Moonpix Art - Blog Posts

So excited about the new Animal Crossing Direct ! We made this little illustration to celebrate the event, we hope you like it! And what about you? Can't wait to play with all the new cool stuff? 😍 

Void Elf Death Knight from World of Warcraft, a character painting commission we made. Hope you like it! 

The Inktober prompt of today is fan, and we take inspiration from Fūjin, the god of wind.

This is our version of him as a goddess, we hope you like it! 🌬️

Character painting commission, a Night Elf Frost Mage from World of Warcraft.

Hope you like it! 

Sometimes I play the violin in my spare time, so I was just waiting for an excuse to draw it ;P

A new beginning.

Hi there! 

After a very long time, I decided to start publishing something again.

These months was very busy for us,between work, problems, various stresses, inner conflicts and demons... anyway the whole World seems to be against our wish to make art. But I'm not a person who gives up easily and I really love what I do. So life goes on ;)

I've got a lot of things to show you. For now, I'm going to share just some meaningful things. Among these, I re-discovered an old passion of mine, the sculpture. I'm having a lot of fun with fantasy miniatures and small objects like pendants and keychains, can't wait to show you someting more!

I've always been shy and a private person, so I find difficult to use social networks in general and that's one of the reason I've take a little break from Tumblr. Also, in a sea full of water drops, it's diffcult to be noticed and this could means that nevermind how much effords you put in your artworks, it's kinda easy to remain in the ocean deeps. And it's demotivating. You know, the most important thing is to continue doing what you love. Yes, but it's not easy to stay positive in some moments, right? xD

Anyway, I've met some beautiful people here that gave me so much motivation to continue my journey as an artist. I will be always grateful for all that wonderful support. Also a smile means so much even in the darkest moments, and if I will be able to give to you some positive emotions throught our art, it'll be worth believing that also a little waterdrops is enought to make the World a better place ;)

I'll share new things soon, stay tuned! <3

New sketch ! It's an original piece I wanted to work on for a while. If all goes well, I will paint it tomorrow on Twitch ! 

https://www.twitch.tv/moonpix

COMMISSIONS are now OPEN! 

And... for this month, we apply a 10% discount at checkout! :D

We can't wait to give you some smiles with our art! <3

More info and ToS on our Website: https://moonpixstudios.wixsite.com/moonpix/terms 

Painting process of our last painting made entirely in Procreate. If you're interested in other videos like this, let me know!

Art Tutorial Chapter 2

Pick up your tools, don't be a fool (Part 1)

Welcome back to another art tutorial! We're so glad to see that last time lot of you found interest in what we wrote. You gave us an incredible support and we hope to don't disappoint you with our nexts art tips! So, let's talk about tools you need to get started! This chapter may be long, so we divide this in two parts.

INTRODUCTION AND TRADITIONAL ART

1) Traditional or Digital?

We're going to talk more deeply about this soon... for now we just had to say: this two methods may seems different, but at the end there's not much difference. It's all about comfort, style, money in some case, and personal preferences.

I'll explain this in the image below:

Seen? Not much difference at all ;)

What we can say shortly is that working  traditionally may cost less (not at professional level, because supplies cost a lot and also not last long) , while digital make some process much faster and the CRTL+Z function is a pure divine blessing.

The center of the discussion is: Traditional and Digital are not enemies, who use to be traditional is not better than who use digital and viceversa, and you not need to learn one rather then the other one first. You will get lot of satisfacion from both, you just had to choose the right tools for you! Each have some exclusive feature and the best part is that you can mix them together creating some unique masterpieces.

But we had to say this: in this modern world being a Digital Artist have a lot of more benefits in terms of time, reproducibility and effectiveness than traditional art.

Every artistic current is the daughter of his time and it is nice to live the present, because one day there will be no more and we'll understand his preciousness too late. So, don't reject something just for principle, I know that what is new can be scary.

2) Sketch'n'painting!

There's a lot of things that usually nobody say, and this is an unpopular one of those: Drawing is a thing. Painting is another.

To be a successful artist or at least to enjoy what you're doing, you don't need to know both, but of course I suggest to have a complete perspective for make art. So, the thing is, make practice in drawing, make a lot of sketches, focus on the shapes, on your lines, but also make some exercise making volumes with colors, modeling with light and shadow, express with color blends. My advice is to make some practice in sketching starting from simple things, for example your smarthphone, some fruits, a pencil... whatever you want. At the beginning keep focus on the silhouette, then try to split the zones with lots of shadow with the ones with lights. At this point you will have already a good awareness for drawing something. To make practice with painting, try to trace an image or a photo placing a sheet of paper on a light source if you're working traditional, or maybe use an image on a different layer in digital. Then focus on the shadows and light contrast, on the colors and reflections.

Every teacher will say that you need to learn drawing before painting... but at the beginning, only focus on some black lines may be frustrating and alienate someone to continue, but if you learn how to sketch and at the same time you learn how the color works, you will see how much you can do and this may be a good motivation to don't give up. Believe me, it works!

3) What do I need for Drawing Traditionally?

The market is full of choice, so you can be guided by your personal tastes, but basically you may know that with better materials generally come better results. At the beginning you don't need a 10$ piece of paper just for sketching, but keep in mind that don't be severe with yourself. If many artists around here make beautiful works, it's not because they are gods, but because they have done so much practice, they know their tools well and have the right materials. Time to time  ;)

We'll talk more about traditional tools in the future, for now here's a quick start guide for the techniques I used the most.

TRADITIONAL DRAWING Essential things are:

 - A sketchbook (rough paper for artistic stuff, depends on your media) you can choose a classic white paper or a midtone (better for make highlight with white pencil). If you want something super portable to take everywhere, some hardcover little sketchbook should fits for you, but when you're at home or comfortably sit on a desk or table I suggest a simple album of sheets or with a spiral binding. Dimensions may be your personal choice, but with an A4 you will have more supporting surface and this could translate in much more freedom while drawing. About the thickness, is better something around 90g/m , with some thinner paper you may incur in breakages, and problems with color saturation. Put simply, you could make a mess full of stains. Cool grunge stuff? I don't think so.

- Graphite Pencil (for the beginning, I suggest an HB for standard lines, a 2B for shadows and 2H for soft lines) and eventually a Penknife (it's important to have the tip not consumed too much). H stay for Hardness, wich means you will have clear lines, basically grey, and the overall feeling is of an hard stretch. You should use it to set the lines at the beginning of the drawing or to create clean strokes. B stay for Blackness, wich means you will have dark lines, thick, shaded. It's ideal for create nuances, thicken the edges, and make shadows. HB unites both. It's a standard pencil, useful in many situations.

Alternative: a

technical pencil

is also a great choice , you have the same kind of tips, same tips, and you not need a Penknife, It will be easier to keep the same trait. And be careful, the tip can easily break, but it's nothing.

- Eraser - everyone make mistake, and from that we will learn a lot. Also the best artists out there made mistake, but what is important is to recognise this errors and resolve it fast. A little at a time, you will learn to make a drawing fast without make lots of mistake, but for now, don't be afraid to erase what's wrong. So, nobody will see that :P And for more complex drawings:

- Smudge - some of you may have use fingers in the childhood to color some drawing with pencil powder, and also you remember some good shades from it, right? Smudge is basically this principle, a compressed cardboard pencil wich serves to blend the graphite. And... don't get me wrong, it's absolutely much more better than fingers, it gives much control and complessity to lights and shadows. You will be amazed!

- Charcoal  and Chalk - for less clean drawing but with beatiful shades and effect  like the old masters, this may be the right choice for you. Usually they are so dirty, and I suggest to use a larger drawing surface for that. They're the equivalent of a very soft pencil with a very large tip.

- Ink - A classic old technique, you can take ink from a nib or use brushes to create strong and defined lines.

For COLORING:

- Coloured pencils - There's too much choice, really. What I can tell you, of course, is that more colors you have,  better the results will be. Be careful to not saturate the paper with color, use a rough paper to give a good texture and you will get some great work.

- Markers - Many of you who are interested in manga, comics or design will surely know this technique. It's a very expensive tool, but also very cool. Generally they are alcohol based colors with a felt tip that allow you to color quickly and with really beautiful shades. To get good results, many, many colors are needed, and I also recommend a special paper for alcohol colors, because they really stain a lot. It also stink a little.

TRADITIONAL PAINTING

There's so much cool techniques out there, and you really have spoilt for choice. For now, the ones I suggest are Acrylics and Watercolors:

- Acrylics (more flexible than oils) - The type of standard painting that dry quickly compared to oil paintings and can be diluted with other mediums and can be used over many different supports, such paper, wood, canvas, metal. They require careful cleaning because when they dry up ... problems comes. For Acrilics you need:

- A Canvas or a thick paper - even if you can paint on a lot of rigid supports, these are the most common and versatile methods. Various sizes, depending on the type of work you want to do and even if you want to create something transportable rather than a huge panel.

- Selection of Brushes - (I suggest synthetics one) Every brush have is own effect, so choose that according to your preferences. At the beginning, a round-tipped and a flat brush can be enough.

- Colors -  you can start with just the basic color (yellow, red, blue, white, black) but a ready made pigment will ever be more brillant. You will find them in jars or tubes, on different sizes. It depends on how much you have to paint, and always close everything well to not make them dry.

Watercolors ( dry, liquid, guache or ecoline) - is a very old techniques, one of the most loved of all time. It allows you to quickly color sketches, create unique effects, and the fact that is not heavy allows you to work with the background of the paper, acting by levels. It's perfect for sketching, illustrations, comics or travel, usually the sets are sold in small boxes not bigger than a smarthphone. For Watercolors you need: - Watercolor paper (basically sheets of cotton or tick paper, since water is used, the paper tend to deform a lot. An advice is also to stop the edges with a scotch tape.

- Brushes (basically fine brushes, always synthetic) you don't need expensive brushes because they tend to ruin itself very little over time. Generally you will need small and pointed brushes, no special shapes are needed for now.

- Colors - The watercolors comes in various forms, in godet, in tubes, or in the form of inks or bottles of concentrated color (usually called Ecoline) Just try and choose your favorite. In general tubes it's called Gouache and it is an opaque painting compared to the transparency of the classic watercolor in Godet. However, Those already liquids are very bright.

- Black liner or ink - If you want to give clear contours to the shapes or make shadows. There are special pens with different tips, and even pens with the tip similar to a brush. Otherwise you can think of a more classical solution with a nib dipped into liquid ink.

- White Pen - to add some light strokes. Purists would say that white is obtained only with the non-color of the sheet. In my opinion, with a white pen the effect is more cool. Always depends on what you have to do, be creative!

- Some Water in a Jar -  It's important to wash your brushes and of course knead the colors. You don't need specific materials, some jars of marmalade or homogenized food for childrens are a good choice.

My favourite pick is drawing with black pencils and ink, and put some colors on with watercolors, because it create some cool effects, dries quickly, and it's easy to carry around and combined with Digital Media create some great stuffs. Try to believe!

We will talk again about all of this. I should need an entire book to explain everything we have to say, but until we have not the funds to support a similar production... meh.   But of course if you're interested in seeing a future for this project, just a Like, a Reblog, a sharing on your socials may help a lot! :D

Next time's episode: Digital Art Tools!

Happy Earth Day ! When humanity was born, Mother Nature took care of us, and now that she starts to get tired, it would be appropriate to take a little care of her. We don't need to ruin this beautiful planet... also, it's envied by the whole solar system :P

Here’s a little quick drawing for you, made in sketchbook app on ipad! Hope you like! ;)

That's it! Another painting finished, she's Moonix, our original character who will become the front of Moonpix, to make us more recognizable and better tell our story! :) Made entirely in Procreate on the iPad, we also have a video of the painting process, if you're interested. Let us know what you think!

We liked a lot the skins of this year's Lunar Festival ... but unfortunately we not found Widowmaker T.T Never mind, we hope to find something nice in the Archives of this days. Best wishes to you too ;P Here's our digital painting Fanart made in Corel Painter, hope you like!

Daily sketch, a little practice! In the last weeks I've been drawing a lot... usually I'm more focused on painting. If you want to see something else, I've a bunch of sketches to share :P

Art Tutorials!

Greetings! Meanwhile, I wanted to thank you for all the support you're giving us here on Tumblr, really means a lot! ❤️ 

I would like to start using this blog not only to show our works but also as a personal diary of our artistic journey... so let us know if you are interested in any particular content!

So... why not start with some artistic tutorials? :P

CHAPTER ONE:

an artistic mind makes an artistic guy.

Before throwing ourselves in a deep technical vision and some kind of “how to” things, I find truly important to talk about attitude and mental arrangement, because a thing like knowing how to unlock when you are not inspired, are as significant as know which tool to pick. Or maybe more important, really.

 1) PRACTICE

 The first thing that we need to say is that, like everything, to obtain results, you need practice, time and passion. Everyone can draw decently, just need some practice and time. Natural talent doesn't really exist at all, of course for some people, truly passionate on what they’re doing, should need less time that other, but believe me, with constancy and dedication, you can do everything.

2) SELF CRITIQUE

 Second thing you need to know is to be a self-critique, it’s really important to understand errors, and learns from it. That’s the fast way to learn something. Neither an instructor can gift a teaching better than that, because when we fail of course we feel bad, but for sure we will learn how to avoid this next time.

3) RESEARCH

Third fact is: when you feel stuck, don’t give up. Just take a breath, think about what you don’t like in your art, and then try to solve it. Example, you’re drawing a face. However, it looks horrible to you. Well, try to answer that question: why I don’t like this? The eyes are too small? His nose is awry? Look too flat? Well, then try to improve the parts you dislike. You don’t like that at all? Take a break then, some minutes, an hour, a day, rest on your eyes really help a lot. Maybe on your first attempts you don’t make some masterpiece, but is important to rejoice of small success and remember that a bad drawing will never, listen to me, never, be a failure, because from it, you will learn a lot, and believe me if I say that you became better after that.

4) FIND INSPIRATION

 At the fourth position, we’re talking about finding inspiration. Inspiration it’s not something like a mana bar that needs to charge, of course on some day we really don't' want to do anything, but you don’t need a divine touch to make some art. So, my best advice is to look around, look at your drawing from distance, see the world around you, just make some steps in your room or go into the courtyard to take a break, or maybe search some image on the web. Take a look on the real life, to find some references to put and transform it in a piece of art. And well, let’s talk about references. If you're attempting to make a realistic drawing is essential to use a model, a photo to study how the light build the shape, how the texture looks and the proportion are connected with different part, but even if you make a cartoon character you need to take elements from real life. Even on an abstract painting you may find useful to put some elements in it, because from reality human use to find a correspondence, an identity, and it’s what can give to your art a personality. So to make art it’s very important to learn to observe. Don't just watch at something, observe, trying to understand every part in a thing. Sometimes to make a good painting is all about details, and the best way to know how to do is to synthesize what our eyes are teaching to us.

5) (extra tip) ENJOY!

 Art doesn't have to be a frustrating activity, it doesn't have to make you feel inferior to others or even better than others.  It must be a way to express yourself, both with pleasurable and sad emotions, must make you feel free to communicate and not to feel yourself closed in a corner of your room. You have to relax, make you smile, but don't make you suffer, make you cry and make you angry. Certainly the creative process is not always fluid, but if you really like what you are doing, then everything else will not matter. Besides, art has a therapeutic power, and it can really help in difficult times. The art is our friend, who listens to us, and likes us. Not our rival that makes us angry, hurts us and makes you hate everything else. So always remember to have fun, first of all :)

I know, that may looks boring and useless for some of you, maybe you need to know how to make a perfect color blending or to make a realistic eye just with a pair of strokes, but attitude is the most important part of everything in the life. Learn from your error, never give up, and I’m sure you’ll create a lot of a masterpiece.

 See you next time, talking about tools and everything you need to be an artist! 

⭐️ Part 2 here => https://moonpix-art.tumblr.com/post/173191380078/art-tutorial-chapter-2 ✨

Work in progress! I just added a little color to one of my recent sketches. If you like this character I could think of developing her in a more complex illustration ;)

One of our latest Fantasy digital Painting, we really hope you like!  

Part of the painting process is on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/moonpix/videos/all …

Again, it's not really the period, but I had to show it to you :P This was a Goblin made for Christmas time. Who is missing the Witer veil? T.T

Made in Corel Painter.

Maybe a little off topic, but here’s a painting made this winter for the Christmas period (or Winter Veil if you prefer). A Pandaren from World of Warcraft! 

Digital Painting Fanart of Jaina Proudmoore from Warcraft, made in Corel Painter while streaming, after a poll on Twitter to decide which was the favorite character. The most voted were Jaina and Maiev, then Kerrigan :P

Digital painting made entirely in Procreate for Ipad. Usually we do many portraits, this time I wanted to do something different.

D&D Character Commission for a Twitter Follower! 

If you’re interested in a painting like this, feel free to contact us! 

https://moonpixstudios.wixsite.com/moonpix/commissions

There's a huge difference between protecting and imprisoning. Unfortunately, it seems easy to confuse these terms... Never be afraid to open your wings, never.

This was our last painting of 2017, may the new year bring a new light to all of you :)

Digital painting fanart, a Night Elf Mage from Warcraft, made on our Twitch channel some time ago! ;)

https://www.twitch.tv/moonpix

"Do ye call that a weapon? Hah!"

Our digital painting fanart of a Dark Iron dwarf from Warcraft, Battle for Azeroth. Hope ye like friends!

"Stay away from da Voodoo!" Our digital painting portrait of a Zandalari Troll from Warcraft, Battle for Azeroth , we really hope you like!

We've made this digital painting in a difficult moment for our family , when was hard to think of anything else, but our art gave us a lot of hope.

And that's why we do art, to give hope, to give a smile.

This painting is called Regrow. We really hope you like. :)

STAND AS ONE! Our Fanart of Anduin from Warcraft Battle for Azeroth, we hope you like! 

Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, digital painting fanart from Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm, made in Corel Painter!

Digital Painting fanart of Moira from Overwatch! Made in Corel Painter ;)