Art!

[Alec]

Amanda here! I just wanted to talk about art. Things like what artists you like, or sharing your own art. I would also love to give out art advice.

[binksthecat]

I have been working on improving my art skills for a year now. I am pleased to say I have gone from stick figures to proportioned full body people. whats your advise to making them look good, shading, and also getting into higher detail?

[Alec]

My greatest advice, and this you'll hear from many people, is Practice. I like to think of it as leaking out imagination. Everyday, draw at LEAST three sketches. Look at reference. Taking art classes are also very good for art, no matter what you think you are actually learning or not learning. Sometimes it's frustrating to be in an art class, being someone who draws Anime/Manga style, but the basics are the basics.

I heard a story once that in the Renaissance in Italy, apprentices spent years just grinding up the ingredients for their masters' paints. They weren't even allowed to touch brushes until they had learned everything from the ground up about constructing what they would use.

In today's society where anyone can grab a piece of paper and a pencil and start mapping their imaginations out, we often take for granted the basics.

Some good books to draw out of are:
Anatomy for the Artist, by Sarah Simblet
Many of the How to Draw Manga series (white covers)
most any book with anatomical and muscular cross-sections

Also, you might try finding a few artists that you strive to have the style of and study their art. Study it, put their art as your desktop, heck, even trace it. HOWEVER, if you trace someone else's work, NEVER post it, even if you give them full credit. It tends to cause more drama than it's worth.

The point of tracing is to train the muscles in your fingers to those curves. Your fingers have muscle memory, and once you make them learn all the curves and angles you want, it will get vastly easier to produce professional looking work.

So draw, draw, draw! Surround yourself in books, art, and references. Take a sketchbook, no matter how small, and a pencil with you everywhere.

[kikiroll]

@ Ukeaco: That's perfect advice and so true! When I was taking art classes I struggled with the projects and found the material tedious but I found the more I practiced in other area's (landscapes, anatomy speed sketching, stills of cloth etc....all that stuff I hate doing lol) I found I greatly improved in the style of my art (anime/manga). So yes practice practice practice! XD

It's tough picking my favorite artists both professional or amateur but my list is definitely topped by Satoshi Urushihara and YUG. I see anything of theirs I BUY IT. Hahah.

I used to draw more but I don't have a desk in my apartment at the moment so I've been slacking and I go through high's and low's creatively. I'll obsess for a couple weeks and then NOTHING for months xD Not a good pattern but it's how I work.
I have a deviant art: clickity click
I need to update it though hee hee.

[Ann]

also, there's a great website for posing reference called www.posemaniacs.com. It is filled with Poser models in various positions given anatomy skins which you can rotate and view from different angles. The feature I use most is the 30 second pose as a warm up, but the negative space viewer is also pretty cool. Obviously drawing from live models is ideal - although fairly realistic, these 3D models don't obey gravity as well as a real body would and on a few occasions are contorted in ways human bodies are not meant to bend - but for pose help, gesture drawing purposes, or just practice it's a pretty neat site. This site is a useful bandage when for some reason I don't have access to living naked human beings to pose for me day and night.

[Ann]

Do we want to share art in this thread too? I've got some fan art or randomness I can toss in for starters, but other people have to post stuff too or I'll feel like I'm making a fool of myself =/ But I like art show and tell threads, they inspire me to try harder! ^_^;;

[wendybird]

I don't draw, but I do like to make hair accessories, would those be fair game to post?

[Ann]

heck yeah! this thread is for all things creative, so please do share! I'd love to see =)

[wendybird]

Katamari!




I have several variations with other cousins, but they're still under construction.



And a hat I sewed random crap to, you can't see much of the details. >.<






And I thought you guys might appreciate the cake I baked and decorated for my ex's birthday. It was slightly melted at this point.



BUT WAIT! There's more.
When you cut it open, there's a rainbowwww!

[Chris]

Is that a Mega Man cake? Please tell me that's a Mega Man cake.

[wendybird]

It is indeed a Mega Man cake.

[Alec]

@wendy: HOLY CRAP. You are made of awesome!

I should get DELL to freaking join already so that she can share her epic Kirby Cake.

This is my latest non-breedable/changable pet bit of art. It has to do with it, but it's not made from a template:

[kikiroll]

@wendbird: xD Oh my gosh your hair bands/ornaments rule! That's so cool!

Ann: Awwww Mr. Guinea Pig! (~>▽<)~ So cuuuute!

@amanda: Ohhh pretty! What are non-breedable/changable pets? I feel like I heard of that before but can't remember what from.

[admyr777]

@ Ann: I really like how you make less so much more

@ wendybird: from the shape of the silhouette I'm guessing that's MegaMan X, in which case => Super COOL either way

@ Amanda: Superb Piece! I really wish I knew how to color that well.

Anyways. I don't draw that often, but when I do it's usually of my friends and what not, and it usually has to be a picture of them because, well, I'm slow. Here are some thing's I've drawn (that are "appropriate")

[Alec]

Its a subforum on Gaia Online, but you'll find it other places, too. Here's a link to my shop: www.gaiaonline.com/forum/breedable-changing-pets/hart-hind-legendary-pokemon-event-now-see-pg-2/t.43715207_1/

I go by Patmos of Endtimes there. X3