I’ve Been Making Gay Knights (and Ladies) Collages On My Phone At Work

Hiii I once heard a saying that goes something like this: "it isn't your thoughts that make you who you are, it's whether you decide to act on them that does" or something along the lines of that

hey a reminder that sexual intrusive thoughts are not sexual fantasies. sexual fantasies are about what you desire and sexual intrusive thoughts are about what scares you the most and your intrusive thoughts say a hell of a lot more about what you DONT want than about what you do. youre okay and youre safe and youre not whatever it is your intrusive thoughts want you to think you are. youre fine.

how do you consistently draw the same character without it looking weird or off every different time?? also how do i coordinate faces, i always make the eyes too far apart or too big or too small or make the mouth too close to the nose or chin edge. If you have any advice I'd really appreciate it since it looks like you have your art shit figured out 🙏

Oh man SO so much of it is just practice, and you're not alone! I honestly think everyone struggles with a sort of "generification" of their characters' features the more they draw them, even seasoned professionals. There's a tendency to just sort of average everything out into an unrecognizable mush over time, and it takes a lot of conscious effort to push back against that.

Here are a couple tips and tricks that I've found to be helpful over the years:

Make turnarounds and model sheets. There's a reason animation/game studios do this, and it is because we are all still bad at drawing a consistent face. Despite being gainfully employed. What are we, graphic novelists?? We wish. Anyway it's a great way to familiarize yourself with your character's face from multiple angles, and it gives you a single source of truth to return to anytime you need a refresher:

Gather real-life reference. Anytime I'm designing a character I'm pulling together a ton of reference of actual people who look, to some degree, like the character in my head. It's always a collection of analogues, never just a single person, but it can be a great cheat sheet for understanding how your character might move, emote, etc:

Make a 3D model. I know it seems daunting, but with the advent of programs like Blender and Nomad Sculpt it's becoming remarkably more accessible. Heck, even James Gurney was sculpting maquettes out of clay for Dinotopia back in the day! It doesn't have to be particularly detailed—just a sort of proportionate lump will do—but it's another great way to have dynamic reference that you can rotate and light accordingly:

Practice, practice, practice. Make expression sheets for your character! Either right there on the spot, just start drawin' expressions, or you can slowly collect drawings of your character that you like, as you draw them, and compile them all in one place for your own reference. Need to draw your character's head from a weird angle? Maybe you've already drawn it before and you can copy your own homework! Doesn't count as stealing when the call's coming from inside the house 😎

I'd love to pretend there's a magical point where you can just immediately rotate your character's head in your brain like some sort of photorealistic apple in a twitter meme, but a lot of the time it's reference, hard work, and whole lotta repetition. 😐👍🏼

The first official portrait of the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge has been unveiled. Painted by award-winning British portrait artist Jamie Coreth, the artwork will be available to view at University of Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum.

ive been in wip city for 2 months fdfjdkgdf but am soldiering on w comms

Remember.

TumblrClan is no place for a fox-hearted Twittypet like Elon Musk. 

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Hello! I've rewritten this ask like five times so I'll just come out and say, you're one of my favorite artists, thank you for all the good stuff you put out, it's inspiring <3 I wanted to ask, what's your method of studying anatomy and expressions?

Thank you! <3 Ngl the last time I studied anatomy with effort, I was a kid in high-school. The only book I had on the subject was the Anatomy for the Artist from Jeno Barcsay. It was huge and detailed, literally muscle and bone deep, but I think my brain is wired more for the feel of things than the understanding 😅

I try to find nude or mostly nude pics for anatomy stuff. Adult photo sites rule as a source, people contort their bodies in all sorts of weird ways and I can usually find someone with the build I'm looking for.

When I sketch based on a ref, I try to pay attention to the silhouette, negative spaces and alignments. They help me correct mistakes.

And obviously I love to exaggarate things. (Evident on the waistline and pulled up leg here.)

Same with expressions, I guess. I try to push them but stay within the realm of believable. It's so easy to make a face look uncanny or creepy or w/e with a smile too wide. I have had a couple commissioners ask me before to tone down the initial expressions on their characters, and I think that was a nice reminder to pull me back to reality lol It can get especially weird with long narrow faces like Buttons'. I find it a bit tricky to make him have a large open smile while fitting it all on his head.