And of course it can be done for hands too!!

As for HAIR I drew up a quick thing

Once again the main thing is blocking out and using refs lol, for longer hair I think of the pieces as more ribbon like in how they flow and overlap! And honestly when it comes to hair, keep it loose! My brain usually shuts off when I draw hair, I don't overthink it at all and just let my pen go with the flow using mainly long strokes, the steps are just where I start drawing it to where I finish it at. And when it comes to shading you mainly just follow the flow of the sections you've drawn out!

I hope that makes sense and helps out a little!!!

#xianta art #art tutorial #anatomy breakdown #art reference

[haejjoon]

Hiiii

First of all I want to say that I love your art and I really admire it. It has kind of make me want to go back to drawing again. I used to draw a lot a few years ago but I stopped because I became unhappy with my progress. Now I want to go back to making art but I'm insecure about it because I'm worried I'm too old to start again (I'm 19) and whether I'm capable of relearning it properly. Do you have any tips about where to begin to learn art basics (specifically anatomy)? I would appreciate any advice.

Hello!!! Firstly thank you so much for the compliments, it really does mean so much <333

I'm nineteen, too! Of course you can start art again. I've taken a lot of breaks in between my own art, too, and it's only very recently that I started enjoying making art again (after .... like.... a year or two. lord) so I really do understand how you feel. But we're nineteen years young, and have so much time ahead of us to get back on our feet.

In my experience, improving comes quickest when you focus on one very specific skill at a time—and I mean SPECIFIC. Practicing gestures with torsos only, the muscles of the upper arm, skeleton heads in different angles. I've been studying arm anatomy (and only arm anatomy) recently, and I'm already miles ahead of how I used to draw arms in the past.

If you want a specific step by step on how I personally draw anatomy, I don't mind sharing a quick tutorial! But for general advice—form follows gesture, and gesture follows movement. The biggest mistake someone can make while drawing a body is focusing on the accuracy of the muscles/bones before getting the flow of the gesture down.

Even if the anatomy looks a bit wonky with the gesture, it's important that you capture the movement of the pose first, and then build muscle on top of that. Proko on Youtube has a very good quick drawing series on this, and explains it way better than I do, but that's the gist of it.

Also, PLEASE always use references! I know that hearing that gets old, but it's really important. If you'd like, I can make a quick tutorial on how to use references properly, too. Reference everything—pose, lighting, even art style if you're looking to switch things up (i have about 10 different tabs open on my computer with different artists I admire so I can reference their art religiously).

Speaking of referencing art styles, it's important to gather a bunch of artists you like in terms of style, and not just one. The trick is to separate them by skill—"this artist is for lining refs", "this artist is for anatomy refs", "this artist is for face refs", etc, etc.

And to jump off of That: I find that with anatomy, looking at other peoples' anatomy studies on pinterest is also very helpful. Obviously you should be referencing from real life too, but with art, it can be difficult to pin down what to put on the page and what to leave to the imagination. You wouldn't want to actually draw every single muscle in the arm individually, right? So I go and look at other artists' anatomy studies to see what they keep and what they don't keep.

(usually i find them on pinterest, and they look smth like this. the color coded ones especially help me.)

I'd recommend learning gesture and anatomy first, then building off of that to learn how to draw faces, then lining/coloring, just so that you have a solid base to work off on when it is finally time to color. (also because coloring/lighting requires a fair bit of how body anatomy works as well!!)

But yes, that's all the advice I can give from laying in my bed. I hope it helped somewhat, and if you'd like tips on how to do something more specific, I'm always willing to draw it out or go more in depth ^^ Best of luck on your art journey!

#asks

[maluceh]

hi would you ever post your drawing process? i’ve noticed you do research when it comes to stuff like finding references to age up characters properly, making the characters’ styles accurate for their time, etc.

sometimes you don’t realize how much goes into art besides the sketches, drawing, rendering, all that stuff, so the little things like that which make a big difference in the end is so cool to notice, you’re a really inspiring artist for me! your art style is incredible and i’d love to see what goes through your head before drawing something, if that’s alright with you ofc.

like what’s your inspiration? what shaped your art style? do you use references and how often bc sometimes i see some poses you draw and think ok there HAD to be a reference used for this bc it’s too good but i understand finding refs for what’s going on your head is difficult a lot of times so i just chalk it up to you being skilled enough to guess how the anatomy would work (so much praise for artists like that because??? insane talent! not to say using refs makes artists less skilled or anything 😭😭 hope it didn’t come off that way)

OK WOW THAT WAS A LOT IM SORRY!

oh where to begin…

I usually get ideas of what I want to do, but it’s not until I open the canvas that my hand just knows what to do I guess? There’s times when I can just paste what’s in my head on the canvas and times when I struggle more and I have to look for references/trace poses (which are usually me with really bad lightening around my room or yeah, pics from pinterest)

lol funny story, my one drawing of James, Lily and Harry dancing I recorded myself dancing and got screenshots of that to base the poses on…. I accidentally sent one to a person that was commissioning me at the time, most embarrasing moment of my life

ANYWHOO! In terms of clothes, I have a board for every character where I put like what I think their style entails. Cause I like it when they look like teenagers in the 70s

Here’s my process when i just vomit my idea on the canvas

there are some where I don’t have the patience or the project is too big (ex. the panels) and figuring out the anatomy would be too time consuming, so i trace the pose but i’ve been trying to do that less and less to make myself actually work and get better at anatomy

and what shaped my artstyle? wow that’s a hard question lol, idk

I think i’ve picked things from artists i’ve liked and just created a frankenstein of it, little by little and without realizing it.

not that my art looks ANYTHING like theirs, but these are some of the artists that have inspired me a lot through my art journey

hope i answered your question jsjsjs

[nevarroes]

HI i hope this is okay to ask but your anatomy / posing is genuinely so fucking fantastic you’re like my number 1 art inspo rn and i was just wondering where you find references / if you use them or any specific tips you have? happy valentines day to gortcas btw

gosh thank you so much🥺

I do use references yeah always, I honestly try to freehand as little as possible even because it helps me to constantly figure out and learn new things without doing studies (as in I'll always try to find the specific angle of an arm or whatever even if I think I know how it'll look just to make sure)

I find my refs ermm... everywhere really. I spend hours just browsing images sometimes nd file them away cause I don't mind doing so, its kinda fun 2 me💜 the only thing I kinda try to avoid is pinterest due to the fact that it mostly shows the same shit over nd over so there's a lot of repeat and recognizable stuff but I do still use some generic pinterest poses sometimes, nothing wrong with it just a personal preference atp but you do need to kinda.... learn what is good reference and what isn't for pinterest specifically imo😖 Recently I've been taking most of my base reference pics from videos instead of stills tbh, porn, movies, stock videos etc. so I do recommend doing that it's been quite helpful!

as for tips I only have one really, which is that photobashing and mixing refs is really, really helpful. Especially with Gortcas I haven't been able to use a single ref at all anymore due to both of their bodies being rather extreme, meaning you can't just apply average poses usually. So what I'm doing a lot of the times is use a "base ref" to set the angle and then just build on top of that, posed 3d models for limbs or even the whole other person, then photobash some more on top of that with actual images for parts that don't really move realistically with the 3d model, hands, face 3d models etc etc. Usually I will do a rough to kinda see if I can make a pose idea work and then I will make a bash to use as an actual reference after. I hope this helps at all!

#blakemail

[andromeddog]

hi! love your art :) i just wanted to ask if you have any resources you’d recommend for WWI uniform/gear references for art purposes? i’ve been struggling to find good refs (especially for officers/anything beyond just the basic infantry uniforms) so i thought i’d ask what you tend to use! thanks & have a great day!

hello hey hi!!! ty for the message i love talking about uniforms and spend way too many hours of the day looking for reference of them

so i talked a bit about this before in this post! i stand by a lot of what was said there aka pinterest, google searching/scouring, and that book i linked........ these are all good for officers too! looking for officer ref is often very similar to infantry stuff, tho there may just be less of it depending on what specifically you're looking for. if you are looking for very specific references and want to get insane about it i can talk about that too.... tho i would like to say i dont have like one specific website to link bc i use so many different ones only like once or twice

if you're willing to spend money i'd recommend looking for books on the subject- there is always one strange book from like 1970 about the helmets of ww1 on ebay or something. the nice thing about that is they will typically name the different parts of a uniform, which allows you to google that specific thing to get a closer look. learning about the makeup of a uniform/everything's specific use helps when its time to draw them. ofc this isnt a super sustainable option but investing in a good encyclopedia once has saved me so much time. that guide to ww1 has been well loved

if youre not looking to spend money there are still a lot of options. stuff i like in no particular order:

reenactment pictures- action shots, higher quality pictures than something from 1918. you can find whole galleries of people's reenactment battles (?? is that what theyre called??) if you do a little clicking around.

stock photo websites- be really careful here bc you dont want to get into trouble with usage rights. i only rly use these if im desperate and then very sparingly and piecemeal bc i dont want to get in trouble lol

websites where they sell reproduction/reenactment uniforms- here is an example. reproduction stuff is great bc u can usually find every little bit of the uniform being sold somewhere by someone. ebay has also been surprisingly helpful.

& the thing i would like to stress the most is that i rly dig for references. i literally have 21 tabs open with different searches for super specific things on my phone at this very moment. i use google image search extensively and scroll through literally so many jpegs, pngs, pdfs, webps, etc etc etc. the unfortunate truth is that the more specific you get the harder it is to find stuff. i recently drew a ussr female fighter pilot and had to get ref for her uniform from about 5 different sources (and that was one drawing!!!!!) sometimes i find a reference for the exact thing i need on a website that has nothing else of use to me. the best advice i have here is just keep scouring and clicking and you will eventually find something. i wish this was more helpful but once you know what you are looking for you can search for that thing specifically and that's a big help

this did not need to be so long but if theres one thing about me i will go on and on and on given the chance. im insane can you tell

#asks #reference #wanderingmausoleum #does any of this make sense. #im sorry that the answer is sometimes “u have to scroll a lot” #you have to get kind of crazy about it

[clangenrising]

This is unrelated to the story but I was wondering where you find reference images for cats? All the art you do for RisingClan is so beautiful and the cats always have such cool and interesting poses. I struggle to find anything but super basic photos of cats online (like just generic sitting or standing poses,) and I really want to find more complex poses to study. Also, I’ve been drawing refs for a bunch of my own ClanGen kitties and their poses are starting to look very same-y, so I’m desperate for some pose Inspo lol

Good question!

I use pinterest, mostly. I have a board full of cat photos that i browse through when i need a reference. To find them I search things like "cat running" "cats fighting" "cats walking side by side" and then I let myself wander through the recommended pictures and save whatever I like. Hope this helps! Good luck with your art!

#not art #asks and answers #anon asks #tips and advice

[spadesncrows]

Hey ! I have a little question : how do we start drawing ? And, if we need tuto, what tuto do you recommend ?

Have a good day !

Lord almighty, I hope ur ready for the rant of ur life. Buckle up buster bc we are diving headfirst /hj

Ok so first things first, there’s really only one way to start drawing: grab a pencil, get some paper, and just go. Ik, it’s very anticlimactic, but the only way to really get started with it is to just start. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, it doesn’t have to be some big illustration, just start somewhere. You don’t need expensive or fancy supplies, just a pencil and paper are great (or even just ur finger and ur phone if u wanna do digital!!)

Just remember: everyone starts somewhere!! Don’t beat urself up if it doesn’t look how you want it to the first go around. Art is just like any other hobby: you get better the more you practice, the more you get into the groove of it and the more you learn the fundamentals and building blocks of it. You don’t have to draw everyday, but drawing consistently does help.

Now let’s say u got ur paper & pencil, but nothing comes to mind. Here’s a few simple exercises that I personally enjoy as warmups and simple doodles to fill my sketchbooks:

𒊹︎ Shapes !!

- This is one of my favorite warmups bc of how simple it is. Draw spheres, cones, cubes, etc!! (Bonus points if you add a light source and do some shading as well <3)

- this can be rlly good for studying perspective using very simple objects and adding a light source can make it feel a bit more fleshed out. Plus, it’s always good to study how light affects 3d objects so it can be applied to full illustrations and the like later down the line !!

- to add onto that, learning how to draw basic 3d shapes can be very beneficial when moving onto more complex designs and figures, as it can make the area/object appear less flat and more fleshed out if that makes sense !!

Examples :

𒊹︎ Look at the world around you !!

- find different objects, buildings, etc, and take a picture of them.

- next, using that photo as a reference, try breaking it down into simpler 3d shapes

- Think of these shapes as the building blocks of the figure. They create a general silhouette and portrays the figure in its most simple form. Being able to break down complicated visuals into simpler shapes will make it easier to draw them from scratch !!

Examples :

𒊹︎ Find reference photos online !!

- Personally, I like sites like Pinterest or Instagram for this, but pls note that these aren’t ur only options !!

- some other sites include: Line of action and QuickPoses !!

- reference photos can be very good for studies, but you don’t rlly learn much if ur just copying off of it. While there isn’t anything wrong with that, I suggest trying to break it down. Try to understand the form in a 3d space. Like I said before, doing that will make it easier to draw from scratch and may even help when trying to draw it from a different angle

- reference photos can also be a very good way to get inspiration!! Whether it be for just one drawing, for a storyline, or for a whole production, if ur stuck on a scene it wouldn’t hurt to look at few refs to get a feel for what ur looking for.

Tutorials:

If there’s one thing to remember, just know that you don’t need to follow any tutorials to make art. Hell, u don’t even have to listen to my advice abt art either. There are no rules to art, so take everything I say as suggestion rather than gospel !!

That being said, tutorials are mainly there to help you improve by teaching you various fundamentals and techniques. In other words, to help you make your art look a bit more visually appealing or look like a specific style. There’s not exactly one set list of tutorials that every artist needs to follow, so you kinda just pick and choose depending on what you want to focus on!!

Here’s some tutorials I’ve seen and/or used before :D

𒊹︎ GOOD vs BAD Character Design: Tips & Tricks!

- a classic 🫶🫶, goes over various subjects such as color and shape theory in order to make characters and scenes more memorable. This can be especially useful if u intend to make characters & scenes for animation, but it works for other mediums as well!!

𒊹︎ Basic Color Theory

- pretty self explanatory!! Goes over the basic fundamentals of color theory and how this artist likes to apply it themselves. Color theory can be good to use to ur advantage as it can be used to set the tone of ur art, to show the general time of day, to draw ur attention to specific areas, etc!!

𒊹︎ Anatomy Quick Tips

- this is actually a playlist instead of just one video ^^ each vid is dedicated to different parts of the human body and tips for drawing them!! There are 15 vids total as of today going over stuff like hair, eyes, hands, backs, hips, etc.

If there’s anything I missed or anything anyone would like to add on, feel free to do so !!

#hope this helps !! #artists on tumblr #art #art tips #art tutorials #I sound like a bit of a broken record at some points but just hear me out I’m not great at explaining things plea #@.cawww

[ghostlysleuth]

I follow you on twitter & all I gotta say is, I love the diversity in your drawings so much, I hate when people make girls all stereotypes & your art makes me feel so comfortable it’s like a warm feeling not to mention your nsfw art. It doesn’t just show the list it shows the love & affection each character has for eachother it shows how intimate & hot the moment can be but also sweet? I’m not sure I love your art too much it really makes my day to see it, but any tips on anatomy?♥️

thank you so much!! i totally get what you mean by a list, that really is what diversity can feel like sometimes. my weight and figure have fluctuated so much over the years and i've gotten enough shit from family about eating habits and how chubby i've gotten, to the point of dysmorphia, and turning to art (and not to mention seeing the vast majority of fat butch rep) to remedy it has done wonders for my body image, and i'm really glad people like how i do things.

in terms of tips, as someone who went to school for this sorta thing, i'm gonna try to make this as accessible as possible aka free resources.

timed figure drawing!

legit, you gotta draw naked people posed in intricate ways. there's literally no avoiding it, you have to draw from life and not from tutorials. obv, i'm not saying go out and attend a life drawing course -- that's expensive shit -- so here's a few options:

i use a site called quickposes, since most figure drawing galleries require subscriptions.

you can set a timer for how long you want on each pose/reference. i recommend challenging yourself with shorter times as it helps you to get rid of any hang-ups about getting the anatomy exactly right. the drawing's got to get done by the end of the timer, don't focus on the details. just draw, be done with it, move on to the next drawing.

there's also a youtube channel that we'd use in class when a model couldn't show called new masters academy and they have a bunch of timed daily drawing exercises.

as a general rule, don't lean on the amount of time you have. what you're wanting to do is get a FULL PICTURE on your paper as soon as possible, regardless of a long or short time. get the full figure onto the paper then use the rest of the time to fuss over details, shading, editing, etc.

do studies!

kinda similar to the last one but in the more time-consuming sense.

use pinterest. it has a lot of uses for a lot of things but i use it quite a bit for both anatomy refs and costume design inspiration. this is legit what my home page looks like now because of it.

here's a board i made on anatomy, pulling from different body types; obviously i get a little gay wid it, but there's a verrrryyyy clear lack of certain body types in a lot of body refs like muscular women, fat women, just overall people who higher fat content than the lean, almost 0% fat of the figures seen in most tutorials and galleries:

this is where pinterest really shines because you can find literally everything on it.

in particular, there's an account called character design references, that is basically a stockpile of references for artists. i wouldn't normally recommend artist tutorials when it comes to wanting to learn anatomy because it can get a little echo-chambery (side-eyes the male vs. female tutorials that float around on twitter all the time) but there are actually some boards that have genuine studies on the human form, even from a medical point of view.

LITERALLY JUST DRAW A LOT.

I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH IT'S GONNA TAKE A LOT OF TIME AND PRACTICE TO GET TO A CERTAIN LEVEL OF SATISFACTION.

like that's it, full stop, draw often. if you're feeling rusty, go back to basics. if you're art blocked, go back to basics. if you're bored, go back to basics.

#ask #anatomy #anatomy tips #talkies #drawing should be about having fun first and foremost #i find figure drawing fun because of how quickly it gets done #art advice

[micdixart]

Art question, how do you figure out your armor design? Cormac and sangs armor are both different from eachother and also fitting to their fighting styles/ personalitys. Im asking cause i dont even know where to start looking for refs

Hi! love this question because it's definitely hard to get started, before the witcher ocs i tended to avoid drawing armour full stop haha but they kinda made me and i'm glad they did.

But just to show you i have a huge jumping off reference board when it comes to armour and it's literally just from going through pinterest and adding any and all armour that caught my eye, from practical sense or from a design point. The program i use to is pureref btw which is great for compiling stuff

it gives me a point to at least start when i thinking about the qualities i want in the armour i'm building, these are even sort of sorted into their own categories in my brain. (rogue armour vs knight armour vs a mage that kinda thing, just so i can keep it organized)

But past that point when i have a character and i know their personality, their culture can play a huge influence, this is probably most apparent in Sang where i tried my best to make a lot of nods to Vietnamese culture and their armour so i grabbed a ton of reference from traditional clothing, art, that sorta thing, as well as tried to research as best i could the cultural significance of those pieces of clothing. (and always like to hear if there are corrections to make or suggestions from someone who knows a lot than i do haha) Sang is also my oldest character of the witcher ocs so i've been able to build a lot for his board

When it came to cormac i actually started with his silhouette because i literally went into designing him as like. how can i make the biggest fuck off looking witcher lmao

so from here i went into more specifics, figured out more of cormacs personality and went to my broad range armour board from there and then narrowed down pics and then collected more since i wanted to lean into that highlander warrior vibe. (thats the other thing, you're never done collecting references, there's always more resources to find!) and now these are the go tos for cormacs reference for armour. Way less intence than sangs because there isn't as much as an emphasis put on the culture, hes a big intimidating witcher first and than the highland warrior aspects are like flourishes.

Lastly i just made harley!! Harleys a bit different because i didn't have any specific culture in mind when creating him, his is a lot more rooted in his personality. Harley isnt a big tough warrior, hes honestly more of a pacifist when he can be so i wanted his armour to almost be softer than the others, put more emphasis on agility without making his armour just sleek. His board of armour is smaller than the others since he's newest but i'm sure it'll expand as i draw him more haha.

this was super rambly and i'm not sure how much it helps but basically my advice is just, accumulate a bunch of armour to give yourself a jumping off point, organize it in a way that makes sense to you. then when you have your character you'll be able to look at your choices, narrow down options, and then further explore that style you want and expand on it! I hope this helps haha

#reference #armour

[ryemackerel]

do you have any general art tips??

YES! OMGGJJF IM SORRY I DIDNT GET TO THIS SOONER i had this saved in my drafts for a while D: BUT! without further ado, get ready for me to bestow them upon you 😈

- whenever i do full-body character refs / dynamic stuff? i like to start off with the shape of the art first before getting to the guidelines.

following the shapes and making a rough doodle of the dynamics helps me better structure the body language without worrying about the anatomy early on. anatomy is my weakest point when it comes to character designs, so for me, i find it better to start with some random shapes THEN working my way to more complex details.

(some good examples of that :])

- this is just a general preference? but when it comes to art and you hate refining the lineart, making things neat, AND it takes a really long time to finish art (and it bothers you), might i suggest trying a looser approach to art?

heres a prime example of that! in 2020, i used to be very keen on making my art super neat. i even tried making the guidelines as neat as possible which? tbh didnt work out for me a lot. i would find myself constantly redoing the guidelines, then trying my VERY best to make the lines as neat as possible. it took a few weeks to finish these kind of drawings, and it didnt help when i liked the sketch MORE than the lineart. (some art would take up to 15 hours)

over time, i started making my lines looser. i shifted away from making refined lineart and started making the sketches themselves the lineart. my lineart started becoming messier, but i liked how it gave it that more “authentic” look. i stopped worrying about trying to accurately translate the feeling of my sketches to my lineart, and drawing became a lot more quicker. although its a bit more tedious to color (i have to do it manually now), i still like this process a bit more. :]

you could just faintly see the guidelines in my recent art :] sometimes i include the guidelines, sometimes i make the guidelines a different layer. it really depends on how i feel, but i loved doing looser art more. the quackity art took 4 hours, the simpbur-argbur art took 2 hours. :D

- lastly, dont be afraid to take inspo from others’ art!! when i developed my art, i always took small bits of others’ art and incorporated them into mine. as artists, we always copy each other.

not in the way where we’re outright duplicating entire artworks as our own, but in the way where we’re like “oh cool, you do eyelashes like that? i wanna do my eyelashes like that too!” kinda?

for my art, i was always super inspired by how people make super warm art and had this kinda, white background to them. i tried incorporating that into my art style and started loving it :]

pinterest with their photos too? sometimes photos of people wearing cool outfits or random backgrounds help inspire my artstyle. take as much inspo as you’d like from others, don’t be hesitant to be inspired! of course, you’re welcome to give credit whenever.

hopefully some of these help :] feel free to ask questions and ask to elaborate! i just woke up and typed this out while still waking up HAGSHHA!

#ryemackerel asks

[domirine]

You probably do a lot of life drawing seeing as how perfectly fluid your art always is so this ask might be redundant lol but,, i was wondering what kind of references you usually use? Do you just google similar poses, does it come from your mind, or do you have a go-to app to look through like pinterest?👉👈 i ask bc I struggle a lot with poses and usually when i look them up i end up drawing nothing bc its not. Ever good enough for me/what im looking for lol😔 still not sure how to even draw characters smoochin, rip

thank you, nonny!! i do a lil bit of life drawing, but man i really do feel the same way you do. while i'm happy to show some art when i get it done, the process can be a real struggle.

sorry this is gonna be long and all over the place lol hope it helps tho:

life drawing good: i recommend ditching the idea of finding the 100% Perfect Ref right off the bat. studying anatomy and life drawing (this site has a range of body types and fun poses) somewhat regularly, therefore growing my mental library so that i can try and make whatever pose is in my head happen later, has been more viable to me than spending hours looking for the Perfect Ref.

drawing a bunch of generic people skating without pressure of creating proper character art is good practice, and it primes me to then come up with a skating pose of my own.

ref hunting: i save pictures i might use as refs regularly in a browser folder - good refs, bad refs, boring refs - losing a ref standard can be helpful because at the end of the day it’s what you make with it, so it doesn’t have to be particularly mind-blowing to begin with. you don’t wanna reinvent the wheel or create the most never-been-done-before pose, you just wanna get a thing right.

pinterest is very good for poses, yes, though you have to know how to look for them - i.e. i found that typing out "dynamic pose" will not yield organic results, as opposed to looking up people in motion like athletes, boxers, skaters and such. for fighting, i recommend using photos or clips from (ideally staged lol) fights, as opposed to stock images where the models are standing for a while posing - the former preserves a lot of the movement. i also recommend looking up group photos from events or shows for interesting natural poses and people interacting.

best hot tip of all tho: what helped me most is to not treat references very religiously. don't be tied down by what's in your ref, or not finding the perfect one, because then you're focusing on accuracy and not necessarily on what you wanna communicate with your drawing. if you can't find what you're looking for in full, just use a part that you find interesting, and then bullshit the rest and revise accordingly.

idea-generating can be very hard but you can practice it like any other skill, because having a decent idea of what you wanna draw is helpful - you don't have to have the whole pose visualised 100%. it's the mood, body language and expressions, that i think are more important. looking at refs can help reveal your ideas and intentions, but i will not create them for you i’m afraid.

for example, speaking on characters smooching, i've drawn these using refs in   pretty uptight way with no ideas beforehand - and i find them painfully boring because they're not rly communicating anything aside from a anatomical accuracy (more or less);

i was being too intent on staying faithful to the reference, and they're looking kinda stale to me. the only one that was done without any ref, was the bottom left - which i like! bc it's got spice and it’s portraying some emotion.

but i wouldn't have drawn it if i hadn't already started on the others, so maybe another good tip is to trust the process and not give up mid-work!! drawing stuff you’re not proud of is still drawing stuff, and not everything you create is gonna be satisfying. things are gonna click here and there, but you never know when, so don’t give up on your ugly artsy ducklings!!

#hope this makes sense. i need an editor #i hope you have an easier time and maybe some of these will be helpful anon!!