#mod seraphtonin

[worldbuildguild]

A little heart to heart

I keep seeing artists berate themselves for not constantly churning out perfect sketches or for making mistakes in their art. And... everyone is imperfect. That’s not just a “you” problem. It’s not reasonable to expect yourself to be good at everything all the time. It’s unfair to yourself. 

By expecting your art to be perfect every time, by expecting yourself to improve without fumbles or mistakes along the way, you’re holding yourself to an unachievable standard. You’re expecting yourself to be better than every other artist on earth. You’re expecting to surpass human limits and then berating yourself when you fail. But, guess what? What you’re expecting is not possible. What you’re doing not healthy.

Even the best artists can’t make perfect art every time. Heck, even Da Vinci didn’t crank out Mona Lisas with every sketch. Just because he made good paintings doesn’t mean every painting was his best. He had good art days and bad art days just like you and me; made good sketches and bad sketches just like you and me.

Getting frustrated is absolutely normal. I still have issues with my art. And, I don’t think I’ll stop having issues with my art. I think most, if not all, of my fellow mods have that same problem. What’s not healthy is expecting yourself to never get frustrated, never make mistakes, never create anything less than perfect. Frustration, mistakes... they don’t make you any less of an artist. They’re just an indication that you’re human. Your body is not a machine - expecting perfection every time is only going to lead to burnout and exhaustion.

When you get frustrated, it’s important to step back. Step back and remember that the only way to becoming a better artist is by making more art. Heck, make bad art. Make silly art. Every time you make art is a time that you learn. Even if you hate what you produced, making it still improved you as an artist.

So, remember that bad art is a necessary precursor to better art. And, remember that all art, even bad art, helps you to get to better art.

- Mod Seraphtonin (ko-fi)

[worldbuildguild]

Times New Ramen - part 1

I, Mod Seraphtonin, confess to loving shitposts and also typography. A while back, I made this “times new ramen” lettering style after seeing this text post, and I thought it would be a good idea to walk our followers through my thought process! I didn’t save all my steps on separate layers when making the original, so I’ll show you my steps with an example letter- “i”

Note that this tutorial is split into 3 parts

This is what the end result looks like:

You’ll notice that the colours I used the second time ‘round aren’t the same as the original. There isn’t an exact formula to help you pick the perfect colour - just keep fiddling with it until you get something that feels right

Part 1 under the cut

When creating a design, it’s good to go in with an idea of what you want the end product to look like. In my case, I wanted my words to look like they were made of ramen noodles. That already helps narrow down my options - the lines making up my words would be a single width (to mimic the noodle’s appearance), and I’d write it in cursive, so that each letter could be connected in one noodly line. 

Step 1:

Write your letter/words in cursive with a brown. This will serve as a base and outline to your “noodle” colour 

In order to make my design look appetising, I deliberately picked a more reddish brown. Reds/oranges are more associated with food, and so this makes your art look tastier 

I also didn’t pick a very saturated brown colour (I stayed away from the right-hand side of the colour picker square). This is because when drawing foods (which haven’t been dyed with food colouring), colours which are too saturated tend to make the food look unnatural and unappetising

Step 2:

Add the noodle colour with a slightly smaller brush, following the lines of your base

Even though the noodles are supposed to be more yellow in tone, I still nudge the colour picker a bit more towards orange. Again, this is to make the noodles more appealing to look at. Had I gone with the bright yellow (right next to the green), this would have likely come off as off-putting because of its unnatural shade - noodles don’t look like that normally

Because this is a lighter colour, I felt safe in nudging the saturation a little closer to the right. In my experience, very light colours can be a bit more saturated and still look good. Note that I still don’t push it all the way to the right, because then we’d run into the “this doesn’t look like food” issue

Step 3: 

I put the noodle layer on transparency lock and selected my base layer’s colour. Using a brush set at low opacity, I shaded in part of the noodle to make it look like the letter has more depth, like this really is a noodle which was folded/looped

Part 2 of the tutorial here

- Mod Seraphtonin (ko-fi)

[worldbuildguild]

Hmmm

Hmmm :) 

I’ve looked the character over and gone over a couple things.  Before I got into changing things, I rotated her a slight bit to make sure her figure was properly grounded and standing a little more upright. 

I really do like the pose though, and the little lighter prop is really cool.  What I recommend you doing is finding a way to make her blueish outline/aura a little more subtle. The stark colour and bulky outline make the piece a little disorienting to look at, and ultimately it can irritate the eyes. You could possibly pull down the saturation or opacity of it. Or even experiment with the colors.

- Mod Wackart ( ko-fi )

Mod Seraphtonin, chiming in (Ko-fi): 

I see you’ve used a lot of saturated colours in your piece and I’d suggest moving away from that. Using overly saturated colours throughout your work creates something that’s a bit too unnaturally bright and so a tad uncomfortable to look at - like looking into the sun. If you look around you, you’ll likely notice that few natural things are in bright, saturated colours. To reflect this aspect of reality in your art, it’s good to keep saturated colours to draw attention to a specific area. For example the dress, necklace pendant, blue outline, red outline, and eyes are all drawn with a saturated colour in your piece. I’d suggest maybe only making the eyes a bright colour. That way, you draw attention to your character’s eyes. 

Here’s an example of what I mean by too much saturation being… too much: (Picture from a tutorial on colour picking and palettes by @sarahculture, which can be found here.)

[worldbuildguild]

Hey guys! Can y’all give me some tips on which art program works best? My current program crashes every 20 minutes or so and I’m ready for a change 😂

Programs to talk about: 

Firealpaca

Free

Excellent animation tool

Onionskin mode for animating

lightweight program

Basic how to use link

Animating in firealpaca link

Krita

Free

Did not work well on my machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB6ig9dM4Uw

Medibang

Free

PC and app versions

Basically Firealpaca’s twin without animation

Designed more for Manga/Comics - has options for preset comic panels, action lines, etc which you can directly use

Has gaussian blur

Able to punch zoom on touch screen devices

More features, options, and ability to customise than Sketchbook. Suitable for a mid-level digital artist as its wide range of features will be overwhelming and hard to grasp for someone new to digital art

Photoshop

Paid (subscription based)

has gaussian blur

animation option

custom brushes / brush sets

highly versatile layer mask tool

small 3D engine on newer versions ( photoshop CC )

rudimentary perspective transformation tool

No brush stabilisation built-in pre-CC

Sai

Paid 

does not have gaussian blur

no animation options

Has Brush Stabilisation built-in

Good painting brushes

No pinch zoom/rotate :/

Sai Basics link

Clip Studio Paint (sometimes known as Manga Studio 5)

Paid but goes on sale for 20USD every few months

Has gaussian blur; good blend between Sai and Photoshop

Able to animate (Limited in Pro to 24 frames, not in EX)

Good brush engine + pen pressure, especially for painting. Also has adjustable stabilizer

High availability for custom brushes

CSP Basics tutorial

Autodesk Sketchbook

Free

Pc and app versions

Simplified interface 

Pro: really good for the beginner digital artist. Simplified interface means that it’s easy and intuitive to pick it up and start creating art. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but nothing nearly as steep as a medibang/photoshop curve. They have a large, free bank of brushes available from their official website, so you won’t need to mess around with brush creation.

Con: missing a lot of vital things an intermediate/advanced digital artist would want. Mod Seraph uses a surface pro and can’t flip the canvas on the app store version, which is very annoying because she can’t check how her faces/poses look as she draws them). The big bank of brushes is nice but nothing life-changing. You can get a lot done with just a basic round brush, and art programs typically let you create your own brushes anyway

Smooth pinch zoom and rotate 

Sketchbook Pro beginners guide

I recommend starting off with Sketchbook if you’re new to digital art or unsure of where you stand in terms of your familiarity with different digital art programs. Once you get familiar with Sketchbook and start running into issues where you’d like changes or optimisation with regard to your digital art software (ex: you get frustrated at certain roundabout ways which you have to do things and you think “there’s got to be something else I can do”), then move into the Sai/Photoshop/Clip Studio Paint/Medibang/Firealpaca family. These programs have a large base of users which use them. So, if you get stuck, you can reach out to other users or google for help and actually get solutions to your problems. After you get familiarised with one or more of those programs, you can start playing around with Krita/Gimp/etc, as they have smaller followings and so cannot provide as much help if you’re new to digital art software and thus have no experience with troubleshooting its problems. However, they can still be good software and may be better suited to you as an artist so I’d advise giving them a shot because you might click with one of them very well

-  Mod Seraphtonin (ko-fi)

if you’re more experienced in art or are trying to focus on Digital Paintings or Comics I absolutely recommend paying the $20 for Clip Studio Paint when its on sale. It’s an extremely versatile program comparable to phtoshop but with better ease of use and works fine on less powerful computers. If how ever you want to try animating, firealpaca is my recommendation, the tool is well built for animating in and its free!

- Mod Pixielart (Ko-fi)

[worldbuildguild]

Times New Ramen - part 2

For those just tuning in, this tutorial is on how to draw ^ this, a design I (Mod Seraphtonin) created for the name “times new ramen” 

Part 1 of the tutorial is located here 

Part 2 under the cut

Step 4:

I added highlights, something which wasn’t included in the original “times new ramen” piece

In my opinion, you should add details like this if you’re gonna be looking at the finished piece close-up. So, for something like a single word or a single letter, highlights add more visual interest

Note that, even for the highlights, I don’t go for a pure white. A bright white would imply that the noodle is very shiny and reflective - like metal or satin, for example

When placing highlights, keep in mind where the light source is located. I decided that my light source was somewhere on the right side of the piece (arrows show direction of light) and so placed highlights where the light would naturally hit. You don’t have to place your highlights in the same places as mine, but you should keep them consistent with where your light source is

Step 5: 

In ramen, it’s common to have narutomaki, which is made of cured fish (according to Wikipedia). The base colour for the naruto is supposed to be more white, but I took some liberties with the design and went with a light pink instead

Note that I went with a more reddish/orangish pink than the bright pink (which is right next to the purple). Again, red/orange tones in food help it look more appealing

Step 6:

Add details to your narutomaki - like the distinctive spiral in its centre. Again, I took some more liberties with my colour choice and design

The swirls on the narutomaki are supposed to be more of a bright pink, like that pink next to the purple. I opted to change the colour so that it would work better with my existing colour scheme and because neon-bright colours don’t look as appetising

The narutomaki also doesn’t have a border like I drew. I claim artistic freedom on this one. I like things to have borders. It helps everything feel more structured

Part 3 (end) of the tutorial here

- Mod Seraphtonin (ko-fi)

[worldbuildguild]

Times New Ramen - part 3

For those just tuning in, this tutorial is on how to draw ^ this, a design I (Mod Seraphtonin) created for the name “times new ramen”

Part 1 of the tutorial is located here

Part 3 under the cut

Step 7:

I started on the spring onion - adding a base colour like the initial brown for the ramen noodle. 

The spring onion was added for colour and visual interest. I was inspired by this piece (by Ayceeart) which I found by googling “ramen art”. I love the gravity-defying details they have in their piece and so I took inspiration from that 

Step 8: 

I added a light colour on top of the base green. The light green adds visual interest. Note that my highlight colour is more of a yellow-green than a true green. The yellow-green is more cohesive with the rest of the piece’s warm tones and so helps merge the spring onion visually with the rest of your piece

Then, you’re done! Make sure to @ me if you make a “times new ramen”-style piece of your own - I’d love to see everyone’s creativity! Other ingredients which you may want to incorporate into your own piece include: meat, egg, bok choy, mushrooms, corn kernels, etc :D

- Mod Seraphtonin (ko-fi)

[worldbuildguild]

Read this before submitting

This is the 14th of September, 2018, edition of the Redline submission guidelines. Submission guidelines may be updated at a later date. Your reblog or like may be of a previous version of the post with outdated rules. Always make sure that you read through the latest version of this post, located here, before you submit your art to us. 

Before submitting your art:

🖋 You are allowed to submit one piece of art per submission round. 

🖋 You cannot submit art which you did not make. i.e. All art submitted by you must have been made, at least partially, by you.

🖋 You cannot submit animations or explicit/pornographic art. Artistic nudity can be submitted. 

🖋 Please make sure that the image is clear so that we, the mods, can see what we’re redlining:

Digital art: please screenshot it or save it as a .png/.jpg before sending it to us. Please do not use another device to take a picture of your screen. 

Traditional art: please make sure your photo of the picture is not tilted (which distorts the picture) and has a clear contrast. If you can, a scanned image would work best. 

Pixel art: send in the original-sized pixel art, not a screenshot.

🖋 Typography: words must be in a language which uses the Latin alphabet. If you used a, b, c, d, etc (as languages such as English, French, Spanish, Chinese Pinyin, etc do), you can submit your piece. The typography mod, Seraphtonin, can’t redline other alphabets

🖋 We do not do private redlines. Redlines will be posted publicly on the blog so that the followers of the blog can also benefit from the advice we give. If you are uncomfortable with that, we will not be able to redline your work. Getting critique of your art is an important and very natural part of growing as an artist. We, as mods, are committed to keeping this space as positive and constructive as possible. Mean-spirited comments are not tolerated. 

When submitting your art:

🖋 Indicate what you would like us, the mods, to focus on when redlining. If it’s unclear what you want us to help with, your submission will be deleted. We don’t want to spend our time and resources giving advice on something that you do not want help with, and we certainly don’t want to skip over something you did want help with. 

Some ideas on what you could ask for: specific anatomy (ex: hands), perspective, posing (ex: dynamic poses), clothing folds, character design, composition, colouring, shading, use of values, etc. 

For typography, you could ask for help with: font choice, font design, arrangement of words, etc. 

These are non-exhaustive lists. Just include something so we know what you want help with.

Ex: “I had trouble with drawing the hands in this piece. Please focus on them when redlining my submission”

🖋 It would be nice, but not mandatory, if you let us know what you focused on in your piece. We can’t read your mind, so we don’t know if a specific part of your submission is a decision or a redline-able error. Knowing what you’re trying to achieve in your art will help us redline it better. If we know what you’re going for, we can help you achieve that. 

Ex: “My dragon is supposed to have bird characteristics. I referenced images of peregrine falcons when drawing, and I want to make the ‘falcon’ aspect of him more clear" 

🖋 If you submit a group composition, defined as a group of individuals who are interacting in one composition, clearly indicate a maximum of three individuals you would like redlined.

Ex: “Please redline the person with red hair, the dog, and the cat”

Group compositions which do not specify who/what the submitter would like redlined will be deleted. 

🖋 Attempts to get multiple, non-interacting individuals to be redlined by putting them on the same canvas will be deleted. 

🖋 You may request that a specific mod redline your art, or indicate several mods which you would prefer. You may not exclude a mod from redlining your work. This does not guarantee that your preferred mod will redline your work, but we do try to accommodate requests. 

Ex: "If possible, I would like Mod Wackart or Mod Chekhov to redline my submission" 

🖋 If you don't wish for your art to be redlined by non-mods (ex: followers of the blog for personal practice), tag it with "#mods only"

After submitting your art: 

🖋 “Did you get my submission?”: if you followed instructions and did not see an error when submitting, we likely did get your submission. If you want, you can send us an ask off anon (i.e. while logged into your account and without selecting the option to send the ask anonymously) with a brief description of

What the submitted art looks like

What URL it was sent from and

When you submitted it.

Ex: “Hello, mods! I’d like to confirm you received my submission. I submitted a picture of a blue rabbit holding an umbrella about a week ago. I sent it from this blog. Could you check to see if you got it?”

We can then track down the piece and verify that we have received it. 

🖋 "Did you delete my submission because I didn't follow the guidelines?": if you followed the most recent guidelines, we would not have deleted your submission. When submitting, read through the latest version of the post (link at the beginning and end of this) and make sure that your submission complies with the requirements outlined there. If you do that, you will be fine. 

This is the 14th of September, 2018, edition of the Redline submission guidelines. Submission guidelines may be updated at a later date. Your reblog or like may be of a previous version of the post with outdated rules. Always make sure that you read through the latest version of this post, located here, before you submit your art to us.

[worldbuildguild]

I really can't tell if I am a lousy artist or not because everytime I post something nobody gives me an opinion and i can't help but feel sorry for myself and it sucks. What do you suggest ? Thanks for reading this please have a nice day .

You’re not a lousy artist anon everyone starts somewhere and a lot of time the start is a silent one where feedback of any kind is rare, this is sadly really common and it sucks because feedback is motivating!

At a time like this finding other ways to stay motivated is very important. Why are you drawing? Does it bring you happiness ? Do you want to get better? Do want to achieve a goal? Re-evaluate your focus. A lot of the time, you have to be your main form of support which is so tough!! But know you’re not alone a lot of us have been there and even have to revert back to this principle on multiple occasions, even popular artists.

Maybe get involved in fanbases you like and create fanart for them, a lot of our mods have suggested this since it’s a really beneficial way to grow a following. People tend to gravitate to something they recognize and to someone they share similar interests to and with an active following you have more chances for feedback.

If you’re just posting on tumblr, post somewhere else too, letting your art be viewed from various social platforms allows people to have more access to you. Join an active art discord, engage on social media, write feedback to other artists, take the initiative and be the support you would love to receive! This is how you meet really great people and get a support chain going! 

In the mean time remember to draw what you love and find most enjoyable but you’re not a lousy artist anon you’re a growing artist! Keep drawing and know that you can always get critiques and feedback here, we’re rooting for you! 💖

-Mod Doe, with added suggestions from Mod Seraphtonin, Mod SugarQuill and Mod Pixielart 💕

—- 

I’ll add to this and say that I’ve personally been there and I still am, even after having worked with my art professionally for years. A lack of presence and feedback is not always connected to your skill level - so don’t let that discourage you. Sometimes when you want critique you have to grab people personally and shove your art at them, to force them to have and voice their opinion. It’s just how people work. 

 - Mod Wackart