Smolshyghost - 👻

how could you forget man.

My 3 Unfortunately-Secret Programs for Illustrators

There are a few programs I use on an almost daily basis as an artist and illustrator which I find invaluable, but that seem to be unfortunately more secret than they deserve to be. Which is too bad, because they solve a lot of small workflow problems that I think a number of people would find useful!

I’ll keep this list limited to my big three, but it is organized in order of usefulness. (And incidentally of compatibility, as the latter two are Windows-only. Sorry! Please do still check out PureRef though, Mac users.)

1. PureRef

PureRef is a program specifically designed to make it easier to view, sort, and work with your references. I actually put off downloading it initially because it seemed redundant– couldn’t I just paste the refs into my PSD files? Indeed, the only real barrier to working with PureRef is that learning the keyboard shortcuts and the clicks to move around the program takes a little while. But getting over that hump is well worth it, because it has some distinct advantages over trying to organize your refs in your actual art program.

Firstly, you’re no longer bogging down your actual PSD file with extra layers, nor having to fight with said layers at all– PureRef has no layer panel, so you never have to scramble to grab the right one. All images you paste into the program retain their original resolution data, so you can resize, rotate, crop, etc as needed without distortion. If you find yourself needing to adjust the values, color, etc of a ref image, you can just copy paste it into Photoshop, make your adjustments, and copy paste it back into PureRef.

The other great advantage is that you can toggle the program as ‘Stay On Top’ and keep it above Photoshop (or whatever else)– which was always a problem when trying to make a reference collage in a separate PSD file. I find that I just don’t look at my references as much as I should when they are on a second monitor, and this solves that problem.

I’ve used it religiously for about a year now, creating a new PureRef file for every illustration I do, as well as a few for specific characters, cultures, or settings in personal projects. As you can see in the example above, I like to sort my images into little clusters or ‘islands’ of specific content, so that I can easily scroll out to see the entire reference map, then zoom in to the relevant cluster easily.

There is one big tip I would suggest for using this program, if you have the harddrive space: As soon as you get it, turn on the ‘Embed local images in save file’ option. This will make your PureRef files bigger, but you’ll never have to deal with a ‘broken link’ if you move around the source files you originally dragged in.

2. Work Timer

This is such a simple little app that it doesn’t have a very formal name, though I think of it as ‘Work’ or ‘Work Work’ (for some reason.) It’s a timer that counts when your cursor is active in any (of up to 3) program you set it to count for, and stops counting when you change programs or idle. No starting, pausing, stopping, or forgetting to do any of those three things.

I use this one to accurately track my hours, both to inform myself and for commissions or other client work. At the end of a work session, I take the hours counted and add them to the hours I’ve already spent on that image in a spreadsheet.

I have it set to count my three art programs (Photoshop, Painter, and Manga Studio), so based on the settings I use, it doesn’t count time that I spend doing relevant work in my browser (such as looking up an email to double check character descriptions or ref hunting), so to counter that, I set the ‘Timeout’ option in it’s menu to 360. This means it will count to 360 seconds of cursor inactivity before it considers me idle and stops counting. Since it instantly stops counting if you switch to ‘non-work’ a program, I figure this extra time just about cancels out relevant time that it ignores in ‘non-work’ programs by counting an extra minute or so when I walk away from the computer to grab some water or what-have-you.

3. Carapace

I use Carapace the least of these three, since my work doesn’t often have a need for creating perspective lines. But when there is architecture involved in something, this proves invaluable in simplifying that process.

Carapace lets you copy paste an image into it, and then drop in vanishing points and move them around to create perspective lines. (Though you’ll want to scale down your full res drawing or painting a bit to avoid lagging the program.) Like with PureRef, fighting the shortcuts is the worst part of it, though for myself it’s more of an issue in this program because I don’t use it often enough to remember them. Still, it gets the job done, and it’s easy to adjust the points to feel things out until you get them ‘right’. Then you just copy and paste the grid back into your art program and you’ve got that information to use as need be on its own layer.

Of course, using Carapace isn’t a replacement for actually knowing how perspective works– you still have to have a sense of how far apart the vanishing points should be placed to keep things feeling believable. But it sure does save you a lot of trouble once you do have that knowledge.

So, there are my big three recommendations for programs to help your art workflow. I hope people find them useful– if you do, please share so that they climb a little higher out of their unwarranted obscurity! And if you’ve got a favorite tool like this that I didn’t cover, feel free to share it in the comments. I know I’m curious to see what else is out there, too. Also, if Mac users have any suggestions for programs that fill similar functions, feel free to share there as well!

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NOTE: this is no way the best or most common method of picking colour, it is simply what i’ve found very useful for my own personal use, and it works very well in my favour. i’m also not a native english speaker so there might show up some embarrassing spelling mistakes. if there’s any questions feel free to hit me up in my askbox!

SKIN TUTORIAL || HAND TUTORIAL || EYE TUTORIAL || NOSE TUTORIAL

SO YOU WANNA DRAW CATS AND DOGS BUT THOSE PESKY SNOOTS GET IN THE WAY

Here’s a hopefully helpful tutorial on how to draw them from memory but it also helps to understand and break down how to see their structure when you use reference!

Remember, it’s always best to learn the anatomy of an animal first before trying to stylize it. This way you know the rules and can choose which ones to break!

Please do not repost this tutorial or any images from it. Permission will not be granted. You may post a link to this post instead to help spread it from the original source.

Made this because my friend didn’t know this was a thing, so I thought maybe others don’t either? Hope it helps someone out!

I MADE AN ART MASTERPOST

Bodies:

how to draw arms

*Hands*

How To Draw Hands

hands hands hands

more hands

another hand tutorial

How to draw butts&thighs

draw knees

draw feet

Kneeling + Sitting ref

Body anatomy help

The male torso

Muscular male with bow stock photos

Lots of Stuff

All about the human body

Pose studies

100+ anatomy references

Sitting poses

pose reference blo

realistic woman body ref

male body

Pose Maker

Poses

hundreds of pose references wowie

a guide to figure drawin

torso reference

How to draw penis

Penis ref

Kissing ref

Faces:

Drawing expressions    

Creating expression

Avoiding same face

How to draw faces

*Heads

Heads&Angles

contouring and highlightin

drawing eyes

*How To Draw Noses

drawing ears

how to draw profiles

*How To Draw Lip

lips ref

lip tutorial

Hair:

Hair tutorial

Hair+Fur

how to draw curls

*How To Draw Hair

Clothes:

Drawing clothe folding

How to draw folds

Folding ref

how to draw jeans

hat ref

*How To Draw Fabric Folds/Creases

how to draw shoes/feet

hecka lot of clothing refs

Other (Person Related):

Flower crown tutorial

Drawing horse/animal legs on humans

Anatomy of mutant humans

Mass art ref

Drawing human wings

draw wings

*How To Draw Cuts And Bruises

wings

Other (non-specific):

How to draw ice

Drawing clouds

Creature design

Tutorial masterpost (100+)

How to colour

Drawing ref masterpost (10+)

paint blood

shadow help

draw grass

I made this most for my own benefit to organize this stuff, and have no idea how to make a masterpost!

@ Everyone who wants more LGBT diversity in the MCU.

Start pushing for a movie or show about the Young Avengers, because hot fucking damn THERE YA GO.

Ya got Koralina Dean who is a lesbian, and has badass solar energy powers.

The girl she’s dating, Julie Power, who is pansexual.

Teddy Altman aka Dorrek, who is half Hulk half changling and also gay. He’s also an alien prince.

And Billy Kaplan, who has fucking reality warping abilities, a shitload of kenetic abilities, healing telepathy. He’s also Scarlet Witch’s reincarnated kid. He’s dating Dorrek.

So we’ve got these, frankly, awesome as all hell characters with some cool powers (seriously Wiccan’s powers are fucking badass, just like Scarlet Witch. And Koralina’s powers? Stunning to look at, absolutely stunning), yet I don’t see ANYBODY claiming about there not being enough LGBT represation talking about them; if it’s simply a matter of not knowing, here you are! Now you know, read up on them to your heart’s content just like I’m doing right now (Avengers Academy seems pretty damn interesting period, if it’s good and not apart of the clusterfuck that is currently Marvel I may just have to get some of the comics).

Marvel has always been pretty good about diversity with their characters; race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, the whole shebang. So I’m not really understanding this need to force LGBT status on non-LGBT characters, when we have these characters already.

No, I don’t want Cap to have a boyfriend if it means it’s forced bs to make shippers happy, that doesn’t sit right with me. Give the characters like the ones listed above more love and attention, who knows we may see them on the big screen one day.

More of a chance than we will forcing LGBT status on non-LGBT characters, that’s for sure.

Frankly, I wanna see Northstar in something, and yes it is mostly because he’s Canadian.

-Espeon

ME!ME!ME! feat. daoko by Teddyloid

Full version, iTunes release

Actually

The question I get the most is how I write characters that feel like real people. 

Generally when I’m designing a human being, I deconstruct them into 7 major categories:

1. Primary Drive 2. Fear: Major and Secondary 3. Physical Desires 4. Style of self expression 5. How they express affection 6. What controls them (what they are weak for) 7. What part of them will change.

1. Primary Drive: This is generally related to the plot. What are their plot related goals? How are they pulling the plot forward? how do they make decisions? What do they think they’re doing and how do they justify doing it. 2. Fear: First, what is their deep fear? Abandonment? being consumed by power? etc. Second: tiny fears. Spiders. someone licking their neck. Small things that bother them. At least 4. 3. Physical desires. How they feel about touch. What is their perceived sexual/romantic orientation. Do their physical desires match up with their psychological desires.

4. Style of self expression: How they talk. Are they shy? Do they like to joke around and if so, how? Are they anxious or confident internally and how do they express that externally. What do words mean to them? More or less than actions? Does their socioeconomic background affect the way they present themselves socially?  5. How they express affection: Do they express affection through actions or words. Is expressing affection easy for them or not. How quickly do they open up to someone they like. Does their affection match up with their physical desires. how does the way they show their friends that they love them differ from how they show a potential love interest that they love them. is affection something they struggle with?

6. What controls them (what they are weak for): what are they almost entirely helpless against. What is something that influences them regardless of their own moral code. What– if driven to the end of the wire— would they reject sacrificing. What/who would they cut off their own finger for.  What would they kill for, if pushed. What makes them want to curl up and never go outside again from pain. What makes them sink to their knees from weakness or relief. What would make them weep tears of joy regardless where they were and who they were in front of. 

7. WHAT PART OF THEM WILL CHANGE: people develop over time. At least two of the above six categories will be altered by the storyline–either to an extreme or whittled down to nothing. When a person experiences trauma, their primary fear may change, or how they express affection may change, etc. By the time your book is over, they should have developed. And its important to decide which parts of them will be the ones that slowly get altered so you can work on monitoring it as you write. making it congruent with the plot instead of just a reaction to the plot. 

That’s it.

But most of all, you have to treat this like you’re developing a human being. Not a “character” a living breathing person. When you talk, you use their voice. If you want them to say something and it doesn’t seem like (based on the seven characteristics above) that they would say it, what would they say instead?

If they must do something that’s forced by the plot, that they wouldn’t do based on their seven options, they can still do the thing, but how would they feel internally about doing it?

How do their seven characteristics meet/ meld with someone else’s seven and how will they change each other?

Once you can come up with all the answers to all of these questions, you begin to know your character like you’d know one of your friends. When you can place them in any AU and know how they would react.

They start to breathe.