#theredlinestation

[catversary]

I miss doing this kind of thing! These r redlines I did for the now closed @theredlinestation which I'm super proud of. Maybe I'll make my own little sideblog to do redlines on the side? I enjoyed it very much, even though I'm not an art major anymore.

[worldbuildguild]

Do you have any tips for drawing unique speech bubbles? I'm having trouble figuring out how to draw different tones of voices and moods.

For this ask, I’d like to start with a common linguistic experiment. 

Please check out the following shapes!

If I told you that one of these shapes is called ‘bouba’ and the other is called ‘kiki’, which name would you assign to each shape? Don’t overthink this - there isn’t a ‘right’ answer. 

However, there IS a very strong association in the English language (and most other related languages) between specific sounds and specific shapes. We have been more or less trained to associate not only specific consonants (b and k) with rounder or sharper shapes, we have also been trained to ‘read’ tone through speech bubbles. 

For the shapes above - most people who speak English or an Indo-European language as their first language will name the spiky one ‘kiki’ and the round one ‘bouba’. Shapes matter to us - they reinforce the sound and tone and feeling with the words associated inside! This concept will be the baseline for you when creating ANY speechbubble shapes.

Shapes and sounds and tone are inherently connected, and you already know about it, even if you don’t realize it consciously!

Take the speech bubbles below - does anything seem off about it?

The rounder speech bubble can pass because it’s the most ‘basic’ one and we can associate it with pretty much any form of speech, but the gentler tone of the words in the first one clashes with how sharp and spiky it is. These are the things you must consider when you create speech bubbles for any comic. 

Here’s a a basic guide to speech bubbles found in manga that you may be able to recognize automatically:

Now, you specifically mentioned drawing ‘unique’ speech bubbles. What does that mean?

I can’t quite understand your intent: Do you want your speech bubbles to be unique to your comic? Do you want a shape that closely relates to what the characters are saying? Is there a specific type of speech bubble you want to create for a type of speech - speech coming through the radio that’s static-riddled, or the speech or a robot, or the scream of a demonic entity that’s just broken through the skin of our world from within its own? 

I’d recommend thinking about the following as you draw:

1 - What is the tone of the character speaking? Does their speech need to be sharp and eye-drawing, or is it soft, and rounded out?

2 - What is the style of your comic? What shapes would fit better with your backgrounds? What would match the lineart you use? 

3 - Do you want the speech-bubbles to stand out and catch the reader’s attention, or would you rather they fit more naturally in with the rest of your drawings, in order to create more of a balance? 

I’ll leave you with the following infograph, just for fun and to give you some ideas, in case you aren’t quite decided or need more inspiration:

- Mod Chekhov

[thechekhov]

Hi again! How do you get your lines to be so smooth on your art and comics?? Even with the correct your line tool at 16, my lines are still kinda messy ;n;

Hey there! This stuff is a little difficult to answer without seeing your lineart, but I did a post about lineart stuff on @theredlinestation blog which may help:

https://theredlinestation.tumblr.com/post/188867626240/do-you-have-any-tips-for-doing-line-art-because

The biggest factor, I think, is muscle memory. Many people expect lineart to get better after a month or so - but the reality is, unless you specifically train multiple times a week like for a marathon, your lineart will take years to perfect. That post includes some handy exercises, though! :) Check it out!

[srmw-arts]

Have an art trade with @gagthespacetapir that should have been done a LONG time ago. “x<x 

Special thank to @thechekhov from @theredlinestation for helping me with the first draft. (Sorry if y’all don’t like being @ ed)

[worldbuildguild]

Could you give some tips on drawing middle aged characters? I feel like most of my characters come out looking young, and if I try to add age they look like 80. I'm trying to make one of them look around 40.

This is a hard one! I Remember being frustrated about the same thing a few years ago! 

Let’s run through a few pointers for some age-groups. I’ve arbitrarily divided each section into a certain age-span where the characteristics are the most “distinct” or pronounced. But do keep in mind that none of these are hard, constant rules. There are people who age faster, who age slower - people who don’t develop these specific traits at all or develop them more aggressively. This is just a set of pointers.

So lets go:

BABIES

https://silkeborgbib.dk/arrangementer/baby-cafe/aflyst-babycafe-motorik-kjellerup

So when we talk about babies our minds easily wander to the huge eyes, round cheeks and disproportionate face-to-head ratio. These are some of the key ways of depicting a baby in art as well. Keeping the shapes round and plumb conveys the infantility of the person. This is due to the high amount of bodyfat ( also sometimes called: babyfat ) that babies have for the first few years. This will be particularly visible on the face and limbs, but will gradually start to disappear once the baby grows. 

TODDLER/CHILD

https://www.verywellfamily.com/how-to-deal-with-a-child-who-constantly-complains-1094982

Toddlers/young children still carry a lot of the babyfat from their infancy. Characteristics such as the structure of their cheekbones and chins ‘may’ start to develop at this age, but it is by no means pronounced. Their eyes are still very large, but the rest of the proportions are slowly growing in to fit around it. Historically, the head-to-shoulder ratio has been exagerrated when artists depicted children. This has been in efforts to dial up the infantility or ‘youth’ of the character. In reality - the head is a little moreso in proportion than popularly depicted. But even then, there’s still some disproportion going on between the body as a whole and the size of a head. 

TEENAGERS

https://us.clipdealer.com/photo/media/A:79345696

In their teen years; kids go through rapid and dramatic changes. Not just mentally but physically as well. It is one of the body’s last growthspurrs to maturity, and thusly, a lot of things has to fall into place. Things facial structure starts to develop further. Cheekbones begins to shape up to be more pronounced, the jaw shapes up too. Browbones may become more pronounced, and the nose may pick up a less round and slopey shape. 

The eyes and ears, which has previously been slightly disproportionate, start to grow in. And in overall - everything begins to “harmonise” more in terms of how we define an ordinarily “well-formed” adult. 

YOUNG ADULT

https://www.masterfile.com/search/en/20+year+old+male+face

Though the most dramatic growth spurts happens at large during teenhood, certain maturation carries on into our twenties. During this phase, what structures were developing in our teens finish developing. Most bone structure is about done by now, meaning cheekbones, the shape of the nose, the jaw and the brow. 

We don’t typically stop changing appearance as we mature onward, but from here on out, the underlying build of our face tends to be considered “finished”. Some of the things that will change from here on out are things like hair-growth/loss, certain fleshier parts’s continued growth, and the distribution of fat. 

MIDDLEAGED

https://local.theonion.com/recently-divorced-40-year-old-struggling-to-navigate-co-1830448243

As we mature into what is considered the “middle-aged” phase, our bone-structure remains largely the same. But as mentioned before, our fat deposits ( and body fat retention ) tends to change, meaning that some parts of the face will round out. Such as the jaw, and the cheeks. As our bodies start holding on to fat more persistently. Lines like jowls and crow’s feet begin to show up here as well, as our skin begins to age. The difference betweenhow people look when middle-aged is pretty striking. As a wide variety of factors goes into whether or not you look like you’re aging faster or slower. Things like diet, occupation, lifestyle/habits and genetics play into how you’d look when you turn 50. Consider this when drawing your character  - if they’re a careful office-worker who has a fixed skin-routine and keeps themselves high-maintenance, they may have that many wrinkles yet. Meanwhile, if they work 10 hours mining or similarly taxing jobs - they may already look 10 years older than what they actually are. This is the point in life where you’d can design your character to resemble exactly what kind of life they have lead ( and still lead ). 

ELDER/

https://consent.yahoo.com/v2/collectConsent?sessionId=3_cc-session_083c7bc8-d4d5-49c6-8182-7d8a13ea0419

“Elder” is a broad term. Especially considering that depending on which culture and country you live in, a person may be considered “old” at different ages. But for this example: i’ll be classifying “old” as, those no longer in the common workforce, retirés and up until death. 

Like middle-aged, how people look when they become elderly is extremely dependent on their genetics and lifestyle. But in general, the fat deposits will either start growing as our faces puff up, or they will diminish significantly, giving us that old-boney look. 

( Though many people who currently make it into their 80s-90s are generally skinnier than their younger counterparts, due to a lower appetite ). More wrinkles show up, increased asymmetry in the face happens ( see for example the droopy eye beneath ), and a diminishing amount of hair growth contributes to an ‘old’ look. 

Mod Todd’s note on eyeline v

Mod Todd had a good point about how to display age by moving the height of the eyes on the skull. Often we see characters with eyes sitting up high on the face as “older” than those who have them sit lower. This is a pretty surefire way to convey age, especially when in combination of the rest of the tell-tale trademarks of the certain age-bracket you’re looking for. 

Drawing hard, concrete rules about how people look at any given age is finnicky at best, but i hope some of the notes here could map out some of the options you have when it comes to depicting age. But ultimately i can only say - go find reference! Especially if you need advice for a person of a certain age-group, in a certain region or with a certain lifestyle. People age at such different speeds and different ways that going out and studying the subject matter for yourself should prove a well-worth addition to these footnotes here. 

- Mod Wackart ( ko-fi ) 

[worldbuildguild]

You guys okay?

Hey Redliners!

I am so sorry that you've been hearing nothing from us for the longest time now. I don't have many excuses other than art-life and art-school suddenly beckoned a lot more attention than previously.

However, I haven't forgotten this blog. As you know, I and a few other mods run this blog while the rest of the staff run the blog's discord ( which is well alive and you should very much join if you feel like it!)

But as such, it's on me to get the ball rolling on this blog again. To do this i have considered a bit of a 'rebranding' so to speak that would align the blog towards something a little more specific. While the discord will continue to serve as a general help-HUB for artists that provides anything from anatomy help to colour advice.

For this blog, I have been wanting to pull it into a slightly different direction for a while and after conversing with the other staff we have decided to air the idea to you guys here before proceeding with anything.

So if you like the idea, do let us know in the replies of this thread. We would hate to see this blog stagnate completely, so I wholeheartedly hope you will take to this new idea.

The new direction would see the RedLineStation rebrand itself into RedLineStation: BuildGuild

RLS: BuildGuild is of similar format to what RedLineStation has been up until now: that is - a resource-blog and live ask box for advice. However: rather than focus on the likes of basic anatomy and art fundamentals, its content will revolve around topics that partake in creative design. That is Character Design, Creature Design, Worldbuilding, Creative Process, and Advice on the Art-life in general.

Why the change? Since I am currently the Head Mod of the blog while the rest of the staff work on the discord, which still provides critiques on basic anatomy and fundamentals help, I needed to find a way in which I could keep the blog going without falling into the regular time-sensitive slumps that left redlines lingering in limbo far beyond the time of their relevancy. Not only would BuildGuild swap some of the formats from the old blog out for more sustainable routines, but would also lean heavily into a field in art and creativity that I have acquired multiple degrees in at this point, and which is in the interest of multiple staff working on the blog. Furthermore, it's a topic that we haven't encountered much, and would love to open this world of creativity up for you guys to explore.

What could BuilGuild content be?

The team and I have already debated a few options for content. Though we would of course love to hear input from you guys. Nothing is set in stone, and it is likely that the blog will cycle through multiple types of formats as we try things out.

- Live askbox for character design, concept art, creature design, worldbuilding, etc.

- Regular challenges to get you comfortable with the process of designing for art and storytelling

- RedLine events with a user submission

- Design Reacts! and Discussions of user-submitted media or mod recommendations

- How-to blog posts from the Moderators on how to design for storytelling ( Character design, concept art, creature design, worldbuilding, etc )

- Ressources from third-party worldbuilders and authors.

- Transcribed interviews from artists and storytellers on their process.

- Artist spotlights

As you can see, there's plenty of ideas on the table, and we're still looking for more ways that this rebranding could work out exciting and useful for your guys. But of course, we want to know if this is a venture worth pursuing. If you guys aren't interested in the topics that RLS: BuildGuild could provide, then we will of course not waste your time ( or our own for that matter :) )

Let us know in the replies or through our inbox what you think about RLS: BuildGuild, and whether or not you'd be interested in seeing this blog head in one such direction. And remember that RLS: Discord still provides art advice and redlining by our beautiful staff and community here: https://discord.gg/EshJ3ta

And of course, all posts from RLS original will be saved in a tab for you to access easily so that nothing is lost from the OG run.

Hope to hear from you guys, miss you loads <3 - Mod Wackart

[worldbuildguild]

Do you have any advice for when you accidentally create a character that looks similar to an already existing character?

This happens to me a lot in my initial designphases ( and sometimes, I just leave the characters looking similar. if it’s not used for some kind of official production, and is just for your own collection, having similar character’s ain’t the worst. ) Though, if you’re striving for wide variety in your characters, here’s some pointers.  We’re actually going to dive into a bit of design method and theory for a moment - to understand the process that goes into designing and optimising anything. 

It’s called

The Iterative Design Process

Sound technical? It’s actually not as dense as it can sound. 

https://felix.delattre.de/weblog/2019/03/14/a-strait-agile-coordination-method/

The Iterative design process, as pictured above is a method in which an idea is worked through several times. The cycle starts with an idea, any idea. In this case, an idea for a character.  The artist starts out drawing their idea as is, then - they send either set it aside for a while, or - preferably, sends it out for feedback. As feedback comes back and the artist have been away from the design for a bit ,they return with fresh eyes. They evaluate the design based on the criteria of their goals ( in this case: making the character look less like another character ), review feedback, and note things down for potential alternatives.  The circle closes when the artist goes back to the drawing board to work another design out based on the results of their evaluation and feedback.

A cycle like that ^ is called an Iteration. And a design process typically goes through multiple iterations. It is inherently a very circular process until someone calls for the project to finish once satisfactory progress has been made, or the deadline’s coming up. 

So: for the sake of our little design project, we’d end up with a process looking something like this. 

In a concept-art process, those iterative cycles might come out looking something like this v

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/X1vBD

Whenever a concept artists makes an attempt at a character, they bring it up to a potential board or director, where the design is discussed and either green-lit or sent back to the drawing board with alterations or improvements to be made. Often, a concept artist will also bring multiple iterations of a design to the table, in hopes of facilitating conversation with the remaining team or director about what works and what doesn’t. Making it much easier for them to start a dialogue about what a final design could potentially look like. 

If you have created a design that leans too close to another, then it might be time to take it back to the drawing board. All the way back.  Identify the pieces of the design that you recognize are too similar to another design, and start debating whether or not that particular piece is valueable and important to the design. Certain details that can seem all-defining for a character can sometime end up completely unecessary.  Once you’ve identified what can be done away with, try putting in new things in its stead. This can be anything from a change of garment, a switch in hair-style or a colour pallette. Killing your darlings is absolutely crucial when doing iterations. Not everything you like may be benefitting the design, and it takes bravery to trim the fat of a design.  Remember, when doing your first initial sketches of a new iteration, be light, be quick, be careless. Don’t take too much time, or you’d risk getting too attached to a design  ( and also stiffling how dynamic it is by getting too detail-oriented ).

Additionally: you can switch things up by shifting reference points. If the design you are trying to deviate from takes a lot of reference from a certain era of clothing, you can either look deeper into said era, and find something that would be right within the context of the era, thusly maintaining the thematic feeling of the design. Or you can switch it up completely and go for an entirely different era, but maintain shapes or colours from the original design. Like this, you are keeping parts of the original design, those that you might favour, while still recontextualizing the design’s themes to yourself and your audience. 

Once you’ve got 9-10 new sketches out, it is up to you to play your own art director as well. Look at your pieces critically, and start picking and mixing until you have something that doesn’t look as similar to the subject matter as it was before. 

After some cycles of this, you should see things start to change. It’s a long and painful progress, i know this. I just had to go through a very dramatic scale-back of a character design, which removed a lot of features i had grown attached to in a character, but ultimately , it was necessary and it felt much better to draw the character afterwards. 

Best of luck! 

- Mod Wackart ( ko-fi )

[worldbuildguild]

Update

Hey guys! Sorry for the delay on the update. I hope to soothe some concerns by telling you all that work on the Build Guild's launch is starting back up now that i've finally finished my second degree and have time on my hands inbetween jobs. Thank you so much for your patience thus far. I can see we keep having new people following the blog so i'll do my best to get BuildGuild up and running soon. I'll keep you updated as we move along. Cheers! - Mod Wackart