Art Help, cuz we all need it sometime

[saphariadragon]

Because helping people is fun

Markers are tricky. You can’t erase them, and they can wear out paper. So here are some things I picked up.

1. Use thick paper. I personally prefer smooth bristol but anything that is fairly heavy duty should be okay. Watercolor paper is particularly good but the...

[ac-mcfucked-up-deactivated20140]

pic sauce

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cartoons are a big passion of mine, and my dream is to work on and create cartoons - for cartoon network for example!

im only a beginning artist (well, not really, ive been drawing for about 3 years) and im a high schooler, but i dont live in america and i feel like the only…

[saphariadragon]

Hey Anon

I just wanted to say its really freaking cool to want to study animation. I’m currently studying it at the moment. However there are a couple points I think need to be made here.

First off there are other places you can go to learn animation other than Calarts. It may be the most famous and one of the best but there are plenty other programs worth looking at. Do some research. I did a quick search of the highest ranked schools and there are good programs all over europe, korea, Japan, india, canada, china, and the USA. Not to mention there are many other places that have decent programs as well. Just because a school is nationally or internationally ranked doesn’t mean that it’s the right thing for you. I’ve had a few friends who have gone to scad(4th ranked) for animation/design and they hated it there and felt they didn’t necessarily learn what they needed to.  One of which is going to the same program I am going to now and liking it.  As long as the school has a solid program that teaches you what you need to know it ought to work. Honestly the people who hire people don’t look to where you got your degree and more about what your portfolio and show reals are like.

[arthelpandthings]

Need help! My idea is using photos or magazine cutouts mixed with traditional tattoo style art applied on top. My question is, is there any type of media I can apply over the photo which will give me a solid white base that will take markers, pencil crayon, water paint, etc.? My only idea thus far is using white acrylic and going over with an ink like sharpies to get the traditional effect. Thanks!

Acrylic is a pretty damn good bet. Nothing else is really coming to my mind. Sorry I can't be much more help

[metrikfire]

I would like to make a public service announcement on this piece of shit information floating around the internet. I’m NOT going to take pot shots at an artist’s personal palette but this is just misinformation to thousands of other people out there who may or may not know better.

Number one. IF YOU ARE PAINTING, YOU’RE NOT REFERENCING A DIGITAL SWATCH. So first of all, you need to know where paint comes from. I dont even know where to start with this. I mean seriously, the statement about not being able to make pure, strong colours with cadmiums is just so full of ignorance, I don’t even know where to start. 

If you need visual evidence, let’s take a look at this picture 

This picture was invented before CMYK ever came around, tbh. Too bad Klimt is dead or else he would attest to this just like EVERY OTHER TRADITIONAL PAINTER will. 

Mixing colours is not magic nor is it as easy as picking colours from a digital swatch. It takes practice to understand how certain colours react with one another, employ painting techniques such as not mixing white with every goddamn colour to lighten a hue. 

Let’s take another look at a somewhat LESS brightly paintedpiece.

The saturation is not nearly as bright but the chroma is pure. There are no muddy colours, nothing is brown where it was not meant to be. Because Kandinsky knows how to mix colours. It didn’t happen overnight nor was he born with that knowledge. It was years and years of practise and work.

Even Klee knew what was up. He was not a master artist by any means but he worked goddamn hard at it and look what he created.

Here’s another Klimt because we all love him so:

CMYK exists because it does not know how to replicate the natural pigments of paint that can reflect light. It’s a beautiful, beautiful fake at best. I love CMYK. I even want to get a tattoo that says CMYK. But it is by no means the one and only. 

So PLEASE. PLEASE EDUCATE YOURSELF AND CROSS REFERENCE YOUR COLOUR THEORY BEFORE YOU BUY INTO THIS GARBAGE. NEWTON KNEW WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT WHEN HE MADE THE COLOUR WHEEL GUYS.

PAINTERS SPEAK OUT FOR OUR BELOVED COLOUR WHEEL! REBLOG AND REPOST! Whoo!

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EDIT// Additionally, I re-read that ignorant infographic or whatever and have come to realize that the artist classifies pthalo blue/green and hansa yellow as CMYK. That is not CMYK guys. CMYK is used for digital prints because you can’t use paint. Duh. God, that information is so wrong, it wasn’t even worth making this post.

[sclez-deactivated20150212]

Thanks!

[saphariadragon]

THANK YOU

As metricfire above me said, cmyk(cyan magenta yellow black) is used for printing. To elaborate on her/his statement cmyk is used because we cannot reproduce all the colors we find in paint, in life, and the world because of how ink and paint color works. When you add light together you eventually get white. Its called an additive process because you get “more” color the more you add. Paint and ink on the other hand is subtractive which means the more colors you add the darker it gets until you get black. Black is an absence of color/light and because when you mix paints or whatever you are subtracting “light/color” from the image. CMYK is the best bet for printers because those are the four inks that can produce the most colors. However it does not mean they are infallible.

See this above? This is a file that on the left is in rgb(red green blue) color, or the colors you would see on your compute screen. Computers use the additive color so the colors are much brighter, livelier, real. On the left is CMYK. See how everything is less vibrant? CMYK cannot produce the same vibrant colors you find in life. It particularly has trouble with reds and oranges and vibrant dark blues. And actually computer monitors, though able to produce more colors than cmyk, are limited too.  They cannot produce every color we see either. Film is an even better bet but even then it can’t reproduce every color we can see.

So no. CMYK is not the way to go. You cannot get the rich blues, reds, oranges, and greens you can get with other combinations.  And frankly if everyone used it we would get bored, very quickly.  The subtle variations of palette and color unique to each artist is one of the things that makes art interesting. And since this post is about painting I have to point out that with the many variations of pigment you can get in paint why limit yourself to such a limited palette? You can use whatever colors you want for primaries and add in secondary colors if you want. Whatever works for you. If anything I would use both the cmyk colors as well as lemon yellow, cadmium red, and ultramarine blue. Whatever works really because with all the variation you can get in paint color you should really have fun with it. Not to mention mixing colors, as Metricfire pointed out is hard.  If you find something that works for you then use it. Finally one more point.

You know why printers use CMYK? Back before printers became digital they used plates. One plate for each color. Add too much color and you ended up with a muddy mess. This still persists today because ink is expensive, even though we no longer have to rely on plates. We can pinpoint things more easily. Sure now they can add in special colors and more ink to make up for the limiting factors of cmyk but its not perfect.

So yeah… have some fun understanding why cmyk exists and why you shouldn’t use it for painting.

[arthelpandthings]

Hi, so I was wondering if you could help me with digital art a bit. This is one of the first paintings I’ve done and I don’t even have a tablet. I need help with shading so could you give me some tips regarding that, and any other things you see wrong with it. Thanks in advance (:

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So digital art is a tricky beast. Part of getting good at it is figuring out what exactly works for you. So my first advice is figure out exactly what sort of textures, brush strokes and otherwise seems right to you. Practice a lot with the stuff and eventually you will figure it out.

Anyway as for the shading. What you have here is rather flat shading. Your idea of light source and direction is good, but human beings have many crevices and hills to explore. If you shade them in the fashion you have here we can't see all the fun wrinkles in the subjects clothes, nor the curves and structure of the muscles on the body. Yes, the subject is female but even the softest ladies have structure. So try and work those in. Clothes wrinkles are probably the hardest thing you'll have to figure out, but its fairly easy to find references for this style and you can even use your own body. As another note on shading part of the reason this looks kind of flat is that the colors from light to dark are pretty much on the same gradient of the same tone. Shadows tend to be very blue, while highlights tend to be yellowish. So the best way to shade is to make a color more blue the darker it gets.

As for the actual form itself it is fairly solid. I think the biggest problem I have to it is that the lineart is all one thickness. I know you don't have a tablet but you can change the brush size. If you vary the thickness of the lineart you can make it a lot more interesting and it can really make your art pop. Finally the patch of skin on her leg confuses me. What is that exactly?

[arthelpandthings]

Acrylic Tips

Just a few things I've learned working with acrylics. Most of this stuff is general and common sense but hey it helps.

1. The world is not ending if you make a mistake. The nice thing about acrylics is that you can easily paint over your mistakes.

2. Work fast. Acrylic dries fast and so if you want colors to blend you ought to move at a brisk pace.

3. To blend two different colors of paint together to get color blends do so on the canvas. Make sure you have water to clean your brushes handy, and simply start with your base color(make sure it is the lightest tone you want) and while its still wet work in the darker color progressively. Wash your brush regularly so the colors don't get too muddy. If the base color gets too dark wait for it to mostly dry and work in the base color again. If you want highlights it has to be completely dry before you add them.

4. Keep your brushes wet. Its really hard to get rid of acrylic paint that dries on.

5. I prefer to use softer brushes with acrylic. Stiff brushes don't lay down the paint all that well, and really only need to be used for the details.

6. Paint brush flicking is a really good way to get stars, spots, and other fun randomly lain out things.

[arthelpandthings]

Can you please help me with this picture? I just joined tumblr because I heard that's where artists are going, but I posted this and I don't think anybody saw it or they didn't like it. Did I do something wrong? I'm really proud of it!

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Since tumblr is a bit annoying I’m going to reblog this again to respond. One of these days I’ll get round to installing some apps, but I’m lazy.

Anyway welcome to tumblr. First off when you first appear around here don’t expect all that much attention, be patient followers will come. So its probably not because they didn’t like it but simply because there is a lot on the site and thus didn’t see it. As for the picture itself its not bad, I mean the colors are pretty nice and its quite sadly creepy(in a good way). The colors work quite well with the emotion. Good attempt at foreshortening, though it wouldn’t be as pronounced from that distance. Subtler is usually the best way to go with foreshortening. There are a few anatomical errors, but you’re fairly solid overall.  The neck is perhaps what needs the most work. Its a bit long, and oddly shaped. Even with the muscles necks tend to resemble cylinders. Necks also attach higher up, below the ears, in fact necks are almost as wide as a head. You’ve got some proportions off here and there, and though there are some styles that tend to make these proportion mistakes on purpose(see anime). I’m not entirely sure if that is what you are going for but as a general rule, eyes are the same width as the nose. So imagine five eyeballs across the face with the second and the fourth being the eyes and the third the space for the nose. The shoulders should be at least a head wide on either side of the neck. And that should help. Keep at it and keep drawing. Study people(or troll cosplayers XD) and draw. You’ll get there in no time.

[arthelpandthings]

Sorry For the Hiatus

I am currently trying to finish up a Maya animation. I do not have a life. I will get shiny new things on here as soon as I have time.

[arthelpandthings]

hai there, just found this blog. :) Can I ask for critique? I have this drawing that just seems off, and can't figure it out why...

sure, just submit it :)

[saphariadragon]

As promised.

A big thing that a lot of those people who I mentioned in a previous rant say is that they dunno how to get better. So this is personally how I work to get better. Might not work for you but ought to give you some ideas. Also feel free to replace draw with any medium you like. Also...

[saphariadragon]

Been thinking bout this recently thanks to a friend of mine and the classes I’m taking. And I’ve seen terrible critique out there so…. Without further Ado this is how I critique and what I think constitutes a good crit.

1. Be sure to mention whats working. We don’t want them to change whats...

[saphariadragon]

Sooo my favorite medium is pencils. Boring, regular old pencils. They are easy to access and don’t require me to set up something fancy(unlike markers and paint). Yay for pencils. Below are some tips I’ve learned over the years because… pencils.

1. Layer. I can’t stress this enough for colored...

[arthelpandthings]

Want to Help Art Help?

Hey.

So in the first post I mentioned wanting to turn the I'll of this blog into we'll. I am not an all knowing art god and in some mediums I'm like fuck if I know. So this is why I'm reaching out here. If you want to help with the content of this blog here's what I need from you.

A link to a gallery of yours online somewhere

and a message of you introducing yourself.

And that's it. We'll chat a bit in messages so I can get to know you, and if you seem to know what you are doing and have a cool attitude then I shall include you. And this blog shall grow like some monstrous hydra of awesome.

-Laura(saph)

[arthelpandthings]

Welcome to Art Help

I've been poking around on tumblr and I honestly think there should be more blogs devoted to helping artists of all levels improve. So I made this blog which will house critiques, questions, tips, redlines, and tutorials to help fellow visual artists. Doesn't matter what medium you use, whether its clay sculpture, watercolor painting, digital animation, or basic pencil on paper I'll try and help. Well currently its "I'll" but I'm hoping it will soon be "we'll"(more on that soon). Feel free to put a question in the ask box if you have a specific question, suggest a topic to give tips on, or send some art in for a critique.

Hope you guys enjoy

-Laura(Saph) the founder.