Art blog

Just a place to put my art

[animalphotorefs]

Okay so a little away from your wheelhouse, but do you know where I could find photos of an actual giraffe skeleton (any modern species at this point) from multiple angles? I've been trying to find useful reference on their bone shape and articulation of things like the sternum, pelvis/hip sockets (any close angle), bird's eye of the spine/neck for *months* - best I've found is a single 3/4 shot of a skeleton for sale currently housed in an Oklahoma City museum. Everything else is the dreaded '3D model' of someone's *idea* of a giraffe skeleton, a side angle taken from all the way across a hall, some old (once again side-view) anatomy diagram sketches and extremely cursed AI-assembled things.

I would suggest emailing the Museum of Osteology in Oklahoma City! I think that’s where the skeleton for sale you’re talking about is. I have cold-called them with a random skeleton question before and they were very kind about helping me figure it out - they might have photos in their collection, or be willing to take some for you!

If that doesn’t work, reblog this or send another ask and I’ll see what else I can find.

[humanhound]

hey could i suggest the museum of veterinary anatomy of the university of são paulo (MAV USP)? a lot of photos of their skeletons are up on wikimedia commons, including at least one of their giraffe and a lot of other animals such as an elephant, a rhino, an orca, a maned wolf etc.

File:Giraffe MAV 01.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

heres the image i found but im pretty sure they do have other pics of her.

(if it's still not enough, i have easy access to the museum and will be able to take pics of it for you in february if you still need them, just hmu)

[teainacoffeemug]

Tumblr has granted me so so so SO MANY cool resources today?????

Thanks!!! I'll see if they have views that include some of the weirder bits I'm trying to reference. Hopefully won't have to bother you to do photography for me, thank you very much for offering!

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Honestly my favorite thing about the tumblr community is how enthusiastically people offered both resources and IRL help.

OP, I hope you share what you make when you find the references you need! I definitely want to see it.

[animalphotorefs]

New species added: American Elk!

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use all photos in the repository as references, including works that will/may be sold.

The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository is an independent, permanently open-access project and funded entirely by donations, please consider contributing if you can!

** Patreon ** -- *Ko-Fi**

[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

[kiraoji]

guys stop reblogging this these are cheats the CIA will come for you

[tesseractsss-deactivated2019092]

@orvii

[losttimpactt]

A new viewpoint on antlers reveals the evolutionary history of deer (Cervidae, Mammalia)

fullview recommended!

something i've wanted to do for a while now. i've scoured the internet for something like this and can't find anything that compares all the different types of antlers together. except one recent study on their evolution, which is also very interesting on its own! i simplified it to provide a visual reference, while still trying to be scientifically accurate. some things differ between this and trophy scoring terminology like where the beam is and whatnot, so if something looks weird that's why.

small additional note, this study and others provide a lot of evidence that eld's deer should be in their own genus as it doesn't appear similar enough to barasingha and schomburgk's deer. however this doesn't seem to be adapted anywhere yet, so they're still in Rucervus for this guide.

🔴 KO-FI

⚫ COMMISSION INFO

[gayvampyr]

i hate that every time i look for color studies and tips to improve my art and make it more dynamic and interesting all that comes up are rudimentary explanations of the color wheel that explain it to me like im in 1st grade and just now discovering my primary colors

[gayvampyr]

“red and green are opposites 🥰” cool now how do i paint a tree with pinks and blues without it looking like a child’s finger painting or incongruous blobs of rainbow vomit

[gayvampyr]

ok i can’t explain it very well but im looking for tips and techniques for rendering art like

with specifically the highlights and colors being hues that compliment each other, don’t distract from the scene, and make it more interesting/visually appealing

is it too much to ask

[moreclaypigeons]

gonna drop some sources I have saved on Pinterest! I don't know if these all link back to the original sources so apologies for that

cohesive but still contrasting

This kind of talks about color and composition

This is a bit about landscape specifically

Values & composition

Contrast in composition

Balance in colors & values

This one's more for palette building but I think it's useful and can be applied to the other ones

Cohesion within compositions/lighting

"Chromatic fringe" - I also see people using this with shading, they bring in a transition color that is a different hue than the base color or shadow, it makes it so that less vibrancy is lost and it doesn't get muddy!

This one specifically has a lot of process behind the style of painting you're looking for!

Also one of my favorite artists who makes bright and colorful art like this is Not Sorry Art on TikTok & YouTube, her website is here and it's<3 my fav. She has some videos where you can see her process

With the oranges painting you put as an example, I noticed they painted the lighter values more toward yellow - they also exaggerated the hues of the undertones of the photo, so I'm guessing they either did it in their head or bumped the saturation up to get a closer look! I really love these paintings you shared and I definitely share your desire to paint/draw like that :)

[gayvampyr]

thanks this is super helpful! /gen

[briarbramble]

Contrast in composition and cohesion with composition and lighting are things I struggle so much with thank you so, SO much for this!

[snailtrain]

Adding two of my favorites:

Color: a workshop for Artists and designers by David Hornung

Color and Light by James Gurney

Both are spectacular texts that go over color choices in scenes and the process behind picking which palettes to use and where. James Gurney is a master and I refer back to his book probably once a month if not more often, he breaks down the reasoning behind color choices in an easy to understand way and i cannot recommend it enough. Hornung includes a lot of useful exercises to get familiar with the color palettes you want to use and increase your comfort level with the greys and more mucky tones. They are what you want. They will give you the information you desire.

[screentones-webcomicresources]

Webcomic platforms can help get your comic published when you want something quick and easy to start out! They generally share a few qualities:

They format everything in a basic way so you don't have to do much set up your own space to look nice on web/mobile

They have no fee to publish your comics there, because you are using their web hosting

They may get your comic in front of other readers with mobile apps or online catalogs

If you meet their criteria, you may also be able to find hosting with digital comic stores, publishers, and collectives, and this may get you a bit more in the way of money, promotional opportunities, or editor assistance.

Even if you choose to host your website on its own webhost with a comic CMS, you might also consider finding a platform that aligns with your comic goals and "mirroring" your pages there.

In this post, we look at all the webcomic platforms out there we could find in our research!

This post may be updated as time goes on as new platforms enter the hosting arena, or other important updates come to light.

Questions:

💻 Everyone uses social media, could I just use that as a platform for my comic? - One-shot or strip comics without a continuous story that can be read in any order can do okay on social media, and people have adapted Tumblr to display a series of pages. But for continuous long-form stories, social media platforms are better for keeping your readers updated and general promotion.

📚 Wait, what if I want to build my own website and drive people there? - We have another masterlist of website hosts for that!

🕵️‍♀️What kinds of restrictions can I expect? - Many comic platforms have restrictions on NSFW content, links to other sites, or could be invite/application-only. We've tried to note those on the cards, as well as a list of comic platforms that have predatory business practices at the very end that we recommend avoiding. Always do your research!

Webcomic Platforms

Webtoon Canvas

Tapas

Webtoon Originals

SpiderForest Webcomic Collective

Hiveworks

ComicFury

The Duck

Saturday AM

GlobalComix

NamiComi

DillyHub

Shrine Comics

[skullamity-deactivated20250823]

A resource for if you plan to make a webcomic!

[midwinterhunt]

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

[narrettwist]

Homie gonna share this

[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!

[hanas-hues]

Everyone is in the middle of their arc (in a bad way) except for Marigold

[catsdelightful-deactivated20240]

Hey artists, C. Spike Trotman, founder of Iron Circus Comics, just posted an invaluable thread on depicting different types of black hair. I’d do the thing where you screencap the whole thread and post it but it’s just too long (which is great because it’s a whole lot of useful information!) Give her a follow while you’re there.

Anyway, go check it out. I just wanted to save it and share it because I didn’t know how much I didn’t know!

[misslunarose]

This is an amazing resource, not only for artists, but for writers too! I love this!

[poikaboo]

{ID - tweet from @/Iron_Spike that reads, “Black Hair for Non-Black Artists: a Cheat Sheet Thread. Hi, folks! Just spur-of-the-moment decided to put together some reference for folks who want to draw/model black characters in their work, but arent confident they won’t make simple, obvious mistakes w/r/t black hair. END ID}

[hanas-hues]

I designed a new outfit for Marigold again to go with her dragonscale breastplate

[hanas-hues]

Workin on a little side project for my dnd group, and decided to share some assets from it! We made them into discord stickers for our game’s server too hehe

Bonus: our wizard Cass’s face being much much cuter without the crit fail on top of it

[hanas-hues]

Can’t stop drawing my warlock/druid Marigold. She doesn’t even have this armor yet 😂 which means I can still refine the design hehe

[hanas-hues]

A bit of context: Our party was headed to the Temple of Air to keep its immense magical power from falling into the hands of an evil steampunk general, General Rivet.

However, the general couldn’t figure out how to open the magical door, so he left one of his lieutenants(and platoon of giant robots) to intercept us/figure out how to open the door, and went on ahead with his robot army to attack another nation.

The sun eclipsed for a second while the temple gathered power from it to try and defend itself from the onslaught of robot attacks.

We accidentally open the doors by getting too close to them, and the air elementals in the next room attack us along with the robots. Cedric survived the encounter though, and we now have some good intel on the general’s movements and plans! Hopefully next time we can help defend that nation he’s trying to attack.

[hanas-hues]

We’ve been in a steampunk city (where magic both doesn’t work AND it makes you explode if you try to cast a spell) for the past few sessions. Marigold and Ambar(the bard), have had some good roleplay moments with each other.

Please enjoy Marigold asking Ambar on a platonic date from three perspectives:

And on that “date” where they try to explain to each other what motivates them:

[hanas-hues]

Commission prices here! I take payment in PayPal(USD)!

Will draw: Machines, Armor, OC’s, Fanart, Monsters/Creatures, gore (up to a point)

Won’t draw: NSFW, anything for NFTs, anything that makes me uncomfortable

[hanas-hues]

Got into a fight with some white Abishai this session. The Shadar-Kai rogue was the MVP of the fight because the griffons we were riding granted her sneak attack, and she had a dragon slaying sword, which hit them SUPER hard.