14 days to go and only $175 away from getting the final pin design of the dogmaw set unlocked! Can I say this is a Halloween surprise? I’ve been scoping out some sticker prices and I’ve decided to add stickers to all preorders and $5+ pledges! They’ll be 3x3 inches and made from weatherproof vinyl so you can stick ‘em on your waterbottle, laptop, car, whatever else you dream of, I guess. This Kickstarter has gone wonderfully so far and you all have been so supportive, so I really want to show my appreciation. Thank you all for your support - and heck, we’ve still got time to make things bigger and better!
To refresh you all on the rewards:
$1+ backers: phone wallpapers and my love and appreciation
$5+ backers: phone wallpapers, magnolia sticker, design PDF, my love
pin preorders (running out fast!!): pin(s) outlined in the preorder, phone wallpaper, magnolia sticker, design PDF, my love
All pledges, from $1 to many dollars help out, as do retweets, reblogs, and spreading the word in general!
$6 away from unlocking the last pin of the set!!!! Haven’t pledged yet? You can still grab a neat vinyl sticker, design tutorial, and phone wallpapers for $5!!
How to react to the dreadful comment: “I Could Do That”
An art curator brilliantly explains how you should react to the vicious comment on modern and contemporary art - “I Could Do That” - combining a chance for education, class and maybe discovering new skills about yourself and with a positive perspective I could never maintain myself
Finishing up the Kickstarter exclusive PDF tutorial where I outline my process for making the initial pin designs in Photoshop (though heck, parts may apply to other art programs too!) It’s going to go over using the pen tool primarily, how I organize my layers, and little tips I’ve picked up in making sure my designs could be manufactured! Depending on the amount of time I have I might be putting the previous tutorial in the PDF as well so it’s all in one nice package.
Like I said, this is exclusive to Kickstarter backers, so I won’t be releasing it on Gumroad or here after the Kickstarter wraps up. Pledged already? All $5+ pledges will receive the digital copy of this PDF! Haven’t pledged yet? Please check out the project and maybe grab yourself a cool pin while preorders are still available!
A little while back @dirtsaliva asked about the process behind getting those designs from flat colored to looking like an enamel pin. I know it’s kind of a silly niche outcome, but Photoshop effects are always super fascinating to me and I’m happy to share and encourage people playing around with fx, so here we go!
I’m starting out from the “before” image on the left, where the lineart is one separate layer and each color is it’s own separate layer below it (super important that they’re all isolated from each other).
I’m sorry for leaving you a lil stranded on how to get to that, but if you’d like a guide on how to use the pen tool, put in some flats, and put together a color sheet, I’m going to cover that whole deal in a tutorial PDF that’s available exclusively on Kickstarter on backer rewards $8 and up, so check that out if you’re interested!
But, back to this! Steps under the cut cause it got lengthy.
First off, to make that lineart look like like gold plated metal, I put an fx gradient layer of a yellow gold and put it to diffuse. Define where you’d like your light source to be as it’s very important you stick with it throughout the process. It takes a bit of playing around to get it to where you’d like. As in all art, look at reference! Make sure to find a color and opacity that fits in a way that looks realistic. Usually I duplicate this layer, fx and all, select the original and it’s duplicate and control + E them both together, which makes the diffuse much smoother as you can see in the next step.
Next I add a little bevel and emboss to make those outlines stand out a little more. Remember to keep that global light checked. Going off of what I have will get you similar results, but play around to make the outlines more raised or more shallow. I turn the shadow all the way down as I’ll address that in another step. I basically only use this for a light highlight.
The inner shadow here makes that highlight a little brighter. Bevel and Emboss lacks the noise option which I felt was necessary to replicate a little bit of light diffusion (it’s those little details that make things realistic). Hard light is a semi-transparent and alters what’s beneath it so some of that diffusion below shines through.
Next is a drop shadow, set to a super low multiply. Each color will have a separate highlight and shadow on top of this, so it’s important that this drop shadow isn’t too strong, but you can always go back and adjust it. I feel like I should’ve mentioned this earlier, but the colors of this design are all warm tones, so all the shadows and highlights added are going to be warm tones as well. And that wraps up the effects for the metal outlines! (This fx layer does kind of extend past the outlines, so when these layers are all crushed down it will need to be deleted.)
Next is the soft enamel effects, which I start on the flowers. Soft enamel is concave so the edge nearest your light source is in shadow while the edge furthest away is what catches the light. By switching the light direction from up to down the shadows and highlights switch. Like with the other effects, it’s a delicate layering, so keep the opacity low.
One thing you can mess around with is the gloss contour. On soft enamel pins the light is slightly pulled away from the edge, so stopping the curve before it reaches the upper right corner replicates that. You can save that and use it on the next highlight.
This highlight will pop up in the top right of the colors, and this is when you’ve gotta break that global light and spin that light angle around to the opposite side. Add a little noise for texture, use the curve you made previously, and adjust the distance, choke, and softness as necessary.
On top of this I put a light gradient to keep things from looking flat, and the scale has to be messed with to fit the size of whatever you have on the layer. Play around a bit!
Think of all those effects as a base, you can copy and drag all those effects to each color. A bit of tweaking will have to be done for each to make it match your colors and such, but in the end, ta-da!
“In the witch kingdom Hyalin, the strength of your magic is determined by the length of your hair. Those that are strong enough are conscripted by the Witch Guard, who enforce the law in peacetime and protect the land during war. However, those with hair judged too long are pronounced enemies of the kingdom, and annihilated. This is called a witch burning.“
Hey, are you reading the webcomic Witchy? It’s by me (hey) and not to toot my own horn but it’s really good. It’s got queer Asian witches with hair powered magic, a dead dad, a cool mum, a weird bird and a lot of secrets.
If you’re not convinced, Witchy has also been nominated for multiple awards (including an Ignatz) and has gotten write ups on io9, Mentalfloss, Comics Alliance, and Autostraddle, to name a few.
So if you’re interested, check it out, and if you enjoy, please share with your friends! it means a lot.
I’m rereading this for the millionth time while i do laundry so I just wanted to remind everybody that Falkor is good and precious and straight up not a dog
ive been drawing dice for days for work so of course at this point the little draw goblin in my brain demands NOT ONLY the same thing but, the same thing highly rendered as a warmup
How do I actually draw so that I enjoy my style? I draw so much, but I always end up HATING everything I draw. I can never seem to like what I do. Any advice would be super helpful!
(IMHO) “Style” is a byproduct / aggregate of both What You Know + What You Like!
What You Know can be a mix of different things, like how long you’ve drawn, your methods and processes as an artist, your knowledge of anatomy, perspective, rendering; pretty much all, any, or none of these things of these things! It can be as simple as what color you use to sketch!
But What You Like is just as important as what you know!
What You Like can be a huge mish-mosh of anything that influences you! It can be someone else’s style, movies, shows, cartoons, video games, music!
For example, some of my artistic inspirations are Mike Mignola + Genndy Tartakovsky + Bruce Timm + Barry Reynold’s collaborative works with Tomm Moore! But I also like AJ Fosik’s sculptures, video games made by Jenova Chen + Tim Schafer, and music by Woodkid + Sigur Ros + Mastodon.
In other words: KEEP YOUR EYES BIG! Study and practice around what inspires you!
But sometimes it’s hard to maintain a balance between disliking your art and liking it too much…
You don’t want to hate your art so much you stop creating, you could get stuck or be discouraged into walking away from creating your wonderful, amazing work!But you don’t want to be so happy with your art that you don’t change or improve. You may never build upon What You Know; complacency and stagnation could prevent you from learning new techniques or methods. Or worse, you could become too enamored with your style and shut down when it changes over time. Because style does change, and change is okay!
Too sum things up, don’t worry too hard about “style”.
You will find it and own it in whatever time it takes! Just enjoy your inspirations, keep your eyes open to things that can influence you! Be gentle with yourself and doodle loosely without worrying too much about what the final product will look like! Keep utilizing inspirations, apply any resources + tutorials + interests you want at any pace you’re comfy with!
And remember that it takes practice + patience + pragmatism! It took me at least a couple / few years to come to the style I have now, and it will be slightly different down the road. Yours will too, and it’ll be amazing!
I don’t think we talk enough about it being 100% ok to abandon your goals.
There is so much about keeping on trying and working hard and You Can Achieve Anything When You Put Your Mind To It which is a great sentiment. And for the large part its true and I don’t intend to contradict that when I say that look: sometimes you have to quit and that’s ok.
There is no virtue in pursuing a goal to the detriment of your health and happiness. Not every goal is attainable for you no matter how much you want it and it isn’t shameful to walk away from an aspiration that isnt working for you or is sapping your energy and it doesn’t feel worth it anymore.
You’re no less for changing your mind about something halfway through, or losing interest, or deciding other things are more of a priority than getting fit, running that marathon, getting into med school or whatever else you hoped to do. Forgive yourself, move on.
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