sympateawithsugar

[sympateawithsugar]

PACING IS ABOUT LOAD BEARING WALLS.

*staples violently to my own forehead*

#writing

[sympateawithsugar]

How I Study Anatomy

Everyone says NEVER TRACE!! THAT'S ART THEFT! Ok but we can do a little crime in the name of Learning.

Trace to learn, not to earn.

I like to take my own photos, but you can study whatever you want. Link back to original photos, and don't post copied artwork unless the artist is dead, cool with it, or both.

As always with learning, start every sketch with the intent to throw it away (trash for paper, quitting without saving for digital) This takes the pressure off and lets you make Bad Art, which is very important.

So let's make Bad Art of a Deer because I happen to have one handy

Start with a photo of your subject in a nice/neutral pose with all four feet visible. (so not like me)

Freehand copy it. Try not to stylize, focusing instead of matching proportions and pose. Don't get too detailed!

It's ok if your art looks terrible and has broken legs. I've drawn LOTS of deer so I have a leg up. Everyone's art sucks in their own eyes and here's where mine went wrong:

Either lasso-distort (recommended for beginners) or redraw a copy of your first sketch with your reference behind it (scaled to match the main body of your sketch)

Put the original and modified sketches together and compare the differences. Write it down if you want. This shows you where your eyes saw things the wrong size, so you can correct for that next time.

After learning about both deer and yourself, try freehand copying again.

Marvel at your newfound knowledge and skill!

but there's always room for improvement

You can stop here and move on to your real drawing, Or do another freehand-fix-compare cycle. I actually overcorrected my "draws heads too big" and veered into "heads too small."

Another note on tracing: Learning HOW to trace is more important than anything you could learn By tracing. Draw the Anatomy, not the outline. In real life, things don't have outlines, they have bones.

These are from the same shoot which is extra useful for consistency. The lines are minimal and follow where the animals joints are, and only important parts are drawn.

You won't know what Important Parts means right off the bat, which is where in-depth study comes in. You need to do learn the hard parts to do the easy parts right.

Next up: how to study bones and muscles.

#reference

[sympateawithsugar]

I am such a huge horse nerd and I apologize. :( But I’m really tired of seeing girths that are halfway down a horse’s stomach. This may not be interesting to anyone who is not me, but I like to draw fancy saddles and ridiculously long shanks on bits. Also, horses are the only animal I can draw, so I take advantage of that.

I hope this helps some frustrated non-horsey artists in at least some small way. Remember, when in doubt, add some buckles and some rings. :)

#tutorial #reference

[sympateawithsugar]

Glow Tutorial!

If you would like to watch and follow along check out the YouTube link! (Sorry it has no audio) >>> https://youtu.be/VRTuhcABd1g

The art program I use is Krita but these steps should translate to most other drawing programs, one way or another.

#tutorial

[sympateawithsugar]

“Drawing techniques to improve boot shoes”

Source: takuya_kakikata at Twitter

#reference #tutorial

[sympateawithsugar]

Arm Anatomy Studies by Fakhear

Support the artist and check out their Etsy storefront!

#tutorial #reference

[sympateawithsugar]

this is not a tutorial this is just me rambling

#reference

[sympateawithsugar]

They also have an animal one that I linked a whole back on the same site !

#reference

[sympateawithsugar]

I made an art/anatomy tutorial about birds! I hope people will find it helpful!

#tutorial

[sympateawithsugar]

Figured quick gem render recipe for myself, sharing bc why not

I needed a quick way to go from non-transparent grayscale, so here you basically start with bw non-opaque rock without details

"dramatizing" is just glare + gradient on some planes

#tutorial

[sympateawithsugar]

“you know she’s insane right” why do you think i’m obsessed with her

#fishy business #Helmi #Väinö

[sympateawithsugar]

“do you have a type?”

uh yeah, women I’m slightly afraid of

#fishy business #Väinö

[sympateawithsugar]

it sounds ridiculously obvious now, but one of the best pieces of writing advice i've ever received is that most of the time, a character's flaws are also their strengths. a smart person might have trouble admitting they're wrong, or break down when they don't know how to solve something; a practical, capable person might lack emotional intelligence. a determined person might be so focused on their goals that they neglect their friends and ignore anything "superfluous" (i.e. they don't notice minor details that turn out to be important later on). kindness can become naivety; open-mindedness can become centrism; confidence can become arrogance. sometimes it's tempting to just reach into a grab bag of positive and negative traits and sprinkle them in at random, but it's much better to instead isolate the things you like about your character and take those traits to the logical extreme.

#writing

[sympateawithsugar]

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

#useful #reference

[sympateawithsugar]

I tend to draw everything with the same soft pillow-like texture, so painting different surfaces is important practice for me ~ If you want to learn more about how I do this, check out my tutorial on painting different surfaces over on patreon!

#tutorial #reference

[sympateawithsugar]

Writing tip of the day: whenever you can, plug a plot hole with a character flaw!

Every time you realise that it makes no sense that the characters didn't do some super logical thing in the first place, figure out which character could have prevented it by simply the way they are as a person. You're not only solving the problem of the plot hole, but also the issue of writing flaws into your characters in a way that doesn't feel gratituous and contrived.

Why did the characters not use this weapon they had access to the whole time? - The character who could have told them about it wants to have control over people and had personally decided they shouldn't have it.

Why didn't that one genius character just tell everyone how to dismantle the robots? - They meant to, but being an absent-minded genius, they literally just forgot.

How did nobody notice that this little girl has been hanging out with an actual demon for seven years? - The demon made her pinky-promise not to tell anyone about it, and being naive and overly trusting, she didn't find that sketchy at all.

Why didn't the characters go to The Big Cool Guys for help in the first place? - The character who is stubborn and overly proud wanted to choose death before dishonour and didn't want to ask for help.

Every time there was a perfectly reasonable solution accessible to the characters all along, that could've resolved the whole plot in minutes, always try to find an angle where someone prevented it just by who they are as a person.

#writing

[sympateawithsugar]

Notes on drawing babies!

#reference #tutorial