Just in case you still aren’t sure about Russia’s intentions.
Sailor Five!
Things NOT to say to an art major/artists in general.
- You’re so lucky you don’t have to buy textbooks!
- You’re a really good drawer.
- Can you draw me?
- Did you draw that? (No, I’m just running my pencil over someone else’s drawing for fun)
- That’s so good, it looks traced!
- Did you trace that?
- Design my tattoo! (This is what tattoo artists are there for)
- Draw this thing for me!
- *pretty much expecting/demanding any art for free*
- I can’t even draw a straight line. (Neither can I. There are these things called “rulers”)
- Can you teach me to draw?
- Was that freehand?
- I wish I was born with artistic talent. (Saying things like this discredits all the effort we actually put in to developing our skills.)
- *TOUCHING THE ART*
So basically…
Don’t compliment us ever…?
(???)
These aren’t compliments, they’re disrespectful to the artist and the amount of hard work they put in. We’re not circus animals. For many of us this is our profession.
Example of a compliment: “oh I love this! The colours you used are great! I love your style! Do you take commissions?”
What you see up there? Not a compliment.
Granted, some of the ones in the original post I don’t find so offensive like “can you teach me to draw?”, though it is (like anything) annoying when asked ten times over
But yeah, show the artist you appreciate them, not that you’re looking at their work like some sort of cheap magic trick.
Art References
Here are some art references I use whenever I can’t get myself straight with imagination alone. It’s also good to have references because they help you remember what is possible and impossible when it comes to real life.
BODY AND FACE STRUCTURE:
This site is the one I used to learn quick gesture drawings by the use of timing.
- You are free to choose if you want nude models, “decent” models, or all.
- You can choose between females only, males only, or both.
- Also, you can choose between Standard Mode or Class Mode. Class mode starts with faster (shorter time limit) gesture drawings. In Standard mode, you choose how long you want your drawing should be (30 seconds, 1 minute, etc), with consistency)
This is mainly to get your hand loose from all that stiffness and anxiety.
Tip: Draw with longer strokes.
This site is what I look at when I’m getting lost with my anatomy. The models there comes with 11 human systems, from bone structure to skin. You can’t turn them around though, so you have to have another reference if you wanna see the back.
You don’t have to stick with this alone. You can google for more accurate references.
Kibbitzer’s reference sheet is what I use as my ‘angle’ reference. It helps! The reference includes:
- Men’s face shapes and noses (and how it’s done)
- Male and Female torso
- Hands
- Eyes
- Hair
- Wings
and more!
Senshistock’s pose references are so many (Like, I swear, I had to do 1000 individual poses and they still had more). You can use them but you have to link them your work and credit them. Read their rules HERE before you use them. (Please do. It is to respect their work.)
ANIMALS:
In this deviantart account, you’ll find tons of animal references ranging from domestic animals to fantasy animals.
Folders include:
- Reptillian
- Amphibian
- Fish
- Mammallian
- Avian
- Invertebrates
In their tutorial’s folder, you’ll see a how to draw cats and dogs. Check out their gallery too! They draw cute animals (if you’re into them).
VISUALS:
This helps with color palettes. Color rules include:
- Analogous
- Monochromatic
- Triad
- Complementary
- Compound
- Shades
- Custom
You can choose one of the Color Rules located on the left side and when you already have, you can move one color indicator on the color wheel and the other ones will move according to your chosen Color Rule.
I couldn’t find any particular site for lighting and shadowing, but Pinterest is a good website to use as reference. There, you will find different kinds of references, coming from real life models, 3D models and 2D models.
BACKGROUND:
People do stock things from others’ works. Thanks to these people, they helped me with backgrounds. Here, you will find perspective tutorials. You can check out their other folders for reference too! They have human anatomy and animal anatomy as well.
—- That’s about it —-
For those who use Corel Painter like I do, you should watch tutorials by Aaron Rutten. You can either go to his youtube or his website. His tutorials have helped me a lot with my background designs.