#i strive for coherence! and yet and have no understanding of colour theory

[getoutofmytardis]

drew these many moons ago in a frenzy. figured i’d fix them up at some point. did not get round to that lol. maybe one day! in the mean time behold my beloved ghosts<3

[pencokun]

I'm probably going to need to ask you for some art tips friend, you have some amazing stuff here!!!

Thanks for liking my works! I’m glad that you consider my works amazing. I still have a long way to go, though!

Art tips, huh? Well, I think I do have some that might be helpful.

Tip #1: ALWAYS SAVE YOUR WORK. This is super important, especially if you’re making a huge piece or an assignment of any kind. I usually try to save my works at least every three minutes to ensure that my progress is saved.

Tip #2: When in doubt, trace. Now, I know that tracing is considered as a newbie’s move or something a small budding artist will do but hear me out. Tracing actually helps you to get a better grasp at how to draw certain objects or how to draw certain characters and get their basic proportions right. One of my favourite artists, @down2thebone does this as a way to get a better grasp on how to draw Miguel and it’s really effective! But always remember to not claim traced works as your own original work. Tracing as a way of practice is good but please do not sell them!

Tip #3: Practice, practice, practice! Even if it’s just a small doodle, it still counts as practice in a way. Practice on shading. Practice drawing masculine and feminine characters (very important). Practice anatomy. But always remember that practice doesn’t make perfect-but it does make excellence and expertise.

Tip #4: Learn a bit about colour theory and how to use colours effectively. You have no idea how much a little colour theory will help you. Not only can learning it helps bring your artworks to life, it also helps you tell a coherent story. This is especially useful if you’re planning on working in animation or comics or illustrations. And speaking of using colours, this also applies to choosing colours for shading. Sometimes black works but I will recommend you using other colours instead like dark red or purple or Prussian blue or even hot pink, depending on the mood of the drawing.

Tip #5: Experiment with shapes and lines. This helps with fluidity in your artwork, especially if we’re talking about characters. From shapes and lines alone one can already determine the personality of a character.

Tip #6: Take care of yourself. Don’t forget that having good health, both physical and mental health, is very important in order to make art. Get some well-needed sleep, treat yourself to some good things, don’t forget to stretch, drink water, do some wrist exercises, talk to loved ones, and take a break if necessary.

Tip #7: All-nighter? Water is your best friend. Unless you’re in need of some quick shot of caffeine without actually staying up til dawn (drink café au lait or white coffee instead of straight up black coffee), water is your best shot at staying up late.

Tip #8: Before moving on to digital art, try to at least get the fundamentals of traditional art first. Draw with pencils, colour with colour pencils, practice with aquarel paints. The more you understand them, the more you will be able to handle digital art. Besides, there is no Ctrl-Z in real life. So don’t rush to get that sweet Wacom/Huion tablet just yet. You have to get along with that 2B pencil first.

Tip #9: Don’t be afraid to show your work to the world. By posting your works, you’re basically showing the world what you can do. And as you post more and more, you also show the world that you’re growing as an artist and that is a good thing! And it’s not a bad idea to join in cons and stuff. By partaking in cons or other events that allow people to sell their work, you’re basically expanding your marketability and, who knows? Maybe one day you will end up with a pretty sweet deal.

Tip #10: Strive for excellence, not perfection. This is a life lesson I got from watching a Bollywood movie titled “3 Idiots” and it’s honestly such an important life lesson that people tend to overlook. There is no such thing as an objective concept of perfection because perfection is always a relative and subjective matter, depending on the individual. If everything in this world is perfect then it would be a pretty boring world. Striving for excellence is great because it’s a learning process. And as long as you breathe, you’ll always learn new things which will result in you being more and more excellent in what you’re doing.