astrophile-arts - Tumblr blog

[astrophile-arts]

a funky test for character design

draw all your poc characters in black and white, without greytones, and check if they’re still recognizable as poc.

if they look completely fucking indistinguishable from your white characters then u should work that

[astrophile-arts]

things i did that forced me to be a better artist:

used a reference for everything

thinner line art (you think thats thin? go thinner….)

sketch, then do a cleaner sketch, THEN start finalizing

THUMBNAILS

color research, picking a set palette or light/dark for each work

you like that pose? redo it one more time

USE A DAMN REFERENCE

do not rely on stylization as an excuse for anatomy

draw the goddamn background you coward

just draw the hand- a bad hand is better than a hidden hand

the rule of thirds WORKS

take a considerable break between sketch and lines/paint

know that art takes longer as you get better at it

draw the seams on clothes

stop aiming for accuracy and focus on fluidity and motion, accuracy will come with practice of those two concepts

just…do the chiaroscuro. just DO IT. no excuses it always works

stop making excuses, make yourself an art schedule/set weekly(or daily) art goals and just DO IT.

[astrophile-arts]

[Image description: two of the same drawings of the voidfish, one traditional and one digital. The voidfish is a giant jellyfish, who's massive scale is shown by the small shadows of Taako, Magnus and Merle at the bottom, looking at it. End ID]

Guys, I don't think that was GoGurt.....

[astrophile-arts]

thank you! 

my old brushes can be found on my twitter

these are mostly just mutations from other brushes I’ve found through time.

[astrophile-arts]

Library books art hack by @danarune on Twitter

[astrophile-arts]

honestly

to learn how to draw anatomy

you must learn how to draw the butt first-

not sure why-

but thats how i did it- 

[astrophile-arts]

I'm kinda ashamed to ask this, but could you make a tutorial on how to draw hands? ;A;

omg dont be ashamed at all!! Hands are generally tough to get used to, lots of artists struggle with it! so dont be ashamed i feel you.

and I actually have made a hand anatomy guide before in fact! If you want to get better at drawing hands I def recommend you learn the basic anatomy first. Please check out the ones I made, I try to make it simple and easy to understand:

Artistic Anatomy: Hands Part 1

Artistic Anatomy: Hands Part 2

There’s my guide to the anatomy, but here’s some more tips that I’ve noted to myself that I’d like to include

First off, I’d like to just note on the fingers: if you pay close attention to your own hand, you may notice the fingers are ever ever so slightly curved inward. It’s a very subtle detail, but I noticed that, despite how slight it is, it can make a hand look more lively, and less stiff.

Second, the “M” on the palm! Your hand moves in many ways, and because it does it creates creases in your hand. The most prominent creases appear to make an M shape; this is handy to remember for what I’m going to talk about next. (It also could be a “W” I guess, or to be more specific a “ )X( “; just think of it in whatever way helps you remember!)

SO now that you see the M, draw your hand as a basic blocked shape and add your details. As you do, you can see that the M divides the palm into four basic parts!

When the hand moves, parts A, B, or C of the palm, alone or in different combos, will create the general poses that the hands do normally. These parts are the parts that move, with D being stationary, no matter what!

Here’s a chart of all the possible combos. Once you have down what part of the hand moves for a certain pose, you can change up the fingers and tweak it a bit to do what you need to make it more specific!

This is simply my method of drawing hands. God knows there are hundreds of tutorials out there by other artists, but personally, this way helps me the best (after learning the anatomy first). 

This way I can divide the hand and combine the parts in any such way I need! 

Hands take a lot of effort to grapple, and you need to practice them a lot, especially foreshortening of the hand; that’s really something you need to learn through your own studies. Look at your own hands, draw hands from life, from magazines, shows, comics; just draw hands! You’ll eventually figure out a method that works best for you. So to get better at drawing hands; draw hands!! And don’t stress over it, have fun with it!

[astrophile-arts]

art cheats

hello i am here today to not lose track of the art cheats i have discovered over the years. what i call art cheat is actually a cool filter/coloring style/way to shade/etc. that singlehandedly makes art like 20 times better

80’s anime style

glitch effect

glow effects

adding colors to grayscale paintings

foreshortening ( coil )

foreshortening ( perspective )

clipping group (lines)

clipping group (colors)

dramatic lighting ( GOOD )

shading metal

lighting faces

that is all for today, do stay tuned as i am always hunting for cool shit like this

[astrophile-arts]

If you’re an artist, then this is for you.

This year, I want you to be unapologetic when you create.

Don’t apologize for your writing, drawing, music, designs, films, sculptures, cosplays, knitting, sewing, cooking, and anything else I might’ve missed.

Don’t apologize for the quality.

Stop being afraid of what you can accomplish. You might think you can do so much better, well guess what? You will. You’re always improving. But if you start to apologize for the best you can do at this moment, then you might restrain yourself, stop yourself from taking risks that will help you.

I know this is a hard thing to stop. I do it all the time. When I submit art to people that I’m not so confident about, I’ll apologize in advance.

This year, I challenge you, and myself, to stop doing it.

[astrophile-arts]

10 useful youtube art channels

As an artist you never stop improving, there is fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you see it) no end to the learning curve, even the masters were looking at new ways to improve.

With this we always encounter hurdles and challanges giving us the need to find new techniques or simply improve upon the ones we have.

So here I present to you the most useful YouTube channels I have come across in helping me get over those hurdles;

1.Mary Doodles 

Great for fun art tips, fundamental tutorials, and generally a fun quirky character to watch.

2.CubeBrush

Marc Brunet a up and coming digital artist working for Blizzard, gives great tutorials on digital painting from start to finish. Very helpful for those trying to do digital work and general tips.

3.Annie Stoll

Annie Stoll’s channel is another great fun and informative channel. She predominantly uses watercolour and Copics but I find her channel great for helping understand colour also

4.FZD School of Design

The FZD school is the plave to be for art in the entertainment industry, specializing in Concept Art and design, 3D art, Painting. The art that this place churns out is incredible. It does come with a hefty price-tag, but luckily they also offer fantastic free tutorials and paid online courses.

5.Level Up!

Much like FZD Level Up! focuses on digital concept design for the entertainment industry. If you’re interested in films, games or even just great paintings you’ll get a lot out of this. They also have a FaceBook page which has regular competitions, critique and advice sessions and if you become a regular (or not) fun art hangouts where you can talk to the guys. Check em out :)

6.Sycra Art Videos

Sycra Yasin has created one of my favourite art tutorial channels containing tips, speed painting, interviews with other influential artists, livestreams etc. The biggest benefit of this channel is Sycra’s simple layout and well organized playlists helping us to navigate to exactly what we want.

7.Sinix Design

I came across Sinix whilst looking for tips on getting anatomy right, and found so much more! They have various art and design software advice from 3d to 2d. And naturally they offer informative tutorials on most art processes.

8.Circle Line Art School

Circle line art school is a great one for technical drawing. Before all the colour goes on and we add our own flare and styles, this is where to start.

9.The Comic Archive 

This one is great for inspiration especially when your feeling glum.

We all get to a stage where we struggle to keep at it, like we’re never gonna learn this - asking “am I just wasting my time” - “should I just give it up and go to a normal 9-5?”. We’ve all been there and probably will do again. 

Luckily this channel interviews REAL people and the people you think are a success and always had it easy, it’s nice to see them talk about their struggles and offer solutions how to get past it and tutorials to help us push on.

10.Wacom

Last but not least is Wacom themselves. They offer a few informative videos on how to use their digital software and tips on how t get the most out of it

And they’re my top channels. I hope you find them as useful or inspiring as I do!

[astrophile-arts]

How I break down anatomy and make it mechanical while still looking organic/streamline in shape. These guidelines can be stretched, squished, pulled, and widened however you see fit. They will work for any shape, from big and squishy to thin and spindly. 

You can ref from this where needed, I encourage you trace this image in your private/personal studies, just please refrain from posting the image if you trace from this!

[astrophile-arts]

if you feel like you can’t draw for shit but still Want to Practice, just draw over random shit

practice anatomy without having to work too hard

also 10x1