Your Artist tool box

Need to know how to do something? Maybe we can help, looking for something particular? upper left, use the search bar, you may find it, wanna have your own posted? submit

[etheringtonbrothers]

For those of you that like everything neatly organised, here’s links to EVERY ONE of my first 150 how to THINK when you draw TUTORIALS, in ALPHABETICAL ORDER for #SkillUpSunday! Enjoy, link, pin, share! Cheers! Lorenzo! How to draw ANGRY EXPRESSIONS How to draw BIRD HEADS How to draw BOOKS How to draw BOXES How to draw BREAKING GLASS How to draw BRICKWORK How to draw CABLES and WIRES How to draw CAR CHASES How to draw CATERPILLAR TRACKS How to draw CAVES How to draw CHARACTERS (3-SHAPES) How to draw CHARACTERS (FLIPPED-SHAPES) How to draw CHARACTER SHAPES How to draw COMIC COVERS How to draw COMPOSITION How to draw CROSS-CONTOURS How to draw EARS How to draw FABRIC How to draw FEET & SHOES How to draw FEMALE HANDS PART ONE How to draw FEMALE HANDS PART TWO How to draw FOREGROUND MIDGROUND BACKGROUND How to draw GAME BUILDINGS How to draw GEMS and CRYSTALS How to draw GIRL’S HAIR How to draw GRASS How to draw HAIR (1940s styles) How to draw HAPPY EXPRESSIONS How to draw HORNS How to draw HORSE HEADS How to draw IMPACT DEBRIS How to draw IN 3D How to draw INTEGRATING LOGOS How to draw INTERIOR BASICS How to draw IN-WORLD TYPOGRAPHY How to draw JUNGLE PLANT CLUSTERS How to draw JUNK HOUSES How to draw LAMP POSTS How to draw LAVA How to draw LIGHTNING and ELECTRICITY How to draw MECHANICAL DETAILS How to draw MUSHROOMS and FUNGUS How to draw MONSTER HEADS How to draw MONSTER TENTACLES How to draw MOUNTAINS How to draw NEGATIVE SPACE How to draw NEWSPAPERS How to draw NOSES How to draw PERSPECTIVE BOXES How to draw PIGS How to draw POD HOUSES How to draw POURING LIQUID How to draw ROBOT ARMS How to draw ROCK FORMATIONS How to draw RUNNING FIGURES How to draw SAUSAGE DOGS How to draw SEA WEED   How to draw SHADOW COMPOSITION How to draw SHOULDER ARMOUR How to draw SIEGE WEAPONS How to draw SILHOUETTE THUMBNAILS How to draw SMOKE EFFECTS How to draw SNOW How to draw SPACE BIKES How to draw SQUIRRELS How to draw STICK FIGURES How to draw THE HORIZON How to draw TIKI STATUES How to draw TREASURE CHESTS How to draw TREE BARK How to draw TREE ROOTS How to draw VEHICLES How to draw VINTAGE PLANES How to draw WATER How to draw WOODEN HOUSES

[j-robotson-deactivated20181216]

Tutorial: Pixel Art Textures for 3D Models

This is a tutorial showing how to create pixel-perfect textures for your 3D models in Maya. This is not a tutorial on how to use Maya, you should already have a basic knowledge, it’s nothing advanced as I’m a beginner myself. If you don’t have Maya this tutorial should still be fairly easy to follow, as the things I show should be in any decent 3D modeling software.

The end goal is to create a model that looks like this:

A cube with a pixel art texture with little details such as the indentations in the stone. Following this tutorial you’ll be able to then translate these skills into more advanced and different models quite easily. So, let’s get started.

Keep reading

[wordsnstuff]

Useful Writing Resources

This is an extensive list of resources for every problem you could come across while writing/planning/editing your novel. Use it well;)

{ *** } Indicate a Highly Reccommended Resource

Planning/outlining Your Work

How To Outline ***

Zigzag Method : Creating Plots

How to Plot a Romance Novel 

Seven Great Sources of Conflict for Romances 

Let’s talk about brainstorming

Writing Something With Meaning ***

Past Or Present Tense? : How To Decide

Writing Your Work

How To Write A Fabulous Chapter #1 ***

How to Build a Romance Thread in Your Story 

The Big Book Of Writing Sex ***

6 Ways to Get Your Readers Shipping Like Crazy 

Romance Writing Tips ***

20 Tips for Writing Lovable Romance Novel Heroes

7 Ways To Speed Up Your Writing *** 

80+ Barriers to Love: A List of Ideas to Keep Romantic Tension High 

9 Romance Writing Mistakes to Avoid 

Removing the Creeps From Romance

19 Ways to Write Better Dialogue ***

50 Things Your Characters Can Do WHILE They Talk ***

How To Write Action And Fight Scenes

10 Steps To Write Arguments

9 Ways To Write Body Language

Writing Good Kissing Scenes

Writing Murders

Create And Control Tone ***

Tips for Writing Ghost Stories

Incorporating Flashbacks

12 Tips To Avoid Overwriting ***

Characters

Behind the Name

Top Baby Names

Looking for a name that means a certain thing? ***

7 Rules of Picking Names

Most Common Surnames ***

Minor Character Development

Writing Antagonists, Antiheroes and Villains

Characters With Enhanced Senses

5 Tips to Help You Introduce Characters

How Do You Describe a Character?

How To Write Child Characters

36 Core Values For Building Character

Questions To Answer When Creating Characters ***

4 Ways to Make Readers Instantly Loathe Your Character Descriptions

5 Ways to Keep Characters Consistent

Character Archetypes

25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters

Building Platonic Relationships Between Female Characters

9 Simple and Powerful Ways to Write Body Language 

33 Ways To Write Stronger Characters

Conveying Character Emotion 

How to Make Readers Love an Unlikable Character…  

How to Create Powerful Character Combos

How To Describe A Character’s Voice ***

Describing Clothing And Appearance ***

Career Masterpost ***

Creating Your Character’s Personality ***

Character Flaws ***

Editing

DON’T EDIT>>> REWRITE THE WHOLE THING FIRST

Ultimate Guide To Editing Each Aspect Of Your Work ***

Why You Would Read Your Novel Out Loud ***

Grammar and Punctuation ***

How To Write A Captivating First Sentence

10 Things Your Opening Chapter Should Do: A Check-List for Self-Editing ***

Saving Your Story: Finding Where It Went Wrong

How To Condense Without Losing Anything

The Stages Of Editing

Dialogue/Description Balance

3 Proofreading Tips

The Short Story Form

Chapter & Novel Lengths

Anatomy Of A Novel : Chapters and Parts ***

How To Write Chapter After Chapter Until You Have A Book ***

Where Chapter #2 Should Start

Step By Step Guide To Editing Your Draft

Writing Tool: CTRL-F (How And Why You Should Use It) ***

How To Kill A Character

25 Steps To Edit The Unmerciful Suck Out Of Your Story

5 Ways To Make Your Novel Helplessly Addictive ***

Setting

{Setting} How To Describe Setting In Your Stories ***

20 Questions To Enhance Setting

How To Bring Your Setting To Life

Miscellaneous Resources You Can Use In Between

How to Write from a Guy’s POV 

The Emotional Wounds Thesaurus

Text To Speech Reader

Compare Character Heights 

A Visual Dictionary of Tops

Writers Helping Writers

7 Tricks To Imrove Your Writing Overnight

Work Out/ Word Count : Exercise Between Writing ***

Most Important Writing Tips ***

Let’s talk about diversity in novels

Letting Go Of Your Story

Keeping A Healthy Writing Schedule And Avoiding Procrastination ***

How To Create A Good Book Cover

Write or Die

Tip of my Tongue

Character Traits Form

Online Thesaurus

Writing Sketchy/Medical/Law

Coma: Types, Causes, etc

Tips for writing blood loss

Gunshot Wound Care

Examples of Hospital Forms

Common Legal Questions

The Writer’s Forensics Blog

Brain Injury Legal Guide

Types of Surgical Operations

Types of Mental Health Problems

A Day in the Life of a Mental Hospital Patient

Global Black Market Information ***

Crime Scene Science

Examining Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Writers’ Block Help/ Productivity

Story Plot Generator

@aveeragemusings ‘ Cure To Writers’ Block ***

50 Romance Plot Ideas

Reading Like A Writer ***

Defeat Writers’ Block

Writing In A Bad Mood ***

Writers Block

When You’ve Lost Motivation To Write A Novel ***

What To Do When The Words Won’t Flow ***

9 Ways To Be A More Productive Writer

“I Cannot Write A Good Sentence Today” (How To Get Over It) ***

Real Writing Advice ***

Info You Need To Know & Words You Didn’t Think Of

A Writer’s Thesaurus ***

Words To Describe… ***

Words & Phrases To Use In Your Sex Scenes ***

Colors (An Extensive List Of Colors)

List Of Kinks & Fetishes ***

List Of Elemental Abilities

inkarnate.com : World Creator And Map Maker For Your Imaginary Setting

Body Language Phrases

List Of Legendary Creatures

How To Write Magic

Hairstyle References

Hemingway : Writing Checker

Body Types: Words To Describe Bodies and How They Move Around

Poisonous Herbs and Plants ***

The Psychology of Color

The Meaning behind Rose color

Types of Swords

Color Symbolism

How a handgun works

How to Write a Eulogy

Types of Crying

Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes ***

Superstitions and More

The 12 Common Archetypes

Language of Flowers

12 Realistic Woman Body Shapes

Using Feedback And Reviews

Turning Negative Reviews Into Positive Ones ***

Proofreading Marks : Easy Symbols To Make Reviewing/Feedback Easier ***

Authonomy Teen Ink Figment Fiction Press ReviewFuse

These Are Trusted Critique Sites ;)

[swedishjazz]

If you're an artist looking to diversify your faces:

click this link

draw whomever you get

don’t worry about making it super-accurate, just focus on the characteristic parts of the face and have fun

the outcome might not look like the ref, but it will be different and more varied than faces you draw out of your head, an dprobably pretty rad on its own right!

feel free to reblog with your drawing, if you want!

[victoriousvocabulary]

Substitutes for Said (E-H)

E) echoed, elaborated, emitted, emphasised, encouraged, enjoined, enunciated, estimated, exclaimed, exhorted, explained, exploded, expressed.

F) faltered, feared, foretold, flared, fumed.

G) gabbed, gasped, giggled, gossiped, granted, grinned, groaned, growled, grumbled, grunted, guessed, gurgled.

H) haggled, hedged, held (forth), hesitated, hinted, hissed, hollered, howled, hummed.

[Source] [Nick Tassone]

[patientno7]

the suffering never ends

[sinksanksockie2]

This is the real process

[thewritingbeast-blog]

Resources for you!

Character Ideas:

Character creation masterpost

Character Alignment Chart

More character alignment descriptions

Muslim Character questions

Characters with magical powers

Building a new character advice

How to create a character for an online or tabletop RPG (also a good guide on creating characters in general)

Royalty/nobility TV Tropes page

Basic character profile

OC masterpost

Random character generators - (1), (2), (3), (4)

D&D Character Building Tool

Character Design Ideas:

How clothing affects a character’s personality

Character Design Inspiration blog

Concept art, fan art, cool art to be inspired by

Character design references and inspiration

Sources for POC character design ideas and models

Create your own character model using HeroForge

For horned characters

Body and hair types guide

Random outfit generator

Naming Help:

Amazing site with an endless amount of naming resources

General advice on avoiding naming appropriation

Hispanic Surnames

Gothic Victorian names

Huge master list for character things in general

Masterlist of names of all types - including but not limited to ancient/old world names, Celtic, African, Northern European, Southern and Central American Native names, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Polynesian, and more

Another name masterlist

How to pick a character name guide

Yet another names masterlist

Creating Background/backstory:

Character Sheet/Development Sheet

Another character development list

In-depth character personality, motivations and traits sheet

320 talents and passions for characters

On writing likes and dislikes that aren’t frivolous

Why you should write non-human characters non-conforming to the gender binary

Stereotypes, tropes, and archetypes

Random backstory generator

Assassin and thief character tropes to avoid

Character Interactions and putting your character into your world/story:

Comparing character height/height references

Characters who are scientists and writing about them doing science

Describing what different voices sound like

Describing skin tones

Writing friendship interactions that are platonic

Why having one character knock their friend unconscious to prevent them from doing something is a bad idea

Advice on shipping OCs with canon characters and what to avoid doing

Sweet Polly Oliver and Sweet on Polly Oliver situations (think of Disney’s Mulan for an example)

How to write multiple viewpoints/juggling a main cast of more than 4 to 6 characters

How to make readers care about your morally gray hero/anti-hero

On platonic OC and canon character relationships

How to avoid Godmodding in RPs

When it’s cheap to kill off a character

Writing dialogue

Things you shouldn’t do to canon characters

Avoiding purple prose in writing and RPs

Slang resources

Dialogue tips

Websites to chart your story/plot/character relationships

Bonus art masterlist!

[brucewayneright]

BLESS EVERYONE IN THIS POST.

[jeffliujeffliu]

An Alexandrite vs Malachite scene that I boarded/animated!

Amethyst’s whip + Pearl’s spear = Opal’s bow

From Super Watermelon Island

[ccpyrd]

first time doin a real tutorial sorry if its kind of confusing?

got a little too into it tho bc for real i love making shit like this ty for the ask

[mugges]

how did you figure out how to do hands

well when I do hands I tend to break them into 3 big shapes 

starting with the wrist then palm, thumb then the fingers 

once I have the big shapes in I separate the fingers

here are some more examples of the different parts

one of the best ways that I learned how to draw hands was to draw a LOT of them, in different poses, while looking at a reference. This is a site that I found useful, 

it has 3D models of hands that you can change the view so you can see the same pose from different angles. p.s. this site i linked to does contain nude figures just a heads up  

[philsterman01]

#art ref

[byeagra]

REBLOG TO SAVE AN ARTIST LIFE

[the-a-j-universe]

Ugh yes, hands are such a pain.

[bravestghost-deactivated2019070]

shading colour tips

hey yall its me the Art Mom™ to help you shade pretty

rule 1: DO NOT SHADE WITH BLACK. EVER. IT NEVER LOOKS GOOD. 

red- shade with a slightly darker shade of purple

orange- slightly darker and more saturated shade of red

yellow- i think like..a peach could work but make it a really light peach

green- shade with darker and less saturated shade of blue or teal

blue- shade with purple

purple- a shade thats darker than the purple you’re using and maybe a little pink (MAYBE blue)

pink- darker shade of red

white- a really light lavender or blue..or i guess any really light colour??

black- okay listen dont use pure black to colour anything unless you want to leave it with flat colours because you cant really shade black lol

grey- a slightly darker shade of purple or blue (less saturated)

brown- slightly darker and less saturated shade of purple or red

aaaaand thats all i got lol. let me know if there is anything i should add to this list!!

[valmoxium]

If you’re a visual learner…

I made some Balls of Colour to go with Art Mom™’s post:

[xavierramonede]

I’ve been asked a lot about tips for aspiring animators, so here are some ! Enjoy, I hope it will help some of you.

Oh, and for the ones wondering who I am, I’m a french 2D animator. I studied animation at Gobelins like 10 years ago and ever since I’ve been mostly working as a 2D animator for feature films, commercials, shorts and shows.

[sottapop]

Any tips for a new artist to start getting used to drawing with a mouse and for developing their own style?

Woah there. Ok first off, do you mean drawing digitally with a tablet or do you actually mean using a mouse? Because I don’t actually use a mouse nor do I know anyone who can draw with one. That would take some major skill. I use a Wacom Cintiq (the larger one as well as a 12″) so it’s just like using a pen.

As for developing your own style, I don’t really know specifically how to do that. Mine just gradually evolved overtime because of the different styles I’ve worked in at WB as well as studying artists I really admire. I work as a storyboard artist so my main focus is in telling the story with good draftsmanship, rather than trying to match a style exactly. I mean they prefer that our boards be on model, but we’re a much more rough version of that model. However, I imagine a character designer would probably offer some great tips on style development. Maybe @briannedrouhard might have some suggestions?

I guess all I can say is that from what I’ve experienced, your style will come to light in time. Just by learning to get better at drawing you’ll pick up your own way of drawing things. Just experiment with different ways of drawing something and study lots of different types of drawing styles. You’ll absorb things while you do so and it’ll start to show in your own work.

Hope that actually answers your questions.

[briannedrouhard]

Good advice! I work on paper when I’m not at work, but use a cintiq when I storyboard or work in photoshop. It was a bit of learning curve when I began drawing digitally.  Just takes getting used to, I still prefer the texture of pencil on paper, but find what I can create with new technology to be pretty exciting. I started out working at WB too, and I know that influence is still visible in my work, but I actually don’t mind,  because it was a good chunk of my life that contributed to my development as an artist.  Everyone develops their own thumbprint, some are better at hiding it when they need to than others, but you can never really get rid of it.

If you’re working on an animation production, it’s most likely you will need to draw in the style of whatever team you’re with, but it’s also a great opportunity to forcer yourself to learn and strengthen your draftsmanship.  I started out as a character designer, and years later made the jump to storyboards.  I’ll admit my designs improved after spending a year drawing storyboards, the volume and shape choices where more solid and consistent.  It can be hard to make the jump from boards to design and vice versa, but if you can do it, you’ll have a bigger artistic library to pull from.   I like to look at a lot of different artists, landscapes, animals in nature for influence.  Your style will come with age, don’t force it, learn the fundamentals and hone your draftsmanship first.  Style is a lot like frosting, it doesn’t usually leave much of an impact if what’s underneath isn’t already working.

[perezbros]

Fabulous Guide for Portrait Lighting (zoom for description):

[toolboxfor-pros]

very awesome resource!

[duss005]

i get asked at least 2-3 times a week on advice on how to break into comics. the best advice I can give is to simple DRAW COMICS. draw pages, panels, establishing shots, backgrounds, close ups, props, vehicles, characters doing fun things, boring things, interacting, talking, sleeping, eating, FIGHTING. crack open a comic to see what your favorite books are up to. offer editors SOMETHING THEY CAN USE.

A portfolio full of headshots (like the stuff I post everyday) and bust commissions are great for Instagram and social media and your fans to browse through online, but any knowledgeable editor that can actually give you work would not give two cents about it. Comics is able telling stories, through static images in sequence. if that’s what you’re INTO, then you can focus on that and eventually, gradually put together a fantastic portfolio of 3-5 pages a month, and that alone would be stronger than a portfolio of 200 head sketches or a stack of pinups featuring your favorite ships or genre mash ups. please believe me. Sequential pages should be 95%of your portfolio. Comics is sequential art. that’s what you’re going to be doing ALL DAY if you with in comics. pin ups and covers is most likely once every few weeks.

also asked a lot is how do you get cover work in comics? that’s … an entire other conversation. one thing I can tell you though, if you draw your own comic, most likely, you will get a chance to draw your own cover.

convention season starts again in a month or something, so let’s prep up gals and guys. also, in case anyone’s wondering, I’m cutting fabriano 300lb softpress paper for the next issue of DESCENDER, they come in 22x30 sheets and I chop them down to three 11x17 sheets each.

[framexframe]

Nickelodeon’s The Legend of Korra; pencil test by Inseung Choi

[1000-life-hacks]

[primus-pilus-deactivated2023090]

http://the-8-elements.deviantart.com/art/Common-Sword-Types-290730689

[laurenwritesstuff]

#refs#need this for when I become a pirate queen