#and i think a lineless style would be much better. :]

[graff-aganda]

🌞🍺😡🍻🌻

[factual-fantasy]

26 asks! Thank you! :}}} 🪲

Oh absolutely I do. That's why I always ask before drawing anyone's OCs, or using/modifying their original meme templates, or anything of the sort. Friends and strangers alike.

And same goes for AU ideas. In the past I've seen a really cool idea for an AU and tracked down the OP and asked if I could incorporate their idea into my AU as well. I do my very best to do this for other artists because its what I wish people would do for me.👍👍

I have a master post for all my Octonauts artwork here. 👍

@ripchaos69

I'm really proud of/pleased with how this fairy piece came out! :DD

I also really like how this pixelated cat came out! :)

I was very pleased with how WALL-E cam out in this piece!

I also think this is one of the best drawings of Optimus I've ever done! :))

Even if I knew the answer, that's probably not something I should share online anyways is it?

@mothpendragon

I remember not liking him at all the first time I watched the show. But now watching it a second time years later, I think he's really not that bad. :0 In fact I don't know why I disliked him so much back then.

There are some parts about his character that annoy me. But most of that either is good character writing or isn't his fault. I don't like how immature he tends to be, but of course he's immature. He's still basically just a kid who hasn't experienced much of this war.

And when things get rough, he really straightens out and tries his best to be serious and obedient. Which is very nice to see.

Another thing that I don't like is how the phase shifter was kind'a overused. It became his signature weapon that he used to bail him out of everything. Smokescreen has demonstrated that he's actually pretty clever and slick, it would have been fun to see him trick or outsmart the cons more often instead of just using the phase shifter to save his aft every time. But again, this is not Smokescreens fault at all. Its the writers fault for making his use it so much.

And lastly, something that really made me like Smokescreen was the whole thing that happened with Optimus nearly dying. Smokescreen freaking out at the prospect of becoming a Prime felt really real. Instead of being honored and having and having an inflated ego like I thought he might for some reason- he was terrified.

And him panicking and using the forge to repair Optimus last second felt very real. I could really understand how Smokescreen must have felt, wanting to follow Optimus's orders and restore their home, but also being unable to bare the responsibility of being a Prime. Eventually dragging Optimus back to the land of the living and throwing away any hope of restoring the Omega lock.

If I was better at analyzing characters, I would have loved to draw a comic about what happens right after Optimus was repaired.

My first thought is Smokescreen feeling guilty and ashamed of having used the forge against Optimus's wishes. Would Smokescreen crumble? Fall to his knees, crying and apologizing? "I'm so sorry Optimus- I just couldn't do it-- I couldn't do it, I cant be a Prime- I couldn't-- w-we couldn't lose you.." Is that in character? Honestly I have no idea. 😔

I've thought about doing that for my lineless style, but I haven't gotten around to it.. 😓

If someone goes out of their way to comment on your post/in your ask box saying you're cringe for liking transformers, block the all the way to the sun and back.

What a jerk. I wouldn't be friends with anyone who goes around insulting/trying to upset people for no reason like that. Block them and don't accept/respond any phony apology they might throw your way. They knew they were being rude when they sent that message and deserve to be blocked.

Dude I would take that so fast. No one in my family would ever have to work or have debt ever again 😭

I figure if I ever feel like drawing/posting Octonauts art again, I would just put it behind a paywall on my Ko-fi. Which ngl I've thought about doing a lot recently with the new movie that came out.

But also- I would have no way of filtering out people for that private blog because how am I supposed to know who will and wont steal my artwork just by looking at their account? And when it did get stolen, I would have no way of knowing which follower did it-

I believe I've mentioned it before, but I didn't want to watch Rescue bots because its attached to Transformers: Prime <:/

Its supposed to be connected to Prime, but its rather baby-ified. The tone is much more light hearted, the plot of Rescue bots completely rewrites/contradicts the plot of Prime, Optimus comes back to life for no reason. Stuff like that.

Atm I'm only interested in Prime 😔

@kitkat1003

OUGUHHH SO REALLLLL 😭😭😭😭

REALLL I've only ever found ship fics😔😔😔 I'd love to see an aftermath fic with no romance involved.

@virtualworldfp5

That's a really cool idea! :D Great artwork too! :))

@badlyblurry

Man, if I had a nickel for every time Jeffery Combs played a character with some sort of scientist background and that had some form of contact with a green chemical compound that holds harmful properties to one body in a way, I'd have 3 nickels. Which isn't a lot but its weird that it happened 3 times. XD

@anonymous-red-shades

I'd definitely want to be something that can fly :00 But I don't think I'd wanna fly super fast because i wanna enjoy the scenery.. hmmm.. maybe a helicopter or a classic pontoon plane? :000

As for abilities... uhhhhhhh the only special abilities I know that transformers can have is the warping thing that Skywarp does. I don't know of any other powers <:0 Maybe an ability to change into more than one alt mode..? So I could be a submarine and go underwater? Or maybe the ability to breathe underwater or something? :00

(Referencing this post)

They're so unhinged I swear 😔

@chickenmilk120 (Referencing this post)

NOT YOU TOO-

@cherrycreamfairy

I couldn't find any websites that didn't make my anti virus tweak out <XD So the only villain I like from memory is Captain Gantu from Lilo and Stitch.

I still like it yeah :0 but I'm not really engaging in any Mandalorian media atm-

@minnesotamedic186

Okay the killing part aside a Plymouth Fury is an excellent choice of car ngl. Especially a fiery red 💅💅💅

@axolotlcookie0

The fact that it looks like Thomas's face has been bagged makes it even funnier XDDD

@wolfie-777

XD I actually think of that a lot yeah. I always tell myself "oooo I should draw that later" but I never do XD💀

@beryl-shade

Bibi would probably use it as intended. Sharpening and cleaning his claws💅💅

Meanwhile Cici would use it as a weapon to beat up Jangles and Gerald with XDD

What was his real name supposed to be in that continuity then? XD

@milk-powrit

References. Looooots and looooot of references.

Typically I use references of realistic skeletons. But if there's a part of the body that I just cant seem to draw right, then I look up drawings of skeletons to see how other artists drew that part. 👍

@beryl-shade

Oh no doubt they'll have an episode that takes place around the lake and the fair grounds(?) The theme park next to the main tent-

The fact that Caine mentioned their existence at all implies that an episode is going to take place there. At least for me-

[sporeclan]

Hellooooo! I’m working on a clangen blog of my own, so I’m going around asking my favorite clangen blogs some questions. I’m happy to get answers to whichever you feel like answering (or none at all if you don’t feel like it!)

What program and file size do you use?

If you use a font, what font is it?

How far ahead do you recommend playing?

Do you have any advice for layouts?

Do you have any tips for lighting/drawing fur?

Do you have any tips for making cats look more unique?

If you do backgrounds, do you have any advice for creating them?

If you use them, where do you recommend finding reference images?

Hi!! :D

1) I use Clip Studio Paint! Unfortunately not a free program, but I'm very very fond of it. Definitely recommend it to anyone who has the money! My file size is about 1680px wide, I believe? With varying heights. I definitely wouldn't recommend doing it that way, but it's what works for me so :')

2) I made the font myself, actually! Highly recommend doing that tbh, it's a happy medium between getting something handwritten looking without having to spend a thousand years writing haha :D There are probably a hundred websites out there that let you make you own font, but I used Calligraphr

3) It depends! For me playing to about 12-15 moons ahead with a minimum of 6 moons works really well with my style and workflow. Makes me able to cobble together these small interpersonal plotlines while also letting me occasionally play and get new drama to get invested in these characters all over again about. But if I were going for something with a major overarching plot, I would probably go a lot further ahead, if not straight up take the playthrough as far as I'd want it/until a game over just to not risk rng screwing with my plans

4) I would suggest looking up comic panelling tips in general for a better explaination than what I can offer, but I'll try to explain my basic process :'D I mostly go by heart, but I do like to sometimes follow this rule of thumb I like to call the 'Z'

When we read text, we learn to go from left to right, then back to left at a slight diagonal to get to the next line. By following that simple shape when placing characters and especially text, it makes it flow much more naturally to us. And when your pages flow well, you get to break that flow when you want a scene to feel more tense! I tried doing that with the last two panels of the page above and I really liked how that came out :D

Another couple of tips is 1) try not to make the panels too uniform 2) if you want to use two panels for one scene, slanting the side of a panel can make it feel like they flow into each other better, like matching two puzzle pieces if that makes sense 3) small overlapping panels are great for reaction shots and so fun to do!

And lastly, don't be afraid to break the panel border!

It can add a lot of momentum and impact if used right! Plus it's so fun to do <3

5) No sorry, I don't do lighting/shading in my comics at all :'D

6) I have a couple posts here and here describing my own process a bit! But otherwise I'd like to refer to whisper-cats' response to this same prompt, it's pretty in depth and I think they give some really solid advice here!

7) Not particularly, just find a style that works for you the best. I don't do a lot of backgrounding, but when I do, it's in this lineless limited palette style because that's just my favourite kind of background to make

I do highly recommend trying to limit how much time you spend on a background. Don't burn yourself out on one panel because then you'll never wanna finish the whole page!

And for 8), I dont use references so sadly I can't give you any good recommendations there either :')

I hope any of this made sense, lol! Good luck with your blog!

[crystalreydraws]

Hello hi I just found out you're the artist of my favorite pic of Jamil from all time 🥹 I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEE SO MUUUUCH his bday art from 2020!! It's my favorite one from every art and he looks so pretty and hot and cool and like he's in a music clip and about to drop a fire verse!! I LOVE your painting style so much, as a baby artist, would you one day show us how you color? I'm sure you put so much blood, sweat and tears into your hard work and it would great to get a little bit of that wisdom. Please keep drawing, keep doing what you love because it makes the world a better place to live!

Sketched my sleepy and tired oc to do a very quick demonstration but it covers how I color when i render things:

Start with rough greyscale first, it's a good start to roughly decide light direction and value of your overall work. Especially if you have no idea on your shading.

Next, apply base color to greyscale. I'll use gradient map if I want to keep the details of my greyscale. But if not, I'll just start with a flat base color, and try whatever I can to apply color.

Rendering phase. Add layers and just paint on top to refine it. Merge all layers if it's too messy. Then add layers again. My rendering really depends on how much time taken because it's just a loop of paint over and refining. Thats why i do more simple fanart cuz I sometimes get bored of rendering Also at this stage when doing lineless style, I merge lineart with layers and cover up the lines.

Final touch. Merge all layers and use [filter gallery > paint daubs (brush size 1, sharpness 2)]. It will sharpen your work and look detailed. Or add some very fine noise texture, it will look detailed too.

Another very rough demonstration on how i apply color mood. This will be after step 2. And same will be more refining and even paint over to ensure the colors look ok.

Other tips:

Add warm and cool colors especially on skin.

Use pinterest. Always find more than one reference for a subject if you want to draw better than yesterday. Pure ref is a nice tool to gather reference on your pc. When i draw a single hand I had a lot of ref. (pose, color temperature, lighting, photos, artwork, all diff ref)

Color theory is so important I still struggle a lot. I highly recommend beginners start from practicing Marco Bucci's ball practice. After that slowly change to adding character into movie scene and photographs, the purpose is to adapt different color moods and learn the lighting from the image. Learn more from famous movie and cinematic. They did their best to nail the colors.

Anyway,

this is a long answer about how I color. My previous job influenced me so much on coloring so there's a lot of thinking and struggle on my colors.

So, I suggest you be more experimental and try new ways, at the end what remains is what fits you.

[danstillcreates]

It's been three years since I created the Caretaker. It's no secret that she has become one of my favorite OCs. So, I'm taking this as an opportunity to say some stuff about her.

Here we go!

-I created the Caretaker because I was really sad at the time and wanted to create a comfort OC. I wanted to make something soft and huggable. While thinking about it, I had the idea for a god-like being who ran an interdimensional Bed & Breakfast (It wasn't long before I scrapped the B&B part).

-For the design process, I didn't really put much thought into it. I basically wanted something that looked huggable and wore an apron. Honestly, I kinda just stuck some cute features and soft shapes together.

I put a lot more thought into her recent redesign. I'll talk about that later.

(Fun Fact She was originally going to have the ability to stretch her arms. I guess she could still do that since she's an Outlier but it's not a major characteristic.)

-Developing the Caretaker has been fun. She's more than just a kind and comforting character. I definitely made the right choice when I decided to make her playful. She's a reality bending entity that likes to have fun with her powers. I really want to show her playful side more often.

-I've said before that the Caretaker is my most powerful OC and I'd like to keep it that way. She definitely has the potential to be absolutely terrifying but she's rather provide safety and comfort to her guests.

Of course she can get angry...and she doesn't forgive easily.

-I definitely put more thought into her redesign. My goal was to change the parts that gave me trouble when drawing her in my lineless style and to add some details that would indicate aspects of the character better.

Here's the actual list I wrote when figuring out her new design.

-Honestly, the Caretaker has been a great comfort OC. There have been times when she actually helped me calm down and feel better. I'm really glad I created her and I intend to draw more pictures of her.

I'll stop there. I just really wanted to say some stuff about the Caretaker today. She's one of my favorite OCs and she means a lot to me. :)

(If you're wondering why I formatted this post like this, it's because I wanted to put this stuff in little chucks I could easily post in a Bluesky thread.)

[ambicutiebutt]

amber ur art style makes me so happy and it's so nice to look at. ive always struggled w lineless looking styles, and i really like the way you have some accentuating lines...... im rly curious abt your process!!! is that ok to ask!!!!! how much time do you spend on sketching vs coloring?

You're so sweet!!! I do lineless because I realized a long time ago that I HATE doing lineart! Also, the act of erasing/adding to a shape to make it look right works better with my brain than erasing a line and redrawing it.

I take more time sketching than I do coloring, usually! It's always the idea process and figuring out poses, anatomy, ironing down the details of the drawing, that's all what takes the most time. Coloring is just fun for me! I don't have to think, really, I just put the colors down! It's my favorite part!

I'll use the maid day drawing I did as a quick example of my process!

First I start with a very very tiny thumbnail. I skip this sometimes, but it's often pretty useful just to get a general idea of how I want the poses to be.

This is usually very very teensy tiny. Like my canvas usually starts at 8.5" x 11" at 300dpi. But the thumbnail will be maybe one inch at most. This is to prevent me from thinking too much about details at this point. I JUST want blocky silhouettes, gesture, pose. When I'm done with that, I can blow it up to be way bigger, lower the opacity, and use it as a base for my rough sketch.

There's the rough sketch. It's not perfect, obviously, but I have the general idea of everything. It's still wonky, but that's okay, this is just the rough sketch! I can allow myself to be much looser with things here! See that break in the lines on ferdie's neck? That's cause at this stage it's easy for me to select, resize, rotate, and stuff like that. I can also do that in the next step if I want, but I do not want to do that sort of thing once I get to colors, as it will make my nice crisp lines look a tiny bit blurry- No one will notice but me, but I'LL NOTICE.

Final sketch time!!! Ironed all the details out! I know where everything is going, and now I get to move on to the fun bit of coloring!

putting a cut here since this is getting long!

When I color, each color will be flat on it's own layer, and I can put the new layer wherever it needs to be in order to overlap or underlap what colors I already put down

See! A lot of individual layers! If I'm doing two characters who aren't overlapping, I can have similar things be on the same layer, like skin! Also see how I didn't color in Daisy's hand, even though it's skin? That's cause it's going to be overlapping a lot of things, so I'll add that later. You can also see that I usually have two "hair" layers (layer 10 and 11, i don't generally name the layers). One overlapping and one underlapping the head.

I have the opacity of the final sketch turned way down and turned on multiply, so I can easily see how the shapes look. You can see that I don't care too much about parts that aren't visible. Like, I want to make sure I am filling the skin color everywhere it needs to be, and it's clean on the edges you will see (sides of face) but it doesn't need to be clean where you won't see it (under the hair)

Eventually, once I've gone through all of the colors one by one, turn off the sketch, I end up with this!

It looks nice and clean!

I am of the opinion that not everything needs lines. Like, why bother adding lineart to the outside of daisy's outfit? There is plenty of contrast there already, the lines wouldn't add anything. Same with the bottom of ferdie's dress. That doesn't need an outline in order to read well. But some things do. Like, we don't have the little bit of ruffle on Ferdie's apron. It would be nice to add detail to Daisy's shoes even if it's not super visible. There should be some lines where folds are happening in clothing. See how daisy's horns don't show up well, because the color is too close to the background? It's things like that I want to make easier to read by adding lines. And some on the hair. This will all create detail and make it read better.

And there! Now it's all done!

Hope this was helpful or interesting!

[kozachenko]

Ok the WIP I posted a little while ago is no loner a WIP yipeeeeeee I am so tired of looking at this drawing.

Artist's Notes:

THIS DRAWING IS FINALLY DONE YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Ok so this drawing was a WIP that I had had sitting around for a while, and so because I wanted to do a test run with the new face style I'm trying out, I decided to pick it back up again. Now you may notice that compared to the other version of the WIP, the shading is different, and that's because I had to change all of it to match the light source of the moon, which was.... not exactly fun (especially cuz I stayed up late at night to finish this which was tiring), but it was worth it because I am a lot happier with the shading now. Also, when I initially redid the shading on the white trim of her outfit, I ended up making them look like indiscreet white blobs that just looked... bad, so I had to fix that and I think it looks a lot better.

My favourite parts of this drawing have to be the face and the hair, though I'm not surprised about how much I like the hair since hair is my favourite thing to draw. Also the wolf, I really like how the wolf turned out, since I also love drawing animals from time to time. I also like how the background turned out.

Also, Enoko's design was a hit hard to get right, and I decided to add the white trim separating her shirt and skirt mainly because I didn't like how abruptly it changed in the original design. Also, for some reason her dress makes me think of 1800s-y southern/western clothes, which has given me the headcanon that Saki gave her these clothes when they first met. Makes me wanna draw the two of them together in very western styled clothes, I think it would be cute. I also changed up some of the colours on her original design to fit in more with the palette that I was going for with this piece. Also, I like how her tails turned out, mainly because when I was working on some of the sketch for this I tried to make them smaller, but they didn't look right so I just went "fuck it" and made them big and poofy. Also drawing her wolf ears was fun, I like drawing simplified wolf ears like that. Overall, I'd say I did a good job incorporating elements (like the bear trap hands, the tails, the gem) in a way that didn't feel like they were out of place in the piece (something I was concerned about with Enoko's design).

All in all, I wouldn't call this my best work, but I do like a lot of aspects of it. I've also noticed that I'm kinda getting a bit frustrated with certain parts of my style like the lighting (mainly the lighting), so I think I wanna try and branch back into that more painterly style that I started out with when I first started posting here while still mixing in some elements of my lineless style. Also, I need to get better with my colour values, mainly just for clarity since I kinda think that's where this drawing falls flat a little.

[swiftadrift]

Collected the images of Sasha Waybright I'd drawn over the years and you can see the stages of my human art development in them... wow

I start rambling beneath the cut sorry

I thought I'd drawn like 3 images of fully-coloured humans and 2/3 of them would be Sasha but no.. I had 7 and 5/7 are Sasha and they're all different styles (other two were Luz + Amity, and Ibuki Mioda)

Girl who I got so obsessed with that my human artstyle is mostly based on her...

ALSO improvement?? I don't wanna post all of it but like

I did a screenshot redraw from Toadcatcher a while back so I thought I might as well try another Toadcatcher screenshot and guys??? Guys... I didn't redraw the background this time around but it still looks SUPER cool

Both were very heavily referenced from the original scenes with my twist on them so it's probably nothing at all, I'm just so fascinated with the differences!!

I tried a different style of lineless that isn't the one I normally use and I think it looks so much better for this, and her expression and the shading got much more confident and sure

And I mean it was super heavily referenced to clarify both times I remember tracing the original before going over a second time in my style

But I think I've got the hang of it now... so I might start posting human art soon alongside my cats haha!

I did this one too I'm not as happy with it but I'm still pretty happy (still referenced, I have actual drawings that aren't referenced I promise they're just sketches)

I'm working on my human art and it's showing!! I'm so elated

[skykashi]

Just wanted to chime in on what I've been seeing just now about those AI accusations to try and help put your mind and heart at ease as a fellow artist who's been accused of essentially art theft in the past because of moderate style variations(someone I considered one of my best friends accused me of tracing a piece they'd done of one of their characters because the nose on the sketch I did of him (while having their piece up to the side so I knew what he looked like) looked too similar in their opinion to the one they'd done, along with another piece I used photo reference for). Don't let that person get to you - they obviously have nothing better to do with their time than target random people with accusations they have no proof of, acting like some divine authority on what human-driven art is supposed to look like. Like, demanding proof that someone made a piece is so borderline-dystopian to me, and to claim that your motivation is like, protecting artists from being hurt then go and... accuse an artist of theft/lying for no good reason to the point where they consider leaving the fandom space you claim you're trying to keep 'safe'? Wild. Them saying it must be AI because it's 'soooo different from your usual style' is also insane to me. Styles can literally change on a day-to-day basis depending on a variety of factors. Artists try new things and end up with wildly different results sometimes. I sometimes use really thick lines while other times I push myself to go as thin as possible. Sometimes I go freehand and other times if my tablet's acting up or I just don't feel like plugging it in, I've used vector lines on a premade sketch before using just my mouse to gain ultimate control over line weight, transparency, curves and angles, etc. I've also tried out lineless, going rounder or more angular with my shape language, used 3D models as reference for anatomy in some pieces and freehanded others, etc. Also, it like... costs nothing to mind your own business, am I right? LMAO Keep up the good work and I hope you keep creating and improving even more from here. Stay safe and well and protect your creative spirit against those who would doubt you!

Ikr? I might have understood it if every single thing I post looks completely different from the other but making those claims for one piece that is meant to be different is just wild lol, like I don't know, am I supposed to submit a request first before trying to experiment with new things?

Anyway, thank you so much for all of your kind words, I was really upset yesterday and was thinking what's the point of trying anymore if that's what I will get in the end but I feel much better today thanks to all the wonderful support everyone has shown me 🥺❤️ you guys have no idea how happy and lucky I am to have such a supportive and wholesome community 😭❤️❤️

[andiv3r]

Clip Studio and ibisPaint. I used to use ibis a lot, but everything I would make started to feel stiff and lifeless, so now I use Autodesk Sketchbook and HiPaint more often.

Left, 100%. Don't know why, it just. Clicks better.

Basically, I draw cats a lot. I was a warrior cats kid.

I agree with the previous statement, if anybody or anything it's definitely Aziraphale.

99% of the art I make gets posted. The other 1% are studies that I feel I fucked up so badly they don't deserve to be associated with my name.

My years of warrior cats YouTube. You can see the style, even in my non-feline drawings.

Fucking watercolors. I love them so much but I am so shit at them.

I once started a comic about an aroace lioness named Asta. Made about 6-8 pages, probably 20 panels, and then just. Stopped.

Don't actually know what this means, sorry.

TURTLENECKS, BABEYYYY!!! Almost every Crowley drawing I make is her in a turtleneck.

Depends on what I'm drawing. If it's Good Omens, I have two playlists for that, and if not, I have dozens of playlists I could be listening to. But almost always yes.

Eyes, man. Sooo fuckin easy like nooo it's not just because I spent an entire year studying eyes and only eyes in fifth grade I sweeear-

No, not really. I admire a lot of artists but I like to think that I enjoy all art types. Except splatter paint. I do not enjoy that art type, nor do I admire any people who make it, because I don't like it, but if you do, then cool. Great. Definitely not for me.

Urgh, uhhh, not sure, really.

Anywhere. My preference is on my porch swing or laying in the grass, but I can draw while walking, riding in a car, laying in bed, sitting in the bath, wherever.

Coloring. It's my least favorite part of any drawing. I know, I get it, it's necessary, and my artworks always wind up looking much better after color is added, but I just don't enjoy it.

Yes. Water or orange fanta and sunflower seeds.

Honestly, shockingly few. A couple copic markers, a few graphite pencils, but that's mostly it. I try my best to take care of my things, and I think I do pretty well considering I have a 9-year-old brother who doesn't understand personal space or property.

I... do not like drawing inanimate objects, honestly. The only ones I don't hate at this point are probably trees and lanterns.

I'd have to say either hands or ears. Hands take me a while, but they're actually pretty fun. And ears, I just understand the general shape of really well.

Any that are lineless. How the fuck?? How? I do not understand. I could never. Lines are my safe place and home. Incredible though. Love what you've done with it, but how?

None.

I don't actually know what this means, but if you're referring to the blend modes then yes. If anything else, I have no clue.

No.

Donald Fucking Trump 💀 I was devastated and appaled.

...i could go with "same as above" because I drew Aziraphale (/Michael Sheen) and someone told me it looked like Donald Trump and I almost fucking cried. But also I drew the ineffable husbands with Azi leaning on Crowley's shoulder, and my dad told me it looked like Aziraphale was biting Crowley??? And like wtf, no?

Occasionally I'll do a couple sketches before I do a full drawing, but rarely.

None.

Dead End: Paranormal Park. Fucking love it, not my style though.

I'm... not sure. Honestly I dunno if any of my stuff is actually "underrated", I'm not really all that good, but if I had to go with something, I'd say this one. It's probably the best of my recent works.

Not gonna tag anyone, just feel free to join if you see this! :D

Weirdly Specific Artist Ask Game

Didn't see a lot of artist ask games, wanted to make a silly one.

(I wrote this while sick out of my mind last year and it's been collecting dust in my drafts, I might as well let it run free) 1. Art programs you have but don't use

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

3. What ideas come from when you were little

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it)

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

9. What are your file name conventions

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

12. Easiest part of body to draw

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

14. Any favorite motifs

15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth)

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

23. Do you use different layer modes

24. Do your references include stock images

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

[noblemalone]

I think im a pretty good artist i think I'm hot shit right so i feel like

Idk seeing artists online especially in the fanart and character illustration/OC department, seeing those newer artists who are maybe just getting in to digital art or drawing in general i feel like...

One like slooow down brother there's no need to be making stickers or doing commissions or having a patreon just yet, let's walk before we run ok? Of course you can do, people can do whatever they want with their free time but you have to understand a lot more about art, marketing online, self promotion, and social media trends to get the kind of traction you're expecting. I feel like theres this pressure for newer artists to legitimize themselves thru like, monetary means ("if ppl subscribe to my patreon, it means I'm good at art") and social media capital ("likes are nice, but they dont do much; please reblog!")

And like yeah everyone wants that but... If you're drawing solely for those reasons and are disheartened by lack of interaction or traction in the markets, what are you even doing? I been doing this a long time, 20+ years at this point. Not commissions or anything, just drawing. I been drawing a long time and I always do it for the love of the game. I do it because it keeps my mind and hands busy, it brings me joy, and i like to create. I enjoy translating the real world into lines, in stylizing, in pushing. I just like it and yk what, thats how I've had this longevity and thats how I've gotten to where i am. I have sketchbooks full of work no one has ever seen, not just studies but all kinds of work.

If your drive to to do the thing, or to improve at a craft or whatever is external, you can't keep it up. Thats nothing to say about learning to enjoy observation and the importance, even in stylized work, of learning how to look at something and how to just observe and notice the things we see. Idk so much of my growth and skill has come from an internal drive to improve for myself, because getting better is a challenge i want to overcome, and doing the less-exciting stuff like drawing a fuckin building. I've been to probably idk dozens of life drawing sessions because i wanted to grasp anatomy better. In university, i took courses where we looked at bones and skeletons so that i would by proxy have a better anatomical grasp. I learned to map my knowledge and the things I learned about applying making or working out back to drawing. Idk man i dont know how to tell you how to love something

And thats all not the point anyway cuz the point is

Two, i think some new artists don't really... They're not interested in finding a personal style? Or if they are they're not sure how to get there? They see the work that does numbers on insta and twitter and stuff and they wanna draw like that, so they do what those artists do. Admirable! But also they do it without understanding the underlying principals. This artists blocks their characters out like this, so i shall too. That artist uses lineless painterly style with heavy realistic rendering, so shall I. And idk everyone enjoys that style the idk Popular Style of anime realism or whatever its fine to look at but dont y'all ever want more??

And like idk do you enjoy the process or are you doing it that way cuz thats how your fave does it?

And idk like.... Two works can be of equal technical skill level, but the one that plays with style and understands underlying principals of lighting and colour and shape and line, the one that is bold with their vision, is always gonna be better than the one that's trying to be popular and do numbers yk?

Like if thats the style that speaks to you, go for it, but fuckin Go for it yk? Dont try and be like everybody else or the big time players cuz if you're trying to master someone else's style, you're not gonna be able to master the things that make art fun and interesting and challenging and engaging yk

And also a lot of art is about vibes and if you're not channeling the vibes its gonna look bad you gotta focus on the vibes not on being like your fave!!

And if i see one more person say "i spent so long rendering this 🥲" when its fucking cel shaded I'm gonna lose my frickin MIND I SWEAR BROTHER I'M NOT MAD I LOVE CEL SHADING BUT CHRIST ON THE CROSS USE THE RIGHT WORDS FOR THE THINGS YOU MEAN

[oflgtfol]

every time i watch a new 2d animated sw property i go out of my mind with wild scenarios about What If the live action properties were animated this way and then i am just full of despair

[comicaurora]

Hello Red! I'm happy to say you've inspired me to start drawing comics, but the biggest issue I've encountered is that it takes actually forever. I'm always really happy I did it when I'm done but it's hard to convince myself to start when I know a couple panels is gonna take me days. So I was wondering if you had any advice regarding streamlining the process for time efficiency or keeping up motivation for long projects, and, if you remember, how long a page took you when you first started vs how long it takes now?

Hoo boy. Yeah, I can help out with that. The very first page of the comic took me, if I'm recalling correctly, a full week. No other projects or pages, just this.

A lot of work went into details that are frankly impossible to see, though I am still glad I did it, both as a learning experience and because I felt like I owed it to Vash to do it some justice before I squished it in twelve pages.

Hell, if you look closely, you can even see the cavalcade of little visual errors I missed because I didn't have it in me to do a seventeenth cleanup pass after a week straight of drawing tiny houses. Getting faster meant I'd have more energy left to polish the pages and get them looking nicer.

The process of getting faster has been kind of a fits-and-starts situation. Drawing that many humanoid figures over and over again eventually means you just get better at the parts you're less sure of, so the process of lining the pages has gotten rather faster since I don't need to burn as much time getting the character poses and lines right. Currently, depending on page complexity, I can fairly consistently get 3-5 pages fully lined in one night. Backgrounds have also gotten faster, and I tend to do those in large batches, sometimes filling out entire chapters with location backgrounds and skyboxes because the scene location isn't going to change and that makes it easier to keep it consistent.

Initially my backgrounds were both more complicated and worse-looking, which is a bad combination.

I ended up deciding between chapters that painstakingly lining a bunch of background trees probably wasn't worth the effort, and worked on finding a shortcut that would work better. I ended up doing something a little more lineless, a shortcut I initially discovered because I didn't want to plug in my drawing tablet and was playing around with things I could do with just my trackpad.

It was simpler, faster, not too jarring, and it meant my clearly-lined foreground figures were more naturally visually separated from the distant background. Win-win-win.

For the style of coloring I do, I tend to shade before I add color, though this is a shortcut I didn't figure out until something like chapter 6. This process is also pretty fast, all things considered, though I've had a lot of practice doing this kind of cel shading which is why I can hammer out a lot of pages' worth of shading quite quickly.

I like working in batches of about one scene, often broken up into subgroups of 4-6 pages at a time, so I can't give a front-to-back turnaround for an individual page - but I also think this kind of assembly-line process has sped up the process overall and makes it more fun for me, because I can storyboard basically as far in advance as I want to, which in turn makes it easier for me to motivate myself to keep going, because I know there's all kinds of good stuff I'm looking forward to drawing down the line. There's some good shit I'm excited for in Chapter 21, and bursts of enthusiasm on the storyboard end of things often translate to enthusiasm on the page-finalizing end which makes it easier to slog through even the tedious bits.

As a bonus, working ahead means the story's got a better chance of making sense and having good pacing when it's read back as an archive. Another win-win.

Overall the greatest optimization tool I can recommend is just working on the project. There's no better way to identify the parts that feel unnecessarily slow and could be changed, or the parts of your art you're unsure of that need polish to get more speedy. If you're planning on publishing the comic anywhere, I recommend building up a buffer beforehand - something like the first chapter (or in my case, first three chapters) will give you a very good sense of what parts need more practice or improvement as you move forward. And it is genuinely easier to motivate yourself to continue if you have an audience giving you positive feedback and/or panicking at what you're doing to their darlings.

[doobledabbadoo]

Hi there! I hope you're having a good day today. I wanted to ask about how you developed your style in particular? Or how you use shapes in general. I find your understanding of shape language amazing and I admire your ability to deliver so much with your designs (and over all I think you are Really good at character design)

hiya!! tysm for the kind ask, really appreciate it !!

theres this really good vid on youtube that id personally recommend you check out first, because it really helped me for my character design skills. after watching this vid, you can check out my list of additional tips that helped my character design skills for the better! you dint have to follow all of my tips if you dont want to, they just helped me in my artist journey :)

1.watch what interests you & study it!

sometimes watching shows & studying how they design characters, compose shots, use colors, etc. while watching can really help shape you as an artist! if ur a bit lost on where to start try finding model sheets of the characters from your favorite animated shows to understand the process of how your favs are designed, drawn, & finalized in the show! heres some things ive checked out for the past 3 years & helped influenced how i draw today!

something ive noticed when watching the things im interested in is the kind of art style being used: all of these examples tend to use heavy stylized shape language in their character designs, & most of them use thick black outlines to make the characters contrast from their environment (ofcourse theres a few lineless exceptions like fakin it, mr messy, & fosters for a few examples)

watching what interests you and analyzing the art style & character design can really help improve your character design skills!! it also helps to break down simple shapes in a character’s design to understand how theyre constructed & what makes them appealing.

2. warm up drawing!

another thing that helps is to draw warm ups! these are vital for the process of your finalized designs usually, as they help layout the structure, the pose, the direction for the line of action, etc.! speaking of which, a good helpful resource to start would be lineofaction.com! it has a lot of helpful resources for artists of all skill levels & help optimize your understanding of anatomy! the link to this is posted below:

3. dont immediately go with your first draft. experiment!

instead of going for your first draft of a design, try experimenting & see what works! if you nail the design on the first draft, thats really impressive! for me, some character designs take longer to finalize than others, but the payoff is absolutely worth it! its always helpful to design & redesign a character until you have a design you’re satisfied with.

4. have fun!

ik this is a basic tip but. generally having fun with designing characters & creating them is essential. whether you’re making little mind babies called ocs or reimagining existing characters, make the process engaging and worthwhile! otherwise character design can be just as tedious as working in the coal mines & writing lengthy essays for school/college assignments.

anyways tysm for thus ask, & i wish you luck on your artist journey !!!

[madebysamael]

It's done, it's done!!! This may be one of my favorite pieces I've ever made.

[Etsy]

I was incredibly nervous about coloring this, but the colors actually turned out close to what I was hoping for - and in much less time than I expected, too! (This was somewhere between 9-10 hours, I think? I can almost guarantee that my Bottoms Up pieces took at least twice that.) I wanted the atmosphere to look a bit more unsettled than a usual beach setting, like they'd ended up there after a rough storm. Also, I tried doing light sand at first, but it just didn't look right - instead, I channeled my only experience with black sand beaches, the Punalu'u Beach on the Big Island of Hawai'i!

One of my favorite parts was painting the clouds! I'd really like to be better at painting, improving my comprehension of form and complex colors, along with less reliance on linework. (My weighted linework is what first got me attention from the GO art community, but honestly, at this point I feel rather stuck with it - like it's limiting my potential. I'd love to try going fully lineless soon, though the thought also terrifies me - I hope it would still look like "mine," whatever it is that defines my style!)

[bakapandy]

Hello hello!

I come to you with an artistic existential crisis (feel free to ignore). So, I'm still kinda new to art, and I love drawing but the thing is, there so much stuff on social media, different people that I find absolutely amazing and I'm an easily influenced person and always come back to doubting myself on the path I'm currently taking. For exemple I do lineart but there are so many incredible lineless pieces of art that I question myself about this (I tried, it didn't feel right for me but I still feel like maybe I should try harder?) And then there are those who use thick lines while I do mine thin, muted colours versus bright colours or simply black and white...

So I guess what I want to ask is: how do you differentiate the art you simply admire and the element you actually want to put in your own art? How do you know what kind of stuff you want to make? Or I guess how you figured it out since you've been doing this for a really long time.

Anyway, thank you for gracing the world with your amazing art and have a nice rest of your day!

Oh it’s a daily struggle lmao, I see art I love and I’m like THIS WHAT I WANT TO DO and when I first started out, my style varied widely bc of that. But in general, my art is always influenced by whatever I’m currently interested in haha. Since I’m back on my Naruto BS, I take heavy influence from Kishimoto’s work, but I’ve added my own flair and stylistic choices based on my own experiences and personal taste. So it really is up to you on what you want to incorporate into your artwork.

I usually just keep a couple things in mind:

1. It takes time to incorporate new elements into your art style. Of course your style is going to be different from the original work, so whatever element you want to add has to be fitted to YOUR work, as it was fitted to the inspiration’s work. It may not work the first few times, it may not work the first dozen times, it may not work at all, but it never hurts to try it out. And Hey, you may even develop something new and better suits your style, which is what often happens to me haha.

Honestly there is nothing stopping you from trying out ALL of those different elements you mentioned, I certainly have before and I’m sure all artists have at some point. That’s the point of practicing and producing art! Go wild, especially since you said you’re just starting out

2. Keep in mind what your art goals are. Are you trying to achieve an aesthetic for professional purposes? Are you trying to match a style to tell a certain story?

For me, my goal is to be as LAZY AND FAST AS POSSIBLE. I don’t have much time to spent drawing so when I do want to draw something or make a comic, I want it to be done FAST. That’s why I rarely color. I simply don’t have the time to spend 8 billion hours thinking of a color palette and lighting and rendering artwork. Otherwise I’d never produce any content or finish any of the stories I want to write.

The same goes for linework, rarely do more than 2 passes of refining lines bc that would take too much time. That’s why my line work is squiggly and sketchy at times and that has somehow turn into a stylistic detail for me along the way. Of course, with practice, I’ve developed more confidence in line placement so I don’t have to do more than a couple passes anyway.

But this is just me, I don’t draw professionally and really only draw to satisfy my own interests, so this works for me. I am fully aware my work is not professional quality nor do I intend it to be, and I’m totally ok with that.