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Chipped Away

I am a writer but sometimes tapping out tiny symbols on a flat page can't quite scratch that itch, scream that profanity, or exorcise the demons. On rare occasions, a sculpture invades my struggling mind and replaces my words. I saw her finished in one flash. I heard her name in the same instant. All there was left to do was to figure out how to build her and yet she told me how to do that, too.

Chipped Away. That's what I uttered under my breath after I witnessed the last vestiges of forward progress crushed under Jack boots. Chipped Away. Past tense, done and dusted, without recourse and my 80-year-old mother scoffs as the fourth generation after her loses rights she'd seen slowly gained over her entire lifetime. Chipped Away. Societal protections put in place to safeguard against the worst impulses of the impotent because, obviously, if left to their own devices, their compulsion to ensnare, enslave, and ultimately erase reality would consume their humanity and endanger ours.

I don't care what you do with your daily choices, man or woman, but make them. If you can't, if you're so broken, so hollow that you need to look outside of yourself, look anywhere else to engage your scattered mind, spew venom to lubricate your shriveled veins, and cleave to hate in order to squeeze another beat out of your frozen heart, know this: I can make my choices for myself. And that is the eternal gulf between us. Not our politics. Not our faith. Not our birth, station, color, sex, intellect, luck, or fate. It's that while I'm doing me, you're also trying to do me.

The quiet truth, and please don't tell the monsters under the bed - probably checking to see if you're doing it right - is that when I shuffled to my kitchen this morning with my bed head in a swirl and a decidedly unsexy robe, filled my cup, and stared out into the dawn, you, the monster who is so endlessly fascinated with my choices, weren't there. I chose coffee instead of tea this morning. You weren't there. I slipped out of bed without a morning romp with my partner. You weren't consulted. I pulled a family-sized frozen meal from the freezer to thaw. You never crossed my mind. I went for a walk in the woods instead of dressing for church. As far as I can tell, you aren't in either place. I've only summoned up your thin spirit here, today, such that I can tell you that the opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy, irrelevance, indifference. In short, "Was someone talking?"

However, I digress, but not really. Chipped Away is a protest piece - unapologetically so - and yet, in a very short while, she was also restorative. What started with a tiny curl of walnut as the ball of her foot, grew upward with very little help from me. That tiny tiptoe, I knew, was the foundation of her outstretched fingers at the very top, desperately reaching to grasp another escaped chip of herself as it floats away.

Parts of her are already gone, a shoulder, a leg, and some are disappearing, but still she clamors for any piece she can pull back to herself. Constructed only of a framework of wood curls and chips, the sculpture rose impossibly to nearly 16". Eager to assemble herself, I only placed the pieces, well, between the miniscule pieces and the glue, I wouldn't say "placed" as much at I stuck to everything but once in a while, got the chip or curl in the right place.

As often happens in the throes of art, the muses have something else in mind. As I was constructing this woman under siege, bits of maple, cherry, walnut, and cedar stuck in places I hadn't noticed. And they fell as leaves, feathers, and flowers, building her up again with beauty and symbols of life. Standing now at full height, she moves with every vibration but is somehow solid. My husbands says, "She's surprisingly flexible, yet strong, just like a woman."

I'm working on the finish and her pedestal now, taking all the time she wants me to take but I figure she'll be set up on the mantle or a shelf by this next weekend. Chipped Away: a sculpture I didn't know I needed to create but a message I needed to say.

Source: Chipped Away

[is-actually-an-owl]

Found some hands tutorial by me

Not in English but hope it will help???????

[is-actually-an-owl]

I’m sure a ton of people already know how to do this, but I only learned recently, so I wanted to share one of my favorite thumbnailing tricks! Color matching is SUPER helpful to quickly map out potential color schemes :D

[EDIT] this is in Adobe Photoshop, sorry for forgetting to mention that!

[is-actually-an-owl]

the hunger

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“This is your daily, friendly reminder to use commas instead of periods during the dialogue of your story,” she said with a smile.

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High Heels Row 1: Left Right Row 2 Row 3: Left, Right Row 4: (Source Unknown) Row 5 Row 6

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WebGL Water is a great water simulator, with a sphere that can interact with the water’s surface. It can be paused which means you can then use it as a reference for lighting, reflections, refractions, etc.

Painting Tutorials:

Water in Motion 

Ocean Waves

Water Bubbles

Water Surface

Stormy Sea Waves

Condensation

Water Droplets

More Various Tutorials

[is-actually-an-owl]

How do you draw noses?

I’m not sure what specific part you’re wondering about, so here’s a run-through of my process from sketching to painting!

1) The first thing I do is simplify the nose into a few basic shapes to get a prism-like block, like so:

2) I can now easily draw the prism shape in three-dimensional space depending on the angle and rotation of the head.

3) Using the guidelines/planes I can draw a proper nose in any angle! There aren’t many tricks or shortcuts for this step, unfortunately (other than practicing lots). I recommend using references, they’re always helpful :)

4) Really important to note: all noses vary greatly, especially from different ethnicities! A high-bridge “aristocratic” sort of nose or a ski-slope button nose might be accurate for some people, but definitely not everyone. Compare differences in size, width, a hooked or button nose tip, high or low nose bridge, and so on:

5) Then I paint! I have a skin tone tutorial here, if it helps. Take note of the lighting, skin tone, etc. Here are some things I keep in mind:

For pale skin tones, the nose sometimes has a redder colouration than the rest of the face because of increased blood flow.

The nose also usually has highlights (due to oil). These are located on the tip of the nose, the nostril groove, and where the base of the nose meets the flat area of skin around it!

Hope this helps! In the end, all stylistic choices are completely up to you. Art’s subjective, so feel free to draw any noses you want :)

[is-actually-an-owl]

Art By IG: @brynthegirl Instagram: @artwoonz

[is-actually-an-owl]

art tips post

for all the artists following me

draw fast. it’ll look messy for a long time but you’ll improve faster than if you spend 4 hours on every drawing

if you draw in pencil and have a habit of erasing all of your mistakes, try drawing in pen or marker. i know it’s scary but it’ll help in the long run (i’m speaking from experience)

try different methods and mediums but don’t worry about mastering any of them, just have fun

if you’re not rich, buy art supplies from the dollar store, not the art store (seriously. i go through a sketchbook about once a month and i’d rather spend $4 on one than $15)

there’s no wrong way to learn. you can copy other people’s art if you want to, just don’t post it

DO NOT worry about having a consistent style. do not. just draw however you want

if you want to make original characters then do it. don’t worry about if they’re original, or a good design, or if they have an accompanying story. make sonic ocs. do it. it’s fun and it’s not hurting anyone

try not to kill your back. stand up and stretch once in a while

make a folder and save all of your favorite arts for inspiration 

draw from life. draw your dog. draw your teachers. draw your desk. draw your own hands (seriously that’s the best way to get better at drawing hands)

in general, drawing from life or a photo is better than drawing from a diagram

draw whatever you want. draw youtubers if you like youtubers. draw undertale if you like undertale. when i was a kid i drew nothing but shadow the hedgehog and horses. everyone deserves to draw what they want without being mocked, and if people start making fun of you, block them and keep drawing

don’t expect to get any notes at first. don’t let it discourage you. if you want validation go show your art to your mom or your friends or your teacher or your grandma

take breaks, but don’t give up.

[is-actually-an-owl]

So that's how to reference with digital art. Cool. Thanks for sharing it.

It is! I always make sure to try and break the pose into shapes and work from there. I also like to use arrows to show the flow of the pose!!! I then open it next to my picture and draw the shapes scaled up in size as I draw on a 4000px x 4000px canvas usually. You can also use posemaniacs.com for referencing, if you scroll down the right side and click “model” it has hands, a torso, and a head for practicing with.

Here’s 2 examples!!!

Making someone bigger than ref’d person:

Making someone smaller than ref’d person:

HOPE THIS HELPS EVEN MORE SO!

[is-actually-an-owl]

Disney’s Comic Strip Artist’s Kit by Carson van Osten.

You might know these already, but it is such good stuff I don’t think anybody minds if I share it here again. These hand-outs were meant as a way to get beginning artists working on the Disney comics to overcome some recurring drawing problems.

I found this on Mark Kennedy’s awesome blog: Temple of the Seven Golden Camels. Hence the ‘To Mark’ dedication on the fist page which, I guess, features some pretty sound advice for any artist:

“Just keep drawing my friend… Draw like the wind!”

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com

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HEY THIS IS IMPORTANT whats your favorite place to find drawing references?

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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.

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Attention anyone who needs hairstyle references

I want to introduce all of you to this amazing place called the ukhairdressers style gallery.

It’s basically a massive database full of high-quality images of different hairstyles. I mean, look at all the options in that sidebar (and part of it’s cut off):

In total they have 976 pages of hairstyles with about 17 styles each, that’s about 16592 hairstyles to look at. 

Look at all the stuff they’ve got! Long hair:

Short hair:

Straight hair:

Curly hair:

Afro hair:

Men’s hair:

Hair on older models:

Extra-fancy hair:

Even crazy avant-garde hair:

So if you need help with designing a character or you just want to practice drawing hair, this is a fantastic resource.

[is-actually-an-owl]

art tip abt shading

fuck around with it in small amounts until ur happy, with both light and dark colors

also another, better tip, although one that definitely is optional (i just like doing it), when you have ur base color like this;

and you’re looking for a darker color that isnt just this

then usually what i do is move my color a little closer to one of the adjacent colors like so,

and use that color instead! example:

ive always thought it just makes the piece a bit more vibrant!