schompie's references/tutorials/useful things blog

How to draw rain in Photoshop

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 07:26:17 -0400

First of all, you will need photoshop, obviously.

Open up your image, the one you’ll be using to put rain on top of.

Select the brush tool

Make sure the colour selected is WHITE

This part is very important. MAKE A NEW LAYER.

Start drawing diagonal lines onto the canvas. Doesn’t matter how neat or messy they are. Just draw lines like this all over the canvas, (make sure they are all pointing in the same direction though)

When you’ve done that, click Filter, Blur, and then Motion Blur.

Make sure the angle dial is pointing in the same direction as the white lines you drew. You can adjust the blur amount here too by using the slider.

I advise you change the opacity of the rain layer as well. Rain IRL is hard to see very clearly, so I’d say move the opacity way down than to what it is right now. Maybe somewhere around 20%.

And that’s how you can get a realistic rain effect in Photoshop. C:

artists-help: How The Face Changes With Shifting A Light...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 22:49:26 -0400

artists-help:

How The Face Changes With Shifting A Light Source

Both an artistic reference or perception of beauty..

nihilnovisubsole: Skintones A quick little thing that ended...

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 23:23:20 -0400

nihilnovisubsole:

Skintones

A quick little thing that ended up being neither quick nor little, for an anon who asked how I do skin colors.

As usual, I’m not a professional, this is just how I do things. Hope I answered your question!

"Story should be driving every detail of your character design. What distinguishes a good artist from..."

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 23:16:13 -0400

“Story should be driving every detail of your character design. What distinguishes a good artist from a great artist is the presence of storytelling in your work. Their are a lot of good artists out there that can render a bad ass space marine or menacing creature but to take your work to the next level is to consider how that character got to where he or she is in the moment that you decided to draw them”

- Brian Kesinger, artist, writer, and animator at Disney for over 15 years (via enderblockmod)

gracejo413: I pretty much draw only one type of cloud and sky...

Thu, 30 May 2013 04:09:16 -0400

gracejo413:

I pretty much draw only one type of cloud and sky SO ANON THIS IS WHAT YOU GET omg guys don’t ask me art things because I am just as clueless as you guys are OTL

Hoods are hard to draw

Tue, 28 May 2013 21:47:56 -0400

corischaracters:

I get so annoyed because there are no good hoodie tutorials that I decided to try and make my own. (note TRY.)

The reason they’re so weird to draw is because they are different depending on how thick the material is they’re sewn with, and the amount of fabric used in sewing. There are SO MANY different ways for a hoodie to work! In fact there’s totally different types of hoods, so there’s no one specific way to draw them. In this mini tutorial I’m going to highlight the main three that i saw floating around on google images.

The first type of hoodie is the “high and tight” kind

The fabric on this guy’s hood is thicker, making the fabric more stiff and it sort of curves in higher up on his head.

It’s also a smaller hood, so its clinging closer to his head.

Also take note of how the hood doesn’t just end with the edge of the fabric, but it goes up to where the top of his hair is. This happens when the hood is pulled far forward or they’re bending forward, because then it can drape down over their face.

The other two types are the limp and tight ones and the drapey ones:

Limp and tight don’t really have a curve outward because the fabrics tight, so the edges dont move outward. Also, the limp kind have more oval-shaped openings in the front, so the fabric goes to the top of the head.

The drapey ones are sort of adventure-looking and they flare out near the bottom as apposed to the top or middle. They have a lot of fabric used and are probably the hardest to draw (for me anyway). Lots of folds and movement.

generally hoodie fabric goes like this, outward from the face

it doesnt fold down like normal fabric unless its the limp kind like this

So, that’s the front. As far as the side view of a hood goes, it generally looks like this.

The folds go down towards the rest of the hood and the back a bit, and the fabric covers most of the side-view of the face. Notice how there’s only a little bit of the front of the face showing. You cants see their ears! Even if its a drapey hood, it looks like this (with probably some exceptions depending on the weather and how the hood is being moved). Also, if the hood isn’t very tight there’s usually a bit of a “bump” or space at the back of the head like above.

But that bump’s only there if they’re trying to let you see their face. In hoods that are pulled all the way forward like this

there’s no space at the back, because the fabrics all forward. Spooky.

Another thing to consider when drawing hoods is how they’re deciding to wear them. A more shy person or character might have it forward more, which will in result make the hood look tighter and hide their face more.

And of course, the most important thing to think about when drawing hoods is “how is the fabric moving”? There’s plenty of different ways for the fabric to move, depending on how their head is turned and what they’re doing. Here’s a few good reference pictures I just found.

Oh, also, when people turn their heads, the fabric moves by a focal point

Her body is facing one way, and her head is turned the other, which makes the fabric tilt itself like that. This is on the drapey hoods only usually.

Just always remember that all the hoods very from hood to hood. You might get a sort of drapey one that looks like the tight ones, or maybe a gradient between the three i showed you, or even something weirder.

This is just me covering the basics as best I can, and if you feel the need to add anything, feel free!

Images found on google, I don’t own them.

edit: I changed the picture from Trayvon Martin to this other person. Sorry again.

kalidraws: Today I gave my students a quick presentation on...

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:01:24 -0400

kalidraws:

Today I gave my students a quick presentation on some of the basic considerations for composition, which I am now sharing with you! I’ve given them separate talks about color and tonal value/contrast, which are also super important compositional concerns. (I’ll be sharing those presentations too once I properly format them)

I personally love learning about different compositional techniques. It’s fun to think about the ways that the brain views & sorts images, and how we can trick it into feeling a certain way or looking at certain aspects of an image first! It’s easy to fall into compositional ruts (which I am also guilty of) because a lot of art gets by with mediocre, though serviceable, compositions. If you can generally understand what’s happening in an image then it’s generally fine. However, it’s the truly great compositions, where everything in the whole image has been considered and ‘clicks’ together, that bump up an illustration to a visual slam dunk. NC Wyeth is one of my favorite artists for this reason: his compositions are rock solid, varied based on the image’s intent, and always enhance the mood or action he is depicting.

For extra reading, some online compositional resources that I’ve found helpful or interesting include:
Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis (download it for FREE. Such a great book all-around.)
Gurney Journey (check out the “Composition” tag, but really everything he posts is great)
The Schweitzer guide to spotting tangents
Cinemosaic (a blog by Lou Romano with some truly WONDERFUL compositions captured from various films)
Where to Put the Cow by Anita Griffin

Happy composition-ing!

laaura-f: Just a few basic tips for drawing fabric and...

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:34:07 -0400

laaura-f:

Just a few basic tips for drawing fabric and clothing.

costumecommunityservice: truebluemeandyou: DIY Know Your Shoes...

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:36:41 -0400

costumecommunityservice:

truebluemeandyou:

DIY Know Your Shoes Guide from Enerie here. My favorite shoes aren’t listed yet - Louis Heels which were popular in the 1920s. First seen at inspiration & realisation’s Facebook page.

Well hello, fashion vocabulary.

helpyoudraw: HOW TO MAKE YOUR ART LOOK NICE:...

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:19:39 -0400

helpyoudraw:

HOW TO MAKE YOUR ART LOOK NICE: Contrast by trotroy

Many thanks to phenomenal-field for telling us about this tutorial!

Character Design References (characterdesigh)

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:56:54 -0400

Character Design References (characterdesigh):

lolbatty:

fowlie:

xvillain:

americanninjax:

briannacherrygarcia:

crispy-ghee:

Character Design is using Pinterest, an online pinboard to collect and share what inspires you.

DEAR TIM I HAVE CONCEPTS TO COMPLETE DUE IN AN HOUR WHY DID YOU LINK THIS THIS IS THE MOST DISTRACTING THING YOU COULD’VE LINKED

CLICK IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CLICK IT.

Oh dear lord, what a stash

yes. yes. yes.

Oh man, jack pot! I LOVE character model sheets!

helpyoudraw: How I Do the Watercolor by Tin-Lizzy 1) With a 4H...

Sun, 12 May 2013 09:58:02 -0400

helpyoudraw:

How I Do the Watercolor by Tin-Lizzy

1) With a 4H and 2H pencil, sketch in a rough idea of what you want to paint. Resist the urge to get hooked up on too much detail, and try to sketch in an idea of where your darkest regions are going to be. Using the light H pencils is important because they have hard lead that’s not going to sink into your watercolors and turn them gray later.

2) Pick out your palette! I always love this part. At the onset of a painting like this, I use transparent watercolors only. I mix up a large quantity of the four or so colors that will dominate the painting. In this case it was a funky red, purple-black, light cyan-ish green, and a steely gray. Then I start to lay in an idea of a background with these colors. The goal was something energetic, evoking a battleground covered in clouds of smoke.

3) Mix up a new color that’s going to jump out from the others. I went for a bright rusty brown and began to lay it in on his jacket for a warm tone that’ll pop out. As it’s counterpart, I put in a cool bluish tone that would recede and set up a sense of depth.

4) Play with the colors you’ve already mixed to set up midtones, shadows, and highlights. I knew the red would be my highlight and backlighting color, so I used it only where light would touch the figure. Then, with a fine liner brush and a hyper-saturated purple-black, I drew in the details of the face, hands, and wrinkles because they could be easily lost under the layers of paint to come.

5) Continue to tackle those shadows, midtones, and highlights with just your transparent watercolors. Try not to mix outside the palette you’ve already established - it’ll keep everything united in the end. It’s at this point that I started worrying about his armor and made sure to really preserve the highlights and shadows that make it appear metallic.

6) I don’t generally wait this long to color the face, but with all the other browns and reds going on here, I wanted to make sure the color I mixed for his fleshtone didn’t blend too much with any of the colors in his clothes. This was also a good time to add in a splash of color to his costume with that blue symbol on his belt and the autumn orange on his neckband and sword.

7) Details! It is at this point that you can indulge your ocd tendencies and detail the hell out of everything! Hoorah! Grab your gouache for this step. Because it’s opaque, you can lay it over the foundation you’ve already made with your transparent watercolors. You can really see this at work in the face, where I mixed up a range of pink and olive colors in gouache and used them to bring the nose, chin, and cheeks forward. Opaque white hatchmarks also give his sword and armor the impression of light glinting from scratches and nicks.

criminy: Steve Hampton: Figure Drawing: Design and...

Sun, 12 May 2013 08:57:23 -0400

criminy:

Steve Hampton: Figure Drawing: Design and Invention.

Figure Drawing

I took one of his classes back when I went to art school and he’s an incredible professor and instructor. I’d advise people to look through his studies and even buy his book. It’s not necessarily how to draw correct anatomy but to know it while making it stylized. His class basically teaches the mechanics of the body while using imagination.

Seriously, I recommend anyone to attending one of his online workshops. It’s kind of pricey but much more affordable than what I paid. Then again I had my own benefits.

dyemelikeasunset: Also consider looking at this and this

Sun, 12 May 2013 08:57:13 -0400

dyemelikeasunset:

Also consider looking at this and this

funismajin: antiale: 4 all u kids who wanna study some figure...

Fri, 10 May 2013 06:08:41 -0400

funismajin:

antiale:

4 all u kids who wanna study some figure drawing/anatomy

Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth - Andrew Loomis >PDF download<

Mastering Drawing The Human Figure - Jack Faragasso >PDF download<

Figure Drawing Design and Invention - Michael Hampton >PDF download<

Dynamic Figure Drawing - Burne Hogarth >PDF download<

All the downloads are free they only take a little bit time to download because these are big files!

YES

dorkishdorkish1905: HOW TO DRAW HAIR (tips) by Iain McCaig

Mon, 06 May 2013 08:50:11 -0400

dorkishdorkish1905:

HOW TO DRAW HAIR (tips)

by Iain McCaig

helpyoudraw: Face Tutorial by Phobs Phobs says this is outdated...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 07:12:31 -0400

helpyoudraw:

Face Tutorial by Phobs

Phobs says this is outdated but personally it’s one of my favorite tutorials. » It’s pretty much the reason I developed a style.

heffydoodle: mbt1991: mrcontro: qinni: The whole film took...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 07:07:49 -0400

heffydoodle:

mbt1991:

mrcontro:

qinni:

The whole film took me altogether about 5 grueling months (usually 10-12hours a day) to do. I often felt my butt was going to grow into the chair I usually sat at.

Please note that this was simply my way of doing my film to achieve the soft-shaded style I wanted; there are many other ways of doing this and some are a lot faster with different results~! :)

My film on DeviantArt | My film on Vimeo

My film gifs on Tumblr

You can see my storyboard animatic here (although the original had music, but like I mentioned, my placeholder music was by Joe Hisaishi, you know, Miyazaki’s composer, so it’s not really legal to upload it).

This tut differs a bit from my dA version, because tumblr lets me put the combination of gifs and jpegs :D.

Here’s a book that will really help you start animating:

The Animator’s Survival Kit

here’s some books that are good for composition, storytelling and colours:

Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation

The Art of Pixar: The Complete Color Scripts and Select Art from 25 Years of Animation

Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts

I hope these helped

I ask that no one removes the credit or source for this tutorial/guide please. thanks :)

And this is a keeper! No doubt about that! :)

I’m just gonna put this one on standby

for when I start my senior film!

gkazul: arandadill: Shoulder Tips Needed this for about...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 07:05:18 -0400

gkazul:

arandadill:

Shoulder Tips

Needed this for about twenty years

redblooper: dommifox: A couple people asked me how I vary my...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 23:24:14 -0400

redblooper:

dommifox:

A couple people asked me how I vary my leaves and trees and honestly, it’s super easy! I’ve never made a tutorial/guide before so I kept this mega simple but I hope someone out there might find it useful at least!

Also, anyone can download the brushes I use for all my art on my tumblr page (: I only use around 5 so go nuts haha

Wow! Reblogging this for reference. I gotta start drawing more backgrounds.