I Found God In A Hopeless Place

So, maybe just one more day with a basically identical pose

day 14!

Why is she so concerned? we may never know.

(I've been doing this for 2 weeks? (???) that doesn't compute somehow)

Speed paint of Mermay day 1

wow

i zoom in and out a lot

huh

(the song is 'dolphin-esque' by Godmode on youtube's music library)

Day 26

so i definitely started this past midnight but who's keeping track

She's dancing :)

or stretching?

got an ask recently about the way my digital art looks like traditional, so I tried to explain the steps on my self portrait, feat. some of my favorite artists and favorite brushes. sorry if it's incoherent, I'm not used to explaining my process besides "I've been professionally studying traditional art for half my life and I'm really bad at technology so I just paint digitally the way I do on paper"

Day 15!

another pink merm. I took like 3 times longer on this one than the others because I kept having to redo her face. Aaaaand then i forgot to erase the under-drawing of her hair. So she has ghost hair whoops

Adobe is going to spy on your projects. This is insane.

In case you lost it - a link to the eSIM donation guide. Even if you feel sick and powerless, you can at least do this. And even if you really, really can't donate, you can always at least share this and remind others.

https://gazaesims.com/esim-purchase-tutorial/

Do you have any art tips? Mostly for anatomy

VERY REALLY FAST rundown of some niche tips I have discovered, specifically for the body types I tend to draw (muscular-soft)

For torso: ribcage/lats area in purple, abdomen/belly comes in blue.

centre line to divide the chest and show the middle of the stomach. frowny face is the top of the abs (kisses the bottom of the pecs) and the nips. Pecs are trapezoidal and connect to the shoulders at a diagonal. The shape of the chest gets more rounded with more body fat generally

Then the traps are like a triangle, the bottom of the triangle is the general area of the collarbone, and the neck starts about halfway up the triangle (this is a super general guide ofc, lots of people aren't built like that... and this isn't perfect anatomy!! but it's a shorthand I use for sketching.)

From the side, the torso has a couple major Bumps:

And when drawing a leg, I tend to draw "hip dips" (really what a stupid name) and the two big boy muscles. I dont draw feet/ankles because I despise them. I'm also terrible at butts.

ARMS!!!!! I do delts/shoulders, bicep, tricep, and idk forearm muscles im not an expert

triceps tend to be engaged when the arm is extended straight (leaning on a surface, downward pull, etc), biceps tend to be engaged when bending at the elbow. Going to the gym helps make this make a lot of sense. Or just exercise in general. Idk)

ELBOWS... I think of elbow like the hard spot that hinges between two meaty bits... This one I don't know how else to explain. I woke up one day and god granted me the power to make elbows look ok

Anyway ya I am not an expert but hopefully some of this is helpful. Biggest most boring advice is: practice with reference photos. Learn about the major muscles and how they fit together, including on your own body if you can see them relaxed VS engaged. Practice practice practice until you can memorize the shapes. Practice!!!!!! And that's it

This is a good site for lots of poses but I also use good ol pinterest or take pics of myself if need be. That's a classic.

Attempting Mermay! (It's been a few years since i participated so lets see how this goes)

I'm trying something different to make things easier on myself, so instead of a bunch of individual drawings of merms, I'm just going to do one big school of mini merms.

(i'll add in some texture and shadow to the kelp later, i need to go to bed!)

(Is this enough tit for mature, i labeled it mature)