Artistic Reference

A compendium of useful reference, tutorials, and inspiration for artists. Submit Additional Inspiration/Reference

[drawingden]

Arm Movement by Kitasite

[anatoref]

Dynamic Poses by Modelfactory

[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.

[bitsndoodles]

GUIDE TO DRAWING BIG GIRLS. so much yes. I see the pregnant belly so much x.x makes my eye twitch 

[anatoref]

Top image: Die Gestalt des Menschen by Gottfried Bammes

Row 2: Left, Right 

Row 3, (Source)

Row 4, (Source: Unknown)

Row 5, Left

Row 5: Right (Théorie de la figure humaine : considérée dans ses principes, soit en repos ou en mouvementby by Sir. Peter Paul Rubens)

Row 6, (Source)

Bottom Image, (Source)

[inkys-resources]

need refs/inspo for period clothing?

here you go:

Medieval (9th-15th century):

10th century and earlier

Romance (1000-1250)

11th century

12th century

13th century

more 13th century

14th century

more 14th

15th century

and more 15th century

Gothic (1150-1550)

Renaissance (1520-1650)

16th & 17th century

16th century

more 16th

Tudors (1500-1550)

more Tudors

Elizabethan Period (1558-1603)

Jacobean Era (1603-1625)

17th century

more 17th century

and again

and even more

this won’t stop

Baroque (1600-1750)

Georgian Period (1714-1830):

18th century

more 18th century

18th century women’s fashion

18th century men’s fashion

Rococo (1720-1770)

Classicism (1770-1790)

children 18th-19th century

Regency Preiod (1811-1820)/ Empire (1800-1820s):

1790-1820s

more stuff on regency and georgian era

even more

that’s not enough regency

and more

how is there so much

early 19th century men’s wear

early 19th century women’s wear

Victorian Period (1837-1901):

Romantic Era (1820-1840s)

Civil War Era/1850-1860s

1870-1890s

more victorian

Edwardian Period (1901-1910):

1900-1910s

Belle Epoque (1880-1910s)

more edwardian/belle époque

Modern:

1910s-1920s [Fashion between the World Wars]

1920s

more roaring 20s

so much 20s

1920s hairstyles

1930s

1930-1940s

1930-1950s

1950s

more 50s

1960s

1960-1970s

1980s

lots of periods in one spot/fashion through centuries:

here, here, and here is almost everything (and properly ordered)

also here with lots of historic fashion magazines

historic fashion

costumes of antiquity

more historical clothing

history of fashion

more history of fashion

“vintage” clothing

historic costumes

children’s historical fashion/toys

details

historic wedding dresses

historic assecoires (hats, shoes…)

hats

masks

parasols

lots of embroidery/jewlery

it indeed is western/european centric, I’m sorry for that, but for other cultures I simply don’t have so many references

[xoves]

Unified Color Palette Tutorial by ~Cpresti

IM SORRY WHERE HAS THIS TUTORIAL BEEN ALL MY LIFE???

proceeds to stop melting all your eyes out oh lawd

[potentialforart]

Yes good, I need this.

[ncrossanimation]

Here’s a background tutorial that was intended to hand out to the painters on Over the Garden Wall…I’m actually not sure if I ever did (maybe German or Levon can chime in on this) Anyway, I whipped this up super fast in the early days of pre-production and it might be of interest or help to some aspiring digital painters out there. 

[digiartlab-deactivated20150916]

鳥やタカを描いてみよう How to Draw Birds

[nutty-themes]

Foodie’s Feed / Death to the Stock / Jay Mantri / Little Visuals Picjumbo / New Old Stock / Refe / Unsplash / Gratisography

I get quite a few questions about where I find my stock images that are used in live previews so here’s a list of my favourite (all can be found on the resources page). Most of these are free to use on personal and commercial projects but double check the licenses before use.

[makanidotdot]

You may get asked this a lot, so please excuse my ignorance - but how do you go about constructing character expressions and body language and such? Thanks!

Besides The Basics (construction of heads and skulls and muscles and skeletons and how they move), I’ll go over some things I’ve been trying to work on myself lately:

1. Treat expressions as a single gesture of the face/head, as opposed to a head and then individual features dumped on a plate and arranged into an expression.

First, just get down the big shapes of your expression, just like you would for a pose.  

So say I wanna do a low angle angry pose.  I know the features are gonna be all mashed down at the bottom because of perspective.

 Scribble it down

start to put on features

fix stuff

put on more stuff

fix stuff again

erasing and flipping and stuff a whole bunch until you are happy with it or stop caring

Whole head is a gesture!

2. Just like a facial expression, jot down where the important parts of an entire pose goes first.  You can force the rest of the body to fit the pose.

So here I knew I wanted the shoulders tilted a certain direction, and te hand to be in that particular position in front of her face. 

That’s the simplest explanation I got.  Don’t be afraid to push and pull faces and bodies around! Worry about being “on model” last!

[typette-deactivated20150825]

it’s nice to see how others do stuff like this, everyone is different but there’s something to learn from everybody!

[wannabeanimator]

'The Secret to Composition' tutorial

[kennoarkkan]

gah i was thinking on doing a tutorial on this theme cuz it’s not as covered, and right there appears an amazing guide. this is why i don’t bother with any tutorials »

[pauhami]

Hello!

Here’s my really simple method for painting with watercolor! Hope someone finds this at least a little bit useful! ^^

(I apologize the typos (edit: damn there were STILL so many argh!) and possible bad grammar.)

[lulubael]

Practicing metal painting and textures.

[kjangsta]

Might be useful!

[starshinebeast]

A tool that I’ve found is really handy is a called the Cash Clock. It’s a simple program that measures both the time that you’re working on a piece as well as how much money you should be earning. You can adjust the hourly wage to whatever you feel is…

[paperseverywhere]

Online version link

[fucktonofanatomyreferencesreborn]

An adequate fuck-ton of hood-like references.

[From various sources]

[mentalward6ix]

Oh yeah

[stickysheepart-deactivated20151]

This is extremely helpful!

[fucktonofanatomyreferences]

An appreciative fuck-ton of bird wing anatomy references (from various sources).

[writerswritecompany]

Cheat Sheets for Writing Body Language

We are always told to use body language in our writing. Sometimes, it’s easier said than written. I decided to create these cheat sheets to help you show a character’s state of mind. Obviously, a character may exhibit a number of these behaviours. For example, he may be shocked and angry, or shocked and happy. Use these combinations as needed.

by Amanda Patterson