that kind of look is called screentones !! for digital i think most artists have their own screentone brushes but i have kind of a janky way of doing it that doesnt require downloading brushes lol ok so
1) draw your very. beautiful . pictur e
2) google image ‘screentones’ and there’s tons of screentones that ppl have scanned, so just pick one you want and copy and paste it under your line layer so it’s all over the canvas like hurting tf out of your eyes (if its a big drawing make sure the screentone covers the whole canvas .. like just resize it)
3) make a layer under the layer w the screentone and then clip the screentone to it .. now you just draw on the blank layer and the screentone shows up like its a brush. amazing
hi, y’all! i get a lot of similar, very broad questions about being an artist so i thought i’d take some of my time and make you all a master post with basically my be all end all advice/references/etc so y’all can refer to this whenever you need. hopefully i’ll also be updating this in the future!
1. there is no right or wrong way to do things. there’s only learning, figuring out what works for you, and finding ways to incorporate skills you accumulate through time and research into your working method. there are rules, some of them are great, some of them are stupid, most of them can be broken when you know what you are doing.
2. learn as many things as you can. doesn’t matter if you think it’s useless, if you’re having fun, if you like something, research it, learn as much as you can about it. the more things you know about the more interesting and varied your work will be, the more opportunities you’ll have, and the more unique you will be (and that matters whether you want a studio job or to be self employed!) sometimes you’ll learn something you really enjoy and you think it is COMPLETELY useless for what you actually want to do but then five years later you’ll be using that cool skill you had fun learning and be grateful you learned it!
3. make things for yourself. make things you like. when you enjoy what you’re making, you work harder on it and you make better stuff. people can sniff it out when you’re just trying to make something you think will be popular and more important, you’ll enjoy it less and feel bitter if you’re not doing it for you.
4. push yourself. this goes back to 2: learn as many things as you can and work hard.
5. don’t compare yourself with others. everyone comes from different backgrounds. some people learn more easily or quickly than others. you don’t know how much they work or what their history is and it’s very easy to see someone else doing something cool and think that it must come easily to them and then feel jealous. let me tell you: it is not worth it.
6. art is just as much about seeing as it is about drawing/painting/etc. you have to train both your eyes and your hand. that’s why figure drawing is so important – it challenges you to be able to see more correctly and precisely.
7. growth is not steady or constant. generally you get bursts of growth and then stretches of “stagnation” – essentially times when you haven’t figured out anything new and are just making things. this can be frustrating because during this time is usually when your taste/ability to see will grow and outpace your drawing ability. it happens to everyone, the fact that you are not happy with your work just means that your ability to see is improving!
8. for the love of god, track your art-related earnings and expenses (google sheets is free!) and learn how to do self employed taxes. they are not difficult as long as you keep updated records!
9. build a group of peers, people near your skill level (ideally also around your age), in person or online. these people will support and challenge you and help you grow!
10. if you want to learn how to do something, there are numerous tutorials for just about everything on google. it’s just a matter of learning how to refine your search terms and having the determination to stick with it. some things will be really easy to find, others less so. all the cool people online telling you to google stuff aren’t brushing you off. it’s how most of us learned things and the wealth of information available is far greater than you’d get asking some random person!
reading material for learning:
making comics - scott mccloud
figure drawing for all it’s worth - andrew loomis
wally wood’s 22 panels that always work
perspective for comic book artists - david chelsea
you get to draw and develop the universe your OCs live in
you could draw your OCs making out with context
see number 3
how can you make a webcomic?
make a new tumblr
install this theme https://www.tumblr.com/theme/37061
post comics as you would on any other tumblr they show up on their own webcomic site
what if nobody sees my webcomic :(
too bad you got to draw your OCs making out and nobody can appreciate your artistic genius obviously the world is not ready for this webcomic genius
It also might be good for an artistic resume or portfolio.
Welp, guess that settles it. I need to start a webcomic.
reblogging this to add while the original link to the theme in this post is inactive, you can find the newest webcomic theme here
This is the post that convinced me to make my own! It’s a lot of fun and I recommend it! It’s a super rewarding feeling to be able to play and develop your own characters in an actual setting! ;u; Give it a try!
For anyone (like myself) who’s lacking the motivation to keep up with a comic!
Types of webcomics you can do:
Narrative! Each update in succession add up to one long story. Good practice for writing! Works either with one A4 page per update (A tale of two Rulers), several page updates (Sunstone [NSFW]) or comic strips (Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic).
Ask blogs! Work super well for tumblr. Good if you are not confident enough in your writing skills and they are highly interactive for the readers!
Episodical! More or less disconnected single single panel cartoon, comic strips or A4 pages that can theoretically be read in any order. Think TV sitcom but as a comic where every episode is a strip/page/cartoon. Usually the type of stuff you’d see in a newspaper.
A hypbrid of all of the above!
Invent your own format!
Comic style!
Photography!
3D render!
Pixel art!
Motion comic!
Fanart!
Fanart with inserted OCs!
Your own story!
Parody!
Romance!
SciFi!
Fantasy!
Straight up porn!
Slice of life!
Comedy!
All other genres!
A mix of genres!
Some other stuff that doesn’t come to mind right now and I am sure other people may add to the list!
I’m tired of taking two hours to draw things that should’ve taken ten minutes. It makes the prospect of doing anything that might take actual effort flat-out demoralizing
I’m tired of wanting to draw until the moment I plug in my tablet and remember that anything beyond “single character standing on blank background” isn’t worth how much frustration it would put me through
I’m tired as heck of my lack of skill getting in the way of actually enjoying my art process. I’m tired of not actually having a process at all because I don’t know how I want my art to look
I’m tired of agonizing over efficiency, looking for shortcuts that don’t exist, and wondering whether or not trying to simplify things just makes me lazy
I’m tired as heck in general. I should just sleep, but attempting to draw and then failing to get even a single thing done would only affirm my shitty mood
I don’t wanna come off as the older guy trying to drop wisdom or anything like that, but hoo MAN do I remember this feeling. But eventually there are answers to those conundrums, as I found out, if you care to listen!
1. That skill thing never really goes away, but it does get more… manageable? Like specifically what you’re feeling is the result of focusing your artistic efforts in concentrated direction, loving how that one aspect looks, and then being really displeased that the other stuff doesn’t look that good when you try it. Right? I mean, it’s super understandable. But you know, the good news is it won’t take you however long it took to get good at this one thing, to improve the other things, because you’ve already developed a ton of coordination and thought processes.
2. Shortcuts are love, shortcuts are life. Never feel bad for wanting to make your workflow more efficient- grab every single thing you can that makes life easier. It’s not like you’ll run out of difficult things to do.
3. I can’t look inside your brain, but a couple things that really helped me when I was getting sick and tired of my stuff was learning about Gesture and the Coil Technique. The first is a great philosophy on filling your drawings with more life, and the second is an incredible resource on foreshortening that makes drawing characters alone an adventure.
And 4. Sometimes if you’re craving a simple art fix, the best thing to do is switch mediums. I used to buy soap markers from Michael’s and draw on the walls in the shower. It was both really fun because you can’t do anything detailed, you can only make big simple shapes- but also because the water eventually washes everything away, helping you come to grips with not needing every piece of art to be perfect.
Anyway, sorry for the preumptuous and unsolicited advice, I just see a lot of younger artists fall into this a lot and I wanted to share that I totally know what you mean and there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Disappointment in your own art. It’s just Science!
People often say to me: “You draw like some kind of inhuman machine. If I eat your brain, will I gain your power?” The answer is yes, but there is another way.
The key to precise drawing is building up muscle memory so that your arm/hand/fingers do the things you want them to do when you want them to do them. Teaching yourself to draw a straight line or to make sweet curves is just a matter of practice and there are some exercises you can do to help improve.
If you’re going to be doodling in class or during meetings anyway, why not put that time to good use?
This is super true and an often overlooked but very important aspect of drawing!
Via Schatky with thanks to Lickal0lli for the translation
This is actually such an amazingly motivational post because it explains visually exactly what art block is. Do you know what art block is?
Art block is that moment when you realise your skills could be so much more then they currently are. It frustrates you to draw because you can finally see your drawings differently. You can see where they can be better and you want them to be better. It’s not a matter of “I can’t draw today”, it’s a matter of “I imagined this would turn out so much better” and “there’s something missing, I just know it. What technique did I miss.” You’ve got past that temporary phase of analysing and researching and now you’re able to incorporate it in your own work, you just need to figure out how, and when you get past that art block. Well, you’ll see the improvement before you know it. Slowly, but it’s there. And once you get comfortable with using those new skills you’ll move on and start analysing again, and you’ll see where you can improve.
Stay experimental and open to learn, it’s the quickest way to get over art block.
This is definitely how you actually deal with “art block” too.
Art block doesn’t exist, it never existed. When you’re not feeling it, it really is just a matter of getting up and doing it anyway until you ARE feeling it. It may take a while, it may just happen immediately, but that’s the only way to solve the problem.
That’s how the people who make it in art do it. They FORCE themselves to do it. They’re not magically more motivated than you, they don’t have any genetic superiority in the arts. They work hard even when they don’t feel like it and they don’t stop.
For every mountain you have to climb in life, there will be storms and there will be plateaus of beauty, but never will you have both at the same time. Let the joys that lay ahead motivate you when you are most scared to go on, and may the thrills of the storm excite you towards your next discovery. Life is nothing if not a challenge.
Anonymous
