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into-the-feniverse

Trigun Character Cheat Sheet Masterpost 🤞

(Cause I kept making updates to them and it just makes more sense to have them all in one place)

[Last updated: 9/10/24]

All cheat sheets can also be found here: bit.ly/trigunresources

Additional resources under the cut!

laboratoryrats

Find References to Draw a Head from Any Angle!

The web application returns images of heads at certain angles. Super helpful resource for figuring out how to draw a head at a tricky angle

With tags for emotions, glasses, different ages, and more!

Find reference images of faces in different orientations.

ceruleanterrapin

How to draw TMNT 2012 Part 1 - The Carapace's Shape, Costal & Vertebral Scutes, and Marginal Scutes

Turtle shells are comprised of three main components:

The carapace - the part of the shell on a turtle's back

The plastron - the part of the shell that is on the turtle's front

The bridge - the part on the side that connects the carapace and plastron together

Today, we will be focusing on the carapace of the shell

#1 The Shape

The carapace's shape is essentially an oval. Now, how wide the oval is actually varies between the four turtles. If you look closely, the shape and size of the carapace between Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey isn't exactly the same. But, we will get more into that in a different tutorial

For now, let's just sketch out a generic shell shape that can be used as a base for any 2012 turtle, starting with a basic oval. This will be our "inner ring"

Afterwards, add a slightly bigger oval around it to form the "outer ring"

Now, sharpen the upper and bottom edges of both ovals very slightly as illustrated below

You now have the base of a turtle shell

#2 The Costal and Vertebral Scutes

There's quite a bit to break down in this part, so let's take it one step at a time

First of all, what are scutes? Scutes are external plates found on the carapace of a turtle. In other words, you see those hexagonal shapes on the shell? Those are the scutes

Now, what are the costal and vertebral scutes? These are the scutes on the "inner ring" of the carapace that you drew in step one (Vertebral scutes are labeled with a "V", costal scutes are labeled with a "C")

As you can see, the vertebral scutes are located along the spine of the turtle. Meanwhile, the costal scutes surround the vertebral scutes

So, how do you draw the costal and vertebral scutes? We’ll break them down into three categories: The middle vertebral scutes, upper and lower vertebral scutes, and the costal scutes

The Middle Vertebral Scutes:

These are the only scutes that form a complete hexagon. They are located in the middle of the carapace. It’s important to note that in tmnt 2012 there’s only two of them. Now, you would expect these to be centered exactly in the middle of the carapace, but that's actually not entirely true. The middle vertebral scutes are actually placed slightly higher in the carapace rather than directly in the center

There's still one issue though, the belt the turtles wear. While the top middle vertebral scute is in full view, the bottom one is covered by the belt. Sure we could imagine what the bottom middle vertebral scute looks like, but we want to be accurate. Luckily, there's one scene in the show were we actually get to see it uncovered without the any gear in the way

In this frame where Leo's brothers are pulling him out of the tub we can see what the bottom middle vertebral scute looks like. Rather than being a perfect hexagon, it's more elongated and vertical

"Okay, that's nice and all but how do you actually draw any of this?"

For the top middle vertebral scute, you're going to want to draw a normal hexagon near the top of the carapace:

For the bottom middle vertebral scute, the process is similar. However, instead we're going to stretch out the lower half of the hexagon vertically to make it longer

The Upper and Lower Vertebral Scutes:

Due to the offset of the middle vertebral scutes, this makes the upper vertebral scute very small and the lower vertebral scute very big

To draw them, pay attention to where the red circles are. That's going to be where we will start connecting lines

First we're going to draw two diagonal lines upwards from the top middle vertebral scute where the corners are

Then from there we're going to draw two diagonal lines downwards from the bottom middle vertebral scute where the corners are

And just like that, the upper and lower vertebral scutes are completed

The Costal Scutes:

The costal scutes can be found surrounding the vertebral scutes. Drawing these scutes is actually quite easy

Once again, we're going to look at where the red circle are on the sketch. Those are the points where we will be connecting lines to

Starting with the top middle vertebral scute, we're going to draw lines at a slightly upward diagonal angle from where the middle points of the hexagon are

Now, we're going to repeat the same with the bottom middle vertebral scute. But, instead, we're going to draw the lines at a slightly downward diagonal angle

The costal and vertebral scutes of the carapace are now completed. Let's move onto the marginal scutes

#3 The Marginal Scutes

Alright, time to add some more details to your turtle shell. Now we're going to be focusing on the marginal scutes

The marginal scutes are the "outer ring" of the carapace

As you may have noticed, there's many cracks within the marginal scutes in tmnt 2012. But, did you notice there's a pattern to where they appear?

Each crack in the marginal scutes is located near the top of each costal scute with an additional two on the upper vertebral scute and four on the lower vertebral scute

To draw the cracks in the marginal scutes, first we're going to put them near the top of each costal scute

Next, we're going to draw the two cracks that are above the upper vertebral scute and the four that are below the lower vertebral scute

Note that the cracks on the upper vertebral scute are very close together. Meanwhile, the outer cracks on the lower vertebral scute are very far apart while the cracks in the center are very close together

And just like that, your carapace is now completed. You could technically stop here, but if you want to add more details then let's continue

Extras

Everything from here on out is optional to the tutorial and is just to help add some extra flare to your shell. Now, let's begin, shall we?

Creases:

One tip to add some extra detail into your shell is to thicken the creases of the scutes. This can add the illusion of depth into your artwork

Grooves:

While we don't have access to the models used in the tv show, we can take a look at the models from one of the video games

If we zoom in we see that there's grooves within the scutes in the pattern of a spiral. This is reflective of turtles in real life. By adding these spiral grooves into your drawings, you can add texture into your artwork

Define Your Marginal Scutes:

Another important detail to note: While not shown in any of the models, in real life the marginal scutes are actually comprised of many sections, rather than just one big outer rim. By separating the marginal scutes into sections you add both more realism and detail to your carapace

By combining all of these extra little details together our shell ends up looking like this

I hope you guys enjoyed the tutorial! This took a long time to make and there's so much more I could go into. But, I'm going to have to split them into different parts or else this post would never end

I want to end this with saying I am not an expert on any of this stuff. There's always a chance some of the information in these posts could be wrong. But, hopefully they're still helpful to you in some way

Part 2 | Tutorial Masterpost

indieyuugure

Do you have any tips on drawing hands? (human and/or turtle both confuse and frustrate me)

Sure! Not sure how helpful it’ll be but I’ll try

Okay, so a lot of people have a LOT of trouble with hands because of their complexity, so let’s break it down to the base and build from there. So this is a weird rounded trapezoid thing that is very useful:

This is roughly the shape of your palm. Similar to drawing a tree, you need to start with the trunk before you can draw the branches.

The nifty thing about this shape is that when you squish it and warp it, it becomes different hands. For instance, you squish it on the y axis and it becomes a hand facing forwards!

Squish it on the x axis and now you have a hand from the side view!

So as you can see, this shape is very helpful and can be molded to be whatever you want!

Understanding the muscle on the palm is very important to making it look like a hand as well as helping to convey depth and assist in finger placement.

Here I have a diagram of the different sort of sections of a hand. Your thumb’s muscle is an oval, the muscle on the other side connected to your pinky is like a triangle thing and the part opposite to your knuckles is a rounded rectangle. I don’t usually do this unless I’m hand a LOT of trouble, but you can also pre-determine where each finger will be by using a circle to represent each knuckle.

Now we can move on to what people consider the hardest part, the fingers.

Truth be told, fingers are easier than you may think.

First, let’s cover the structure. Each of your fingers is made up of three joints, your knuckle, a middle knuckle, and a end knuckle which can all be represented with a circle, like this:

But you probably don’t wanna have to draw that every time, so use these as a kind of training wheels, practice a few times with these, so you understand the structure, then try taking them away. Soon enough you’ll find you can just freehand this. It takes time and practice, but eventually you’ll get it.

Also for reference, the middle finger should be about the same length as the palm, and the entire length of the hand(base of palm to tip of middle finger) should be about 3/4 of the character’s face from their chin to roughly passed their eye brows(obviously this can change slightly with face shape)

Next, let’s talk about fists, because unless you’re drawing all karate chops, you’re gonna need to draw fists, which—thankfully—are pretty easy because they are basically just cubes/squares.

The most difficult part is of course the fingers. Here’s a fist I drew in better detail. Notice the way the fingers are shaped and curve.

Here I’ve highlighted in red the path of the knuckles. Notice that you can see the most of the second digit on the pointer finger, and progressively less and less until you get to the pinkie. Generally speaking too—though depending on the angle it could change—the middle finger should have the biggest knuckle.

Now finally, here’s how to draw nails:

I don’t typically draw nails, but here’s a diagram for those who want to. Remember that the nails cover across the top of the finger which means they are shaped to the curve of your fingers. Also, thumb-nails are fatter and shorter than fingernails, so you can imagine it as squares and rectangles.

Alright, hopefully you found this helpful! Hands are very tricky and take lots of practice, so don’t give up! I still have trouble sometimes drawing hands. There are also tons of amazing tutorials on Pinterest for this sort of thing that go much more in depth on specific things.

Good question! :]

knighthearts

i watched one (1) video on how to draw hands that changed my life forever. like. i can suddenly draw hands again

these were all drawn without reference btw. i can just. Understand Hands now (for the most part, im sure theres definitely inaccuracies). im a little baffled

knighthearts

for those of u asking for the vid!

sabertoothwalrus

I got an ask from someone who felt timid about drawing curlier hair and wanted some advice! This is by NO means exhaustive and is mostly just my thought process for my own stylization. There are tons of resources for drawing more textured hair, so for this I just wanted to focus on curls. hope it helps!

everestseal

you cant just say you have a hack for drawing pinstripes and not tell us jude cmon

everestseal

@thinktanks

wickcipher

hey fellow medibang user here how do you do your shadows?

Hope this makes sense, I usually just play around with the layer blending and opacity to get the desired effect / match with the rest of the image

More examples:

Of course, this isn't the only way to shade (and it's definitely not the best way lol)

But this is a really simple way that I do it in Medibang

#OH saving this

cupcakeslushie

ok this has probably been already asked but i can’t find it….

what procreate brush do you use?

I used to use the pressured mono brush for everything, but now I mostly use it just for color blocking.

Lately, for lines I’ll switch between the calligraphy brush.

Or I’ll use this Rise brush

mcapriglioneart

how to draw arms ? ?

swagginsloths

holy fuck

shoutsofthunder

holy fuck is right… but… does it work with legs???

yes !!

but how much extend

^^^^^^^^^^

gabbyzvolt25

I NEARLY CHOKED

lifeofcynch

ENJFDFNFATFVFDF

deactivated-blog

finally. i can be accurate

shiny-charming

This is too fucking great to not reblog

wishem

I give it MASCLES

BIG MACHO

keithislactoseintolerant-deacti

🤣🤣

urhella-gaychloe

LMAOOOOOO

fernacular

Okay but for anyone who legit wants to know how to calculate it correctly:

The elbow joint on average rests a couple inches higher than the navel, so if you measure how long the distance is from the middle of the shoulder to that point then you have the length of the upper and fore arms!

fernacular

So if anyone’s wondering about legs too, the simplest rule of thumb is that the length from the top of the leg to the knee is equal to the distance between the top of the leg and the bottom of the pectorals:

And I wanna stress that when i say “top of the leg” i’m not talking about the crotch (please don’t flag me tumblr it’s an anatomical term) i’m talking about the point where the femur connects to the pelvis, which is higher up on the hips:

It’s easier to see what I’m talking about in this photo of a man squatting:

So yeah if you use that measurement when using this technique you should get fairly realistically proportioned legs:

But remember! messing with proportions is an important and fun part of character design! Know the rules first so you can then break them however you please!

im-a-hyperion-vault-hunter-deac

HOW THE HELL DID I FIND THIS POST OMG

erasaure

i-am-corbin-dallas

Licherally in the midst of drawing a guy and crying at how bad the arms are. Thanks Tumbles

drrockbell

I only ever saw the part where people started drawing the limbs outrageously long and genuinely wanted to know how to fix that, so I’m really thankful to see the rest.

pinkmistle06

Reblogging for my art buddies!

just-laufeyson-deactivated20231

This is super helpful for me now :D

kiraoji

art cheats

hello i am here today to not lose track of the art cheats i have discovered over the years. what i call art cheat is actually a cool filter/coloring style/way to shade/etc. that singlehandedly makes art like 20 times better

80’s anime style

glitch effect

glow effects

adding colors to grayscale paintings

foreshortening ( coil )

foreshortening ( perspective )

clipping group (lines)

clipping group (colors)

dramatic lighting ( GOOD )

shading metal

lighting faces

that is all for today, do stay tuned as i am always hunting for cool shit like this

nimpnawakproduction

The ultimate reference sheets for all of Vash's outfits in Trigun maximum (without commentaries)

I made another post more complete with commentaries and pages from the manga, read it too to know everything about the process!

#trigun ref

valenrepetto

Small art tip! By me <3

fujo

SenshiStock’s gallery consists of millions of pictures that are free to use as reference.

General Drawing Poses Sit and Kneel Dramatic and Reaching Drawing Poses Magic and Hogwarts Drawing Poses Staff Weapon Pose Reference Hammer, Axe and Bat Pose Reference Sword Weapon Drawing Reference Small Bladed Weapon Pose Reference Gun Weapon Pose Reference Bow and Arrow Archery Stock Foreshortening and Perspective Poses Dynamic Flying Falling Action Poses Deafeated or Laying Drawing Poses Magic Crystal Magical Girl Wand Weapon Transformations and Dance Cards Back Pose Reference Pin Up Inspired Poses for Drawing Performances Poses Life in General Poses Fights and Fighting Pose Reference Leaning Poses Classic Sailor Senshi Poses Wings Sailor Moon Villains Pairs Romance or Couples Pose Reference All the Male Stock Hanging Stock Drawing Reference Three or More Groups Instruments Mirrors Whip Technobabble

fucktonofanatomyreferences

A glorious fuck-ton of human pose references.

dharmagun

reblogging because i feel like maybe i can draw again. sometime maybe soon.

jam-juice

This is amazingly useful. Yasss been needing a post like this for a while!

rosexknight

REBLOGGING FOR REFERENCE

wafflewarrior111

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

missroserose

I love the lawyer metaphor, because whenever I see “John knew that...” in prose writing I immediately think “how? How does he know it?” Interrogate your witnesses. Cross-examine them. Make them explain their reasoning. It pays dividends.

heck-in-a-handbasket

All of this, but also feels/felt. My editor has forbidden me from using those and it’s forced me to stretch my skills.

im-the-punk-who

[Link to the article for screen-readers]

pathos-logical

[ID: The full text of an article. It reads:

"Writing Advice": by Charles Palahniuk- In six seconds, you’ll hate me.

But in six months, you’ll be a better writer.

From this point forward – at least for the next half year – you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use.

The list should also include: Loves and Hates.

And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those, later.

Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…”

Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing. And loving and hating.

Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.”

Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it.

Instead of saying: “Adam knew Gwen liked him.”

You’ll have to say: “Between classes, Gwen was always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it. She’d roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume. The combination lock would still be warm from her ass. And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.”

In short, no more short-cuts. Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling.

Typically, writers use these “thought” verbs at the beginning of a paragraph (In this form, you can call them “Thesis Statements” and I’ll rail against those, later) In a way, they state the intention of the paragraph. And what follows, illustrates them.

For example:

“Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline. Traffic was backed up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits. Her cell phone battery was dead. At home, the dogs would need to go out, or there would be a mess to clean up. Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her neighbor…”

Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows? Don’t do it.

If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the others. Better yet, transplant it and change it to: Brenda would never make the deadline.

Don’t tell your reader: “Lisa hated Tom.”

Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail. Present each piece of evidence. For example:

“During role call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout: ‘Butt Wipe,” just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.”

One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering.

For example: Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take..”

A better break-down might be: “The schedule said the bus would come by at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57. You could see all the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus. No doubt, the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line, taking a nap. The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to be late. Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…”

A character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you can’t use “thought” verbs or any of their abstract relatives.

Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember.

No more transitions such as: “Wanda remember how Nelson used to brush her hair.”

Instead: “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.”

Again, Un-pack. Don’t take short-cuts.

Better yet, get your character with another character, fast. Get them together and get the action started. Let their actions and words show their thoughts. You -- stay out of their heads.

And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about using the bland verbs “is” and “have.”

One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone.

For example:

“Ann’s eyes are blue.”

“Ann has blue eyes.”

Versus:

“Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…”

Instead of bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a character has or is, in actions or gestures. At its most basic, this is showing your story instead of telling it.

And forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll hate the lazy writer who settles for: “Jim sat beside the telephone, wondering why Amanda didn’t call.”

Please. For now, hate me all you want, but don’t use “thought” verbs. After Christmas, go crazy, but I’d bet money you won’t. End ID]

abalonetea

my writing fundamentally changed forever ten years ago when i realized you could use sentence structure to control people’s heart rates. is this still forbidden knowledge or does everyone know it now

dreamtofswallowingcoins

?????? *raises hand* I’ve been writing for years and don’t know this trick by these words! do tell?

abalonetea

Okay, so a few people have asked for me to cite the dark magics at them, and i’m super happy to share because it’s my favorite thing ever.

so, let’s see if i can explain this the same way that i learned. read a sentence out loud. you come to a full stop when you hit the period, and you take a normal, breath. but, when you hit a comma, you take a slightly longer pause. and when you hit a dash - you take an even longer pause.

this is a natural rhythm that we pick up when we’re first taught to read; we do it without even thinking. but when you start to think about it, you realize that it can become a tool.

think of your heartbeat. a period is badump. a comma is badump-dump. and a dash is thump badump. one breath. a longer breath. two breaths.

that means what you read automatically affects the rhythm of your breathing and your heartrate. which means that you can control the amount of physical tension your reader feels… by altering your punction and your sentence structure.

for fast paced scenes, you use short sentences. a lot of hard stops. mostly periods, with just a few comma’s thrown in for the full breath. your reader’s heartrate accelerates. their breathing is slightly and unintentionally, on their end, quicker. you hit the dramatic ending of the scene - and your reader’s body phsyically feels the gasp, the breath of fresh air, of these longer sentences.

now, read that paragraph again ant take note of your natural pauses, and how it subtly affects your breathing.

the same thing can be said of comma’s and dashes. while they can be used as a breath of fresh air, they can also cause a new line of tension as they lead your reader to hold their breath. during this section, you should use longer sentences; breaking up the harshness of the pauses by using variations of punction. read this paragraph out loud from the start and take note of how long you go between pauses and full breaths.

and then, comes the biggest trick.

the hard stop.

the paragraph.

because while the periods, commas, and dashes are variations on a short stop, the paragraph is a hard stop. you take a full breath. you pause for a moment, then move to the start of the next paragraph.

which means you can create an entirely new sort of dramatic tension. read the sentences that are in bold. see how you take a naturally longer pause at the end of each paragraph?

see how it makes you feel?

how it makes you breath different?

how doing it once, twice, or three times creates a different line of tension?

this little magic trick can be used to cause a reader’s heartrate to speed up during a fight or chase scene. it can be used to cause their breathing to slow down during moments of dramatic tension, sorrow, or softness. and it can be used to create hard breaks that add a new level of physically felt emphasis to your written work.

i hope these examples make sense! it’s my favorite writing trick!

behodahlia

More 2012 turtles redesigned into the ROTTMNT style! I tweaked it a bit, made them more colorful and tried to give them a bit of their own styles, without deviating TOO far from 2012. According to google, the 2012 boys are three-toed box turtles, so the different colorations are based on random pictures of three-toed box turtles I found online. I am not a biologist.

But I like them!!! :) This is probably the most cartoony I've ever tried to draw, and it was very fun! the Rise style is literally SO beautiful I could stare at it forever, so getting to draw it a bit made me happy.

Also short Raph supremacy <3 Closeups under the cut!

lets-say-maybe

If there had been a cross over episode as tmnt is one to do this is absolutely how they should have looked.

behodahlia

🥺🥺🥺 thank you!! That's such a huge compliment, I'm so happy you think that.

Just imagine if we had gotten more seasons of ROTTMNT... I would've LOVED a typical TMNT crossover episode. I've read so many fics with that premise lol, but the real thing would've been fantastic. Such a great show, it deserved more seasons

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