Art Feeder

Bits and pieces of artistic insight from around the web

[armengoldira]

[artthinks]

What designers mean when they say 'push it.'

Wish I'd had this fifteen years ago.

[unashamedly-enthusiastic]

Devastating to have more evidence that done IS better than perfect

[unashamedly-enthusiastic]

Additionally, findings indicate that the act of doing shows you that you were not seeking perfection, you were fearing inadequacy

[unashamedly-enthusiastic]

@grey-and-lavender

#oh that last line gutted me #is there a place between perfect and failure?

Good news! There is!

Bad news! It is called 'done'

[grey-and-lavender]

✨ fuck ✨

[artthinks]

Mulan Style Guide 1997 : Hans Bacher : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Hans Bacher's 1997 style guide for Mulan

Hans Bacher's Style Guide for Mulan

It's focused primarily on describing how to achieve the visual aesthetic they were going for in the backgrounds for the film, but there are good pointers on design and composition for any student of the pictorial arts.

There's also a 1995 version which is interesting to compare ...

Links courtesy of Animation Obsessive (worth checking out, and subscribing to for animation history and art goodies like this!)

[artthinks]

Artist Resources We Love, Vol. 3

Plus: news and a Canadian short film.

If you don't know about it yet, Animation Obsessive is a great Substack with loads of interesting articles about worldwide animation – not just the big studio stuff.

They've just published a roundup (no. 3!) of useful educational material available free online, including a full character design course and animation tips from James Baxter and Sergio Pablos.

Have at it!

[eisly-deactivated20251004]

I’ve been looking for this really helpful post about artist growth… where you get to these points where your skill doesn’t match your knowledge of what SHOULD look good, and then it flips… it looked like a double helix on the graph, if that helps. If anyone happens to have that pic I’d love to see it again!

[sasharjones]

Here you go!

There's also this one, I just prefer the one above because it's easier for my brain to parse.

[eisly-deactivated20251004]

THANK YOU!!! This is exactly the one. I like both versions but yeah the first is a bit easier to take in

[lucybellwood]

A while ago Falynn K. asked this question on Twitter:

"So on a tall sailing ship you have the mast, and you have the yards across it--is the yard/spar actually attached to the mast, by like i dunno, a pin or something, or is it strictly roped/lashed to it?"

This is a totally reasonable question! A lot of folks who haven't sailed square riggers might think that the yard stays put, but in fact it needs to move up and down the mast so the sails can be fully set. (Y'know how everyone's always talking about halyards? They literally haul the yard up. You're welcome.)

So to answer the question: yards are held loosely to the mast by a looped line strung with large wooden beads called a parrel. The beads roll up the mast as the yard is raised and lowered. Here's a drawover that hopefully clarifies a little:

Once you start explaining things about tall ship anatomy it's hard to stop, so there's a bit more context for how the sails work:

(These are pages from my comic A Week at Sea with OHP, which you can read online here or grab as a print minicomic here.)

Hope this is helpful!

[lucybellwood]

I’ve been meaning to repost this mini-essay I wrote for Global Maritime History back in 2015 for AGES and since today's dash is full of people lamenting the burden of Boat Knowledge this seems like the right time.

ONWARD FOR TALL SHIP ART TIPS!

I often get questions from people who are concerned that their illustrated boats aren’t going to be up to snuff, and the short answer is generally: don’t sweat it. If you’ve drawn a thing that has a hull in the water and sails in the air, you’re off to a great start, and if you consult a few handy reference images, you’re bound to end up with something that looks mostly ship-like.

HOWEVER. There are a couple things that often get lost in translation which—if you pay attention to them—can make the difference between a passable tall ship and a vessel that definitely looks like you know your baggywrinkle from your bunghole. Here’s two tips to get you started.

Flags in the Wind

Generally when we think of a thing that’s going fast, we imagine a flag streaming out in the wind behind it, right? Well, when it comes to square rig sailing, things aren’t always so simple. If the wind is coming up from behind a ship—or from the side—to push it forward, the flag may be flying in a direction you wouldn’t expect! How are the yards angled to catch the wind in the sails? What’s driving the vessel forward? Sailors often look to flags for a quick indicator of wind direction—use that thought process when drawing your ships.

Keep Your Shrouds Tight!

Those rope ladder-looking things sailors are always clambering up? They’re called shrouds, and they also form a large part of the tensioning system that keeps a ship’s masts stable and upright. Stays (lines that don’t move i.e. stay put) are arranged throughout the rig to maintain even aft-to-fore pull on the masts and prevent them from keeling over. Shrouds form the lateral component of that system, so here’s an important fact: they will not be saggy. No saggy shrouds. No saggy stays. In addition to making the mast unstable, it’d be a devil to climb in heavy weather.

Note: the ratlines (the “ladder rungs” of the shroud) can have slack in them—it’s the vertical lines that should be tight.

When the crew is “tuning the rig,” they’re putting slack in all the stays and then re-tensioning them to ensure that the whole operation is as stable as possible, so unless you’ve got a bunch of idiots running your fictional vessel, keep ’em tight.

And another thing…

I see a lot of people running their shrouds down to the deck, rather than alongside the vessel. Don’t do that! I mean, okay, sometimes shrouds do attach to chain plates on-deck, but most of your classic Golden Age of Sail vessels will have them running alongside to the channels. Also: they end in deadeyes to help with the tensioning of the line and to keep things stable, so don’t forget your deadeyes!

Honestly, these are the biggest things that I see artists flub when drawing tall ships, so if you can keep them in mind, you’ll be head and shoulders above the rest!

If you’re looking to go more in-depth with your research, I would recommend…

Seeing if you can find a modern replica of the type of ship you’re after and then centering your reference search around the name of that ship. I get far more extensive results when I’m searching for “Privateer Lynx” rather than “1700s topsail schooner.” Don’t discount the many photos tourists will have taken while visiting these ships!

Nose around on model ship-building forums. There is no greater boon to the modern nautical artist than these obsessive craftspeople, who will spend hundreds of hours replicating classic ships in minute detail—often photographing the whole process so you can actually see how the rig of a vessel is put together! God bless ’em.

And that’s all I’ve got! I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief foray into accurate tall ship representation. Fair winds and following seas!

[shoomlah]

how do you consistently draw the same character without it looking weird or off every different time?? also how do i coordinate faces, i always make the eyes too far apart or too big or too small or make the mouth too close to the nose or chin edge. If you have any advice I'd really appreciate it since it looks like you have your art shit figured out 🙏

Oh man SO so much of it is just practice, and you're not alone! I honestly think everyone struggles with a sort of "generification" of their characters' features the more they draw them, even seasoned professionals. There's a tendency to just sort of average everything out into an unrecognizable mush over time, and it takes a lot of conscious effort to push back against that.

Here are a couple tips and tricks that I've found to be helpful over the years:

Make turnarounds and model sheets. There's a reason animation/game studios do this, and it is because we are all still bad at drawing a consistent face. Despite being gainfully employed. What are we, graphic novelists?? We wish. Anyway it's a great way to familiarize yourself with your character's face from multiple angles, and it gives you a single source of truth to return to anytime you need a refresher:

Gather real-life reference. Anytime I'm designing a character I'm pulling together a ton of reference of actual people who look, to some degree, like the character in my head. It's always a collection of analogues, never just a single person, but it can be a great cheat sheet for understanding how your character might move, emote, etc:

Make a 3D model. I know it seems daunting, but with the advent of programs like Blender and Nomad Sculpt it's becoming remarkably more accessible. Heck, even James Gurney was sculpting maquettes out of clay for Dinotopia back in the day! It doesn't have to be particularly detailed—just a sort of proportionate lump will do—but it's another great way to have dynamic reference that you can rotate and light accordingly:

Practice, practice, practice. Make expression sheets for your character! Either right there on the spot, just start drawin' expressions, or you can slowly collect drawings of your character that you like, as you draw them, and compile them all in one place for your own reference. Need to draw your character's head from a weird angle? Maybe you've already drawn it before and you can copy your own homework! Doesn't count as stealing when the call's coming from inside the house 😎

I'd love to pretend there's a magical point where you can just immediately rotate your character's head in your brain like some sort of photorealistic apple in a twitter meme, but a lot of the time it's reference, hard work, and whole lotta repetition. 😐👍🏼

[shoomlah]

hey shoomlah i have a question thats been bothering me for a while.

i see lots of people do art studies, and i do them too, or try to in between other stuff. but i look at how others studies wind up and then mine... am i doing an art study 'wrong'? is there a 'right' way you're supposed to do a study? is it weird to feel like i was never taught how to do an art study in the first place

So I don't think there's a wrong way to be doing a study, so long as you always keep in mind that you should be consciously trying to learn while working on a study! 

Like when I'm doing plein air work I'm often focused on studying and representing the specific construction/”anatomy” of the ruins or rock forms, when someone else drawing the same subject might be focused on color, or lighting, or stylization, or anything else. You can have very different goals when doing studies and end up with very different (but equally valid) results.

But then I’ve also done studies where I’m focusing entirely on color and lighting:

...and then back in college I was doing studies which were entirely about medium and uncovering/emphasizing the color in a piece:

And all of these are successful in my opinion! I used a different process each time, and focused on/learned different things, but I did go into each one generally knowing what my goal was and how I wanted to pull it off: if you’re studying color, maybe avoid eye-dropping colors for your first pass! If you’re studying proportion, maybe eyeball it at first! And then you can dig back in and see where your instincts were off, what you can improve, etc.

Art studies/master studies are occasionally about painstakingly exacting recreation, down to the brush stroke, but that’s hardly the only way to go about doing it. 👍🏼

[mizgnomer]

David Tennant - from The Sunday Times Magazine - Good Omens promotion

Bonus:

[drawingden]

Drawing Clothes Tips by joua.k

[catchymemes]

[whifferdills]

https://www.the-pro-creator.com/2019/01/I-hate-adobe-and-so-should-you.html

[saltmalkin]

Was getting some of my images ready to be made into prints today so I thought I’d make a guide for anyone else interested in making prints of their work :D

[amandajespersenholm]

Hey, your timing and spacing is insanely good; would you have any pointers about time charts? I seem to always fumble on those.

Thanks for the compliment! Warms my tiny heart…

I actually rarely use charts while I’m animating, as I always retime the whole thing back and fourth until the end. (As an example my Joker animation are closer to having 400-500 frames compared to the 300 in the rough not-very-updated charts)

The charts are often added later to help a cleanup artist and/or inbetweener figuring out the intended spacing for the moment.

However, they can be super handy to have as a tool on the side, and a good practice as to figure out the spacing between keys, so definitely try to use them. Just don’t worry about the numbers too much..

Tbh I often add them mainly because it looks nice… hehe… eeh. Though also for practical reasons.. of course.. ehm

My general advise is to overall keep your inbetweens and breakdowns CLOSE to the key. If you want to keep it snappy, favour the ease ins/outs close to the key drawing. A lot of new animators (me included) tend to have everything too smooth and floaty as they overanalize/explain the moment inbetween.. just keep it simple and snappy. That’s one advise at least ^^

Step though the animations you feel look nice and see how it works..

[artsekey]

ITS NOT A COMPLIMENT, CHARLES

GET INSPIRED, NOT JEALOUS

[classyartichoke]

If you’re making art, never feel discouraged. Artists of all levels want to see eachother improve.

[bara-landshark-deactivated20160]

Some Artist Tips you May or May Not Know

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~

[walrusqueen]

Binging on everything in this blog today.

[unmutedlark-blog]

medically accurate muscle chart:

[shutframe]

As someone who works in therapy for a living, I can confirm this is 100% accurate

[nineprotons]

@cosmicdwarf

[stele3]

For Traitor: neck retraction exercise. While lying in bed with your head flat against the mattress, give yourself the biggest double chin you can. Repeat 10 times.

For Jackass: stop hiking your shoulders up to your ears. This is pretty much a stress thing, it’s human instinct to protect our neck when we’re under stress so that predators can’t get at it. Easiest way to do that is be elevating the shoulders, so. Periodically take not of where your shoulders are at.

Absolute Fuckwaffle: stretch out your chest. The rhomboids on the back work to keep our shoulder blades back, so when we’re hunched forward they are constantly straining to do their job. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as telling you to stand up straight, since our pectorals get chronically tight and prevent us from doing so. Step one: pectoral stretches. Hold for at least 20 seconds.

Asshole: Superman exercises. Like the rhomboids, the ESGs are straining against the slump. Stretching the chest will help them, too, but then you e got to strengthen your back. Do 20 of those per day.

[curlicuecal]

traitor tried to murder me last night and fuckwaffle is always up on my shit

I’m gonna try these tips