Curate, connect, and discover
Art Refs - Blog Posts
inspired by a post by @the-colossal here are screenshots of the stray models i extracted and built to use as art ref for myself - i hope they are useful to you too!
apologies for the haphazard organisation of these. i realise some are quite hard to make out - you can download all of them in super ultra mega Large™️ version (5000 px wide!) from here (google drive link to a 50mb .zip download)
(lots more under the cut!)
Keep reading
I don't usually click tumblr ads but that site has a lot of great drawing refs tbh
hot artists don't gatekeep
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.
Part 2: shape, style, and length with femme styles!
Okay I JUST realized I never posted these on here—- BUT BASICALLY, about a year and a half ago I started doing these experimental black hairstyle posts that were threads long on Twitter, to give artists a source of inspo for their black ocs whose hair they wanted to try something new with! There’s more to black hair than just the selected styles portrayed in media, and I thought it would be fun to show people how much texture, shape, fades, length, and style can be combined when drawing black hair—-cause it’s a kind of manipulation our hair can do irl! The OG posts were lost with the hacking of my original Twitter account (@/bagels_donuts) but I’ve since reuploaded the whole thread to my new Twitter (@/ItsDonutsFR)! I hope artists on tumblr find these useful, sorry it took me so long to post them here😭🙏🏾 I’ll upload them all in parts!
Part 1: Long masc hairstyles + playing with fades
hot artists don't gatekeep
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.
The third mascot, and also possibly my persona
You’re in art school right? Do you have any tips for making digital paintings like yours? They’re both hyper realistic and have a dream like quality to them that’s so amazing (also super excited for your prints, just ordered some!)
I graduated last year/that was my second degree :D!
A have a few things I can run down-
Photo reference. There are things I legit cannot get down right that I need photos for so my family ends up being my reference for things/I get photos from them doing poses I sometimes need.
If you can't get photo refs you can always use 3d models too to help with shadowing and where light should hit!
There's posemyart justsketchme -
Also anatomy4sculptors has some free photo scans and 3d models of the body
2. Pureref
Feel like no one talks about pureref enough but I like to make little refs and inspo boards before I draw! Plus it's like free
3. Thumbnailing
Omg please thumbnail. Like it's honestly a lot of fun cause you're not showing them really to anyone unless you need help picking but they're scribbles and doodles for you to know what you want your composition to look like or what the mood is gonna be
Again they don't have to be anything special could be stick-figures or whatever but it's to help you plan
4. Post-Work
I play around with curves and blurring so much like there's a lot that happens even after I finish comes sometimes I'm like "no I don't like these colors" and end up playing around with them more with curves and color balance
I made a tutorial about curves here! I also talk about the darken and light layer here too cause they're legit my favorite layer modes to play with and not a lot of people talk about them. I can't find my one talking about blurring+ noise(if anyone finds it please link it over :D)I might have to make a new tutorial on those- I think one of the things that gives it that dreamy feeling is the blur I use-
I like to keep things I don't want so much attention on blurred out/ and keep things I want you to grab your attention more in focus
also like using textures are fun too to add over art sometimes. It also makes like the art feel less sharp+ adding noise gives it that fuzzy look to it
I like make my own to add over or use some I got over the years! They're fun to slap on and have as overlay
5. Bug your friends lmao
I have bugged @chrispypapas in the middle of the before to ask him for help/to give me a second eye on things cause 1. Sometimes there's something you don't catch your friends do and tell you what to fix or 2. You're being overcritical and it's fine
I hope this helps :D!
@a-hungruy-alien there’s second part!
Part 2: shape, style, and length with femme styles!
Part 3: Combining shapes, braids, and textures! And utilizing parts and fros!
