#art walkthrough

[phantom-nisnow]

NARRATIVE STORYTELLING + COMPOSITION

First thing I always think of before doing ANY drawing is: what’s the story I want to tell? What’s the mood/emotion it should give off? 

For The Visionary, I wanted to capture that feeling of seeing your hard work and creations finally come to life. It’s that satisfaction as artists, engineers, and creators we feel after seeing our hard work finally bear the fruits of our labor. It’s an exhilarating feeling and we feel a sense of pride. 

I can pick out some key words from those descriptions: pride, excitement, satisfaction. Now, how do I depict that in the illustration + what compositional tools can reinforce that feeling and therefore story?

I also knew I wanted to draw my character, Kala. To reinforce the feeling, I wanted to think of his action and, in general, what he would be thinking in the illustration. I did a few thumbnails like below and figured to have him writing in his book and depicting boats in the background, almost like he’s drawing them at the moment and they’re appearing in the background.

Action: writing in his journal, almost as if making the background come to life -> gives a sense of pride and excitement.

This forms the basis of my composition. Everything from here on out (every decision in the illustration) relates back to this.

When thinking of your own illustrations and what you want your characters to do, try this simple template (do this for each of your characters in the scene):

<character> <action> -> gives <mood/emotion> e.g. The rogue flees from the castle guards -> gives a sense of urgency. A witch backs away from her cauldron -> gives a sense of fear.

Kala’s placement is important as well. I purposely made him stand on one of the fourths of the canvas at the far left to make him feel almost like one of the boats (one of his creations). You know those scenes in pirate movies (or even just Navia Genshin Impact) where the character stands next to all their soldiers or a series of cannons? Yeah, I wanted to do something similar here.

After thumbnailing, I’ll start refining the drawing and getting the structure right before doing anything else. Often, I’ll take reference photos like this and put them together in Photoshop. This helps not only get more accurate drawings but you can even put yourself in the shoes of your character. Imagine how they’re feeling in your illustration and act it out. Your pose—and therefore, your character’s pose—might change depending on how you do it which can help with your drawing.

The boats get lighter in value as they recede to the background. I fix this later on in the composition, but since Kala is the focus, I had to make sure that he had the greatest amount of contrast. So I put a hint of light near his face so that his silhouette would pop well against the darker boat behind him. I later enforce this contrast through differences in color saturation which I will show soon. 

I felt the boats weren’t grand enough + the mast shapes were too busy, and therefore didn’t support the story as strongly as I wanted to. And to further add contrast + give Kala more focus, I made the boats a bit larger, drawing them more from a low angle to further emphasize their grandiosity and the pride Kala feels in his work. It’s great when something works both compositionally well and enforces the story:

General lines of action of objects for flow. The boats specifically are all angled differently, converging towards Kala, to draw the eye towards him more + not feel static. It creates a sweeping motion to draw the eye towards him, along with the placement of papers and the shape of his coat further adding to the flow. 

In general, you can strategically place objects in your drawing to follow certain lines of flow that go back to your focus. This helps guide your viewer around your piece while also giving a sense of motion and energy.

Every artistic decision you make should reinforce the story in some way. Even the tiniest things like the line art style. This idea came after looking through the Across the Spiderverse concept art book, specifically reading about the art style choices of Nueva York. Constructional lines and architectural diagrams are seen throughout the city and I wanted to bring a bit of that into this piece. 

It further enforces the idea that Kala is creating the background behind him while also making the boats recede into the background due to atmospheric perspective. Depth of field is determined by how refined the boat’s sketch is, so the boat furthest away is still in pure constructional lines while the one closest to him is fully rendered. I thought that was a big brain idea and I’m glad I went with it >:)

To add a bit of texture, I added a grid pattern off in the distance to help with the feeling of the background being drawn in. I also added sketches of engineering diagrams into Kala’s blue coat for a bit of visual interest. These further add to the fact my character is an engineer and is almost drawing the background himself. Plus, it just looks cool.

Quick breakdown of some visual choices + how they show the story: 

large value range: the values go from very dark to very light -> deeper contrast gives sense of drama and overall intensity to the image -> reinforces feelings of epicness

strong warm vs. cool color contrast: shows the sunrise lighting, gives the character more focus (red is a very intense color) -> gives of sense of pride

sketch-y depth of field: objects further away have a more sketch-y, drawn look -> helps with atmospheric perspective and shows that the character is an engineer. contrast with more refined foreground and character.

character pose: Kala is standing tall while also writing in his journal with a very satisfied look -> 

flowing papers in the foreground: intentionally placed to aid in the overall flow of the piece -> also enforces the idea that the character in question is very experienced + shows his hard work to get to where he is now

These are all my personal choices for the illustration based on my own experiences and intentions. But every choice, from the character pose, the value range, or whatnot was intentionally done to support the story I wanted to tell in the piece. You or another artist may have different choices given the same prompt, and that’s cool! It’s these kinds of intentional choices based on one’s own experience and emotions that make art awesome and inherently human.

Let me know if you like posts like this and I’ll do more, breaking down the process and my thinking in some of my other pieces!

#nis talks art #tutorial #art tutorial #art walkthrough #my art #1k+ words of nis rambling on about art #idk if i even made sense but I did my best to describe some of my decision processes in regards to composition #composition #steamworks family #art

[poki-art]

sketch <---- ----> final

#my art #hanako kun #jibaku shounen hanako kun #toilet bound hanako kun #tbhk #jshk #art progress #art wip #art walkthrough #art tutorial #sketch

[akioralex]

#digital artist #art #the price of flesh walkthrough #boyfriendtodeath #boyfriend to death #ren hana btd #btd ren #boyfriend to death 2 #ren hana #btd2 #the price of flesh #tpof #gatobob #btd strade #strade #strade btd #fanart

[butchsophiewalten]

softly through the shadow of the evening sun

#the walten files #sophie walten #bon the rabbit #sophie #hello every one . i didnt do update walkthrough for the most recent findjackwalten update because every drop of free time was getting- #-poured into this lol #art tag

[bottlehawk]

shame

#homestuck #rose lalonde #karkat vantas #kanaya maryam #bottlehawk art #she gets over the writing wizard fanfiction thing since she justifies it as literary writing practice for her sburb walkthroughs #the self insert vampire witch girl deviantart base swap fanart is another story

[caught-a-dragonfly]

Billie study

#billie #billie spn #lisa berry #spn art #spn fanart #this is also meant for the walkthrough #which is getting increasingly long 🙃

[blobbei-art]

Admittedly, the floaty limbs characters can at times be a little awkward, so I've been having fun imagining Magolor like this!

I imagine floating being some kind of evolutionary adaption to space. That comes with not getting dizzy from spinning either due to lack of balance coordination sensory or something. Which also probably means he can't stand on ground.

#kirby #magolor #kirby return to dreamland #return to dreamland deluxe #rtdldx #fanart #my art #drew this while watching a walkthrough of the Magolor epilogue since I won't be getting the game #i think 60€ is just too much for a Kirby game tbfh #but he is very very cute! #ALSO MY HEADCANONS GOT VINDICATED FUCK YEAH #i am happy

[linsaangs]

commission for eatwurmz and a PIXEL ART TUTORIAL!

#my art #artists on tumblr #pixel art #digital art #art tutorial #tutorial #art guide #guide #walkthrough #pixel #dragon #dragon art #peakwing #wof #wof fantribe

[hellspawnmotel]

terranigma, a cool game

#terranigma #terranigma ark #terranigma elle #terranigma meilin #art tag #im going to write a little review in the tags bear with me #first the negative: #the magic system is weird to use and basically useless apart from one boss thats almost impossible without magic #it has some weird racism like most old games where you travel around the world. a little more egregious since its supposed to be real earth #i found the main character to be slightly insufferable for about 3/4ths of the game. i came around on him by the end tho. he grows up a lot #and i found whats by far the largest section of the game (chapter 3) to be the least interesting #im not really into helping cities develop and trade quests tho so it might just be me #oh also it is STUPID easy to permanently lock yourself out of like 15 sidequests #and theres a lot of mandatory things that are really hard to figure out. you need to use a walkthrough for this #anyway thats what i didnt like #what i DID like tho. i dont want to get into too much detail but #its a genuinely beautiful game for so much of it #there were so many moments that left me speechless #its high-concept and thoughtful and fun to play #you dont really need to do much grinding either #at its worst its obtuse and cliche but at its best its breathtaking #and i really recommend more people check it out #special shoutout to my friend seona who modded my 3DS and downloaded a bunch of roms including this one #so in conclusion. terranigma is an underrated gem. play it if youre a 90s jrpg junkie like me #just have a walkthrough open also lol

[madisockz]

Hello! I wanted to share my process of how I made my Easter Pony! She is my second ever custom and she made all the trouble I had with the first one seem like a walk in the park in comparison ಥ_ಥ Let's begin!

DISCLAIMER: Custom ponies like this one are not to be played with by children nor made by children. This pony was made with the use of nail polish remover (acetone) which is toxic. You need to wash your hands throughly after use and use in a well ventilated area. This pony was also made with sharp tools such as an xacto knife, sewing pins, rehairing needles, and an awl.

First, the concept art! Trial and error caused her to look a little different than the concept art but I still love the end result!

I wanted to start with a white base to give myself a clean canvas for dyeing so I got this G3 Breezie off Ebay for only $3. I decided to first remove her mane and tail which requires removing the head. If you know anything about G3 pony customzing, you know their heads are difficult to get back on once they come off. Even when you run them under warm/hot water. So to get it back on for dyeing, I tried trimming a little excess of vinyl off the neck ring with my xacto knife. It slipped and got me right under my nail! Bad omen for what's to come!

After getting her prepped (removing her mane and tail, cleaning her, using acetone (nail polish remover) to remove her cutie mark) she was ready for a dye bath! I used Rit DyeMore as regular Rit Dye won't dye the vinyl material that ponies are made of. This was my first ever time dyeing anything that wasn't fabric so I was thrilled when she came out this warm rich brown! So pretty!

I read online that dyed ponies will leach dye onto other ponies if they touch, so I wanted to try and prevent this as much as possible with some matte sealer. Lesson #1: Even though she was dry, the matte sealer reactivated the dye! The smallest touch left a print! :(

I pushed forward! And tripped immediately after! I thought, "Surely matte Modge Podge will seal her just that much more" and to my dismay, the Modge Podge kept every brush stroke I made when it dried!! She looked like a leather hand bag! ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚ I learned later you can buy matte Modge Podge spray online but all I had was the type you brush on to your surface.

Thankfully, with the help of sixteen cotton balls and a q-tip with acetone, I managed to remove all the sealer but she was no longer that nice rich brown. Oh well I still loved her!

And whoever said the paint will protect the eyes from the dye has clearly never dyed a dark pony! Her eyes were so brown after this lol

Painting, adding of polymer clay easter themed confetti, and adding her 3D chocolate bunny cutie mark went great! It was all going well until the eyes.

I had never fully painted pony eyes before so the first attempt was pretty bad. Not even my multiple attempts at glitter and using clear nail polish as a cheap gloss on the eyes could save them.

It was so bad that I almost didn't take any pictures but when I went to seal her head, this weird white powder covered half of her face?? I had never seen this before and it freaked me out thinking I just ruined her. I managed to get it off with a cotton ball and some acetone but her paint was fully damaged.

Turns out this was caused because I didn't shake the can of sealer well enough. I needed a break....

While I took a break for a few days, I decided to watch tutorials on how to paint doll eyes and learned that it's actually pretty common to use high quality watercolor pencils; either Faber Castell or Derwent (which is what I ended up buying).

When I came back, I made the hard decision of removing all the paint and decorations from the head and starting over. Hours of work gone but it was so worth it! 🩷 Removing the paint with acetone ended up making her head lighter than her body so I had to redye her head lol. This time I mixed Derwent pencils with acrylic paints for her eyes.

Time for the hair! I've never done curls before and my original plan was to buy curly hair online but it's so hard to find in the color and curl size I wanted.

So my second idea was to buy small curlers to use on regular nylon doll hair bought from ShimmerLocks on Etsy. But when I tested them out on poor Flower Bouquet it looked so bad ಥ_ಥ

I discovered a Youtube channel you may know called Dollightful where in one of her Stock Box videos she used yarn that she unraveled to make super cute tight wavy hair for a doll. It was a perfect solution! It looks so good but omg it was tedious haha! I used it for her tail too; sectioning off the colors hoping they'd stay separated (they didn't lol).

She's nearly complete! Time for small decorations! I tried so many different ears from air dry clay to stealing some from bunny decorations I bought at the store and nothing was working! But I had one last idea...

I gave these old Littlest Pet Shop costume bunny ears some use with a flat top sewing pin and some glue so now my pony has bunny ears! Yay!

I forgot it in the concept art, but I originally wanted to add flowers to her mane but I couldn't figure out how to do that without glue which I didn't want to do, too permanent, so I opted for some beads I had on hand. I didn't have any light blue so I made some with the use of acetone (nail polish remover in my case) and boom! Light blue beads! Then I washed them off so the acetone wouldn't damage anything :)

I used a gold topped sewing pin, a butterfly charm, a felt flower and two faux flowers to create a cute hair accessory!

Finally I sewed a hair tie to a puffball to give her a removable cottontail if I ever wanted to take it off.

And DONE! She looks so good after so much time and effort! I worked on this girly for two weeks I think? She actually had a partner I designed but I've run out of time to make her :') Maybe next year? 👀 🩷🩷

#my art #art #horse #pony #equine #equine art #artist on tumblr #mlp #mlp art #mlp g3 #my little pony g3 #g3 mlp #custom pony #ooak #ooak doll #ooak mlp #ooak my little pony #custom mlp #my little pony #my custom ponies #easter #bunny #pastels #pastel rainbow #walkthrough #custom

[cinnamelle]

saving people you love the most but who's gonna save you

#ff7 #ffvii #ffvii remake #ffvii rebirth #final fantasy 7 #final fantasy vii #zack fair #zerith #my art #not me watching a walkthrough while drawing the boy

[lolathepeacocklord]

THIS JUST IN- Lola the peacock lord's complete and comprehensive course on drawing bulkhead transformers animated, coming SOON to a dashboard near YOU!! hopefully

#my friend just asked for a little advice on how to draw him and I spent like. two whole days drawing an entire bulkhead walkthrough #I really hope this gives some good advice #and that I didnt get too rambly at times #lets all go out and BULK some HEADS #!!!!!! #my art #transformers #maccadam #transformers animated #tfa #bulkhead #tfa bulkhead #procreate

[asaethiel]

some adam-centric sketch page bits

#the raven cycle #trc #adam parrish #henry cheng #pynch #fanart #digital #may23 #actual art #on first read i was neutral abt henry bc his character does just feel so shoehorned in. and i still agree w that #but this time around i was actually so so endeared by him..!! this obnoxious little high school queer!!! #gets high and watches game walkthroughs on YT. has trouble translating his thoughts into words. fuckin madonna shirt+boxers outfit. #he's perfect #anyway. adam's my fav tho if u couldn't tell. the forest magician imagery rlly got me #+i read opal!! so cute so funny! #opal as their cat who they have to kick out of the room before they get frisky bc otherwise she'll just sit there staring at them like 👁️

[akioralex]

#digital artist #art #the price of flesh walkthrough #boyfriend to death #ren hana btd #boyfriend to death 2 #btd2 #ren hana #btd ren #gatobob

[rainboweemart]

Monsters was so good!! 👏👏

#First art of the year woo 🙌 ( & yes I ship them 🫠) #hah this brings back the ache of not having enough walkthrough to Zoro’s family in the Animanga… #Ryuma is such a legendary character wish I knew more of him before Thriller bark and Wano 🥲💘 #I absolutely love how Ryuma’s personality is basically a mix of Luffy’s and Zoro’s 😭😂 #One piece #monsters 103 mercies dragon damnation #shimotsuki ryuma #roronoa zoro #One piece monsters #ryuma x flare #flare #wanted! #ryuma #one piece fan art #my art

[eskiworks]

Made a walkthrough for my latest piece!

#tutorial #walkthrough #art advice #eskiworks #art