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Art tips---
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Art tips---
Art tips
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dude anyone can post here, and post anything you think would help other people, because I honestly don't know what this thread is I'm kind of sleep-deprived XD
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um I guess one tip I have is to use references uwu it's not cheating, that's just the school system, in art, it's always helpful to have references
tracing is fine as long as you're not claiming it as your own art or selling it I guess
take everything with a grain of salt I guess because like, I'm probably not the best person to be giving advice, seeing as I've been struggling through a training arc for the majority of my life XD that's all school is, a training arc
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yep idk what this thread is but ARTISTS UNITE!
submitted by Rainbow Riot
(September 30, 2020 - 10:27 am)
(September 30, 2020 - 10:27 am)
EEEEEEEEEEP!
1 Don't draw something you don't like
2 search online for references
3 don't use watercolor unless you are super good at it (maybe me??)
4 have fun
5 trace the main part using a color slightly darker than the main color of the section you are tracing (it makes everything look waaaaay better)
6 leave out big chunks of time (cause art is all about taking your time...)
7 after tracing, erase the pencil marks, if your not tracing, fix your lines (!!!!)
8 DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT COPY OTHER'S THINGS AND NOT GIVE THEM CREDIT (SUPER IMPORTANT) sorry that sounded like shouting, this is super-duper important.
all I have for now, i'll ask my art teacher for more. :)
(September 30, 2020 - 11:42 am)
(October 1, 2020 - 12:39 pm)
I have to respectfully disagree with your first tip, Spirit. I mean, sure, there are situations in which that makes sense. But like, if you don't enjoy drawing, say, hands, you shouldn't just draw all your characters with hands behind their back, you know? If you're serious about art, you should take time to learn how to draw things you don't enjoy drawing. Now, I'm pretty sure you didn't mean your tip to come across that way, but the phrasing was a little confusing, so I felt like it was important to say this. :)
Also, if anyone wants any tips from me, I'd be glad to give them!
(October 1, 2020 - 12:59 pm)
Ah, what I meant was don't draw full pics of stuff you don't like
as in
if you don't like hands, don't draw a lot of huge hands
you won't like it
(October 1, 2020 - 5:36 pm)
Haha yea, I only draw hands when I absolutely need to, most of the time I just draw from a pool of like four hand poses that are the only ones I can draw XD
(October 1, 2020 - 8:53 pm)
I think she means like, don't torture yourself? Like you know, drawing a car when you have no intention of doing ANYTHING with cars in the future, and you hate drawing cars (I hate drawing cars)? Because like, if you're going to try to get a job in character design, I'm pretty sure you don't need to draw cars XD Also watercolor is hard umu I've never gotten it.
(October 1, 2020 - 6:41 pm)
Ah, that makes more sense, RR. Thank you for clarifying.
(October 1, 2020 - 7:26 pm)
Really? Watercolors are my favorite! (and believe me I'm no professional!)
I guess they do take some practice to do something detailed, but if you try just a simple object on white background it's pretty easy and turns out really nice-looking (for me, at least).
I think people should definitely try watercolors! My tips for a beginner would be:
- Don't spend too much on supplies at first. You don't need anything fancy.
- Use watercolor paper. It is more expensive than regular paper, but it is definitely worth it! If you don't have or can't afford watercolor paper, regular cardstock will work, though it will just bend and buckle more easily with a lot of water. Try not to use printer paper--it will get soggy and full with holes very quickly.
- Sketch your design first, so you know exactly where you want to paint. I recommend drawing something very simple in the middle of your page. Plants and flowers are generally great subjects for watercolors.
- Play around with pushing colors and shading.
- Use a minimal and complimentary color palette so your paint doesn't become muddy.
- Don't use too much water. Use enough so that the paint spreads evenly and easily, but not so much that you have pools and pools of water on the page. Also, don't use NO water or else you'll end up with uneven, unsatisfying streaks of pastel-y color and lots of frustration. I guess this is kind of common sense, but I just wanted to put it out there.
- Watercolor pencils are awesome. They're basically colored pencils you can color with (wow, really?), then "activate" with water so you can blend them out into a watercolor painting. There are other tips for these, but I'm out of time here.
I hope these were (kind of?) helpful and not just common sense and obvious.
(October 2, 2020 - 9:56 am)
This is really good! I already knew these because I've been using watercolors for quite a while, but i was just going to say: just because watercolors (or anything) might be hard at first, doesn't mean you shouldn't try them! It's frustrating sometimes of course, but as long as you're mostly having fun, it doesn't matter!
(October 2, 2020 - 12:21 pm)
I do have a lot of legitimate art tips, and I can also post a few tutorials if anyone's interested? But my main tip right now is: make ugly art. Like seriously. We get so caught up in making perfect lines, matching the reference exactly, coloring exactly right. But art isn't about being perfect. Art is about expressing yourself. So let go! Make ugly art! Don't bother with proper proportions or how good it looks; don't use reference photos or make a careful sketch first. Just pick up a pen and have at it, knowing that your end product is going to be awful and not caring. Like!!! Does it look good?? No!! But like it anyway! This art is for you! Not for other people!!
Seriously, I get so caught up in trying to make my art perfect that it leeches all the fun out of it. I have a notebook that I draw in during school, and I recently reached the last page. I didn't have time to get a new one before the school year started, so now I'm just... filling up the pages? Completely? I'm drawing over old drawings and adding color and paint and pictures that I've printed out, and inking old sketches and making new sketches and... it's so freeing. Yes, it looks terrible. Terrible. But I'm having so much fun and I know that it's something that I'm going to keep for a long time. (Attached is one of the pages; on the left I was drawing over some old name concepts for my sci-fi novel rewrite, and on the right is Surroundedbybook's old picturing and a poem I found online and wrote down.)
~Starseeker
(October 2, 2020 - 7:49 pm)
Whoa! That looks so cool! I totally agree with you, I only even try to make 1 perfect piece when I really want to, like once a month XD or when it's for my portfolio lol 90% of my art is just sketches for dynamic posing practice because I'm terrible at dynamic posing
(October 3, 2020 - 1:17 pm)
Oh, such a good idea! Top-top-topping :D
(October 6, 2020 - 3:12 pm)