hysterianimalia:

ya i do 

i know people’s first advice is always use references and that’s my advice too, but i’m going to go further: use reference photos only. don’t reference other people’s art because you could be unintentionally duplicating their mistakes, or their personal style, and that can get messy. a good place to find animal photos to reference is arkive.org, especially if the animal is kind of obscure & it shows you related species that might look similar enough to also use as a reference. 

once u can draw an animal/human/object good after referencing photos, throw the reference away and just do whatever. u now know the basics and the rules of constructing your Subject, so you can bend the rules and break them while maintaining the basic ability to keep your subject recognisable. this is how you ‘develop a style’ as the kids say. but a lot of people focus unnecessarily on STYLE and worry incessantly about being Recognisable and honestly chill, it’s fine. i recognise the style of every artist i follow even if that person bemoans not having one. and if you don’t have a set style, that’s cool too – it just means you’re versatile and commissioners like that. just draw what looks aesthetically pleasing to you, incorporate small inspirations from media you enjoy, etc (i would advise against copying someone wholesale. but if you like how they draw, for example, ears, then there’s nothing stopping you from drawing ears similarly and adding your own twist)

ok so those are the big two but i have some extra tips too 

1. tangents. recognise what a tangent is and always avoid them in your linework. generally i don’t like hard rules but a tangent confuses your subject and reduces readability of an image. sometimes i have to move things around completely or change a pose just to avoid a tangent 

2. expression. keep the expression of the character consistent throughout their whole body, not just their face. u can use the hands, fur, posture, etc. to help this. having a vibrant pose makes the art more interesting to look at. conversely, having a character standing around looking like a dead fish can help portray a strong Mood too 

3. backgrounds  i’m a hypocrite i’m not even going to go here but yeah try some out. who knows 

4. lines & silhouette. ok here’s my big tip for lineart and sketching: don’t use multiple short thin lines when one big strong one will do.. especially if you’re describing the shape of a dynamic pose. when you use lots of little lines, you lose the energy of the form. 

another BIG tip is don’t be afraid of straight lines. yes they do appear in nature and yes there are straight lines in the body. but more than that, they can be used to trick your eyes into following your image in a certain direction

look at this picture. where does your gaze relax and where does it go super fast?? the straight lines draw your gaze from the face, along the neck and back of the subject, then finally around in a spiral to the legs & face again, where it rests. if i had broken up the lines of the neck and back with tufts of fur, your gaze would get trapped briefly in the detail there and the whole image would be less ‘satisfying’. when i drew this picture i was not thinking ANY of that bullshit, i just knew instinctively that the nice simple straight lines looked nice. SO if you think you’ve drawn something that’s unusually nice to look at, consider ‘studying’ the image to see what made it successful like i did just there, then applying what you learned in future pieces

5. colours. literally my tip is to just do what looks nice. i don’t have a lot of Knowledge here lmao. but here’s a Big one for painting, which i don’t do much of for this blog big w/e – avoid white backgrounds when painting. you can have a white bg later, but while you paint and shade and add light sources and w/e your background should ideally be a light grey. not only is it easier on the eyes, but you won’t feel the need to ‘compete’ against the white for being brighter and higher contrast. i use light grey for all my bgs until the end stages where i just pick a bright colour that looks good and fill in the bg. you could even put a white bg in there at the end when you’re done painting

uhhh if you have any more specific questions lmk. or if you want me to draw a ??tutorial?? then we’ll see.

ironoverwine:

rockboci:

how tf do people draw with clean lines like ? ??? whats the fucking secret that i need to unveil to absorb that power

stabilizers.

but more importantly, drawing the same line over and over while hitting ctrl-z at roughly the same bpm required for doing cpr until

a. it looks right (never happens)

b. you stop long enough to try flipping the canvas around so you can come at the stroke from another angle. repeat ad nauseum

or

c. you give up, make a stroke that looks close enough, then zoom in really close with an eraser and scrub away the sins