resources

Inspiration for your novel’s tagline (beyond the usual Top 10)

Writing

I’ve decided SCVK needs a zippy tagline for the front cover and an improved one for the back blurb, so I’ve gone into research mode.

It’s easy to find a list of the top ten movie taglines of all time (Pro Tip, it’s from Alien and those eight words do a lot of heavy lifting!), and of course I looked through my hubby’s movie collection, but I needed more scope.

Luckily, I stumbled upon the IMP Movie Poster Tagline Database. AND it’s searchable. Which means it’s addicting! So don’t use it to procrastinate, all you naughty writers, you! Happy hunting!

 

Writing

as-warm-as-choco:

A master post of Thomas Romain’s art tutorials.

There’s not enough space to post all of them, SO here’s links to everything he has posted (on twitter) so far : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. 

Now that new semesters have started, I thought people might need these. Enjoy your lessons!

HOGOSH BACKGROUNDS

Writing

drawingden:

drawingden:

drawingden:

*UPDATED VERSION SUMMER 2015*

Digital Painting and Drawing

  • Autodesk SketchBook Copic Edition – This is the limited edition of SketchBook Pro with 72 Copic colours to choose from
  • Krita – Krita offers CMYK support, HDR painting, perspective grids, dockers, filters, painting assistants, and many other great features
  • GIMP – GIMP is a well known free alternative to Photoshop with similar features 
  • Mischief Free Version – With six essential brushes, a basic palette of colors and an infinite vector canvas, Mischief-Free is perfect for hashing out ideas, life drawing, and endless doodles
  • MyPaint – MyPaint is a fast and easy open-source graphics application for digital painters, and comes with 39 different brushes
  • Verve Painter – Verve is a small painting application that uses fluid dynamics and brushes to push the paint around, though it is still in development.
  • Inkscape – Inkscape is an open-source professional quality vector graphics software with sophisticated drawing tools with capabilities comparable to Adobe Illustrator.
  • FireAlpaca – A similar program to Paint Tool Sai that offers features such as a snap feature which creates a variety of perspective overlays.
  • MediBang Paint – A free lightweight painting program for Windows, Mac Os and Android with cloud saving to allow users to easily switch between platforms.

  • SpeedyPainter – Basic painting program with a simple layout and features such as perspective grids and reference view mode

3D Modelling  

  • Google Sketchup – Drawing-based tool for architects, designers, builders, makers and engineers who design for the physical world. SketchUp Make is a free version and SketchUp Pro is a paid version with additional functionality.
  • Sculptris – A free, introductory digital sculpting tool, a great stepping stone for digital sculptors, created by the makers of Zbrush.
  • Blender – A powerful application with full-fledged professional tools, Blender has a wide community and resources to help you learn.
  • SculptGL – This handy modelling program works online in your browser and is compatible with wacom tablets

Animation

  • Synfig – Synfig Studio is a free and open-source 2D animation software, designed as powerful industrial-strength solution for creating film-quality animation using a vector and bitmap artwork.
  • EmoFuri – EmoFuri is a new animation software that helps artists easily animate photoshop illustrations in a 2D-3D style.It uses PSD files of character illustrations to animate them. 
  • Pencil2D – Pencil2D is an open-source animation/drawing software that lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation using both bitmap and vector graphics.
  • Live2D – This increasingly popular 2D-3D animation software is similar to Emofuri with sample models available to experiment with, and is also available in english.

Pixel Art

  • Piskel – An online pixel art app that lets you animate pixel art with a live preview of your work.
  • Piq – While it doesn’t have the best looking layout, this online tool has lots of interesting features including a colour-drift tool that’s great for making colour palettes.

Etc

  • Thisissand – An online fun and unique playground for creating colourful sandscapes, also comes in an app version
  • Flame Painter – A free demo of the full program, it allows you to try out the flame generator and change different brush settings and paint your own flame paintings
  • Silk – An online interactive generative art program that creates bright silk-like patterns, with options to change colours and rotational symmetry.
  • Bomomo – This interesting program has a group of dots that move around the screen in the pattern you choose, then paint the canvas according to when you click the screen.
  • Drawpile – 

    Drawpile is a software collaborative drawing program that allows multiple users to sketch on the same canvas simultaneously.

Some Artist Tips you May or May Not Know

Writing

ashalina-art:

Just from personal experience.

1: Never try to draw on an empty stomach. You’ll make mistakes and be uncomfortable. (But don’t stuff yourself till you’re sick either.)

2: If you have to go to the bathroom, go. A full bladder or otherwise does serious damage to the attention and patience spans. Plus it gives you time to stretch your legs.

3: Before you ink it, leave it alone. Come back later (a few hours, a day?) and check for major anatomy mistakes. Work on something else while you’re waiting.

4: Stay hydrated! The brain and fine motor skills work better when properly circulated.

5: Do not have an excessive amount of sugar before sitting down to work. You’ll get jittery and impatient. Same goes for immense amounts of caffeine.

6: If you’re stuck, take a break to stand and stretch. Walk around the room. But don’t THINK of it as a break. Just take time to really focus on your body. Loosen it up, get a goooood long stretch and some deep breaths. (but don’t pass out!) It’ll jolt the mind awake and let you really relax a moment.

7: Keep. All. Your. Old. Art. I don’t care what it is. Keep it. Date it if it’s in your computer folders. Make a suitcase filled with it. (I personally have ALL my old art in a thick work folder.)

8: Keep your sketchbooks together, used and unused. If there’s a good sale on sketchbooks, get two or three! You won’t regret it later. There’s no such thing as too many. (I currently have about ten spankin’ new sketchbooks and I know I’ll need/use every single one of them.)

9: Date your sketchbooks. Put a start and finish date on them.

10: I’m afraid I don’t practice this one: date your drawings. You’ll be happy about it later. You don’t need to SIGN every drawing, but do date them. At least date pages.

11: ART BLOCK HAPPENS. Art block is pretty much a CONSTANT state of mind for artists. You’re never out of art block totally. But sometimes you get bursts of inspiration that make it feel like you’re out. So instead of feeling like you’re ill if you suddenly have artblock, remind yourself that this happens all the time, and you get out of it eventually, every time. c:>

12: If you’re REALLY stuck on some bad art block, do what I do.

Draw a brain barf. This is where you take a blank sheet of paper, and you just LET your hand be random. Draw whatever comes to mind, as it comes to mind. in the middle of drawing a hippo in a top hat but you think of a jolly rancher riding a unicycle? Switch immediately.

Let your brain just vomit all over the page. You’ll be surprised what comes up and what art block this can get you out of. It’s gotten me out of it various times.

13: Take advice from more experienced artists. But do NOT take everything as Gospel. Some people are just wrong.

14: HAND SHYNESS/ ART ENVY/ SELF CONSCIOUSNESS/ AND SKILL IMPATIENCE WILL EAT YOU ALIVE like a Titan. Do not let yourself get shy after looking at ‘better art’, do not let yourself think your art is worthless or your skills are worthless, and do not let yourself get frustrated that you cannot be at a higher skill level RIGHT NOW. Your brain will try to do this. All the time. Keep yourself in check. If you keep going at it, and keep working, you will get better. This is why you keep your old art. Look at it to remind you how far you’ve come.

15: Draw what you like. This is so important. (This does not apply for exploitative art. :l That’s just wrong. So long as you’re not targeting someone harmfully, I guess you’re fine.)

But don’t let people’s preferences dictate what you can and can’t draw. Draw whatever the heck you like. Accept that no matter WHAT there will be someone out there that hates it. Always. This is just a fact of life. But don’t let it get you down. I would have stopped being an artist at day one if I had.

16: You never. Stop. Learning. Ever. You will be old and grey and still be learning new things. That’s okay. That’s the nature of art. Even the ‘pros’ don’t know everything.

I hope these help someone out there

This is a  great post, I’m glad it was made!

#14 still gets me down.  A LOT. 

#7–tell me WHY!  (Sure, I  enjoy looking through my old sketchbooks…BUT DUDE, I HAVE SO MANY). 

#3 – GUILTY.  Which is why I don’t ink things anymore.