Been There, Done That

Jean | 18 | Speaks INA, ENG, 日本語は今勉強中 | Mostly Random | Crying over college and SaboAce | Travelling for foods, OTPs and exploring cultures

[fashionsfromhistory]

Kimono

1700-1725 (Edo Period)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

[illustraice]

Ice spiced latte. Hey girl. Do you have any sources or recommendations on how to get better at drawing anatomy as well as shading.

Heyo Connie!

I guess the first thing I really gotta reccomend is Pinterest. This site is everything. I personally use it constantly for inspiration and of course, sources on areas of practice. Some pieces I have started just from a quick scroll through that website. 

 - THE LITERAL HOLY GRAIL OF ALL ANATOMY REFERENCES IM SERIOUS GO HERE EVERYONE GO HERE I FOUND THIS A FEW YEARS AGO AND I FUCKING CRIED.

For anatomy, my honest-to-god advice would have to be the most basic practice out there; draw from life. We see others everyday and it’s some of the most essential sources. I have discussed before that anatomy is a crucial aspect to creating a style as it will contribute to any style out there. Here’s the full anatomy talk I gave to an anon a while back. It covers most of the important shit I want to tell anybody. 

Anyway, from what I can collect over the years, anatomy relies mostly on basic shapes.

We’ll get into that later. For now, i’ll show you a technique that I practiced when I was younger from some random website. I can’t quite remember what the technique was called but let me just point out that any kind of technique the internet has will work or won’t with different people. It’s what you make of that technique yourself after you’re fluent with it that counts. There’s a lot personalaspects that have changed the technique I’ve used since i’ve stopped using it. Here’s a basic example of that technique;

As you can, most of the lines go after the circles. That’s the most basic body shape. What matters is actually the rendering of all of this. There’s a lot of mistakes that may come with doing any technique; a common one would have to be being neat with it. That’s not the case if you want to have a better flow in your drawing; be messy with your lines. Rendering will sort everything else afterwards. Being messy and almost spontaneous with these guidelines will allow your drawing to be more open to natural positions and prevent your character looking stiff. There’s also a stress that comes along with being neat with it all; you aim for perfect lines and that’s the case you shouldn’t be going for. The human body is flexible, it’s unexpected even. Rendering these lines will give you a clearer guide to the final product;

Rendering out the lines can sometimes mean just basically going over the lines in the first step but trust me when I say that rendering is all about decisions; whether your want to that leg just a bit closer to the other or an entire arm in a different position. And of course, the final lines come around eventually;

These techniques and the understanding that the human body can be defined into mere shapes are what I reccomend to anybody who wants to practice more anatomy. They can be used to sources such as basic pictures online. Here’s an example of the process;

After a few more lines, rendering;

I didn’t do significant lineart here but rather, refine more for the drawing;

As you can see, I fill out some of the blank spaces using lines. This is still part of a sketch process but is crucial once you move on to colouring and all sorts; shading is something I can’t define for everyone. Anyone could have a different take on shading but what I do reccomend is starting out easy! Find the most basic spots where you just know there should be shade. Of course, under the chin, the back of the legs. All these things can be a huge factor for your next step into your piece; it can contribute to how you use colours. The sketch process is the guideline in itself to everything that may come afterward. 

As for the lighting in shading itself; I would look into lighting angles around the face first as it is crucial to most of what you will probably draw later on. A book truly recommend is Dynamic Light and Shade by Burne Hogarth. It is such a beautifully detailed book that not only shows great examples of pieces themselves but also extends upon how the light can affect any work and what mood it can convey as well. Other reccomendations would go towards inspiration from others’ work and like I said, in real life. I cannot tell you how many pieces I have created are inspired by the light I observe in real life. Take photographs and skim through them if you must; I do it most days in all kinds of environments to see how the light can be used in my work. 

As for anatomy, here are some techniques you can use; 

- The Coil Technique 

- Here’s some good figure drawing tips. 

- I believe this is the technique I started out with a few years ago.

Others you can find by a quick scroll through the interwebz. 

I have so much more to say on these two subjects but honestly it will take years; this is the gist of it all, at least. 

I’m not the master of anatomy, i have too much to learn still but over the years, I’ve learned how to cope with things I never thought I could cope with. With practice, I swear to god, things do change. I remember when eyes were like hell to draw but now, I enjoy doing them because I’ve found my own way to doing them. I remember just dying at the thought of doing the goddamned hands but it’s not so bad these days. Everything is a stepping stone and anatomy as a whole will take years for people to really get by and I’m hardly there, so don’t worry if you’re still steady at it, everyone learns at their own pace and that’s okay. 

Adios amigos. 

[ohprcr]

He’s a baby,  He’ll get in big trouble if you leave him alone all day

[astrophagy]

          — vincent van gogh

[namface]

My headcanon is under dawn’s coat is her alternate outfit

[choodraws]

it’s casual thursday

[lostthebucky]

✿

[studio8bit]

[nkim-illustrates]

Spring Time Penguin 02.

[deactivated-blog]

Tears falling like stars

[bitchlovefashionshit]

Black Buttons Front Cactus Print Chiffon Blouse

[furumachi9-blog]

[mymodernmet]

Photographer Captures Heartwarming Portraits of Blind Cats to Help Them Get Adopted

[writerlyn]

The most important writing lesson I ever learned was not in a screenwriting class, but a fiction class.

This was senior year of college.  Most of us had already been accepted into grad school of some sort. We felt powerful, we felt talented, and most of all, we felt artistic.

It was the advanced fiction workshop, and we did an entire round of workshops with everyone’s best stories, their most advanced work, their most polished pieces. It was very technical and, most of all, very artistic.

IE: They were boring pieces of pretentious crap.

Now the teacher was either a genius OR was tired of our shit, and decided to give us a challenge.  Flash fiction, he said. Write something as quickly as possible.  Make it stupid.  Make it not mean a thing, just be a quick little blast of words. 

And, of course, we all got stupid.  Little one and two pages of prose without the barriers that it must be good. Little flashes of characters, little bits of scenarios.

And they were electric.  All of them. So interesting, so vivid, not held back by the need to write important things or artistic things. 

One sticks in my mind even today.  The guys original piece was a thinky, thoughtful piece relating the breaking up of threesomes to volcanoes and uncontrolled eruptions that was just annoying to read. But his flash fiction was this three page bit about a homeless man who stole a truck full of coca cola and had to bribe people to drink the soda so he could return the cans to recycling so he could afford one night with the prostitute he loved.

It was funny, it was heartfelt, and it was so, so, so well written.

And just that one little bit of advice, the write something short and stupid, changed a ton of people’s writing styles for the better.

It was amazing. So go.  Go write something small.  Go write something that’s not artistic.  Go write something stupid. Go have fun.

[lankybrunettewiththewickedjaw-d]

I’m not an artist, but I have more than a few friends who are, so I thought this might be a good thing to post. 

[askfibs-deactivated20190105]

Never blame your fans

I know many of you artists - whether you draw, write, or compose - are frustrated that your original work, especially your dream projects, aren’t getting the responses you were hoping for.

I feel the same way.

But some of you express your frustrations completely destructively and blame the world for not giving you the spotlight.

When you do that, you’re blaming your problems for existing rather than adjusting and compromising to solve them. You’re making excuses for your mistakes. You’re demanding the world to change but you are not willing to change with it.

This is the perfect mindset to NEVER succeed in anything, ever.

You need to accept some basic truths of art before you can go any further:

Your art should teach you as much as or more than it teaches others: If you claim your art opens horizons and widens minds, yours should be the first priority. You cannot speak without listening. You are not a righteous prophet enlightening the heathens with the true word. You are one humble person and your art is one humble person’s story.

There are no new stories, but there are always new storytellers. That amazing idea you have that nobody’s ever thought of before? Someone has. But nobody has told the story your way, or drawn the character your way, or sung the song your way. Art is not about being new. It is about being you.

Popular art is all about the beholder. All these shows and games with so much fan art? They got to that level because they command a personal investment from and serve the viewer - they have worlds their fans want to be part of, and your canon will be swept aside along the way. You the artist are not a god or a wise sage. You are a guide and a footman. To be an artist is to be humanity’s servant, not its lord - and there’s no shame in that.

Most of your fans are not artists or art critics. While there will be a good number of them in your fanbase, the vast majority are not going to be super-open-minded creative thinkers who value every single opinion, outlook, and story just because it’s done technically well. They will be ordinary people with ordinary, selfish interests, and they will care about your content more than your talent. You have to balance what you want to draw with what everyone wants to see.

But the most important part of being an artist or really a person at all is to understand this:

Nobody owes you success.

Nobody is under any obligation to pay anything you produce a second glance or support or promote it in any way.

Nobody is spiting or robbing you by not giving you a like or a reblog or a follow.

Every single gesture of appreciation you receive from someone is a courtesy - a gift that you earn, not a right you’re entitled to.

It is not the job of your audience to love your work. It is your job to make it lovable. And just because you are working really hard does not mean you are working in the right direction.

I know that thousands upon thousands of artists put hours or months or years into a project and feel like they get nothing in return. Sometimes it is not how hard you’re working but what you’re working for that is the problem. 

Sometimes you need to slow down and think, “Do I have to have this just so? What would the kind of person interested in my work be looking for, and where can I address it? Am I maybe taking myself and my work a little too seriously?” 

And a lot of artists don’t realize that as an amateur, you are the sole proprietor - you are your art. Whether people like you determines whether they like your art.

And that’s why when you blame everybody else and post ungrateful, catty garbage like this:

… you don’t subsequently become the next Toby Fox.

The simple fact is that people will pay you attention if they think your offering + your hassle are worth their attention.

You need to create a world that someone other than you will have fun in and you need to be a good host to everyone who visits. 

You need a world that will welcome your fans with open arms.

You need to build a world people can live & play in.

And you and your world need to appreciate your fans just for showing up.

Because this is exactly what the big fish do.

because they spread your work around to more people without shanking you on credit and who gets the likes

because they make your work show up sooner & more often on searches and are simply a nice gesture

because they take time out and pay good money to listen to your story and make you from a pauper into a prince

because if you appreciate no one, no one will appreciate you, nor should they

[memomemomemo53]

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