Tag: art

How long have you been arting (schooled/self-taught, etc)?

I have always been drawing, ever since I can remember. One of my earliest memories is being mad at age 3 because SOMEONE put CHALK in the crayon bucket and I bit it to test and BLECK. 

In 2nd grade, my dad told me that I would need to learn to get really good at drawing circles, squares, and triangles if I wanted to do art seriously. That’s when I started reading art books and constructing drawings with shapes.

In 7th grade, I applied for an online art archive and was utterly rejected because my stuff was definitely not up to scratch. I was pointed to Tracy Butler’s art and fell in love with art as a means of storytelling. I wanted to get good. Really good.

After that, I took every art class public school had to offer, and filled sketchbook after sketchbook on my own time. Art class was helpful because my teachers forced me to do stuff I didn’t want to do (cross-hatching, life study, learning art history), and it was all very beneficial. They also gave me access to free art supplies that I never would have been able to afford on my own– paint, pastels, illustration board, clay, kilns, etc. 

I got accepted to a university in the Animation Major, learned that my arm and procrastination tendencies couldn’t handle it, and switched to Illustration. Color theory and observational drawing weren’t at all new to me, but it was GREAT to study side-by-side with people who actually CARED about it instead of being forced to. And I probably learned more through one semester of advanced figure drawing than I had in any other class.

None of the classwork were things that I couldn’t have learned on my own; art class is not a magical thing. People can take all of the art classes in the world and won’t improve if they don’t consciously practice and observe. But they are great motivators and I am so glad that I took those classes. Even Art History, because man I have a much better appreciating and understanding for the master works now. Context really is everything.

Anyway, I still have a lot to learn, but to answer your question… if we consider 7th grade the starting point, I guess I’ve been doing art “seriously” for… 17 years? OMG… 

Now go look at Tracy’s art and be inspired: @lackadaisycats

solthrys:

No more melted tomblerones or mising skulls, yyeann!

This is my basic process for pretty much everything I draw. The key is understanding the shape of the garment you’re trying to draw and the shape of the body part you’re putting it on.

Drawing the body first forces you to make the shoe, hat, or clothes fit that body. With practice you’ll be able to skip some steps. This method works the same no matter the perspective or pose. It just relies on your knowledge of what a hat looks like from above, or what the bottom of a shoe looks like. When in doubt, just google refs. Don’t necessarily need the exact angle you’re trying to draw. Look at different pics to give you an idea of how it works in 3d.

Shoes are always a bit tricky because feet are a stupid ass shape.

It might help if you think of hats as a cylinder fitted to the person’s head to help you get the perspective right before you push in detail. note: heads aren’t circles. they’re kind of egg shaped if you look at them from the top.

Hi sorry to bother you but I was wondering what art program you use? Thanks in advance and have a nice day! :D

That sort of depends on what effect I’m going for! I’m problematic in that I don’t really have a set style that I adore, so I kind of just… wander around aimlessly at any given time. But here are my favorite:

Paint Tool Sai
Great for sketching and painting water-colory. 

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Autodesk Sketchbook Pro
I love the marker tools in this!!!

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Art Rage
Fantastic for crayons/chalk and oil paints

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ALL of these are put through Adobe Photoshop CS6 before I post them, though, for cleanup, color tweaking, and (usually) texturizing. It turns this:

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Into this:

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Thanks for the question! I hope that helps. 😀

Hi sorry to bother you but I was wondering what art program you use? Thanks in advance and have a nice day! :D

That sort of depends on what effect I’m going for! I’m problematic in that I don’t really have a set style that I adore, so I kind of just… wander around aimlessly at any given time. But here are my favorite:

Paint Tool Sai
Great for sketching and painting water-colory. 

image

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro
I love the marker tools in this!!!

image

Art Rage
Fantastic for crayons/chalk and oil paints

image

ALL of these are put through Adobe Photoshop CS6 before I post them, though, for cleanup, color tweaking, and (usually) texturizing. It turns this:

image

Into this:

image

Thanks for the question! I hope that helps. 😀

miyuli:

I’ve been studying the classic black tie dress code (mainly from here) so I thought I could share my notes. Maybe they can be helpful to someone else, too. If I made any mistakes or things are really confusing please tell me. 
I also have some notes on white tie which I could share as well…

moobiess:

Hi! First, I want to say thank you for the kind comment and I’m glad you’re interested in the medium I’m using!! ^^ I get this question a lot on my twitter so I guess I’ll answer and compile it on this post. It’s a very long post so I’ll put it under this cut, but get ready!

Keep reading

paracomart:

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Lighting is often underestimated in illustration – a lot of illustrators and beginning artists look at it as a decorative element, or as purely a tool used to showcase the form. A lot of beginning artists are afraid of shading and of using harsh lights. But even with the lighting mastered, even with perfect rendering and good understanding of form in space an integral element of the light remains missing in their pieces. 

Look at the samples above: the same character’s head has been used in every thumbnail, and the only thing I have tweaked was the cropping and manner of light used on the features. Every single one of these frames tells a different story and gives off a different vibe simply by using light to focus on the features I want you to focus on.

Read how lighting can be used to enhance character, mood, and interaction within your pictures below the cut.

Keep reading

Some Artist Tips you May or May Not Know

ashalina-art:

Just from personal experience.

1: Never try to draw on an empty stomach. You’ll make mistakes and be uncomfortable. (But don’t stuff yourself till you’re sick either.)

2: If you have to go to the bathroom, go. A full bladder or otherwise does serious damage to the attention and patience spans. Plus it gives you time to stretch your legs.

3: Before you ink it, leave it alone. Come back later (a few hours, a day?) and check for major anatomy mistakes. Work on something else while you’re waiting.

4: Stay hydrated! The brain and fine motor skills work better when properly circulated.

5: Do not have an excessive amount of sugar before sitting down to work. You’ll get jittery and impatient. Same goes for immense amounts of caffeine.

6: If you’re stuck, take a break to stand and stretch. Walk around the room. But don’t THINK of it as a break. Just take time to really focus on your body. Loosen it up, get a goooood long stretch and some deep breaths. (but don’t pass out!) It’ll jolt the mind awake and let you really relax a moment.

7: Keep. All. Your. Old. Art. I don’t care what it is. Keep it. Date it if it’s in your computer folders. Make a suitcase filled with it. (I personally have ALL my old art in a thick work folder.)

8: Keep your sketchbooks together, used and unused. If there’s a good sale on sketchbooks, get two or three! You won’t regret it later. There’s no such thing as too many. (I currently have about ten spankin’ new sketchbooks and I know I’ll need/use every single one of them.)

9: Date your sketchbooks. Put a start and finish date on them.

10: I’m afraid I don’t practice this one: date your drawings. You’ll be happy about it later. You don’t need to SIGN every drawing, but do date them. At least date pages.

11: ART BLOCK HAPPENS. Art block is pretty much a CONSTANT state of mind for artists. You’re never out of art block totally. But sometimes you get bursts of inspiration that make it feel like you’re out. So instead of feeling like you’re ill if you suddenly have artblock, remind yourself that this happens all the time, and you get out of it eventually, every time. c:>

12: If you’re REALLY stuck on some bad art block, do what I do.

Draw a brain barf. This is where you take a blank sheet of paper, and you just LET your hand be A.D.D. Draw whatever comes to mind, as it comes to mind. in the middle of drawing a hippo in a top hat but you think of a jolly rancher riding a unicycle? Switch immediately.

Let your brain just vomit all over the page. You’ll be surprised what comes up and what art block this can get you out of. It’s gotten me out of it various times.

13: Take advice from more experienced artists. But do NOT take everything as Gospel. Some people are just wrong.

14: HAND SHYNESS/ ART ENVY/ SELF CONSCIOUSNESS/ AND SKILL IMPATIENCE WILL EAT YOU ALIVE like a Titan. Do not let yourself get shy after looking at ‘better art’, do not let yourself think your art is worthless or your skills are worthless, and do not let yourself get frustrated that you cannot be at a higher skill level RIGHT NOW. Your brain will try to do this. All the time. Keep yourself in check. If you keep going at it, and keep working, you will get better. This is why you keep your old art. Look at it to remind you how far you’ve come.

15: Draw what you like. This is so important. (This does not apply for exploitative art. :l That’s just wrong. So long as you’re not targeting someone harmfully, I guess you’re fine.)

But don’t let people’s preferences dictate what you can and can’t draw. Draw whatever the heck you like. Accept that no matter WHAT there will be someone out there that hates it. Always. This is just a fact of life. But don’t let it get you down. I would have stopped being an artist at day one if I had.

16: You never. Stop. Learning. Ever. You will be old and grey and still be learning new things. That’s okay. That’s the nature of art. Even the ‘pros’ don’t know everything.

I hope these help someone out there~