Tips For Illustrators (and Other Artists Too!)

Tips for Illustrators (and other artists too!)

I’m an illustration major at MICA (please check out my blog here as a way to support me for making this post!), so this is catered towards what I learned in my illustration critiques and from professional illustrators. I think these tips can go for other artists too, though!

None of these are things that work all the time, but they’re general “rules” I’ve been taught. You can break them, just know why you’re doing so! These are just things I copied from my critique notes, so most are general tips I’ve heard and copied down.

General

Enjoy what you’re working on, but be okay with changing it.

Anatomy, and accurately trying to portray it, is really important.

Time and space can be portrayed through focus and distance.

When working digitally, make some of your own textures (traditionally) and scan them in. Adding them into a picture adds an element of your own hand and makes your work stand apart from other digital work.

Contrast is a great thing.

Saturation is a great thing, especially in watercolor (soak that brush with pigment!).

Your style should never draw an obscene amount of attention to itself; it should just work fluidly.

Consider what medium(s) work best for your idea.

Cover your paint palettes (particularly reusable ones) to make sure dust doesn’t get in the paints.

Spin the page when you’re working. The time is takes to do that will show some major improvement in your art!

Use dark watercolor and then a light colored pencil on top, never the other way around (it will look muddy and ruin clarity).

Make sure to sometime pin or place you piece far away and step away so you can see the whole composition (or zoom out a lot digitally).

Consider the genre and audience of what you’re working for (and if it’s yourself, then you’re your own audience!).

Illustration is a branch of fine art, don’t forget that.

Fantasy art usually needs a lot of high detail.

Coloring

Pick an overall color palette to work in, then add in other colors as needed.

Complementary colors (ones opposite on the color wheel), when placed next to each other, can pop an object forward or draw attention to it. (Think of a red ornament on a green Christmas tree).

Designate the shadows to be either warm or cool, and the highlights to be the opposite. Stay with this throughout the entire picture.

All colors have a warm and a cool hue (cool and warm blues, cool and warm oranges).

The more saturated a color is, the more it will pop forward in the picture plane.

Don’t use colors right out of the paint tube.

When making a shadow, tint the color with the complementary tone (it makes it a little more grey).

Colorizing backgrounds lines makes them recede in a colored image with line art.

Blue and pink tones are great for use in skin tones.

Flats need to be fairly differentiated colors.

Drawing

The reference should never be an excuse for a misleading or awkward pose. You have the artistic license to alter an awkward pose and not just draw from a photo.

With scratchy or textured line art, find some places of solid black too, to allow the eye to rest (or where you want something to pop out).

How you render all the elements of the picture is what makes your own individual style.

When something is illuminated, it should be the brightest part of the composition.

Anything with a straight angle (like the corner of a room) has one wall/side being lighter in value than the other. There is a crisp distinction.

Sometimes adding more lessens the strength of the image.

Fabric folds are crisp, if they’re too soft they’ll look like clay.

Line heaviness and weight can determine depth.

Anatomy/Characters

Anatomical consistency is very important.

Inside of the mouth is usually dark.

Show character motivations with actions and poses.

You can crop a face or figure to set a mood.

In any and every picture, pay special and close attention to the hands, feet, and face.

Learning musculature, even if you use reference, will help you create the body you want for your character. Understand the human form…it’s easier to alter if you understand it in the first place.

To pop a figure forward, add a little bit of rim lighting (great with backlighting).

Composition

Avoid spots where a line or shape comes really close, but doesn’t cross, the edge of the paper. This is called a tangent and tangents are bad (they suck the eye into just that one spot and stop the composition).

Nothing in the picture is accidentally there, it is all drawn by you, so make sure everything has a conscious placement.

Don’t crop anything that shows essential character expression (including essential parts of the pose).

Never crop a figure at a joint (it makes the limb look amputated unintentionally).

Consider how you show detail with smaller characters…what are the essential characteristics?

Shapes of color or tone can make great framing devices.

For the most part, render the foreground with more clarity than the background…you want atmospheric perspective to be used to make it look like it’s receding.

Line heaviness/weight can combat (in a good way) any very dark areas.

When the character breaks a border (shape, line, panel etc), it shows dominance.

Make the shape of your negative space visually interesting.

“Cornerstops” are great. They are a compositional element that visually blocks your eye from running off the corner of a page.

Shadows can be a great compositional element.

Narrative Illustration (Portraying the narrative)

It is a successful illustration if the story is told.

Use every element of the image to tell the story.

Sometimes you have to take out elements you love for the sake of storytelling.

Think of images as being fast/slow, quiet/loud. What techniques portray these senses for you, and why are you using such techniques? What areas of the picture are slower and faster, why those areas?

Indicate how lavish or simple a place is by the details you choose to include in the background.

Don’t make it obvious that you “curated” the picture; it should look natural.

Cover illustrations don’t always need big and bold text, as long as there’s a strong narrative being portrayed.

Something mid action carries the narrative better than pre or post action.

You should be able to tell a story without relying on text.

Sequential Art (Comics, etc)

Color between panels can draw the eye around the page.

Big jumps in narrative can add humor and excitement, just make sure to think of why you are having the jump there.

When starting a sequence, make it obvious where you start (establishing shot; biggest to smallest, etc).

Make sure panels can read as separate images even if you took the gutter away.

Smaller panels are frequently used for faster/quicker actions.

Removing the background in certain panels allows the scene to be read faster; you only need one background per page (unless the scene in the background is changing).

Style, readability, and timing are key things to keep in mind.

Does the punch line/climax happen at the right time on the page?

Before planning a page, ask yourself: “How much time is elapsing between the first and last panel?”

Consider panel shape and size.

The composition, and where the eye flows inside every panel, informs where the eye travels to next…compositionally lead the eye from panel to panel.

The more panels you have, generally the more time goes on.

Don’t rely on speed/action lines to make things dramatic.

Give word bubbles a little breathing room.

When doing a graphic novel, you’ll usually have to redraw the first few pages since the characters will come more naturally to you by the end pages.

There is a design element to sound effects.

Digital Art (Mostly Photoshop based, but some are general tips)

Before printing, you usually want to switch your file to CMYK (though save a file in RGB too). Print at 300 dpi.

Before printing, you can up the brightness, saturation and contrast until it just starts to look awkward. You’ll learn the best settings for the printer you print at.

Don’t place digital textures anywhere. Consciously arrange them.

Don’t overrender. Digital art tends to be the most successful when it feels less digital than someone would expect.

If your color scheme doesn’t look cohesive, you can use a fill layer of one specific color to unify everything (Layer->fill layer). Lower the opacity to around 15-30%.

RESOURCES FOR POSES

Line of Action

JustSketch.Me

PoseManiacs

Human-Anatomy-For-Artist.com

MagicPoser

MIXAMO

Pose Archives

Bodies in Motion

Posemy.art

ReferenceAngle

CroquisCafe

29K notes View Post

malcontentmoon

3 months ago

🎨color study note

17K notes View Post

malcontentmoon

3 months ago

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

313K notes View Post

malcontentmoon

3 months ago

(source)

Unsplash - photography, illustration, and art

Pixabay - same as unsplash

Pexels - stock photos and videos

Stockvault.net - stock photos

freepngimg - icons, pictures and clipart

Veceezy - vectors and clipart

Kissclipart and kissPNG - more vectors and clipart (often transparent!)

Getdrawings - simplistic images and drawing tutorials

Gumroad - photoshop brushes (and more)

Canva - needs login but has lots of templates

Library of Congress - historical posters and photos

NASA - you guessed it

Creative Commons - all kinds of stuff, homie

Even Adobe has some free images

There are so many ways to make moodboards, bookcovers, and icons without infringing copyright! As artists, authors, and other creatives, we need to be especially careful not to use someone else’s work and pass it off as our own.

Please add on if you know any more sites for free images <3

394K notes View Post

malcontentmoon

3 months ago

literally most things that people write off as just ‘textures’ to use in graphics are stolen & unsourced material created by artists or photographers NOT meant to be used as elements in projects without royalty payments. you can say ‘it’s just random tumblr posts they don’t care’ but you wouldn’t want someone to take your work and edit into their work so they can be praised for their beautiful style and creativity even if they just post it on social media w/o profit, would you?? so maybe if you browse pinterest or google images for pictures without finding the original source, you’re using images that you’re not allowed to use without realizing it.

you see it on here a lot especially in (i won’t link anything but i’m sure you know what i mean) those album track ‘aesthetics’ posts, au ‘aesthetic’ posts (you see these less in kpop, but where people use non-royalty free images to kinda craft a visual au), and even just rather typical graphics that have a lot of ‘texture’ elements. and texture packs too!! that’s often where the problem starts; people just collect images (often literal art), compile them in a folder w/o sources, then insist no one can repost those images w/o crediting the person who compiled them. what???

SO may i suggest some of my fave places you can get FREE, ROYALTY-FREE elements that are totally legal to use

creativemarket has 6 free high-quality resources (textures, brushes, fonts, etc), different every week! wow awesome i check it every week

search ‘freebie’ on behance. awesome stuff!!! lots of v nice templates textures and fonts

mockup zone freebies

unsplash: tons of very nice free photographs, not shitty stock photos

pexels: same idea. + they have an adobe plugin so you can get photos without closing your editor damn nice

pixelsquid is a super cool free program (again w a ps plugin that i love) with lottts of super cool hq 3d elements!

as to not make this too long: spoongraphics, lostandtaken (textures galore), pixeden, freebiesbug.

135K notes View Post

malcontentmoon

3 months ago

Can't afford art school?

After seeing post like this 👇

And this gem 👇

As well as countless of others from the AI generator community. Just talking about how "inaccessible art" is, I decided why not show how wrong these guys are while also helping anyone who actually wants to learn.

Here is the first one ART TEACHERS! There are plenty online and in places like youtube.

📺Here is my list:

Proko (Free)

Marc Brunet (Free but he does have other classes for a cheap price. Use to work for Blizzard)

Aaron Rutten (free)

BoroCG (free)

Jesse J. Jones (free, talks about animating)

Jesus Conde (free)

Mohammed Agbadi (free, he gives some advice in some videos and talks about art)

Ross Draws (free, he does have other classes for a good price)

SamDoesArts (free, gives good advice and critiques)

Drawfee Show (free, they do give some good advice and great inspiration)

The Art of Aaron Blaise ( useful tips for digital art and animation. Was an animator for Disney)

Bobby Chiu ( useful tips and interviews with artist who are in the industry or making a living as artist)

Second part BOOKS, I have collected some books that have helped me and might help others.

📚Here is my list:

The "how to draw manga" series produced by Graphic-sha. These are for manga artist but they give great advice and information.

"Creating characters with personality" by Tom Bancroft. A great book that can help not just people who draw cartoons but also realistic ones. As it helps you with facial ques and how to make a character interesting.

"Albinus on anatomy" by Robert Beverly Hale and Terence Coyle. Great book to help someone learn basic anatomy.

"Artistic Anatomy" by Dr. Paul Richer and Robert Beverly Hale. A good book if you want to go further in-depth with anatomy.

"Directing the story" by Francis Glebas. A good book if you want to Story board or make comics.

"Animal Anatomy for Artists" by Eliot Goldfinger. A good book for if you want to draw animals or creatures.

"Constructive Anatomy: with almost 500 illustrations" by George B. Bridgman. A great book to help you block out shadows in your figures and see them in a more 3 diamantine way.

"Dynamic Anatomy: Revised and expand" by Burne Hogarth. A book that shows how to block out shapes and easily understand what you are looking out. When it comes to human subjects.

"An Atlas of animal anatomy for artist" by W. Ellenberger and H. Dittrich and H. Baum. This is another good one for people who want to draw animals or creatures.

Etherington Brothers, they make books and have a free blog with art tips.

As for Supplies, I recommend starting out cheap, buying Pencils and art paper at dollar tree or 5 below. For digital art, I recommend not starting with a screen art drawing tablet as they are more expensive.

For the Best art Tablet I recommend either Xp-pen, Bamboo or Huion. Some can range from about 40$ to the thousands.

💻As for art programs here is a list of Free to pay.

Clip Studio paint ( you can choose to pay once or sub and get updates)

Procreate ( pay once for $9.99)

Blender (for 3D modules/sculpting, ect Free)

PaintTool SAI (pay but has a 31 day free trail)

Krita (Free)

mypaint (free)

FireAlpaca (free)

Libresprite (free, for pixel art)

Those are the ones I can recall.

So do with this information as you will but as you can tell there are ways to learn how to become an artist, without breaking the bank. The only thing that might be stopping YOU from using any of these things, is YOU.

I have made time to learn to draw and many artist have too. Either in-between working two jobs or taking care of your family and a job or regular school and chores. YOU just have to take the time or use some time management, it really doesn't take long to practice for like an hour or less. YOU also don't have to do it every day, just once or three times a week is fine.

Hope this was helpful and have a great day.

100K notes View Post

malcontentmoon

2 months ago

people NEED to stop gatekeeping making music like ohhhh i don’t have an instrument ohhhhh i don’t know music theory ohhhhh i’m not gonna pay for some program. SHUT UP. take my hand.

you need NONE of that shit!!!!! there’s a website called beepbox.co. literally all you have to do is press things until it sounds a modicum of nice. it’s easy it’s free and it works on anything which has a browser because it’s a website.

if even ONE person starts making music bc of this post it will be worth it.

making bad music is just as important and okay as it is to write badly or draw badly or sing badly. you AREN’T BEHOLDEN TO MAKE GOOD MUSIC. making music is not utilitarian HAVE FUN. HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!

55K notes View Post

malcontentmoon

3 months ago

for all the artists out there, here are my favorite resources i use to learn!