#ref image from Pinterest as usual

[thedecayingcrown]

[chilewithcarnage]

I, a very white and somewhat privileged person, am absolutely terrified to draw colored people. Because I don’t know if I’d cross the thin line of tasteful and authentic or racist and stereotypical…

Lol for starters don't refer to us as coloured people. This ain't 1955. Secondly my best advice to you is to use references of actual people of color. I would highly recommend staying away from those white men art station youtuber type artists for tutorials because they get a majority of their techniques and style from main stream video games and comic books, which to put it nicely don't have the best reputation for representing women and poc. tangent over, so yeah references. real life photographs of brown and black people.

pinterest is a site that a lot of current, especially younger artists like to use, but in all honesty it's not a very good source for someone trying to learn the fundamentals. it'll mainly show you 20 something year old ig and twitter models which is okay if you wanna just draw pretty people; but not the best if you wanna like I said learn fundamentals + have a portfolio that's varied. also it's rife with ai shit and stolen art, so yeah would only recommend that as an initial starting point/using it to make your own personal board for your saved images.

stock photo sites are my go to for refs. getty images, istock, alamy, etc. a simple right click save image or screenshot will work to get the images you want for free. of course there will be the watermarks, but they're honestly a very small issue to bypass. as long as they're not opaque and nearly covering the entire subject; you're good. a nice thing about stock photo sites is they usually give you the option to filter the image search results. say for instance you want to draw an elderly asian woman cooking or a young black man painting a picture or an indigenous child playing with dolls. you can look up certain terms you want in the search bar & specify gender, age and ethnicity to narrow down your search to what you want.

another awesome place for references i discovered during college is posespace.com

like with getty images, it gives you the option to filter your searches. they also have their models in clothed or nude shoots in the event that you want to practice some bare bones anatomy.

also also, get your info from artists of color. there's a decent amount of tutorials ive found over the years on here and youtube on coloring skintones, drawing certain hair types, how to avoid caricatures and stereotyping, different facial features, cultural hairstyles. the list goes on. don't be afraid to depict people outside of your race. literally just go about drawing us the same way you would a white person. don't be scared, as long as you remain respectful and make an honest effort to learn; you'll do fine.

resource links by and from artists of color:

'how i draw south + southeast asian people'

an example of what to avoid when stylizing east asian characters

'drawing asian people, source: i'm asian'

'lessons from drawing I: what is asian anyways?'

'how to draw indians'

'how to draw arabs'

'How I draw skin Part 2: DON”T DRAW NATIVE PEOPLE WITH RED SKIN!!!! A tutorial' (the link to the first part of this tutorial is broken sorry)

How to Draw Native People: a Tutorial/Reference Guide

How to Draw Black People by peachdeluxe

tips for drawing black people by rosheruu

drawing east asian faces by chuwenjie

how to draw black people series by Artistik Freedom (youtube)

✏️How I draw black hairstyles (simple) 🌱 by Likelihood Art (youtube)

there's also a bunch of black and brown artists on twitter and tiktok, so checking those sites for tutorials would be a good additional resource

good luck on your illustrating melanin endeavors 👍🏾

[penaltyboxboxbox]

hello dave! sorry if this is a stupid qn but how do you come up with pose ideas? do you mostly use refs or are they spontaneous from your imagination? i've realised every time i try to draw im mostly confused on how to pose my characters in a natural way

i draw a lot of Guys Standing so im guilty of that...its easy to draw so i draw it a lot! if i have no idea what to draw, i usually will go get reference/get inspo from photos on pinterest, i just find it easiest for seeing more candid style poses, especially for couples/multiple people....if im lost on single person poses sometimes ill just go on getty and look up random events where people might be walking around etc to find casual and realistic poses...

Usually when I start my drawings, i know what I want it to look like/the pose i want them to be in, i sort of see the finished picture before i start if that makes sense. If I'm feeling lost on drawing it ill usually end up just google imaging specific refs, stuff like "man from behind reaching up" or "couple holding face in hand" something like that.... i hope this helps

[demondamage]

So I use pinterest for a lot of ref gathering and holy fuck is the amount of AI shit and I would guess some change in algorithm making it unmanageable. AI images are clogging up searches when I am looking for photos. The search algorithm is showing me barely related images from previous searches on completely different searchs (usually with a shopping link which- not to be a conspiracy theorist but that is my guess why those are getting prioritized). The whole website is getting harder to use and it is kinda starting to piss me off.

idk anyone else having this issue? I do use pinterest heavily for like-- work stuff and searches so idk I may just be sensitive.

[micklio]

[Alt text in image description]

the usual .... I saw a cute outfit on pinterest so i had to draw an OC in it (ref: https://pin.it/5z8yL1r)

Iris Rose, my love core wizard & history nerd npc from Hourglass

[nevarroes]

HI i hope this is okay to ask but your anatomy / posing is genuinely so fucking fantastic you’re like my number 1 art inspo rn and i was just wondering where you find references / if you use them or any specific tips you have? happy valentines day to gortcas btw

gosh thank you so much🥺

I do use references yeah always, I honestly try to freehand as little as possible even because it helps me to constantly figure out and learn new things without doing studies (as in I'll always try to find the specific angle of an arm or whatever even if I think I know how it'll look just to make sure)

I find my refs ermm... everywhere really. I spend hours just browsing images sometimes nd file them away cause I don't mind doing so, its kinda fun 2 me💜 the only thing I kinda try to avoid is pinterest due to the fact that it mostly shows the same shit over nd over so there's a lot of repeat and recognizable stuff but I do still use some generic pinterest poses sometimes, nothing wrong with it just a personal preference atp but you do need to kinda.... learn what is good reference and what isn't for pinterest specifically imo😖 Recently I've been taking most of my base reference pics from videos instead of stills tbh, porn, movies, stock videos etc. so I do recommend doing that it's been quite helpful!

as for tips I only have one really, which is that photobashing and mixing refs is really, really helpful. Especially with Gortcas I haven't been able to use a single ref at all anymore due to both of their bodies being rather extreme, meaning you can't just apply average poses usually. So what I'm doing a lot of the times is use a "base ref" to set the angle and then just build on top of that, posed 3d models for limbs or even the whole other person, then photobash some more on top of that with actual images for parts that don't really move realistically with the 3d model, hands, face 3d models etc etc. Usually I will do a rough to kinda see if I can make a pose idea work and then I will make a bash to use as an actual reference after. I hope this helps at all!

[andromeddog]

hi! love your art :) i just wanted to ask if you have any resources you’d recommend for WWI uniform/gear references for art purposes? i’ve been struggling to find good refs (especially for officers/anything beyond just the basic infantry uniforms) so i thought i’d ask what you tend to use! thanks & have a great day!

hello hey hi!!! ty for the message i love talking about uniforms and spend way too many hours of the day looking for reference of them

so i talked a bit about this before in this post! i stand by a lot of what was said there aka pinterest, google searching/scouring, and that book i linked........ these are all good for officers too! looking for officer ref is often very similar to infantry stuff, tho there may just be less of it depending on what specifically you're looking for. if you are looking for very specific references and want to get insane about it i can talk about that too.... tho i would like to say i dont have like one specific website to link bc i use so many different ones only like once or twice

if you're willing to spend money i'd recommend looking for books on the subject- there is always one strange book from like 1970 about the helmets of ww1 on ebay or something. the nice thing about that is they will typically name the different parts of a uniform, which allows you to google that specific thing to get a closer look. learning about the makeup of a uniform/everything's specific use helps when its time to draw them. ofc this isnt a super sustainable option but investing in a good encyclopedia once has saved me so much time. that guide to ww1 has been well loved

if youre not looking to spend money there are still a lot of options. stuff i like in no particular order:

reenactment pictures- action shots, higher quality pictures than something from 1918. you can find whole galleries of people's reenactment battles (?? is that what theyre called??) if you do a little clicking around.

stock photo websites- be really careful here bc you dont want to get into trouble with usage rights. i only rly use these if im desperate and then very sparingly and piecemeal bc i dont want to get in trouble lol

websites where they sell reproduction/reenactment uniforms- here is an example. reproduction stuff is great bc u can usually find every little bit of the uniform being sold somewhere by someone. ebay has also been surprisingly helpful.

& the thing i would like to stress the most is that i rly dig for references. i literally have 21 tabs open with different searches for super specific things on my phone at this very moment. i use google image search extensively and scroll through literally so many jpegs, pngs, pdfs, webps, etc etc etc. the unfortunate truth is that the more specific you get the harder it is to find stuff. i recently drew a ussr female fighter pilot and had to get ref for her uniform from about 5 different sources (and that was one drawing!!!!!) sometimes i find a reference for the exact thing i need on a website that has nothing else of use to me. the best advice i have here is just keep scouring and clicking and you will eventually find something. i wish this was more helpful but once you know what you are looking for you can search for that thing specifically and that's a big help

this did not need to be so long but if theres one thing about me i will go on and on and on given the chance. im insane can you tell

[mramur]

ososan doodle

Been readjusting my usual brush since i moved device, i love this line style.

Last image of the otouto trio is ref from japanese selfies i found on pinterest lol.

[devilish-parrot]

hru doing?

im doing great. ive been trying something new in art recently and its been turning out REALLY well. usually i draw fanart in a very cartoon-ey style but this time im trying realism from pinterest ref images and im surprised at how good i am at this

i might post it on my art blog when its done but maybe not

[domirine]

You probably do a lot of life drawing seeing as how perfectly fluid your art always is so this ask might be redundant lol but,, i was wondering what kind of references you usually use? Do you just google similar poses, does it come from your mind, or do you have a go-to app to look through like pinterest?👉👈 i ask bc I struggle a lot with poses and usually when i look them up i end up drawing nothing bc its not. Ever good enough for me/what im looking for lol😔 still not sure how to even draw characters smoochin, rip

thank you, nonny!! i do a lil bit of life drawing, but man i really do feel the same way you do. while i'm happy to show some art when i get it done, the process can be a real struggle.

sorry this is gonna be long and all over the place lol hope it helps tho:

life drawing good: i recommend ditching the idea of finding the 100% Perfect Ref right off the bat. studying anatomy and life drawing (this site has a range of body types and fun poses) somewhat regularly, therefore growing my mental library so that i can try and make whatever pose is in my head happen later, has been more viable to me than spending hours looking for the Perfect Ref.

drawing a bunch of generic people skating without pressure of creating proper character art is good practice, and it primes me to then come up with a skating pose of my own.

ref hunting: i save pictures i might use as refs regularly in a browser folder - good refs, bad refs, boring refs - losing a ref standard can be helpful because at the end of the day it’s what you make with it, so it doesn’t have to be particularly mind-blowing to begin with. you don’t wanna reinvent the wheel or create the most never-been-done-before pose, you just wanna get a thing right.

pinterest is very good for poses, yes, though you have to know how to look for them - i.e. i found that typing out "dynamic pose" will not yield organic results, as opposed to looking up people in motion like athletes, boxers, skaters and such. for fighting, i recommend using photos or clips from (ideally staged lol) fights, as opposed to stock images where the models are standing for a while posing - the former preserves a lot of the movement. i also recommend looking up group photos from events or shows for interesting natural poses and people interacting.

best hot tip of all tho: what helped me most is to not treat references very religiously. don't be tied down by what's in your ref, or not finding the perfect one, because then you're focusing on accuracy and not necessarily on what you wanna communicate with your drawing. if you can't find what you're looking for in full, just use a part that you find interesting, and then bullshit the rest and revise accordingly.

idea-generating can be very hard but you can practice it like any other skill, because having a decent idea of what you wanna draw is helpful - you don't have to have the whole pose visualised 100%. it's the mood, body language and expressions, that i think are more important. looking at refs can help reveal your ideas and intentions, but i will not create them for you i’m afraid.

for example, speaking on characters smooching, i've drawn these using refs in   pretty uptight way with no ideas beforehand - and i find them painfully boring because they're not rly communicating anything aside from a anatomical accuracy (more or less);

i was being too intent on staying faithful to the reference, and they're looking kinda stale to me. the only one that was done without any ref, was the bottom left - which i like! bc it's got spice and it’s portraying some emotion.

but i wouldn't have drawn it if i hadn't already started on the others, so maybe another good tip is to trust the process and not give up mid-work!! drawing stuff you’re not proud of is still drawing stuff, and not everything you create is gonna be satisfying. things are gonna click here and there, but you never know when, so don’t give up on your ugly artsy ducklings!!

[garttengroddo]

its been a while since I last updated my sketchbook work here! these are from a sketchbook I had on me and completed a week ago, (it was no. 10 I hit the double digits in tracking :--))

I was actually attempting to study but by I mean by doing any form of studying besides anatomy, gestures, and figures. I have been finding very cool pieces on pinterest and I got really addicted to using refs and studying. I was also trying to utilize actually using my watercolors and mixed media etc

but theres also my usual character doodles as a treat :)

also YEAH the last fuckin image is that MEME!!!!

[hamsamwich23]

Twenty ref

Tw for: electrocution, heavy injuries, heavy scars, implied experiments/dissection, burns. If I forget anything please let me know

I was gonna make Daisy's ref first, however I really like my oc, and, although I wanted to be careful due to certain people trying to copy off of him (and if they copy off of anything here I'll have evidence) I also feel I should be able to show him to you all. So without further speaking, let's begin

Twenty (formerly Zimaki of dimension 2020) is a sixteen year old hybrid who was experimented on from the beginning of his existance. His dimension was destroyed when he was thirteen and has been living on Earth 100.5 for almost 3 years. He lives with his sister Kai (who's owned by my friend Kido!!)

Twenty's own appearance isn't actually caused by the curse, not fully at least. It's a result of what experiments were done on him. Which was mainly the empire combining his DNA with an extinct species (which I am still working on)

this is from my friend @we-dont-talk-about-kido-nonono :] (their old tumblr is here, I gotta link their new acc)

A more recent image of Twenty's face with the four eyes done by @/elysiblu (and another few images from the same person :] )

This was something I commissioned someone for!! By @/goldenkingyo !!!!

Body reference for Twenty:

Head + Neck:

Twenty's hair is REAL, unlike Zims which is very obviously a wig. It started growing when he was about seven. And it is, very fluffy

Twenty is supposed to have four eyes. The two he's originally drawn with here (that's on me because I'm inconsistent with design but what I'm typing ARE the final designs. I'm done with changing Twenty's around too). His two first eyes look humanish, with pink iris's. The two eyes below his are supposed to be much smaller than his original eyes. With red iris's and the sclera being black.

His right eyes are shown to have a burn mark around them, followed by a scar on the first eye (the original one)

There's also the scar on the side of his face as shown as well.

There's also a scar that goes all around his neck (left their by an shock collar that was used during physical based experiments)

The nose doesn't actually look like a nose, as seen here. Not too much anyways

The antennas are fuzzy and have a slighter hint of pink on the tips

His teeth are sharp, sharper than irkens zipper teeth

The tongue literally looks like a worm:

Like I can't make that up, literally.

Arms + hands:

Woah mate this dude has four arms!!! But the bottom pair of arms is optional and retractable

The hands and arms have this design on them, that reach up to his elbows (I literally pulled these from Pinterest, I have no idea WHAT that first one leads too I just hope it isn't smut/lh)

His arms are covered in scars, which are usually wrapped in bandages if he isn't wearing his signature hoodie (his new one, he has to give the old one to Scout since it wasn't for someone with four arms. So now they have Anti-Irken hoodies to match each other :])

The scars on his arms glow and are, strangely, all capable of glowing different colors. It's a faint glow that's only noticable during night in dark areas.

His hands all only have three fingers on them. And they're all clawed, as shown

There are also scars all over his hands. Which is why he wears the fingerless gloves. But there are also scars on his fingers as well (he loves feeling the texture of certain things, so he likes to have his fingers unhidden)

Body/torso:

Twenty's body type is at a healthier level, due to him occasionally working out whenever he wishes to (he has a gym membership and enjoys physical activities...when it's not part of an experiment), he's definitely not into sports though, nor is he super muscular. He's actually slim but with some muscle.

He is 5'5, four inches taller than Scout.

His entire body is covered in autospy scars, burns, and stitch scars from his experiences in labs with scientists. Luckily these are all decently healing. Although the burns might be more recent, due to the rainwater being toxic to his species, and being able to burn his skin

He has tattoos!!! Provided by Nick. So far he has one on his chest (where his "heart" is), that is a symbol for himself and Scout. And there is another one on his right shoulder for the Anti-Irken/rebellion symbol. There's another one that's on the left side of his stomach that's his own reminder of his mother figure from dimension 2020 (aka, Tallest Miyuki), and it's a picture of her face with the words "Rest In Peace' besides it.

He has a PAK, which is a storage tool, a weapon kit, and a lifeline all at once. The basic concept with the lifeline being "an irken only has ten minutes left before they die and the pak has to find a new host", as the pak is TECHNICALLY the brain of the irken. And once the host body dies it will seek out another. so they die, but they don't die at the same time.

(theoretically, Twenty can live without the pak. But he doesn't wish to test that theory out at the moment)

A PAK looks like this, except Twenty's is a bit bigger, due to him being taller than canon. And the circles are more of a brighter pink. With the top light being black

Twenty does NOT have sex organs (no nips, or reproductive organs. Or an ass), in all seriousness. His species is asexual and creates offsprings via cloning blood and DNA.

He also has a tail!!! Again as seen. The tail is all black, but the end of it has a red tip. It's quite soft.

Legs:

He does not have robotic limbs. His legs are very much real

His thighs, legs and feet are all covered In scars, and small burns.

His legs also have a similar pattern to what's on his arms. It starts at the feet and goes up to below his knees. The scars on there also glow different colors

The feet only have two toes and they're clawed. And somehow they aid to help him hang from high up places (aka the fucking ceiling, at three am for no fucking reason other than to terrify any poor individual who is also awake)

Preferred outfits:

Twenty's default outfit is just a Zip up hoodie (made for people with four arms) with a shirt underneath, a pair of black shorts and a pair of combat boots. Along with dark grey fingerless gloves. The back of the hoodie has the Anti-Irken symbol in pink.

He is also quite fashionable and enjoys wearing a lot of alt sort of fashions (admittedly enjoys the "e-boy' or emo aesthetic as well). And also just enjoys casual things. He isn't very picky about clothing (unless it's too bright for his taste. He doesn't like wearing certain colors)

Random facts dump!!

He is an incredible cook

He eats bugs and spiders

He's quite good at video games AND card battle games (like a certain card game series included here)

He knows how to drive a car (it's a lot easier than driving a space cruiser, he's found

He also loves sweet things

Unlike irkens he CAN eat meat.

He's also the one who made the puppets robotic legs (as he's had experience with advanced tech)

He also makes inventions that can make people's lives more convenient (however he has not shared this to the public)

His blood is hot pink

He's TRANS (ftm)

I apologize if this seems more rushed than before, I've been a bit sick today but I really wanted to get this done!! If there's anything that needs fixing I will come back to it. Thank you so much for looking!

(I also give anyone permission to draw him....but if anyone sees any questionable fanart of him being released, especially on my birthday it is VITAL that you let me know immediately)

Edited: this is what I imagine what the anti irken symbol would look like (except it's not horribly edited like this)

[annaminijayan3dblog]

Technical Wizardry80.Lv Part 3

Making a creature concept sculpt in Zbrush

This is my rough draft for the 80.Lv article

Introduction

My name is Anna Mini Jayan and I’m from India. I got interested in the creative field at a very young age after watching Ghibli movies and other Japanese animations. I also played a lot of games and among them, Final Fantasy IV and the 3D cutscenes in it inspired and influenced me a lot. I did my degree in BA Animation and Graphic Design back in India. During the course, I was introduced to Maya and I started developing an interest in 3D. After my degree, I did an online course at CGMA for ZBrush by Michael Pavlovich which made a huge impact on me. The course made me want to pursue a career as a Character Artist for games. Currently, I’m doing my MA in Games Art and Design at the University of Hertfordshire. I have always been passionate about creating designs for characters my whole life and therefore it is a delight to be able to learn more about it and improve my skills.

The Inspiration

The inspiration for this character came from the works of Terryl Whitlach, who is known for her creature designs for Lucasfilm. I wanted to create something inspired by real-life creatures. For this creature, I wanted to base it on wasps and moths. My goal is to make a character who was initially human but got transformed into a horrific creature who could be a friendly and supportive character for the player. I wanted the design of the creature to have aspects of both humans and insects and also reflect her approachable personality.

References

Reference is important for the concept-building process since good reference will help create a good design. I usually look for references in Artstation or Pinterest and spend around half a day collecting them. My references consist of works of others and real-life images of insects for getting the anatomy correct.

The concept Sculpt

My first step in the process of concept sculpting is to get the base done with the right proportions. I used a sphere as a base and built parts of the body by duplicating them. The main brushes I used during the process are the 

Standard brush

Clay buildup brush

Move brush

Move topological brush

Damian standard brush

Trim dynamic brush

Using these brushes I create the forms of the creature. Since this is a concept sculpt without a 2D concept, I try to make my strokes and forms as free as possible to get the ideas flowing. At this stage, I keep parts of the creature separate so I can move them around the parts to see what works and what doesn’t. I also try not to go into too much detail at the beginning before I have my base done. But sometimes I did sculpt out some things like the eyes or parts of the ear to see how it would look like with it while still keeping it loose and free. I find that the process of sculpting parts separately and then joining them together makes it much easier compared to when I work on a single combined mesh.

Conclusion

This was my process of making a concept sculpt for a creature. I used workflows I was familiar with and what worked for me to make the process faster. It’s also important to real-life anatomy in mind since that is what will help a creature appear more believable.

Bibliography

Tapia, M. (2020) (Warframe Fanart) Magical Girl Frames., Artstation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/PmB111  [Accessed: December 18, 2023]

Sie, G. (2011) Moth Macro #2, Flickr. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/guysie/6019063933/in/photostream/  [Accessed: December 18, 2023]

Alexsvirid. (2012) Grasshopper — Photo, depositphotos. Available at: https://depositphotos.com/photo/grasshopper-15023063.html?ref=26681138   [Accessed: December 18, 2023]

Rios, T. (2022) Insect Creature, Artstation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3q9N3E [Accessed: December 18, 2023]

Collinsdictionary. (n.d)  wasp, Collinsdictionary. Available at: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/images/full/wasp_342811589.jpg  [Accessed: December 18, 2023]

Nirasawa, Y. (2020) Approximately 35cm Future Models Woman Bee Yasushi Nirasawa Completed Product,Sevenst. Available at: https://sevenst.web.fc2.com/Others/WB-FEWTURE-01.html   [Accessed: December 18, 2023]

Forestrogers. (2020) Mlle Shrimp wanted to visit..., Forestrogers. Available at: https://forestrogers.com/  [Accessed: December 18, 2023]Forestrogers. (2022) Titania's Garden II, at the Haven Gallery, Forestrogers. Available at: https://forestrogers.com/  [Accessed: December 18, 2023]

[pansyfemme]

hii i sent u an ask a couple of days ago for an ask game! i mentioned im a beginner artist and u said i could reach out if i needed some tips :)

my style is still really cartoony and i’d like my drawings to look more realistic! like not 100% but not as cartoony as a kids show u know? i have no idea where to start and i struggle a lot w faces, so i was wondering if u have any tips on how to improve on that?

btw sorry if this sounds confusing english isnt my first language!

(sorry for the delay in a response!!!)

Hi! It’s not confusing at all dont worry!

I struggled with the same thing when i was first starting out- something i forgot a lot is as simple as it sounds- faces always have volume no matter what angle you’re looking at them from. If you look at a face from the front, even though the curves of the face arent as obvious as from the side, they’re still there. The nose still comes out forward, and the eyes still sink back a little. What I used to do is draw a lot of these 'flat' faces, as opposed to ones with actual curves and shapes. This is a stylistic choice, and not something everyone does but it find it makes my art feel a lot more interesting and is easier for me to vary face shapes!

[ID: A chart showing examples of my art with flat and simple faces versus curved and complex faces.]

Also! use refrences as much as possible. I collect these in a few ways, if you use tiktok its surprisingly a good way to find refs, I usually search 'art ref' or 'pose ideas' and it works great. I also use Pinterest, here's my account, tho I dont have much experience using it, but I have this board of exclusively art refrecnces of people with disabilities, and its very organized!

Dont shy away from doing artist studies, or tracing over your own photographs and finding shapes. I often trace an image into simple shapes, and then try to recreate those shapes on a separate piece of paper as an exercise.

The Face Is made up of shapes, so attempting to figure how those shapes interact is the biggest part of this! Drawing the face from different angles seems scary, but is truly important to learning how it works.

I hope this helps a little!

[babooshkart]

Hi! I am obsessed w your art. I really like seeing these sketches that you have been posting from prompts recently - I find it interesting to see a bit of your initial sketch underneath (also they're amazing, I love all drawings of the two of them hugging). If you're comfortable doing so, could you talk a bit about your process? I've recently begun dipping my toes into digital art and would love any tips. I'm so amazed with you that it only took an hour to do the sketch w them kissing after work

Hi bud!! So hyped you’re getting into digital art—it’s such a fun medium, and there are loads of resources online for learning! I’m flattered that you came to me 🥺😳🥰 The doodles are a good way to practice, and I’ve definitely gotten faster and more accurate with more practice!!

Alright so we are gonna use this recent painting as an example! I do my paintings on Procreate (with an iPad and Apple Pencil) and find it really intuitive and easy to use! I also am a staunch supporter of using references, and a really good place to find them is Unsplash, because the images are free to use (although I do confess to practically living on tumblr and Pinterest, so you’ll probably run across my refs from time to time lol).

I start with a loose sketch using a chalk brush that my buddy imported for me (not a Procreate brush, sorry), then usually lower the opacity on that layer to add another more detailed sketch on top of that. In image 1, you’ll see Draco’s body starts out as just block shapes, and then gets a more defined sketch on top of that (in the same chalk brush, just much smaller). Then I go in with linework (image 2), using the Procreate Dry Ink brush (that I’ve modified to be a bit more streamlined).

I personally do my linework on a different layer for each thing, because I will go in and change the color of the linework to ~match~ whatever the object is. I find that it gives the whole painting a more cohesive look, but that might just be me! It usually means that I use about 35-40 layers for each painting, and frequently have to merge layers before I can keep painting 😂😂😂 I run out of space!!

Flat color comes next, which is best seen on the left side of image 3. Once that’s all blocked out, I’ll go in with shading (a clipping mask set to “multiply” is literally a gift from the Art Gods) and little details (meaning plants and knick knacks. I love knick knacks) Alpha lock and clipping masks are going to be your best friends, I swear to god.

The last step is usually fucking around with overlays and lighting. For this, all I can recommend is really just playing around with colors and opacity. I typically paint these??? Vague shapes??? And then Gaussian Blur them until it’s a soft overlay for the whole canvas, and then will set it to Multiply/Soft Light/Luminosity depending on the mood I’m in!! And then to add light beams and sometimes dust motes on an “Add” layer with like 30% opacity

Voilà my layers. These have already been combined a whole bunch of times (Draco’s body used to be 15 separate layers), but it helps to see kind of what is going on! The very last thing I do to a painting is to add a noise layer on top of everything, which adds a mild grainyness to the work! You only need like 4% noise for it to be a soft accent ❤️

Also, I do post timelapse videos for all of my paintings on Instagram! If you wanna mosy on over and check that out 💕 I hope this is in any way helpful!!

[nyehilismwriting]

Wait... how many legs do they have? (and arms and wings?)

the short answer is 8 limbs. i was kinda keeping their descriptions under wraps but now i've had to reshuffle some things due to chapter two being beastly so imxa isn't appearing until chapter three which is FINE. it's FINE i'm fine. but a lot of people have now asked, so i'm gonna put a generic alien description under the cut.

it got long. i'm sorry i just have a lot of thots. i'm not going to include images, but if anyone wants refs I have this pinterest board - not very accurate biologically but the vibes are there. also, quick cw for body horror stuff on there, to be safe.

if you want more specific refs, i recommend looking up praying mantises, orchid mantises, twig snakes & vipers, which are the species a lot of this stuff is based on.

Limbs

the typical individual has six limbs - two arms, two legs, and one set that can be used as both; they are capable of walking quadrapedally and bipedally, depending on the situation

the hindmost pair of limbs is the longest, digitigrade, capable of folding up alongside the torso

the second set of limbs is closer to human arms, with advanced touch-reception; these are used for fine motor skills, manipulation of objects, and sensory input, with nerves throughout the tissue. they end in hands, with clawed fingers

the third set of limbs are a set of large, chitinous claws, used to grab and immobilise prey (think mantis claws) - they are extremely strong, but lacking in precision and fine motor skills, and are typically carried folded close to the torso. the nerves don't extend far into the structure of these claws, meaning injuries here often go unnoticed. blows from these limbs are often lethal to smaller prey, and are strong enough to break bones and cause internal bleeding

the wings consist of a fine membrane suspended between the torso and a prehensile cartilaginous structure - they can't be used for flight, but instead are used for communication, with body language playing a major part in social interactions

they also have thin, whiplike tails

Appearance & colouration

their skin is scaled, with thick ridges of keratin-like material across the torso, the back, and the head

they come in a range of colours, with younger individuals tending to paler and more muted; base colours can be black, white, green or brown, with markings (most commonly stripes or speckles) in pastel shades of pink, green, or blue - as they develop, these colours get bolder and the markings more defined. full-grown individuals usually have jewel-tone markings, as well as an iridescent sheen to their skin

likewise, their eyes usually start off white or milky blue; as they grow, they can differentiate into brighter colours, oranges, reds, and greens being common. their pupils are keyhole-shaped, which gives them binocular vision

they have snakelike heads and necks, with extensible jaws & backwards-slanting teeth

they have long, forked tongues

Physiology

closed circulatory systems (cold-blooded)

omnivorous

semi-arboreal - good climbers, good swimmers in fairly shallow water

some regenerative properties - they're able to recover from wounds that would be fatal to humans, but it requires a hibernation-like state, during which time large parts of their internal organs get cannibalised to provide regenerative tissue. often not considered worth it