ShadowsMyst's Art n Stuff

Misty Mountains - The Hobbit Cover (by malufenix) I love it so...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:09:49 -0400

Misty Mountains - The Hobbit Cover (by malufenix)

I love it so much. Her voice is so beautiful for these ballad type songs.

bluucat: The answer is: Well, sort of! I noticed that a lot of...

Fri, 10 May 2013 22:17:16 -0400

The answer is: Well, sort of!

I noticed that a lot of things I’ve been recommended or found useful aren’t really in the masterlists of artist references on tumblr - and the same goes for helpful drawing exercises. So I decided to make my own post.

HOW TO KILL ARTIST’S BLOCK

There is no such thing as artist’s block, if you frequently draw from life.

No, really.

If you are really, truly committed to improving your craft, then it does no good to sit and complain that you “don’t know what to draw”. There is so much around you to draw! :)

In public, try doing gestures of people that walk by. Cafes and shopping malls are great for this, because you have a plausible excuse to be sitting somewhere. Ideally, you don’t want people to notice you’re drawing them— they might try to pose, which makes them look stiff and unnatural.

The best targets are people studying, anyone deep in conversation, and people at cash registers.

If there are no people around, draw objects and rooms and practice your perspective.

AWESOME AND FUN EXERCISES FOR ARTISTS AND ILLUSTRATORS

Draw a portrait where a body part other than the face/head is the focus.

Do a full spread for a children’s story. It can be a fairy tale or an original story. Make sure to utilize good design principles and pick readable, high quality fonts that match your art style.

Draw something using only high contrast light and shadow- no lines, no color, no midtones.

Pick a crime report from the news, preferably an unconventional one. Illustrate it as best as possible, making sure to use a dramatic perspective and lots of realistic detail.

Choose an object — one you haven’t drawn very much before. Gather lots of reference images. Draw it in two and three point perspective — bonus points if you can take the references and draw them from different angles than they were photographed. The goal here is to be able to visualize it easily without effort. This is a good exercise for product design and ideation, as well as concept art.

Draw thirty people from life.

Draw thirty people from your imagination. Make sure they’re just as well proportioned and realistic as your sketches from life.

Do twenty studies of your hand, in various positions. Bizarre angles and positions are fine, but it’s more helpful to examine the construction of it and get used to drawing hands realistically.

See above, but with your feet.

Draw a study of a skull. Do not stylize it. Be careful to pay attention to the proportions and texture.

Remember your object? Imagine it in a setting where it could be good or evil— perhaps interacting with humans or other objects. Avoid obvious angel/devil associations. Draw 3 pages of thumbnails and sketches imagining it in this way.

Choose a thumbnail and do two larger sketches of it, and then pick one to bring to completion. Make sure it’s in proportion with accurate lighting for the situation.

Redesign a fairy tale’s characters in either a modern or non-European setting. Provide costuming references, and make sure to do character sheets and full turns of each.

Design your own deck of cards — make sure the borders and pattern on the back are paid as much attention as the figures on the fronts.

Bonus points if you also design and illustrate packaging for the above.

Do you have a favorite piece of fanart? Draw it as original characters- chances are, you’ve likely put a lot of thought into the relationships and personalities of your favorite characters or OTP, which will show through in an original piece. This is a decently good way to use fanworks in your portfolio, if you feel that they’re better than your original work.

Draw a car. A really realistic car. Now draw it from a perspective you find really difficult. You are not allowed to take more than half an hour on this total— cars are actually just boxes with some strategic curves, so they should become very easy to gesture once you retrain your brain.

Draw a table in perspective 5-6 times or so, concentrating on the way it casts a shadow. Make sure to define your light source.

Design a toy! Draw it from multiple angles — imagine you’re presenting this to someone who has to actually model and produce it. Include as much information as humanly possible. Make sure to include an illustration of its use — you can also create an advertisement, if you’re so inclined.

If you watch TED lectures, draw portraits of your favorite speakers while you’re viewing them. Try and finish the sketch during the duration of the talk.

Do an original illustration inspired by two of your favorite illustrators or artists— combining two should help prevent you from directly copying anyone, and force you to think a little harder about solving problems within a work.

Do 30 studies of animals in motion - housepets or birds are probably going to be the easiest, unless you live by a zoo.

Fill three full pages of your sketchbook with hard surface studies. (Cars, ships, tractors— you get the idea.) Try to define them with quick, confident lines.

Make a comic with one panel for each hour of your day. Avoid shortcuts like over the top, animeish emotes and chibi versions of yourself. Make sure to include environments.

Draw ten illustrations as a series that purposely do not tell a story. They must be as ambiguous as possible. This is really difficult — was originally an assignment from Phoebe Gloeckner, and almost nobody managed to be completely ambiguous. The trick to it is to make sure to create thumbnails of the series first, and look at your work very critically — if anything looks too obviously negative or positive, alter it accordingly.

Draw yourself combined with your favorite animal, or an animal you feel represents you well. Avoid traditional anthro depictions— try replacing your body parts with the parts you’d find most useful, or thinking of yourself like a sphinx, etc.

Create a poster for your favorite play.

Draw yourself at age 7, and age 70. Realistically. Avoid thinking of how cool or uncool you’d be or were. Using pictures of your younger self, or relatives, might help.

Paint a still life with unconventional lighting or objects. If you must use fruit, use weird fruit, or light it from below.

Pile books into a tower and draw them in perspective. It’s also fun to make cities out of them, etc.

Draw yourself every day for a month in the same media to track improvement. Use a mirror, not a photograph.

Remember your still life? Now illustrate it in the style you’re accustomed to using.

Draw six busts (head and shoulders) in profile, concentrating on creating an interesting silhouette.

Do color studies of your favorite movie scenes. If you can’t find screenshots, pause the movie and paint from your television or laptop. Detail’s not as important as strong shapes.

Draw your favorite place by your home.

Illustrate a fortune cookie.

Draw a treehouse or birdhouse and include as many details as possible.

Design a historical character, and try to make them recognizable by quirks of wardrobe or unique facial features. “Being extraordinarily attractive” does not count.

Do the 30 day monster challenge!

Illustrate your favorite recipe. It doesn’t have to be fancy. “How to make pizza rolls” will even suffice. Seriously.

Make a business card for yourself. Illustrate it. Hey, everyone needs one- and it’s a great exercise for working under strict constraints, since you’ll need to make sure your name and contact info are clearly legible.

Draw the weirdest object you can possibly find. IKEA is a really awesome place to find weird objects, if you can’t find any in your home.

Design a knight of the round table, and make sure to research armor, etc— it’s hard to draw! Great practice.

Draw ten or twenty plants that are currently seasonal.

BOOKS THAT ARE REALLY USEFUL!

The Art of Ralph McQuarrie. Yeah, this is expensive. But it’s one of the few artbooks that shows an entire process of illustration— if you’re not sure how to proceed from thumbnails to mockups to final pieces, this is probably what you want to be lookin at.

How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict. This is available for free online— awesome resource for character design, as it teaches you to think about external characteristics as indicators for personality. Even if it’s not always the most accurate thing ever.

Leonardo DaVinci’s Notebooks. Yes, I know. Your relatives have even probably tried to get you to look at these. If you can find a good printing of them, though, it’s a really good look at a well used sketchbook.

The Selected Works of TS Spivet. Not actually a real art reference book, but so many beautiful illustrations and well laid out. Worth a look.

Drawing with Imagination. Lots of exercises to do if you “can’t think of anything to draw”.

Any batman artbook. Any of them. I have the OnStar promo one from about ten years back, and it’s still great. There’s a huge mesh of styles going on, and seeing how much thought is put into the character designs and environments is well worth your money. Plus, Batman is cool.

Any Pixar or Disney artbook that shows the visual development process. The Princess and the Frog is a particularly good example of this, and possibly my favorite, even though I dislike the actual film. They really make sure to show all of their art department’s sketches and preproduction work.

The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed. Also available on project gutenberg, and will revolutionize the way you think about drawing. It’s a bit wordy and dated, but worth it alone for the lesson that we do not draw what we see, in reality. Go read it.

WEBSITES THAT ARE VERY USEFUL

conceptart.org

behance.net - mostly for inspirational purposes, and worth getting one, if you’re in the industry or trying to be

http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2011/04/fck-you-pay-me/ The most important lesson you will ever learn.

Noah Bradley’s twitter. Tends to retweet useful advice. Blog is good too.

http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=333 Lackadaisy’s expressions tutorial. Take note, intrepid comickers.

http://conceptcraniopagus.deviantart.com/gallery/24184227 Here’s some decent concept art tutorials.

http://galadarling.com/article/i-want-to-be-part-of-an-evil-illustrator-duo Kurt Huggins and Zelda Devon talk about working as illustrators and how to do what they do. Sort of overlooked but vastly awesome.

http://comictool.blogspot.com/search/label/brushes Do you ink? You should probably try using brushes, if you do. This blog is terrifyingly in depth on your brush needs.

http://www.retronaut.com/2012/02/soviet-space-propaganda-posters-1958-1963/ Here are some awesome retro posters. Retronaut is a great reference resource in general.

http://freakshow6.deviantart.com/art/Photoshop-Gouache-Tutorial-177890902 Do you want to be cool like Loish or many other people using this brush? Of course you do! Here’s how to do it. Warning: may be addicting.

What Skin Colors? How to effectively deal with lighting human skin. Doesn’t include any skintones for POC, unfortunately, as is a common problem with many art tutorials.

Gradient Tutorial Literally one of the most important things to learn when painting digitally, IMO.

Texture Brushes Some good brushes.

DanLuVisiArt Some more good brushes.

Quick Facial Anatomy Tips …with links to other facial anatomy tips. Of course this isn’t a substitute for drawing from life, but it sure helps :)

http://lostandtaken.com/ Free textures for your work! I would encourage making your own, in the long run, but these work well.

http://www.watercolorpainting.com/pigments.htm The masterlist of watercolor pigments. Really helpful if you’re ordering from Blick or Utrecht and can’t recall the difference between one pigment or another, god forbid.

http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/p_images/walk_2_legs(side).gif How to do various walk cycles. Very exaggerated, of course.

http://ilovetypography.com/2008/04/04/on-choosing-type/ Nice article on choosing type. You should always be mindful of how your type choice works with your artwork.

USEFUL THINGS TO OWN

Brown paper sketchbook. Makes defining volume a lot easier, for beginners and advanced artists alike— just get a white pencil and go crazy with highlights.

Small sketchbook. For all the times you can’t bring an a4 one someplace. Also good for sketching in public. Moleskines are good, as they get mistaken for ordinary notebooks often. See notes on sketching humans in public.

White pencils.

Several weights of mechanical pencil— awesome for when you can’t drop pencil shavings places.

A small package of prismacolor pencils. You don’t need to go crazy, but high quality pencils are really a necessity, IMO. A 12 pack will do. If you find they’re too soft, or keep snapping, try using the Verithin variety instead— they’ve got harder leads.

A good ruler. At least 6”. Tape pennies to it to avoid bleeding ink.

Tracing paper, so that you don’t have to completely redraw your semi-final sketch if you like it.

Masking tape. Keeps paper still on a worktop, and keeps tracing paper in place. Touch it to your clothes a couple times before sticking it to your paper to reduce the stickiness and possibility of your paper ripping.

Pen and ink. Also some good sable brushes.

Carbon dust. Not a necessity, but it allows you to “paint” while still getting the effect of a pencil drawing.

Good kneaded eraser.

Good white plastic eraser.

A COMFORTABLE bag. That holds your electronics and wallet as well as all of this.

Fingerless gloves. If your hands cramp often, these will help.

A website. Coroflot.com or tumblr will work fine. If using a tumblr, make a separate one for your art.

Wheew. That’s all I have for now, I think!

magicalnaturetour: Astonishing photos of rare Bengal Tiger at...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:39:14 -0400

magicalnaturetour:

Astonishing photos of rare Bengal Tiger at feeding time. Photos by Birte Person/Solent via Mail Online

Shifters Online

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 03:40:35 -0500

Shifters Online:

Chapter 3 Pg 29

Shifters Online

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 13:10:21 -0500

Shifters Online:

Chapter 3 Pg 28

Shifters Online

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 17:33:34 -0500

Shifters Online:

Chapter 3 Pg 25 is up!

Chris Hanel: Spread the Word: Theft is Theft

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:27:35 -0400

Chris Hanel: Spread the Word: Theft is Theft:

chrishanel:

Do you support webcomics? Take this one question survey:

1. Do you take the RSS feed of over 90 webcomics, rip the images, put them in your Android app, and then put your own advertisements next to them in order to make money?

Congratulations: If you said “Yes”, then NO, YOU DO NOT SUPPORT…

dresdencodak: shoomlah: oxboxer: greatsc0tt: oxboxer: arcsin...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:16:55 -0500

dresdencodak:

shoomlah:

oxboxer:

greatsc0tt:

oxboxer:

arcsin:

Signal boost. Artists, learn what your work is worth. Commissioners, learn what you’re asking for. If someone’s serious about being a professional illustrator, they should look into the Graphic Artists’ Guild guidelines before they even touch Loomis or Gurney.

I’m curious who would pay so much for artwork though. Par example, there’s a small art gallery in Columbia, South Carolina selling 5x7 cards covered in Sharpie squiggles. The cards are going for over $100. I understand the time and effort that goes into art, but I don’t know people who can afford to spend so much for it.

Though I don’t understand why two bucks is too much for fully rendered little A5 format chibis.

In the case of that gallery, those are probably priced that way standard gallery cut of each sale is 50% (or higher). The artist is only getting $50. Which… I actually hope the artist has a lot of them Sharpie squiggles for sale and also has a day job, because $50 ain’t gonna cover their rent and groceries.

Work destined for publishing is also priced far higher not because “more work went into it” or “the anatomy is more quality” (or whatever other bullshit quality metric), but because the client isn’t ONLY buying the artwork. They are also buying the legal rights to exclusively use a piece in a specific market for a limited amount of time without getting their ass sued. Factor in that most commercial illustrators are freelancers and need to cover a lot of costs to keep the lights on (and thus continue delivering what the client wants), and the price skyrockets from “fandom commission token respect prices” to something that might actually constitute a living wage as outlined in the GAG13.

Reblogging for the commentary. Yes, so-called “fandom” artists are notoriously bad at pricing themselves, but it’s unfair to compare them to book illustrators and their respective price points. Fine art/gallery pricing is far more applicable- there’s a big difference when you work is being published or licensed.

tl;dr, you should probably be charging more. I’ve rarely, if ever, run into an artist online who is overcharging for their work.

-C

Remember, too, that when you’re paying an artist for work, you’re not just paying for X hours spent on the picture, you’re paying for the thousand upon thousands of hours of practice, training and education that went into producing a skilled person capable of giving you this art. You’re paying for the privilege of having something uniquely produced, something that you can’t get anywhere else in the world.

Too many artists undercharge for their work, which not only harms them but the rest of us, because it warps the expectations of the community and industries when they come looking for work from us.

So when you’re asked “Why should I pay you X when these other guys are charging less?” The best response is “Because I produce quality work and I know what that’s worth in the long term.”

-AD

A nice little comparison.

This pretty much is what happened with my cat too when I tried...

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:23:57 -0500

This pretty much is what happened with my cat too when I tried this.

shoomlah: A few artists were interested in the results of that...

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:13:55 -0400

shoomlah:

A few artists were interested in the results of that merchandise poll, so I’m posting them for reference. I’m not going to base all of my merchandising results off of these, granted, but it’s definitely helpful to know where everyone’s interests lie.

Drowning in it

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:19:28 -0400

Its insidious, seductive, ever present, even necessary to function in today’s society. And yet, once you become mired in it, much like quicksand, its very very hard to escape.

What am I talking about? Debt.

There’s no question that once the mermaids (read: credit card companies..) have seduced you (suckered you is more like it) dragged you under, deep into debt that it feels very much like drowning. Only, unlike drowning, where eventually you are going to stop moving, with debt, you cannot stop moving.

You will work, or be forced to work probably a less-than-ideal job, likely underpaid, or forced to stay in a crappy job with a shitty boss just so you can live pay check to pay check and keep the creditors at bay. Or even if you have a decent job, have to work more and more, taking extra work or running a side job, or working a second job just to keep ends meeting. Its like struggling as the dept tries to pull you under. Every month a frantic dog paddle, struggling paycheck to paycheck.

I like to think I’m good. I don’t wear or buy designer clothing (actually I almost never buy new clothes or shoes unless I have a specific need to, like my shoes wore out or I have to attend a special function, or my clothing is literally falling apart, and then I tend to buy something cheap to replace it. Like under 10$ cheap). I might cut my hair twice a year. I cook most of my meals at home (i’m on a special diet). I don’t buy a starbucks every day ( once a week I’ll treat myself.), I don’t go out every weekend to clubs, or bars, or even movies. I don’t buy much for myself. But at the end of the month, I’m still always in the red. Bills are paid.. barely, and so the debt just hangs there. It never gets less. The fees and interest takes care of that. I don’t buy video games, if, once in a green moon, a video game intrigues me so much I do want to buy it, I’ll try to get it used. Same with movies. Watch a lot of netflix, rent or borrow games/movies. Do a lot of internet entertainment, you know?

I know there are a few optionals in my expenses, but they do help me keep my sanity. Its like I feel like I’m a step away from being financially anorexic in a way. Not letting myself enjoy anything in life, starving myself emotionally because I have to drop money into a black hole.

Yes. I know I got myself into the hole. But it wasn’t because I bought a bunch of stuff. Car expenses, school, house expenses, moving, some very bad decisions around lending of money got me into the mess. And now I’m paying for it. But it doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it. Sure it saved my ass then, but ‘then’ is catching up to ‘now’ and its time to pay the piper in blood, sweat, and tears.

I’m luckier than some folk. I have a job. At least that keeps the creditors from knocking down my doors and the bank from taking away my place to live. But even that doesn’t keep up with the cost of living these days. It seems that the price of living just keeps going up and up and up, and its impossible to keep up without sacrificing the quality of your life. Downsize, cut, trim, skimp, reduce. Less sleep, more work. Less fun, more work. Less reward, more work.

Can I get back on top of things without sacrificing others? I don’t think its possible. I have to prioritize whats important, and somethings will be very painful to lose I think, because of course, all the fun and ‘unnecessary’ stuff goes first.I have so few ‘fun’ things that even cutting those out doesn’t make much of a dent in my overall picture of things. Oh well. A buck is a buck I suppose to throw into the abyss. Not that it will help much unless I can find significantly more than a buck somewhere in the budget.

It just leaves one feeling very hopeless. Much like the drowning victim who’s been fighting for so long against the tides that they begin to sink longer and longer under the waves. Sadly debt doesn’t kill you (unless you happen to be indebted to the sort of people that WILL kill you), but it often makes you wish you were dead.

productdesignfreak: London design consultancy BERG have...

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:37:40 -0400

productdesignfreak:

London design consultancy BERG have proposed a redesign of the standard till receipt, transforming the usually dull printout with infographics about purchases.Data is extracted from cash registers to turn the receipt into a paper “app” that is informative and context specificThe example pictured here shows a lunch receipt that displays total number of calories, percentage of RDA and other information relating to the food consumed.Tick boxes give returning customers the ability to customise their next receipt.

Mmmm infographics….

Pieces of Me: Pricing Rant

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 01:18:48 -0400

Pieces of Me: Pricing Rant:

roxorfoxor:

I’m not going to say anything that hasn’t already been said, I’m certain, but:

HEY ARTISTS: stop charging so little. $10 for lineart commissions is ludicrous unless you’re completing each piece within 10 minutes. You’ve spent a long time honing your skill; charge what you are…

So.. you turn down a pro award winning designer for.. that?

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:54:00 -0400

I’m not going to name names, but I have to rant about this because its irritating the fuck out of me.

I’m a professional graphic designer. An award winning one at that. I volunteer my services for a PITTANCE to a new local convention to give them a new logo and do a brand identity. Why? Because I really want to support local conventions. I sent them a note on the forums, the organizer asked for some samples of work, which I provided, granted a lot of my best work isn’t online, but enough to prove that I am competent at what I do. And then… crickets. Nothing.

They don’t even have the fucking courtesy to write me back and say “no, we don’t want/need your services” instead they just fucking post a logo contest, which is like a bitch slap to the face of the entire design community. We all know how the design community feels about spec work and why logo design contests are bad for business. There’s also the problem with rip-offs, and the fact that a contest does not take larger marketing and promotional strategies and business values in mind, and the crowd they are addressing doesn’t even likely have the technical skill to actually MAKE a proper logo for all its various applications. Its a lot fucking harder than people think. Most branding process take at least 6 months to a year to just work out. Businesses that know the value of a cohesive well thought out brand pay tens of thousands of dollars for it. On top of the contest itself they only post it for a MONTH, which is pretty short considering people are going back to school at this time of the year, and its pretty much a gong show for near everyone.

So, they announced the winner recently of this so called logo contest. Giving people only a month, no brief, no guidelines, and the kicker they didn’t choose a logo, they chose a fucking illustration. There’s no way that’s going to translate well into anything but a forum header. Its clear these people don’t know a logo from their ass.

So now they have another shitty ‘logo’. And still no idea how to brand and market themselves to look professional. And now, probably, some poor designer somewhere is going to be saddled with working with their crap. Poor sod.

Sad

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:38:34 -0400

Found out my mom’s cat disappeared shortly after giving birth to kittens. The kittens subsequently died because they were too young to live without their mother… apparently.

This has put a whole pile of sad on my day.

I’m also extremely dizzy. Not to the point where I fall down, but enough that I feel really ikky. You know, when you feel ikk, but aren’t really sick enough to go home from work, but staying for the day is vaguely like torture? Yeah, that’s where I’m at today.

Not cool Tuesday. Not cool at all.

alexds1: ming85: Living Anatomy by R.D. Lockhart, ’Emeritus...

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 04:27:47 -0400

alexds1:

ming85:

Living Anatomy by R.D. Lockhart, ’Emeritus Professor of Anatomy, University of Aberdeen’. The first edition dates from 1948, but ths copy is seventh edition from 1974 (“including twelve additional images of surface musculature”) Found this hidden in the hospital library while browsing for something completely different. Never been checked-out before in the history of the library!

10+ more fascinating images (and bigger size) on my blog.

My friend Mei-ing only posts interesting and awesome things, go follow her

chebits: Cat Ears and Cyberlox by *shadowsmyst Would just like...

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 04:24:26 -0400

chebits:

Cat Ears and Cyberlox by *shadowsmyst

Would just like to share these with my loverly followers that my mentor and I collaborated on these. She doing the cyberlox, and my contribution being the ears. Things like these will be on sale soon, as well as custom falls/ears either together or separately :D

Also, model is totally me and these are totally mine <3

I got my shipment of new blanks for my buttonmaker. The Evil...

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:13:48 -0400

I got my shipment of new blanks for my buttonmaker.

The Evil Space Cat sez:

NO BUTTONS FOR YOU.

one of my minicomi buttons! Kuro from Blue Exorcist.

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:01:31 -0400

one of my minicomi buttons! Kuro from Blue Exorcist.

nayzemonstarr: myambeon: Thank you for this post! Really...

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:31:13 -0400

nayzemonstarr:

myambeon:

Thank you for this post!

Really interesting, thanks for sharing♡