#and practicing mignolas style

[theartingace]

Finally, after at LEAST a month of puttering around with it, my design for the King In Yellow!

[dee-the-red-witch]

helloo i am here to request a tattoo tour if you feel so inclined (: it looks like you have some very neat ones

Okay, lemme start with left arm. Someone reblog this saying they want more if anyone wants me to continue past this.

Left hand:

The back of my thumb was my first self-tattoo- dreamwalk anchor. At the start of xovid I was stressed enough that I kept showing up in a bunch of friends dreams and also had what felt like other people's seeping in on me, so I ended up making a sigil for it. Planning on redoing/updating this in the fall, turn it from just a fixed position anchor to a drag anchor with a rope so I can start using it to steer.

Onto the back of the hand- the Void Harbinger symbol on the back is from the Ravenswood Institue stuff. Also to help keep an eye out.

Fingers- the first knuckles with the triangles are the elemental symbols. Second knuckles from pinky to index-

7: i like the number.

???: no idea was trying to do something abstract and it got away from me.

OPA symbol- because anarchy and the Outer Plantes Alliance. And of course it had to be on that finger.

Interrobang. Because, well, I mean, have you met me‽

Wrist: my three of swords tattoo done as a coverup for the claddagh/milagro tattoo that both my ex-wife and I had. Swords broken as acknowledgement of taking the trauma and betrayal, but doing so so that no one else had to be hurt by it, and keeping them from hurting anyone else.

Also my derpy derpy snake. Really need to practice snake heads more.

Mid forearm: magicians hex witch tattoos. The blue ones for the styles of magic I learned in the past. The red ones for the ones I made specifically for the Windrow Deck and other bits. The green one that still needs more touchups for Saltbrook.

The eye with the maze in the iris is an insomnia sigil.

Inner forearm: a modified sigil of sulphur for sorcery.

Also the crown of thorns from Darkest Dungeon just for that "there can be no brilliance without madness" quote.

Starting on upper arm- the skull and crown was a riff on Mignola's conqueror worm art bits.

And the blue ushabti figurine is a nod to both Edward Gorey and John Bellairs, two of my other big influences.

Heh. My (faded to hell) Warlock bond for Destiny 2, complete with the Wayfinder title achievement running through it.

And the T4T tattoo my adopted niece did on me as her first tattoo.

And finally the double circle. Getting a bodymod was a birthday tradition every year, sometimes piercings, sometimes ink. This time? I had zero plan. Just knew there needed to be a circle there, so twentyish years ago, I had one done. Which gets us over to my chest tattoos if there's another reblog asking for those.

[joldfish]

Where did you learn to draw like that? It's such a unique style!

I have a hard time placing what "my style" is, so I'm curious to hear what other people recognize in my art as distinctive.

Most of my practice probably comes from trying to imitate specific bits that I like from the art I consume, though I usually give up part of the way through on trying to guess what the artist was thinking about and just blend it with whatever shortcuts I've developed over the years. This often involves just whatever physical motions are most comfortable. My hands and wrists suck so I tend to give up on precision and cleanliness and lean into messier linework.

Some specific artists I pull from are Worthikids, Mason Lindroth, Jack Stauber, Paru Itagaki, Ryoko Kui, thecatamites, Rankin Bass, Vewn, Mike Mignola, qugre, Katsuya Terada, Dev Madan, Fumito Ueda, Yoji Shinkawa, and Mortis Ghost.

Anatomy is worth learning, but I think less about the details and more on the big picture rigid forms and the pulleys that squash and stretch to move limbs and fingers. Gesture drawing is probably the best way to get better at this (and I don't do enough of it lol oops).

I sort of think of characters like squishy puppets. I block in the joints in relation to the head/chest and try to imagine how the muscle/fat/clothes hang from their scaffolding.

I wish my art was composed of more bold forms and symbols, but elegantly simplifying complex forms is difficult and I have trouble imagining things in my head so I'll fall back on imitating realism as a crutch.

For palettes I usually lean towards complementary, triadic, and analogous hues and then mess around with the saturation and value until I like the resulting mood.

[harveydont]

Hi- I hope this doesn't seem weird to ask and you don't have to answer but how you get your art look so stylized yet so realistic :0 what refs do you use???

-- Fluffy

Thank you! I feel like I have the same answer as most people would have to this--there isn't one deliberate decision but just being picky about what art you observe and want to practice.

Idk about 'refs' but the formative inspirations for me have been

Greg Capullo

Mike Mignola

And Makani the main artist of the TF2 official comics.

As well as artists on here (apologies in advance for the ping): @wachtelspinat @gorlassar @fishhooktongue @sannam are artists I've learned a LOT from over the years and still consider them OGs as far as style and substance.

Anyway idk you just find things you like and notice how they approach shapes and figures.

[xsilversugar]

Another Speedpaint Time! This one inspired by Mike Mignola's work because Hellboy lives in my head rent free. Tried something new by adding some commentary as well. Nothing technical or fancy, just practicing. What style should I try next?

This is also a reminder that I am taking Pay What You Want/Can Afford Commissions right now. I am in dire need of any support possible. Thank you! Please reblog and do all the like and subscribe things on YT if financial aid isn't possible for you. I would be most grateful.

Fullview Piece:

Awoo~! <3

[willowwormwood]

Here's my blog post sharing all the art I did in May- This month I made my own art challenge as an excuse to draw selkies, practiced an art style study of Mike Mignola the creator of Hellboy, and made a lot of art of my characters!

[grumpy-gamedev]

During the last 3 years I've been hard at work with pixel graphics and music for aforementioned CARnage, I haven't been able to focus on much else than day-job and game-dev really (apart from family of course, I'm a father of 2 wonderful kids as well, and happily married).

What I lost during these years to a great extent is my artistic skills, it's kinda weird really, I have been pushing pixels like a madman, shouldn't my art skills level up? Well, when you aim into a style and gotten into the beat, things start to happen automatically really. You don't have to question things during the way, and you convert time into assets.

So now that CARnage is out and done I want to get back to art again. And I need to start from the bottom. So for quite some while, I will be posting shitty art and sketches. This time around I really want to journal the progress so that I can look back and see if there's any growth over time.

One important thing that I take from CARnage is that the most important skill in anything you do is consistency. As long as you keep being consistent in your creative endeavor you will gain progress, this really converts well when it comes to art.

I am going to try to squeeze sketching into most of the days, as soon as I have some free time on my hands I will have the iPad at the ready and go straight into Procreate for a healthy exploration session.

At the start I will try to loosen things up really good. I have previously gotten stuck in going straight for the details and trying to rush things to have some sort of beautiful thing that I can feel proud of. But for the last decade or so I have just burned myself out in this aspect, so now it's loose n' dirty for quite some while.

So what am I showing off today? A sheet of orcsesses, a mainstay in my drawing arsenal, ever since I saw Chris Metzens amazing orcs in the booklet of Warcraft 2 (I had the nice clunky box back in the days) it's been a constant visitor in my sketch books.

I also will try to have proper inspiration material available during the sketching sessions to keep my end goal constantly in my viewport.

What goals might this be you ask? Well it's all about game-dev in the end really! I have a dream title that I have been thinking about for a looong time. And now I don't see any reason why I shouldn't focus on it. I know that I won't be able to live off of my game-dev practice. So I will convert it to a healthy hobby instead!

The artstyle that I'm aiming for right now will be towards the amazing art of titles such as Darkest Dungeon, and of course main inspiration from Mike Mignola. I've also been reading Lone Wolf and Cub lately, and I really enjoyed the artstyle in those books. So old-school ink and graphite feel, trying to simplify form and keep a more intense shape language.

This will take some time to develop art wise, and that's why I need to keep it super loose and gritty for a while now! So expect a lot of slop in the coming months! It won't be pretty, but I hope for a quick progress towards my goals in the coming year! And here consistency will be key!

That's all for this days rant! Catch ya on the next one!

Cheerz!

/ Glenn the Grumpy Game-dev

[designresearch3fr]

Week 9

The Creative. As a designer my influences are vintage and pastoral styling, retro genre art, internet art and comic illustrations. The western comic influence is direct, the eastern comic influence is through artist models. My work is often handmade and against over industrialization, with an emphasis on personal expression, and using media to explore emotion. There's a focus on aesthetics, for the creation of pleasure in viewing. The aesthetics I create are often aspirational but unattainable, showing western beauty standards and old world aesthetics, though not values. I also need to expand my practice into design and absorb more ux ui, not for any thematic purposes, but the practicality of my career.

The Creation. My work is often illustrative, digitally or traditionally. This is thanks to my childhood love of comics and internet communities, which had me drawing from a young age.  My work is often inspired by classical paintings, in like with queer influenced pastoral movements like cottage core, contains queer themes and a focus on aesthetics. The human and nature are my most common subjects, both for their aesthetics and their different themes. I use my humans to display emotional and interpersonal themes, while nature is often displayed as valuable or existential. Either a key part of tiny moments that make like worth living or larger and scarier than the humans. The latter depiction ties into my retro genre pulp inspirations, often inspired by existential eldritch horror like HP Lovecraft.

I'm worried about the body depictions in my work though, since they fit such a narrow perspective of beauty. It's very inspired by classical western beauty standards, which can be harmful to pursue.

My design library also needs to be expanded. There are a million and one ways to be illustrative and meaningful through design in the same way I do illustrations but too often I stick to my comfort zone. I want to be a designer so I need to step outside of my comfort zone.

Creative communities. Most obviously are European, western and (indirectly) eastern comics. European comics have the most artistic Influences, artists like Moebius, Herge and Kerascoet. For their fantastical, even lined, efficient and yet technically mastered styles. Western comics have the most story influenced (excepting Mike Mignola's high contrast horror art style) with their character first interpersonal stories. Eastern comics influence my indirectly via some of my favorite online artists. Anime styles have heavily influenced Online art communities, since the internet used to be a nerdier, niche gathering place for socially unacceptable hobbies which have now gained mainstream acceptability alongside it.

Genre fiction in many forms has a heavy influence on me. The heightened reality bypasses the emotional distance between fiction and us and allows for poignant metaphor. Pulp and horror fiction are especially important to me and feature heavily in my  artistic influences. From modern societally critiquing horror, to HP Lovecraft to classic exploitation cinema. My affinity for horror also ties into alienating high concept 70s-80s fantasy.

If I could work with anyone I'd like to work with old comic legends like Mike Mignola and the two artists behind Kerascoet. These influence writer artists are the blueprints of individualistic, creative driven comics

[nosnexus]

Working from the brain right now - but I've been looking at a lot of art by Mike Mignola and the art of Darkest Dungeon. I'm looking to try and emulate those styles to make things dynamic with just ink and well-placed shadows!

I'll definitely have to try playing with the perspective and angles with my sketchbook - I do love foreshortening and pushing hard poses, so that's always a great thing to practice. Thanks for the inspo!

Quick framing exercise

[anotherscrappile]

I want to change up my art style, so I tired a bunch of other styles I like. Please tell me what looks good!

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 3/14/2023

So. The fanfic.

Man, when I started writing fanfic, I would just think up a story and write it, no plan, only write. It was fun. I think most people write fanfic this way. Anyway, I don't know if my brain broke, or if I just used up all my good material, or what, but the more fanfic I wrote, the more work it takes. I am now a regular outliner, even though I hate it. Anyway, I have reached a new level of Using Things I Learned in English class, in the sense that I think I'm going to actually make a second (third?) draft.

I hate this for me.

Anyway, the upshot is that I've got, like, 90% of the scenes written. There are still 4 that need endings (including the final one), and I think I might need a few more scenes, but I'm not sure exactly what they should be. I have some notes for what they might be. I realized while writing this that the penultimate scene/chapter of a fanfic is often the most important one, and I'm not happy with the one I have, so I gotta figure that out.

In any case, though, the problem I have at the moment is that, partially as a consequence of writing this thing one sentence at a time, is that it's not necessarily coherent. The first thing I need to do is actually read it, top to bottom. Some of the scenes need to get moved around chronologically (I knew this when I wrote them). I need to figure out if this thing has any sort of trajectory or arc to it. If I can do that, I think it will help me figure out what scenes I still need, and how to end the ones I need to end. I am mildly embarrassed, but I think I am going to start yet another doc for this, but maybe if I call it a "draft", it won't be so bad.

I feel like once I get to the other side of this process, I'll have the end in sight and I'll feel a lot better about this thing, but it's very intimidating at the moment. Among the worst writing feelings I have is "there is something wrong with this story and I don't know how to fix it" and I know I have to pass through that valley.

Weekly numbers: Current word count is 15,457 (which includes a few hundred trash words). I guess I didn't write down my exact word count last week, but that somewhere on the order of +2000-2400. I guess that also includes some that were pasted over from the original doc. It doesn't really matter, a lot of those words were hard fought, and I feel okay about the amount of effort I put in this week, especially considering I had other stuff going on. I also wrote 500 words on the spicy fanfic.

I said I was going to draw this week and I didn't do a lot, but I did do a couple of Mike Mignola skull studies. Little P said these were "some cool skulls, Mom", which was nice, since she hated my Menos ("I don't like the hands. I don't like the witch nose. I don't like them.") Anyway, a lot of improvement between sketch 1 and sketch 2 and I finally found an excuse to use my "photocopy error" brushes. Gonna try to do a few more of these, maybe even see if I can manage to do an actual drawing in this style.

Hrrrnnnngggh, did I promise you a preview this week? This would be easier if I had already read the fanfic, the thing I have been dreading.

UGH, brb.

Okay, I'm back, I found one that'll do. If you missed it last week, this story is about the time Rukia and Renji spent at the District 70 Consolidated Shinigami Recruitment Station, trying to get pre-approval to travel north and take the Shin'ou Entrance Exams. The title is either going to be Go Places or Stay with Me, Go Places, I haven't decided yet. Either way, it's after the New Pornographers song that I listened to incessantly while writing this.

They have each been given a set of practice clothing-- sturdy cotton kimonos and hakama. Even though she’s wearing the smallest set Mr. Mochida had, Rukia’s hakama are pulled up under her armpits and still drag on the ground. This is somewhat humiliating.

Renji, on the other hand, looks perfect in his, like whoever invented hakama did so with him in mind. Furthermore, he’s holding an actual wooden practice sword like he died with one in his hands. Renji has been habitually picking up sticks and swinging them around the entire time she’s known him. It is obvious to Rukia that he belongs here, that he was meant for this. His face looks like all his dreams have finally come true.

Mr. Mochida holds his own sword expertly and calmly. “Go ahead,” he says, patiently. 

Renji runs at him swinging.

Mr. Mochida blocks the blow, pushing Renji off to one side. He shakes out his sword arm. “Good. Again.”

Renji has no skill at swords, but he has a lot of enthusiasm, and he has a lot of strength. Mr. Mochida doesn’t seem to have even broken a sweat by the time Renji is panting and exhausted, but he claps her friend on the shoulder and tells him he has a lot of talent.

Don’t tell him that! Rukia wants to scream. He’ll be unbearable!

“You’re next, Miss Rukia.”

Renji comes to take her place on the sidelines as Rukia takes up her own sword. It’s puny compared to the one Renji carries, and it’s still too long for her.

“You can do it,” he tells her. “You just have to push part of yourself into the sword, make it stronger.”

She nods, as if that makes any damn sense.

Rukia tries to imitate Mr. Mochida’s stance, knees slightly bent. She contemplates the weapon in her hands. It’s not a rock or a shard of glass or even a shiv. It’s just for practice, but it’s the size and shape of a weapon and you can certainly hurt someone with it. You and me, Rukia thinks at the sword. We can do some damage, you and me.

Push part of yourself into the sword. Maybe that’s not such nonsense after all.

She charges.

[razanulhoque]

I wanted to try my hand at drawing a character I've never drawn before and have always dreaded drawing.

I've always been a big fan of Hellboy, but I could never draw him, because in my head it always looked terrible.

That character is so wholly Mike Mignola, that any time I see someone else draw him, it never feels 100% like Hellboy to me. That's probably due to Mignola's unique and super cool style that's instantly recognisable.

So here's a quick practice drawing of me trying Hellboy. Cause I guess I wanted to face my fear a bit.

[halogalopaghost]

LMAO OKAY I DIDNT SAY TITS I SAID BOOBS JKHLKFJHLGDF anyway here's the whole review

->This film, while tragically under-funded and under-promoted, was nothing short of a masterpiece and a love letter to Hellboy and its creator, Mike Mignola. Unfortunately I feel like this one will only be truly loved by comics fans like myself, and those others who know that the film was written by Mike Mignola (the creator) and Christopher Golden, who has been writing Hellboy novels going on twenty years at least. He has as much experience with and love for Hellboy as Mignola himself I daresay.

->This film is a faithful and incredibly fun adaptation of the scariest Hellboy comic to date, The Crooked Man. It's word-for-word from the comic in some places, and lines have even been improved in others. I loved the titlecards separating the acts of the film and the fun additions of things like the witch balls page that was originally in one of the comics, tucked in the back like a little bonus. Honestly, I was expecting the special effects to be sorely lacking as well, given what I had seen of the trailer and promotional material, but they work fantastically in motion. Hellboy's right hand of doom appears to be a movable prosthetic (as it should be), the horns are physically there, and the tail is along for the ride PROMINENTLY (I wonder, was it attached to the actor or the coat?). The only thing that I really question and felt too chunky was the prosthetic fingernails on the left hand, but I suppose there might have been logistic concerns about paint transfer. I can excuse it for budgetary and practical reasons and it's hardly a reason to dislike the whole film. With all the energy and palpable passion and love of a classic horror movie from the 80s, this film delivers. It meets all my criteria for a 5-star review: the original watch was a hell of a ride, it will be fun to re-watch, the effects were solid, and the humor was fun. So it's not Ron Perlman parading around in leather pants, so what? I have a secret for you all: Ron Perlman's Hellboy boobs and abs? They were prosthetic too.

but fr...the director said he set out to make a Hellboy movie in the style of a classic horror movie, and he one hundred thousand percent succeeded. Like, there is no question that's exactly what he made. It's giving,, Blair Witch tbh. In the best possible way because I didn't like Blair witch that much but kjfhghsl you know what I MEAN tumblr

Hellboy: The Crooked Man was so fucking good it was so so so so so good im foaming at the mouth

[the-commonrose]

Thought I’d try my had at attempting Mike Mignola’s art style, it was a fun practice! Thought Karl Heisenberg kinda had the vibe for it!

[kate-komics]

Okay, so I LOVE your comics SO MUCH!!!! So much so, that I wanna make a comic of my own too. I also use Procreate for a lot of art stuff, but are there any tips on comic layout and shadowing, lighting and drawing peopl? I'm having the most trouble with how the hair should look and lighting in the face.

Okay I can finally answer this one! I had to gather my MATERIALS...

First off, thank you so much for reading my comics and I’m so happy you want to make one! So , let’s get into the process!

So, I write my own scripts and figure out what each page will have and what each panel will contain. The internet’s full of good comic script examples. Some good advice I’ve gotten for figuring out your panels is thinking of it ‘cinematically’, because what are comics besides still movies, really? So when I say cinematically I just mean stuff like close ups to show a lot of dramatic emotion, long shots to establish your environment, different angles for different emotions and so on. I highly recommend finding some crash course in filmmaking. I’m sure YouTube is full of them 😂

As for layouts I don’t have too much to say. Those are really up to the artist style. Like, I usually stick to grid-ish layouts and hardly ever do any diagonal or circular panels. It’s just what I like. Some artists have pages of only crazy dramatic panels with characters bursting out of them everywhere and a bunch of slanting borders of emphasis and over lapping images that look cool.

It. Is. Up. To. The. Artist.

I really really like the way Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo lay out the Hellboy comics. Their my main story telling inspiration and I look through their comics often for inspiration on layouts. I thing I often consult is this...

It’s a bunch of examples from Jack Kirby (the king of comics) and layouts he frequently used. It’s saved my ass SO many times. Just keep reading comics and you’ll get a feel for the kind of layouts you like 😘

In the same vain I also come up with 2 or 3 thumbnail ideas for a pages layout and try to figure out which one shows the story the clearest. It’s all about telling a story clearly in the end. Once I get that figured out my process looks something like this...

Tell a clear story. That’s all the goal is. Don’t worry about the quality of your art or your style. Just tell a good story 🥰

So, I can’t give you much advice on drawing people since that is a journey every artist has to endure and it’s different for everyone. Keep practicing and get out of your comfort zone with some crazy poses and props!

BUT... I can tell you some stuff about my shading method that I wish I knew when I started going digital.

First of all, I’d like to say there are...SO many coloring techniques for digital. This is just the way I do it and it works for me.

So, I do all my shading with the magic of the ‘Multiply Mode!’ If you don’t know the coloring modes it’s a very easy one second google. So when I’m shading I use more of an unsaturated color of the environment around them and that looks something like this...

God, I use pale purple for almost everything 😂 but what’s nice about using multiply is that you don’t have to guess at colors and figure out color theory and what not. Your shading with one color that helps unify the whole piece. And you can layer a bunch of multiply layers for deeper shadows or use darker versions of your color as well. And it’s easy to edit the saturation and tone so there’s that too, as a bonus.

And it also really helps set the tone of the environment too! Like if it’s cool or warm, dark or really bright. Here’s some better examples of that...

So yeah....multiply is magic and maybe learn a little bit about color theory to help you along 👍🏻

And finally... shading the face! I’ll be honest, I don’t think I do this that well but here we go anyway. So, the dumb thing about the face is it’s just a bunch of weird recognizable lumps that we have to make sense of and there’s so many lighting angles that cast so many weird shadows and while you’re drawing it you’ll be thinking the whole time “Is this right? This looks really weird.” Lighting a face is HARD, but if you just remember the important areas of it you can make out petty well.

Of course the shading changes with where the light source is coming from, but if you just remember how the ridges of the face slope you can figure out stuff like ‘Should the shadow go on top of or underneath the cheek? The light is really dramatic here so I should make the shadow by the eyes really dark. This character has a very smooth and round face so they don’t need much shading around their cheeks and chin.’ Slowly but surely it will come.

My final advice...

Please....please use references. If you don’t understand something then look it up or look at yourself. Pinterest is a PLETHORA of amazing artistic references, there’s free use 3D models, there’s a timer on your phone camera and there’s the world around you! Reference is so key when it comes to being an artist. Use the tools around you ❤️

And I think that’s all I got. I hope this helps! Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Good luck creating!

[waspgrave]

Hello! It's okay if you don't answer this, I hope your day goes well either way but, do you happen to have any drawing tips? It's okay if you don't!

Hi! my advice is gonna be pretty generic bc i’m not sure i have the talent/skillset to share much but i hope it helps!!  

references! For some reason, using references was like, uncool for a bit online, but that’s stupid. Use them. And don’t be afraid to use them whether it’s objects, scenery, clothes, and people. I usually go to pinterest and find models or photos to work with.

figure/object/scene studies. They don’t have to be 100% anatomically correct and can genuinely just be stick figures and scribbly shapes. What matters is getting the shaping/movement down 

alongside that, master studies can also help. Find a known commercial artist that inspires you (for example i really like takahiro inoue, sana takeda, matt rhodes, leyendecker, and mike mignola for different reasons) and see if you can mimic a piece of theirs whether it’s composition or color or shading.

this works for movie or game scenes as well! Redraw a scene to suit your own style!

tracing. Almost any art teacher/concept artist/etc will tell you that tracing is a super helpful method of understanding the motions/anatomy of a subject. OBVIOUSLY do not take credit or post it. 

i just rb’d a pretty decent compilation of some nice guides and resources but i’ll offer my own too! I tend to use apps a lot of the time if i get stuck on something i’m doing mostly freehand (not many refs/from the mind) my favorites are:

magicposer

handy 

vizref

pastel

color collect

all in all, practice is what does it. Even if you don’t CONSIDER it practice, it’s going to be practice. Just drawing every day or whenever you have the free time, even if it’s idle doodles in a notebook or sticky notes, can make a world of difference (and yes, even if you don’t immediately notice it! I look at stuff i did a few months ago vs now and can see my improvements)