As you know well because I imagine you browsed my site enough, I Love Art - art helps us express ourselves, gives us an escape from the hum-drum of everyday life, and puts you on that magical wavelenght of oneness with the world. For me, it's not always necessarily about whether others will like it - it's about how you feel when you're making it.

The world of art is vast and complicated, and it's hard to pay enough attention to both the gestalt and the small details to make our art comprehensible to ourselves and others. Fortunately, we live in an era where information about art is more widespread than ever, and thus the purpose of this website is to compile some of the most useful tips I've found while surfing the made-up virtual world of the Internet, and have them here on this website for easy access.

This is a place to both celebrate where we are at now in our art paths and to learn to get even better.

This will mostly focus on the areas of art I'm more acquainted with: drawing, digital art, 3D modelling and animation (both 2D and 3D). However, there might be smaller sections on artsy things I'd like to try but haven't yet (composing, game making, assorted crafts). Art takes many different shapes, and you'd do a disgrace to yourself confining yourself to just one.

Let the big companies with no time for creativity have all the AI art they goddamn please, focus on what art means to you.

P.S.: If you find a link doesn't work anymore, please contact me and I will find it a replacement to the best of my ability.

Hand control

Tips for getting your hand used to drawing, either on plain ol' paper or a tablet

• Some warming up exercises

Anatomy

• Skull angle references
• References of Roger Radcliffe's hands
• Understanding how feet work
• Understanding how the muscles on the shoulders & neck work
• Drawing heads tilted up.

Perspective

• A funny video on how to foreshorten
• On how to put characters with different sizes in perspective on a background.
• A glorious fuck-ton of perspective angle references.

Posing

• Line of Action - Practice drawing trying to get the "gist" of the poses/gestures shown here within a time limit! It's also a great resource for references.
• Figurosity - Another website with stock model photos for drawing poses, this one has the advantage of providing different perspectives for the same pose.
• The Pose Archives - Even more model photo references for drawing references (mild NSFW warning, models are almost nude and you'll get weird looks in a non-art context).
• SetPose - A virtual mannequin you can change the pose of. If you can't find the right reference picture this might do the trick. It also comes with a variety of preset poses.
• EasyPose (mobile app, apparently a paid version for Steam is coming soon) - Like SetPose, but instead of a generic mannequin you can get more detailed bodytypes. Especially designed for manga and other comic styles.
• JustSketchMe - YET another "virtual mannequin" program, this one works on desktop, has several bodytypes, a simple light you can move around and the ability to add several characters. I'm just putting several of these tools so you can figure out (HAH) which one fits you best.

Composition

• A Twitter thread recommending videos to study film composition from
• A Twitter thread on how to create focus with lighting and background elements
• Breaking up elements to add depth to the scenes

Expressivity

• Miserable Homer Simpson drawings. Not exactly intended as a reference, but they do truly convey misery in a heartwrenching way.
• Expression ask memes (you know, those with the emoji people) with a palette one to boot. One of my favourites.
• Another pretty popular ask meme, with arms for additional expressivity.

Lighting

• ClipDrop Relight: An AI that relights your works for you. This is not for you to skip your lighting studies, this is mostly as a tool to learn how lighting works and for desperate artists with a deadline.
• A video breaking down how reflective light works

Props & Backgrounds

• A simple quick trick to portray volume on props
• Another simple trick to make architectural facades in perspective
• On how to make props and backgrounds interesting
• Backgrounds 101
• How to draw background perspectives
• Adding implied detail (works on characters and practically everything, too!)
• Using games with room-building features as references (like Minecraft, the Sims, or Animal Crossing).

Character Design

• A video against cute for the sake of cute (a big favourite of mine)
• A fun trick to make it easier to draw a character from the back. I'd consider this an art cheat, and not a thing for you to skip anatomy studies but it can be useful in a pinch so it's here.
• Against drawing people "pretty" as a default and resources on how to find inspiration for designing "regular-looking" people.

Digital Art

• About Blending Modes: An in-depth explanation about how blending modes work (for Adobe programs, for example)
• A Twitter thread with cool tips for those crazy motherfuckers (/pos) who like to make art on MSPaint
• On the importance of making/getting custom brushes/li>
• The Pixel Grimoire - Want to learn how to make pixel art but don't know where to start? This here might be helpful.
• How to clean up your traditional drawings in Photoshop - pI feel like this could be very useful to anybody who draws traditionally but want to show their art crisp and clean on the digital world.

Animation General

• An animation test with iconic Night Fever moves. Always use your refs kids.
• Meme John Arbuckle dances. This one's mostly for myself because one day I wanna animate some looping dances like the ones on Peanuts, but this is more unhinged.
• How to rotoscope by Joel Haver, the creator of that one "RPG Guy" video. I think this is a pretty good entry-level video on how to start rotoscoping, along with other effects.
• In-betweening lesson by traditional animator Scott T. Petersen. I just love traditional animation like this.

3D Animation

• A Twitter thread on how to animate tears in Maya
• A good video showcasing the progress of an animation scene, from final product to references, using the Encanto movie.
• Kanye raps a little song about the basics of using animation curves (applies to Blender but also many other animation programs)
• A workflow (aka "how I did this thing") about how to animate someone writing.

Modelling

• A 5-minute video overview covering the basics on how to sculpt a character (in this case our favourite intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran).
• Another 5-minute video overview, this time on how to sculpt a small scenario.

• About drawing snouted creatures
• A list of unusual animal pupils, what animals have them and why

Drawing Specific Things

Because there's particular things that can be tough cookies to crack.

• Chains
• Brick/Rock Walls
• A directory of 3D animal skulls.

Specific Effects

How to achieve specific effects that might not be as "solid" as drawing specific things.

• That fuzzy VHS effect

Worldbuilding

I love worldbuilding so much and while I am no Tolkien, I think it's neat and it's good that we've got resources

• The two layer approach to worldbuilding questions - good to add depth and open yourself to more questions to develop the world further.

Writing

• Assorted writing tips: A Twitter thread with writing tips
• Writing in brackets to get out of stuck scenes: A thing I do a lot, not only to keep writing, but to start writing a "skeleton" of how the story will go.
• Ways to un-stick a stuck story
• A directory for resources to write questionable/unsavoury topics. Save yourself some distasteful searches with these.

Storyboarding

Keep in mind I use "storyboarding" to cover a lot of camera stuff and overall How Things Are Displayed, so please excuse.

• A fun way to use storyboards to reveal additional elements.
• On focusing on telling a story, not the quality of the drawing.
• On avoiding boring jump cuts.
• The rule of thirds (applied to comics but it can work on other mediums too).


• Assorted examples of film & animation storyboards

Webcomic Making

• A Twitter thread with resources to make webcomics easier
• Advice for those starting to make a webcomic (plus a book all about it you can buy)

Game Making

• A ref chart on different styles to design solid walls on 2D games
A video on morality-based mechanics

About Art and Social Media

How to post your art on social media and survive to tell the tale

• Twitter thread about the importance of reposting

The Big Scary World of Professional Art

• Cooperation > Competition

The Meta of Art

Why do we make art and what we draw (hah) from it as an experience

• A Twitter thread discussing bad art advice


• "No love, however brief, is wasted"
• The website and blog of Keri Smith, author of "Wreck This Journal". Many thoughts about art, creativity, getting published, and especially, art outside the capitalist market.
• The story Minecraft's End Poem, its author, and issues arising from copyright. It's a long read, but it's worth it, I promise.

Thought Nuggets

Thoughts about specific art things in general. Less practical, more of something for your mind to chew on.

• Occult art and the rise of PS1-like graphics
• The use of portals as a story genre
• A Tumblr post about a person painting on a canvas not to portray a picture, but to be able to convey a texture she wanted to touch but wasn't allowed to in museums.
• A page of fellow Neocitizen Vinizinho, a list of articles about how to convey and preserve the sense of mystery in games.