reff up!

ibelievepracticemakesperfect:

Little Art Reference things: Comprehensive Resource List for the Aspiring Artist V1.01

kastiakbc:

sixmilliondeadinternets:

A.K.A. “Pato is autistic and shows off his massive collection of saved links”

Have a seat, get a cup of coffee and sit through this. Hopefully you won’t regret it. This is mostly about illustration, by the way.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED BULLSHIT

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• “WHICH TABLET SHOULD I BUY?”

Get the cheapest shit available. If you’re in America/Europe a Wacom Bamboowhatever apparently does the trick. If you’re anywhere else get the cheaper-end Genius ones because Wacom tablets are expensive in every place that’s not the first world. Getting a $600 tablet will not make you magically improve and it’s a goddamn waste of money. Too poor for tablets? Start with a damn pencil.

• “POORFAG HERE, CAN’T AFFORD PHOTOSHOP/SAI, WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO?”

This is the Internet, pirate the shit out of them! Here’s a list of freeware programs you could use, because pirating is bad, mkay.

For general illustration:

• GIMP - Non-shitty, open-source Photoshop Clone.
• Paint.NET - If you are somehow too dumb for Photoshop clones here’s something easy to use.
• Flowpaint - Even simpler.
• Inkscape - Apparently good for things like vector art.
• Artweaver - Get the free version which kind of sucks but otherwise decent.
• Chibipaint - Sounds weeaboo as fuck The best thing out there for oekaki, or so they say.
• Will add more as I find them.

For 3D modelling and such:

• Sculptris - 3D sculpting for dummies

More links coming SOON! (Soon: Duke Nukem Forever).

• “I’M TOO MUCH OF A FAILURE I WILL NEVER IMPROVE”

Spoilers: Improvement will take a long time, specially more if you’re self-taught. Improvement requires dedication and consistenct in your learning. Don’t expect to get great if you’ve just started, and don’t expect greatness in the first year or so either. Save the shit you draw so in the future you can notice that progress has indeed been made.

If you still think you’ll never improve just look at this and realize how wrong you are. Now, if you think you’ll instantly be as cool as that guy, look at this and realize that you still have a long way to go.

• “I HAVE ARTIST’S BLOCK WHAT DO”

Artist’s Block is a very complicated thing but the underlying reason is either lack of creativity, acedia or just a towering pile of bullshit. The best way to treat it is to take up theoretical drawing (anatomy studies, for example) and treat it as a chore. If you need ideas look for the Ideas Generators section below.

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NOW, ONTO THE ACTUAL LIST THING.

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All links taken without permission but I’m sure nobody minds a bit of publicity.

BOOKS

• /ic/’s Recopilation - A 4.2GB books torrent. FUCKING GET IT. (The torrent description also has a list for more books, check those out too)
• Another comprehensive torrent - This one is over 5GB. It’s literally considered the Holy Grail and you should also get this if you can.
• Conceptart’s Recopilation - More art books.
• Why can’t I, hold all these books? - ~75 more books yo.
• LOOMIS LOOMIS LOOMIS LOOMIS
• The New Drawing on The Right Side of the Brain - A must have in artsyfartsyfaggy circles. It’s also in the torrents.
• Burne Hogarth’s Dynamic Anatomy - Pretty sure it’s in the torrents but I know somebody will ask for it separately.
• Eliot Goldfinger’s Human Anatomy For Artists - Another well-known book about anatomy.
• MORE BOOKS JESUS CHRIST WHERE ARE THEY COMING FROM 
• OKAY THESE ARE THE LAST BOOKS I’LL LINK I SWEAR

This is actually more than enough to get you started when it comes to getting books. Saying that the amount of books here is FUCKING MASSIVE would be an understatement.

A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO GESTURE DRAWING

• The Drawing Script - Selects from a database random images of animals, people, scenery, faces, etc.
• Figure & Gesture Drawing Tool - Read above.
• Posemaniacs - Poses IN ASTONISHING 3D MOFOS. Apparently criticized for not showing correct muscle movement, but otherwise okay for static stuff.
• Keep this in mind while gesture drawing.

Simple practice method for the aimless artfag: Open any of the first two links, and choose a distinct category (For example, faces). Tell it to switch every 10 minutes if possible; else, get a timer. Fire it up and start drawing what you see. The idea is that you should stop after 10 minutes and move onto the next one, no matter how incomplete it is. Repeat until your art gets showcased in the Louvre.

COLOR THEORY AND MISCELLANEOUS COLORING FOR THE MASSES

• Mandatory Conceptart.com link about Color Theory - These guys are so awesome I can’t even begin to explain.
• The Dimensions of Colour - Light, shade, and COLORS explained in a non-horrible yet convoluted way.
• Light and Color by Itchy Animation - Perhaps not as convoluted as the one above. Still decent.
• How I see color - Not mine, obviously. A quite lengthy dA tutorial in Flash.
• Example dA way on coloring - Needs some knowledge about Photoshop.
• Coloring Tutorial@dA - Read above, this one is much more comprehensive and pretty.
• Color is Value - Handy as a tips reference, not much else really.
• Celshading for weeaboos by weeaboos - COMIC SAAAAAAAANS
• And yet another Coloring Tutorial! 
• Color Scheme picker - If you’re too dumb to pick colors this does the job.

ANATOMY AND GENERAL HUMAN BODY STUFF

• Drawing the Head - Ron Lemen at (obviously!) Conceptart.com.
• HANDS HANDS HANDS at Posemaniac - FUCKING HANDS HOW DO THEY WORK
• Dragon Paint Art Tutorials: Human Body - A quick, yet extremely incomplete nosedive into drawing the body.
• The Big Guide into Drawing the Body - A technical kick in the balls, yet comprehensive enough.
• Basic pose and construction in Figure Drawing - Conceptualizes the shape of the body from stickfigures to 3D shapes and then holy dongs it’s a human body.
• Kitten-chan’s Body Tutorial - Don’t let the name fool you.
• Understanding Anatomy - The “Anatomy for Dummies” of deviantArt. Must see.
• I’ve got to Hand it to you - Great hand tutorial based on the concept of drawing organic figures out of 3D shapes.
• Muscles!
• How do I drawed hair lol - Hardly complete or good, but decent as a quick guide.

PERSPECTIVE

• Why can’t I hold all these Conceptart.com threads - Great to test waters in the wonders of perspective.
• Perspective and Composition - dA tutorials, dA tutorials errywhere.
• Perspective by Sashas - THE TUTORIALS WILL NEVER STOP THE TUTORIALS WILL NEVER STOP

GENERAL REFERENCES

• /hr/@4chan - High resolution images. We’re all grownups here, so you shouldn’t worry about tits.
  
• Photo Reference for Comic Artists - Self-explanatory.
• Senshistock@dA - A deviantArt account just for the sake of uploading references for the glorious proletariat.
• Tasastock@dA - Pretty much the same as above.
• Metlys@dA - Ditto.
• Tursiart@dA - Ditto, more oriented at medieval stuff.
• /ic/’s reference collection - Recopilaception.
• Artsyposes - POSES POSES POSES
• Lackadaisy’s Expressions - Cats or no cats, this is extremely handy.
• Lockstock@dA - Nude references and shit.
• Nude pics errwhere

LOOSE BUNCH OF VARIOUS CRAP

• /ic/ Thread 1 - Collection of tutorial images.
• /ic/ Thread 2 - Humongous thread with a crapload of links. A must-see.
• Manga to Realistic (dA) - A Twelve-Part walkthrough that dips your toes into realistic illustrations aimed at people with a weeaboo background.

GENERAL ART WEBSITES AND TUTORIALS

• /ic/’s Resource Site - To be honest most of the stuff in here was taken from this place, but there’s also a pile full of more useful things there so check it out too.
• Iconnucrit’s Resources - Down at the time of this writing, but decent from what I remember.
• How to Draw 123 - Too much information doesn’t hurt I guess.
• Oh Conceptart you card - So many tutorials!
• Improvement Center @ dA - Gallery of things that will help you… well, improve.
• Tutorial House @ dA - Read above.
• Stanislav Prokopenko’s Tutorials - Guy’s an instructor or something. 

ILLUSTRATION TECHNIQUES

• The Penciling Tutorial - A quite famous tutorial on “how do I penciled lol”
• Lineart by Sashas - This guy is bloody famous or something.
• How to Speedpaint - I don’t quite agree with this but it seems to work for others.

TEXTURES, BRUSHES AND ALL THAT JAZZ

• CG Textures - Massive collection of free textures. Also tutorials.

IDEA GENERATORS

• /r/sketchdaily@Reddit - A new idea to draw everyday.
• Just go here and pick one of the links.

ART COMMUNITIES

• Conceptart.com - These guys are fucking sweet.
• DeviantArt - Well, think about it. It is an art community after all.

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If you want me to add something, please notify me through my /ask. Be sure to check back often as I’ll be adding more things.

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(Source: sixmilliondeadinternets)

Designing a Character: Switch it up!

elioli-art:

mkarinam asked you:

Hello girls! Your art is so inspiring!!! I wanted to ask you, how you come up with so many scribbles while designing characters? I’ve been struggling so much to design this girl, but seems like I ran out of ideas. Any tips? thank you!

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Thanks for the question (and the compliment!). :)

A lot of it comes out of pure randomness, which happens to be how a lot of people end up creating a character. Here are a few tips and personal tricks on how to go about creating a character our way, which can also be the wrong way.. (not always successful, but atleast satisfying at that moment in time, haha.)

• Col erase Pencils (preferably light blue or dark blue is a good underlying base for sketching). It keeps a “rig” in a way for you to be able to form out your initial drawing. The blue can always be adjusted on programs, which is what we do most of the time.
• If you don’t use col erase, or choose not to, make sure to go about you sketch with a light hand, and not too heavy. It gets harder to erase and it makes the sketches messy and unclear.
• Mechanical pencils and Blackwing pencils are our preferred tools for making any type of sketches. Blackwing for the bolder, thicker lines, and the mechanical pencil for the more refined, precise details.

Now for the actual drawings and shapes. We tend to really like the contrast of straight and curved lines, like this example Olivia did.

It gives the drawing some interesting variation as well as some clarity in reading a design. If you just drew circles on circles, then it would either look like a fat snowman, unless you were aiming for that. Like for instance, Mickey Mouse. His structure is mainly composed of circular shapes, BUT he has a strong silhouette in the sense that his nose and ears are parallel to his head in most angles, and not just in the frontal view. In real life, well, that won’t be entirely possible to have a strong silhouette at every angle, so in the cartoony, stylized world of art, you just cheat!

For the personal touches to making a character:

• Things like texture and detail always help! But if you are not able to replicate texture just quite yet, or if you do not have the available tools, a strong sense of design is the way to go!
• If you can’t get the design down, think about the personality of the character. Put the heart and life into the character you are going to create, and then build their body/face after that.
• Be simple, not detailed. You can eventually add detail, but think about the overall shape of your character. Keeping it simple if the key word. Don’t jump the gun and make a Da Vinci out of your picture.

For example of the recent post I did below, I always imagined Doll being fierce, but with a fairly soft exterior. But of course, that can always change. Attitude can be associated with shapes. Ferocity can and usually is associated with sharper edges and features; intimidating or a cold personality. Spunk, sweetness, or maybe a  little on the not so bright side is usually associated with more rounder, softer shapes. But you can always spice things up by NOT doing that and just making something totally awesome! (Not like the picture below. :p)

           Rounder features: She may look nice, but she has a mean bite!

              Sharper Features: Cuddly and soft with pointy appendages.

     Create something visually appealing! Bend the rules, take those lines in your own hands, and make it unique! 

Other than some of the unnecessary information we just gave you, just go experiment with shapes, draw unnecessary lines, scribble to your heart’s desire. Trust us, we never get the right design the first time, as you can see from the collage of doodles we usually do… of some of the same characters!  Anyway, hope this helps some. Sorry if this got too carried away. The right design will come, so don’t push yourself too hard to create the perfect one in a weeks time. Even we’re still trying to get it right !

For amazing reference, here are some of Tom Bancroft’s books on character design. http://www.charactermentorstudio.com/products.html

(Source: elioliart.com)