#because you can be really loosey goosey with your sketch and then just....not have to correct any anatomy issues

[raveartts]

She

[dandyshucks]

howdy hi hello !!

I'd really like to do some little sketches for people just for fun :] open to mutuals only because I'm worried I'd get drownded in requests otherwise LMAO

anyways! if you'd like me to do a little traditional art pencil sketch of your f/o and/or s/i, please rb this with refs (just a couple art pieces or photos that you like would work fine!) or DM me - either way is good! also lmk if you want me to post the art and @ you, or DM it to you directly!

disclaimers and extra info ⤵

the timeline for this is loosey-goosey but I generally do at least an hour of sketching every night so I should be able to get to yours within a couple days! however, because these are just for fun and because of [gestures vaguely at my life situation], I have to give a disclaimer that there is a chance I won't actually be able to get to your request. sometimes the art just doesn't want to art, but even so, I am determined to do my best to get to everyone who wants a sketch!!

also another mandatory disclaimer that i might be just absolutely hopelessly dogshit at drawing your specific blorbo or self insert, but i would love to at least give it a try LOL. as for a will/won't draw list, if you ask me to draw anthros I might run into a little difficulty, but mechas should be fine!

(if you have not seen art of mine yet and want to see what it looks like, you can take a peek at my "dandy doodlebugs" tag - I've posted many traditional pencil sketches in there :3)

[literaticat]

I'm an illustrator working on my portfolio and I plan to query agents in a few months, which is so exciting!! I've also experimented with writing and I have a couple PB manuscripts (that got decent feedback when I was doing 12x12), but I'm not as confident in my writing as I am in my illustrations. Would you pass on an illustrator you liked because they also submitted manuscripts you didn't like? Or would you say, hey, I'll represent you as an illustrator but, girl, your writing is trash! Lol.

This is normal, just so you know. Great illustrators, who have spent however long going to art school, sketching, practicing, honing their craft, etc? Most of them are not ALSO just naturally amazing picture book writers. That takes a lot of skill and practice, too!

(Picture books are, in fact, QUITE HARD to write! I would say that there are many great writers in other categories who would be hard-pressed to write a great picture book! This is not a skill most people have!)

Point being: Agents are aware that many illustrators are still building up the writing piece and are quite used to working with illustrators editorially. If we love your artwork, it's worth it to spend that extra time helping you get your writing there, too -- and while we're doing that, we can hopefully sell illustration projects for you!

SO, I think if your main goal is to be an author-illustrator, you should query agents who do BOTH illustrator-only and author-illustrator clients (like lots of agents at my agency do for example!). So not artists reps -- literary agents who do a lot of illustration projects.

(I say this because artist's reps/illustration agencies often REALLY focus on the illustrations, which is great, and maybe would help you get non-book opportunities as well -- but they often have less focus on the WRITING piece and less deep connections in book world on the editorial side. Also they charge a higher commission!)

So you've chosen your literary agents, and now you have two options -- either of which would be fine, you just decide!

a) You lead with the illustration -- just query as though you are an illustrator-only client. And SAY in your letter something like "I'm querying as an illustrator today; I'd love to illustrate [examples: quirky picture books, young graphic novels, chapter book spot art, book jackets -- whatever your things are!] -- but my ultimate hopeful goal down the line is to also create my own author-illustrator projects. I've been working on a couple of manuscripts of my own, which I'd be happy to share if you're interested, though they are definitely still works in progress". That way they know that you know that the text part is not your main thing, you aren't expecting them to DO anything about those mss right this second, it's just IF they want to see it. (Which they probably WILL -- but they wouldn't be judging you based on those, they would really just be considering you as an illustrator) OR...

b) If you have a good sketch dummy of one of the picture books -- you have worked hard on it, you are proud of it, it's gotten good feedback -- (and I don't mean loosey-goosey illegible sketches, OR finished art -- I mean tight sketches with maybe one or two pages of full color) -- go ahead and query that dummy. Just be VERY CLEAR in your query letter that you consider yourself illustrator-first -- be sure to also include all the info as though you were querying as an illustrator -- links to your beautiful online portfolio, website, etc -- and SAY in the query something like, "I began in illustration, so the writing piece is still fairly new to me; While my ultimate goal is to be an author-illustrator, I'm also very much open to illustrating other people's texts, and I'm happy to start with illustration-only as I hone my writing skills" That way they know that the dummy is sort of a "FOR EXAMPLE" of the KIND of work you do, that you are open to doing other stuff while you work on the writing piece, etc.

Either way, again, is fine. just make sure you are leaning heavily on the ILLUSTRATION!!! part, and be open/flexible/not-uptight about the writing part, and they will totally understand. GOOD LUCK! <3

[2deadkat]

forgive me if you've answered this already, but what brushes do you use? I just stumbled across your art and I am in love!!

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me for my brushes, I’d have three nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s funny that it’s happened thrice. Nevertheless that doesn’t mean I won’t be happy to answer since I noticed that my brush choices gets updated annually HAH. And I do like sharing the process…

Anyway a lot of sketches and lineart is done using a heavily modified shale brush. You can actually see the modified history from these. But loosey goosey is the final one. And I just switch between them, except for the original because the lines are smoothed out. It adds really nice Color bleeds on the linework. Looks like a charcoal brush feels like a 2B pencil.

Most of the coloring is done with the tamar brush and it’s layered like watercolors. Unless it’s something really flat and solid than I just use the “footloose” custom shale brush.

And for backgrounds I use two types of solid brushes to add more depth to the background tone and give it a more “traditional” vibe.

The Nikko rull brush has a nice texture along with anything in the “Artistic” section when I want to paint an actual scene.

Anyway I hope you get the answers you wanted! Sorry it took so long, I get busy sometimes.

[twinvenus]

HI RAYNE i came by 2 ask if u have any art tips when it comes 2 drawing super exaggerated poses? like what is a recommended practice you'd advise ...... asking for a friend lol (im the friend)

HIIII!!!! im sorry for getting to this ask so late, i’ve been thinking about ways i could respond to it but i don’t think i have the energy to add many illustrations

i think that one of the most important parts of creating nice exaggerated poses is being able to visualise and understand whatever character you’re drawing as a series of basic shapes, straight or round! in my recent HLVRAI art i use a lot of round shapes contrasting with more straight shapes which can be manipulated easily into fun poses.

i think the next part of it is to clearly visualise what kind of pose you want, and which parts of it you want to be accentuated. depending on how Exaggerated you want the pose to be, different body parts should lend to this emphasis!

i’m not going to say that i understand how to use a line of action, i just like, Put one or two fun-looking lines and try to have the character flow along it, which i think is kinda how it works??

i also find one of the most pleasing ways to make a nice exaggerated pose (at least for me) is to see how much of it i can fit into a certain Shape. such as here, i drew two red curved lines, and fit the pose to line up inside of it! i used the wider gap at higher end as an indication of depth, so it somewhat looks like he is coming towards the camera so hazardously and lethally (He’s nice though)

the first part of his body i drew is the spine, then the arm and the fist. this is because i wanted his fist to be the main focus of the doodle. since the rest of the drawing is secondary, i sketched the rest of him out afterwards, to make sure they didn’t detract from what i was going for with that Primary BodyPart.

drawing the spine first is generally the way to go, because EVERYTHING is connected to that nasty thing... it can really inform the pose of the drawing to figure out what you want the spine to do before anything else!

although i used his fist as the emphasis here, i think this can apply to any kind of pose. for example, if you want to draw someone doing a SO BIG scream, you should draw the mouth first and have the rest of the face amplify it (such as scrunched up eyebrows/eyes).

it’s probably not the best advice, but yeah!

as a little aside, i find its most fun and easy to draw dynamic poses if you get Yourself into a loosey goosey mood. so drawing some fun squiggles&wiggles on the canvas can help! it’s good to keep a loose arm while doing this because forcing yourself to be rigid makes it harder for SURE.

the more fun you have, and the less you limit yourself, the more thankful your drawing will be!

i hope this helps at all! im sorry i couldn’t do more illustrations, i’m in a little bit of an art block, and i doubt they’d be very helpful anyways.

THANK YOU FOR ASKING!!! IT’S FUN TO DESCRIBE MY ART PROCESS!