tsomd + textposts
I've had this little idea in my head for a while now, so I decided to sit down and plot it out.
Disclaimer: This isn't meant to be some sort of One-Worksheet-Fits-All situation. This is meant to be a visual representation of some type of story planning you could be doing in order to develop a plot!
Lay down groundwork! (Backstory integral to the beginning of your story.) Build hinges. (Events that hinge on other events and fall down like dominoes) Suspend structures. (Withhold just enough information to make the reader curious, and keep them guessing.)
And hey, is this helps... maybe sit down and write a story! :)
^” Almost Exactly One Year Ago Today I Tried To Take My Own Life. The Emts Had To Cut Off My Pants But I Decided To Keep Them And Repaired Them With Bias Tape. I Call Them My Kintsugi Jeans “
^” My Child Requested “Flames In Space” For His Knee Mend.. “
^”Every Time This Dress Gets A Stain, I Fill It In With Fabric Markers”
^ “ First Time Mending, Hope It Holds Up! “
A Dance of Light and Shadows: Soft Pastel Sunset 💕
may i ask how do you come up with your characters designs and outfits??? i have such trouble thinking up functional costumes for my characters and i admire yours so much omg
ofc ofc!! I’ll try to keep this short n simple so there are pretty much just three steps in costume creation, compiling reference, sketching, and creating the final piece!!
Compiling reference is pretty self-explanatory! I recommend having a folder in your computer to save costume design to, or pinterest bcos pinterest is a fucking gem. Just. Hoard all the armor/clothing you can get your hands on. even if the only part of a design you like is the shape of some coat buttons. stash that shit away man. Here are some references I used while designing armor for Rato!!
The next step (and also the lengthiest step, at least for me) is sketching!! This can be………intimidating to get into, but it’s not that bad once you dive in!! Just think of it as tossing all your reference pictures into a giant melting pot and then throwin a bunch a your own personal flavor in there too for good measure.
I super duper recommend sketching outfits in a paper doll sort of way, with shapes instead of lines, and in greyscale! Good outfit design depends 90% on shapes imo, and blocking out clothing forms makes the entire process much much faster and easier to think about. The greyscale is so you don’t have to distract yourself by thinking about colors just yet B^) for example:
when Im designing outfits I like to lay out a bunch of sketches of the character naked/in underwear/w/e and then just go down the line blocking different chunks of the armor out. Each different shade of grey is a different layer so I can easily add stuff on top of or underneath other clothing pieces. It really helps to have a bunch of sketches on one page so you can recycle pieces of different mock-ups you’ve done!! Im sure you can see that a lot of the Rato sketches up there have the same boots/coats/chestpieces :~) its honestly just throwing shit at a wall and seein what sticks
and then you just gotta finalize it!! think of colors and materials and all that good stuff. Im not sure what else to write without making this obnoxiously long, so hmu if you have any other questions!!
I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard
Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.
Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.
Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.
Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.
SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.
SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.
Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.
Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.
Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.
Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.
Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.