#i also redesigned my oc a little.. I need to make a reference sheet for her oh my god--

[veeloopz]

Hiya. Hope you're doing well and having a nice January. Really hope this question isn't too annoying to reply to but lately I've been trying to create references for my OCs so that I can finally share my art with other people. Thing is, I'm completely struggling with creating reference sheets! When I start one, I end up just not knowing what I should add and I either get this feeling that there's not enough or that there is too much unnecessary drawings that are just there to fill space. Sure there's no real right or wrong with these but they never look appealing. I was wondering how that process of creating references is for you, what is it that you think about adding that is important in yours, especially when making one to share with other people. Things you think should be there, basically.

Thank you very much.

Very very long reply incoming, sorry!! I’d love to help you out with this <3

So what I always make sure to have for my references (especially my comic ones!) is a front/quarter view, side view, and back view!

For example:

Sabrinia here has really wild hair, and from different angles it doesn’t look the same. I made sure to include how her hair looks in the back, and I made it a little transparent to you can see what her outfit looks like behind. (Also obligatory BALD mention lol)

Now, the way I decide what and what not to add to my references is kinda on a whim. As for comic specifically, since I know how to draw these guys from muscle memory I tend to keep it simple.

But, for characters that have a more complicated design, I like to add little footnotes and images showing what I couldn’t show on my turnaround sheet. (I sometimes do this for my comic guys too!)

Another example, I just finished this yesterday actually haha! I redesigned her, and this is what I had to work with:

I sketched out her design and picked colors (I make sure to put them on the side so it’s easier to color pick and see values!)

Then after I liked what I had, I put that sketch on this reference canvas (based on IDW wonderful Sonic ones). I drew lines to matchup her main features/main guidelines, and sketched it out from there.

As I was drawing the side view I realized I needed to have two different back views since her design isn’t totally symmetrical!

I like to add silly expressions to fit the characters vibe in the top for fun! I haven’t done this with my comic ocs yet, just cause I’ve already drawn some expressions in the comic itself so I just go back and cross reference if I need to!

As for all the extra stuff at the bottom…

Looking at her turnarounds I thought the spikes on her wrist cuffs weren’t well seen so I made a quick drawing of those.

When sketching her shoes, I drew the open part with a weird shape and I wanted to include it since the gems covered them up!

Also made sure to have a good ref for her weapon somewhere too. Same with a harness for it!

Didn’t have any expressions of her mouth open, so I wanted to point out her weird teeth! And her eyes are shaped different, so I made sure to also point that out!

Overall, what helps me make references and figure out what and what not to put there is to think about what is important to the design itself. What id do is definitely be sure to have a front (or 3/4 view), side, and back view! If that’s too much just a front and back view are dandy!

For details, if there’s something in the design that sticks out, make sure to have that in the spotlight somewhere!

For fun here’s oldest (2019??) to newest references for Sabby, just to show how her ref has changed over the years!

I hope this helps!!! If you have any more questions please don’t hesitate to ask! I love to try and help and give advice when it comes to art! It’s really fun!

[sweetsummercourier]

Redesign Help for Zora OC

Hey everyone!

So, honestly, wasn't expecting my little post about Yona getting so much traction (72 notes is a lot for me haha). During that time, I was curious to see what people were doing with their Zora OCs, and I saw people like @eve-of-halloween and @lampfacedstudios making reference sheets for OCs, and I was inspired to refresh my Zora OC from 2017... but I'm a bit stumped and I need some help!

So, for starters, her base fish is a koi fish. Her mother is a koi fish, and her father is like the other Zora in the main Domain we see (I haven't decided if he'll be a dolphin like the others, but just know he's from that Domain.)

Below are two pictures of my Zora's design. I'm not sure if I want her to have koi features + koi pattern OR koi features + solid color.

Any ideas or suggestions are also super appreciated! Thank y'all for your time ^^

[shinmiyovvi]

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS (Also free reminder that you’re wonderfully amazing and I truly cherish you so much. You are one of my closest friends and are so very loved💖💖💖)

1. Are there any holidays coming up you look forward to?

2. What are your next project plans for your OCs?

3. Infodump a cool fun fact about the F/O currently on your mind

Awww, and I also cherished you too as well and never forget that we are here for you. You are also a great friend that I met here and you are also loved as well 💖💖💖💖

Anyways, let me answer each question

1. Actually no, all I'm expecting is school and a bunch of workloads to face with a lot of expectations and questions awaiting on my doorstep of what would be my course in college and my strand in senior. Although Christmas is around 5 months away and I know I never really celebrate Halloween that much but I'mma support you once you're gonna start off Halloween in a very early way possible.

2. I might be very tired and lazy, sometimes busy with enrollment, irl stuff, and grinding the whole season of Golden Kamuy but I may still continue on working with their reference sheets and information. For any future plans, maybe I would finally just went to do some work on my BOCW ocs and MW oc due to the fact that I am working on my Golden Kamuy Oc in which you will know her soon after once I get to finish coloring her ref sheet. I may also work on my self insert since I sometimes draw them once in a blue moon and would work on redesigning them. I wanna do Len and Art (Agarthan Arthur?) screentime since I have so many plans for these two. I would also try and make some oc x canon content even if it means crying over how hard Primis Nikolai's outfit can be :'>. I may also start posting more GK oc content with her being shipped with Tsurumi (cause why not?) and trying to practice how to draw each GK characters just in case if the time comes. I might also start making my Vinland Saga oc, but gotta need to work on my Viking history since I known only a little bit.

3. That one fun fact that would always be part of my heart is Tsurumi tends to play with his porcelain enamel plate while taking a bath. There is a small comic on the wiki page where he just lets the plate float on the water like a paper boat. Gotta love this unhinged yet handsome man 💖

[satellite-blossom]

New refence sheet for an old OC : Crystale, the Lock of Order !

If you like this lad or my art : don’t just like it, reblog it !

After many years of neglecting her I’ve finally made a reference sheet for my OC Crystale ! Despite her great powers and growing importance in the story I had never completed any actual art of her...

If you want to know more about her then keep reading !

Crystale is part of Léa’s story I really need a new name for it, so she exists in a large multiverse involving Sonic characters among other things.

Story bit :

Information about Crystale quickly gets into heavy spoilers territory, yet there are still some things to know.

Despite her current appearance, Crystale was born on Earth as a human named Claire. Claire already had some of the features of Crystale ; although she was platinum blonde her skin was already pale and her turquoise eyes had no pupils. Claire was renamed "Crystale" upon being transferred out of Earth by Gods, into a place outside of dimensions where she would manage them.  

Crystale has the ability to manage dimensions, her role is to make sure the greater order is not disturbed. Rather than stopping all violence she simply keeps dimensions stable and act as the hand of the Gods in various dimensional issues.

As Crystale is still an Earthling, she has a Wish Gem, although hers has an unusual shape. This one has the alternative name of Order Emerald and its type is Abstinence or "True Patience". Whoever uses this gem to transform will turn into an Unlocked form.

Dark energies can be stored inside Crystale, and she has been used as a container for such already. She currently houses a clump of dark matter taken from a certain being, as well as the being of negative energy Nazo, and she can hear and communicate with both. If Crystale cries or gets angry she will die and release the two, hence Claire’s embracement of this Crystale persona, the diligent Lock of order, a being supposedly without a will of her and and with little emotions. Even afraid of great joys Crystale aims at a selfless, obedient and calm mindset, embracing her role of tool, a lock rather than a guardian.

Yet Nazo caught Claire slipping in, and he is now determined to make her fully resurface. At the beginning he wished to upset her to her death, but he eventually got a sense that Claire was just as trapped as he was, so he wishes to at least let her be herself again, or even to someday escape with her. In his own words he hates this Crystale persona (who he calls "Empty Happy") while loving Claire (not necessarily in a romantic sense).

The place where Crystale resides needs a new name, but I have by the past called it the "Secret Zone" or the "Secret Chaos". It is a timeless place made mostly of white spreading to the horizon, with a few hallmarks like crystal trees or a temple.

Art bit :

Some extra information about my (thought) process with this piece :

The gems are glossy, yet I didn’t want to add too much shading as this was simply a reference sheet and I suck at drawing gems. I did however detail the silver so it wouldn’t look like gray lines. It isn’t the best-looking silver, but I hope it convey this idea well.

The veils on Crystale all have glitter on them, and if you pay attention some are star-shaped. If you cannot add this detail it’s alright though.

The percentages on the colors of the palette are for the opacity. There is none on colors used for gradients though.

As I make my reference sheets on Microsoft Publisher the files may be a little big.

 A Crystale redesign has been in the works for quite a while already, yet the poor lad did not get any completed piece beforehand... She might as well be new to anyone but me. I hope you like her !

Also her gender is... Ambiguous. She’s often referred to as a girl but there’s more to it than what meets the eyes.

[nibscribs]

So uhhhh I drew a lot of RWBY this year... only two of these are non RWBY and tbh I could have just as easily put something RWBY for June Template

Retrospective under the cut bc it’s LONG 

RETROSPECTIVE January: First piece of the year! I still like this piece and I think it shows how much I improved from the original version of it. Also I just like looking at it bc it's soft content of my rare pair. I do think I made the rose look photorealistic which looks... bad esp with all the other more stylized flowers, and I got lazy with the bleeding hearts by just drawing one set and flipping them. Emerald's hair also could look better. February:  I made this around GNG week, which was a fun, good time, long before the server imploded on itself. I got really lazy with the backgrounds, obviously, but I do like the poses in this one, tho it helped that I based it off of screenshots from Young Justice. I also just really like how Merc looks in this one. March: March wasn't a very prolific month for art, I don't think I produced much besides this and one comic piece for GNG week. I'm not sure why exactly, I can't find any specific reason why I would be unproductive that month. I'm gonna just assume I was drained from work all the time and didn't have the energy to put out good art, and also I was getting into a slump bc all my art was starting to look same-y. This piece isn't very good, but I chose it because I did it without a reference, and at this point that was going out of my comfort zone. It's obviously not super dynamic, but at the very least you can tell I intended there to be motion to it. April: This also wasn't a very prolific month for art, not as bad as March, but for the same reasons. I was also really starting to feel burnout from the RWBY fandom, specifically wasps and conflict within the GNG server. This was also when the Art vs the Artist meme was popular, and I realized I didn't want to do that meme because my art was too similar and boring, which also brought me down a peg. Though I put out a few good chibis in April, I chose my Mercury redesign bc I was really proud of it. I could never get the Emerald redesign to mesh quite right, but I can say I'm really proud of how Mercury's came out. May: May had me bounce out of my art slump and in full force trying to expand my skills! Specifically exploring painting. Although May was about as prolific as April, what I did create I put a lot into. It was difficult to pick between this and my app of Edison, because I'm really proud of both, but in the end I went with this commission of Mercury because I pushed myself to try and use an interesting perspective for the piece instead of my usual stand still and face the camera pose. Because I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, this was one of the best things I made all year, and may be my favorite piece of the year. June: TIME TO STRESS OUT ABOUT CONNECTICON! So if you follow me on twitter, you might have noticed I made a lot of posts at the beginning of the year low key throwing shade at myself for drawing my oc's instead of more "important" art. Well, that important art that I was procrastinating was con merch, and con was the second week of July, so I really had to get my ass in gear to finish merch on time (spoiler, I didn't finish a lot of it on time). This piece and July's piece are both posters I made for Connecticon, and while I like July's much better, that doesn't mean I find this piece bad. I really should have known that no one at con would realize it was a goonies reference tho -_-; I also lost a lot of love for this piece after season 6 of Voltron, which I watched while I was about 60% of the way through this piece, so I had to force myself to finish it. July: I love this piece!!!! Don't get me wrong, I know it has flaws, but look at it! The lines are so crisp, the colors look good, Roman and Merc's expressions are mwuah chefs kiss, and I just love all of them!!! ... except for Neo. I really didn't do her justice in this piece, her hair is too fluffy, her head is way to oversized to the point that she looks like a bobblehead, and her eyes are too close together. Really if you take out Neo's head that whole problem goes away. I also love all the tiny details I put in this one, from emerald's chaps to roman's rose to Neo's lace parasol. You can tell I was way more passionate about this piece than I was about the Voltron piece.  August:  pretty sure this is when I quit my job cashiering, and thank god bc customers suck. If I was going off of sheer popularity, Chibi Pyrrha would have taken this slot no contest, and while I love chibi Pyrrha, I don't think it was the best of the month. I chose this little princess and the pauper au doodle because I tried a year ago to draw these two dancing, and it looked like dog shit. It was flat and ugly. But this has motion to it, and even looking at it now makes me feel warm and happy inside. It's just a good cute drawing of my otp. September: My piece for the RWBY tarot project! I have a lot of mixed emotions about this one. on the one hand, I love how mercury looks, his expression, the lighting, the visceral gore from his legs (ESPECIALLY THE VISCERAL GORE ON HIS LEGS) and the hands of the undead, all look stunning and I don't think I could be more happy with how they turned out. And then we get to the background. The caduceus isn't the worst thing ever, but it's severely lacking in quality compared to the rendering on mercury in front of it, and a lot of it is clearly pixellated from me trying to stretch and squash it just right. And the fire is a hot (no pun intended) mess. It's flat, incoherent, and doesn't lead the eye anywhere. It's a shame too because I wanted to do more with it, but I a) didn't have enough time or patience to figure out what I needed to do to fix it and b) didn't want to go outside of my comfort level, so I gave up and decided to be satisfied with what I had. October: October was another good month for art, I made a turnaround sheet for Moss, painted a full body (and slightly lewd) Rudy, and made a decent attempt at inktober. Ok, so I got like 2 days in, but I improved a lot on inking from last year! Fun fact! this piece was originally going to be fan art of Lindsay Jones, but after I did some thumbnails to figure out a pose, I thought it would suit White Diamond better, and I could also sell it as merch. I love this piece. I think I captured the sinister mood well, and conveyed the story I wanted to without any dialogue (at least the notes on Tumblr make me assume I did a decent job, lotta people really wigged out lol) I really worked hard to get the lighting right on this one, and I think it shows. My absolutely favorite thing about this piece funnily enough, is Amethyst. I think I just did a great job drawing her and I'm proud of myself ok. Stevens bubble and my trouble figuring out how to get WD's leg just right are the only things that I dislike about this piece, but I might go back and fix those. November: IM SO PROUD OF THIS COMMISSION!!!!!! I worked so god damn hard on this chef's kiss poifect,  and it really shows. I started using a new brush at this point, the Ojing series on Clip Studio Paint, which I recommend and have been using a lot since. I've also been using this shading technique since drawing this. I love how it sort of fades out but it's still really crisp. I also love all the little details that give this piece character, like her shoes and the stripes on her jacket. This piece really takes a lot of the stuff I learned over the year and combines it into one piece, and I could not be prouder of it. I have absolutely no problems with this one, though I do find the weapon a bit plain, but it's what the client described. December: AND NOW IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!!! I had been working on this piece since August, going back to it every now and then and getting frustrated. I'm really glad I came back to it and finally finished it, since I love this pair and I put a lot of effort into it back in August. However, I'm also really glad I completely overhauled a lot of it, specifically the flowers. Though I'm not 100% happy with the mums in this one, they look a thousand times better than the mums I had originally sketched back in August, and were part of the reason I had such a hard time finishing this for months. I also thought it would be nice to end the year on the same note it started; with a flower couple. I've definitely learned a lot since January, and I hope to continue growing in 2019! 2019 GOALS!

Work on backgrounds for the love of god

Draw more stuff that isn't RWBY

Perspective

Make more speed paints and post more to youtube in general

[bookwyrm214]

Where in the World is Bookwyrm214? (8/18 Progress Report)

I got through typing the first 688 words of Rhapsody in Reverie chapter 16: Caught in a Landslide today, and I wanted to let y’all know what’s going on in Book-land, since I know it's been over two weeks since my last fic update.

Rest assured, now that I’ve started the typing phase for 16 it’ll be fully typed tonight, beta-read ASAP, and hopefully posted tomorrow. If all goes according to plan, 17 won’t be too far behind, and 18 will be up on Sunday according to the original schedule.

I’m going to try and put the rest of this under a read more bc it’s pretty long, but this is what’s up with my life and my planned content moving forward!

I’ve been working through the stress of going back to long distance with the honeybee (he moved back to college last week), my job finished off for the season last Friday (I spent the afternoon sleeping the length of a shift), I was dungeon master for about half of Friday’s session (though I gave the reigns back to the honeybee pretty quick, I have the writing part down, but the execution isn’t there yet), I played for myself and a friend who couldn’t make it in my Saturday dnd session and helped my other friend through her first session, gave my best friend shit about cancelling his Sunday dnd session to prep for his not-yet-girlfriend to visit while being supportive and encouraging about meeting her, and prepping to move back to college myself at the end of the month.

I’ve been trying to get used to the new laptop’s keyboard, which is a big one for why ch16 is so late. I had to finish transferring everything to my new laptop so my little sister could use the old one for online elementary school, which was a bear to do and tool for-flipping-ever (I ended up having to get an external hard drive for my photos, since I’m really bad about deleting the blurry ones after birding trips and they wouldn’t fit on my flash drives to move them off)

I have, however, had a very productive couple weeks! It’s just mostly offline and draft work, so it’s not visible progress.

Writing-wise I’ve made great progress! I’ve got:

• 688 words typed of RiR chapter 16 (1.5 pages of the 11-page rough draft)

• Brainstorming for chapters 17 and 18 of RiR, so that when I get 16 up I can jump right into the last couple chapters.

•My Fugo-centric post-RiR work (Deep in the Dark) got a lot of attention last night and this morning, with most of the beginning outlined.

•15.5 of RiR, aka the sexy chapter (Body's Aching all the Time) is handwritten, but typing/editing is going to take awhile since I'm not quite happy with it & the honeybee doesn't want to beta-read smut, so I’m just going to be extra careful with a fine-tooth comb on that one.

•Post RiR giomis (Here Comes the Rain Again) has a rough summary of the first few chapters.

•A fairytale AU Sheila E/Trish work (A Girl in Trouble is a Temporary Thing) now has a very detailed outline & will likely be my next typed/posted work, since it’s a cut and dry one-off and wont spiral into chaos like the RiR universe has.

•My pre-canon Bruabba fic (Come Out and Play) has a chapter typed and three handwritten with a possible fifth in planning, and its follow up fic (No Light, No Light) has four chapters outlined, and for those I have a couple pages of OC stand/user planning done too. (It was supposed to be a one chapter smut and now it’s become a sprawling edgy feelings two-part fiasco, and I need to rework a lot of the timeline/planning for it I think. I retroactively decided to have it set in the RiR-verse and I need to edit it so it’s compliant)

•My fix-it post-canon everyone lives Bruabba AU (Red Wine, Mistakes, Mythology) has gotten some love by running it by the honeybee and fleshing out parts of the rough outline.

•Fugio fantasy AU which doesn’t have a working title yet is also in the mix, while it was technically the second concept I came up with for Jojo’s fanfiction it’s been shelved for no particular reason.

And that's just my writing!

When it comes to my art I have a lot of ideas and goals:

•Mermaid Bucci gang series:

--> To go with Mer-Mista and Mer-Narancia, I did Mer-Bucciarati which I may redraw the head/face of since I don’t feel like it meets my quality standards.

--> I want to finish up the Sticky Fingers jellyfish to go with mer-bucci + the Sex Pistols fish + Aerosmith (i think I concept-ed that as a shark?)

--> I want to continue that series to include Abba, Trish, Fugo, and Giorno, plus their stands!

• I want to ink and color my PHD redesign, getting it out of my planning notebook and onto actual art paper.

• I want to draw Deep Sea & Fandango, I have reference images but I want to make true concept art since I’ve gotten a lot of feedback interested in Georgia.

• I want to draw Scaramouche & Margaritaville, for similar reasons to Fandango and Deep Sea, since I’ve pulled reference art already and I want to finalize their designs/ possibly make a stand-stats sheet.

• I want to draw my original stands from DitD, one of which (K.Y.E.) I have sketches in my notebook, plus pulling reference art/making a concept sheet for my COaP/NLNL stands. (I can’t really name any of these bc spoilers, but I’m really excited for K.Y.E. and it’s user, the honeybee really loves that one!)

If you’ve stuck through reading this so far, thank you! This is a fairly comprehensive summary of my fan-works right now, so hopefully all of these see the light of day sooner rather than later! I appreciate the support I’ve received thus far, and I look forward to sharing all this stuff with y’all in the future!