Little Shop Of Horrors Fanart :3

My hands... Cheats... Things...

How I draw hands?

Idk?

Hope this makes sense. I generally don't see myself as being very... Good at hands, BUT I'm gonna most some drawings with my thoughts on how I draw them.

Of course, since character art is my passion, I've been forced to draw hands for over a decade. SO most of my 'skill' with hands is just muscle memory, combined with reference, combined with practice practice practice. Which nobody wants to hear because it sucks. SO LET'S SEE IF I CAN HELP ANYONE CHEAT THEIR WAY TO BETTER HANDS!!! (Also I'm so sorry for the photo quality I hope you guys can see these clearly enough)

So the basic thing about hands for me is that the palm is one shape, the fingers are another and the thumb is there too. I showed the palm in red and you can see how the thumb adds to the shape of the hand, as does the side of the hand in the second drawing.

As you can see from the sad looking hand, the anatomy looks wonky if the thumb is too high. If you clearly make the distinction of 'Here's the palm. Here's where the fingers are and here's the thumb, who is separate, but important.' it'll look way more natural, even if you're not confident. Most of my skill is just the fact that I don't make the thumb ruin everything. Wonky fingers can be ignored, but if the thumb looks like a parasite rather than an appendage, everybody notices.

As I mentioned, fingers that are kind of just stumps of flesh can be ignored in some cases, but if your thumb ain't natural... It'll look weird. When the thumb is flexed (which is how I draw it 99% of the time) it has a distinct curve to it and isn't just straight.

BUT BE CAREFUL! When perfecting the foxy curves on that gorgeous thumb of yours, you may get too into it and make it about fifteen sizes too big. Compare it to the rest of the hand and adjust appropriately.

SPEAKING OF PROPORTIONS! Please... Measure the hands against the body. One thing I see a lot in 'bad hands' is that the artist works so hard on making the fingers look good and detailed... And they end up making the hands ridiculously small or way too large. If that's your style, that's cool, but... Sometime's it's obviously not a style choice. It's just oversight. Always make sure you know how big your hands need to be.

These are just some more sketches of mine, but I want to bring to attention something in the bottom hand, the forshortened one... The two middle fingers are almost fused together. This is an epic hack and will make your hand poses super natural looking. Just like it looks weird to draw each individual hair, if you draw each finger as its own unit, you're gonna get a wacky hand. Especially when posing and thumbnailing, grouping certain fingers together into one mass is a GREAT hack for clear, readable action which, in the end, is the goal of character art.

Tbh, the less detail and anatomy you can get away with, the better. If you can make something that is an anatomical disaster look expressive and pleasing to the human eye, then the best advice I can give you is to lean into that and embrace it. Art is abstraction at the end of the day and hands are not the hill anyone wants to die on.

When drawing the palm, remember to leave room for Jesus. You know how he was pierced in the middle of his hands? Make sure that part actually exists in your drawing. A lot of people sort of forget to draw the palm and make it very small or nonexistant. Just a gateway to the fingers. Your palms deserve better rep than that. Sure, the fingers are more popular, but the palm is like that one stable friend who owns the Netflix account. You think your ring finger is financially responsible? Hah. (What am I saying at this point? Have I cracked???)

And some tips for the road:

Look at references (sorry I needed to say this again)

Try copying hands from photos

Try copying hands from drawings (yeah, you're gonna learn a few awesome shortcuts from observing some non-irl hands)

Study your own hands. How do the shapes work? Draw that.

Forshortening sucks and will always suck, don't fear it. Fake it till you make it.

If you can hide the thumb or a finger behind the rest of the hand and it doesn't look like it's been chopped off... Do it. Take shortcuts if they won't damage the expression and readability.

Continuing that last one: If you can get away with not detailing hands, do it

A scribbled, low detail hand that carries a drawing's pose and purpose is a million times better than a hand that was shoved in a pocket because you don't know how to do that pose. If you're gonna destroy your awesome pose because the hand scares you, then why draw it anyway? You've already butchered the expression and composition. What's the point? All the hacks you could have used and you pick the 'spit on my own hard work' method?

Don't sacrifice composition, expression or clarity because you're afraid of a pose is all I'm saying

Try to remember your style and how many fingers your characters are supposed to have. This seems obvious, but I forget way too often.

Hands holding things... Suck. It'll be painful to draw. Look at reference, sketch it out, use your hacks... And pray.

But don't make an object smaller or oddly shaped because it's being held. If the hand looks wonky, that's fine, but if the IMMORTAL DRAGON SWORD wobbles at the handle IT IS OVER!

On that note: learn the proper hand positions for holding things like weapons and tools. Or at least make it semi-believable. That's a bit of a make-or-break thing right there.

Don't draw the hand without figuring out where the rest of the arm is going. Believe it or not, those two things are connected and if drawn without regard for one another, they look weird.

On that same note: Wrists are a thing that exist. Remember to draw them. I forget a lot, even in some of my examples here and it looks awkward. Especially in bent-wrist poses.

If anyone wants to add their own tips or sketches, PLEASE DO! I have no idea what I'm talking about! Most of this isn't from a real 'education', it's just stuff I picked up! So anyone else is perfectly qualified to give their two cents and I will thank them!

crimson valley

dancing :)

Finally finished this god damn thing!

Mostly did this for my friend who is starting s1 but it took me a stupid amount of time (mostly because of Tim)(still not happy with that mtf design)

oop

my meow meow,, blorbo if you will,,

happy jon sims and cats day!!

18.06.2022

I haven't been very active recently, but today I wanted to make another post related to (fantasy) world building. You can check my post about making a character encyclopedia here, or my other post about making an imaginary country.

Now, onto today's theme:

World building: making a religion

That's right! Religion is an important part of human history and - whether you are or are not religious yourself - you might want to give the people in your country or fantasy world some sort of beliefs or religion.

Today I created my very first imaginary religion and I wanted to share my creative process.

As I did with my country building guide, I will shorten the explanation to four simple steps in order to get started and set the basic traits of your religion. Here we go.

1. Type of religion (general traits)

Before anything else, you must think about what kind of religion you want it to be. These are questions you can ask yourself to get started:

Will it be a monotheistic or polytheistic religion?

If polytheistic, how many gods/goddesses are there? Are they arranged in some sort of hierarchy? If so, make a small diagram to organise it.

If monotheistic, is the god/goddess omnipotent? Are they limited by anything? Did they create humankind and the rest of the species?

Is there any kind of sacred texts, similar to the Bible or so? Or is it a religion transmitted orally?

Is the religion centered on any particular aspect of life (e.g. death, chastity, knowledge...)?

Are there pastors or any kind of religious guides or leaders? Or do the people speak directly to the god(s)/goddess(es)?

Does it give any explanation to what happens after death? Is there some sort of Heaven? Do they believe in Hell?

(I recommend thinking of a name, too, but this is not mandatory.)

2. Develop the ideas written before

This might seem obvious.

For polytheistic religions, try to describe as much as possible about every god/goddess. You can take inspiration from actual religions (always being respectful, of course) or ancient mythology. For instance, I decided to base the religion I created on spirits and natural elements (water, earth & forest, light, night and wind). Give the gods and goddesses some recognisable symbols.

Establish some basic rules, too. Here are some prompt questions.

How strict are the leaders of the religion (if there are any leaders at all)? Are the believers required to do anything in particular in their daily lives? Will there be any punishment if they don't do it?

Are there any forbidden foods or drinks?

Do they have any specific celebrations? Write those down and briefly explain them.

What are some of the legends, myths or stories that are part of the religion?

3. Branches

Of course, this is optional, but it is very likely that a religion will eventually split into different branches or groups.

I would recommend establishing which branch is the most important one. Then you can invent as many smaller groups as you want. Explain why they differ from the main branch of the religion and if they are considered to be a cult by the rest of the community.

Again, here are some more questions you can get inspiration from:

Are they a pacifist group or do they attack other believers/apostates/atheists?

Do all branches live peacefully or are they constantly at war?

What names do these branches receive?

4. Integrate the religion in your world/country

Now you have a solid idea of what your religion is like. It's time to integrate it in your fantasy world.

How powerful are the different branches of the religion?

Have they caused any wars or revolutions? Have they succeed in defeating their enemies?

Did the religion expand across other countries? To which ones? Did they make any changes to it?

This is basically everything I can suggest in order to invent a religion from scratch to use in your stories. I hope somebody finds this small guide useful in some way. Thanks for reading :)

So um. Finally got to 200… listened to it on the way home last night… I have many thoughts but

… this is what happened right JSJJFJFJS

It's Her.