[sarahtastic-cake]

art tips post

for all the artist following me

Have two sketchbooks: One for finished and high-quality art (stuff made with Prismacolor or Copic if you use that or art for your portfolio) and the other sketchbook for more messy doodles. This way you have a place to try new things and mess up as much as you need. When I only had one sketchbook I was scared to draw in it because I didn't want to mess it up

Do studies. I cant tell you how much I've improved just by doing studies of shoes, hands, noses, and all that. This works for when you have art block too since you’re not really making stuff up and just learning how real things work.

Learn from others. I’ve never taken a real art class because 1. I can’t afford it and 2. there’s no good art classes/programs at my school. I’ve been following several artists and learning from them over the years and they’ve helped me tremendously. Just please do not steal art because that is never okay.

Break down concepts. If you notice there’s something wrong with your piece then figure out why. You can’t get better if you leave mistakes and don't try to understand whats going on. If the color is weird figure out if the values look right or maybe its the saturation of the color.

Watch youtube tutorials. Here are some youtubers I think are pretty good art teaching all things art: Draw with Jazza |  DrawingWiffWaffles |  Proko |  Baylee Jae

Have an inspiration folder/blog. Sometimes you just need a collection of starry nights or a misty forest or even a French bakery. All of those things can help you get inspired to draw. It could even be completely unrelated to what you plan to draw.

There are no dumb ideas in the creative process. If you want to draw a lizard in a dress go for it! If you want to draw various pastries with faces do it! Don’t let the thought of it being too dumb stop you because if I’ve learned anything in my several years of drawing it’s that an idea can lead to another and another and another and you may get a really good idea just from doodling dumb things.

Here’s a few things that can get you started on drawing better:

Dynamic poses | Dynamic clothes | Dynamic figure drawing

COMPOSITION | PERSPECTIVE | CONSTRUCTION

Anatomy:

Legs

Arms

Hands

Heads

Body (Female) (Male

Color Theory

Improving your sketchbook

Most importantly, don’t give up! You may not immediately get notes or followers but it’s more important you get better than to have popularity. How do you think those popular artists got to where they are now? To be good you’ve got to work at it.

[herbgerblin]

hey, joc! did you post a tutorial ever about how you draw dreadlocks? i feel like you did, but i can't find it. D: if you didn't, do you know of any good tutorials, or would you care to share any tips when you have a few free moments?

ye i have a very basic tutorial right here :0! As for more tips, I AM ONCE AGAIN FILLING YOUR DASH WITH KRAVITZ ✨✨✨

Dreads are a protective style that allows naturally curly hair to “lock up” and prevents breakage. Locs can either be twisted into very neat, sectioned off portions of hair that are identical. Or they can be allowed to lock up naturally, without training, leading to locs of varying lengths and thickness. This usually happens over the course of several months, so characters with newly twisted dreads will have hair that looks less matted at the roots than at the tips.

Locs can also be braided, twisted, or curled, which can later be loosened to create a very pretty wavy or curl affect. 

There are also non-naturally occurring options like using extensions, which can be crocheted, twisted, or braided in. Or, for those who don’t have naturally curly hair, trained over months with waxes and twisting techniques. However, without a perm, the texture will still appear different.

[calhaspam-deactivated20241208]

yo could you pull out that pallete of dark skin tones anyway? 👀 i'd love to see it tbh

https://twitter.com/NeonMace24/status/1140714284088885248?s=19

that there's a tweet to a few neat dark skin tone references! sadly it isnt exclusively dark, but it still has a lot! ive also got these saved in my phone, but i saved them a long time ago so ive no idea who owns them. if anyone knows feel free to send a message so i can properly credit the owner!

[cadaverkeys]

!! thank u so much! The way i draw lace is like…so time consuming but i usually use three different methods interchangeably

One of the major factors of lace is that it must maintain this very floral quality to it, which often relies on noticeable curves. Though a lot of lace contains straight lines here and there, the curves should always b the most significant! 

[all-that-kstuff]

[kiwi]

HEY THIS IS IMPORTANT whats your favorite place to find drawing references?

[kiwi]

so far we’ve got

senshi stock

croquis cafe

line-of-action.com

quickposes.com

posemaniacs

clip studio paint models

pexels.com

sketchdaily

eggazyoutatsu atarichan drawer

designdoll

if you have any more please reply!

[nohara]

Unsplash: All photos published on Unsplash can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and noncommercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible. More precisely, Unsplash grants you an irrevocable, nonexclusive copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use photos from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing the photographer or Unsplash. This license does not include the right to compile photos from Unsplash to replicate a similar or competing service.

Freeimages: You can use the images in digital format on websites, blog posts, social media, advertisements, film and television productions, web and mobile applications. In printed materials such as magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, flyers, product packaging for decorative use in your home, office or any public place or personal use. The rights granted to you by FreeImages.com are: Perpetual, meaning there is no expiration or end date on your rights to use the content. Non-exclusive, meaning that you do not have exclusive rights to use the content. FreeImages.com can license the same content to other customers. Unlimited, meaning you can use the content in an unlimited number of projects and in any media. For purposes of this agreement, “use” means to copy, reproduce, modify, edit, synchronize, perform, display, broadcast, publish, or otherwise make use of.

Stocksnap: Every single image on StockSnap are governed exclusively by the generous terms of the Creative Commons CC0 license. Specifically, that license means you can do any and all of the following: Download the image file.Publish, revise, copy, alter, and share that image. Use the image (as-is or as you’ve altered it), in both personal and commercial contexts. Moreover, you can put StockSnap CC0 images to any of these usages without buying the right to do it, acquiring written permission from the image’s creator, or attributing the work to the image creator. In other words, there’s no fee to download or use these StockSnap images in accordance with the CC0 license. They’re free to download, free to edit, and free to use - even in a commercial project! You don’t even need to attribute the image to the creator, the way you do with other CC or traditional copyright licensing schemes. (However, even though it’s not required, we here at StockSnap do encourage you to include an appropriate attribution. It’s a nice thing to do.)

Burst.Shopify: Burst is a free stock photo platform that is powered by Shopify. Their image library includes thousands of high-resolution, royalty-free images that were shot by their global community of photographers. You can use their pictures for just about anything — your website, blog or online store, school projects, Instagram ads, facebook posts, desktop backgrounds, client work and more. All of their photos are free for commercial use with no attribution required.

Pixabay: Images and Videos on Pixabay are released under Creative Commons CC0. To the extent possible under law, uploaders of Pixabay have waived their copyright and related or neighboring rights to these Images and Videos. You are free to adapt and use them for commercial purposes without attributing the original author or source. Although not required, a link back to Pixabay is appreciated.

Viintage: All images hosted by Viintage.com are considered to be public domain images, each image is presumed to be in the public domain. It may be distributed or copied as permitted by applicable law. Viintage.com assumes no ownership of the images and they may be downloaded and can be used free of charge for any purpose. They may be downloaded and used for commercial and personal use. Understand “public domain” as the permission to freely use an image without asking permission from the photographer or the illustrator. Thus, the creator of the work will not sue you for violating his/her copyrights. It is your responsibility to make sure, displaying the image does not violate any other law. Viintage.com assumes no responsibility for how or where you use the images found on the site.

Gratisography: You may use Gratisography pictures as you please for both personal and commercial projects. You can adapt and modify the images and get paid for work that incorporates the pictures. This includes advertising campaigns, adding your logo or text to an image, printed in any size print runs (e.g., book covers, magazines, posters, etc.), on your website, blog, or other digital mediums, and on merchandise as long as the picture itself is not the merchandise.

[chiptunecreature]

As someone who draws a lot of faeries, Faestock is godlike.

[uselessarttips]

A wonderful addition to the list!

[lxndscape]

mood

[duckydrawsart]

A simple step-by-step process of my coloring by request ~

I would recommend reading this tutorial as well for a more in depth explanation of my process. It’s essentially the same as this one, so I didn’t find it necessary to repeat the steps in detailed text.

[anatoref]

10 Mistakes Made by Amateur Letterers

[andvhol]

[sandracharlet]

I hope this tutorial will help someone. :)

[matobawataru]

[onimille]

The big texturing tutorial

1. Definition

Texturing is a technique that involves adding local shading and details on surfaces to better represent the material of an object. This technique is of course closely linked to shading in general. This is usually applied after defining a global shading.

From left to right :

Lineart

Global shading

Completed sprite

One of the big differences between global and local shading is homogeneity. The very principle of global shading is to give a sufficiently contrasting effect between the shaded and lit areas to bring out volume and depth. Conversely, a texture must be as homogeneous as possible. It must be able to be applied on large, uniform surfaces, without making it look bad.

2. Applying a texture

A texture being homogeneous in terms of its luminosity/contrast, if it is applied to an object without taking into account the global shading, we will lose any effect of volume and depth.

A texture applied to a sphere without shading. Only the deformation of the texture can give us a clue on the shape of the object, but it is still difficult to discern. Homogeneous contrast When applying a texture to an object, shadows must also be taken into account. It is therefore important to maintain a uniform contrast between colours. A dark line separating a light zone from a dark zone should not keep the same colour between these two zones.

The color of the line will be lighter on the lighter side and darker on the darker side to preserve its contrast with the background. In the same way it is possible to apply a texture or pattern on a shaded object, by proceeding to a simple color shifting in our palette.

Combination of a texture (left) and an object that is not textured but shaded (middle).

3. Local shading

Since shading is used to highlight the bumps, there are generally two possible cases:

A groove

A bump

Each of these cases can be more or less accentuated by playing on the colors, the intensity of shadows and lights.

On the upper line, troughs ranging from the weakest to the strongest bumps. On the second line, these are bumps that stand out. The mastery of these light bumps is very important, it is the basis of the textures, and will make it possible to manage all the simple cases, such as wood or matte plastic. Example of application on a simple object:

4. Reflections

The application of a reflection is done in a simple way, by applying diagonal strips of light of varying thicknesses, and following a few rules.

A trough or bump will create an offset at the reflection level (proportional to the height change). As for the shadows, there is no absolute, depending on the palette or the material represented, it is possible to lighten or not the area at the reflection level. It is also important not to have parallel light bands on faces that are not oriented in the same direction, as on this cube:

Concrete example of the application of a gold texture on our drawers:

Or, added reflections on our previous crate:

5. Dithering and granularity

Dithering consists in creating a new false color from a checkerboard or other regular pattern of two colors close enough to give an illusion of mixing. The closer the colours are, the stronger the illusion will be. The more the colours are contrasted, the stronger the granularity effect will be.

Dithering is basically used to obtain fake intermediate shades on limited palettes, but it is also very useful for making complex and rough textures.

Example of complex dithering separating 3 colors over a wide area.

The nature of the pattern totally changes the roughness aspect. Example of the application of a sandy rock on our drawers:

Or add grain to our crate:

6. The art of destruction

The more complex a texture is, the more it will combine fundamental techniques such as bumpiness, reflections or granularity. However, some materials need to go further, by cutting, slash or breaking the base support.

Cuts It works much like bump, but on a much finer surface. We are subject to the same rules, of which here is a summary image:

From the finest to the most pronounced, on the first line of the cuts, and on the second of the bumps. A concrete example on our crate:

Exercises

Since nothing beats practice to learn, here is a series of examples from the simplest to the most complicated.

For each exercise resolved, post your results.

Mastering tools

Add a strong bump on the text of this image, except the ‘x’ which must be a groove (the center must be dug more strongly than the rest of the ‘x’):

Palette:

Add reflections on the image obtained between the two red lines shown below:

Now cut and break the letter ‘e’ as well as possible.

Add grain to the letter ‘l’.

Finalize a sprite

Texturize/colorize this sprite:

Palette:

Add reflections on the inside of the doors to give the impression that there are windows.

Add damage (cuts etc) on the right side of the wardrobe.

Make a variant of this cabinet by redoing it in gold using the palette of the gold drawers example in the tutorial. Palette:

Do the same with the sandy rock. Palette:

Sample solutions

Here are some solutions by a talented friend :

Gif process

The end.

[thundercluck-blog]

Hey friends, Meg here for WOOPS IT’S WEDNESDAY! Today we’re taking a look at how to study values and the importance of knowing how to use them! It’s not all about color, you know. If you have any tutorial recommendations send ‘em in here or my personal. Now go forth and I’ll see you next week!

[out-of-context-sonic]

[artmagine]

Top 12 alternatives to Photoshop for digital painters and illustrators

Hello there!

Yes, we haven’t done this in a while… but our inbox and chat are swamped with questions on the subject, so this article was very much needed.

it’s a simple list of art apps, but we know you love those :D

Enough with the intro, here it is, a list of twelve art apps you may want to check out.

ArtRage is an art program for beginners and professionals. With its minimal interface, it’s easy to keep the essential tools at hand without stealing space from the canvas. Panels can be moved around and tools can be customised. We all know how important it is for digital artists to be able to modify brushes!

Pros: easy to use; friendly interface; essential tools from professional apps available; available for iOS, Android, Windows and Mac

Cons: it may get sluggish with big files and when using big brushes, but performances also depend on the running machine; limited selection of editing tools if compared to Photoshop - ArtRage is more of a painting program rather than an editing one.

Paid

ArtRage Lite is a different version at a cheaper price, mostly for beginners, but also for professionals if they need the essential.

Now free, Sketchbook is the famous app created by Autodesk for various platforms.

Pros: clean, friendly interface; easy to use; professional features

Cons: lack of official tutorials; doesn’t offer as many tools as other apps (it’s down to the essential); paid subscription in Adobe style for multiple licenses

Free and paid

Black Ink is a powerful little program few actually know, but there’s a reason: this isn’t your classing drawing app. What’s cool about it is the vast selection of special brushes, completely non-realistic, and definitely able to boost your creativity.

Pros: vast selection of customisable brushes; excellent performance

Cons: not very easy to use; non-intuitive interface

Paid

This is probably the most complete software for painting, drawing and animation. It was originally known as Manga Studio, but with its updates and addition of features, it became Clip Studio Paint. 

This doesn’t say much about the quality of the features themselves considering the affordable price (if you haven’t used the app yet, that is), but among graphic apps, this one is the top seller.

Pros: professional features for illustrators; layout tools for comic/manga artists; 3D reference models; customisable tools; various sales with special prices

Cons: the interface may not appear intuitive at first; the program may lag (again, performance also depends on the running machine)

Paid

GIMP is the famous open source image editor originally created for GNU/Linux and available for OS X and Windows. 

Best known as Photoshop’s main competition, this is a manipulation program for both beginners and professionals who love design.

It offers many professional features, making the program a powerful tool.

Pros: professional editing tools; supports different formats; supported by different platforms; active community

Cons: in spite of the simple design, many options are hidden and it takes time to discover all the features; slow startup

Free

Krita is an open source painting app created by artists for artists.

Pros: easy to use; intuitive interface; great brush workflow; brush stabilizer; customisable brushes; general good performance; very enthusiastic, although small, community

Cons: it may be slow or even crash depending on the running computer and the app’s version; very few editing tools compared to Photoshop

Free

MediBang Paint is a free and light app for drawing and painting, perfect for manga and comic creation.

Pros: vast selection of brushes; cloud sharing; friendly, minimal interface (non-desktop app); also available for iPad, iPhone and Android

Cons: requires an account to use all features; non-intuitive interface (desktop version)

Free

Mischief is a sketching app with essential tools, useful for brainstorming and ideation.

Pros: infinite drawing canvas; friendly interface; easy to use; cheap pro version

Cons: few updates; offers only the essential (but that’s the point); no editing/adjustment tools

Free and paid

Corel’s jewel, Painter is the most famous software that offers digital tools able to give a traditional feel to brushes and canvas.

Pros: different selection of media; many professional features; PS-friendly

Cons: certain brushes may work slow; not easy to use at first; the software may crash (this is the most common report); pricey

Paid

Paintstorm Studio is a professional software for digital painting. It’s focused on the use of brushes and blending, which makes the software a little gem in the digital painting field.

Pros: good brush workflow; brush stabilizer; “close gap” feature; customisable interface and tools; professional features; affordable price

Cons: non-intuitive interface (desktop version)

Paid

Procreate is the powerful drawing app for iOS. 

With the very sensitive Apple Pencil, Procreate is so easy to use that many artists chose the iPad over the most famous graphic tablets.

Pros: friendly interface; makes it easy to organise files; excellent brush workflow; customisable brushes; video recording; affordable price

Cons: hidden features; only available for iPad

Paid

SAI is a simple app for artists who want to focus on painting and drawing. 

It’s well known for its good pressure support and its essential tools for manga artists, but SAI can be used by any kind of artist who wants to paint.

Pros: easy to use; friendly interface; light software; customisable brushes; tons of (non-official) tutorials

Cons: limited selection of tools, even basic ones; limited canvas sizes and uses; it might crash from intensive work, especially with big canvases and brushes; supports only RGB colour mode; lack of support

Paid

We hope you’ll find this list useful. 

If you think there are other apps that should have made this list, don’t hesitate to let us know!

Thank you and peace out,

G&M

Buy us a coffee ❤

Other articles:

10 inspiring and helpful YouTube channels for digital artists

6 inspiring Art Podcasts for digital artists

7 amazing Photoshop extensions and tools for digital artists

[prismeowtic]

Some advice for drawing people who have both hair… and horns!! :O

Also, you may feel more comfortable drawing the whole horn first, and that’s fine too! Mostly the point is just to try to draw the hair growing around the horn, rather than under it.

Hope this helps!