So, art as a hobby and job can be expensive; but if you know a thing or two, it can be a lot cheaper.
**This is mainly for digital art, but a tip or two can be used for traditional art!!**
Sometimes, those wooden mannequin things don’t work. They suck, like a lot. An alternative could be dolls! I’ve made a post before on this, but you can take any doll and use them as a reference to make poses! Especially ones with joints- that way you can bend them however you like to pose how you want! Barbie has some “Made to move” dolls, and has new diverse body types!
I love using dolls, because they have hair (For hairlines/styles), a factory face (For anatomical placement), and there’s so many companies, with so many different styles and proportions of dolls; if you wanted to play with your anatomy for different styles! Another thing is- you can dress them! If you don’t know how a shirt would lay, or how a vest would fit- put your doll in one! Don’t know how a logo would stretch on a shirt? Slap a graphic tee on your doll! Don’t draw women? There’s boy dolls, and action figures! There’s so many posiblilities!
My top two are both free, and easy to use! Medibang Paint - All purpose! You can do pixel art, any size canvas, comics/mangas, and add strokes to the outlines of art.
Autodesk - Mostly all purpose! It doesn’t have a premade comic option, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make them still! The smallest canvas size is 250X250, if you download fonts, you can use them in this app, and you can organise your art by naming them and sorting them in labelled folders!
Both are free, and both need an account to use to their full potential— which is also free!
KEEPING THE CANVAS CLEAN:
We’ve all seen those listings for art gloves. But what if you don’t have $10-$50 for one? What if you draw with short sleeves and rest your wrist-forearm on your tablet/paper? What if you’re left handed?
Simple: COSTUMES!! Go to a store and hunt down some gloves! I suggest looking for “Opera” gloves! They’re long, which keeps my arm from messing with the screen, and usually really cheap! As long as they’re made of polyester, they’ll work fine!
I bought one, and cut off the middle, pointer, and thumb sleeves. If you know how to stitch, you can stitch the edges to keep them from unraveling. Or use fabric glue. If you’re left handed, you can comfortably fit in the left glove and ditch or donate the right one!
There’s plenty of art dupes online for far cheaper. I bought a micron pen for $1 off wish and it was honestly really nice! If you do some research, you’ll be able to find some cheap alternatives in no time!
As for a stylus, you can always opt for the dollar store stylus/pen! They’re cheap, last well enough, and write lol. But if you look online, sometimes you can find places that sell bulk styluses for cheap! That way you’ll have 99 back-ups if your 1 breaks! Or you can save up and buy *ahem* The Blackweb Active Stylus! They’re $20, light, with a fine tip, and material nub, and also rechargeable!
Room planners, dollhouses, your home, google images— all are great places! I have an app called RoomPlanner, its free, it has basic furniture and appliances, you can set up your room in 2D, view it in 3D, set your height, your angle, and move around in your room!
I like room planner, because in 3D, you can colour everything! So if you need to distinguish two walls from each other, or counters and countertops- you can paint them all random colours! The app also includes shading! It’s an open world ordeal too, so in one save you can make multiple rooms for different drawings!
You can also use a doll house if its big enough- or use a cardboard box with doll furniture instead! If you don’t like either, just take a picture of your own room, or search ‘room’ on Google images!
If you have any tips to add on, reblog with it or comment it! Help someone lol