Back from my birthday hiatus, and um, wow... was not expecting this kind of overwhelmingly positive reaction to a simple QRT about how we used Dissolve Mode in our BG paintings on Carol and the End of the World (see last image) - since people seemed to have enjoyed that so much, I thought I'd put all the pages of the Carol and the End of the World BG Paint style guide I drafted in one post! TBH I'd been meaning to do this for awhile but kept forgetting since I have it in a different folder than the BG paintings themselves... I believe all the paintings are mine and all the designs are by Alex Myung unless otherwise noted. I wrote this pretty early on pre-vis, so some of these guidelines got a little massaged during production, but the broad strokes are definitely still there! This wasn't the only style guide on the show BTW! A couple of our other leads Alex Myung and Kal Athannassov also put together a BG and Character Design style guide that are super cool - unfortunately I don't have the files myself (nor would I feel comfortable posting work that's not mine) nor do I think they've posted them yet, so if you two were looking for a sign to do so, this is it!! Now you have everything you need to paint like a Caroler - thanks for looking!! Showrunner: @dan-guterman Art direction: @ellemichalka
I collected my art tips on hands over the years. It ended up being 54 pages of notes I took and some guides I tried to create for myself. Maybe some of these can be useful to others as well.
You can buy the pdf here or join my Patreon to get it for free.
here is a master list of great art tools that can make your workflow easier! 👇 (updating, please consider supporting me on kofi or check out my other works)
posemaniacs.com/en
if you want to learn human anatomy with the benefit of preset poses, this is for you! you can use it standalone, but as a bonus you can also import poses into the clip studio paint 3D models. (File -> Import -> 3D Pose (Posemaniacs)
Dragon skeletal anatomical diagram because I love taking on projects I and only I will enjoy. The idea is they evolved from theropod dinosaurs. Don't ask me how a tetrapod developed 6 limbs, I don't have answers for you.
Paleoheads feel free to nitpick any anatomical minutia I might have gotten wrong, I'm so here for it.
Inspired but not strictly following the dragons in the Eragon series.
Footnotes below the cut:
Fig A:
Spent a good while debating how to differentiate the naming for the forelegs and the wings, since they are technically duplicates of the same structure. I settled for "anterior" for the legs and "posterior" for the wings, but I also considered M. for "manus" referring to the legs, and A. for "ala" for the wings. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
5. Dorsal Vertebrae 1-3 do not have dorsal spikes.
9. Dorsal spikes sprout from the spinous process and are surrounded by a kerotenous sheath. They become proportionally taller with age.
13. Anterior scapula is fused to the sternum and forms a ball-and-socket joint with the anterior humerus at the base.
14. Large keeled sternum for the attachment of flight muscles.
22. Posterior scapula is also fused to the sternum but the ball-and-socket joint is at the distal end.
36. The dracoid bone (or false finger) is a unique bone to dragons that I made up. It has a bony core and cartilaginous sheath. Inspired by the pteroid, a bone in pterosaurs, which also supports the wing membrane, but in a different location.
Fig B:
Dragons have anywhere from 46-54 teeth, but will always have 10 premaxillary teeth, four maxillary fangs (two on each side), 8 pre-fang dentary teeth, and 2 dentary fangs. The fangs slot into each other for gripping prey. Teeth are named after the bone they grow out of. Like other theropod dinosaurs, teeth are regrown throughout an individual's life.
1. Cross section of maxillary fang. Fangs are laterally compressed like blades for piercing and shearing off flesh.
4. Dragons have two maxillary fangs, with the first one being larger and visible when the mouth is closed. This "snaggle tooth" gets proportionally longer each time it regrows.
5. All dragon teeth have serrations.
6. Like T-Rex and other theropods, premaxillary teeth (and pre-fang dentary teeth) have a D-shaped cross section for delicately picking flesh from bones. Serrations are on the lateral sides and not anterior-posterior, like the fangs and post-fang teeth.
Fig C:
4. Dragons have proportionally enormous nostrils due to the high oxygen demands of flight.
8. The antoribital fenestra (and other openings in the skull) are very large in dragons to reduce the weight of the skull. This makes flight easier at the expense of bite force. While still capable of a formidable bite, it is no where near the power of a T-rex.
10. Large lacrimal bone gives the dragons their characteristic brows, and provides support for large lacrimal osteoderms.
11. Dragons have proportionally enormous eyes and excellent long-distance binocular vision.
14. Dragons horns are modified growths from the parietal bone, and thus called parietal horns. The supratemporal fenestra (holes most theropods have on the top/back of the skull) in dragons has closed to provide support for the parietal horns.
15. The parietal horn forms a bony core with a kerotenous sheath, much like their dorsal spikes (and goat horns). Grows continuously with age.
A new viewpoint on antlers reveals the evolutionary history of deer (Cervidae, Mammalia)
fullview recommended!
something i've wanted to do for a while now. i've scoured the internet for something like this and can't find anything that compares all the different types of antlers together. except one recent study on their evolution, which is also very interesting on its own! i simplified it to provide a visual reference, while still trying to be scientifically accurate. some things differ between this and trophy scoring terminology like where the beam is and whatnot, so if something looks weird that's why.
small additional note, this study and others provide a lot of evidence that eld's deer should be in their own genus as it doesn't appear similar enough to barasingha and schomburgk's deer. however this doesn't seem to be adapted anywhere yet, so they're still in Rucervus for this guide.
tutorial for drawing characters with Down syndrome!
DISCLAIMER... please keep in mind that this is an introductory drawing tutorial and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. it's more of an overview of features that are common in people with Down syndrome, not meaning to imply that every person with DS has all of them 👍👍 thanks
if you draw any characters using this feel free to tag me!!
I have to draw a lot of gold and metal for my work, but wasn't happy with any of the metal tutorials i could find around. I prefer really specific instruction, so after some research i put together what i think works as a generalist's guide/tutorial. Not perfectly accurate, but i hope it's helpful!
Feather illustration for non-biologists! It occurred to me that some of you might find this useful. It starts with a necessary biology lesson, because I find that understanding the structure and function of feathers will greatly improve accurate rendering of those feathers.
A lot of this is general - obviously you can find all kinds of exceptions in the natural world (penguins, ratites, I’m looking at you guys). But it should cover the bulk of the illustration needs if you’re not comfortable drawing feathers and want some ideas on how to improve.
For photo references, I highly recommend birdpixel (a very generous online art reference created by Leena and Vivek Khanzode), Cornell’s Macaulay Library, and Piranga, which is mostly aimed at North American bird banders but shows excellent close-ups of a variety of species.
Do you struggle when drawing poses? Do you feel like your poses end up stiff, cluttered, or messy? I made a tutorial about these common mistakes and how you can fix them. It consists of a mix of demonstrations, paint-overs, and tips and advice. Here’s a little preview of it!
You can access the full tutorial over on patreon for just $5.
