A collection of art references, tutorials, and design inspiration posts. I collect references for my own uses, I just dump them here. Tag list is coming soon.
some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, âwhatâs the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?â and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is âunofficialâ, and we know thatâs not the right word, but itâs the only word we can come up withâŠuntil finally itâs like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is âartificialâ.
What is it?
The Gamut Mask is a great way to created harmonic color schemes. It simplifies your color choices and saves you lots of time and paint in achieving unified color palettes quickly and easily.
Who made it?
This Gamut Mask Tool was developed by me (Richard Robinson) and is provided to you free to use. The original concept of the Gamut Mask was developed by James Gurney (www.jamesgurney.com), artist and author of the fantastically illustrated Dinotopia books (www.dinotopia.com).
How do I use it?
Below are some samples of harmonic color schemes achieved by using the Gamut Mask. First I designed an image with a limited value study. Then I decided my most powerful color would be the orange in the foreground and I made a triangular mask with yellow orange as the dominant color, supported by a grayed red and a grayed green. I could have mixed intermediary colors located midway along the sides of the triangle, but I decided to keep it simple and mixed just three color strings of five values each. Then I removed all other colors from my palette so I wouldnât be tempted to dip into them, and painted the first little study (just 2.5â wide). Satisfied with that, I made two more studies, and you can see what different color schemes were achieved by the different gamut masks. Each painting is harmonious, yet each has a slightly different mood.
Ooh, this is actually kinda a neat thing, because you can think of it as a checklist:
Who: Main character(s)
Why: Character goal or desire (stated)
Why: Character need (implied)
When: Inciting Incident
What: Means (that achieves the goal/need)
Where: Place A >> Place B
How: The Plan
Obstacle(s): antagonist or challenge
For example:
Who: Bilbo Baggins, a respectable hobbit of Hobbiton
Why: Treasure, wealth (stated)
Why: Adventure, self-respect (implied)
When: After supper
What: Quest
Where: Hobbiton >> The Lonely Mountain
How: A company of dwarves, a wizard, and an ancient map and key
Main antagonist(s): a dragon
Thus, in less than 100 words:
Bilbo Baggins is a respectable hobbit in Hobbiton, never making any trouble or having any adventures. But when a wizard and a company of dwarves invite themselves to dinner, Bilbo finds himself joining their quest from the shires of Hobbiton to the legendary Lonely Mountain, the home of a long lost treasure, and quite, possibly, a dragon. Â
~~~~
The Anatomy of Story by John Truby is a really good book by the by, if anyoneâs interested in this sort of thing.
My biggest tip for fanfic writers is this: if you get a character's mannerisms and speech pattern down, you can make them do pretty much whatever you want and it'll feel in character.
Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?
What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?
Worry less about whether a character would do something, and more about how they'd sound while doing it.
can you do some kind of color tutorial pls. or a tip on how you pick colors (esp when building up from the flat colors i hate them too)
i donât have anything recent but i made this back in 2021 which is sort of relevant? if i were to remake this i would add/change a few things but tbh i still have trouble picking colours without editing them afterwards to make it look better. hope this helps though!
some graphic design resources cause im bored and itching to write something but i cant write anything i'm happy with--- anywayssss
unsplash for lots of royalty free pics
heres a cool site to learn how to pair fonts together
heres another site to learn kerning [spacing]
in fact heres a bunch of games to help u get better at graphic design stuff
some free online video editors x x x
color accessibility resources :]
savee.it - like pinterest but for designers!! unfortunately it has a save limit for free users but u should still be able to browse it for inspo i think?
some free fonts
aside from coolors i really love adobe color!! it has color palette generator [triads, monochrome, complementary, etc.], accessibility tools, palettes+gradients extractors, and color palettes inspired by trends within diff industries.
make moodboards online for freeee i miss u polyvore
spline and womp for web based 3d design! + blender of course [go make that donut!]
we all know and love them: photopea [photoshop but free and on a browser?!] and canva [no introduction needed im sure]
upscale the resolution / quality of pics it says anime but it works really well with most stuff like video game screenshots [gets rid of hard edges/pixels]
typography inspo
more color palette generators [already meets accessibility guidelines]
filmgrab - a curation of movie scenes đ
here's another one but for color palettes from films
more inspo and tutorials
cargo - for web design stuffs
an archive of BRANDING GUIDES
free online zine hosting
milanote - very very useful for organizing creative projects :D kinda like a mix of notion and pinterest ? [its basically notion but more visual]
a collection of free luts
lots of pngs for editing
freepik - lots and lots of free design assets.
flaticon - lots of flat icons / vectors. i haven't used this in a while, but it was free last i checked
in case u need more help pairing fonts go here and here
Adding more to this list and am hoping that's okay.
pixabay - 100% F2U, royalty free, and can use everything on there commercially without the need to credit them.
fonts that are F2U for commercial use - Exactly what it says on the tin. All of the fonts from this specific portion of the website can be used commercially without the need of crediting and is royalty free.
image convertor - You know ... just in case you need any images converted because your GFX program is being picky af or whatever the case may be.
extract palette from image - This is a super neat little feature that coolors has and I think it's worth mentioning tbh.
text color fader - This is more useful for roleplaying but I'm sure someone will find use out of this for their GFX programs (especially if you use gradients with your text).
I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard
Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.
Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.
Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.
Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.
SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.
SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.
Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.
Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.
Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.
Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.
Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.
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!
How to write about someoneâs appearance? Their physique, styles, face , clothes,?
How to Describe a Character's Appearance
-> dabblewriter.com
-> link to Character Description Prompts
Avoid Over-Describing
Overloading readers with too much information can be overwhelming and make your characters feel flat and one-dimensional. Focus on the details that are the most important to the story and the characters themselves.
If the character's appearance is not central to the story, then you may only need to give a basic description. If it plays a significant role, you may want to go into more detail. Always keep the purpose of your physical descriptions in mind.
Show Don't Tell
Don't blatantly state every little thing about your character's appearance, but rather show it through their actions and behaviors.
example: If they are tall, show that through their actions. They have to duck to get under a doorway, they help someone reach the top shelf, etc.
Include Personality Traits
A character's personality is what makes them memorable. Consider their motivations, values, beliefs, and quirks and give them a well-defined personality.
Avoid Stereotypes
Create characters that are more than just their cultural, racial, ethnic, or gender identity. Give them unique interests, hobbies, and personalities. Allow them to have flaws, contradictions, and diverse perspectives.
External Features
External features include a character's height, weight, body type, and general appearance. You can describe their skin color, hair color, eye color, and any distinctive features like freckles or scars. This type of description gives the reader a basic understanding of what the character looks like, which is helpful in creating a mental image.
Clothing
Describing the type of clothing they wear, including the colors, patterns, and how they fit, can reveal a lot about a characterâs personality and social status.
For example, a character who wears tailored suits and expensive shoes might be a little snobby and concerned with their image, while a character who wears ripped jeans and t-shirts might be casual and relaxed.
Facial Features
Facial features can be used to give the reader a more in-depth understanding of a character's personality and emotions. You can describe their smile, the way they frown, their cheekbones, and their jawline. You can also describe their eyebrows, the shape of their nose, and the size and shape of their eyes, which can give the reader insight into their emotions.
Body Language
Body language can be used to give the reader an understanding of a character's emotions and personality without the need for dialogue. Describing the way a character stands, walks, or gestures can reveal a lot about their confidence level, mood, and attitude.
For example, a character who slouches and avoids eye contact is likely to be shy, while a character who stands up straight and makes direct eye contact is likely to be confident.
Words to Describe Various Features
Head and face
Oval:Â rounded, elongated, balanced, symmetrical
Round:Â full, plump, chubby, cherubic
Square:Â angular, defined, strong, masculine
Heart:Â pointy, triangular, wider at the temples, narrow at the chin
Diamond:Â angular, pointed, narrow at the forehead and jaw, wide at the cheekbones
Long:Â elongated, narrow, oval, rectangular
Triangular:Â angular, wide at the jaw, narrow at the forehead, inverted heart-shape
Oblong:Â elongated, rectangular, similar to oval but longer
Pear-shaped:Â narrow at the forehead, wide at the jaw and cheekbones, downward-pointing triangle
Rectangular:Â angular, defined, similar to oblong but more squared
If you like what I do and want to support me, please consider buying me a coffee! I also offer editing services and other writing advice on my Ko-fi! Become a member to receive exclusive content, early access, and prioritized writing prompt requests.
Whether youâre planning a small print run for your comic or looking into other printed projects, learning how to work with printers is an amazing skill. Though many book printers do have online tools to calculate pricing (Mixam, Greko, RA Comics Direct, and Keness being a few), reaching out to a sales rep at the printer is always an option too!
Information a printer needs to give you a quote (and Delphinaâs recommendations):
Paper quality (interior) - For North American printers, the thinnest option you would want is about 50lb text for your interior paper. The higher the number, the thicker the paper. 70 or 80lbs is about the top range. Other countries use gsm instead of lbs, so this range is about 90gsm - 150gsm. This paper will be called either âtextâ or âbookâ paperstock. It is often available in matte (normal) or gloss (shiny), whichever is your preference.
Paper quality (cover) - If you want your cover to be a thicker paper stock than your inner pages, look for cardstock around100lbs/270gsm. This thicker paper will be in the cover stock category.
For both paper categories, printers are often 100% okay with mailing you some sample sheets of paper of various weights so you can compare them, so donât be afraid to ask!
Binding type - Your most common options here are case binding (hardcover), perfect binding (softcover), or saddlestitched (staple in the middle, the number of pages has to be a multiple of four).
Size - Some printers have specific sizes they print at (6.625x10.25 is a standard North American graphic novel size, but Europe uses A4-A6 sizes). Many will offer some variant of a âmangaâ size or do custom sizes. Measure your favorite books to see what size they are and find something similar!
Bleed - If you want any of your art to run all the way to the edge of the page, you should make a larger version of your page size with 3mm or 0.125 inches of extra art on the top, bottom, left and right sides. This is called bleed.
Colors - Your options here are one-color (black and white) or CMYK (full color). Sometimes this is called 4/4 (4 over 4) to indicate the four colors of toner (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) or 1/1 (1 over 1) to indicate K only (black)
Pro tip: If you CAN print black and white only, itâs usually gonna be cheaper!
Number of pages: Make sure you count the title page too!
Spine: Once you know the number of pages and the thickness of your paper, you can use a spine calculator to figure out how much extra you need to add to the middle of your front/back cover design (or just ask the printer in your email!)
Special fancy things: Gold foil, spot UV gloss, lamination, and dust covers for case bound books are some common ones.
Quantity: All right, so this oneâs a big pain because HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO KNOW? I will say that comic books are hard to sell in an online store, but easier if youâre doing a crowdfunding campaign. Ask your printer what their minimum run is (note that setting up to print books takes a lot of time, so most printers will want you to print a lot and give you price breaks accordingly). I recommend printing a run of at least 100 if youâre considering stocking these in a store or for conventions, though there are print-on-demand places that will print fewer.
I usually print in conjunction with a crowdfund with the idea of having some left over for my online store and conventions. I ask for quotes of 100, 200, and 500, but you can adjust these depending on your needs.
Letâs put it all together!
Once I find 2-3 printers I am interested in using, I email them all at the same time to ask for pricing. That way I can compare how fast they respond to me and if any of them are clearly better priced than the others.
Hereâs what a email I might send to a printer would look like. Feel free to copy and change the numbers for your own purposes!
Hello, Iâd like to request a quote for an upcoming comic printing project. Please find the specs below:
Size: 6.625" x 10.25"
Pages:Â 104 (cover + 100 inner pages)
Bleed: None
Binding: Perfect binding
Inside Paper: 75lb Gloss, Text Stock
Inside Printing: Black and White 1/1
Cover:Â 140lb Cover Stock
Cover Printing: CMYK, 4/0
Quantity: I would like a quote for 100, 200 and 300 copies
Please let me know if you need any other information from me to put together a quote, and what the spine width would be for this. Thank you for your help!
Name
Email
Phone
Really good info!! I want to add for non-US folk that a good interior weight for a graphic novel is usually 115gsm and a good cover is 250 or 300 gsm! Paper types also have different names than in the US: uncoated, silk, or gloss. Uncoated (American equivalent is matte) has a slightly rougher texture and colours come out a little less saturated. Silk (I think the American equivalent is satin?) and gloss are smooth, but I wouldnât recommend printing a comic on gloss since gloss is super shiny. Silk is a really nice compromise between gloss and uncoated since it has the vibrancy of gloss but less sheen. âText stockâ isnât a thing we use here so you can just ask for uncoated or silk and the weight!
Another really important thing to be aware of is the difference between digital printing and litho printing! Litho printing is only cost effective for larger printruns so if youâre printing quantities of 500 or less youâll usually be using digital printing. There will be minor differences in colour between these two processes so itâs worth asking your printer for advice on any colours that might appear different than you expect if youâre printing large quantities. Itâs easy to get a physical proof of a digital printed book, but the process for litho printing requires making plates and printing hundreds of copies of the thing at once so you canât exactly order a single proof.
On that note always order a proof if you can!! Proofs are invaluable for making sure everything is coming out the way you want. This is especially important if youâre printing something with a spine, since some of the art might be too close to the spine on the inside of the page and be hidden from view. Ask your printer how much a single proof copy will cost!
Mixam also has a UK version of the site, and digitalprinting.co.uk is another decent printing service for zines and small booklets (though as the name suggests, they only do digital printing and they donât do custom sizes).
âUnless you are following the dialogue with an action and not a dialogue tag.â He took a deep breath and sat back down after making the clarifying statement.Â
âAndââ she waved a pen as though to underline her statementââif youâre interrupting a sentence with an action, you need to type two hyphens to make an en-dash.â
Something like this would be so colossally helpful. I'm sick and tired of trying to research specific clothing from any given culture and being met with either racist stereotypical costumes worn by yt people or ai generated garbage nonsense, and trying to be hyper specific with searches yields fuck all. Like I generally just cannot trust the legitimacy of most search results at this point. It's extremely frustrating. If there are good resources for this then they're buried deep under all the other bullshit, and idk where to start looking.
another addition as far as physical media goes there is the encyclopedia of national dress (that i still need to buy myself bc this kind of thing is super important to my sort of fantasy designing) but yes i do agree i wish there was EVEN MORE documentation on this
So you have a set of characters ready for the curtain to rise and the story to begin. But how do they get along with each other? Do they even get along at all?
Character relationships are REALLY hard to do. But character webs have helped me keep track of how everybody relates to one another. Theyâre a way to visually connect characters to help you remember what they think of each other.
They end up looking something like this:
And honestly? Theyâre just as cool as they look. Letâs go through a quick rundown of how they work.
Disclaimer: You can, of course, use any name you like for any genre of story. Some of these names are from actual mythology, some of them I just liked as names in a fantasy story.
