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Art Reference - Blog Posts
I learned in a Latin Studies class (with a chill white dude professor) that when the Europeans first saw Aztec cities they were stunned by the grid. The Aztecs had city planning and that there was no rational lay out to European cities at the time. No organization.
I see this kinda advice passed around all the time here is the thing: shading with black will indeed look bad if you don’t know what you are doing. However, telling people not to do things without explaining why is terrible advice.
Shadows are the opposite of light, this includes in colour.
This means that if you have light in one colour, the shadow will be of the opposing hue, saturation, and value.
Unless the object is white, it has its own local colour - the object’s true colour, how it would appear if the light were pure white.
The colour of the light influences the local colour of the object. so if you had yourself a brown cube and a blue light, the colours would get bluer and pinker.
now the reason shadows do not tend to be black is because pure white light is hard to find in nature.
the closest you will get to pure white light is during a really overcast day and the sun is filtering through the clouds, but even then it’ll lean towards yellow so the shadows will be slightly blue.
During a clear day, the shadows will pick up a lot of bounce light from the blue sky and have a blue tinge. You can learn more about this in this tutorial: [http://artbyriana.deviantart.com/art/Why-shadows-aren-t-gray-321656856]
But! None of this means you are never allowed to use black.
realistically shadows will have a hint of a colour to them, but stylistically you might be going for, say, a film noir look and deep black shadows are needed for impact for example.
The more you know about how light works, the more informed decisions you can make about shading and the more options you have.
If someone tells you that you can’t do something, they’re wrong! you can do what you like!
yes, black is hard to use and if you just mix a colour with black it’ll get muddy, but thats easily resolved by choosing your colours manually - which ideally you want to do regardless bc the computer doesnt have your eyes & cant choose the colours you like
basically if someone gives you some art advice and says you can’t do something, they’re wrong! you can, you just might need to study a little to figure out how to make things work.
I mean for example, people will say you must make your composition follow the rule of thirds and never align centrally, but while the rule of thirds makes it easy to create visual interest, Mad Max Fury Road is a testament to the fact that central composition can and will work if you experiment.
there are no rules in art! there are theories based on reality, this has been a post on colour theory & light theory, but they exist to inform you, not to restrict you.
Do what you like! Trust your eyes, if you think something looks good, then great! If you don’t, then research & experiment until you do.
Also if you wanna learn more abt colour theory, I go into it in a lot more depth over yonder: http://helpfulharrie.tumblr.com/post/131822744966/ http://helpfulharrie.tumblr.com/post/131958395841/
^Really helpful skin painting tutorial^
Awesome resource submitted by the lovely @girlymisticbaest! Be sure to go follow them!
Thanks for reading! ❤️
More useful articles and resources / support Art-Res | my art tumblr
Rebloging so I don’t forget
Just in case you forget this exists.
It exists.
Smooching notes~!
So the people on Twitter seemed to find my notes very useful, So I am sharing them to you guys as well
have fun!
Thank you! ;w;
There are a whole bunch of different ways to interpret Papyrus, but here’s a mini tutorial on how I draw him. Hopefully this helps ^^
“ThomasRomain ロマン・トマ @Thomasintokyo
アニメ美術デザインの技術。僕が使っている部屋の描き方はこんな感じ。ＣＧモデルをおこさなくても、わりと早く描ける方法です。 The way I design interiors digitally.”
English ( feel free to correct me!!)- “Animation art and design technology. How to draw using my room looks like. Is the how to draw okosanakute CG models, even sooner rather than later. The way I design interiors digitally. “
Source: https://twitter.com/Thomasintokyo/status/590355340731920386
RESOURCES FOR POSES
Line of Action
JustSketch.Me
PoseManiacs
Human-Anatomy-For-Artist.com
MagicPoser
MIXAMO
Pose Archives
Bodies in Motion
Posemy.art
ReferenceAngle
CroquisCafe
hot artists don't gatekeep
I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard
Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.
Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.
Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.
Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.
SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.
SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.
Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.
Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.
Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.
Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.
Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.
i dont consider myself a 'fashion guru' by any means but one thing i will say is guys you dont need to know the specific brand an item you like is - you need to know what the item is called. very rarely does a brand matter, but knowing that pair of pants is called 'cargo' vs 'boot cut' or the names of dress styles is going to help you find clothes you like WAAAYYYY faster than brand shopping
i watched one (1) video on how to draw hands that changed my life forever. like. i can suddenly draw hands again
these were all drawn without reference btw. i can just. Understand Hands now (for the most part, im sure theres definitely inaccuracies). im a little baffled
Compiled some basic information I know about drawing fat characters for beginners since I've been seeing more talk about absence of really basic traits in a lot of art lately.
Morpho Fat and Skin Folds on Archive.org (for free!)
Been drawing recently
My next project will be drawing one of these guys too is a reverence photo for a dnd character (owlin) . The bottom one is a reference sheet I drew the other day and am gonna refine and color. I dont know what the bottom one’s name will be maybe give me suggestions in the comments!
Compiled some basic information I know about drawing fat characters for beginners since I've been seeing more talk about absence of really basic traits in a lot of art lately.
Morpho Fat and Skin Folds on Archive.org (for free!)
They also have an animal one that I linked a whole back on the same site !
