#trying to practice backgrounds and more realistic shading | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

slightly-gay-pogohammer · 2 months

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I don't know if you've ever been asked this question, but I was wondering:

Did you learn to draw somewhere, or were you self-taught? Maybe you have some tips or hints for beginners? What was your favourite thing about drawing?

Sorry if this ask is too personal, but I really like your drawing style and wanted to ask some advice :D Have a good day! 🌸

it's a mix of both, really! i grew up loving art from the very beginning, like. im talking about making teletubbies fanarts and asking my dad to make me learn to draw characters from w.i.t.c.h. and tomb raider fandsndfs, according to my parents i had a pencil in my hands before i even started talking -- and that's what led me to actually learn to draw "properly", first in a art-centered high school (that. did less than good to me tbf but it was a matter of 90% of the art-related teachers being garbage) and the comics academy in torino where i think i started to truly "understand" what i wanted from my art style

if i may give some advices other than the good ol' "keep practicing and try to at least doodle something once a day", i could go with:

don't compare yourself to other artists negatively, especially those younger than you. it's probably the hardest part, but you need to "force yourself" to be positive. if you find yourself thinking "this 14 years old draws better eyes than me", go with "i love how they draw eyes, let's see if i can learn from it"

copy copy copy copyyyyy!!!!! copy from references, copy from photos, copy from comics, copy from movies. of course don't plagiarize people and then present that stuff as your own, but try to make a pose yours and learn to take pictures of your own hands, feet, face or ask people to pose if you can't find the right position

your art will look like shit to you, a LOT of times, but know that at one point you're going to quit. if you don't like what you're drawing, either quit there or restart, don't try to "fix" it because you'll just end up noticing more and more issues with it - issues that, most of the times, aren't even issues to begin with. letting go of perfectionism is very difficult, but at some point you'll have to do that--

and about perfectionism, a VERY good exercise we did in comics school was being forced to "draw fast". this isn't me telling you you NEED to draw as quick as possible, but it's an exercise that forces you to learn quickly where certain body parts go, to prioritize specific details rather than others. we had a model, and at first we had to sit there for an hour drawing her, then the hour became 30 minutes, then 10, then 5, and at the end 1. it took us a few lessons to do that, but at the end the super sketchy 1 minute copy went from ???? to a stylized human figure!!!

learn to draw realistic anatomy, and then make it your own style.

for the love of god learn prespective it's a bore it's a chore but as soon as you learn that everything becomes SO much easier

for shading, just. put a point in the canvas where the light source is and go from there!! if the light is on the right, the shades will be on the left

if you're coloring, play with the shades' colors. a good idea is to use the opposite color you use for the lights - if the light is yellow, the shades look great in purples, for example just don't use pure black unless you wanna go for a more dark/noir aesthetic oh my god

professional comic artists retrace a lot of their backgrounds. i'm js. use this as you wish :)

learn to draw different body shapes!!!! like getting out of the anime phase of "fat people are just like thin people but with a huge belly" can be difficult, but it's very satisfying

go out of your comfort zone. if you have problems drawing horses, spend a few days learning to draw horses. take some pics and try to understand them.

body proportions are so fun once you realize how so many things are the same. generally speaking, your spread hand is as long as your face, your feet and half the size of your arm; the outer corner of your eye is at the same level of your ear, and the inner corner is perpendicular to your nose and the corner of your mouth; if you leave your arm on your side, your elbow is at the same level of your bellybutton, and your fingers reach halfway your thighs. it's so fun

and yea, i can't stress it enough. it'll take time. art is painful, art is stressful, art can be discouraging. take a step at the time, accept some failures and celebrate any good thing - even the smaller ones. you learned to draw hands today, and you should be proud. i tried to draw a cat for the first time and it looks wonky, but the cat you will draw tomorrow will look better. i believe in you

#gio replies

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tears-of-amber · 1 year

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My Top 5 Witch Tips For Beginners:

🌹Admit when you’re wrong! There’s no shame in being wrong and finding out you were doing something that wasn’t working! The shade would be if you kept doing it in a forced state of ignorance/denial! Example: I used to think working with Greek gods was for me, but found out it just wasn’t vibing with my practice (I was 11). Or like, when I thought spells to lose extreme weight were healthy and realistic (ugh… yeah that was 12 year old me).

But no matter what age you are you can and WILL make mistakes (finding out what you were doing is disrespectful to a culture or closed practice, etc). Just admit you’re wrong and change your ways!

🌹 No deity is going to godspouse you as a minor. If you work with deities and you’re a minor and you feel like maybe a deity is wanting to godspouse you, I guarantee, they aren’t. This isn’t an insult to your attractiveness or worthiness it’s just common sense and me trying to eliminate the misunderstanding that the gods are ok with godspousing minors (pedophilia) I’ve seen way WAY too many girls and guys and people in general claiming they’re godspoused to Hades and they’re literally 15. No. Just no. It’s not healthy.

🌹You don’t have to use all the tools you see or read about other witches using! I’d hate to see someone spend a boatload of money on tools they never use. If you can, find a stick on the ground and use it as a wand before you go and spend a lot on a deluxe handcrafted wand. Or try using a glass of water as a chalice to see if you even like using a chalice in your practice! Or don’t do any of this and simply create your own tools that feel right to you! I bought a wand cause I thought it was absolutely necessary and I used it probably three times before realizing I didn’t like using wands. Wish I hadn’t spent that much money on something that isn’t relevant to my practice.

🌹 If you struggle to believe in the magic, that’s ok. First of all, it’s more common than you’d think to doubt magic as a witch. A lot of us are coming from backgrounds and childhoods where we weren’t raised as witches or with a belief in magic. Our parents probably told us such things were silly to believe past a certain age. It takes time to trust in the process of magic so don’t beat yourself up about it.

🌹 You don’t need to be good at everything and it’s definitely not a competition. I’ll be completely honest here. I used to lie that I had all these magical gifts and abilities just to feel relevant when talking to other more experienced witches. Like, I would say I could predict the future with premonitions, and that I was super successful at crystal ball gazing. When really, I have no such skills. I usually fall asleep when crystal ball gazing. And I most definitely don’t get premonitions. But hearing everyone talk about how they see the gods and goddesses and are able to perform great acts of magic with ease made me jealous and insecure. But trust me. Your practice is relevant. Just as valid as experienced practitioners, and don’t let anyone make you feel ashamed if you aren’t an expert in some area of witchcraft. Especially not yourself.

-Velvet Rose 🌹

#witchcraft #witch #witchblr #spirituality #witchy #velvetrosewitchery #baby witch tips #witchery #witch tip #witch tips #baby witch tip #baby witch #baby witches

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tamelee · 5 months

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hi tamelee!

I'm here to ask for a little bit of advice if that's okay (: about a month ago I bought a Wacom drawing pad so I could start experimenting with digital art. artists like you here on tumblr have really inspired me to start making art. but I feel kinda.. lost. I've been mostly drawing naruto manga caps and I'm getting better but I guess I don't know where to go from here. coloring and shading scares me lol. I'm using clip studio paint and it's just a little.. intimidating. I feel discouraged, like I won't be able to do it. how did you do it tamelee? did you watch a lot of tutorials, or did you experiment until you figured things out? any advice you'd have for a beginner artist I'd really appreciate.

thank you veryvery much for your time ^^

Hi Nonee! 🧡 Sure!

Oh I think that’s a very good place to start. As well as drawing subjects you like ^^! Hmm, tbh I’ve just experimented a lot, but I don’t think my way of having done things was the most efficient. You might want to follow tutorials step by step? You can try coloring only with flat colors until you feel a bit more confident with that as well as cell-shading (toon-shading/non-realistic, like in anime) instead of rendering further as that can all be confusing at first. I personally never truly understood shading until I studied cell-shading and made my art a lot more readable. A lot of Anime uses this;

You see how there is a base color, a darker color for shadows and highlights? (Sometimes not even highlights.)

When you start to study it from existing work you’ll start to notice things like color always being in the same area of saturation and when you suddenly have a color that is way more saturated than the other it can look off. (See example.) But this is a guideline, not a rule. In your own art you can especially use saturation and brightness to help aid you to direct a viewer's focus and even tell a story.

I LOVE ‘How to train you dragon’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda’ for this because their coloring is so inspiring and if you truly want to learn from professionals... well those are the type of media to look for of course! I have an entire folder to inspire me just based on those.

Do you see how calculated those color combo’s are?!?! Here you see both analogous and complementary schemes and it is actually through looking at the things I like that I learned it >< The orangey colors stand out and are bright which helps you to focus on that area whereas the complimentary scheme is used to bring characters together.

If drawing Manga-caps is something you love to do, then maybe for coloring you can study screen-caps from Anime or even other animated films. I’d recommend to take it step by step, though I haven’t really applied it myself, from the video’s I’ve seen and artists I’ve followed it is always advised to have an art-goal that you can work toward. Maybe you first want to focus on lineart and then laying down a base color where the colors are harmonious and next would be cell-shading maybe and then you can start adding another light-source etc- eventually you can decide to create more depth or practice with monochromatic coloring, maybe even greyscale to learn values. But right away that can all sound a bit intimidating doesn't it? Find things that you like and then maybe you can open them in your program and just study. Find a brush you like, put on some music or a show on the background and for a moment play around with it without needing to create a finished piece. This is also how I learned how things like adjustment layers work or what all the different kinds of tools do. I have to agree with you, CSP is intimidating for me as well >< so this is kinda how I approach it as there are so many add-ons and additions within it but I try to only learn what I need for that moment so I don't overwhelm myself. I definitely try to find video’s that can help me with creating Manga though! ^^ There are plenty! It'll get easier eventually, you'll learn the program and you start to recognize placements for shadows and you will get a feel for the coloring- no worries 💪 Learning something new will always stay intimidating, every time I open up a new document I feel it too. It's not easy at all, but you kinda have to allow yourself to experiment and even make mistakes because practice is never perfect. I have some beginner tips written here- I hope any of this is somewhat helpful 🌷🫶

#asktamelee #art tips #art talk

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real-oddity · 5 months

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Real Oddity's 2023 Art

Hello hello, gay people in my computer, it's that time again! Time to look at my art over this year! Feel free to look at 12 pieces that I did throughout the year. Enjoy :D!!

January- Fluffybird hyperfixation was in FULL SWING, WOW! I was in a really good groove early in the year, and was getting a lot of nice work done, including these idiots! I've changed how I draw these boys, but I still really like the shading for the most part! Generally holds up well. The background is pretty cool, too! I drew it myself :]

February- Luz Noceda my beloved! The Owl House was my favorite show for a while and still means a lot to me, so I felt like drawing Luz! Overall not very happy with this piece, like the shading, and also the nose, but I love the tears and eyes :D! Also hey those weird funky angular hands I used to draw, what ever happened to those-

March- BALDI!!!!! I was such an indie horror kid, man, so when I found out I had like. 12 hours to get a drawing done for Baldi's anniversary, I fucking jumped at the chance. I'm proud of that fact, but yeesh that shading is a little gross color wise. Also I could not draw lips, ears, or noses. I still can't, but I'm better at it!

April- oh god not them- So I was into Homestuck for a bit lol. I haven't finished it, and don't know if I will, but that's beside the point! Honestly this piece still holds up! For a colored sketch, I still like it a lot, especially Whimsy's hands. Dieonn's chin though... god you can tell I'm ass at perspective-

May- Oh my goodness, it's Wally Darling! He's just the most~ This was a practice in perspective, which as mentioned before I'm not great at!. I think it came out well, and while the shading isn't realistic for a felt body, I still like it :]

June- Oh my goodness he's multiplying!!! Run, run! This was me still trying to wiggle into the Welcome Home fandom (and failing lol) This was also a practice in both just drawing Wally, and composition! I didn't do great, but hey, it was good practice.

July- Oh my gosh it's him... the birthday boy- So the Daycare Attendant stole my heart a few years back when I was really ill and recovering from some trauma, so I of course had to make something for Eclipse! I wanted to test painting, and honestly? I like it a lot, at least dirt wise. He looks so grimy, I love it, ah!! Still needs more work on the lighting, though.

August- God dammit he came back again >:[ I was getting excited for all the new fnaf stuff, so I decided to draw Springtrap, the animatronic that scarred me so much as a kid. I'm actually still pretty happy with the general lighting. Like, there are a few things I have notes on, but overall I still like it :] Also the wires were fun, hehe

September- Mr. Darling is back again! I decided to try my hand at digital painting again and!!! I am still really pleased with the results. Pretty man!

October- Oh god its The Horse Show- For Cringetober, I drew a rarepair of Rarity and Sassy Saddles from MLP:FIM. I'm still super super happy with the horse anatomy, they're so cute! This was also a test in cell shading.

November- Circus time! I thought the pairing of Jax and Kaufmo was kinda funny, so I drew them. This was another test in composition and such, and general interactions. I still think it's alright :]

December- JANUARY EVERLY MY BELOVED SON!!! God it's been a hot minute sense I've done any illustrations with Jan. This was me just dicking around tbh, but hey! The results are fun! I love my son <3

2023 was so much better than 2022 in many ways. I'm looking forward to an even better 2024, and I hope you'll join me!

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boymeetswerewolf · 7 months

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I love your art! It’s so high quality. What program(s) do you use to achieve that effect? And what tips do you have for aspiring artists wanting to reach such levels themselves?

Hi Anon!

Thanks a lot for the lovely compliment.

I mostly create my art using a technique called overpainting where I paint over reference images. I have an art background (took art at school and at college), but it was focused on abstract art so my experience with realistic proportions is exceedingly terrible and I've just never had the patience or put in the time to learn proportions from scratch. I've always admired artists who put in the time and effort to learn how to do that!

As for what programs I use, I tend to stick with Photoshop since that's what I was trained on and am most familiar with. I use a combination of brushes, filters and textures to give my art the look that it has. I tend to work at a resolution of about 3000px for height or width (whichever is the largest for the layout I'm going with) and a fixed brush size so that I can add a lot of detail and that it looks consistent throughout the piece. I also use tons of layers so that the lining, shading, colouring and any extra adjustments are all separate from each other and easily changeable. My PSD file usually averages between 300mb to 400mb in size because of all the layers.

The tool I probably use most outside of Photoshop is Color Cop. I'm partially colourblind, so when I want to use specific colours I need the hex codes or RGB codes otherwise it takes me ages to get the colours to blend right.

Below are some progress examples (from the "Sacrifice" theme for Sterek Week '23) of how I usually start out when I'm creating something. I go hunting for images and make a collage/edit of what I'd more or less like the finished piece to look like. Usually during this part I also play a lot with different ideas to see what works best. (Sometimes the final result ends up looking how I wanted, sometimes it takes on a life of its own and goes in a completely different direction!) The "Sacrifice" piece is made up of a promo shot of Stiles from Season 6 and a screenshot of Derek from Season 3 (I think). The background is made up of official images from Stranger Things that I blended together and added colour filters to.

Once that's done I start painting with pencil brushes to get the lines, then follow up with texturing and shading. I like to use a soft neutral colour like a beige as a base canvas so that I can paint with black as well as white. Lastly I'll paint in the colours and then finish off the piece by cleaning up the linework and by adding filters to adjust contrast/balance or colouring. Occasionally I've worked "backwards" by roughing painting the shading and some of the colours out first before adding linework.

As for specific tips, I think mindset and believing in yourself is important. It's very easy to get overwhelmed in the beginning, so don't compare yourself to others. If your art makes you feel something, then you're on the right track. Regardless of whether or not you work professionally as an artist, if you express yourself creatively in a visual medium - whether it's an oil painting or making lewd doodles in a sketchbook - then, in my opinion, you are an artist.

Once you're over that hurdle, the next part is just to keep at it. I hate using the word "practice", so I'm rather going to say keep making art consistently, and - most importantly - have fun while you're doing it. If it's fun, you're more likely to stick with it and improve. If you're trying to go in a specific direction with your art, I think there are two important areas to focus on: expanding your creativity and your familiarity with the tools you use. The latter especially will make your life a lot easier.

For me, being familiar with Photoshop is what allows me to make digital art the way I do. I've used it for a long time so I know a lot of tricks and shortcuts to help me achieve what I'm going for. This goes for any program you choose to use, though. And you don't have to limit yourself to one. Play around with different tools and programs and see what works the best for you. The internet is also a fantastic (and often free) resource, and YouTube especially has a lot of tutorials that can help you get started or help you build on your existing skills.

To expand your creativity with regards to your art, I recommend studying other artists - and not just one specific kind of artist either. Look at the old masters, look at modern art, look at fan artists, look at photographers and cinematographers. (And, of course, Mother Nature - the greatest artist of all.) Look at how they use composition, how they use colour, how they use lighting and shading. Try and incorporate some of those aspects into your own work and see what works for you.

TL;DR - Experiment and play… and most importantly, have fun!

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

~ Bren

#anon #asks #art related #my art #this reply ended up being way longer than i intended

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puppyluver256 · 5 months

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Iiiiiit's that time agaaaiiiin, time to look back at the art I've done over the year hehe :3 I was so desperate to get that Taion pic done tonight so I could include it cuz I really like how the Mondo turned out o:

January - BIG SHOT | I'm gonna go over these and try to remember why I put them in here, so here's the first one. Uhhh, I think I was just really proud of how Spamton Neo came out, 'specially for my first attempt at drawing either form of Spamton seriously, as well as...whatever that technique's called where something in the front (ie. the Fun Gang/Sh-- Squad/Lancer Fan Club here) gets blurred to keep your focus on the Main Subject, that turned out well too c: February - On Wings of Golden Skies | I'm not the best at drawing complex birds, especially big complex birds, so Ho-oh looking as good as they do makes me happy considering my second main-series game was Gold, even if I was more of a Crystal player eventually. That and Bell Tower looks nice too :D March - Wave o' Babies | Oh boy. For something semi-serious made off the back of a dumb method of attacking one of the titular Teen Girl Squad gals, this was fuuuuunnn and cathartic. April - Winter Delight | Had some fun figuring out how to shade snow with my insistence on keeping my brush use more varied now :3 Also, was good practice for drawing black people with more realistic black features, just the lips here as lightened palms are kind of hard to see underneath mittens hehe. May - Frigid Coffin | Ice effects. 'Nuff said. Also Lief is cool, no pun intended c: June - Macaroni and Bees | Love how the honey turned out! Both in this art and in real life! Please try honey in your macaroni, it's Nice, also barbecue sauce but maybe not at the same time until you've figured out whether or not you like both. July - In Pursuit of Power | I'll be honest, I included this one solely because of the art theft fiasco, all to give said thief one last symbolic middle finger >:3c August - I Shall Not Bow | Textless version featured in this review preview, this one was chosen both due to how important the message was to me and also how I was pretty proud of how yahweh's stupid face turned out. September - Overcoming the Odds | Backgrounds, man. I keep improving with backgrounds and this one's a good example in my eyes. October - Team Snakemouth | I just like them okay!! :D November - If only I could hug you back | ...idk, I really don't remember why I picked this one, selfshipping ahoy? XD December - Hazy Figure | Taion best lad. Also, like I said at the start, I just REALLY like how the Mondo look here. Yeah, it's copy-paste of a single piece and motion blur, but it works so well!!

All characters featured belong to their respective creators, more information in the links above. All artwork featured © PuppyLuver Studios

#year in review #year in review 2023 #jess drew the thing

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cinnamonsikwate · 1 year

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ah-HA finally I see someone talking about the Talokan world building! One thing that I haven't seen anyone mention is the specific shade of blue the Talokanil turn into on the surface, but I think it's supposed to invoke Mayan Blue! The wiki article on it is (in my uneducated opinion) pretty good, but one thing that stood out is that human sacrifices to Chaac were painted that color, which is just, so profound. The detail of this film, ugh!

I discovered this when I was trying to find symbolic colors that other people would turn into if they joined the Talokanil. It was for a plot bunny that I will likely never catch, but a pre-Black Panther K'uk'ulkan saves a dying N'Jadaka by giving him the Talokanil Herb after mistakingly thinking N'Jadaka was the son of a Talokanil. I thought Haint Blue (a Gullah shade believed to ward off ghosts) would be a good ironic choice for N'Jadaka, but I'm not sure if a color so heavily associated with the American diaspora would be a good choice for a Wakandan like Shuri ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yes, I partially made this ask to plug my prompt lol. I'm disappointed that not many fanfics are doing the world building that the Talokanil deserve! Instead they're just being treated as people who sometimes go in the water at best, or invoking racist Native tropes as worst. But I loved your detailed post about their clothing! You did an amazing job at researching! Now, if only Ryan Coolger and the crew would release the 200-page bible they wrote about Talokan...

hello and thank you for this ask!

tbh i didn't look up much regarding maya blue when i wrote the clothing analysis posts, but after doing some reading, i definitely agree! many of the scholarly articles on maya blue focus on its chemistry rather than its cultural significance, but the reason researchers find it so intriguing is its near-indestructibility (sánchez del rio et al. 2011, 453-481), which i think ties in neatly to the talokanil ability to self-regenerate.

this passage from arnold et al. (2008, 151-164) is particularly interesting:

when the shaman was trying to convince fen to drink the liquid, we see someone holding what looks like an incense burner in the background. we can take the talokan plant to be a stand-in for the indigo plant, and the vibranium that it contains as a stand-in for palygorskite (a clay mineral). so all three together = maya blue.

the idea that the zamá people were sacrificing themselves for chaac's protection? damn???

anyway. i LOVE your prompt! it's very thought-provoking. i have had somewhat related idle musings, mostly because i'm not sure how realistic it is for the talokanil population to have ballooned to beyond-the-grass-of-wakanda numbers from only a handful of founders in a span of less than five centuries. i like to think that at some point they were regularly rescuing people from the surface, adding to the diversity of their gene pool and also bringing in new customs and technology.

several questions arise though: how long were they doing this, who did they rescue, and how wide was their geographic scope? we know at least one talokanil extra is afro-indigenous; the kids shuri meets in talokan aren't credited on imdb but they looked a lot whiter to me than the other talokanil, so the actors may be mixed. aside from razing haciendas and plantations on the mainland after that first time, would they also have rescued people from the trans-atlantic slave trade? would they have swum around to the pacific and rescued people from the manila-acapulco galleon trade?

which brings me back to your prompt and has me asking more questions - would chaac's blessing cover someone who is not one of his people? is conversion a prerequisite? although the idea that anyone — from indigenous americans to africans to filipinos — can become talokanil is interesting, because would that mean they'd have communities within talokan where they continue to practice their cultures? how would their different worldviews affect how they see and treat k'uk'ulkan? and — would they still be maya blue or would they take on a color more connected to their original culture? if they do take on different colors, haint blue for n'jadaka does sound pretty fitting (especially since it also uses indigo). as for shuri though, since she didn't take the unmodified talokan plant, should her skin color still change?

if i had the stamina to write fic, i'd have run away with this prompt, but unfortunately i don't, so let's put this out there and hope someone takes the bait! (fish pun intended)

i do occasionally come across fics (usually of the shipping variety) that i think do a pretty decent job of world-building, but they tend to focus on the present-day customs of the talokanil and less so on their early years (which is what i'm more interested in). i do dearly wish we get to see more canon talokan lore soon, but if ryan coogler is not involved somehow, idk if i can take it lol.

again, thank you so much for taking the time to read my meta, and i appreciate your engaging with me!

p.s. according to hannah beachler, the talokan guide is 400 pages!

#black panther: wakanda forever #bpwf #wakanda forever #namor #talokan #erik killmonger #n'jadaka #shuri #namora #attuma #mcu meta #maya blue #mcu k'uk'ulkan #mcu namor #mcu talokan #calemonsito answers #calemonsito notes #long post

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hauntedtotem · 1 year

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Do you have any drawing tips?

•When it comes to digital art, if you struggle making lines clean or sharp enough, using a textured brush erases that struggle because the whole point is not being clean or sharp.

^left is obvious where mistakes were made and had to be erased, looks choppy and needs cleaned up. right does not need cleaned up much. saves time and energy!

•if a drawing looks a little too bland or unfinished, but you don't know what else to do about it, adding a texture overlay does a lot, especially for solid backgrounds

•For both traditional and digital artists, do👏art👏studies👏. No, this doesn't mean sign up for expensive art classes, it means spend a page in a sketchbook just practicing one thing. So instead of drawing say, a character portrait like usual, have a page that's just full of hands in different poses (use references! Very important for studies!)

2016 example, but you can tell which ones had references (hint: only 3 of them did,but they're way better than the rest)

the only recent example I had was an unfinished page of bird skulls :/

Which brings me toooo

Learning to draw realistic skeletons can also really help with anatomy, if your character looks wonky, think "could a skeleton fit in there?"

Thinking abt how their skeleton looks can help notice things like the eyes being too high up or the mouth being too low, or having no room for a brain

*this is not a dig at people with this style! It's okay to have more exaggerated features and you don't need to draw realism! The skeleton rule does not apply to cartoony characters obviously. Just some advice from someone that used to put the mouth too low all the time

•if you get stuck where you feel like you aren't improving, try different art styles out.

•If you have art block and don't know what to draw, try the 'dtiys' or 'draw this in your style' tags and pick something there, or do screenshot redraws from games or shows

•If you usually listen to music when you draw but it's just not doing it atm, switch to something like long YouTube commentary videos or documentaries, and vise versa. Sometimes the brain wants music, sometimes it wants information or gossip. When you get burned out from one go to the other

•this applies to traditional and digital art too! If you have art block on one medium, switch to another! If digital isn't working, grab a pencil or paintbrush, or play with some clay! Sometimes the brain isn't bored of art, it's just bored of the medium.

•If you're trying realism and struggling, break it down to simple rules.

And I don't mean the shape thing everyone suggests, I mean things like "the inner corner of the eye lines up with the mouth, the outer corner of the eyes lines up with the ears, your nose bridge leans into your eyebrows, feet are the same length as your elbow to your wrist, use the collar bone to guide the shoulder position, the armpit curves into the breast, etc.

*this doesn't apply to everyone or every expression! Remember the mouth moves around and comes in all shapes, it's a very loose "rule", and people's eyes aren't always the same distance or angle, just keep the ear around that general eye area

Glasses test: can your character wear glasses?

carlos passes glasses test- a better rule for mouths is to imagine smile lines, even if whoever youre drawing doesnt have wrinkles, theyre a good guide for mouth placement

•doing color palette challenges can help practice composition and shading with abnormal colors, and helps understand color theory

•for digital, you can overlay colors over a drawing to make the palette more uniform. Don't be shy abt messing around with it

•Watch speedpaints! Watch pencil animation clips! It helps

•don't be afraid to use your art supplies. Ik the struggle of "but I don't wanna waste it", but that paint will go bad if you keep it on a shelf for years! Use it already! Doodle in the "fancy" sketchbook! Yolo!!

•use cyan and magenta for mixing paint, not blue and red. The "primary colors" rule doesn't always apply to all mediums.

•keep your old art! Do not tear it up or throw it out just because you're not proud of it, it's cool to reflect or even redraw it years down the line (backup your digital art somewhere, even the ones not posted online because your computer could just die one day for no reason and take everything with it. It sucks)

•IF you sketch on paper and then digitalize it later, you can draw the pieces seperately and photoshop them together. So dont worry if you drew a really good hand but it's at the slightly wrong angle, or too far away from the body. You can put it where it needs to be without having to erase and redraw it

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chloefashionillustrations · 2 years

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This is my second media experimental piece using coloured pencils. For me, it was quite easy with shading and quite calming with a therapeutic atmosphere as I have more experience using coloured pencils unlike with my first media experiment of ink. I wanted to challenge myself by using a different background and paper to colour my work in therefore I picked some brown card to match the reference photo but also to try something new. I really like how it turned out with something new with an individual design in my sketchbook with new presentation. The colours stand out more using the coloured card compared to my sketchbook page with creating a whole new perspective of using the media (coloured pencils) making more inspiration and experiments in my future pieces trying more colours which are innovative and not seen as a classic such as black card and white pencil. I like the overall effect and design of this illustration, but it is out of proportion for me with the two divergent backgrounds it I misjudged the outcome for the proportioning. I can still improve my knowledge and how to make pencil look clean and professional finish for the future. Furthermore, I wanted the focus on my illustration compared to the background, so I kept it plain and simple with the illustrations being colourful and eye-catching. One thing I would prefer is my drawing of the faces as it is still difficult for me to draw them, but I must keep practicing them for fashion illustrations trying to keep them realistic and interesting but still in proportion. Moreover, I like the body with creating movement in a different pose referencing back to my s curve figure with adding more depth and practice.

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lilygreyham · 1 year

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Fundamentals 1: Week 5

22nd March

We were given a homework task this week to find two images, one that would be selected, cut out, and then superimposed onto the other one. Exactly what we just practiced with the hummingbird but now with the freedom to choose our own images. I really didn't know what to do for a while but then had the idea of finding a realistic dragon image and putting it onto a grassy landscape (game of thrones kind of stuff). Here are the two images I am going to use:

The first thing I do is work on selecting the dragon to create a cut out. I create a copy of the background image of the dragon and get to work. I used the magnetic lasso tool to help me quickly go over the outline of the dragon to create my selection. The magnetic lasso tool really helped me with the awkward edges and it was fairly easy to control and delete points if they went off track. Here's what I ended up with after creating my mask:

I knew it wasn't going to be super tidy so I placed the mask on a layer background that colour matched the mountains in the background landscape image so that I could see which areas I needed to erase/ blur out. Unfortunately I forgot to take a screenshot of what the dragon looked like before I erased all the white ares around the outline but here's what it looked like afterwards:

I'm ready to place the dragon onto the landscape photo so I copy and paste it onto the image:

I feel like it doesn't quite match the lighting of the landscape so I open up my curves palette, ensure that it will only effect the mask, and make slight adjustments to the brightness of the dragon by making the shadows slightly darker and the highlights slightly lighter. This creates some more intense shading on the dragon which suits the shading of the landscape a bit better. I also wanted to adjust the saturation of the dragon as the landscape is quite vibrant and I wanted to see if making the dragon slightly more saturated would help it fit into the picture (even though I'm very aware it's not going to look super realistic because it is a dragon). Here's how the adjustments turned out:

The image below is my final result. I am actually pretty happy with how this turned out. I knew it was going to be hard to make the dragon seem like it was actually flying around in the grassy landscape but I think I've done well given my new experience and skills that I learnt today with Photoshop. I think if I were to add more to this I would want to add a shadow on the grass that is underneath the dragon to make the image a little bit closer to appearing real. I did play around with trying to make a black copy of the dragon which I turned upside down but after fidgeting around too much and not being happy with how it looked I eventually called it a day and gave up. Overall, this was quite a fun homework task and it showed me how I can mess around with Photoshop tools in my own time to improve my skills.

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abovebelowwendyread · 2 years

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Sofia Monet.

This is the main character for my game and is the character the person playing the game will be playing as. I drew her using the Loomis method and used a reference picture on my phone that I found on Pinterest to help me draw her. I didn’t take the colours from the reference picture at all and so I found it quite hard to match the colours to the reference I also found it quite hard to make the skin look realistic because I didn’t use the colours from the reference. But I am really happy with the outcome, I like the semi-realism style she has and I am really proud with how it went considering it’s my first coloured realism where I did the whole sketch digitally and only partly copied my reference picture. I found her coat really hard to draw, especially the fur part of the hood and the way the fur goes in so many different directions made it even harder and the coat in itself was hard enough with the different shading and crinkles in the coat. I’ve never drawn a realistic hat before so I was really proud with how well the hat turned out and I thought giving her a forest background to make her look a bit lost because the painting she’s in changes so much I thought that one time it could change to a forest scene and so the player has to make their way through the forest without getting lost. I still need to practice the Loomis method more but for the first time trying this method I’d say it’s gone really well.

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sergiovinazzi · 3 years

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Stolen - Lando Norris x Reader (Chapter Three)

3.9k words - Rated M (language)

Here it is, my most favourite chapter to date, I hope you enjoy!

You smooth the skirt of your soft, black-linen sundress with shaky hands and pinch the bridge of your nose. You’re regretting not packing anything warmer than the denim jacket currently wrapped around your shoulders when you’re interrupted by the disgruntled sounds of your father calling your name through the phone speaker.

“What?” you ask, exasperated. “Sorry, I got distracted for a second.”

He repeats himself in annoyance, “I said, are you okay with staying at the hotel and ordering dinner for yourself?”

Staring at the restaurant in front of you, you debate whether or not to explain your situation to him. You realise, however, that he probably has enough to worry about after today’s events at Silverstone, and his daughter being out to dinner with another team’s driver probably won’t go over well.

“Yeah,” you lie. “I could use a quiet night in. Will you grab something to eat for yourself on your way back?”

Your dad hums, and you can tell that once he heard the confirmation that he didn’t need to get dinner for you, he lost interest in anything you had to say after the fact. It’s not difficult for you to understand why. Still, the lack of a verbal response worries you and you find it hard to evade the thoughts about Max and the accident. To most, the fact that he got out of the car and could walk was a good sign, but you’re still plagued by the various possibilities of what the hospital tests will conclude and just how bad the damage really is.

“Will you let me know if he’s okay?” you ask quietly, squeezing your eyes shut and pressing the phone closer to your ear, as if you could hone in on the doctor’s discussions in the background to find out whether Max was going to be alright.

Your dad simply hums again. “I’ll text you when we know more, but I’ve gotta go. Talk to you soon.”

“Bye, dad,” you murmur.

His quick Bye, love you is rapidly replaced with the end-of-call dial tone.

You slip the phone into your jacket pocket and take a deep breath, preparing to head inside the restaurant. You couldn’t help but clock the bright orange McLaren already stationed in the parking lot when your Uber arrived. You recognised it from a picture in the article you read when you first learned of Lando’s incident at Wembley. You’re thankful for the sign that he’s already here and you dredge up the remaining ounces of fake confidence left in your body, making an effort to quickly smooth down your hair before you open the door and enter the restaurant.

You’re immediately overwhelmed by the sheer atmosphere of elegance. Hand-painted horizons adorn the walls, encapsulated by swirling silver frames and accentuated by the small lights stationed above each piece of artwork, their job for the night to highlight the colours and shading the artist undoubtedly spent hours perfecting.

The savoury scents of garlic and soy originate in the kitchen and permeate across the premises with ease, challenged only by the rousing aroma of the stunning frangipanis adorning the entrance.

A woman you guess to be around your age approaches you with a notepad and pen in hand. She’s dressed in a black bodycon skirt with a hem that scrapes the top of her knees; her matching coloured button up shirt is tucked in smoothly. “Hi,” she greets with a small smile, “Would you like me to show you to the bar?”

“Oh, I’m actually supposed to be meeting someone here,” you tell her, eyes scanning the room for Lando.

You see him before he sees you.

He’s tucked away at a table in the corner, his brown curls peaking over the top of the large menu he's studying.

“Found him, thanks,” you tell the waitress and she returns to her station as you make your way across the restaurant towards Lando.

He looks up from the menu as your figure appears in his peripherals and he shoots you a wave when you’re a few metres away. You return his gesture with a small laugh and he stands, walking to the front of the table to greet you.

“Hey,” he says, enveloping you in a one-armed hug. “Glad you could make it.”

“Me too. I hope you weren’t waiting long,” you tell him, noticing the almost empty glass of beer in front of him as he returns to his seat.

“It wasn’t too long, don’t worry,” he reassures you.

The reality of the situation fails to present itself to you until you and Lando are seated silently across from one another. Your stomach is tightly wound with nerves but Lando appears just as anxious, noticeably fidgeting in his seat and frequently straightening his knife and fork. He’s dressed rather sharp compared to what you’d been treated to in the past, the blue and orange race suit discarded for a crisp white button down and black dress shorts. You wonder whether the outfit you picked out is suitable for tonight, although you cut yourself some slack. When you’d packed your suitcase on Wednesday, you’d hardly expected to spend any time outside of the Red Bull garage or your hotel room, let alone situated in a restaurant that was, now very obviously, out of your price range. The thought causes you to send a silent prayer to whoever would listen that you had enough in your spending account to pay your half of the final bill tonight.

The woman who greeted you earlier approaches the table to ask what drinks the two of you would like to order.

Lando asks for a cola and you look at him in confusion.

“You’re not going to have another one?” you ask him as he hands over his empty beer glass.

“No, I’m not a big drinker,” he replies, “Especially not during the season.”

“So why did you invite me to have drinks then?” you ask, clearly amused. “Are you trying to get me drunk, Lando Norris?”

He laughs, and raises his hands in mock surrender, “Hey! No, nothing like that. I just don’t really drink, I never have.”

“Yeah I kinda noticed that actually,” you tell him. “Even on your podiums you don’t drink the champagne.”

“I thought you didn’t watch Formula 1?”

You wish you could wipe the stupid smirk off of his face as you practically watch the realisation form in his head. “Have you been watching my old races?”

“No,” you retort somewhat unconvincingly. “I found some highlights on YouTube though, and your podiums from Spielberg and Imola were on there.”

“My podium finish in Monaco is pretty good too. I’d be happy to show it to you sometime, though, it’s a shame that you find racing so boring.”

You roll your eyes and laugh. “Shut up.”

The warm glow emitting from the industrial-style bulbs resting overhead doesn’t help the blush settling on your cheeks, and neither does the grin Lando shoots you. You shrug off your jacket and place it carefully on the back of your seat just as the waitress arrives with your freshly poured Caiproska. You thank her and trace your fingers along the cool side of the glass, collecting the droplets of condensation that form in hopes that they’ll provide some sort of relief from your keen fever.

Lando’s gaze is strong enough that you feel him watching you without having to look across at him, it transcends the need for observed confirmation and instead sets your body alight merely at the thought of it. The thrum of your heart threatens to escape the confines of your chest and you stupidly pray that he doesn’t hear it as the exposed skin of your chest flushes scarlet against the dark neckline of your dress. You clasp the charm that sits at your throat, pinching it between your fingers and allowing yourself to bask in the minimal relief the cold metal provides against your warm skin.

Lando wipes his sweaty palms on his shorts and takes a deep breath. “So, that was a pretty crazy race today, huh? I didn’t think I’d be able to hold onto fourth place, not with another Ferrari behind me and Daniel.”

“Yeah, it was crazy,” is all you can reply before delving back into your pocket at what you think is the sound of your phone receiving a message.

God, he thinks, he’s boring you half to death. He finally has you all to himself and the only topic he can string more than a few words together for is his job, treating you like a reporter he’s obligated to unpack his strategy for in the paddock. He doesn’t understand why he’s so fucking nervous tonight, he wasn’t nearly this wound up when he’d asked you out. Sure, it was an effort to keep his hands from shaking as he locked his car and crossed the parking lot, but he convinced himself it was just the gentle breeze passing through the city that set his flesh alight with goosebumps. He was simply excited, more than anything, to spend some one-on-one time with someone his own age, and if that someone happened to be a pretty girl, who could blame him for looking forward to it?

But then you showed up in that dress and suddenly the possibility that he’d see you out of it by the end of the night if he played his cards right became more and more realistic. His head spins at the thought of taking you home tonight. And the next night. And suddenly the thought is replaced by the images of himself coming home to you every night. After months overseas with nothing but timezone-dependent calls he returns to the comfort of your embrace, it’s your fingers that gently scrape the back of his neck as a confirmation that he’s home. It’s the warmth of your body and the lilt of no one else’s voice that cures the cavity in his chest that enveloped him the moment he shut the apartment door behind him all those weeks ago. He sees you seated on his kitchen counter, legs swinging as the coffee brews each morning, and asleep on his couch every night even after you’d promised if he let you pick the movie you’d stay awake this time.

He knows he’s in way over his head. He only just met you, what, three days ago? Yet here he sits, wishing there was some magic rule book that could explain how he could make sure his time with you never ends. He wishes he’d met you long before this week –honestly, it feels like he’s known you for much longer–so that the heat that rises underneath his shirt and the lump in his throat doesn't lend itself to the idea that he’s just some lust-fuelled boy. Your text messages make him laugh like no one else’s have before and the thought that you were watching him this afternoon, after you weren’t initially planning to stay for the race, had him feeling more confident than he has all season.

He knows he can’t tell you all that, it’s way too soon and you’ll think he’s crazy. He has to think of something interesting to talk to you about to fill the minutes before he feels it appropriate to ask you out for a second time, but instead he sits in silence as you refuse to meet his gaze. Your eyes won’t stop lingering on your phone screen, or darting around the restaurant, undoubtedly searching for distractions. Signs on the wall you could read to pass the time until the check comes, or maybe you’re searching for a saviour, a bartender to lock eyes with who’ll answer your silent plea: get me the hell out of here. He’s caught off guard when your eyes make their way back to him, his heart skips a singular beat like he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t. He’s preparing himself to appear nonchalant in response to the immaculately crafted excuse you’re undoubtedly about to deliver in order to explain your sudden escape from his company, when a small smile forms on your lips instead.

He smiles back.

“Sorry,” he explains. “I know I talk a lot about racing. It’s kind of my whole life at the moment so it’s easy for me to get carried away.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m kind of used to it anyway. It’s basically all we talk about at the dinner table when my dad’s home.”

“Well, what do you like to talk about? I saw on your Instagram that you’re studying advertising, tell me something about that.”

You smile at his consideration and tell him all about your degree. How you’ve always had an interest in design and noticed how it could be used to turn a profit, right from when you would try your hand at creating the posters for your school’s bake sales and car washes. You tell him the story of your first paid commission for a digital advertisement, an intricately crafted Instagram post for an up-and-coming clothing boutique based in London. He asks questions in all the right places and offers his congratulations when you show him screenshots of some of your most successful work.

Conversation ebbs and flows easily throughout the night, the nerves that had you second guessing your decision to come earlier tonight eradicated. The food is tremendous, and your company even better. Your waitress returns with the final bill for the night and Lando hands his card over without hesitation.

“Hey, no,” you say. “Let me pay for my half.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he tells you. “This was my way of repaying you for bringing my watch back, remember?”

Oh. That’s all tonight was for. He felt obligated to spend money on you in return for the trouble you’d gone through to return his stolen timepiece to him.

“When I talked to the police they said they could get me the money back once the guy was caught,” you stress. “So, you don’t need to do that.”

He brushes your statement off with a wave of his hand and smiles when the waitress returns with his card and a receipt.

Your mind mistakes the reverberation of champagne flutes clinking together for the chime of your text tone and you instinctively reach into your purse, hoping to see the screen alight with good news. You’d settle for any news really, so long as it meant you would finally get a clear picture of what was going on, and you could stop embellishing the details of the worst case scenario you had designed in your head.

A 51G impact like the one you had witnessed today can do a lot of damage to the body, whether visible from the outside or not, and you hoped, more than anything, that the helmet and halo were enough to protect Max from anything more than a few minor scrapes and bruises.

You’re lost in a world of nightmarish outcomes until you remember where you are. Lando’s face is contorted in a concerned frown across from you.

“Everything alright?” he asks gently.

“Yeah, sorry, I thought I heard my phone go off but it must’ve been something else.”

“It’s getting pretty noisy in here, do you want to head outside?” he offers.

“Okay.”

———

In the slight summer breeze you observe the moonlight washing across Lando’s figure, illuminating his features softly and elucidating the closeness of his face to yours. The proximity allows you to easily breathe in the pleasant cedarwood undertones of the cologne that adorns his skin, and allows him to imagine the sweet ropy flavour undoubtedly lingering on your tongue from the maraschino cherries you’d so delicately placed between your teeth throughout night.

The crinkles that form at the edges of his eyes as he meets your gaze with a smile are priceless. You wish you could bottle the feeling they give you and save it for a day you need it most.

“I had a nice time,” he tells you, practically beaming. “I can’t remember the last time I went out after a race and talked about stuff other than racing.”

“Yeah it was nice, dinner was really good too.”

“Yeah.”

The two of you stand in silence while you wait for your Uber to arrive. Lando had insisted on driving you back to your hotel but you knew his car would cause a fuss so you declined and told him you had an Uber discount code that was due to expire. You make an effort to seem fascinated by the cracks in the sidewalk and Lando acts intrigued by the streetlights, both of you dancing around the question that lingers unspoken in the air.

Are we going to meet up again?

The alert on your phone informs you that your driver is only a minute away.

“He’s almost here,” you tell Lando. “Thank you so much for paying for dinner, you really didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s okay!” he insists. He shifts his weight on his feet before offering his arms to you.

You accept his invitation and hug him goodbye. You can’t help but notice the heat radiating through his thin shirt and feel his heart hammering between your two chests. His fingertips burn brands into your skin as they rest softly on your back and when he pulls back from you his hands don’t move an inch.

You catch his gaze and feel his thumb sweep softly over the fabric of your dress, underneath your jacket, before his lips meet yours in a searing kiss.

You’re caught off guard to say the least. His hands are hot on your back but his lips are soft and you’d be lying if you said they weren’t sending your head into a frenzy.

The rest of the day’s events are temporarily overruled by Lando kissing you; lying to your dad about where you are, wishing you could celebrate Lando’s fourth place finish with him in his garage, the repetitive questions aimed at you by the police that had you exhausted by mid morning, let alone Max’s accident.

Max.

And suddenly it’s not Lando’s but another pair of lips that are on yours, larger and hungrier and they come with a devastating reminder of what it’s like to sneak around with a Formula 1 driver. The lying and heartache that you remember all too clearly to feel like the kind of falling that jolts you awake from dreams.

You pull back and place your hands on Lando’s shoulders, staring down.

He’s instantly apologetic, bringing a hand through the front of his hair. “Sorry, I thought…fuck, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” you say, removing your hands and wrapping them around yourself. “It’s okay, um my car’s here anyway so I gotta go.”

He just nods and shoves his hands into his pockets.

The slamming of the car door feels like a hammer pounding in Lando’s head. For a moment he had you. In his hand was the opportunity to make something great out of your meeting, but he wrapped his fingers inward and crushed it in an instant.

———

When you wake the next morning, your head remains sore from the screeching of car engines throughout your eventful weekend. Though not particularly unbearable at the time, the accumulation of noise over the three days you were at the track had definitely built up.

Instinctively, you check your phone, assuming that you would be confronted with your typical notifications: a recommended Instagram account, a liked Tweet, maybe even a text. You know you’re being optimistic to expect anything from Lando, your mind refusing to stop reminding you of how awkward you had made your time together the night before. Still, you yearn for any sort of reassurement that it wasn’t as bad as your overthinking had made it out to be.

You read the time and see that it’s almost noon. You know that your dad will be out until around two o’clock, already fussing about with work related ordeals in order to have things perfect for the race in Hungary. When you eventually awaken enough to read the notifications on your phone, you find it difficult to hide your surprise as you find a text and missed call from Lando, the nervous feeling that you endured last night returns, sinking into your stomach like a stone.

Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I had a really nice time last night :) Sorry if I was too forward at the end, I hope it didn’t ruin your night or anything.

Biting back a smile as you read the text, your mind is put at ease as you realise that he enjoyed himself as much as you did. You’re tempted to text him back immediately and tell him that he’s being silly, that of course he didn’t ruin your night. You wish you could explain your situation with Max and how, if it were any other night than the one your ex-boyfriend spent in hospital, you would have kissed Lando back. However, your plan to reply is thwarted as you notice the notification that informs you Lando also left you a voicemail. He must have called some time after sending his initial text message. Finger hovering over the play button, you are hopeful that it’s further kind words about your time together, or perhaps an invitation for a second ‘date’. If you could call it that. Nevertheless, you push the button.

The disappointed sigh he lets out causes your heart to stutter, before his voice crackles through the phone speaker.

“Hey, it’s me. Sorry for calling, I know I already texted you and um… I hate that I have to do this but I think it would be better for you to hear it from me instead of finding out online or something. I’ve just seen that someone got pictures of us together last night. I didn’t think anyone who knew me would be there but I guess it was still close enough to Silverstone that someone recognised who I was. I’m really sorry, but if it is any help I don’t think anyone recognised you because your face isn’t really in the photos. I’m trying to get them taken down and it’s not really on Instagram or in the news or anything, but lots of people on Twitter are talking about it. If there’s anything that I can do, please let me know. I’m sorry.”

Your eyes widen at his words, breath hitching in your throat as you process it. You replay the message over and over, as if hearing it multiple times will change the bad news Lando delivers each time. Instinctually, you close the app and scrub your hands over your face. You wonder about what exact kind of picture the photos he’s referring to imply. Does it paint a picture that could get you in trouble?

What about Lando?

Fuck.

What about your dad?

Your stomach drops at the thought of him seeing them. Getting caught lying about your whereabouts was one thing, but being caught with Lando Norris while you promised you were tucked up in the confines of your hotel room opens up a whole new world of possible consequences.

As if the universe can read your mind, it delivers your worst nightmare to you on a silver platter, piping hot and laced with venom.

A notification appears from your dad.

Call me when you’re awake.

-------

tag list @lovebynorth @its-astrotea-love

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dreamingpartone · 2 years

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hi i love your art so so so much it's so warmy and nice <333

also wanted to ask if you had any tips for lighting? cuz yours is so so warm and soft and beautiful so any tips no matter how tiny at all would be swaggy xx

hi!! thank you so muuch, I’m very glad you enjoy it <333

and ahhh lighting tips! I could probably talk for ages about how much I love lighting, but I’m not sure how many useful art tips I actually have for it haha 🤔 let’s see….

✦ I suppose, to start with my usual art advice: observation! I haven’t done a lot of actual study when it comes to lighting, but I have spent hours and hours of my time just staring at/admiring light in real life and in media. (Which, again, I could ramble about examples of cool lighting in art/games/tv/films etc that I enjoy but we’d be here all day :’))

One practical thing I do is that I take photos, like…all the time, everywhere. Which a) is great for later reference if you want it, but also b) I think the act of photography is quite handy at training your eye to see the effect of light and shade.

Just for fun, here is a brief light-focused selection from my camera roll:

In particular, I think it’s really useful to observe how light acts on different surfaces (e.g. water and glass can get quite complex, but even when it comes to hair or skin, it varies; look at where it reflects or is absorbed, at how it shines through thin surfaces (a leaf, an ear!)) and how it changes the look/mood of an environment — either with natural light shifting throughout the day, or using different types of artificial light.

✦ The next thing I would say is (especially when it comes to intensity of lighting), don’t feel constrained by what’s “realistic”. Of course, what you aim for in your art is entirely up to you, but (I think I’ve said this about colour too) I am personally way more interested in using lighting to express a mood/idea/story than exactly replicate reality.

So, I tend to make the contrast between light and shadow more defined, and also like using as much colour as possible in them. (Which is another thing I think I’ve said before: try not to use pure black for shading! My go-to is blue or purple, but you can have fun experimenting with different colours!)

Like, for a recent example, how often does sunlight actually make everything this bright yellow/orange/red? Very rarely, but accuracy is not my purpose in using it :-)

✦ The other important thing, particularly when it comes to bigger pieces (i.e. art with backgrounds): don’t let lighting be an afterthought! I think when it comes to digital art especially, it’s easy to fall into the trap of going sketch -> lines -> flat colours -> maybe now I need to consider lighting? But if you think about it early, you can plan ahead to implement it best.

In recent years, I tend to approach lighting from a set design angle more than anything else. I don’t just go, “Ok if the window I drew is here and he’s standing there, then the light will have to hit him like this…” Instead, near the beginning of an artwork I tend to think about it like, “Where do I want the focus to be? What do I want the lighting to say about the mood/atmosphere/etc? Ok, here’s where I’m gonna put a light source, here’s where I want shadows, these are the colours I’m using.”

Often that initial planning stage is very rough and just looks something like this:

(final version)

Or this:

(final version)

But it’s honestly super helpful to get even a vague idea of lighting early so you can figure out how the scene is going to work as a whole. (Rather than get annoyed later when you realise you could’ve done something different....I have been there....)

Anyway, I think that’s all I have right now…! TL;DR: take some time to look at how light works in different ways! Don’t let the pursuit of accuracy hinder your vision! And remember light is a tool for you to use! It takes some practice and experimenting, but it can be really fun imo :>

#fair warning there are a lot of words and a few pictures behind that readmore so click at ur own dash's risk #anonymous #ask #art asks #anon i hope something in here is somewhat swaggy !!!!#i feel like i did end up rambling too much for only three (3) questionable tips lmao but #i tried :')))

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rayadraws · 3 years

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So october is the traditional month of doing art challenges, though there are also others throughout the years, such as fandom countdowns and such. I have partaken in quite a few, including doing month-long daily ones in october for the last 6 years in a row.

There are many reasons why challenges like these, whether long or short, can be daunting. Why they can be hard or impossible to finish. Life happens! And at the end of the day they should be fun, not a chore. You never HAVE to do them and you probably shouldn’t if they cause you stress. But having said that, if someone wants tips to make them a little more manageable, here are a few things I’ve learnt over the years that work for me:

1. Plan ahead and set defined goals. What are you trying to achieve here? Are you following a prompt list? If it’s a more open challenge, I recommend to choose 1-2 things that will be your main focus. And be realistic about it. ”I will draw 31 full colour detailed backgrounds in a month” is not realistic. But ”I will practice drawing one object I can use in a background/as part of a larger composition 31 days in a row” is something that is much more doable. So instead of drawing a fully furnished room every day, for instance, maybe you’re drawing a chair one day and a potted plant the next. Or you want to focus on learning to use an art tool and the subject isn’t important, you’re just testing out different brushes every day, etc. As another example, my personal goal during october this year is to practice drawing kisses. That’s it. Well, and they will all be digital because that’s faster/easier for me and they will all be of my OTP because that’s The Law (and I could probably draw them in my sleep, which also helps!).

2. Plan ahead part 2: okay, you’re going to draw every day for a month… when, exactly? ”Whenever I feel like it” is setting yourself up for failure. If you can, decide beforehand exactly when during the day you’re going to sit down to work on your challenge. Also, if you’re a perfectionist, consider limiting that daily time to fight burnout. Spending hours a day on a month-long challenge is not reasonable. But spending 20 minutes might be, depending on your schedule. Plan some more. What limits are you putting on yourself here? Are you going to create a drawing from scratch starting new every day? Ow, that’s rough. I usually start at least a few weeks before every challenge to look over the prompts and make at least rough sketches for every day, so I can go straight to inking/colouring the drawing every day without having to think up a new idea/composition every day. For countdowns, I might finish several/all drawings before the countdown actually starts, if possible. I also know I have the most energy in the morning so when possible I draw before heading to work. Sometimes even setting my alarm to give myself extra time if I know I’ll be home late.

3. Plan ahead part 3: Use every shortcut to save time/effort. Use references. Draw familiar things. Play with composition and angles and focus on what’s important and crop out all the rest. Sometimes a highly cropped view is the most striking, anyway. Pressed for time? Hide sections in dark shadows rather than stressing over small details. Do limited colour palettes, skip shading if you want to, etc. For instance, for me drawing chibis is faster/easier so I almost always draw them for multi-day challenges. I do black and white unless I have the time AND feel extra inspired. Last I do is usually to look at tomorrow’s prompt and make sure I have something to work with.

4. Validation is tough. Honestly, this one could be a whole post on its own. But needing outside validation to keep creating is something that is both natural and problematic. My advice would be to remind yourself that you are ideally doing this primarily for own own growth and to, if possible, find a smaller group of likeminded friends to cheer each other on, rather than relying on the nameless void of the internet. Algorithms are a bitch and vary between platforms, too. Additionally, a personal observation on my own art at least has been that I often get more feedback at the beginning of a challenge than the middle/end. Don’t lose hope.

5. Be kind to yourself. Remember, this should be fun and help you develop your skills further. If that’s not happening, you need to change some aspect of it. Imho, it should never go from ”challenging” to ”a chore”. Set yourself up for success, whatever that looks like for you.

Remember, you’re doing this for yourself.

#this is not aimed at any one person btw #these are musings I have every year when I do these challenges #i see so many people hating on them and I don’t… feel that way about them?#and I’ve been trying to figure out where they most often go wrong for everyone

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