This is how I draw hands. I simplify the shape and then later I will add the necessary details. It makes it easier to get them right. But the only way to learn how to draw hands is to just keep drawing them.

just gonna reblog this to my main because I get asked about how I do my illustrations and I use a similar layers+clipping mask approach (and learned a lot from this post about creating depth and contrast!)

need refs/inspo for period clothing?

here you go:

lots of periods in one spot/fashion through centuries:

it indeed is western/european centric, I’m sorry for that, but for other cultures I simply don’t have so many references

Little horse tips!

cool!

I haven’t been very active lately, you’ll have to forgive me- I have a lot of work that I can’t talk about yet. In the mean time, here’s a quick twitter tip I threw together on the subject of radii. This is EXTREMELY important as a concept artist, especially if you do sci-fi stuff. To be more explicit; Many artists, especially when drawing hard-surface sci-fi stuff, tend to use either only sharp edges, as seen on the left, or a very arbitrary mixture of hard and soft edges with little consistency.  This is merely an example to show that you can “control” the radii, and that doing so can produce different results depending on the degree of the radius.

a collection of things i wrote about color. these aren’t necessarily “tutorials", just things i’ve discovered that work for me and might help others. i’m still learning.

Gigi’s notes on color and light are so good!! ✨

This is something I need to work on as well, so it was good practice for me!  I hope this helps some of you that also struggle with same-face-syndrome!

TLDR:  Just look at Jim Flora’s artwork and study from that ;) 

“Extremely detailed character sheet template”

Character Chart Character’s full name: Reason or meaning of name: Character’s nickname: Reason for nickname: Birth date: Physical appearance Age: How old does he/she appear: Weight: Height: Body build: Shape of face: Eye color: Glasses or contacts: Skin tone: Distinguishing marks: Predominant features: Hair color: Type of hair: Hairstyle: Voice: Overall attractiveness: Physical disabilities: Usual fashion of dress: Favorite outfit: Jewelry or accessories: Personality Good personality traits: Bad personality traits: Mood character is most often in: Sense of humor: Character’s greatest joy in life: Character’s greatest fear: Why? What single event would most throw this character’s life into complete turmoil? Character is most at ease when: Most ill at ease when: Enraged when: Depressed or sad when: Priorities: Life philosophy: If granted one wish, it would be: Why? Character’s soft spot: Is this soft spot obvious to others? Greatest strength: Greatest vulnerability or weakness: Biggest regret: Minor regret: Biggest accomplishment: Minor accomplishment: Past failures he/she would be embarrassed to have people know about: Why? Character’s darkest secret: Does anyone else know? Goals Drives and motivations: Immediate goals: Long term goals: How the character plans to accomplish these goals: How other characters will be affected: Past Hometown: Type of childhood: Pets: First memory: Most important childhood memory: Why: Childhood hero: Dream job: Education: Religion: Finances: Present Current location: Currently living with: Pets: Religion: Occupation: Finances: Family Mother: Relationship with her: Father: Relationship with him: Siblings: Relationship with them: Spouse: Relationship with him/her: Children: Relationship with them: Other important family members: Favorites Color: Least favorite color: Music: Food: Literature: Form of entertainment: Expressions: Mode of transportation: Most prized possession: Habits Hobbies: Plays a musical instrument? Plays a sport? How he/she would spend a rainy day: Spending habits: Smokes: Drinks: Other drugs: What does he/she do too much of? What does he/she do too little of? Extremely skilled at: Extremely unskilled at: Nervous tics: Usual body posture: Mannerisms: Peculiarities: Traits Optimist or pessimist? Introvert or extrovert? Daredevil or cautious? Logical or emotional? Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat? Prefers working or relaxing? Confident or unsure of himself/herself? Animal lover? Self-perception How he/she feels about himself/herself: One word the character would use to describe self: One paragraph description of how the character would describe self: What does the character consider his/her best personality trait? What does the character consider his/her worst personality trait? What does the character consider his/her best physical characteristic? What does the character consider his/her worst physical characteristic? How does the character think others perceive him/her: What would the character most like to change about himself/herself: Relationships with others Opinion of other people in general: Does the character hide his/her true opinions and emotions from others? Person character most hates: Best friend(s): Love interest(s): Person character goes to for advice: Person character feels responsible for or takes care of: Person character feels shy or awkward around: Person character openly admires: Person character secretly admires: Most important person in character’s life before story starts: After story starts:

found here

Story Structure: Story Arcs

A story arc is a plot that unfolds over a series of stories, such as a film trilogy, a TV series, or a book series. The term is often used interchangeably with “narrative arc” which refers to the events that make up a story’s structure. I like to think of “story arc” as the umbrella term under which “narrative arc” and “series arc” fall. In that case, here’s what you need to know about these two types of arcs: Narrative Arc The narrative arc, in simple terms, can be thought of as the “beginning, middle, and end” of a story, and everything that comes in between. Think of the arc like a bell-shaped curve, where the flat part at the beginning represents the set-up, introduction of characters and setting, etc. Then, where the arc begins to rise is the inciting incident–the thing that happens which the character must respond to. Everything that follows is the rising action–the push and pull as the character works toward their goal, stumbling at obstacles and sometimes overcoming them. Then, the top of the curve is the climax, the big showdown between the protagonist and the antagonist/antagonistic force. The downward turn of the curve is the falling action, where all the tension of the big showdown is released. And finally, the flat part at the end is the resolution where loose ends are tied up and the story ends.

Series Arc The series arc is the exact same thing using the events from each story in the series. An easy way to think of it is to imagine a three book series. The first book represents the beginning of the story with the set-up. The second book represents the middle of the story, where things get increasingly worse. And the third book represents the climax and the end of the story, where the big final showdown occurs and everything is resolved. Now, it’s important to understand that each story still has those individual elements, but the magnitude of those elements follows the bell curve. For example, the inciting incident and climax of the first book serve as set-up for the events to come. If there’s a big showdown in each book, the showdown in the first book will serve as set-up for the bigger showdown in the last book. The showdown in the second book is all about increasing the stakes and tension. That way, the showdown in the final book can be all about the “fight” or whatever confrontation occurs between the protagonist and the antagonistic force.

A good way to plan the series arc is to write down each element like this: Book One Set-up: Book Two Set-up: Book Three Set-up: Book One Inciting Incident: Book Two Inciting Incident: Book Three Inciting Incident: Etc. As you fill this out, what you should notice is that the events increase in importance with each book. For example: Book One Set-up: Twin brothers move to farm to live with father Book Two Set-up: Bob is camped out near hospital, plans entrance Book Three Set-up: Bob is inside hospital looking for meds Book One Inciting Incident: Zombie apocalypse occurs, Ben needs meds Book Two Inciting Incident: Bob discovers hospital is heavily guarded Book Three Inciting Incident: Bob is captured by hospital guards Book One Rising Action: fighting through zombies to get to hospital Book Two Rising Action: fighting guards to get inside the hospital Book Three Rising Action: fighting to escape from inside hospital Book One Climax: fighting major zombie horde on block before hospital Book Two Climax: ambulance chase with guards in hospital parking lot Book Three Climax: escape scene involving fight with guards and zombies Book One Resolution: made it to the hospital Book Two Resolution: made it inside the hospital Book Three Resolution: made it home again Now, try reading through only the book one events: Twin brothers move to farm to live with father. Zombie apocalypse occurs, Ben needs meds. Bob fights through zombies to get to hospital. Eventually fights a major zombie horde one block before hospital. Finally makes it to the hospital. As you can see, that’s a complete story. That is the narrative arc of book one. If you add the narrative arcs of book two and three, you’ll see the complete series arc (aka story arc) and can see how the events in each story get more serious with each book. :)

I hope that helps, and thanks for the nice compliment about the blog. :) <3

i’m absolutely in love with some of these designs y’all

One last revision of this shot that I’ve been playing around with for…a few years now! I’m hoping to do some new work for this project over the summer :’D

Light and Shade Tutorial by Bud Sagendorf

Layout Hand-Outs by Rowland B. Wilson (1930-2005).

A repost from some time ago. Some very helpful reference, I keep these pinned to the wall next to my desk. 

Yesterday I posted some of Wilson’s cartoons and I thought these might be a nice addition. Wilson was a real master of lay-out, I love the way he directs the viewers eye. 

“Water painting tutorial” by Dżun

Time lapse of the title card painting I did for The Dark Cloud

I’ve been studying the classic black tie dress code (mainly from here) so I thought I could share my notes. Maybe they can be helpful to someone else, too. If I made any mistakes or things are really confusing please tell me.  I also have some notes on white tie which I could share as well…

GIF process of Muttson & Royce in the Gold Stone Tavern.

“What’s this plan of yours? To steal some apples from the orchards again?” Still having lots of fun developing this universe with my Wife.  It is expanding and the story getting better. Lets keep working.

Remember you can also follow me on : facebook or twitter

LISA & Storytelling

Hey guys and gals, DL here. Just recently I got an email asking me about the writing of Lisa and what my inspiration was. The info was for a college essay, so I figured it would be nice to actually respond to it. :P As I was writing my response I thought “hey, maybe those ding dong fans of mine would be interested in this stuff?” So for those aspiring young and old future storytellers/gamemakers out there, or just anyone interested in how I go about writing, here is my 4 key tools for writing! Also, if you’re reading this, you probably know by now that my grasp of the english language is equally to that of a 5th grader. So, if you’re brave enough and don’t mind all the chicken scratch, keep going! As far as the writing goes I really believe simplicity is the key. I followed some very basic rules of story telling, and that’s how the idea for Lisa formulated. Boringly enough, it didn’t really come from a personal experience in my life, or some life long idea. It was a product of sticking to some time tested rules. And they are: - Love: no matter what, all good stories have to have love in some way. Whether it’s good or bad intentions, character motivations must be based in love. - Primal: Piggy backing off of the first rule, a good way to check your story is to ask “would a caveman understand this?” Meaning, does the core storyline have things that appeal to our most primal instincts? Birth, death, the unknown, fear, survival, sex, love, etc. This doesn’t mean you can’t have complex ideas in your story. It just means that at it’s core, it must have something primal that keeps us caring about the story throughout. -Irony: This one is often over looked, but still important and sometimes can be cheesy. Disney esc movies are really good at this. Like: A snail that wants to be a race car driver! How ironic! In Lisa’s case it was a farther doing his best to show his daughter love, the irony is that everything he did only pushed her away farther. - Make the problem worse: Just like the title says, you have your conflict and then you just keep making it worse and worse until your conclusion. I feel this one is lacking in most modern story telling. It feels like most are playing it “safe”. Another way to phrase this is “raising the stakes”. Basically meaning, you just really want to push your characters as much as you can before they achieve there goals. It makes that finale so much sweeter, or heart wrenching depending in the direction you want to go in. So if you got a guy who wants a banana from the kitchen, but in the process he dispatched a 100 ninjas, sacrifices his children, has to divorce his wife, loses his life long dog companion, all to get this banana. You created a much more emotionally connect to this man and his banana, rather than if he was able to just get off the couch And walk to the kitchen the eat. So really those 4 things are the main driving forces behind Lisa. The rest I suppose is just my interpretation of these rules. But, the core principles are what gave everything in LISA it’s direction. Yours truly, King Ding

Dat feel when

you discover how to put a stop to your color pencils breaking during sharpening

Originally posted by lovelordtubbington

ALSO, if you own Prismacolors Color Pencils and they keep breaking off no matter how much you sharpen them, they are cracked from the INSIDE. 

This can be fixed by putting them in the microwave for no longer than 3 seconds! A little thing my art teacher taught me and has come in handy like heck!

OOOOOOOOOH~!!!

re-blogging to save a life