good luck babe !! 🎶

syu | 20+ | 💛🤍💜🖤 | ♑ | she/they | Mostly reblogs of art icon by @princkleeatscookies This is a gentle reminder that this is only my art blog; if you're looking for me shitposting please go to my side blog at clearwater--blueskies

[luna-azzurra]

Some Actually Useful Questions to Get to Know Your OC Part Two

↳ What lie do they tell themselves to sleep at night? Seriously. What’s the little piece of denial that keeps them functioning? Do they pretend they don’t care what people think? Tell themselves they’re over that one person? Convinced they’re not the villain of someone else’s story? We all lie to ourselves; your OC is no exception.

↳ What’s their emotional kryptonite? A specific thing that absolutely shatters them, like someone crying? Being ignored? Praise from a parent figure? The sound of an old song? The smell of something nostalgic? Find it and use it against them (lovingly, of course).

↳ When do they feel the most alive? Is it mid-battle, mid-baking, mid-breakup? Does adrenaline light them up, or do they find joy in the quiet, mundane things, like folding laundry while listening to sad girl music? This can reveal a LOT about what drives them.

↳ What would totally ruin their day? A bad haircut? Someone touching their stuff? Or is it something deeper, like being reminded of their failures, or seeing someone else succeed where they couldn’t?

↳ Who do they think they should be? And who are they really? This one’s juicy. Do they think they should be a hero, but keep acting like a villain?

↳ What’s the one thing they’d never admit out loud, even under duress? The shameful thought. The inappropriate desire. The thing they desperately want but don’t think they deserve. DONT FORGET: Characters are built on what they repress.

↳ What are they petty about? Don’t pretend your OC is above this, I mean everyone’s petty about something. Do they hold grudges over stolen pens? Get irrationally jealous of someone’s hair? Still mad about a game of Uno from 2007? Petty makes them fucking real.

↳ How do they act when they think no one’s watching? Do they let their mask slip? Dance around the kitchen? Talk to their cat in baby voice? Cry a little?

↳ What would make them snap? Where is the breaking point? What line has to be crossed for them to finally say “Enough”? Is it injustice? Betrayal? Feeling powerless? You’ll know you’ve found it when it scares you a little (Or a lot).

↳ If they had a theme song, what would it be? No, seriously. The vibe of a character’s soundtrack says a lot. Is it Angsty indie rock? Bubblegum pop masking deep pain? Make a playlist. Your OC will tell you who they are... <3

[luna-azzurra]

Some actually useful Questions to get to know your OC better...

↳ What’s your character’s biggest fear and how does it screw up their relationships? Are they terrified of being abandoned? Do they push people away before they can leave? Are they scared of not being enough? Or being too much?

↳ What’s something they’re stupidly passionate about, and how does it drive their entire life? Like that thing they’d fight someone over. That core belief, hobby, or dream that lowkey fuels every decision they make (even when they say it doesn’t).

↳ What’s one childhood memory they can’t shake and how did it shape the way they see the world now?

↳ What weird habits or quirks make them totally them? Do they always talk with their hands? Hum when they’re nervous? Refuse to eat foods that touch?

↳ Do they have a secret talent no one expects? Like, are they surprisingly great at card tricks? Can they play the piano at concert level but never talk about it? Bake the world’s best banana bread?

↳ How do they handle failure?

↳ Who’s had the biggest impact on their life, and why? Friend, enemy, sibling, teacher, ex?

↳ What do they believe in, deep down? Like, what’s their moral compass? What lines won’t they cross? What kind of person are they trying to be, even if they mess up along the way?

↳ Is there an item or feature they’re weirdly attached to? A necklace? A hoodie? A scar? A pair of old sneakers?

↳ Do they have recurring dreams or nightmares? And what do those dreams mean? What are they trying not to deal with while awake?

[lockheed-martin-unofficial]

Some exercises to get to know an oc!

(I’ve designed this list so that it requires no art or proper writing at all, it can mostly be done by doing picrews, describing and answering questions. )

1. Your oc as a playable video game character, (special abilities and stats). Bonus: write dialogue or one-liners.

2. If they played Dungeons and Dragons, what would their character be like?

3. Evil version of them

4. contents of their bag/ items they always carry around.

5. Average shopping list

6. various outfits for scenes or occasions

7. character’s wedding dress (yes, put that man in a dress.), or any other fancy outfit they would have

8. Graphic design: advertisement for their (perhaps nonexistent and/or illegitimate) business, wedding invite card, cult pamphlet,etc

9. Your oc is on the news for something they did. What did they do‼️

10. Mess around with the incorrect quotes/ headcanon generator

11. Take “what x are you” quizzes as them

12. what crimes are they most likely to get caught for? And what crimes are they most likely to get away with?

13. Describe or show how they would take notes for their studies, research, job, etc. this is better than a diary page, because it doesn’t demand you to get into character so much. Also less awkward.

14. A little known skill they have

15. Your oc watches Transformers. Which version of Megatron would be their favorite? Go on look all of them up right now and decide which one they would vibe with the most.

16. Need to prepare a really quick breakfast/lunch/dinner. What do they go with?

Feel free to send me asks with these and optionally the name of one of my ocs, and I will answer them.

OR you can give me a canon character and I’ll answer in a way I think would be accurate to them.

I hope other people can have fun with this as well. Feel free to repost!

[choshashio]

12 Writing Exercises to help develop your character and their voice.

Editors note - There's a lot of boring writers drivel. So, to spare you from the headache if you're not interested, your characters individual voices and personalities are important for engaging stories and interesting plots. You can skip down to the end for the exercises.

Think about the people you know, the people you love. What's one thing they have in common, besides the obvious? They're all uniquely different. Everyone in the world is different in some way, even in media. Books and movies all have unique sounding characters that are different from each other. In Harry Potter, for example, All of the characters have their own voice, even the Weasley twins are different in their own ways.

Complex and unique characters that sound different, interact and speak differently, make for engaging books and dynamics.

I don't know anybody who would want to read a 50,000 word novel about two boring characters, who're exactly alike, and talk in the same monotonous tone. You can have a character who is "boring." who speaks monotonously and still have an interesting novel that people would read.

Having different characters who come together to create funny, interesting, or weird dynamics makes for a readable piece. Take your monotonous character, by themselves, they're kind of boring. They're not engaging to follow. But, introducing different characters to come and interact with your "boring" character, creates funny and memorable dynamics.

Think the anime Saiki K, or Veronica Sawyer from Heathers. If you took only those two characters, and stripped away all of the background characters, they wouldn't make for very interesting stories. Saiki would be happy, living his days in peace and quiet. Veronica would just be a normal edgy high school girl. But if you bring the side characters back, you bring the story and their conflicts back. Saiki goes back to being annoyed by his weird and goofy friends, wishing for peace and quiet. Veronica goes back to being tormented by JD and the group dynamic in the Heathers clique.

These stories utilize background characters to create conflict in their main characters' lives, and makes fun and interesting stories and dynamics with them.

Without further ado, here are 12 exercises to help you develop your characters, and get you thinking.

Ask your character what they want, and have them monologue about it.

Think about who, in your life, does your character remind you of.

Ask yourself, What does my character want, and what does my character need? How do they conflict with each other, and how does this affect my story?

A good exercise to help you write characters interacting, and practice dialogue is to do the ABCD exercise. 

The ABCD exercise is writing a full page, or 500 words, of dialogue between two characters, character a and character b, talking about what they think character c thinks of character d. Then, write another page depicting how character c actually interacts with character d.

Write journal entries from the pov of your character.

Think about your character's habits, nervous tics, or tells, and write out a page where they do those things.

Think about something your character holds dear to them, and give the item a backstory.

Think about how your character interacts with other characters, and write a page for each interaction. 

Think about a belief or opinion your character has, and write a page of dialogue, where your character is explaining their belief, and why they believe in it, to another character.

Write a page about your character reminiscing, or talking, about a cherished memory from their past, or childhood.

Write a page of dialogue about character a telling character c about character b, whom c has never met before, what kind of things do they say? What do they think of b? Then write another page from character c’s point of view, what are they thinking? How do their thoughts of b change? What do they think of character a? How do they imagine character a and b’s relationship?

Write a page about a character being forced into a situation with their greatest fear. Then, if you want to go a step further, write a page of the same thing, but introduce another character that the first holds dear to them, or wants to protect.

[creativepromptsforwriting]

Friendship Dynamics

Being friends means that you like the other one and that you have things in common. But true friends also have differences. So here are some fun friendship dynamics for you.

the competitive & the relaxed one

the touchy-feely & the reserved

the loud & the coy

the goofy & the serious

the extrovert & the introvert

the social butterfly & the socially awkward one

the jokester & the one never getting the joke

the spontaneous & the planner

the book smart & the street smart

the friendly & the snarky

the chaotic & the organized

the optimist & the pessimist & the realist

the one with a loose relationship with rules & the one who does everything by the book

the overthinker & the laid-back one

the chill one & the one with a short fuse

the sweetheart & the jerk

the thinker & the pragmatist

the bubbly & the quiet

the sane & the deranged

If you like my blog and want to support me, you can buy me a coffee or become a member! And check out my Instagram! 🥰

[starlit-storyteller]

@aj-parker94

Some of these sound like Miko and your OC, Ellie, as well as Jack and Raf.

[guttedpulsars]

here is a master list of great art tools that can make your workflow easier! 👇 (consistently updating)

posemaniacs.com/en

if you want to learn human anatomy with the benefit of preset poses, this is for you! you can use it standalone, but as a bonus you can also import poses into the clip studio paint 3D models. (File -> Import -> 3D Pose (Posemaniacs)

line-of-action.com

great for gestures and observational sketches!

zvork.fr/vls/

browser based rig for lighting & shadows

MY FAVORITE BRUSHPACKS

truegrit texture supply - https://www.truegrittexturesupply.com

Photoshop & Procreate Textures and Brushes | True Grit Texture Supply

Game-Changing Brushes, Textures and Effects for Procreate, Photoshop, Illustrator, Clip Studio Paint and Affinity. Level up your digital art

thedawner procreate & csp packs - https://ko-fi.com/thedawner/

Buy thedawner a Coffee. ko-fi.com/thedawner

Become a supporter of thedawner today! ❤️ Ko-fi lets you support the creators you love.

ADDITIONAL TOOLS COMING!

[redstonedust]

pet peeve is when you look up fashion references from a specific era and you keep getting modern day '[era]-inspired' fashion like NO i want authenticity damn it. i can see your 2020 photo quality and your 2020 hair and your 2020 makeup. youre not fooling me.

[bincliff]

hello i'm a historical fashion researcher and i have a lot of experience looking up things! this is a very widely experienced irritation and you're definitely not alone in this, but i am here to share everything i know!

so, ways to get around this:

turn off AI results. they're literally nonsense to us

don't use pinterest because the sources/provenance is often hard to trace

a standard internet search can be okay, but museum collections are the top tier (list of collections below this list)

instead of broad terms like victorian, regency, tudor, renaissance etc. try using the decade you're looking for. if you're not sure of what decade it is but have a vague image in your head, look on the fashion history timeline and just jump around until you find it. but even changing to e.g. 19th century will give better results than victorian

including terms like womenswear/menswear, daywear, formal wear, evening wear, court dress should increase the value of your search too

including "fashion plates" in your search can give you a nice impression of the intended silhouettes of the era. some of these might be a little stylised but will show you what was considered in vogue

for pre-fashion plate eras or things like makeup and styling, you'll have to look at portraiture or manuscripts. these are harder to actually find what you're looking for, but searching museum collections and limiting results to specific date ranges will be your friend

when looking at art, do bear in mind sometimes artists would paint fabric extra flow-y to show off their skills. it might not have been exactly like that in terms of fabric weight or drape. so, a pinch of salt required!

if you find something on image search where the provenance is dubious, reverse image search and you might find a source! i've been able to trace random pinterest images to real sources, but this does take a lot of time and effort and is often not worth the headache

some online resources and museum collections:

fashion history timeline is an invaluable resource if you're trying to get a feel for everything and should be your first port of call. it'll also link to good examples

the met has a vast number of extant examples of clothing, as well as fashion plates

costume institute fashion plates is a subcollection of the met for fashion plates (1800s-1922)

v&a also has many extant garments, fashion plates, and incredible articles on clothing and aesthetics. read the details of the objects because they'll often reveal a lot about the piece

lacma is good for C19th-20th pieces

nypl digital collection for photographs

national portrait gallery or similar for portraiture, or literally any museum in your country that has historical art

national museums scotland can be useful situationally but might be oddly specific

stout style history is a great collection for finding image references for fat people wearing historical clothes. survival bias of a lot of museum pieces tends towards smaller clothing that couldn't be repurposed, but this aims to counter that. it's not sortable, but is still a really nice resource

wikimedia commons is surprisingly handy! and the images, if you should need to link/repost them, are public domain

auction websites sound like a funny one to recommend. some won't have mannequins and some will. just look up historical garment auctions and you'll find some!

anyway, i hope this has been a good place to start for anyone interested! there are probably some i've missed because there are so many museums across the world and i don't know about all of them or can't remember them. but these are the ones i've used the most! (my specialisation/jobs i've had to research for have only really been in western fashion, so my resources reflect that)

[haemey]

Wikipedia has a list of fashion museums. Unfortunately, the page itself is only available in German, but the introductory paragraph is very short and after that, it's organised by country, and then it's a simple list. If you click on a museum's article, the website is usually linked in the overview table.

[schweizercomics]

Hello, friends!

I reworked the ol' "Schweizer Guide to Spotting Tangents" lecture from my comics-teaching days, figured I'd share it here. If you want a free, printable PDF for yourself or to share (especially if you're an educator), you can find it at the bottom of this same lesson on my website.

-Chris

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hey! You there! Yes, you-

You ever wanted to write or draw a better Black character? 👀 You ever wanted to better comprehend a Black character, from their perspective? 👀 Has it ever been implied or outright stated to you that you should, but you didn't know where to start? 👀 Do you feel like you'd like to be more anti-racist, and would like beginner tips on how to start with your perception and media? 👀

Well do I got a blog for you!

@creatingblackcharacters · Creating Black Characters *with intent!

An amateur creator but professional at being Black 👍🏾 here to offer perspectives on how to INTENTIONALLY create your Black characters! [Prof

[miyuliart]

I collected my art tips on hands over the years. It ended up being 54 pages of notes I took and some guides I tried to create for myself. Maybe some of these can be useful to others as well. You can buy the pdf here or join my Patreon to get it for free.

[iwasthesouthernpansy]

Loved The Works of Vermin so I made a collage

[cookies-of-the-rainbow]

batch 7 🍫

[princkleeatscookies]

twitter requests because I need filler :p

I'm not even done with this yet but I need to post smth here lol

[cyberabsurd]

[cupofchemicalchatter]

who let this child have beer

[babender228]

cinnamon cookie!!!

[dizzybizz]

blorbos ive missed drawing,,, mostly cookies cus i miss those fuckers so bad help me

and me throwing various sketches on a page, slapping color on em n calling it a day