(source)

There are so many ways to make moodboards, bookcovers, and icons without plagiarizing! As artists, authors, and other creatives, we need to be especially careful not to use someone else’s work and pass it off as our own. 

Please add on if you know any more resources for free images <3

recently found out about openverse which i think aggregates a bunch of creative commons images from flickr, wikimedia, nasa etc… pretty handy

I’m shocked so many people don’t know about my go to – Morgue File.

It’s full of searchable, rights free images uploaded by photographers.

Attention non-artists who commission artists: don’t fuckin do this???

Actually had someone do this to me too. Was doing a art stream, it took me over 2 hours to do his inked commission, he got a refund cause ‘it took too long’ that he figured I wasn’t going to do it after I gave him the file.

Don’t do this. Do not.

I’ve had this happen to me with a $350 comic :/ I had already finished it, it was full color, 6 panels and had a full bg in every panel. I was lucky in that I didn’t spend him money yet, but it left me without funds. I’ve also had the above happen to me as well.

Don’t do this shit to artists. We’re people too. Drawing for you is more than a hobby. It’s a job.

Use Paypal Invoices. 

I cannot stress this enough. That shit helps A LOT when it comes down to Paypal refunds/disputes. There’s a description box that let’s you put in what the product is/how long it’ll take/yadda yadda, and then there’s another little memo box that only you and paypal can see where you can say it’s a digital commission and doesn’t require shipping (So Donald Mcfuck can’t say that they never got their commission). And there’s also a box for your Terms & Conditions where you can say, if you have any conflicts/want a refund - email me, or you can actually tell the user that this is a digital commission and they won’t be getting a hard copy of it.

ARTISTS. PLEASE USE PAYPAL INVOICES. it will SAVE you. And to: the people who do this to artists – Fuck you. It’s okay if you change your mind and want a refund. But freaking TALK to us and let us know what’s going on. Let us WORK with you.

ALSO A HUGE TIP: Invoices paid will automatically set up a shipping notice which, if not fulfilled, can land you in SERIOUS hot water with PayPal. Since a lot of artists don’t print and ship the commissions, this is a huge problem.

However! Totally manageable. Just go to your PayPal, scroll down to find Seller Preferences

>> Shipping Preferences

>> Display Ship Button. Make sure all the boxes are unchecked. Then you’re all set!

As a big supporter of artists, don’t you ever fucking dare fuck over an artist like that. Like don’t. And if they take their time to do a good job, don’t shit all over them for it! Don’t be a fucking ass hole. Just don’t. These people put a  LOT of work and time and effort into their artwork. Just don’t be that guy. Often times these artists aren’t even getting what they deserve in compensation. 

I am very grateful my customers have been good to me, but I’m spreading the word.

Basic sketching tips

IG: @mitchleeuwe

yall look at this shit ad*be is tryna pull now on ppl who have outdated software:

(note for context: i’m all for piracy, but in this case my copy of CS6 was downloaded years ago when they were giving it away to students. i got it totally legally.)

so here is what NOT to do if you’re a loyal fan of adobe who has the cash to shell out for a newer and shittier version of the product you already paid for.

1) DON’T use your search bar to find and open the Run app

2) DON’T type in services.msc

3) DON’T find Adobe Genuine Software Integrity Services and right-click to get a dropdown menu, and don’t select ‘properties’

4) if you happen to click properties, DON’T use the startup type dropdown to locate the option to disable the program. be sure you DON’T click apply to finalize that change. 

5) DO NOT do the same thing in order to also disable Adobe Genuine Software Monitor 

if you do all of these things, this WILL disable adobe’s ability to monitor the software, and you will be forced to continue using the same older software that you already paid for instead of having to sign up for a newer, shittier version and pay more for it. so if you have lots of cash to spare and are cool with putting it the pockets of racketeering capitalists, definitely don’t do any of these things. 

however, you SHOULD reblog this to spread the word, as we certainly want to make sure lots of people know what NOT to do :)

HEY ARTISTS!

Do you design a lot of characters living in not-modern eras and you’re tired of combing through google for the perfect outfit references? Well I got good news for you kiddo, this website has you covered! Originally @modmad made a post about it, but her link stopped working and I managed to fix it, so here’s a new post. Basically, this is a costume rental website for plays and stage shows and what not, they have outfits for several different decades from medieval to the 1980s. LOOK AT THIS SELECTION:

OPEN ANY CATEGORY AND OH LORDY–

There’s a lot of really specific stuff in here, I design a lot of 1930s characters for my ask blog and with more chapters on the way for the game it belongs to I’m gonna be designing more, and this website is going to be an invaluable reference. I hope this can be useful to my other fellow artists as well! :)

being a self-taught artist with no formal training is having done art seriously since you were a young teenager and only finding out that you’re supposed to do warm up sketches every time you’re about to work on serious art when you’re fuckin twenty-five

someone: oh yeah, do this exercise during your warm ups! it’ll help

me: my what

What’s up I have an actual college degree in art and I was never ONCE taught to do warm ups.

when i was in undergrad, it was kind of mentioned in and offhand way that we should do warmups, but we were never shown what that meant. And, y’know, we were young so it didn’t matter so much. 

Being older now and having an art job it’s…kind of essential. 

So: a quick primer for those of you who are like ‘ok but how do i actually go about doing this warmup thing.’ 

1) you may be tempted to do ‘a warmup drawing’ which is just a drawing that will take longer than it needed to and probably be frustrating and kind of bad because you didn’t warm up first. It’s tempting but always a trick your brain is playing on you! Do not trust! 

2) warmups will vary based on what feels good to you/what task you’re about to do/what motor skills you want to practice. That being said, some good standbys:

a) circles. Just a whole page of circles on whatever drawing surface you’re going to be using, whether that’s your tablet or your sketchbook or a drawing pad on an easel. For these circles you should make sure that you’re drawing from your shoulder and not your wrist. In fact, you want to be drawing from your shoulder rather than your wrist most of the time! forever! your wrist is delicate please preserve it! 

In order to ensure that you’re drawing from your shoulder, when you’re holding your pencil or whatever drawing tool you’re using, the only part of your hand that should be touching the drawing surface is part of the last two fingers–some people prefer the finger tips, but I tend to favor the first knuckles. Either way, the fingers should really be ghosting over the surface, providing guidance rather than support. 

I usually start with big circles and then go to smaller circles and lines of ellipses, and then try to fit circles and ellipses inside other shapes i’ve already drawn as a precision exercise, but i don’t do that unless i’m feeling loose

b) spirals! i don’t always do spirals, but if i’m stiff and the circles just aren’t cutting it, spirals are a good fall back. I start from the center and work outward, going both clockwise and counterclockwise until i feel comfortable with the whole range of motion. Some people really care about getting perfect spirals but for me it’s all about making sure i’m comfortable with how i’m moving so who really even cares about how the spirals look. Not me! 

c) lines! straight lines! in parallel! i do a mix of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. These are often more from the elbow than the shoulder, especially if I’m working on a smaller surface. For this exercise, I recommend holding the drawing tool perpendicular with the surface

d) connect the dots. This is a precision and accuracy exercise and takes two forms. The first is to draw two dots and then draw a straight line between them. The second is to draw three dots and draw the curve that connects them. This sounds a lot simpler than it is in practice. Take time to ghost over the line you plan to draw before actually committing to your line. (I don’t always remember where I picked up my warm up exercises, but I’m pretty sure I got this one from Scott Robertson. His how to draw and how to render books are very technical but also accessible and worth checking out)

e) cubes, spheres, cones, and cylinders. These help get your brain into a more volumetric space. I draw multiples of each, rotating the forms around, and I’ll often take the time to do some rough shading on at least a few of them

f) spidermans! This one is really good if you’re going to be storyboarding or working on dynamic poses. Just fill a page full of spidermans doing all sorts of acrobatics. 

g) beans. I don’t do beans too much anymore, but I know a lot of people like it so I’m mentioning it here. Fill an area with different size bean shapes without lifting your pencil off the paper. 

h) short medium and long line repetition. draw a short, medium, and long line on your page, and then draw directly on top of them 8 to 12 times, doing your best to exactly trace what you’ve already drawing. Repeat with a wavy line. I’m bad at this one, which means I probably need to do it more. 

And there are lots more options too! Hit up youtube to see what other people recommend, put together your own go-to list, mix it up when you’re getting bored, etc. 

This is a long list, I know, but I usually don’t take more than 10 to 15 minutes to warm up, and I can warm up one handed while I’m drinking coffee, so, multitasking hurrah. 

Sometimes I’ll advance to a precision warmup and find that I haven’t loosened up enough yet; it’s totally ok to go back to an earlier exercise! Also, all of this has the added benefit of kind of ritualistically getting you into the drawing mode so even if I’m not feeling it before I start, by the time I’ve gotten to the end I’m usually Ready For Drawin’. Brain hacks. 

so, yeah! that’s a lot of words, but! Warmups are important! Save your joints, take less advil, do better drawings! 

OH MY GOD PAY, BLESS YOUR FACE.

I actually get asked to see a lot of portfolio’s while I’m at cons. And while I LOVE looking at other people’s art and offering critiques if they ask, it’s sort of cringe-y to be handed a messy stack of papers or something. Nice portfolio’s look so much more professional!

putting this up, since my website project for university is finished and I don’t have to put it on the web anymore.

a very, very basic image guide on how your portfolio should be presented or appear, whether you’re in fine arts, graphic design or illustration, illustrated by yours truly

please do NOT remove the commentary while reblogging, do not reupload anywhere else.

thank you!

THIS is important

For artists who have problems with perspective (furniture etc.) in indoor scenes like me - there’s an online programm called roomsketcher where you can design a house/roon and snap pictures of it using different perspectives.

It’s got an almost endless range of furniture, doors, windows, stairs etc and is easy to use. In addition to that, you don’t have to install anything and if you create an account (which is free) you can save and return to your houses.

Examples (all done by me):

Here’s an example for how you can use it

Great find, thanks!

OMG HEAVEN!!

Bless you!!!!

I’m thinking of posting my rates online.

I’m going to get hate for it, and I’ve been told it’s looked down upon if you want people to take you seriously, but I’m not ashamed of how expensive or inexpensive I am.

I think it would help me a lot because I know like 80% of people don’t wanna open their email app lol.

I think a lot of people would be a lot less intimidated by the idea of commissions, both as the artist and the customer, if more people had a real idea of what it would/should cost. Because most people don’t even have a ballpark guess and don’t know how to ask.

Also sending a message to an artist asking for their rates, I think a lot of times, feels like you’re then obligated to commission something right then, and if you don’t, it feels like you’re insulting the artist. But I imagine a lot of people would love to know ahead of time so they can save for a piece they really want to commission. Or if they know offhand what the rates are, it may inspire more spur-of-the-moment commission requests. Like, damn, a have some extra money this month, I could get that commission I’ve been wanting.

Well I’ll just tell you then!

and then explain/give some tips for artists and clients…

COMMERCIAL ART

My standing commercial rate starts at $500 an hour.

Shazam that’s it.

That’s not unusual. If you hire me as a commercial client, you’re buying the right to resell. So if a piece takes me 20 hours, that’s $10,000 for me, but limitless potential profit for you.

That rate varies if your profit potential varies. If a company hires me to illustrate a promotional poster, I lower my rate because a promotional poster isn’t earning profit directly. But if you want to sell my art on a poster, then my rate will go up—because you could potentially make millions selling that poster.

How did I figure that rate out? 1) My experience (25+ years) and portfolio (amazing), 2) my uniqueness and style, 3) my time, 4) my cost, 5) industry demands/what other art related professionals earn, 6) my clients (big!).

This is not a salary rate btw. This is a commission rate.

The difference? Let’s say I do five commissions a year (we dreamin but ok!). Let’s say that’s $70,000. Once you knock off taxes, it’s more like $50,000. That’s pretty middle of the road for earning in the US.

PRIVATE ART

This is y’all.

I don’t price private commissions by hourly rate. Instead, I price them flat. It’s less intimidating to folks and simpler for me. 

A drawing from me comparable to what you see here starts at $1200. 

Shazam again.

That price might vary if you want something complicated, but I do a very specific kind of art, and you know what to expect. Other artists (for example an artist who develops a concept rather than paints a portrait) have more complicated pricing because they do more complicated, varied stuff.

Now, let’s say I do two of those a month. It works out to just under $30,000 a year. So it’s not much! And if I want to be a full time freelance artist, I have to work hard. Commercial is sweeter, but private is easier.

HOW TO PRICE YOUR OWN SELF AS AN ARTIST

1. Start with minimum wage. Do not charge less than this for absolutely anything. (Likewise, if you hire an artist who charges less than this, and you don’t tip them the difference, I’ll know, and I’ll crawl out from under your pillow at night and yell at you in your own room.) 

2. Add your experience, schooling, and portfolio. How long have you been doing this and what have you made to show for it?

3. Add your clients. If Frito-Lay or Google or Beyoncé wanted to work with you, it means your work is as valuable as those clients.

4. Add yourself. Can anyone else do what you do? Does anyone else’s art look like yours? Can anyone else tell your story as a (queer woman, indigenous man, disabled trans person, older black mom from Michigan)?

TIPS FOR INQUIRING ABOUT WORK/PRICES

1. Look for inquiry instructions. This is important because many artists can’t check every platform all the time. They may only accept texts or filter everything through an agent. If they tell you to send an email, they may never check DMs.

2. Be polite and brief: Say who you are, ask if the artist is available to work, ask what their rates are. If they have a price sheet, look for instructions on how to contact them/check for availability.

3. It’s not necessary to fully describe your idea at first, but definitely say the idea! “A portrait of my cat, a portrait of Kristen Bell, a cover for my novel.”

4. Ask if they accept Paypal. Ask if they accept installments. Ask if they require a downpayment. Ask if they do trades. Ask if they can do anything for $X that you can afford. Hint: Most artists want to work. We’re good at finding ways to work with people who want to support us.

5. If a price is too high, simply say it’s not what you can pay right now, thank them, and move on. If you tell an artist they’re overpriced, I will eat your ears off your fat head don’t think I won’t.

6. A good professional artist will NEVER expect you to hire them after you’ve inquired about pricing. We are delighted to earn your interest! Don’t work with any artist who gets upset or gives you a guilt trip if you don’t follow through.

7. Expect to pay for art. I report your “exposure” emails as spam fyi.

OTHER TIPS

That’s all I got! 💛

Oh this is so important. I see so many artists drastically underselling themselves on here, and on other platforms. It can be difficult to figure out what to charge for your work (I still struggle), but ‘never go under minimum wage’ is the best place to start!

Why do artists refuse to use references why why why.

It’s not a contest to see who can get by without them. It’s not cheating to look at a thing in order to know what the thing looks like.

You don’t get stronger or better by pretending. Nobody is impressed by the awkward whatever-it-is you just drew. Use references.

I don’t think a lot of people know that it’s not cheating. I recall seeing so many piece of art called out because they referenced a pose, someone recognized it, and then proceeded to shame them for it. There’s this belief, both by creators and the audience, that artists should just be able to translate the ideas from their head to paper, and if they don’t, it’s plagiarism, or not true originality (spoiler alert: there’s no such thing).

I myself didn’t start using references until very recently, because even I was under the impression that it was frowned upon. And that belief has seriously crippled and stalled my ability to improve as an artist.

As a restarting artist, I can confirm. I just never knew. I thought you were just supposed to know how to draw the body correctly and if you didn’t you had no talent.

(( I am going to say this again, loud and clear for everyone:

USING REFERENCES FOR ART IS NOT ‘CHEATING’!!!

If you can draw/paint without references, great!  But if you need to use them, and feel that your art can be bettered by using references, please, use them!  This is one of the biggest tips I can give to artists, is USE REFERENCES! 

Anyone who would dare to attack someone for using references after ‘recognizing a pose’ is a dipshit, who doesn’t know a thing about art.

Do you know who else used references for their art?

Norman Rockwell

Alphonse Mucha

Gustav Klimt

Toulouse Lautrec

Vincent Van Gogh

Paul Gauguin

Edgar Degas

Gil Elvgren

Frida Kahlo

Pablo Picasso

Disney Studios

And thousands of others!  So, artists! Go forth, and use references!!! ))

Reblogging as a constant reminder to my followers: You will never get better if you don’t use REFERENCES from life!! References are your friend I use them all the time and have nearly one terabyte for poses alone.

You can even use other artists work, it’s just a matter of respecting the artist. Just be very careful and ASK (if you can) before posting any art you made that directly references an artists work. If you cannot contact them, let people know or link to the reference you used. Do not claim the work is your own or let people assume it by not saying anything at all-that’s where the call out culture is. Emulating master works was REQUIRED for half my undergrad classes in painting- and my original work was so much better because I studied someone with more experience and knowledge of the craft.

Unless you have a very good grasp on your subject matter trying to draw everything from memory is just going to hinder and frustrate you.

Study the masters.

Study real life.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

Your work will thank you for it.

HEY ARTISTS!

Do you design a lot of characters living in not-modern eras and you’re tired of combing through google for the perfect outfit references? Well I got good news for you kiddo, this website has you covered! Originally @modmad made a post about it, but her link stopped working and I managed to fix it, so here’s a new post. Basically, this is a costume rental website for plays and stage shows and what not, they have outfits for several different decades from medieval to the 1980s. LOOK AT THIS SELECTION:

OPEN ANY CATEGORY AND OH LORDY–

There’s a lot of really specific stuff in here, I design a lot of 1930s characters for my ask blog and with more chapters on the way for the game it belongs to I’m gonna be designing more, and this website is going to be an invaluable reference. I hope this can be useful to my other fellow artists as well! :)

Reblog to save a life

Note from a graphic designer who has to fix this shit all day: rich black is prettier sure but for the love of the gods don’t use it for text if it’s going on newsprint. If its anything other than solid black it will bleed out and become unreadable.

Half my job is fixing this mistake all day from people who really really should know better. And now you know!

im very grateful for the lessons in photography i was taught in stop motion class because just now they made it possible to photograph the stars with my phone in spite of the camera usually not detecting the light of stars because theyre so dim,,,, enjoy these shiny motherfuckers

ok so if everythings normal, your phone camera should have a manual mode (sometimes called pro mode). in it, change the settings of the shutter lag to 20 seconds, then put the phone down on some stable, plane surface and press the photo button (usually when using your camera, the volume buttons can be used as photo button) and let the phone still for the whole 20 seconds. 

(basically the problem with most cameras is that they dont have a very good light sensitivity in the dark, however that doesnt mean they cant detect it at all. the longer the shutter is open, the more light your camera takes in and the more burnt/light your pic will be, so in (literally) dark situations, make the shutter lag longer to get all that light you need! also i said 20 seconds but really you can make it shorter or longer depending on what kinda stuff you want for your stars)

Yes this!

Additionally, adjust your ISO to the highest number (mimics the film used for very low light and low speed images)

And set your shutter speed to the longest time possible (on my phone it’s 10 seconds).

Leave your focus settings on Auto, and if your phone camera has a timer option, turn that on (five seconds is generally enough).

Plan your shot first, then find a place to set your phone down so you can get the image you want. The less light pollution, the better; you’ll pick up FAR more stars in your picture.

Once you know what you want to shoot, tap your screen to “focus” it, then hit the button to take the picture, set your phone down, and back away from the “tripod”. Don’t touch your phone for a good 15 seconds, just to be sure.

You will not be disappointed in the results, let me assure you.

Not even a little bit.

OK to make a font out of your own writing

go here

http://www.myscriptfont.com/

instead of printing it off just use this blank thing that way you dont have to scan it or anything

so fill that out by pasting it in any art program and whatnot

then save it and upload it to that site

and itll give you an option to download it

so do that and then install it BAM

I JUST GOT THIS ON MY TABLET IT’S SO COOL OH MY GOD

for some reason it refused to recognize the third page of my letters but they were all pretty unnecessary mathematic things anyway so I’m not too worried. still something to keep in mind though, I hope it doesn’t happen for you!

paintfont.com would be a good place to go to quickly make a custom font for your comic!

ehh

It looks just as horrible in real life..even worse with the letter attached…

I’ll try this later.

you can also use alternative alphabets

Welp. Guess I know what font I’m gonna be using for comics from now on. B)

Welp. Looks like I have to do this now. So I can use this for Tengri’s asks.

For some reason there is no apostrophe in my set, but it still looks cool.

NEAT THING ALERT

The site is now called https://www.calligraphr.com/en/ but it’s basically the same!

This is so perfect if you want to create a new language for a comic or illustration and you don’t want to draw letter by letter!

So cryptic. Much ancient language

@beesplaybanjos

I need to redo this at some point I write REALLY damn small.

I was listening to an art podcast and I heard someone use “creative hibernation” as a term to describe a period of time when your creative energy and flow of ideas is slowing down.

Honestly, it sounds so much better than “art block”. To me, “creative hibernation” sounds less like a negative thing and more like an organic part of the creative process. 

“Art block” sounds very definite. They sound like something you MUST actively fight against to break them down in order to continue. “Hibernation” on the other hand sounds more like a thing that happens every now and then but that will go away on its own when it’s time. It’s a stage of gathering energy for the next creative pursuit. Art block on the other hand is an artificial, mental block that actually just seems to solidify the more you treat it like an obstacle to get around.

All creative people go through this type of slowing down all the time and it is completely alright. I thought I would share this because I think the right kind of mentality is actually one of the most important things of recovering your creative energy.

by storyboard supervisor Erik Fountain

A few years ago, Erik put together these updated AT storyboard guidelines for new board artists and revisionists.

These are excellent notes for tv boarding.