Gretelein

Artist who loves to draw comics

[trufflesmushroom]

How?

(Follow me on Patreon!!)

[ggracee]

Even if ya dont know who these two are please just look at this, they’re so cute!!

[sandracharlet]

I hope this tutorial will help someone. :)

[drawingden]

How to draw cosmos flowers by urbankate_in_ca

[calvin-arium]

It’s here !! The guide for two-legged people who don’t know how to draw wheelchairs !!! 7 pages of infodump ! Disclaimer : I don’t know everything, I have one (1) experience of wheelchair user who used both bad and good chairs, and I share what I learned.

Image description :

1) Calvin in his wheelchair saying “yo” under a huge title “how to draw manual wheelchairs properly by Calvin Arium, a wheelchair user comic artist”.

2) A character says “my character self propels in a chair that was outdated in 1970 lol” Calvin says “so it looks like you two legged people don’t know the difference between an hospital chair and a chair made to be independant” an arrow point the crapppy chair, saying “we never want to see this again”

a bubble says “the hospital chair is extremely unpractical, tough considering it’s cheaper than a good custom chair a lot of us have only this”

3) a character hurt himself trying to reach the wheels of the hospital chair. Several arrows point why the chair is unpractical : “high backrest restrain shoulders movement” “huge armrest restrains wheel access” “separated footrest : amovible, cheap, bulky” “x structure, foldable but heavy” “huge front casters for stability” “heavy wheels”

4) Several arrows point an active wheelchair (the KSL by Küshall) : “usually no armrest” “a low backrest allow more movement” “light, design, ferning expersive” “special cushion to avoind injuries” “knee angle is usually 90°” “one single piece of frame, sometimes entirely welded” “weight : from 4 to 10kg” “often rigid” “center of the wheel is the center of gravity” “higher quality wheels : less spikes”

5) A hand grab different parts of the wheel, pushing harder in the second half. Bubbles says “some have gloves, some don’t. The hand must grab the biggest area possible. Less movement = more energy. This is a common but not only way to push.Calvin is on his back wheels, rolling on grass and dirt bubble says “popping a wheelie is when a wheelchair user rolls on their back wheels to roll on every complicated surface.

6) several drawings illustrate the folding frame, the ergonomic but rigid and expensive backrest, the separated footrest (only for folding frame), the handles, the folding handles, athe amovibles handles, or no handles, the cool fancy loopwheels, the pretty custom colors 

7) More Features ! The fancy rigid-foldable frame, the anti tippers (sometimes used by beginners), the motorization (wheels, smart drive) when propelling yourself is difficult Calvin says "and now vroom vroom motherfuckers”

Consider also supporting me by buying me a coffee on ko-fi : ko-fi.com/calvinarium 

Thanks !

[kiera--b]

friday night tutorial time

this post is massive but i tried to cover both the conceptual and technical side, hopefully it’s somewhat coherent

continued under cut

Keep reading

[solnecco]

a quick grass tutorial

I’ve never really wrote a tutorial before so apologies if this is bad

1. okay first thing I do is pick three colors, a mid, dark, and light. I like to check the colors in greyscale to make sure there’s enough contrast between each one.

I then plop down a blob of whatever my middle tone color is.

2. next, I take my dark color and just sort of randomly place it around. I try to make sure there’s a good amount of both the mid and dark tones spread throughout. I personally like to keep it kinda messy. I also have pen pressure on for both brush size and opacity, so I can have some blending action going on.

3. for the next step I do the exact same thing as before, except with the light color.

4. aight this is where we start adding details. see how you just have a bunch of colors and edges where two colors meet? use the eyedropper and go to an area where two colors meet, eyedrop a color, and then use that color to draw in your grass blades. I do this at every point where colors meet. should note I personally like to use a square brush, but you can really just use anything.

5. you can technically stop at the last step if you’re going for a more simple look, but to add more details I go to the “empty” areas of solid color and just draw in random strokes using a color nearby. it’s just a way to fill up the empty space.

6. basically more of the same idea of eyedropping and drawing. for more variety so things look interesting, I like to add random plant shapes.

7. and so the grass doesn’t look too plain, I add random dots of color and pretend it’s flowers and stuff.

and there you have it, this is how I approach drawing grass.

[stringbing-deactivated20210318]

Animation smears lecture from Chapter 3 or FULL VERSION of my Complete Introduction to 2D Animation which you can find on https://gumroad.com/stringbing

[idk-kun]

How do you get the staticky look on your recent art? ( on rin rin)

I have the entire drawing flattened on one layer, and on a new layer on top choose Filter>Draw>Perlin Noise (ignore the layer folder on the very top I was too lazy and forgot to move it)

I change noise settings to something like this

change that layer to overlay or soft light

I lower the opacity

then merged the entire thing on a new layer

and edit that with posterization

mess with the numbers

then I lower the opacity of that layer where I see fit

Voilà

[animepopheart]

★ Emmm | FMA Major Arcana collection ☆ ✔ republished w/permission

[chicinlicin]

Some quick animation smear guides I put together for a friend! not sure if it works as a tutorial without my in person commentary, also more intended as a guide to show examples of basic/common smear types :O

…might make a tutorial on how to use smears another time…

[askagamedev]

Animation Primer (Part 1): Core Principles

I’ve been meaning to talk about how game animation works in general because it’s such an integral element to contemporary video games. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the broadest and deepest elements in entertainment today, which means that it’s very difficult to talk about any specifics without everyone involved understanding the fundamentals first. There’s a lot involved - animation in games is incredibly complicated, because it builds off of general animation principles (art), as well as technology (engineering), and is used in different ways in games (design). So, over the course of several posts, I’m going to try giving you all a primer on how game animation works. I’ll start from the most basic core principles (the twelve principles of animation), then move on to game-specific animation and how animators deal with it, and finally talk about how the animations work from an engineering perspective.

That said… let’s begin. First off, let’s try to understand - what is animation? The best way I’ve heard it described is “Sculpting Time” - it’s a distinct means of showing something happening in four dimensions (length, width, depth, and time). A punch cannot exist in only two or three dimensions - it must take place over time. Our human brains are very good at taking separate pieces and putting them together into a coherent whole. When we see a whole bunch of distinct, individual images in close proximity to each other, our brains will stitch them together to a single action. That subconscious mental stitching is the foundation of animation.

As artists figured out how this worked, they experimented and discovered ways to make animation look better. Animators took their traditional drawings and experimented with bending and breaking rules, inventing techniques like “smearing” - exaggerating characters in individual frames in order to make the overall motion look smoother - in the process. This is why freeze frames of old Disney animated movies are often so weird looking - they are masters of using this technique.

Generally, a “good looking” animation is one that reads well to the viewer - all animation is constructed for the benefit of the viewer more than anything else. As such, it means that the motion has to convey a story to the viewer. Good animation will convey a clearer story to the viewer than bad, and that translates to “looking better”. The animation pioneers’ wisdom was essentially boiled down to twelve fundamental principles.

Today, I’ll go over the twelve principles. All images taken from @the12principles.

The Twelve Principles of Animation

1. Squash and Stretch. When creatures move, they don’t just move parts of their body through space. There’s a give and take involved, where parts of the body will flatten more and others will stretch further - muscles elongate and contract, bones and joints will change position, and so on and so forth. This doesn’t only apply to living things either - inanimate objects like balls, water droplets, and other things will also change shape as force is applied to it. A baseball hit by a bat is most definitely not round at the point of impact. Humans understand this on a subconscious level, and are keyed to look for it. Seeing bodies contract and expand makes the viewer feel like the motion is more palpable. 

2. Anticipation. Humans subconsciously look for clues for something to happen, even if it happens only a fraction of a second before it. By showing the viewers something to clue them in as to what is about to happen, it primes them for when the action actually does happen. Without it, it can feel like the action came out of nowhere. By giving a moment’s notice, the action is conveyed more clearly.

3. Staging. Staging is about clarity of intention. You want the viewer to understand what feeling or emotion is being conveyed by the animated object at all times, and it should be clear through the motion exactly what that feeling is. By providing clarity of feeling, the viewer subconsciously relates better to the moving object.

4. Pose to Pose. This is the idea of having several key poses for the moving object, and then filling in images for what happens in between those key poses. This is a natural extension of computers’ ability to interpolate between numbers and figure out what happens “in between” at a specific time step between two numbers. There is another method of doing this called “Straight Ahead” where the animator creates images from frame to frame without a clear goal of where to end up and that lends itself better to things like morphing shapes or visual effects like fire burning, explosions, water splashing, etc. 

5. Follow Through. Action can’t exist in a vacuum. Similar to Anticipation above, Follow Through means that the movement doesn’t just stop. It continues moving because it has weight, and thus has a result. Our brains are primed to look for this. Stuff that just stops moving all of a sudden feel abnormal to the viewer. By allowing the viewer to see the results of the motion, it feels more real. 

6. Slow In and Slow Out. This principle means that our brains are primed to see things start slow, end slow, and do most of the movement in between. Slow In and Slow Out is similar to Anticipation and Follow Through but at an even more basic level. It only refers to the speed of the movements at these crucial end points, but it smooths out the transition and helps our subconscious brain because it’s primed to think about things in terms of weight and inertia - we expect things to slide to a stop, we expect things to require more effort to start, and we expect gravity to play a part.

7. Arcs. Circles and arcing motion are pleasant to the human eye. When we move, we tend to move in arcs, rather than straight lines. When we walk, our heads naturally bob and dip, creating an arc. When we gesture, our arms usually move in a circular motion, rather than a straight line. When we speak, we subconsciously adjust for a natural cadence in our voices, rather than maintain a constant monotone. Humans like arcs. In animation, we subconsciously want to see them.

8. Secondary Action. Secondary Action is similar to Follow Through above where we expect to see the results of the motion. Nothing moves alone in a vacuum, after all. This means that the stuff that the moving thing may be touching or interact with should also show effects from that movement. An object on a table might get jostled when the table is bumped, yelling at someone might cause the listener to wince, or firing a gun would cause recoil in the arms of the person firing it. It’s important to incorporate secondary action into motions to make them more believable.

9. Timing. Timing affects how we perceive things to be by watching them move. Observe the two actions animated above. What does this tell you about the big cube that the smaller cubes are pushing? Perhaps the bottom big cube is heavier and requires more effort than the top one? Maybe the top one is on a floor that’s easier to slide things on than the bottom? See how just the timing of the motion affects your perception of it.

10. Exaggeration. We tend to lose a lot of the nuance of natural motion, especially when viewed at a distance. When creating an experience for a viewer, we don’t want to take that risk… so the best way to make sure that the viewer doesn’t miss it is to exaggerate its motion. Arcs become bigger, timing becomes tighter, secondary motions become more elaborate. This helps them read better to the viewer. It might feel like making the motions obvious would be a little hamfisted to the viewer, but it’s actually very useful.

11. Solid Drawing. Solid Drawing means to take the principles of perspective and weight into account when creating the moving object. When an object of a certain size and shape moves, viewers will assume certain characteristics like inertia, weight, and so on. Animation does not inherently carry these sorts of constraints, but the wise animator will still take them into account when creating those motions. An enormous object should treated as if it were heavy. A thin object might bend, flex, or shatter. A round object might roll. A fragile object can break.

12. Appeal. This is kind of tough to describe, but Appeal basically refers to the character being interesting and memorable to look at. Something about the character stands out in your mind and you have a generally good reaction towards it. You should be able to recall the character from memory. Even villains have Appeal - Ganondorf and Ganon are extremely memorable visually, even if they aren’t heroes. But Megatron from Michael Bay’s Transformers movies has too much detail clutter and obfuscates what visually defines him. If you’ve seen the movies, can you remember any sort of visual distinction about him? Could you choose him out of a silhouette? That’s what happens when Appeal is missing.

If you’re observant, you’ll see that actual real-life motion often incorporates these principles in general. These aren’t just suggestions for making animation look better, but an understanding of all of the little details that go into motion in order to make it look believable. 

Further Reading:

[Art Eater’s blog post on the 12 principles of Animation using Darkstalkers as an example]

Next time, we will go over how 3D animators actually deal with making things move.

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent questions: The FAQ

[askagamedev]

I am out of the country until the 28th, which means vacation reblogs until I get back

[kyletwebster]

We artists have noticed something: communication with some of our clients (new and old) has not been very good, of late. While there are still many art directors, creative directors, and business owners who efficiently and effectively communicate with us, there are seemingly just as many who are in need of important tips on how to properly assign work or manage projects. Please note: I do not blame these individuals — not one bit; hiring artists for projects is not usually something you are taught in school, and there is no Communicating with Artists for Dummies book, as far as I know.

Therefore, here is a guideline that will lead to improved communication, fewer revisions, better artwork, and fewer headaches for all involved.

1. Your first email to an artist should not read: “Hey, are you available for a job?”

This kind of email is a waste of everybody’s time, because all of the important information is missing: description of the job, timeline, and budget. In order to reduce the back-and-forth between the individual requesting the creative work, and the artist, simply take a moment to include the important information in the initial email request. For example: “Dear Ms. Granger, we are publishing a story in our magazine about the ongoing conflict between hedgehogs and walruses. We will need a cover, a full page, and two spot illustrations. The deadline for sketches is March 1st, and the final artwork will be due March 8th. Our budget is $3750. Are you available / interested in working with us on this assignment? Please let me know by 5pm today. Thank you.”

With one email, you have now given the artist all of the info needed to decide whether or not to accept the job. As an illustrator, most of the emails I received ten years ago read just like the above. Lately, this has not been the case. I’m not sure what happened, but let’s fix that.

2. Please do not expect artists to read minds.

Details are very important. When sending emails about your job, give as many relevant details as possible to an artist, if the assigned artwork has specific requirements. Artists are great at solving creative problems, but we cannot guess what you are looking for if we are not told up front. For example, if you tell an illustrator to draw “a car on a street,” then the illustrator will assume the make and model of the car are not important. The illustrator will also assume the street can be any kind of street. Therefore, it is not fair to the artist to reject the final art because you expected a vintage Porsche on the Autobahn. Please be sure to communicate all required elements of the art in your earliest correspondence with your artist, and it will be smooth sailing for all.

If you tell an artist you need a mural of a vineyard painted on a wall in your restaurant, do not wait until the artist is half finished with a stunning, 20 foot scene with bright morning light casting cool shadows over the grapevines, to tell them that you need the time of day to be sunset. Not only is this a problem for your timeline, but the artist must be paid for all the changes that need to be made because the communication was not clear from the beginning.

Sometimes, you love the portfolio of a certain artist and you wish to give this person artistic freedom when commissioning a piece of work. Let us not confuse this wish for unbridled creativity with a lack of relevant information. For instance, the recent recipient of the Richard Gangel Art Director Award, SooJin Buzelli, is famous for giving her editorial artists a lot of freedom. But, when she assigns work, she actually has spent a good deal of time figuring out a way to distill a complex article down to its essential message or theme. She then sends this one or two sentence summary to a carefully selected illustrator, providing that individual with a perfect launchpad from which to create a unique visual solution. This is good communication. The artist comes away with enough information to be creative and daring without producing a piece of work that completely misses the mark.

3. Please Don’t Leave Us Hanging

This is just common courtesy. I often get asked if I am available for an illustration and I then respond in the affirmative with some questions about the assignment or the budget or some other detail. Then, no reply ever comes. A week later, I will see another artist blog about completing the very same assignment that was initially emailed to me. While I understand that everybody is very busy, and emails are flying around at the speed of light, I urge you to please remember that it is unprofessional and rude to simply leave an artist hanging. We often will put other things on hold or rework our weekly schedule to accommodate a project that we think is moving forward. A simple email to let us know that you will be working with somebody else, the job is cancelled, you need to consult with a coworker before moving forward, etc. is all we need to move on and stay on top of our other jobs. There is a popular misconception that artists are free spirits, day dreaming on a hillside and waiting for inspiration to strike, checking emails from paint smattered laptops touted around in burlap sacks … or whatever … but hey! Artists who make a living making art are working. They’re working all the time. Keeping an artist in the dark about the status of a project upsets their productivity in a major way. Please don’t do this.

I welcome comments. Please be polite. Thanks.

- Kyle T. Webster

[berrybird-blog1]

Helpful things for action writers to remember

Sticking a landing will royally fuck up your joints and possibly shatter your ankles, depending on how high you’re jumping/falling from. There’s a very good reason free-runners dive and roll. 

Hand-to-hand fights usually only last a matter of seconds, sometimes a few minutes. It’s exhausting work and unless you have a lot of training and history with hand-to-hand combat, you’re going to tire out really fast. 

Arrows are very effective and you can’t just yank them out without doing a lot of damage. Most of the time the head of the arrow will break off inside the body if you try pulling it out, and arrows are built to pierce deep. An arrow wound demands medical attention. 

Throwing your opponent across the room is really not all that smart. You’re giving them the chance to get up and run away. Unless you’re trying to put distance between you so you can shoot them or something, don’t throw them. 

Everyone has something called a “flinch response” when they fight. This is pretty much the brain’s way of telling you “get the fuck out of here or we’re gonna die.” Experienced fighters have trained to suppress this. Think about how long your character has been fighting. A character in a fist fight for the first time is going to take a few hits before their survival instinct kicks in and they start hitting back. A character in a fist fight for the eighth time that week is going to respond a little differently. 

ADRENALINE WORKS AGAINST YOU WHEN YOU FIGHT. THIS IS IMPORTANT. A lot of times people think that adrenaline will kick in and give you some badass fighting skills, but it’s actually the opposite. Adrenaline is what tires you out in a battle and it also affects the fighter’s efficacy - meaning it makes them shaky and inaccurate, and overall they lose about 60% of their fighting skill because their brain is focusing on not dying. Adrenaline keeps you alive, it doesn’t give you the skill to pull off a perfect roundhouse kick to the opponent’s face. 

Swords WILL bend or break if you hit something hard enough. They also dull easily and take a lot of maintenance. In reality, someone who fights with a sword would have to have to repair or replace it constantly.

Fights get messy. There’s blood and sweat everywhere, and that will make it hard to hold your weapon or get a good grip on someone. 

A serious battle also smells horrible. There’s lots of sweat, but also the smell of urine and feces. After someone dies, their bowels and bladder empty. There might also be some questionable things on the ground which can be very psychologically traumatizing. Remember to think about all of the character’s senses when they’re in a fight. Everything WILL affect them in some way. 

If your sword is sharpened down to a fine edge, the rest of the blade can’t go through the cut you make. You’ll just end up putting a tiny, shallow scratch in the surface of whatever you strike, and you could probably break your sword. 

ARCHERS ARE STRONG TOO. Have you ever drawn a bow? It takes a lot of strength, especially when you’re shooting a bow with a higher draw weight. Draw weight basically means “the amount of force you have to use to pull this sucker back enough to fire it.” To give you an idea of how that works, here’s a helpful link to tell you about finding bow sizes and draw weights for your characters.  (CLICK ME)

If an archer has to use a bow they’re not used to, it will probably throw them off a little until they’ve done a few practice shots with it and figured out its draw weight and stability. 

People bleed. If they get punched in the face, they’ll probably get a bloody nose. If they get stabbed or cut somehow, they’ll bleed accordingly. And if they’ve been fighting for a while, they’ve got a LOT of blood rushing around to provide them with oxygen. They’re going to bleed a lot. 

Here’s a link to a chart to show you how much blood a person can lose without dying. (CLICK ME) 

If you want a more in-depth medical chart, try this one. (CLICK ME)

Hopefully this helps someone out there. If you reblog, feel free to add more tips for writers or correct anything I’ve gotten wrong here. 

[ave-aria]

How to apply Writing techniques for action scenes:

- Short sentences. Choppy. One action, then another. When there’s a lull in the fight, take a moment, using longer phrases to analyze the situation–then dive back in. Snap, snap, snap. - Same thing with words - short, simple, and strong in the thick of battle. Save the longer syllables for elsewhere. - Characters do not dwell on things when they are in the heat of the moment. They will get punched in the face. Focus on actions, not thoughts. - Go back and cut out as many adverbs as possible. - No seriously, if there’s ever a time to use the strongest verbs in your vocabulary - Bellow, thrash, heave, shriek, snarl, splinter, bolt, hurtle, crumble, shatter, charge, raze - it’s now. - Don’t forget your other senses. People might not even be sure what they saw during a fight, but they always know how they felt. - Taste: Dry mouth, salt from sweat, copper tang from blood, etc - Smell: OP nailed it - Touch: Headache, sore muscles, tense muscles, exhaustion, blood pounding. Bruised knuckles/bowstring fingers. Injuries that ache and pulse, sting and flare white hot with pain. - Pain will stay with a character. Even if it’s minor. - Sound and sight might blur or sharpen depending on the character and their experience/exhaustion. Colors and quick movements will catch the eye. Loud sounds or noises from behind may serve as a fighter’s only alert before an attack. - If something unexpected happens, shifting the character’s whole attention to that thing will shift the Audience’s attention, too. - Aftermath. This is where the details resurface, the characters pick up things they cast aside during the fight, both literally and metaphorically. Fights are chaotic, fast paced, and self-centered. Characters know only their self, their goals, what’s in their way, and the quickest way around those threats. The aftermath is when people can regain their emotions, their relationships, their rationality/introspection, and anything else they couldn’t afford to think or feel while their lives were on the line.

Do everything you can to keep the fight here and now. Maximize the physical, minimize the theoretical. Keep things immediate - no theories or what ifs.

If writing a strategist, who needs to think ahead, try this: keep strategy to before-and-after fights. Lay out plans in calm periods, try to guess what enemies are thinking or what they will do. During combat, however, the character should think about his options, enemies, and terrain in immediate terms; that is, in shapes and direction. (Large enemy rushing me; dive left, circle around / Scaffolding on fire, pool below me / two foes helping each other, separate them.)

Lastly, after writing, read it aloud. Anyplace your tongue catches up on a fast moving scene, edit. Smooth action scenes rarely come on the first try.

[uccelletto-di-kokuyo]

More for martial arts or hand-to-hand in general

What a character’s wearing will affect how they fight.  The more restricting the clothes, the harder it will be.  If they’re wearing a skirt that is loose enough to fight in, modesty will be lost in a life or death situation.

Jewelry can also be very bad.  Necklaces can be grabbed onto.  Bracelets also can be grabbed onto or inhibit movement.  Rings it can depend on the person.

Shoes also matter.  Tennis shoes are good and solid, but if you’re unused to them there’s a chance of accidentally hurting your ankle.  High heels can definitely be a problem.  However, they can also make very good weapons, especially for someone used to balancing on the balls of their feet.  Side kicks and thrusting kicks in soft areas (like the solar plexus) or the feet are good ideas.  They can also (hopefully) be taken off quickly and used as a hand weapon.  Combat boots are great but if someone relies more on speed or aren’t used to them, they can weigh a person down.  Cowboy boots can be surprisingly good.  Spin kicks (if a character is quick enough to use them) are especially nasty in these shoes.

If a character is going to fight barefoot, please keep location in mind.  Concrete can mess up your feet quick.  Lawns, yards, etc often have hidden holes and other obstacles that can mess up a fighter.  Tile floors or waxed wood can be very slippery if you’re not careful or used to them.

Likewise, if it’s outside be aware of how weather will affect the fight.  The sun’s glare can really impede a fighter’s sight.  A wet location, inside or outside, can cause a fighter to slip and fall.  Sweat on the body can cause a fighter to lose a grip on an opponent too.

Pressure points for a trained fighter are great places to aim for in a fight.  The solar plexus is another great place to aim for.  It will knock the wind out of anyone and immediately weaken your opponent. 

It your character is hit in the solar plexus and isn’t trained, they’re going down.  The first time you get hit there you are out of breath and most people double over in confusion and pain.  If a fighter is more used to it, they will stand tall and expand themselves in order to get some breath.  They will likely keep fighting, but until their breath returns to normal, they will be considerably weaker.

Do not be afraid to have your character use obstacles in their environment.  Pillars, boxes, bookshelves, doors, etc.  They put distance between you and an opponent which can allow you to catch your breath. 

Do not be afraid to have your character use objects in their environment.  Someone’s coming at you with a spear, trident, etc, then pick up a chair and get it caught in the legs or use it as a shield.  Bedsheets can make a good distraction and tangle someone up.  Someone’s invading your home and you need to defend yourself?  Throw a lamp.  Anything can be turned into a weapon.

Guns often miss their targets at longer distances, even by those who have trained heavily with them.  They can also be easier to disarm as they only shoot in one direction.  However, depending on the type, grabbing onto the top is a very very bad idea.  There is a good likelihood you WILL get hurt.

Knives are nasty weapons by someone who knows what they’re doing.  Good fighters never hold a knife the way you would when cutting food.  It is best used when held against the forearm.  In defense, this makes a block more effective and in offense, slashing movement from any direction are going to be bad.  If a character is in a fight with a knife or trying to disarm one, they will get hurt. 

Soft areas hit with hard body parts.  Hard areas hit with soft body parts.  The neck, stomach, and other soft areas are best hit with punches, side kicks, elbows, and other hard body parts.  Head and other hard parts are best hit using a knife hand, palm strike, etc.  Spin kicks will be nasty regardless of what you’re aiming for it they land.

Common misconception with round house kicks is that you’re hitting with the top of the foot.  You’re hitting with the ball.  You’re likely to break your foot when hitting with the top.

When punching, the thumb is outside of the fist.  You’ll break something if you’re hitting with the thumb inside, which a lot of inexperienced fighters do. 

Also, punching the face or jaw can hurt. 

It can be hard to grab a punch if you’re not experienced with it despite how easy movies make it seem.  It’s best to dodge or redirect it.

Hitting to the head is not always the best idea.  It can take a bit of training to be able to reach for the head with a kick because of the height.  Flexibility is very much needed.  If there are problems with their hips or they just aren’t very flexible, kicks to the head aren’t happening.

Jump kicks are a good way to hit the head, but an opponent will see it coming if it’s too slow or they are fast/experienced.

A good kick can throw an opponent back or knock them to the ground.  If the person you’ve hit has experience though, they’ll immediately be getting up again.

Even if they’ve trained for years in a martial art, if they haven’t actually hit anything before or gotten hit, it will be slightly stunning for the person.  It does not feel the way you expect it too.

Those yells in martial arts are not just for show.  If done right, they tighten your core making it easier to take a hit in that area.  Also, they can be used to intimidate an opponent.  Yelling or screaming right by their ear can startle someone.  (Generally, KHR fans look at Squalo for yelling)

Biting can also be used if someone’s grabbing you.  Spitting in someone’s eyes can’t hurt.  Also, in a chokehold or if someone is trying to grab your neck in general, PUT YOU CHIN DOWN.  This cuts off access and if they’re grabbing in the front can dig into their hand and hurt.

Wrist grabs and other grabs can be good.  Especially if it’s the first move an opponent makes and the character is trained, there are simple ways to counter that will have a person on their knees in seconds..

Use what your character has to their advantage.  If they’re smaller or have less mass, then they’ll be relying on speed, intelligence, evasion, and other similar tactics.  Larger opponents will be able to take hits better, they’re hits may be slower depending on who it is but will hurt like hell if they land, and size can be intimidating.   Taller people with longer legs will want to rely on kicking and keeping their distance since they have the advantage there.  Shorter people will want to keep the distance closer where it’s easier for them but harder for a taller opponent.  Punching is a good idea.

Using a person’s momentum against them is great.  There’s martial arts that revolve around this whole concept.  They throw a punch?  Grab it and pull them forward and around.  Their momentum will keep them going and knock them off balance. 

Leverage can used in the same way.  If used right, you can flip a person, dislocate a shoulder, throw out a knee, etc.

One note on adrenaline:  All that was said above is true about it.  But, in a fight, it can also make you more aware of what’s going on.  A fight that lasts twenty seconds can feel like a minute because time seems to almost slow down while moving extremely rapidly.  You only have so much time to think about what you’re doing.  You’re taking in information constantly and trying to adjust.  Even in the slow down adrenaline gives you, everything is moving very rapidly. 

Feelings will be your downfall even more so than adrenaline.  Adrenaline can make those feelings more intense, but a good fighter has learned not to listen to those feelings.  A good fighter may feel anger at being knocked down or in some way humiliated - their pride taken down.  Yet they will not act on the anger.  Acting on it makes a fighter more instinctive and many will charge without thinking.  Losing control of anything (adrenaline rush, emotions, technique, etc) can be a terrible thing in a fight.

Just thought I’d add in here.

[bamonnineties]

YES. YES.

[nighttimepixels]

A Quick Guide on the new PayPal Cash, for US Artists/Commissioners that use PayPal-

I just wanted to make a small post regarding a Big Change™ that… doesn’t seem to actually change much. Starting May 7th, 2019, if you use PayPal to hold a balance (common for commission artists) or transfer money to others via PayPal, then recent changes in US law has them switching to a new system for doing so; this is called PayPal Cash and PayPal Cash Plus.

I do a lot of research/have actual training in this sort of thing, so I’ll boil down a lot of reading to explain the important changes:

PayPal Cash is exactly the thing you’re already using, just under a new name, and requiring a bonus piece of identification & agreement to a new Terms of Service.

So from now on, to maintain a balance in PayPal - and to ‘sell things’ via invoices, it seems so far - you’ll need to verify a PayPal Cash account. To do so, you’ll need to provide your name, birthdate, primary physical address, and the last four digits of your SSN.

As for PayPal Cash Plus, it’s the exact same thing, only you have this instead if you opt to open a specific debit card or credit card through them (it grants you access to some money-managing perks, as well as withdrawal from certain physical locations, and so on). More than likely, you won’t need/want this if you’re a smaller-time artist/average human using PayPal, or even if you’ve got a bigger name, unless you want a card through them.

That said, please be aware of a big asterisk you are agreeing to in their Terms of Service by making/confirming a PayPal Cash/Plus account:

You are agreeing to an updated ToS that includes an Arbitration Agreement clause.

In short and most importantly, this means that if you & PayPal have a legal disagreement, then you won’t take them to court or join a class action lawsuit against them. Per their own ToS:

You and PayPal agree that any claim or dispute at law or equity that has arisen or may arise between us will be resolved in accordance with the Agreement to Arbitrate provisions set forth below… Among other things it: … Includes a Prohibition of Class and Representative Actions and Non-Individualized Relief pursuant to which you agree to waive your right to participate in a class action lawsuit against us.

This is fancy legal speak for ‘if anything goes wrong, you play by our rules when settling it, and this will only happen out of court.’ This is something you absolutely want to opt out of, and legally they’re required to allow it - but like most corporations, they make it as frustratingly involved and as limited a chance as possible.

To opt out of the arbitration clause, you must mail them a written notice, and the opt-out notice must be postmarked no later than 30 days after the date you accept these terms and conditions for the first time.

So once you click ‘agree’ and make your PayPal Cash account official, mail them the opt-out notice within 30 days.

Point blank.

… And that about covers the changes in the situation! So, to sum up:

TL;DR:

PayPal Cash is effectively a new agreement to the same abilities you had in holding a PayPal Balance,

You must confirm your identity (including last 4 digits of your SSN) to officially make your PayPal Cash account,

Doing so has you agreeing to the new Terms of Service,

Make sure you opt out of the Arbitration Agreement within 30 days of making your PayPal Cash account.

Hope all of this helps other artists & PayPal users out there that are confused or unaware of the updates! Good luck and best of bank account balances to you all. ♡♡♡

[anatomicalart]

Commission Pricing 101

Guidelines for Setting Commission Prices

Article by @dragonofdarknesschaos​ article dated April 25th 2017 Original Source: [x]

I’m going to be blunt with all'y'all.  You are most likely under-pricing your work.  That’s okay, but please consider the following:

——————————————————————

Industry Standard Price List for Book Illustration*

Black and White:    • Spread: $500-$1500    • Full Page: $500-$9500    • Quarter Page: $100-$350

Color:   • Spread: $700-$2000   • Full Page: $500-$1500   • Quarter Page: $200-$400

*From The Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines by the Graphic Artists Guild, ed. 13–basically the bible for all visual artists looking to sell and price their work.  Check your local library for a copy.

——————————————————————

Not all artists are comfortable charging this much for their work, or maybe feel that their work isn’t good enough to charge more than a few bucks (if anything at all), some are just doing it for fun and don’t care about the money so much.

All of that is okay.  Individual commissioners usually don’t have the kind of money to drop that large corporations do.  

This is more about setting a few guidelines to prevent people from charging pennies for a full-color spread.  

See below:

——————————————————————

Fandom’ Average Price List

Black and White:   • Spread: $10-$50   • Full Page: $5-$30   • Quarter Page: $5-$30

Color:  • Spread: $50-$200  • Full Page: $20-$70  • Quarter Page: $10-$30

Valuing Your Work

If you don’t value your time, no one else will.

——————————————————————

You probably put a lot of time and effort into your work over the months or even years that you’ve been honing your craft.  So even if you’re in the select few who can actually bang out a beautiful piece of art in twenty minutes or less, think about how long it took you to get to that point.  I knew I wanted to do art professionally since the age of four; at the time of this writing I’ve gained 21 years of experience.  Not all of it was paid or professional quality work, but I learned and grew to what I am now.  Even if you’ve only been drawing a few months, that time and experience matters all the same!  Don’t sell your skills short. Now that you’ve gained some confidence in your abilities, it’s time to set a monetary value for your skills.  Usually artists go with an hourly rate.  This means that for however many hours you work on a piece, you charge the commissioner (or customer) by the amount you set.  THE COMMISSIONER DOES NOT NEED TO KNOW HOW LONG IT TAKES YOU TO MAKE THE ARTWORK.  DO, however, ask when they need the artwork by.  If you cannot complete the artwork in that amount of time asked, turn down the commission or find out if the deadline can be changed. Let’s try this hourly rate in an example now.  

Say it takes three hours to do a full color bust and the hourly rate is $10.  

In math terms it’s…

(hourly rate) x (time spent) = (amount to charge).  

The artist would charge $30 for the full-color bust commission.  

Thirty dollars for just a drawing of a head and shoulders might seem like a lot, and one might be tempted to decrease the hourly rate so the amount to charge is within those ‘Fandom’ Averages mentioned above. 

 Doing the same work for a total of $5 means one would charge $1.67 hourly.

Most states have minimum wages well above that.  

Are you worth less than the bare minimum, or are you worth more?   Spoiler alert–YOU MATTER!!  And so does your artwork too!  

If you’re still not feeling confident enough, just look up your state’s minimum wage and use that for your hourly rate.  You can then slowly raise your prices as you gain more confidence in your work.  While people might complain, remind them–and yourself–about those Industry Standard Prices listed above.  

It doesn’t hurt to let your fans know that you will be increasing your prices in advance either!

——————————————————————

When to Increase Your Prices

Either increase your prices when you feel confident in doing so, when there’s simply too much demand for your work, or if you’ve been undervaluing yourself.

Increasing the price will deter some potential customers, but those who sincerely want your work will save up to commission you no matter what.  Those are the people you want to work with. 

If the demand is still too high for you to keep up, or you don’t feel comfortable increasing prices to keep up with demand, create slots, or a short list of commissions you are currently working on.

Create a wait list too, if that helps.  Just maintain a clear path of communication with your supporters.

——————————————————————

The Nuances of Pricing

If you really want to get technical, there’s going to be MORE MATH ahead. Though it’s basically all about breaking down how much time it takes you to do anything.

It will take you three times longer than you think it will.

——————————————————————

Pricing by Style

Wow, you can actually draw in multiple styles!?  GREAT!  AMAZING!  Not everyone can do that.  

If it takes you more time to draw one style than another have a price chart that clearly shows that. 

If you have multiple coloring styles or techniques, break down how long each takes and give prices based on that. 

Dissect your artistic process into steps if that helps to understand what to charge for. Creating steps like this will also help if (and when) you need to make invoices, or lists of the services you’re providing for billing purposes.  

The following are examples of pricing broken down into each step in an artistic process for two vastly different styles:

Super Cartoony Style (full page):

- sketch: $10 x 15mins (or .25hr) = $2.50  - lines: $10 x 90mins (or 1.5hrs) = $15.00 - color: $10 x 1hr = $10 - (no shading) Total: $27.50

Semi-Realistic Painterly Style (full page):

- sketch: $10 x 1hr = $10 - (no lines) - color: $10 x 2hrs = $20 - shading: $10 x 6hrs = $60 Total: $70

Having these kinds of breakdowns will help potential commissioners identify what they want and what they can afford.  

Yeah, that’s great, but what if someone just wants a sketch in the Super Cartoony Style?  Then I’m making less than those ‘Fandom’ Average prices! 

True, but what if you sit down to do the sketch commission, and instead of taking fifteen minutes, you end up spending twenty minutes looking up reference of the character, and the poses you want, end up scrapping a bunch of attempts, and before you know it, an hour and a half has passed? By then you’ve charged the commissioner for fifteen minutes of work when it actually took you six times longer.  If this happens to you consistently, consider switching to a flat-rate approach or compensate for this time difference in the prices you offer.

——————————————————————

Flat Rate Pricing

Essentially you charge more up front and lower the price of any additional steps.  As such, additional services, like lines, color, and shading are then smaller fees that get tacked on after the preliminary sketch is completed.  

The flat rate is typically based on the average amount of time it takes to do each step of the process.  

Say it takes anywhere from 15-90 minutes to do a sketch depending on how inspired you are. 

With the same hourly rate of $10, that’s a range of $2.50-$15.  Depending on complexity things might take longer, so let’s bump it up to $20 just to be safe. 

Keeping the total costs the same as for the hourly break downs above results in the following:

Super Cartoony Style (full page) flat rate:

- sketch: $20 - lines: $4 - color: $3.50 - (no shading) Total: $27.50

Semi-Realistic Painterly Style (full page) flat rate:

sketch: $30 (no lines) color: $15 shading: $25 Total: $70

There’s less actual math involved, but it means that you’ll at least get your money’s worth whether you spend the fifteen minutes you originally allotted, or wind up taking two hours.

Again, the commissioner doesn’t need to know how long it actually took you to make the art.  

Consider adjusting the flat rates if you find yourself spending more time on certain things than your hourly rate covers.  

In the example, if you repeatedly spend more than two hours on a sketch, then you need to increase your initial rate to compensate. This model also plays a bit into the ideas behind the “super size” marketing. For just four dollars more you get cleaner line art. For only three and a half dollars more you get full color!  If a commissioner can get over the initial price to start, chances are they’ll be more willing to spend the few extra dollars to get a higher level of finish.

——————————————————————

Methods of Payment

While DeviantArt is a great place for finding and getting commissions, they don’t exactly have the best monetary system in place.  

Here are a few other methods you can use.  

While there are other sites and services you can use to send money, be sure both the artist and commissioner have agreed on the amount due and payment method before sending anything.  

In general do not start on the artwork until at least half of the payment is received or processed.

——————————————————————

The Commissions Widget (on DeviantArt)

Pros:

easy to use

built into site

allows points to be turned into actual cash

Cons:

deducts 20% from your earnings (most sites charge less than 10%)

keeps points earned from commissions separate from total points

few people have 3,000 points to drop

If you’re intent on using this system, be sure to add a 20% tax to your final cost (e.g. $27.50 + ($27.50 x .2) = $33.00 or 3,300 points) 

While you could simply trade the points outside the commissions widget, the points cannot [legally] be turned back into cash.

——————————————————————

Google Wallet

Pros:

easy to use

works fast

no usage fee

Cons:

open to continental US ONLY

requires gmail account

no invoices

If you already have a gmail account, then you automatically have access to gwallet.  It’s just a matter of connecting a bank account or credit card then. 

 While there are no invoices for any money exchanges that I’m aware of, still consider making invoices for your records.

——————————————————————

PayPal

Pros:

internationally available

used across many sites for payment

very secure

has built-in invoices

Cons:

lots of rules that constantly change and are difficult to understand

difficult to navigate; if done incorrectly one may be charged

both parties must fill out forms correctly or the artist will be charged or have their account banned

If you live inside or outside the continental US, here are a few links that may be helpful in [writing those invoices], and [making sure you don’t get burned].  

Also do not use PayPal to send your art, as their rules are a bit convoluted about who owns the rights to the artwork then.

——————————————————————

Patreon

Pros:

easy to understand

processes payments through Amazon

allows creators to build communities around their projects

multiple price points can be offered at the same time

encourages repeat customers

Cons:

while it’s a bit daunting to get set up and situated, Patreon has an almost infinite amount of easy to understand resources to help their creators take off

though not necessary, it helps to have a strong social media presence elsewhere

smaller group of commissioners

For those who don’t know, Patreon is like KickStarter, but it recurs monthly, and it’s just for creatives.  

What I’ve seen most artists who do commissions exclusively through Patreon do is have a lower reward tier that is fan driven like monthly requests, in addition to a higher reward tier that is the actual commission button so-to-speak.  

This format kind of forces the flat rate pricing method to an extreme, so price well, or create a dialogue with your fans/patrons/potential commissioners to see what they’re most interested in getting for their money.   They might even give you ideas for projects to do down the road.

——————————————————————

TL;DR

Professional illustrations go for 20-50 times MORE than what most ‘fandom’ artists charge.

Value your time, or else no one else will.  This means that you deserve to work for above minimum wage.

Never tell the commissioner how long it takes to make your artwork (unless you need more time to make your artwork).

It’s OKAY to increase your prices.  Especially if there’s high demand for your work.

You can price by how long it takes you to do each step of your artistic process OR…

You can have a higher flat rate to do the first step of your process, with smaller, additional fees for finishes like color, or shading, or both.

Be transparent about what you’re charging for.

There are many sites and methods of payment, use the one that is most convenient for both parties.

USE. INVOICES.  No matter how simple.

If you DO decide to use dA’s Commission Widget, charge a 20% tax to cover the site’s cut.

Trust yourself–after all, these commissioners came to you for your unique art style!  You can’t go wrong by doing you.

Anyone is welcome to ask further questions, or suggest additions.

Article by @dragonofdarknesschaos​ article dated April 25th 2017 Original Source: [x]

[art-res]

An essential post.

[art-res]

❤️

More useful articles and resources / support Art-Res | my art tumblr | Idea Generator | Check out the Art-Res Anatomy Ebook!

[gretelein]

My Tris kaioshin drawing. She's scared because her creator will receive the notes this week. Mi expresión exacta de cuando están entregando los exámenes. ✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏ #kaioshin #scared #anime #manga #dbs #dragonballsuper #drawing #dibujo #supremokaiosama #supremekai #art

[gretelein]

Shin- Nishi! We will go to take a photo! Nishi- sure! I like there! There is a Sakura’s tree! Shin- wow! It’s windy! Say cheese!! *click* ✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏ 🌺My Nishi kaioshin drawing. :3 #kaioshin #supremokaiosama #nishi #dragonballsuper #dragonball #drawing #dibujo #dragonballz #art #manga #anime