- Joined
- May 9, 2020
Any advice for ears? I have absolutely no idea on how to draw ears or how it connects to the face. I'm watching Proko's Anatomy Basics video on ears and shit, but is there anything I should keep in mind?
Art Critique + Advice
- Thread starter Koresh
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- Dec 17, 2019
Just remember that they're connected to the head at eye level and the same level as the bottom of the nose.
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2015
Break them down to their basic shape. They're "C" shaped or like half a heart shape. Very top of the curve is about eyebrow height and everything else Neurotic Loser said is correct. Honestly, just buy or download the Michael Hampton book, he knows his shit.
- Joined
- May 16, 2019
Simplify them way more than they actually are, or else they'll distract from more important facial features. It's okay to lower the value range even if that's not how it looks in the reference (no black pits in the ear canal). They also tend to be a little pinker than everything else on the head so a touch (don't over do it, a single brush stroke, if anything) of more saturated color along the edge can add a nice accent.
The left images demonstrate all of these points and the right image touches on everything except for the color stuff.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2020
you guys are total noobs compared to me
Edit: Its Ethan Ralph btw
Edit: Its Ethan Ralph btw
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2021
A bunch of us in the SJW Art thread were talking about creating a KiwiFarms Art 101, a basic rundown of certain art terms and concepts so that people might get a better grasp on fundamentals, and so that normies can understand what we are sperging about in that thread. I went ahead and made a few slides explaining some of the basics very loosely, since they aren't really meant to be tutorials. I realized it might be cluttering things if there are two threads for art education and art advice, so I decided to just post them here.
Anyways, have at them.
I also attached the transparent Kiwichan's I made for this, use them as you wish.
Anyways, have at them.
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RazorBackBacon
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2020
A good concise introduction to art terminology with clever examples. I rate it A+.
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2020
Where should you be hosting your portfolio online if you want to be noticeable while avoiding the cancel culture fucktards all over the big platforms?
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2020
ArtStation is getting pretty full of amateurs (some sjws too) these days, but I recommend it nonetheless because of the sheer amount of people that use it.
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2020
Looks an interesting place. Does it have a community for sculptors and physical arts or is it all digital and painting stuff?
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2020
I assume it should, you can specify your craft on your profile and you should be able to put sculpture/traditional arts on the metadata of the pictures you upload so it appears on search results.
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2021
what's y'all favorite way of studying art and all that?
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2014
Through Youtube mostly, and using photos as refs to get a pose right. Not outright copying, but a photo's good for figuring out if the anatomy or pose looks like it could exist in the space it occupies. As for youtube, it has some good art program and drawing tutorials, and just getting inspiration from other art styles and subjects in speedpaints are useful.
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2018
Could use some CC, ive recently started drawing again out of a 2 year hiatus
inb4 ik he looks a little stiff
inb4 ik he looks a little stiff
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2017
This idea that references should be used as little as possible regardless of the artist's skill level is everywhere, and it's annoying. Why exactly is copying directly from a reference bad, especially if we're assuming that the person asking for advice is a complete art noob? Drawing with perfect anatomy from imagination is a higher-level skill that's trained by copying or slightly modifying references so much that drawing correct anatomy becomes muscle memory. Like this art channel on Youtube put it: you know how sometimes you think you can remember a song perfectly in your head, but realize you barely know the lyrics when you try to sing it out loud? It's the same thing with art, and telling a beginner to "just draw from imagination" is the same thing as telling a person who doesn't know a song to sing from their imagination until they get it correct. They won't, the only way to learn the song is to listen to it so much that it gets committed to memory.
A practical example: Japanese artists often improve at art thousands of times faster than Western artists. That's because, if you look at their beginner works, you'll see a lot of tracing and heavy referencing from their favorite animu. Unsurprisingly, imitating anatomically correct references and advanced techniques leads to mastering them much quicker than figuring them out from imagination.
Go forth and copy.
It allows pretty much anything art-related, because it's a site for professional artists to advertise themselves to employers. If you're looking to get hired as an artist, it's the place to go.
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2019
Reviving to post oc:
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2023
Necroing this thread for advice on coloring. I know nothing about coloring and want to learn how color, the basics, style differentiation and everything else, books and reading resources would be helpful. Mainly I want to color like 3 people cause I'm derangedly obsessed with their artwork, speedoru, cutesexyrobutts and bluethebone. So it would be appreciated if I could know how they color cause no amount of patreon psds seems to help.
Also for tablet users, does the experience get better the more time you invest? How much time does it take to complete one picture completely? How much time should I put in before I git gud? Is the difficulty curve supposed to be this fucking terrible?
Also for tablet users, does the experience get better the more time you invest? How much time does it take to complete one picture completely? How much time should I put in before I git gud? Is the difficulty curve supposed to be this fucking terrible?
Good Night Knight
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2023
You might need to be a bit more specific about what your issues with colouring are (as well as what sort of art you usually make) to get really helpful advice. More generally speaking, it comes down to colour theory and light.
Colour theory isn't just about what goes well together; it's also about what colours mean and express to you and your audience.
You'll rarely see a romantic scene in cold greys and blues, and maybe you'll want to forgo the hot pink in your profound statement piece about the mundanity of working a 9-5 office job, etc.
Remember that contrast isn't just about light and dark colours either.
Got a yellow light source? Give the most brightly lit areas a more yellow glow, make the rest slightly more purple (being the opposite colour) than you normally would to balance that out.
Experiment to see what works; the great advantage of digital art is that you can try anything and just ctrl-z or delete a layer if you don't like the results.
Ignoring the obvious, all three seem pretty well-versed in their use of colour theory, and use a slightly more (and I use this word veeery lightly) traditional/vintage style. Their choices in colouring are informed by the rest of the artstyle, and I'm not sure whether that would also apply to your work.
When it comes to digital drawing, consider looking into watercolour, paintbrush, and other effects on your brushes to make your colours and textures more lively.
If you are bothered by large blocky single colour fields, try using multiple colours to break up the monotony. The sky doesn't have to be just blue - throw some greens and yellows in there - see if you can get away with purple and pink, why not?
Or, if the sky must be blue: use different shades of blue, make that sky dynamic. Use the darker and lighter tones like subtle arrows to guide the eye towards the most interesting elements of your drawing.
Even if your lines are fairly harsh, using different methods of colouring might be enough to make your art feel less flat and rigid.
And of course: blend your colours while accounting for the light - harsh shadows should be a choice, not the default.
In the end, you need to start looking at the works of all sorts of artists, even (and especially) those who make art outside your specific area of interest. All artists deal with similar problems, see how they deal with them - there's no need to reinvent the wheel.
- If your issue is light and shadows, look at 17th-18th century paintings - Caravaggio, Rebrandt, Jacques-Louis David, Giovanni Paolo Panini... I am confident you can google those yourself.
- If your issue is picking the right colours and textures, look at surrealist art - Gaston Bogaert comes to mind as a painter, though I guess Wes Anderson has a similar sense of colour in film.
- If your art is anything like your pfp (pen and ink), then you might not need too many colours to make it pop. Gustave Doré is an obvious recommendation, he and M. C. Escher managed just fine without colouring most of their works... Having said that, check out printwork from people like Harry Borgman, who made some pretty striking illustrations for Dracula in the 70's. There's a lot you can do with just a few colours if your linework is solid.
Yes, learning to draw with a tablet has a pretty steep learning curve. I started out borrowing a very basic (Wacom) tablet that didn't have a display (effectively just a weirdly-shaped computer mouse with pressure sensitivity) and it took quite a while to get used to it and even longer until I could produce anything remotely on the level of my traditional medium artwork. It probably didn't help that I wasn't used to the software either.
I've found that digital art is more like a combination of sketching, painting and inking, and so you have to become somewhat competent in all three & the technology to get the results you want. You can do it, but it takes time and practice.
Since then, I've upgraded to a proper tablet with a display (Huion), which can still be a bit unwieldy, but it feels more natural to use. It helps to be able to look at your pen while drawing, but honestly the results are not that different. You just need to push through the many hours of practise to get better at it - that's how all art works, mastery takes time and effort.
I can't really say how long it takes to complete a picture. It depends entirely on what you're making, how high your standards are and how fast you work. Generally speaking, digital art shouldn't be much slower than traditional art, as you don't have to fuss with your materials and most other things are more or less the same (or easier).
You can get a lot faster working digitally...
Eventually.
If you need a more low-key minimal-pressure way of getting the hours in with your tablet, you could look at drawing-based games on Steam like Passpartout 1 and 2 (...maybe skip the first game; it can be pretty janky for drawing).
Something like SuchArt Genuis Artist Simulator might be good if you want to work in a 3D environment. It's not for me, but they have a free demo SuchArt: Creative Space, so you might as well give it a shot.
Gamifying it all might help: high-production, mid-quality work is (in my experience) the best way to improve quickly. Just make sure that the game you pick has the proper tablet support.
Sorry this turned into such a long essay.
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2023
First off thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. In specific I would say understanding the color spectrum, how to pick the normal dark and light triplets, where to place shadows lens flares reflected light highlights and other light objects. I want to know what color triplet I should choose for which surface, if I choose #XYABXY color what would be the equivalent dark and bright colors for it to form a triplet, whether its formulaic like #XYA-5B-5XY or something like that, things like that. When it comes to my sources, I primarily am a sucker for retro animation artstyles specifically the retro anime style which has a light color, dark color and a highlight color forming a triplet for every surface so I dont think Im gonna grow out of it cause that kinda style is what I want to replicate. I dont care much about other art to be honest, maybe the coloring style of Darick Robertson here and there but thats it. The tools are also a bit of a problem because of stuff like blending which might get a lot of getting used to but is daunting for a newcomer. I also do pixel art and generally find understanding colors on that end more easier because everything is hyper precise/isolated and everybody uses the same basic methods while in anything else theres only a specific set of methods which produce a specific result, say the 90s retro anime style or pop art but there are infinite sets of methods available.You might need to be a bit more specific about what your issues with colouring are (as well as what sort of art you usually make) to get really helpful advice. More generally speaking, it comes down to colour theory and light.
I looked up the three artists you mentioned - all do NSFW and manga... As an artist (and a person), it might be time to broaden your horizons a little.
Colour theory isn't just about what goes well together; it's also about what colours mean and express to you and your audience.
You'll rarely see a romantic scene in cold greys and blues, and maybe you'll want to forgo the hot pink in your profound statement piece about the mundanity of working a 9-5 office job, etc.
Remember that contrast isn't just about light and dark colours either.
Got a yellow light source? Give the most brightly lit areas a more yellow glow, make the rest slightly more purple (being the opposite colour) than you normally would to balance that out.
Experiment to see what works; the great advantage of digital art is that you can try anything and just ctrl-z or delete a layer if you don't like the results.
Ignoring the obvious, all three seem pretty well-versed in their use of colour theory, and use a slightly more (and I use this word veeery lightly) traditional/vintage style. Their choices in colouring are informed by the rest of the artstyle, and I'm not sure whether that would also apply to your work.
When it comes to digital drawing, consider looking into watercolour, paintbrush, and other effects on your brushes to make your colours and textures more lively.
If you are bothered by large blocky single colour fields, try using multiple colours to break up the monotony. The sky doesn't have to be just blue - throw some greens and yellows in there - see if you can get away with purple and pink, why not?
Or, if the sky must be blue: use different shades of blue, make that sky dynamic. Use the darker and lighter tones like subtle arrows to guide the eye towards the most interesting elements of your drawing.
Even if your lines are fairly harsh, using different methods of colouring might be enough to make your art feel less flat and rigid.
And of course: blend your colours while accounting for the light - harsh shadows should be a choice, not the default.
In the end, you need to start looking at the works of all sorts of artists, even (and especially) those who make art outside your specific area of interest. All artists deal with similar problems, see how they deal with them - there's no need to reinvent the wheel.
- If your issue is light and shadows, look at 17th-18th century paintings - Caravaggio, Rebrandt, Jacques-Louis David, Giovanni Paolo Panini... I am confident you can google those yourself.
- If your issue is picking the right colours and textures, look at surrealist art - Gaston Bogaert comes to mind as a painter, though I guess Wes Anderson has a similar sense of colour in film.
- If your issue is using software or hardware, you'll have to look up a video tutorial and spend more time with it. Make peace with the fact that you're practically starting over learning to draw, because you probably have no muscle memory for making digital art.
- If your art is anything like your pfp (pen and ink), then you might not need too many colours to make it pop. Gustave Doré is an obvious recommendation, he and M. C. Escher managed just fine without colouring most of their works... Having said that, check out printwork from people like Harry Borgman, who made some pretty striking illustrations for Dracula in the 70's. There's a lot you can do with just a few colours if your linework is solid.
---
Yes, learning to draw with a tablet has a pretty steep learning curve. I started out borrowing a very basic (Wacom) tablet that didn't have a display (effectively just a weirdly-shaped computer mouse with pressure sensitivity) and it took quite a while to get used to it and even longer until I could produce anything remotely on the level of my traditional medium artwork. It probably didn't help that I wasn't used to the software either.
I've found that digital art is more like a combination of sketching, painting and inking, and so you have to become somewhat competent in all three & the technology to get the results you want. You can do it, but it takes time and practice.
Since then, I've upgraded to a proper tablet with a display (Huion), which can still be a bit unwieldy, but it feels more natural to use. It helps to be able to look at your pen while drawing, but honestly the results are not that different. You just need to push through the many hours of practise to get better at it - that's how all art works, mastery takes time and effort.
I can't really say how long it takes to complete a picture. It depends entirely on what you're making, how high your standards are and how fast you work. Generally speaking, digital art shouldn't be much slower than traditional art, as you don't have to fuss with your materials and most other things are more or less the same (or easier).
You can get a lot faster working digitally...
Eventually.
If you need a more low-key minimal-pressure way of getting the hours in with your tablet, you could look at drawing-based games on Steam like Passpartout 1 and 2 (...maybe skip the first game; it can be pretty janky for drawing).
Something like SuchArt Genuis Artist Simulator might be good if you want to work in a 3D environment. It's not for me, but they have a free demo SuchArt: Creative Space, so you might as well give it a shot.
Gamifying it all might help: high-production, mid-quality work is (in my experience) the best way to improve quickly. Just make sure that the game you pick has the proper tablet support.
Sorry this turned into such a long essay.
I am generally a pen and ink artist, I draw everything in monochrome and generally have a ton of reference sets for people like Gustave Dore. Im still not at that skill level since people like Dore and Bernie Wrightson can produce immaculate perfectly parallel squiggles for their cross hatching. For Inking generally my top primary references are Brian Bolland, Gustave Dore, Bernie Wrightson and Tetsuo Hara, secondary references are all over the place from Kentarou Miura to Frank Miller. So I have no problem there, the problem is in doing what I do on paper on a tablet cause a tablet is hyper sensitive, the pen pressure thing fucks with my brain, ctrl+z is fucking annoying and other associated shenanigans. I honestly have no problems doing traditional art compared to digital art especially since it leads to a lot more waste of time and requires a bit of a setup while my pens, pencils and books are right beside me. I get like an hour and a half a week for digital art only and I cant accomplish anything in that time, barely can finish a sketch. Ive heard that the average drawing takes between 4-6 hours to complete colors included while I can do a traditional inked artwork within 2 hours maybe 3 if the scale is big. The only reason I push the digital art boulder is cause it seems more versatile and of higher quality but at this point in time all of it is personally just a massive downgrade with disadvantages and waste of time compared to traditional art. I got the software, I got the tools and I have almost everything except the time and a bit of the effort, it feels like too much effort and the hyper autistic stuff of key switching, fiddling with controls and constant redos drives me insane with the level of unnecessary experimental fiddling involved. But thanks, I will look into the stuff you have recommended.
Good Night Knight
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2023
The worst (but most honest) answer is that picking colours is a matter of artistic choice, insight and experience. That is not particularly helpful, but it still needs to be said.
I quickly went through the names you mentioned - retro comics primarily, so let's start with that. Because printing was (and still is) expensive, artists had to work with a very limited palette, and resolve the other issues by overlapping colours, and using black and white for shading and highlights (which is basically pop art - techniques used to make printwork as cost and labour efficient as possible).
If you're really into the vintage / retro stuff, you might wanna go and see whether there's any screenprinting workshops near you. Those places often do one-day courses and (aside from being fun) it's one those things where being able to make high quality digital art has a real purpose.
There's plenty of fairly affordable screenprinting kits to buy online too, but quality is all over the place and most are just for printing on fabric anyway. Might be a good option once you know what you're doing though.
There isn't really a formula for picking colours, as it depends on the artwork itself, but there are a few tools which you can use as a starting off point.
- If you just want a guide to pick colours that work together, there's Paletton which is a semi free form tool for making a pallete which also gives you light and dark tones to match. It's a bit basic, but works fine as long as you can commit to picking at least one colour yourself.
- If you specifically want a guide to the retro comic aesthetic (I'm assuming you're using Photoshop or something similar), here's a really nice blog of someone who talks you through that.
- If you really don't have that much time to work with the software, you might want to do your linework on paper, scan it, and remove the white of the background to immediately get to colouring. Here's a short video tutorial on cleaning up your traditional lineart in Photoshop (and other software). This way, you'll be able to get started on colouring without also having to fiddle too much with your tablet, and you can leave that for when you have more time to dedicate to practise.
It's a channel of a comic book colourist, so you might want to check out this other videos as well. Here's a much longer video in which he really walks you through the colouring process and the software.
Tablet sensitivity is a matter of settings, either in the tablet software or the drawing software. You can make specific brushes ignore pressure altogether.
This also requires time and experimentation to see what works for you, so there's no universal answer on how to fix that, I'm afraid.