-insert what here-

Literally just somewhere for me to reblog all the art references/tutorials that are sitting around clogging up my likes.

[jigokuen]

Some notes I put together for my CDA Class. Just stuff that I use. Take with grain of salt.

[art-res]

From a professional artist! Amazing set of tips and notes.

[lesbianlinkle-moved]

goombella123 asked: how 2 force myself to study so i can get better at anatomy and posing

pearbuddy asked:  developing a steady practice? i know the best advice to getting better is to just draw, but i know a lot of people (myself included) struggle with actually making ourselves do it.

cuccosneverdie asked: what kind of practice you did to get good at anatomy? i’m really struggling getting anatomy to look even slightly correct

whereislaurita asked about: Anatomy; ;

elinmeat asked about: FACES. .…. FACES. … .

With regards to anatomy, my favourite book is Figure Drawing: Design & Invention by michael hampton, and lots of tutorials and references in my anatomy tag: http://helpfulharrie.tumblr.com/tagged/anatomy !

Which is all well and good… but how do you actually practice these things? 

“Just draw a whole bunch” is only about 15% of the story. In order to self study, you need to:

Identify what you are struggling with. Reflect on what it is about your art you do not like so you can improve upon it!

Figure out what direction it is you want to take your art in. How do you want your art to look? You can find a post I wrote about art direction a couple years ago here: http://helpfulharrie.tumblr.com/post/120523296471/alrighty-then-friends-lets-talk-about-art-styles

Once you identify what you are unsatisfied with, you can figure out what knowledge you are lacking and study it. Read tutorials, books, ask other artists and friends for guidance and critique, etc.!

Then you want to start applying what you have learnt to your art! You can only get so far by reading something, to truly understand it you have to put it into practice and get a feel for what you have learnt.

So lets say, for example, you want to study faces.

You’ll want to seek out some resources that will help you understand the subject, a good place to start would be my faces tag: http://helpfulharrie.tumblr.com/tagged/faces

But I’ll get you started with two resources that helped me the most!

One: Stan Prokopenko’s series on drawing the head at any angle:

It’s a great breakdown of the Loomis Method, a series of guidelines for the face and head created by andrew loomis.

Two: The book I mentioned earlier! It covers the whole figure and I recommend getting it if you can, I do believe there are pdfs out there if you can’t get the book.

But! You can see two of the pages on drawing the head here: http://helpfulharrie.tumblr.com/post/105040269221/from-figure-drawing-design-and-invention

Now you’ve learnt some New Stuff, and you need to put it into practice so you can process what you’ve been told.

So start finding some references! For faces/hands/feet/the human figure, I recommend visiting https://line-of-action.com/, it’s full of photos you can use.

With your references in and, start by tracing the guidelines over the image. This will help you understand what they represent, and why they’re there.

This is a good exercise for understanding anatomy in general, let’s say you instead wanted to study giraffes and have no idea how to draw them.

Look for the large, consistent shapes, and those will become your construction guidelines!

Once you’ve gotten a feel for your guidelines, try them out! Do a bunch of sketches from imagination.

And when you’re confident with them, try them out by drawing from references.

And finally, go back to your art from before you started these studies, I’m going to use something I drew in 2013

And redraw it using what you’ve learnt!

While you’re doing this, pay attention to the areas you got wrong. Make a note of this, so you don’t repeat it in the future.

Ah, much better!

Now repeat the process of: Identify problem, research problem, study problem, apply what you learnt, and you’ll improve for sure. It’ll take time, but the more you learn the closer your art will get to the image you want it to be!

In this post I focused on anatomy studies, but you can do the same thing with anything.

Like for example: colour studies, in that case you would:

read about colour theory

find some references full of colours you like, and colour pick out the palette

analyse the relationships btwn the colours based on what you read. What kind of colour scheme is this? how are these colours influencing the mood? etc.

then take an old piece and redo the colour scheme, making note of why you were dissatisfied with the old colours.

The most important part of this is that you experiment with what you’re reading about and being taught, and then going back and seeing where it was lacking in your work before so you can apply it to your work in the future!

Best of luck everyone! I hope that helps nwn

You can always ask me for pointers if you need, and remember! Take pride in what you create, everything you do is a work of art.

It’s easy to get caught up in the cycle of improve, improve, improve - but don’t forget to appreciate how far you’ve come.

Lastly, if this was helpful to you, you can support me on Patreon, Liberapay, or Ko-Fi so I can keep writing these posts! Thank you 💕

[awd-eheroes]

I’m sure I’m not the only one…

[skidar]

Removing lines from a bg layer

Removing sketch from line art in SAI

Removing sketch from line art in PS

Go forth and be less frustrated :D

[guide-to-arting-p-good]

How to save a life. Bless you @skidar

[rebloggedtutorials]

I think I reblogged this but just to be sure =p

[soy-enjoyer]

[whiteshirtman-deactivated201602]

[juliedillon]

WHAT 

WAHT

WAT

[thankyoucorndog-deactivated2015]

??? ????? ????????? ???

[combinecremator]

reblog to save a life

[sparklermonthly]

I’m sure I’ve reblogged this before, but yeah. Everyone should know about it. 

[mangakasoldier]

this is useful people, reblog to save an artist

[art-glue-phan]

T h a n k

[fruitloopghosty]

OH MY GOD, WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME THIS SOONER??? ALL THE PAIN AAHHHH

[idahlrillion]

This is how I draw hands. I simplify the shape and then later I will add the necessary details. It makes it easier to get them right. But the only way to learn how to draw hands is to just keep drawing them.

[chuwenjie]

A compilation of stuff I know about drawing Asian faces and Asian culture! I feel like many “How-To-Draw” tutorials often default to European faces and are not really helpful when drawing people of other races. So I thought I’d put this together in case anyone is interested! Feel free to share this guide and shoot me questions if you have any! I’m by no means an expert, I just know a few things from drawing experience and from my own cultural background. 

[meredithalden]

[ask-dr-knockout]

This.

a public service announcement

[lackyannie]

and i thought only bob ross knew what was up

[poppypicklesticks-blog]

this single post is more useful to me then four years of art school 

[lulukbraz]

We did it in color study class on my college and it’s incredible the difference between using red/blue/yellow than cyan/magenta/yellow. The purple was colored like shit, so as the greens. Than we tried the actuall primary colors and it FELT SO GOOD!

[zachdanielswhisky]

I JUST TESTED IT IN MY ART PROGRAM AND HOLY SHIT 

IT WORKED REALLY WELL

[idoko]

On the left we have dissapoinment; on the right, love.

[emeraldmercury]

Then why do they teach us that RBY are primary colours in Pre-KG????

[kamiyu910]

To mess with our heads….

Or because they think that cyan and magenta are too difficult for kids to learn? Lame either way

[skrappy-deactivated20221123]

Reshare to save lives

[jheselbraum]

Okay, no. No no no no no no no no NO.

Listen up you fucks because I’m not wasting thousands of dollars on an art degree to watch y’all fuck up basic color theory.

Red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors

If you’re using p i g m e n t.

Do you hear me? When you’re using traditional media, fucking actual goddamn paint, Bob Ross style, your primary colors are!

When you use paint, your primary colors are red yellow and blue and don’t forget it.

NOW THAT CHANGES COMPLETELY WHEN YOU GO FUCKING DIGITAL.

THE DIGITAL PRIMARY COLORS ARE RED BLUE AND GREEN IF AND ONLY IF YOUR WORK IS GOING TO STAY DIGITAL, ON THE SCREEN, AND NEVER LEAVE THE SCREEN, AND OF COURSE IF YOUR WORK IS GOING TO BE PRINTED. ON A PRINTER. WITH INK. THEN. AND O N L Y  T H E N.

ARE YOUR PRIMARY COLORS.

CYAN. 

MAGENTA.

AND YELLOW.

So say it with me folks!

Red yellow and blue, are the primary colors for traditional pigment that’s mostly used in paints and shit. You use red yellow and blue when you’re painting traditionally, Bob Ross style. 

Red blue and green is light, which is what you’re painting with when you pick up your tablet and go digital.

CMYK is ink, and ink only. You could use cyan, magenta, and yellow as your primary colors in paint if you wanted to be a complete dick, but they’re not your primary colors unless your work is going to be printed using. i n k. The only time they could be considered the primary colors in a traditional medium is if you’re using ink.

Good day.

[jheselbraum]

Also thatswhiskytoyou’s color mixing is bullshit because THIS:

Is my icon. I painted this using RED. GREEN. AND BLUE. AS MY PRIMARY COLORS and they turned out fine. Of course, I used the finger smudge tool first and then the color mixing tool and then the blur tool, but hey what do I know.

Clearly using the blur tool only doesn’t cut it.

“Oh but Leo!” You say. “You used cyan and magenta in that color wheel!”

Well bitch guess what.

this is the digital color wheel. I’d say I mimicked that pretty well, don’t you think?

Oh and one other thing, notice how Blue and Yellow are directly opposite each other on this color wheel? That’s because we’re dealing with light, and with light, yellow and blue are complimentary colors.

Which is why when you mix them, it looks like this:

Which is a pretty neutral gray tone: They cancel each other out on the rgb color wheel when you mix them together.

BUT WITH PIGMENT THE PLACEMENT IS DIFFERENT

If you’ll notice, yellow and violet are now opposite each other, meaning they’re complimentary colors and if you mix  them, they’ll make a neutral gray.

But if you mix yellow and blue, same colors as before, YOU GET THIS:

Now keep in mind that the person in the video uses a darker blue, so they get a darker green, but the point is that it doesn’t make that neutral gray.

Now what happens when we mix yellow and violet paint?

Ah yes, you get a bunch of muted colors the more evenly you mix them.

What happens when you mix yellow light and purple light?

I see, I see.

[jheselbraum]

OH AND ONE MORE THING.

They didn’t teach you about red blue green and cmyk in pre-k because when most of us were in pre-k digital art was still in its early stages and what fucking seven year old knows how to use a printer.

[jheselbraum]

GUESS WHO’S NOT FUCKING DONE YET:

The reason the primary colors for light are so dramatically different from the primary colors for paint and ink is because your eye only receives combinations of red light, blue light, and green light. Our eyes do not have a sensor (cone cell) for yellow light. So when we paint with light, red green and blue are our primary colors. Because of our eyes.

Furthermore, paint primary colors are colors that cannot be created by mixing other colors together. For paint, they are red yellow and blue, because you cannot mix orange and green to get yellow. Mixing orange and purple paint does not make red. And mixing green and purple paint does not make blue.

Mixing blue and green paints will make cyan. Mixing red and blue paints will make magenta.

That’s why cyan and magenta aren’t primary paint colors.

However, you can’t mix yellow and blue ink and get cyan. You can’t mix red and blue ink to get magenta.

And that’s why cyan and magenta are the primary ink colors.

Brighter and stronger paints are created through tints and shades, through a thorough understanding of color theory and a few quality paint recipes. Not by bullshit posts on tumblr designed to mislead you.

[strikeblr-deactivated20180212]

I’m colorblind , but this is very interesting

[as-warm-as-choco]

How to draw street going up & down without losing your mind.

by Thomas Romain (Space Dandy, Code Lyoko, Basquash!, E.P. Kiss Dum,  Cannon Busters). Another one…

[gingercatsneeze]

1. Ah Fai was a chief animator for McDull’s animated features. He’s super cool. Ultimate senpai. 

2. Previous post on breakdowns right here 

Some thoughts on acceleration and force

I presented this in the order of how I slowly understood the trick of delivering force - first an abstract concept of impact taught by Ah Fai, then a more complicated discovery on the acceleration pattern, last back to a more abstract concept of breakdowns. 

Like I’ve previously stressed, 2D animation is everything but one single approach. There’s no one rule that rules them all, but interchangeable ideas with math, or physics, or music, etc. There’s no “perfect” animation either, but what is perceived as organic and dynamic. E.g., using the Fibonacci numbers to animate didn’t bring me a perfect animation! On the other hand, a tiny change in the pattern could already make the feeling of force so much more powerful. 

Not so much of a tutorial than a personal experience. I hope you find this interesting hahaha 

[pencilcat]

30 Days of Art Improvement Challenge

Are you tired of feeling like your art just isn’t improving? Do you want to do a 30-day challenge that’s actually useful? Welcome to 30 Days of Improvement Hell. >:D

I made this because I’ve been feeling super ‘blah’ about my art these days, and I needed something to kick-start myself. Who wants to do this with me!? Start now or whenever you can (now you procrastinators!). Challenge yourself and have fun at the same time!

Tag your posts with #Improvement Hell so everyone can follow along and see each other’s awesome artwork. I may even create a blog and reblog them! :D

What are you waiting for? START!

Self-Portrait - Introduce yourself

Draw a figure using a reference - link to reference

Draw a figure that’s in action, using a reference - link to reference

Draw a part of the human anatomy you have trouble with. x20, with atleast 5 being skeletal/musculature studies.

Draw more figures. Quick gestures and silhouettes. x20, with atleast 10 different body shapes

Let’s have some fun. Design a character from either This or This character generator! Be creative and bring something to life!

Pick the weirdest object in your house/room. Draw it. Shadows and Highlights.

Find 2-3 objects, make a scene with them. Draw it. Bonus points for creativity. Double points for dramatic lighting.

Draw a landscape of a place you’ve never been or drawn.

Draw a BG with 1pt Perspective. Negative points if it’s a railroad or an empty street.

Draw a BG with 2pt Perspective.

Look out a window. Draw what you see. Bonus points for adding something interesting.

Draw an interior setting with the character you designed on Day #6 in it.

BG with either bird’s eye or worm’s eye view.

Halfway there! Draw three 'action’ scenes with different compositions in each. Quick sketches are fine, just make them interesting and understandable! Bonus points if it’s the same scene, but different composition.

Draw a single page comic with 5-7 panels (the story begins and ends on one page). 

Draw an animal you’ve never drawn before. x10  Link references.

Draw a car. Negative points for whining. Hint: Use a perspective grid.

Think of the thing you hate drawing the most. Guess what? Draw it! Negative points for lying to yourself.

Pick an object in your house/room. Now design a character from it, using the shapes, forms, textures, purpose and colors as inspiration. Also link/post the object you used. Negative points for using a humanoid action figure.

Draw a character/object/scene, and shade them using ONLY solid blacks and whites. Bonus points for good use of lights/shadows

Draw a different object/scene/character. Shade using hatching, crosshatcing, and/or pointillism. Bonus points for lights/shadows and textures.

Colors! Pick a color palette, and paint a scene/character/object using only those colors (some blending allowed). Bonus points for good use of lights/shadows.

Draw and color a scene/object/character - no lines allowed! (aka - lineless art). Don’t forget light and shadows!

Draw a scene/character in a style you’ve never drawn before. If emulating an artist, credit+link. Bonus for color style.

Draw a character. Draw 10 emotions/expressions. Bonus points for 'uncommon’ emotions. (i.e. anxiety, guilt, despair, loneliness etc.)

Draw three random shapes using your opposite hand (or your foot). Now design characters from those shapes.

Turn on the tv (or load your illegally downloaded movies). Pick an actor and draw them.

Almost done! Let’s have some fun. Draw some fanart. Bonus points if it’s super obscure and unknown. Make people guess what it’s from.

Last day! Find a drawing you did within the last year. Now draw it again using what you’ve learned! Link it for comparison!

 Look at all that amazing improvement! Congrats!

[Update] There is now a sequel challenge, Draw All The Things!

[trisketched]

How to Make Your Art Look Nice: Thumbnailing

It’s here! For those artists who spend loads of time trying to figure out why their art is not coming out the way they want it to be, making thumbnails (or making studies) is the thing for you! It’s also great of getting rid of the habit of zooming in.

________

Mindsets |  Reference and Style | Color Harmony | Contrast

[protowilson]

One of the many reasons why I take a billion years to draw anything. I even thumbnail my thumbnails :|

[winterbramble]

Thanks so much for your ask! I’ve meant to do a tutorial like this for a long time. This is the way that I draw big girls, though it’s quite a short and basic tutorial. I hope it helps!

the “area of gain” part was pretty much taken directly from -here-, a VERY informative and helpful tutorial. Here’s a couple of tutorials that I think are pretty good: link and link.

[cosmickonett]

After 6 years of using this program I finally figured this out, so I decided to share the technique. IDK, it sure beats the “Use brush with no pen pressure to make a dot” type of thing.

The use of the vector layer comes with other nifty things like:

No decrease in quality while transforming

No 500px size limit

Playing with line thickness and distortion

So, I hope this comes in handy to a few of you!

You can make a Hexagon by using the Line Tool instead and turning the canvas 4 times each click. I’m sure you can do other things, but I haven’t figured those out yet.

[peaceofseoul]

Let me know if you have questions!!!

[thi4f]

If you haven't already, can you post a tutorial on how to draw scenery? Thanks.

im not that great at tutorials haha, but i have a step-by-step! this is how i build up environment drawings typically, should all be pretty self explanatory

build up the layers..

detailing

MORE detailing

bust out those overlay layers

and we’re done!!

[truebluemeandyou]

DIY Ultimate Know Your Skirts Guide Infographic from Enerie. For more very popular ultimate guides from Enerie go here:

Know Your Nail Shapes and What’s Popular on Instagram Infographics.

Fashion Pattern Vocabulary Part 1 Infographic.

Fashion Pattern Vocabulary Part 2 Infographic. 

Know Your Sunglasses Infographic. 

Know Your Shoes Part 1 Infographic. Lobster Claws anyone?

Know Your Shoes Part 2 Infographic.

Know Your Necklines Infographic from Paper Blog.

Know Your Hats Infographic.

Know Your Collars and Cuffs Infographic.

Know Your Necklines Infographic.

[thisblogdeadyeet]

The Vampire Bat is the only species of bat that has retained its ability to maneuver on land, not only can they walk on land but they can also hop and run at surprisingly fast speeds!

[ceruleancynic]

desmodus rotundus is objectively adorable

[roachpatrol]

they’re also the only mammal to run with front propulsion! how cool is that. every four-footed mammal that can gallop does so in the same pattern, except these little guys. 

[bonesnail]

Reference for dragon walking.