Reference Blog & Other Things

Just a blog about looking at refs and expanding my horizons, learning new things art related.

[askfibs-deactivated20190105]

Never blame your fans

I know many of you artists - whether you draw, write, or compose - are frustrated that your original work, especially your dream projects, aren’t getting the responses you were hoping for.

I feel the same way.

But some of you express your frustrations completely destructively and blame the world for not giving you the spotlight.

When you do that, you’re blaming your problems for existing rather than adjusting and compromising to solve them. You’re making excuses for your mistakes. You’re demanding the world to change but you are not willing to change with it.

This is the perfect mindset to NEVER succeed in anything, ever.

You need to accept some basic truths of art before you can go any further:

Your art should teach you as much as or more than it teaches others: If you claim your art opens horizons and widens minds, yours should be the first priority. You cannot speak without listening. You are not a righteous prophet enlightening the heathens with the true word. You are one humble person and your art is one humble person’s story.

There are no new stories, but there are always new storytellers. That amazing idea you have that nobody’s ever thought of before? Someone has. But nobody has told the story your way, or drawn the character your way, or sung the song your way. Art is not about being new. It is about being you.

Popular art is all about the beholder. All these shows and games with so much fan art? They got to that level because they command a personal investment from and serve the viewer - they have worlds their fans want to be part of, and your canon will be swept aside along the way. You the artist are not a god or a wise sage. You are a guide and a footman. To be an artist is to be humanity’s servant, not its lord - and there’s no shame in that.

Most of your fans are not artists or art critics. While there will be a good number of them in your fanbase, the vast majority are not going to be super-open-minded creative thinkers who value every single opinion, outlook, and story just because it’s done technically well. They will be ordinary people with ordinary, selfish interests, and they will care about your content more than your talent. You have to balance what you want to draw with what everyone wants to see.

But the most important part of being an artist or really a person at all is to understand this:

Nobody owes you success.

Nobody is under any obligation to pay anything you produce a second glance or support or promote it in any way.

Nobody is spiting or robbing you by not giving you a like or a reblog or a follow.

Every single gesture of appreciation you receive from someone is a courtesy - a gift that you earn, not a right you’re entitled to.

It is not the job of your audience to love your work. It is your job to make it lovable. And just because you are working really hard does not mean you are working in the right direction.

I know that thousands upon thousands of artists put hours or months or years into a project and feel like they get nothing in return. Sometimes it is not how hard you’re working but what you’re working for that is the problem. 

Sometimes you need to slow down and think, “Do I have to have this just so? What would the kind of person interested in my work be looking for, and where can I address it? Am I maybe taking myself and my work a little too seriously?” 

And a lot of artists don’t realize that as an amateur, you are the sole proprietor - you are your art. Whether people like you determines whether they like your art.

And that’s why when you blame everybody else and post ungrateful, catty garbage like this:

… you don’t subsequently become the next Toby Fox.

The simple fact is that people will pay you attention if they think your offering + your hassle are worth their attention.

You need to create a world that someone other than you will have fun in and you need to be a good host to everyone who visits. 

You need a world that will welcome your fans with open arms.

You need to build a world people can live & play in.

And you and your world need to appreciate your fans just for showing up.

Because this is exactly what the big fish do.

because they spread your work around to more people without shanking you on credit and who gets the likes

because they make your work show up sooner & more often on searches and are simply a nice gesture

because they take time out and pay good money to listen to your story and make you from a pauper into a prince

because if you appreciate no one, no one will appreciate you, nor should they

[atomictiki]

This resonates with me in a big way. I used to get really fucked up when I spent 10 hours on something and a dumbass sketch I did in 15 minutes outstripped it in exposure but… you know what I grew up… that’s cool

I appreciate the likes

I appreciate the reblogs

I appreciate you just hanging out here with me having a cool time

[frilllzy]

Art tutorial: Lighting (Art Reference)

Lighting Hot Takes:

- I don't think pillow shading is inherently bad. I sometimes use them to add an early form of depth and dimension to my base colour. However, I agree that usina pillow shading as the only form of shading or light work can make the drawings look flat and uneven.

- I usually use pillow shading as initial base, then build up the lighting and define dark and bright colours from source of light

- I don't like the "don't use muddy colours" advice. Muddy colours are a transition from dark to light. Depending of the type of atmosphere or vibe that you want to draw, sometimes muddy colours (if done right) can accentuate certain emotions and strengthen storytelling in art.

[emeldiir]

ROWE'S BASIC ASS SHADING GUIDE

Hi ya'll, i recently made a shading guide for some friends of mine who then recommended that i post it here too! This is a guide that will go over the building blocks of shading, and should help you get a good grasp of the foundational concepts so that when you begin to try other techniques and intermediate shading, you have a good base to go back to. This guide is meant for beginners, and is pulled from all the knowledge i've gained in my over 12 years of experiance as a professional and hobbyist artist. Please keep in mind that i am not a teacher, and feel free to ask any questions in the comments, or through asks! Happy Shading! ROWE'S BASIC ASS SHADING GUIDE: PART ONE

Shadow Follows Form

to begin with this concept, we will need three things

Any shape. a ball is the most basic shape to begin with, because it does not have any defined planes which can quickly become complex and confusing. (a plane is any flat surface that makes up an object)

A light source, this is the key to any type of shading, the direction of the light will show us where to place our shadows, because shadows are created through the absence of light

A value chart. The value refers to how dark or light a shade is. If it has a darker value it sits closer to pure black, and if it has a lighter value it sits closer to pure white. Grey, where black and white meet, is the middle value.

When we place these colors into a shape we use the labels of Highlight, Midtone, and Deep tone to help us figure out where our shadow is going to lie. Let’s define these terms.

Highlight: The highlight is the lightest value on the canvas overall. On a 3D object, the highlight will be placed closest to the light source, and will usually be a pale white color but this depends on a variety of variables, like the color of the light, how close the light is, what material our object is made out of and more, that are a bit too advanced for this guide.

Midtone: This is the middle tone between our shadow and light. This tone will typically be the base color of our object, or the color that it would be if it was shown in a completely neutral light with no shadow or highlight present. For example, If you have a red apple, the red color is the base, or the midtone, and the lights and shadows are built off of said red color / midtone.

Deep tone: This is the darkest tone on the object and is positioned opposite of the highlight and light source. This is the shade we use for the actual shadow that is being cast, both on the object itself and the surface of whatever it is sitting on.

Drop, or Cast Shadow: This is the dark shadow that lays underneath of our object on the surface that it is sitting on. This shadow moves in tandem with the light source, and light will always move in a straight line, never curved, so you cannot move the light source without also moving the drop shadow. To place these values down correctly we need to remember that the highlight and the deep tone will always be opposite of each other on any object you can think of. The Highlight is showing where direct light is hitting the object. The highlight will move across the object depending on the angle of the light. The midtones are showing where the light is still illuminating the object, however it is no longer direct light and would mores be considered indirect light. The deep tone can vary in darkness depending on the type of light being cast onto the object. If the light is more direct, or closer to the object, the deep tone will be dark with hard edges, clearly defining the shape of the object that the shadow belongs to. In the example below, both the sphere and the cube are being lit with direct, harsh lighting, which means that the shadows on the object itself and the shadow underneath are clean and dark, with no feathering or blurring (softness) of the shadows beneath. If the lighting were to be softer, less direct and more ambient, the shadows would not be as harsh, would be less dark, and may have more variation in the dark color, leading to gradients or softer transitions between values.

ROWE'S BASIC ASS SHADING GUIDE: PART TWO The Colors

Whilst the physical location of the light source and shadow remain in opposition to each other, the colors we use to represent light and shadow, (though a more complicated aspect of shading), act in similar ways! Categorically, the color of light and shadow typically reside within a Complimentary color palette. To explain this further, let’s define some terms!

The Color Wheel: The color wheel is a tool that artists use to help us describe the relationships between different colors and how they move from one hue to the next. The color wheel consists of the Primary Colors: Red, Yellow, and Blue, and the colors between these main three are born out a combination of two different primary colors. For example, Orange is a combination of Red and Yellow, Green a combination of Yellow and Blue, and Purple, a combination of Red and Blue.

Complimentary Colors: A Complimentary Color Palette consists of two hues, which sit on opposite sides of the color wheel. This color palette is especially suited for use within light and shadow, because complimentary colors work together to enhance each others contrast whilst simultaneously creating a harmony between two vastly contrasting values (Deep Tone and Highlight). The color of our shadow will be the opposite color of our light, so for example, A green light will cast purple shadows, a red light will cast blue shadows, and so on.

Now before we go painting a bunch of complimentary colors everywhere we also have to talk about saturation and vibrancy. When looking at light and shadow in the real world, they often look much more dull than a lot of artists represent them in their art, and this is because in reality, unless you have a strongly colored light the difference in color between light and shadow is pretty difficult to see, unless you are well trained in the art of spotting the undertones of these shades.As a basic rule of thumb its important to remember that the light will often be more vibrant then the shadows themselves, as light brings out all the colors present in an object whilst shadow dilutes them.

Vibrancy: Vibrancy refers to the brightness and liveliness of color in visual work. When colors are described as vibrant, they are perceived as bright, rich, and full of energy. Vibrancy helps create dynamic and engaging visual scenes.

Saturation: Saturation is the level of intensity a color has. high saturation refers to bright colors. In traditional painting terms, the highest saturated colors are the colors that are holding the most pure pigment. For example, a highly saturated color would be a red paint straight out of the tube before you add in other colors, or mix it with water or a painting oil / binder. Low saturation refers muted colors, or colors that have less pigment to them. These are colors that have been mixed with others to lower the amount of pure pigment to them. Muted colors and bright colors have to work together, and this is what helps us build realistic light and shadow. High saturated light helps us define the colors of the object and the less saturated colors are necessary to support and enhance the bright colors.

ROWE'S BASIC ASS SHADING GUIDE: PART THREE

Let’s Put it Together!

To review! We’ve learned about value, how the highlight, midtone, and deep tone combine to build a 3D object in 2D space. We’ve also talked about color, how bright, vibrant, and high saturated colors work with dull, muted, and low saturated colors to build up harmony and contrast. We’ve also gone over the color wheel and how complimentary color palettes work within light and shadow. So how do all of these concepts come together? Im going to use a painting of some tomatoes as a reference for these concepts because this is a fairly simple painting with little complexity to the values.

The first step we have in creating the light and shadow is to understand our form, the basic shapes we are working with here. The tomatoes are a simple sphere/circle, and due to the direct light have a very small deep tone and highlight. A majority of the color used within them is the midtone (the bright red). The midtone itself has slight variations in its red color, as the red develops into an orange tone the closer it gets to the highlight, due to the fact that the light is a yellow color. As the red midtone gets closer to the deep tone shadow, it gains a darker purply color because the color we used to shade the red is a dark blue. We don’t use a drop shadow in this painting because the tomatoes are hanging and are not resting on a surface. In the reference photo the drop / cast shadow lies behind the tomatoes on the floor, about a meter away.

I hope this guide can help some of you out, and you contunie learning and improving your art! Art keeps all of us alive, your work is more important than you know <3

[possessedpasm]

How did you get so good at lines in your work? I just love how dramatic and shapely it is!

Thank you!! It kind of coincides with practicing doing poses

drawing in quick, brush-stroke-like movements helped hone my muscle memory, and it's good drawing exercise. It's done in figure drawing and I even hold my pen kind of like charcoal (gently pinched with your index finger, thumb and middle finger) when I do it! You get some more control for doing sweeping shapes and movement that way! :)

[cosmicityyy]

I made another tutorial heh

[shrimperini]

what techniques do you use for shading? its always so nice on the eyes…

HII first of all TYSM!! <3

My shading technique is simple, the secret to making it look appealing relies on using more than one shade (one darker than the other) to give your drawing more depth, a sense of tridimensionality as the darker spots are where the light doesn’t reach.

As for the technicality of the process all I do is:

- make a copy of the layers

- merge them

- create the shading layer above it, set it to clipping mask

- choose the base color for the shadow and apply it to the drawing considering where you want the light source to be

I like to add a warm red/orange tint to the rim of the shadow for subsurface scattering on the skin, but also on other areas becauseuu I just like how it looks 🙂‍↕️ after I’m done I set the layer to HARD LIGHT. Then I play with the opacity to my liking

Sometimes I also add a fourth, colder tint to have the colors bounce off eachother harmoniously and to give even more depth!

These are the colors I tend to pick especially for bg-less pieces, note that it can change based on the piece and its atmosphere :D

[cosmicityyy]

How I draw otters tutorial 🦦

[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.

[a-bagofmilk]

TO ALL ARTISTS, REGARDLESS OF SKILL LEVEL!

If you want your art to actually go somewhere, don't just follow short little tutorials you'll find on pinterest/tiktok/instagram reels. Tutorials saying to use a deep purple on multiply or to draw the body using simple shapes will only stunt your growth.

Those are very good tips, theres a reason they make your art look better. Deep purple works because characters are most commonly drawn in natural lighting, which is yellow. So if the light is yellow, the shadow must be the oppisite colour, a dark purple. Simplifying anything into simpler geometric figures, especially something as complex as a living body is key. It is like the skeleton of your subject, everything is built on top of it.

HOWEVER, simply mindlessly following these tips will only make your art better on the surface, it won't actually help you grow. All your'e doing is parroting what you see artist you look up to do, without understanding WHY. You wont learn how to achieve realistic lighting by just adding dark purple on multiply because you won't know WHY it works. You wont understand perspective and anatomy by just randomly drawing shapes that vaguely resemble a given subject. If you want to actually improve, you have to ask yourself WHY the techniques you use are effective.

This goes for all kinds of artstyle, wether it be hyperrealism, anime, very stylized, surrealism, impressionism, ect

I'm not going to say that if you want to draw anime and heavily stylized characters you need to know how to draw a hyperealistic skeleton. You do not need to learn the rules before you break them. Yes, knowing how to draw hyperrealism makes stylizatjon easier. Yes, knowing how to draw cartoonish characters makes hyperrealism easier. But that'e because youve already gained part of the knowledge from your previous artistic endeavours. You can break the rules as much as you want to. I ADORE heavily stylized art. But you need to remember these "rules" come from real life.

Anatomy, perspective, texture, lighting, contrast, shape theory, these are all things that very heavily impact your art. Not every art peice needs to convey a deep story, but they're all conveying a feeling. If you dont understand what rules your'e breaking and why, your art will improve 100 times slower then people who sit down to atleast understand the "rules". If you want to achieve a specific feel, or even tell a story, you need to know why.

Once you understand WHY purple on multiply makes for such a good shadow, you'll open a gateway to exploration, to different lighting effects. Once you understand how to break down complicated shapes, it'll make your base so much easier to work with.

This even applys to things like abstract art, that doesn't take anything from real life. Abstract art is so prized in the postmodern art space because it can use so little to convey so much. Seemingly pointless shapes and colours express certain feelings and intentions, often better then things lile hyperrealism. However, you need to know how to go about it. What certain shapes or brushes can mean. What certain colours mean. While his art falls into surrealism, not abstract art, just look at Sydney Nolan's work. It grimey, simple, maybe even ugly at times, but his work very clearly has intention. Most of his peices tell a very distinct story. But that's because he knew how to tell that story, how to make the viewer feel like he wanted, just how like a writer knows what kind of language to use to convey messages.

I am not saying to not experiment. Throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks is an amazing way to learn, because it forces you to think on why youre experimenting with XYZ.

However, while learning from your own mistakes tends to stick more, learning from others, others who spent learning from their own mistakes, is almost always quicker and teaches you more. Short form art content almost always gives artists tips and tricks, while long form content actually teach you something. There are THOUSANDS of courses available online, some even free. And if you cant find any of those, YOUTUBE IS FREE! Youtube videos actually has the breathing room to analyse and teach basics. You have to chose to click on the video, and they can be indefinetely long. Tiktoks, reels, those appear randomly as your'e scrolling, they need to grab your attention so you don't scroll away. They can only give you very quick tips because they themselves are forced to very quick.

If you just wanna draw foward facing character standing still in neutral lighting, or you wanna doodle random shapes in random colours, or anything in between, all power to you. There are no rules attached to art, make what makes you happy. However, there are certain rules to improving. If you're unsatisfied with your art and want to improve, youre gonna have to put in the effort. Practice is incredible advice, but think about what you're practicing and why.

Break the rules as much as you want to, but consider why those rules exist in the first place. Mindlessly following them or breaking them will get you nowhere.

[anothergiselle]

Some krita tips and tools I use on the daily :] (click on the images to read)

I posted this a few days ago on Tiktok and forgot to post it on my other socials lol sorry about that

[incaseyouart]

Sorry if you’ve been asked this before, but I absolutely adore how you draw hands.

Do you have any tips or a tutorial for drawing them?

Oh gosh I am so sorry for the delay on this!! I kept meaning to reply and just kept forgetting. I'm drawing some hands right now so I thought I'd finally respond!

A few tips right off the bat:

Stay loose. It's important to sketch roughly to capture the energetic essence of the gesture of the hand, and NOT focus on details (i.e wrinkles, overlapping flesh, knuckle indentations etc)

Find the overall envelope of the shape: reduce the hand into a mitten. Don't even worry about the individual fingers until you can really understand the overall mitten proportions (i.e the palm is about half the length of the fingers, depending on dorsal or palmer side)

The middle finger is the longest, with the most prominent knuckle (of course, depending on the ref photo, there may be exceptions). Think of it like the "spine" of the hand.

Knuckles are not just circles or ball-joints, they represent the overlap of the finger segments. This doesn't really make verbal sense, and I only had this epiphany like, today, after YEARS of drawing hands.

The fingers flow out from the carpal attachment at the wrist like a fan, and will all flow together in a "wi-fi" type arc. FIND THE ARCS of the knuckles and finger tips FIRST, before drawing anything else. THIS IS THE EASIEST WAY TO DRAW HANDS, and how I teach beginners. Beginners who ignore this and try to just jump right into drawing details struggle a LOT more than those who simplify everything into mittens and wi-fi arcs.

Adding fingernails is VERY helpful to showcase the perspective of the finger. Other accessories like rings help too.

Finally, remember that everything is connected and flows together - avoid drawing just one finger at a time, or even the palm and then the fingers. Try to really capture the entire hand. Really look at the reference first before drawing. Compare negative vs positive space, and observe cascading overlap between each knuckle and finger.

(refs from GMM 2881)

There's also this amazing video that I use to teach my students about more in-depth hand structure and gestural drawing:

"Draw Better Hands Now" by Marco Bucci

You can also check out my hands tag, and art tips tags for more!

[incaseyouart]

while I'm in the "giving tips" space, here's a VERY brief tip sheet for 3D wrap-arounds!

I've been teaching drawing foundations students for 3 yrs and IMO this is one of the BIGGEST skills needing improvement across most, if not all, students.

Applies to literally everything (props, plants, accessories, etc)

Don't forget to add 3D edges to show thickness as well!

[shithowdy]

notes on tracing mindfully (aka "how to draw Anything")

[chow0w]

please do a tutorial on how you draw dragon faces! there’s something so alive to them

of course - Thank you so much!

Is this you? Even if it isn't, pretend it is.

Is this you again, trying to put some soul into those draconic eyes?

if so, fear not - drawing dragon expressions is a simple, painless process as soon as you learn these three foundational rules!

1 - Humanize

Like other animals, dragons do not possess the same facial muscles as humans and have trouble making expressive faces while still remaining within these constraints. This can make drawing emotive dragons difficult, and so the most important rule of making a good expression is to HUMANIZE! No matter what artstyle/realism level you use, translating human expressions onto dragon faces is the easiest way to make them emotive.

Humanizing a dragon's face is much easier than you might think, and it all starts with feature spotting. Here, I've annotated my doodle and labelled what I view as the most important shapes of the expression: The huge eyes, dramatic curves and tooth-shaped mouth. Since all of these important shapes have been applied to the dragon, their expression looks exactly like the one I was trying to copy!

In order to fully explain how you actually DO that, I'm going to use a live example. If you're trying to work on your dragon expressions, you may as well do this exercise with me! I've already annotated this expression to highlight the most important shapes.

First, I'm going to draw the angle of the dragon's head. If you don't like drawing dragon heads, this handy reference sheet I made might be of use.

Next, I added the eye. I kept it very close to the snout in order to mimic the angle a little better.

Finally, the smile! But wait, something isn't right...

After a second glance, I decided to pull the forehead out using the 'liquify' tool and redid the eye so it had hollow pupils. I didn't think coloring in the eye would've made such a big difference, but it did! Either way, we now have one beautiful expression full of life and character.

2 - Beware of the Micro-expressions

This is especially important when drawing your characters in a scene/with any context at all, but remember to focus on micro-expressions! Subtle changes to the same face can produce entirely different results: and even though micro-expressions often slip by unnoticed, they are CRUCIAL in building your character's 'vibe!' My two OCs Seigel and Bigfin handily happen to have the same emotion on their reference sheets, however both dragons present it in extremely different ways - all thanks to the use of a few subtle artistic choices, such as changing posture or head angle.

3 - Remember Your Poses

Although this post is about facial expressions, it's important to remember your dragon's head doesn't just exist in a void. Pose is equally as important to building a certain emotion in a character, and different poses can completely change the vibe of your character.

That's all from me! Happy drawing! ୧((#Φ益Φ#))୨

[dededddddd]

You bored, or feeling artsy but don’t have any inspiration...? *updated!*

Do you need to distract yourself? Or are you simply bored? 

Well, let’s fix that shit right now~

Here are some great websites to make the time pass.

First off, here are some 100% free art programs!; 

Photoshop CS2 - (Windows, not sure about Mac.)

FireAlpaca - (Windows and Mac)

Medibang Paint Pro- (windows and Mac)

Sketchbook Copic Edition - (Windows and Mac)

GIMP - (Windows) (Mac)

Pain Tool Sai Cracked - (Windows and mac)

Paint tool SAI 2 beta - (tumblr post on said program)

iPaint - (Mac)

Paintbrush - (Mac)

Pencil - (Windows, Mac)

Paint.NET - (Windows)

Seashore [still in development, ver 0.5] - (Mac)

ChocoFlop - (Mac)

Inkscape - (Mac and Windows)

ArtRage [Demo] - (Mac and Windows)

Autodesk Sketchbook 

SumoPaint

OpenCanvas 1.1[must pay for 2.0] - (Windows, not sure about Mac.)

MyPaint - (Windows)

Krita - (Windows)

Vectorian [Supports Animation] - (Windows)

Pixia[Japanese, some English versions] - (Windows)

Asperite - (Windows)

Chasys Draw IES - (Windows)

SmoothDraw - (Windows)

TwistedBrush Open Studio - (Windows)

BOUNS - CTRL+Paint [Great for teaching all kinds of stuff, like how to use digital programs.]

Alrighty, but maybe you don’t want to download software to draw, free or not. That’s just too much time, and let’s face it, you’re already bored. Well, I’ve got you covered peoples, here are some free browser paint/drawing programs!;

Pixlr.com-a browser photoeditor, and can be used for drawing!

Psykopaint

QueekyPaint

PaintOnline- ((also has some random free browser games on site too!))

Sooo, maybe You just don’t feel like drawing…understandable, you beasts-here’s a BUNCH of other websites to calm and/or stretch those brain muscles!;

create pixel art

Awesome photo editor and art program, all free…!

Totally free transparent textures

make a cute chibi

draw some cool generative art

be a graffiti creator

create a picassohead (you don’t need to be a picasso to do so)

paint online

another awsome site to create pixel art on

and another one

create your own mandala

or color one

create an avatar

or you can try creating your own superhero

here you can interact with organisms in different environments to see how to music changes

here’s a website that translates the time into hexidecimal colours,

Here is a website where you can travel along a 3D line into the infinite unkown

here is a website where you can listen to rain with or without music

Need a model in a certain pose for drawing? here

Want to build your own planet

here is a website where you can create your own galaxies

make your own pattern (very useful if you need a new background)

create next hit comic

make a city which looks like something from 90′s games

draw a mandala like design

jig saw puzzles

more jig saw puzzles to solve

create a stunning HTML5 animation - no coding!

make a movie

create and dress up dolls

play a piano

you can also play a guitar

create sounds

another sound creator

create a logo

design your dream home

sketch rooms

explore fashion trends and create your own sets

build a website

try this app for building a website

Or maybe start learning how to code!

design your own t-shirt or a beanie or sweatpants and order them

design your own phone case

pretend to be a graphic designer with this cool online tool

Make your own Glitch art

Here’s another glitch art maker

And another!

Holy hell, here’s a third!

make an image look like it was created by a commodore 64

freaking cool text generator!

Easy to use word processor

Make up really cool patterns or run your photos through it :)

Write an essay on anything with no hassle

Wanna see how something you write would look like if it was on JacksFilms YGS((Your Grammar Sucks videos on YouTube))?

Make pictures out of text

ASCII word generator

Need an idea for some fanart-here :D

mario

cubefield

sleep calculator essay typer

rice questions

maths 

artsy-fartsy pretty thing

quotes

survive nature

rain

tumblr music

calming rain

themes

backgrounds [x] 

loads of references

Still haven’t found something that would float your  proverbial boat? 

Then try these out!:

watch a documentary

learn to code

do something yourself

workout with the help of this great youtube channels

learn things

play pokemon or zelda or other awesome old school games

waste your time on miniclip

play games at additing games

or try games at agame

calm your thoughts

the quiet place

it will be okay

vent or listen to someone

pour out your soul

explore the sky

look at art from around the world

virtually visit museum of iraq

explore world with arounder

create a music playlist

list through rare books

scroll useful science website

create sand art

brain games

try out tastekid and discover new favorite band or movie or book

interactive 3D anatomy

random street view

post a secret

create a family tree

find our what’s the difference between x and y

help scientists and become volunteer researcher

create your own font

read a classic short story

In the mood to read, but not sure exactly what book to go for?

scribble on maps

listen to letters

play with acrobots

listen to podcasts

make a bucket list

Ever want to see the most truly useless websites in creation?

Prank a friend with this blue screen of death!

Zone out watching the colors drip down

Sprite generator!

Face Generator/Creator!

Awesome anime style icon maker

COLOR STUFFS:

Color scheme designer

Find or create Color Pallets here~

Even More stuffs;

Wanna make a custom minecraft skin?

Well then these’ll work!

This one too~

Wanna make a custom error pop up?

Or a custom blue screen? 

WELP, what about making some ASCII art?

Here ya go!

And another one~

WAIT-last one…

OH, and here’s a HTML to image converter!..You’re gonna need that!

How about a pixel text bubble generator

Here’s a photoediting website that’s free and pretty awesome to mess with!

Ok, maybe none of these peeked your interest. 

Maybe you’ve been wanting to create an o.c, but never really knew how to start, or you just enjoy making O.C’s.

This  part of this list is specifically for OCs and Oc building. It can also apply to developing RP characters~

Gemsona stuffs;

Just a straight up character gemsona creator

Here’s another

Not sure what gem to go with, or where? 

OR maybe your unsure about more than just that?

Credit to http://spacetravels.tumblr.com/post/78602010683/so-you-want-to-make-an-oc-a-masterpost-of-ways For the majority of links here!

 ((I added a couple of links! In the appearance, details, and the whole of item names section, and the Gemsona area-((above))! 

As well as the couple of Transformers/Southpark character builder links, and Undertale/TMNT below..

Basically every link I made bold I added, because I am complete fandom trash…

..Seriously, Go check her wonderful blog out~!!!

How to Write Better OCs:

basic tips on how to make your oc even better

tragic backstory? learn how to write one/make yours great

writing specific characters

a wordier, great guide on how to develop your character

kick out those vague descriptions and make them AWESOME

Character Development:

how to actually make an OC

Q&A (to develop characters)

more Q&As

giving your character a backstory

how to write an attractive character

Need an Appearance idea?

Humanoid generator? check

Here’s another one

and maybe if you didn’t like those this’ll work

Need Monsterpeople?

Well, then here ya’ go

Maybe you need Cats?

Diversity;

adding more racial diversity

avoiding tokenism, AKA, how to add diversity to your cast not just because you “need” it

writing sexuality and gender expression (doesnt include non binary, if you have a good ref to that, please add on!)

masterpost on writing more diversity into your story

cultures of the world

guides to drawing different ethnicities (not just a great art reference, but also really helpful in appearance descriptions!)

Mary Sue/Gary Stu;

Test to see if your character is a Sue

Explains subdivisions of Sues/Stus

Powerful Characters Don’t Have to Be Sues

Villains;

villain generator

need an evil sounding name for your evil character? bam

villain archetypes

what’s your villain’s motive for being a villain?

Relationships;

character perceptions (What your character thinks of themselves and what others think of them)

how to write strong relationships between two characters

8 ways to write better characters and develop their relationships with others

OCxLove Interest Handbook

develop your couple with good ol’ Q&A!

how to write realistic relationships

how to write relatives for your characters (this is more OC related to a canon character, but will help in writing family members in general)

ARCHETYPES;

12 common archetypes

8 archetypes for male/female characters

female archetypes (goes pretty indepth from two main categories)

a list of archetypes

NAMES;

how to name your character

random name generator

most common surnames

surnames by ethnicity

APPEARANCE;

tips for better design

basic appearance generator

pinterest board for character design (includes NSFW and images of skeletons/exposed muscle (?) so tread carefully!)

clothing ref masterpost

Clothing generator

Another clothing generator

More clothing generator

Aaaand even more

Steam punk clothing

Char Style preference

Dress Generator

OTHER DETAILS;

give your character better powers

a list of professions

proactive vs reactive characters

positive and negative traits

interest generator

skills generator

motivation generator

123 ideas for character flaws

list of phobias

Oh shit someone died

Backgrounds and stuff? yep

Quirks

Personality. you need that shit

Need something fandom related?

City generator hell yeah

location? got ya

World-building?

make your own god damn laws

Landscape.

Need Item names?;

Fantasy/sci-fi/etc. medicine names

Stuff to make things more interesting.Weapons, clothes, treasures… whatever your characters need.

Item & Artifact Generators

Other story/writing stuffs!

Genre, Plot, & Story Prompt Generators

How did your characters meet?

Fanfic plots. you bet your ass!

WAIT!…if none of that worked, then maybe you want to make a SouthPark style character?

Here!

Well, this one’s nice too~

And another..

Aaaand another!

What about Transformers Characters?;

Here’s a Transformers name generator~

And a Character builder!

UNDERTALE STUFFS GUYS;

Undertale character speech box creator!

^That link may not work, so here’s one for DeltaRune AND Undertale. Actually, it’s super customizable..So go nuts with the AUs~!

Want inspiration for an Undertale Oc?

OR a super Edgy Undertale Theory generator?

Maybe you just want to read some funny Sans Puns!

TMNT STUFFS;

How about a TMNT creator?

Or a TMNT meme generator..

If any of the links have any issues for whatever reason, HERE’S THE LINK TO THE SAME LIST I COPIED TO MY DA ACCOUNT JUST IN CASE;

http://ladyevel.deviantart.com/journal/Mega-List-for-Boredom-and-Inspiration-577571203

[factual-fantasy]

[danidarkarts]

@factual-fantasy

[fynori]

i'd like to add that the shadow color isnt necessarily dictated entirely by the primary light source, but the bounce light! so for the example of a sunny environment, the reason the shadows are blue are because of the light from the blue sky reflects across the environment; but, if the character were to be under tree cover, the bounce light would be coming from the leaves and thus the shadow would look greener.

[danidarkarts]

Yee yee!!! You got it right on the nose!

Bounce light is something I didn't cover but I adore it!

Gotta work on my bounce light 💪

[eskiworks]

Yay for local color and color relativity! I love seeing artists continuing to share and learn from each other!

[malacandrax]

I know I say that I'm kinda nuts for doing the amount of visual research I do, but at the same time: Specificity is SO much more compelling and real feeling, and imo not getting references often makes things look more amateur.

Eg. drawing a sofa- my mental image of a sofa is something like this:

Like. Its a sofa. It works. But it's not very convincing, the pillows are kinda wrong at the back, and it's not really giving any information about the owner. Even if you want a basic sofa... What kind of basic.

comfy and cheap?

kinda rigid?

inherited? ------

who does this comfy cheap ikea sofa belong to anyway?

guy living alone?

teenage girl?

Grandma?

Anyway I'll get off my soapbox but specificity is sexy and fun and it can do your storytelling for you!