#drawings  #etc. etc. (and life goes on)  #clemence fitzgerald  #albus potter  #harry potter fanfiction  #people i KNOW follow this blog  #and i drew a SNOG  #IT'S NOT THE SAME AS AN ALMOST SNOG  #-head in hands-  #my life my choices crey  #BUT IT'S LIKE THE MOST COMPLICATED PEOPLE I'VE DRAWN  #AND ALL FOUR HANDS VISIBLE???  #clemence has a sassy butt idk  #she should be wearing tights but well  #too late. 

Answer:

Ooh, well, I’m actually probably not the best person to ask. Most of what I know about drawing is self-taught and way old tutorials on deviantart from when I started learning. I lack real foundational skills, because I never went to art school and it does make a huge difference from the rigorous practice and critique you get there. At least for illustrators, which is what I lean toward (basically the ‘pretty paintings’ people). You spent years learning about the complexities of light and color and contours and all that and I… make it up. Which I shouldn’t.

But here is what I know:

• First and most importantly: practice drawing. I’m not sure where your skills are at, so I’m going to cover a very broad audience, in case there are beginners interested, too. Photoshop is just a medium. I treat it like a piece of paper, except I can undo and erase as much as I want without having to buy a new piece of paper. A lot of people seem to think they can jump onto Photoshop without learning how to draw first, but you can’t cheat foundational drawing skills.
• About finding tutorials that aren’t iffy: Find tutorials by people who have gone or are going to art school. Find tutorials by people whose style you like because different styles will have different techniques. I have also come to dislike tutorials that make too much use of Photoshop’s tools. For example, you might come across some that tell you to color everything on separate layers. I don’t like that. I tried that when I was younger, and it was helpful for awhile, but it feels very unnatural. I think when it comes to painting on Photoshop that the closer you paint like a traditional painter, the better.
• An overview of how I actually draw: Nowadays, I prefer having three layers - background, subject sketch. I sketch things out at least twice, from a rough sketch to a less rough sketch. Then I block out the main colors and shadows, and then start working spot by spot to fill in the details. And there’s no trick to that either, I just paint the colors that are needed. I use a hard round brush exclusively, usually set at around 40-60% opacity. Some people use these fancy photoshop brushes, and some use them really well, but a lot of them are kind of tacky. Kind of in the same way that filtering on graphics can be gimmicky if you don’t know how to use it. When I’m done, I like to amp up the contrast and color to my paintings with similar sort of coloring like I do to graphics, and that’s my “cheat” of sorts. I made a gif way back when of my progress.
• Random, but: be confident in your brush strokes. That’s also why I like to work in higher opacity brushes. It’s kind of hard to explain, but the good artists have this “smoothness” to their colors and lines like they drew it in one swoop, and that’s probably because they did. It doesn’t look overworked, which is what happens when you paint over a section too many times and it starts to look unorganic. This is a weirdly random thing to mention, but it’s also one of the most important general things I’ve learned.
• You will have strengths and weaknesses. I’ve been drawing my whole life in some from and I still can’t draw a face or hands without trying 20 times. And that’s not meant to be discouraging; again, I’ve learned in a very hodge podge way and I’ve NEVER learned how to draw people and some people just find it harder than others, like me. I’m pretty good at drawing nature and still lifes because that’s what I drew in my childhood art classes, and I learned vector art very easily and had the benefit of practice because the school newspaper dealt exclusively in vector graphics. 
• Aaaand why not. Some of my favorite prolific artists who I’ve followed for a super long time are tracyjb (who writes my favorite webcomic), emmyc, loish, pika-la-cynique (another comic artist), takeru.

I realize this doesn’t actually answer your question that much, and I’m not sure how this became so long, but that’s what happens when I take a break from my coding (which I must get back to shortly!). But in brief: I really don’t know enough about painting to give a proper tutorial, but I can probably give tips on specifics, and this whole thing I answered with above is my general advice. c:

#questions  #art  #drawings 

#NOPE HAVE NO IDEA WHY I MADE THIS  #I REGRET NOTHING  #drawings 

#matilda  #matilda wormwood  #roald dahl  #drawings  #gina draws noodly appendages 

#tiffany aching  #discworld  #the wee free men  #a hat full of sky  #terry pratchett  #drawings  #gina draws feet 

#questions  #drawings  #i have reduced you to cats yarn and tea  #and infinite power  #♥ 

#batman  #the dark knight  #bruce wayne  #drawings  #a gift!  #because the boyfriend is older now  #and getting older by the second  #for the longest time i was like 'the frick are all these lines'  #and then i realized  #oh  #it's in the shape of a bat  #....right 

#community  #alison brie  #annie edison  #ace of hearts  #a fistful of paintballs  #drawings  #Joining the TDA Halloween fest as Annie Edison~  #i'm really happy with how the lineart turned out :3  #i would've gone as troy but he was too hard to draw >:c 

#harry potter  #hp  #the boy who lived  #drawings  #so this might be a thing now 

#Beatrice Chang  #and capers ensue  #drawings  #SHE LOOKS DRUNK IF YOU GO FROM THE LAST FRAME TO THE FIRST 

#PROCRASTINATION PORTRAIT 2  #she's all grown up and fancy :3  #ok so she isn't that pretty  #but victoria song models so  #Beatrice Chang  #and capers ensue  #drawings  #hpff 

#clemence fitzgerald  #etc. etc. (and life goes on)  #drawings  #my thumb is cramping omg  #but look!  #clemence is all pretty and stuff 

Answer:

IT ISSSSS I was not prepared either. As soon as I realized it, I was like O_O NOOooo I thought I had more time D:

On a separate note, the combination of ducks and what I mentioned about a pirate AU (where Fred sails a merchant ship - after the old captain James has gone to other seas - with his crew of Bea the ship repairer/weapons’ expert and Albus the swabbie who cannae swim, and Scorpius is the governor’s son and Anjali is the pirate queen and do you see how I have actually thought this through and how well this fits) - has produced this doodle:

#questions  #and capers ensue  #beatrice chang  #albus potter  #drawings 

my first completed story was about a magical crystal that grants feminism #what do i even categorize this under  #things i should not be posting on the internet  #things i am posting instead of a new chapter  #things i will regret tomorrow  #(NO REGRETS JUST LOVE)  #sorry i sing that every time i see the word 'regrets'  #i suppose this counts as drawings. wee gina drawings.  #drawings  #* 

#and capers ensue  #Beatrice Chang  #drawings