#i wanted to experiment with some rendering techniques and colors

[nothingbizzare]

I see your eyes in dreams

[myebi]

art vs artist 2024 ✨ can't believe we're here!

i've been thinking about this year a little bit these past few days, with the holidays being under special circumstances for me. the past month passed quickly but very gently, which I'm grateful for all things considered. i think it's now safe to say that after some reflecting 2024 was one of - if not the - best year of my life. I've never experienced such a whirlwind of gratifying experiences in the span of twelve months: i met so many new and nice people, had my first con experiences in amazing settings and my first job opportunities in a field i wanted an experience in for a long time, traveled the world somehow, got 10x more attached to my characters than i already was - and I'm quitting the year with just as many projects as i did when i entered it. granted, new problems came up and still persist, but with every year that passes i get one step to catching up with the anxiety and fears that hold me back, and it's that one step that each time allows me to surpass fear and welcome something new. every leap of faith partially led to the beautiful things i experienced throughout the year like a ripple effect (partially). it's gratifying and humbling in equal measure. so cool!!

art wise, i'm a lot more satisfied with the direction my art is taking than i used to be in the past two years. i came up with brush settings that shifted my line dynamic and i discovered a new rendering technique i really enjoy that allows me to balance time-efficient with textured together. i think my art has been getting a lot more expressive and while sometimes it makes me feel like I'm straying away from a more sanitized, thought through illustrative style, maybe it's worth it for the feelings to be conveyed the way i want them to. i haven't gotten to a point where i'm experimenting with my shapes, compositions and palettes in a way that shakes up my habits in a good way, but I'll get there.

I've also come to realize while making the meme that i actually have very few finalized personal works to show this year! i made most of my personal work posts on a time rush (they usually were made for specific days). I've been working on a set of drawings that required some tweaking and a few days to sketch properly, but the result is worth it, I'm so proud of them!! i wanted to get them out before the NY but it convinced me that rendering had to take its time as well, i don't always want to rush things nowadays. being on a time limit and taking all the time necessary are both good drawing exercises nonetheless.

lots of rambling, but i had lots of thoughts. I'm so grateful that some people are still in my life as we inch toward the new year. to my moulin squad, to my tol staw, to all the new friends i made this year, to my kitty, to my family. i love you like the world. and of course, to all the people who follow my work from up close or from afar, thank you so much. to know i bring a bit of inspiration, thought and color into your day has a lot more worth to me than you can imagine. thank you for manifesting your interest and your support whenever you do!! 🙏

i hope you all have safe and healthy holidays 💛 drive safely and tell your loved ones you love them. my thoughts are with Ukraine and the people of Palestine.

[e-vay]

Heyo! Do you have any tips for making comics? :)

I've been meaning to get back into the swing of it, but concentrating on such a commitment that takes so much time is tough sometimes haha.

How do you make it work? Are there things you avoid/make easier for yourself just to make the process more fun and do-able?

First of all, I’m very happy for you! I think it’s very exciting whenever we return to a craft we were once passionate about. I wish you the best of luck!

This is a big question and I don’t think there’s really one simple answer since all artists are different and have their own strengths and weaknesses.

One of the biggest issues I face is that I have a million ideas but I simply don’t have the time to do them all. I want to share all these ideas but if I gave each and every idea the same amount of attention and detail, I’d hardly get anything done. So here are some things I've learned through my own comic-making experience, but keep in mind it may not be what you're looking for. Also remember this is NOT career advice. I make comics for fun, not for a living. If you’re looking for professional advice I would suggest looking elsewhere 👍

1 - A comic doesn't have to be fully rendered to be entertaining. Although I love to draw and line and color my work, it’s not always necessary. If I feel a punchline is strong enough to stand on its own, I’ll just make it into a doodle comic. In fact, I’ve found that some of my doodle comics perform better than the fully rendered ones! The doodle comics are still very fun for me to draw and they also serve as gestural drawing practice, so in the end it doesn’t feel like I'm making a sacrifice. I'm still getting my ideas out there and I'm still drawing, I'm just prioritizing what gets more attention so I can better manage my time.

2 - Not every panel needs an illustrated background. You definitely need to show backgrounds for establishing shots and when characters are interacting with the scene. But sometimes the focus needs to be entirely on the character and/or what they’re saying. You can choose to have a solid color background and maybe add a few textures to keep it visually interesting. You're still putting in the effort to make your art pop, but you aren’t losing a ton of time by drawing dozens of backgrounds. Color is also a good way to convey mood. I do that a lot in my comics, like this bit from “My Gal”:

^ I was trying to show a progression in excitement here, so having the colors change from cool to warm does a better job portraying that than if I just had a standard, scenic forest background for all the panels.

3 - Use resources: That's what they're there for! Because I make all these comics by myself, I have had to find resources to help me get through some of the steps faster so I can focus more on the story writing and the artwork. For example, to help me save time on lettering, I use the Onomatopedia font and the Manero Panels, SFX and Bubbles brush set for Procreate. I’m still selecting the sound effects and choosing the appropriate bubbles and tails to suit the mood and scale of the text, but this has saved me a ton of time because I’m not drawing each individual element by hand over and over again. Personally, I purchased these resources but I'm sure there are plenty of free tools out there that you can use.

As far as making it more fun... Honestly, I just love comics as an art form so much that learning about all the 'rules' and techniques and 'SOP's behind comics makes it more fun for me to make them. I recommend checking out tutorials and tips (even if you think you already know it all) and you might be surprised at how much it might ignite more of your comic-making passion. For example, I've spent hours on Blambot's "How-To" page and on ComicDevices.com just to try and soak up as much as I can. They're full of fascinating reads that make me want to try out different things!

I hope this helps! Good luck with your comics!

[charbies]

linktober 31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I thought for the last day I'd write a little retrospective on what this whole thing was like and what I learned. I'm too tired to draw literally anything else I'm due for a break lol

So this was my second time ever attempting a linktober/october drawing challenge, but my first time managing to complete all the days and prompts. I feel super proud of myself and accomplished for pulling it off.

There were a number of things that were surprising and that were challenging for me that I wasn't expecting this month. If anything, I think this challenge really highlighted my flaws and mental blindspots with how I approach making art.

For one thing, I came away from this not liking everything I made. I think I only like about 9 or 10 of the 30 pieces I put out there. When I don't like my art, I tend to get stuck in this mental stalemate of refusing to finish a piece until I like it, but also refusing to retrace my steps and erase/rework what I have so far for fear of losing progress or not being able to replicate the line/angle/color/etc that I liked.

It was surprisingly hard to accept when I didn't like a piece but had to move on for the sake of time and post it anyway. But once I did it a few times, it got easier. I realized prioritizing my standards over my available energy is not gonna promote progress. If I kept sinking myself into one piece and not moving on until it was optimal, I never would have finished anything-- that was the pitfall that ultimately made me bail out 10 days in last year.

I also realized my sunk cost fallacy/"what if I erase this and can never redraw it good again" stems from some real lack of confidence in my knowledge and techniques with art. I'm self-taught, and I think I tend to believe that everything I make is a dumb happy accident, even though I have mental rules when I draw, use tons of references, and have a process lol. There are a few pieces I started over 2-3 times before I got them right, and that's starting to feel liberating instead of like failing to me now, which I never expected to come out of this experience so that's cool.

Another place I had to learn to let go of control in this was with allowing for style variation. I really wanted each and every piece to be coherent and painterly, like they all came from the same book or something. But then I couldn't decide whether I wanted to do all/no lineart, all/no detailed background, all/no heavy rendering, etc. At the end I settled on just keeping the same canvas dimensions and just prioritizing filling up the space. Glad I ended up doing this, because I really would benefit from continuing to chill out and scale back how much I default to making dramatic, high-render pieces. I gotta break out of my comfort zone and make more sketchy little guys!

Sometimes my attachment to the prompts fluctuated; some prompts I thought I would love and then just wanted to get them over with. Some prompts I thought I would hate and subsequently half-ass, then I ended up redoing them and putting more effort & time into and loved the end result!

It was funny to also see how some pieces that I loved straight up did not get a whole lot of notes or attention. Some pieces I was "meh" about did crazy numbers lol. I'm used to posting maybe 5-6 times a year on here, so I'm usually indifferent to getting notes (by which I mean, I'm super grateful for likes & reblogs and the super sweet & funny messages in y'alls tags, but I'm not butthurt when I don't get notes because whatever happens, happens). Churning out 30 pieces in 30 days made me sometimes get bewildered by what did and didn't get notes, but frankly in the end I think it helps reaffirm that I should continue putting whatever I want out there because it! is! not! graded!!!

So would I do Linktober again? Probably not, sorry! it was a lot of time & effort and took me away from fall festivities more than I would have liked. I kinda only managed to pull this off because I was transitioning between jobs this month and had a week off to just draw. But I also completely see the value in taking on a challenge like this and finishing what I started, I'm super glad I did this, I think my art improved from it. I would definitely do future drawing challenges/prompt things that are quicker or have less prompts!

My advice to prospective future linktoberers: pace yourself and be gentle; this is a great chance to do something exciting and new with your art, but above all it's about you having fun. There are no prizes at the end except for what you've learned and how you feel about it, and that's for the best!!

One thing's for sure, I am zelda'd out lmao so I'll be branching out towards some little projects I have lined up for personal art and other fandoms I'm into right now

So anyway thanks to all of you who read this or who gassed me up this whole month, I appreciate you!!!!!!!! ヾ(＾∇＾)

[larrytheflute9]

How exactly do you color your artwork? Since whenever I see it, I feel like I’m looking a painting (that’s a complement btw)

Hi! Sorry, for taking so long to respond. I’ve been swamped with work this semester. But anyways, I usually use one of two brushes to color my stuff: the opaque watercolor brush or the smooth oil paint brush. Although recently I’ve been experimenting with one called flat oil paint brush. I do all my digital work in ClipStudio and I’ve never actually downloaded anything beyond what came with the program lol. So those are just some basic brushes from the base kit. This is an example of the watercolor brushes:

And this is a good example of the oil paint brushes:

As a basic rundown of how I make my digital art: I do all my lineart with the design pencil tool and then I fill in a base layer of color underneath. Since my lineart is usually pretty sloppy I don’t really use the bucket tool at all lol. I usually just fill in color with the mapping pen tool. I don’t really use a lot of layers either. So usually on top of my base layer I add one more and that’s where I do all of my shading/rendering. I just kinda slap a whole lot of colors together and let the brush naturally blend them as I go. I don’t feel like I do anything particular fancy.

Really there are only two “tricks” I can think of that I use. Sometimes after I’ve finished all of my coloring I’ll go in and use an effect that’s just called “artistic.” This basically simplifies and exaggerates the blocks of color. It works really well with the watercolor brushes to give stuff that extra layered watercolor look. Usually, I reduce the layer opacity anywhere from 10-20% and make it an overlay on my color layer. A good example of this technique:

The only other thing I sometimes do is blow up the design pencil tool to its biggest sizes and use it to texturize my colors or lineart. This kinda makes a blotchy/pixelated look that I really like. I feel like this one shows it pretty clearly:

And that’s it really! I’m sorry if this is too long but I wanted to be thorough! I hope it makes sense! Thanks for asking and for being such a supportive follower! I really appreciate it! If you have any other questions on how I make stuff, I’d be happy to answer but this is all I can think of right now. Thanks again and take care! :)

[arlohs-corner]

Hey y’all! It’s been a while.

Sorry for the silence, it’s been a lot recently. But I’ve been doing a lot better for the most part.

I’ll be honest it’s been a while since I’ve ever posted consistently on social media, as I mostly like talking to my friends on discord, but I did want to share some of the recent things I’ve been doing!

I redid a couple of my ref sheets for my Ocs in preparation for Art fight! And not only that but I also have been experimenting with my sketching technique and I’ve started doing this really nice rendering sketch sort of style that I’ve been really enjoying that I wanted to share with y’all! That being said I hope you guys enjoy!

One of the characters I drew in the rendered sketches belongs to my good friend @saranblue PLEASE go check out their work, they’re such a talented artist, and they’ve helped me with figuring out the coloring for Lotus, Monarch, and Millie’s color pallets! Please go check them out and give them much love!!

That being said I hope you guys have a wonderful day!! :]

[eriisaam]

Real sentimental hours are happening right now, and I feel so stupid. But in a dopey way I mean.

You ever get a thought that crosses your mind that makes you feel inspired or sentimental (or both), but what caused it is something so minor? That's what I'm feeling at random right now.

So a little history about how I started art (sometimes I mentioned this in passing already, but I don't mind the walk-back). When I started art, I started off pixel art first before drawing, and I was really hopeless about learning how people did the bare basics. How did they make lines that had these tiny gradients to them? (before I learned it's literally just lineart with anti-aliasing.) How can people make those fine lines? (Before I learned the importance of brush sizes and how an art program adapts to pen pressure with a tablet.) People can just... color? Under the lines? Without having to redo the lines??? (Before I transitioned out of MSPaint into an art program that had layers.)

Besides that last one, I learned through drawing stuff rigidly with pixels, coloring in said pixels like a coloring book, and then going over to do the shadings and re-touch on the lines. Precise pixels, precise lines, and a rigid style that still left its mark on my current style even in the present.

Earlier on, every time I tried to experiment with lineless style, or just any style where you color in patches and build up on it through shades and renders and then add subtler lines on top after the fact, my results looked like absolute garbage mush. I don't mean 'woe is me' self-pity bad, but legitimately BAD bad. I got discouraged I couldn't live up to a lot of those styles, moreso as they became super popular back in the day and present, and although I COULD adapt if I wanted to do some of the techniques you usually do with that style in mind, I only can really do so in pixel art, but not drawings otherwise, cuz that fear lingered. So, my style heavily fixated on drawing lineart and rigidly following said lineart, and that's just something I had to live with.

Though occasionally, I had some what-if epiphanies in moments when I turn my lineart entirely off to go back and recolor the parts post-flat-making. Including here. Like a glimpse of what-could've-been or maybe-ifs.

Is this render super fantastic? Probably not, I dunno. But it's decent. Better than the attempts I did when I was way younger and attempted stuff like this earlier. That bit like this froggy chair part isn't the best damn thing I could paint, but it's like... it felt less scary now compared to it did way back when. Maybe paint-like lineless style isn't quite as off the table anymore. Maybe it's something to consider practicing.

Maybe not now and not for this piece, but... something to put in the back pocket. For now.

[3-aem]

I love how you capture gojo through your artwork and the way you paint! You’re my favorite gojo artist. How do you pick your color palettes and how color your art from grayscale? I’m trying to change my rendering techniques but am struggling big time. Do you have any tips? 💜💜💜

sorry this was a tough ask to answer i know its old😭

so what i can recommend is to first: have a folder of pieces you like the color palette of and study how the colors are laid out. try to tie your observations back to color theory as well.

next the best hacks i learned were the hsb and gradient tools. some ppl may consider gradients a cheat but hey if it works it works. hsb allows you to slap any color as ur best guess and then keep adjusting until it hits The Spot.

you can also use the curve tool at the very end (or during if you want, it’s your journey) to make final tweaks to contrast and saturation. Sometimes i just go wild on it to see if anything cool happens.

to go from gray scale to color you want to learn the color blending layers and what they do. But most important I recommend learning what Overlay can do for you and your loved ones.

Color blending layers are how you apply color.

When working with overlay in a grayscale to color setting you want to remember that your base is literally 100% desaturated. So the color you apply over that needs to be as saturated as possible! Try to stick to bright saturated colors for the most part and avoid dark and desaturated colors on the overlay layer unless working in shadows (dark) or highlights (desaturated).

Tbh I think practice a lot even if its a struggle. Don’t give up. And you don’t have to get there immediately. what i did in the beginning was heavily rely on gradients and color blending. As i got more comfortable with the color blending layers I started doing my rendering in an off red pinkish color. This was easier for me than direct transition to grayscale because the bit of color allowed me to color parts like skin with less struggle.

experiment!! i only talked about overlay bc in my understanding its what’s used by most grayscale artists. but literally every color blending layer has something to offer and you should take the time to find what works for you.

[demonic-lair]

Sorry for the sudden ramble, but after Ai stuff circulating around, I want to spend a few thoughts based on my personal art journey.

Forgive my broken English if some parts are messy.

The wonderful thing about creating art is the experience.

What I enjoy the most of drawing is not the final product, but the whole process in it: I love seeing a rough sketch taking place, I love experimenting with new brushes and techniques to see what fits the piece better, I love playing with colors and learn how to render certain materials. I'm fascinated at, by changing even the slightest gesture or expression, the art can change its meaning and vibe, and I love how fun it is.

I convey many emotions in those pieces, from the most dumb ones I do for fun to the most serious one that resonate with me on a deeper level.

Art helped me through very difficult parts of my life, as well as realize things about myself or people around me.

I consider myself an amateur, I still have a long way to go but I love that, I love seeing my personal art growth with the oldest sketches and can't wait to see where I'll end up with new knowledge.

And I spent years drawing, since I was a teen, and in the beginning years, I couldn't even draw a face right, but that never stopped me to try and create and narrate stories, because I knew with patience, I could only improve (and I had no need for fancy tools, all I needed was a pen and a piece of paper).

I wouldn't replace that time spent learning and evolving my current art style in any way.

[practically-an-x-man]

Pippa has given your OCs coupons for a free art class at the community art school she works at! What kind of art do your OCs make, and how well do they do?

Ooooh good question!! Thank you!

Rae: I'm not sure, honestly. It's not that she isn't creative, but she's more into the language side of things than the art side. Though she might actually enjoy a dance class of some kind, especially since body control and coordination will help her out on missions.

Robin: Maybe sewing or making clothing? I could see her making her own sundress or something, even embroidering music notes or something on it, and it would come in handy when there's a costume emergency at the theater

Madison: already practices whittling/woodcarving, but maybe she'd like to pick up a few more technical skills while she has the chance. She does well, though she annoys the instructor because some of her techniques are very much NOT the way she's supposed to have been taught.

Ophelia: Computer modeling or 3D design. She's not really a pure-artsy person, but she's good at visualization and proportions from engineering, and learning how to model things will be useful for 3D printing or other projects of hers

Jasper: Clothing art, like learning how to tailor and upcycle their own clothing. It's something they've wanted to experiment more with.

Katherine: I mean, she's dabbled in all sorts of stuff as an artist herself, so she'll probably just pick whatever medium she hasn't tried out before and see how she likes it.

Kestrel: Takes a classic drawing class, just pencil and paper. They like sketching, and it'll be better for rendering out new magical creatures for their field notes

Quinn: Graffiti - she's already worked with it before, but it'll be nice to have a blank stretch of wall and a variety of colors to work with

Eris: Look, nobody wants to be in a class with Eris, nobody wants to teach a class with Eris, and Eris doesn't want to be in a class with anybody else. If Pippa gives the coupon to Rick then maybe he can persuade them into a swing dancing class with him, but Eris alone would probably end up cashing it in for a metalworking class, realizing they're making sculptures instead of weapons, making a weapon anyway, and getting kicked out with an armed escort.

Nikoletta: Tattoo design - she's been wanting to channel her shadow-touch into something more positive, but she's got to develop the art style before she can start applying it.

[jenjennhi]

Hiii can u pls do a face tut pls I’m begging you

heya! sorry this took some time, i just moved and it's been really hectic @@

and thank you for the question! i'll use stuff for bela and shadowheart as an example for ya for the two styles i usually do

warning, i am not a teacher and i'm still experimenting and learning so uhh some of this might be scuffed but is how i do it :>

also noting that i use csp or photoshop depending on my mood and what brushes i want to use but the same technique works for either and i use 2 brushes for the main bits and additional brushes if i want to add texture

--

1 - so after i have the sketch roughed, i usually put it on a multiply layer and add a background layer under it (i leave it white or almost white if i'm just doing a doodle or sketch) and i start to figure out the lighting and shading under the outline layer

the lighting is usually pretty rough and i'll start to understand what i'm going for as it starts to shape up but i try not to reduce the brush size too much so i don't get too muddled

(at this point i'm going thru my mantra of "trust the process" and breathing into a paper bag and kicking and screaming about how i want to quit)

--

2 - once i have the lighting somewhat how i want it, i start tweaking the color and i do it by using adjustment layers and manually painting. this part is kinda like cooking and tasting as you go, if i feel i want the image to feel colder/warmer i'll adjust accordingly but i will tell you how i did it for both examples below:

for bela, i actually painting above the shading/lighting layer and used "soft light" and "hard light" blending modes for the hair and skin to fit more with how i wanted it to look. i used color balance and curves for the background to get it to more of a purple/blue and darker

for shadowheart, i actually put the color below the shading/lighting layer and left the color as is and swapped the blending mode for the shading/lighting layer to "multiply" and then did adjustments using curves and gradient maps using "hard light" and "soft light" too and i think i had a "color burn" just for fun

this is my fav part of the process bc i just experiment and mess around with different layers. i usually have a vision for how i want the color and lighting to look but there's always room for new ideas! so i just mess around for a while here till i'm happy!

--

3 - rendering time! um i don't really have much advice here except i just start going in and rendering in closer detail. and remember references are your friend!!!

bela render progression:

shadowheart render progression:

i sometimes end up changing the drawing quite a bit during rendering but that's okay bc as you go into detail, you will notice discrepancies from the pre-render stages

for the style i used with shadowheart i just paint over the outline pretty much with some bits of it left it and i blend more to smooth it out more. for the style i used with bela, i add back in any outlines i painted over that i wanted to keep

--

and at the end of the day it's your art and how you express it is what's always gonna be the best so trust your gut (and references) but also it's okay to take creative liberties and go with the "cool rule" :3

and keep practicing!!!! i def feel i've gotten better with drawing faces compared to a year ago

i hope this helps and if it didn't ":3 i hope you had fun reading

[dgdraws]

My art year in review!

I learned so much this year and made a ton of cool stuff! These are my favorites from each month, but it was so hard to choose. A lot of stuff didn't even get posted--I'll be sure to at least post the ones that made it to this list!

It's amazing to see how much I've changed and learned over this year, and to see the things that are emerging as part of "my style."

Here's to another year of delight, creation, connection and fun!

Some monthly reflections beneath the cut, but here's the highlights:

I participated in 3 art challenges, Artfight, OC-tober and Huevember.

I made fanart for the first time!

I created a piece I conceived of before I started drawing

Made some big breakthroughs in techniques and skills in April, July and November

January: My first branch into full character design, Rodd is the culmination of training on Hero Forge renders to make dnd portraits! I was doing this cool thing with neon rim lighting, I should bring that back!

February: I saw a piece on here with this amazing glowing effect, so I color picked it and experimented to figure out what relationship between the colors was making it do that! The answer was saturation. This rose is meant to be glowing from within, and I think I did a good job for my knowledge level at the time! As Chuck Tingle would tell us, it's beautiful because only I could have made it in that moment on the timeline.

March: I spent a million years on every detail of this one, it has at least 5 clipping overlay/saturation layers for lighting, multiple line work groups and I want to rework that background but! I never felt more accomplished than I did when I finished this one. I learned a lot, especially about things I could skip or simplify. And the symbolism really pops off ngl

April: I read Gideon the Ninth for the first time this month and I immediately needed to draw Jeannemary Chatur, Cavalier of the Fourth House, the worst teen to do it. She's the first fanart I ever made and posted! I also discovered a new pen tool with this one, which CHANGED THE GAME.

May: This one is an idea I had written down before I ever picked up the tablet and stylus. I thought I might commission someone to make it, the image of it came to me so clearly during our VTM session I just had to make it real somehow. Well I did it! This is one I will come back to redraw in like 5 years bc I love the concept so much. Also rife with symbolism and inside nods to the Low Kings.

June: I made a bunch of ref sheets in the run-up to Artfight in July. Caleb hadn't even been in my plans to upload, but I had time and inspiration! I will be uploading this and a few more of him <3

July: This is one of my faves from Artfight! This character is Blueberry, by way of OrchidEatsBread on artfight. I have still never played... rainworld? But I love me a slug cat. In July I drew a TON of people, it really drilled anatomy basics into me and how to get clothes looking like actual clothes a bit more. Also solidified some things I would consider "my style" at the moment, like no irises, and my approach to noses and mouths and fingers!

August: Another fanart for the Locked Tomb series, I never posted this!!! Will be rectifying that soon.

September: I got really into javascript and css this month, and I made this to be a landing page image on my neocities website XD I'll get back around to that eventually...

October: At the last minute, I discovered OC-tober and the prompts from @/bweirdart, a worthy follow up to the rush of Artfight two months previous. I developed so much stuff for the Low Kings, including this drawing/character, Amayah/Girl-Z, who has been a figment of my pintrest board for 2+ years.

Huevember: Chasing that OC-tober high, I found Huevember! I did not expect to actually do every day, but it proved to be an amazing exercise! I learned so, so much about color, discovered amazing new brushes and techniques and found I really enjoy working in those one day capsules! I loved a lot of the stuff that came out of this month, including my highest note post ever!!!, but this one is still my phone background and I'm maybe developing an OC world around it. We'll see what happens in 2024.

December: I got hit HARD with the writing bug this month, so this was my only choice for this month but I WOULDA CHOSEN IT ANYWAY. I unlocked something here that I'm really excited to visit again, in fact I'm working on a companion piece rn! This is also fanart btw, prepare for me to get even weirder about this guy in the coming months.

If you've read this far, thank you so much! I have so much fun writing these little reflections and making my posts on here.

xoxo, wren

[scasuallypursuits]

#12: Done with all commissions.

I'm finally done with all. I'll discuss the process during it (As far as I can remember at least) and what I'll be doing next this week.

Look I even made a small gif at the end. It looks incredibly cute and the commissioner loved it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The commission started after I made his santa gift. He asked if I was taking commission and I said yes, I was. It was my first time doing commission and, thank to gods, was so incredibly patient and understanding for me. Asking what kind of commissions I was most comfortable taking. Didn't even knew what kind of commission he wanted, he just wanted a one.

My commission process started with sending 4 simple thumbnails to the client with their idea and 50% of the agreed price for insurance. I suggested, "why not about them showing affection to each other in their own way."

Based on that description, I made these thumbnails.

The idea I had going to this was something quite casual. They both like each other but the other doesn't know it so I imagined that they like hanging out a lot, no matter the activities as long the other one one there. But no touching since they don't want the other person to think that they are annoying. A, C, D explores the idea of them just hanging out, just with A being more about showing them off to the viewer. I wanted a bit more variation so I made B where they are more comfortable in showing they're affections with each other.

The client loved them.

They like it so much that they decided to commission me for both A and D.

Which I eventually translated to sketch ,line and finally color.

Each step of the way I showed these stages for approval if the current design looks okay. At this point I ask for the remaining 50% percent before I start rendering. They paid I got to work to make these.

During the rendering phase, I experimented a bit.

Doing color streaks. I like it a lot as it gives a lot of color punch to the picture. I came to it thinking, as long you can tell what is the supposed color is, you can add random streaks of color as stylization. The colors used are other colors in the pic as well so that it can feel more "together". And in the end, it looks amazing.

Made a quick background so it isn't so boring. Look at the difference below on with and with BG here. And during this, also tested the workflow of just doing 2 layers of line and color only. It feels better and I think Imma experiment this more in the future.

I even made the short gif you see at the top as gratitude for being patient me. The whole commission took me like 2 months to complete. Mostly due to work taking most of my time but I was able to power through and it's over now so I can now actually focus more on art now.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What's next?

Probably finish that zelink wip that I did. some stuff already. Even applying some stuff I experimented during the commission like drawing a sketch first, make new layer for all the color first then the clean lines in another laye. So mainly 3 layers during the work. It actually allows me to work faster and it matched my tempo.

Here ye wip of it. With this new technique, perhaps I could get this wip done next week. Or atleast this frame ready.

[pine-niidles]

Looking Back on 2023

Heyyy folks! Long time no news from me huh. 

I'm struggling to think of what to even say about my silence. I've not been doing so bad I'd call myself depressed, but I'm doing a tad worse than just a slump. It's been a rough 6 months, not because of one big thing. Instead, a bunch of medium-sized reasons all piled up on top of each other to leave me extremely drained. I've mostly been working on the two commissions I still had in my queue (thank you to my commissioners for being so patient with me, I'm so sorry to make you wait so long <3). I've done a little personal art other than that but didn't have the leftover focus to keep up with sharing it on social media or writing up any updates about my situation. I've pretty much only been active sharing things in my art discord. I'd like to say I've been doing better in the last month or so, but I hesitate to make any promises at this point! We'll just have to see how things go :)

Artfight

So you were promised a more in depth artfight review but I think I missed the right timeframe for that... instead have this look at 3 years of unfinished artfight thumbnails from my new year's wip clean-out!

Year of Art Summary

All things considered I made a lot of art this year, and I'm really happy with how most of it turned out ☺ I did a bunch of experimenting with more playful techniques and color schemes and I think they suit my style a lot. I want to try and much those limits even more next year to see what kind of fun art I can create! Something with colors specifically really clicked in my brain after that witch drawing I did in April, before then I would spend a long time figuring out the perfect color scheme and doing a bunch of adjustments but ever since that drawing things have really been coming together super quick? I'm not sure what changed but no complaints from me. 

Life Drawing Summary 

I rarely post my life drawing but I've been keeping at it! Actually, I put together a few pdfs showcasing all my life drawing going back to 2022, you can download them for free in my itch or ko-fi shops! :>

I also put together a yearly art improvement comparison going back to 2015 that I was planning to put here. However, seeing how long this is already getting... I'll make a separate post for it.

Commissions

I've been gearing up to open commissions again after that unintended hiatus. I don't want to open slots until I'm sure I'm back to being able to finish them in a reasonable timeframe, so I've been using that leftover energy I do have to think about revamping some things and new styles to offer. Back in November I ran a survey on what people want to see from me (it's still open if you'd like to fill it out and help me get more stats!) 

here's a preview of what's to come based on that & my whims:

- stamp commissions were super well received so they'll be added to my main repertoire

- A combo of me reading too much dun meshi and wanting to offer some kind of comicky commissions led to this idea of comic pages of characters eating together, I have a couple examples in progress, when they're done I'll add this style to my main offerings!

- I'm still not 100% set on sketchpages but I like the idea of them so if this test goes well I'll add them as an option

Onward to 2024! 

I already completed my new year's resolution on day 1 of 2024, it was to pet a cat. I've made a second one which is to get a library card whenever my visa is approved and I move back home. It's been something I've been wanting to do for a while but never got around to, hoping this will be the excuse I need to do it.

Art-wise it's not a new goal, but I've been trying to focus on improving my rendering! Though I've also been playing around a lot with screentone... the two don't have to be at odds 🤔 

I'm dedicating this year's personal art time to making new references for as many ocs as possible with nude bases so I can easily design new outfits for them whenever I want to without fully making a new ref from scratch.

Otherwise I'm just trying to take it slow, work on things one at a time and see what happens from there.

[original--character]

i will draw your ocs for free

yeah, you read that right! that's what i do on this blog: draw people's ocs. just send me an ask with your oc and ill draw them!

well, actually, it's a bit more complicated than that... read below to get the full details!

about / information

you've probably already gotten the gist of what this blog is about, but here's some specifics for you.

information:

on this blog, i draw people's ocs that they send to me through the ask box, with the aim of giving oc artists the dopamine rush of receiving art of their beloved children!

i post all drawings i make on here and tag the creator of the oc

all drawings will be fully rendered unless specified (please tell me if you want the drawing to be flatcolor / sketched!)

everyone who submits an ask will have their oc drawn as long as the request abides by the rules below!!

types of drawings i offer:

icon / headshot

portrait / bust

halfbody

thigh-up

fullbody

chibi fullbody

sketch page

if you do not specify which type you would like, i will draw whichever i feel like! also, if you would like a sketch page, please specify how many drawings you would like on it! (upper limit for regular style character drawings is 4, upper limit for chibis is 3)

you may use any of the art i make of your ocs (with credit):

as an icon / header on any social media

as a reference of your character

for any personal use reasons (phone wallpaper, print it out and hang it in your room, post on social media, etc)

you may not use any of the art i make for commercial purposes!!

i will not show any examples as i am using this account as a way to experiment with my style and technique, and many of the drawings will most likely not look exactly like anything i show as an example. so you'll just have to trust me! (once i start posting art to this account you can use those as examples!)

rules for submission

obviously with offers like these come some ground rules, so let's go over them now!

to be eligible to submit a character, you must:

follow this blog!

reblog this post!

in your submission, you must include:

a fully colored reference of your character

the name of your oc and their pronouns

some things you can also do, but don't have to:

include how far down you'd like your character to be drawn (headshot, halfbody, fullbody, etc)

include a pose or expression you'd like your oc to have

submit multiple characters at a time (please specify if you'd like them to be drawn together or not; if so, include their relationship, height difference, and how you'd like them to be interacting)

ask for multiple drawings of the same character (they will be drawn and posted together)

include a background description if you want one

other guidelines and things to abide by:

i only draw humans/humanoids and flat-faced furries/anthros

i can draw all genders, body types, and skin colors

i can draw complex designs and backgrounds

im iffy on vehicles and complex machinery

i will not draw nsfw or discriminatory art

i will draw at most 5 characters in one image

there's no limit to the amount of submissions you can send / drawings you can request at a time

i will not draw canon characters / characters from media, this is specifically an oc art account for a reason! the point is to make oc artists happy by drawing their babies :) this does not apply to creatives who are making a piece of media with their characters (ex. webtoon/comic artists) feel free to submit!

the one behind the screen

about the moderator of this blog!

hello! i'm the perpetrator of this ordeal, and the one making all of the art. my name isn't very important, so you can just call me origin or ori if you'd like! i use he/they pronouns, please respect that. im a queer minor who likes to design characters and draw! i'm an avid oc haver and artist myself, and i know how great it feels to have your character drawn by someone else. so i started this blog to spread around some of that joy to other oc artists on tumblr! i hope you all enjoy the art that i make!

final notes

wow, you made it to the end of this post! thanks for sticking around and reading everything, i know that was a lot. here's some final notes:

even if you don't submit a character to be drawn, i encourage you to reblog this post anyway. i want this blog to reach as many oc artists as possible so i can draw lots and lots of characters!

please be patient with me. i will try to get all requests done quickly, but there is a possibility for your request to take many months to complete. please be mindful that i have a personal life and duties to attend to that may prevent me from drawing your character in a timely manner. thank you!

since these are free requests, i will not be accepting revisions. the final art will remain unchanged after it is posted.

anyone displaying excessively rude or inappropriate behavior will not have their request completed and will be blocked.

and that's all folks! thanks for reading, drink some water, and give me some characters to draw!!

[goron-king-darunia]

Here's what I THINK is happening to people who insist AI "Is a good tool for disabled artists." 1) AI COULD be a good tool but it deliberately isn't by virtue of the algorithm coders purposely feeding the AI stolen art for a large dataset. AI definitely has applications in brain-storming and resource aggregation. If that was all it was for, it would be a great artist's tool. Or, take something like the Shading Assist tool from Clip Studio Paint. From my experiments, it's trained heavily on a cel-shaded style, because it does that much better than other shading styles but even then, not perfect. I paint in a much more rendered and smooth, painted style, so it absolutely cannot replace what I am doing when I make art. And it cannot do the more "pop art" style of shading with harsh, colored shapes, strong lines, stippling, etc that you might want for a comic book page or something like what @quezify does. The shade assist cannot replace the STYLE of shading that comes with various art. And honestly? I don't think I want it to. Because if it COULD perfectly replicate different styles of shading, it would replace the human touch and the growth process of finding a style or learning to incorporate different shading styles into my own pieces. I could just click a button and get a rendered piece. It is not fun to use. There's no creativity in that. BUT AS IT IS NOW! As an imperfect tool that can broadly and vaguely guess at shapes and volumes and overlaps... It actually WORKS AS A TOOL. I can smack the button, manipulate the light source on a complex object, and get an IDEA of where the shadows should go. I can TRAIN MY EYE without always having to draw directly from reference. I can get a little boost while drawing from imagination and it SPEEDS UP my process without REPLACING my process. So far I've only experimented with it once on a fun fan art project for a friend.

This is what the shading assist thinks my Pikmin art should look like, based on just the flat colors and the minor shading that comes with putting the flat colors on the breadbugs. It's janky and scribbly because it's reading any minor "edge" in my painted style as a line and therefore a judge of volume, hence why the gradients on the faces are so weird.

This is what the work in progress looks like with MY rendering. By hand. Because I know better than the shading algorithm where I want the shadows to go and what shapes the things actually are and that the Bulborb is supposed to be fuzzy and not matte. Now if I was a beginner artist who had no idea where the shadows should go, the majority of what the algorithm did on, say, the burger part isn't bad. It has some idea of where the shadows and highlights should be it can tell that the bready part of the Giant Breadbug and the face are different parts and therefore have different shadows and highlights. As a tool, the shading assist can provide a GUIDELINE that can TEACH an inexperienced artist how to shade when they're working with something that ISN'T A DIRECT REFERENCE.

Don't get me wrong, nothing will replace the experience you gain by drawing directly from reference. But no new artist wants to sit for 3 years and draw the same still-life drawings with no imagination for hours on end. They want to work on comics and fan art and draw their OCs kissing their favorite characters and whatever else. So, as a tool in the toolbox, it WILL NOT REPLACE the actual learned experience of actually drawing real objects and learning how light works. But it will give the artist a way to learn and apply some (extremely rudimentary) shading techniques.

The Shading Assist piece doesn't look like a finished piece. I would not want it to. At that point it would stop being a tool and start being a crutch. As it is now, the shading assist is like having a very caffeine-deprived art teacher to sit down, look at your drawing, take a sheet of tracing paper and scribble on some shadows and highlights to give you a nudge in the right direction. That is, this behaves like a tool and not as a machine. To get a properly rendered piece, I still have to do the work myself.

AI art algorithms do not do that. They pump out a "perfectly rendered piece" (minus the casualty of some missing or extra fingers because AI still doesn't know what hands are) with all the shading done for you, with all the drawing done for you, with all the colors done for you. It cannot teach a beginner artist anything that walking an art gallery wouldn't. "This is what your finished piece might look like if you learned to draw like the masters have." And when people POST THAT AS IS saying they made it with their human hands, that is a lie. They did not learn, grow, or enact their vision. They ASKED A MACHINE FOR A FREE COMMISSION AND GOT ONE AND THEN TOOK CREDIT. This not only puts real artists out of work, but the LITERAL ALGORITHM CAN ONLY FUNCTION BECAUSE IT WAS TRAINED TO EMULATE WORK DRAWN BY REAL PEOPLE THAT WAS STOLEN AND USED WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION. Some of this includes medical charts and scans if I remember correctly, which is extra evil. So AI, as it is right now, cannot be an effective "tool" because it doesn't teach or "help." It simply produces.

If my child asks me to help them with their art, which of these is actually helping?:

a) I do the entire project for them, all by myself, only occasionally accepting input of their ideas.

b) I have them sketch the rough idea and fill in all the details for them.

c) I show them how I would draw the things in the picture that they want to draw and let them draw along with me by following by examples.

d) They do the sketch from scratch and I show them how I would draw the parts they think they are having the most trouble with so they can follow along with me.

A) is not helping. That's taking over and commandeering the project. They will not learn. They will have a finished project but they will not learn. B) barely qualifies as help. Sure, the project is still their composition, but I am doing all the stuff they are having trouble with. They will not learn. I am not helping. C) I am helping. Their finished piece will probably end up aping my piece significantly, but they will learn along the way. This is the main appeal of the "How to Draw" books put out by Nintendo and other franchises. "Here's how we draw your favorites so you can learn too!" D) is the best way to help in my opinion. The final piece will remain their idea and their composition. I'm just giving them pointers and examples from my work so they can learn. But this brings me to my second point.

2) People who aren't artists who say "AI is a tool for people who can't draw/can't draw yet" massively misunderstand why humans make art. We don't do it to have a finished piece. That's why people COMMISSION art. People MAKE art because they enjoy the process of MAKING because that's a HUMAN INSTINCT. If the "goal" is to have a finished piece, then A, B, C, and D are all valid approaches. But art isn't a product. It can be bought and sold like one. But the point of making art, usually, isn't to HAVE art. Again, if you want that, you can ASK A REAL HUMAN ARTIST TO DRAW EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT (and the human knows what hands are) and then you pay them REAL HUMAN MONEY for doing you a service. If the point of making art, for you the reader here, is to HAVE ART, then commission an artist. You will have all the art you can buy, exactly as you want it. If you pay for it, someone will draw it. Guaranteed.

But if the point of making the art is that you want to have fun, make something only you can make, or you know, do something creative with your hands: THEN MAKE THE ART YOURSELF WITH YOUR HANDS. Or your mouth, or your feet, or your eyes. As all the disabled artists above have said: If your goal is to partake in the divine act of creation, then you will find a way to create.

And at some points in the process you will SUCK. I lost all ability to draw anatomy from imagination because I stopped drawing for 10 years. But my eye trained itself on other things. I am MUCH better at shading and rendering now than I used to be. Being bad at anatomy now just means I have to practice more and learn again. Some of that will involve tracing. Tracing is a tool. As long as I don't sell a traced piece as "original" nobody minds if I trace to speed up the process or to learn and visualize foreshortening especially if I am tracing my own figure from a photo I took. Some of that will involve gesture drawing and really crappy messy attempts to quickly draw shapes and forms. Some of that will involve hours and hours of painstakingly copying from a master, stroke by stroke, and some will involve trying for 12 hours to render from imagination.

But that's part of learning, growing, and creating. So if you actually want to create, you will, and you won't mind the hard work as much. If you just want a finished product, for all that is holy, PAY A REAL, LIVING, HUMAN ARTIST. That's why they have commission slots. If you cannot afford anything that isn't "free" then you cannot afford art. Art doesn't come for free. The AI will make you believe it does. But it does not. The AI can only produce art by STEALING the labor of hundreds and thousands of hours of work from artists that it is NOT PAYING.

If you want free, learn to draw (even then it is not free. The cost is time and practice.) And if you want art without expending your own time? Pay an artist. Do it. It is that simple. These are your 2 options if you want to be a decent human being. The only current valid uses for AI are 1) to make memes a la the Dall E mini nonsense people were doing like "Oogie Boogie in a courtroom" because those are for free and for fun and we all know they're crappy little mishmashes of stolen reference pieces. 2) Look for inspiration. Again if all these AI were used for was to gather reference images and assemble them, that would be fine. That would be a tool. But AI is NOT that. And if you're using AI for inspiration, I honestly think you probably shouldn't sell the final piece because it's impossible to tell how much of the image is iterated from 5000 sources and how much is invented based on what the database has interpreted things tagged as "elbows" to look like, and how much of it is copied wholesale from a living artist's artwork. And honestly, these uses are on thin ice. If we got rid of AI algorithms tomorrow and lost these "uses" for AI, I would not shed a single tear.

Pay artists. Or learn to make the thing you want to make. Those are your choices in decent human society. Maybe in a post-capitalist world we can revisit the use of AI as a tool for visual art. Until then my stance is a hardline "No. AI is not art. Art requires a human artist and a human intent."

"ai is making it so everyone can make art" Everyone can make art dipshit it came free with your fucking humanity