rufftoon:

e1n:

storyshots:

Drawing from films

Drawing from films is a ridiculously useful exercise. It’s not enough to watch films; it’s not enough to look at someone else’s drawings from films. If you want to be in story, there’s no excuse for not doing this.

The way this works: you draw tons of tiny little panels, tiny enough that you won’t be tempted to fuss about drawing details. You put on a movie - I recommend Raiders, E.T., or Jaws… but honestly if there’s some other movie you love enough to freeze frame the shit out of, do what works for you. It’s good to do this with a movie you already know by heart.

Hit play. Every time there’s a cut, you hit pause, draw the frame, and hit play til it cuts again. If there’s a pan or camera move, draw the first and last frames.

Note on movies: Spielberg is great for this because he’s both evocative and efficient. Michael Bay is good at what he does, but part of what he does is cut so often that you will be sorry you picked his movie to draw from. Haneke is magnificent at what he does, but cuts so little that you will wind up with three drawings of a chair. Peter Jackson… he’s great, but not efficient. If you love a Spielberg movie enough to spend a month with it, do yourself a favor and use Spielberg.

What to look for:

• Foreground, middle ground, background: where is the character? What is the point of the shot? What is it showing? What’s being used as a framing device? How does that help tie this shot into the geography of the scene? Is the background flat, or a location that lends itself to depth?
• Composition: How is the frame divided? What takes up most of the space? How are the angles and lines in the shot leading your eye?
• Reusing setups, economy: Does the film keep coming back to the same shot? The way liveaction works, that means they set up the camera and filmed one long take from that angle. Sometimes this includes a camera move, recomposing one long take into what look like separate shots. If you pay attention, you can catch them.
• Camera position, angle, height: Is the camera fixed at shoulder height? Eye height? Sitting on the floor? Angled up? Down? Is it shooting straight on towards a wall, or at an angle? Does it favor the floor or the ceiling?
• Lenses: wide-angle lens or long lens? Basic rule of thumb: If the character is large in frame and you can still see plenty of their surroundings, the lens is wide and the character is very close to camera. If the character’s surroundings seem to dwarf them, the lens is long (zoomed in).
• Lighting: Notice it, but don’t draw it. What in the scene is lit? How is this directing your eye? How many lights? Do they make sense in the scene, or do they just FEEL right?

This seems like a lot to keep in mind, and honestly, don’t worry about any of that. Draw 100 thumbnails at a time, pat yourself on the back, and you will start to notice these things as you go.

Don’t worry about the drawings, either. You can see from my drawings that these aren’t for show. They’re notes to yourself. They’re strictly for learning. 

Now get out there and do a set! Tweet me at @lawnrocket and I’ll give you extra backpats for actually following through on it. Just be aware - your friends will look at you super weird when you start going off about how that one shot in Raiders was a pickup - it HAD to be - because it doesn’t make sense except for to string these other two shots together…

Since I’ve had people asking me about storyboarding and how to learn it or what exercises to do. Emma Coats tells you all you need to know in this post.

Reblogging because it IS a very useful exercise! You can even do it as a warm up drawing exercise before you start the day. It will get your brain (and hand) in the right mindset.

(via mariamartian)

sixmilliondeadinternets:

A.K.A. “Pato is autistic and shows off his massive collection of saved links”

Have a seat, get a cup of coffee and sit through this. Hopefully you won’t regret it. This is mostly about illustration, by the way.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED BULLSHIT

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• “WHICH TABLET SHOULD I BUY?”

Get the cheapest shit available. If you’re in America/Europe a Wacom Bamboowhatever apparently does the trick. If you’re anywhere else get the cheaper-end Genius ones because Wacom tablets are expensive in every place that’s not the first world. Getting a $600 tablet will not make you magically improve and it’s a goddamn waste of money. Too poor for tablets? Start with a damn pencil.

• “POORFAG HERE, CAN’T AFFORD PHOTOSHOP/SAI, WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO?”

This is the Internet, pirate the shit out of them! Here’s a list of freeware programs you could use, because pirating is bad, mkay.

For general illustration:

• GIMP - Non-shitty, open-source Photoshop Clone.
• Paint.NET - If you are somehow too dumb for Photoshop clones here’s something easy to use.
• Flowpaint - Even simpler.
• Inkscape - Apparently good for things like vector art.
• Artweaver - Get the free version which kind of sucks but otherwise decent.
• Chibipaint - Sounds weeaboo as fuck The best thing out there for oekaki, or so they say.
• Will add more as I find them.

For 3D modelling and such:

• Sculptris - 3D sculpting for dummies

More links coming SOON! (Soon: Duke Nukem Forever).

• “I’M TOO MUCH OF A FAILURE I WILL NEVER IMPROVE”

Spoilers: Improvement will take a long time, specially more if you’re self-taught. Improvement requires dedication and consistenct in your learning. Don’t expect to get great if you’ve just started, and don’t expect greatness in the first year or so either. Save the shit you draw so in the future you can notice that progress has indeed been made.

If you still think you’ll never improve just look at this and realize how wrong you are. Now, if you think you’ll instantly be as cool as that guy, look at this and realize that you still have a long way to go.

• “I HAVE ARTIST’S BLOCK WHAT DO”

Artist’s Block is a very complicated thing but the underlying reason is either lack of creativity, acedia or just a towering pile of bullshit. The best way to treat it is to take up theoretical drawing (anatomy studies, for example) and treat it as a chore. If you need ideas look for the Ideas Generators section below.

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NOW, ONTO THE ACTUAL LIST THING.

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All links taken without permission but I’m sure nobody minds a bit of publicity.

BOOKS

• /ic/’s Recopilation - A 4.2GB books torrent. FUCKING GET IT. (The torrent description also has a list for more books, check those out too)
• Another comprehensive torrent - This one is over 5GB. It’s literally considered the Holy Grail and you should also get this if you can.
• Conceptart’s Recopilation - More art books.
• Why can’t I, hold all these books? - ~75 more books yo.
• LOOMIS LOOMIS LOOMIS LOOMIS
• The New Drawing on The Right Side of the Brain - A must have in artsyfartsyfaggy circles. It’s also in the torrents.
• Burne Hogarth’s Dynamic Anatomy - Pretty sure it’s in the torrents but I know somebody will ask for it separately.
• Eliot Goldfinger’s Human Anatomy For Artists - Another well-known book about anatomy.
• MORE BOOKS JESUS CHRIST WHERE ARE THEY COMING FROM 
• OKAY THESE ARE THE LAST BOOKS I’LL LINK I SWEAR

This is actually more than enough to get you started when it comes to getting books. Saying that the amount of books here is FUCKING MASSIVE would be an understatement.

A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO GESTURE DRAWING

• The Drawing Script - Selects from a database random images of animals, people, scenery, faces, etc.
• Figure & Gesture Drawing Tool - Read above.
• Posemaniacs - Poses IN ASTONISHING 3D MOFOS. Apparently criticized for not showing correct muscle movement, but otherwise okay for static stuff.
• Keep this in mind while gesture drawing.

Simple practice method for the aimless artfag: Open any of the first two links, and choose a distinct category (For example, faces). Tell it to switch every 10 minutes if possible; else, get a timer. Fire it up and start drawing what you see. The idea is that you should stop after 10 minutes and move onto the next one, no matter how incomplete it is. Repeat until your art gets showcased in the Louvre.

COLOR THEORY AND MISCELLANEOUS COLORING FOR THE MASSES

• Mandatory Conceptart.com link about Color Theory - These guys are so awesome I can’t even begin to explain.
• The Dimensions of Colour - Light, shade, and COLORS explained in a non-horrible yet convoluted way.
• Light and Color by Itchy Animation - Perhaps not as convoluted as the one above. Still decent.
• How I see color - Not mine, obviously. A quite lengthy dA tutorial in Flash.
• Example dA way on coloring - Needs some knowledge about Photoshop.
• Coloring Tutorial@dA - Read above, this one is much more comprehensive and pretty.
• Color is Value - Handy as a tips reference, not much else really.
• Celshading for weeaboos by weeaboos - COMIC SAAAAAAAANS
• And yet another Coloring Tutorial! 
• Color Scheme picker - If you’re too dumb to pick colors this does the job.

ANATOMY AND GENERAL HUMAN BODY STUFF

• Drawing the Head - Ron Lemen at (obviously!) Conceptart.com.
• HANDS HANDS HANDS at Posemaniac - FUCKING HANDS HOW DO THEY WORK
• Dragon Paint Art Tutorials: Human Body - A quick, yet extremely incomplete nosedive into drawing the body.
• The Big Guide into Drawing the Body - A technical kick in the balls, yet comprehensive enough.
• Basic pose and construction in Figure Drawing - Conceptualizes the shape of the body from stickfigures to 3D shapes and then holy dongs it’s a human body.
• Kitten-chan’s Body Tutorial - Don’t let the name fool you.
• Understanding Anatomy - The “Anatomy for Dummies” of deviantArt. Must see.
• I’ve got to Hand it to you - Great hand tutorial based on the concept of drawing organic figures out of 3D shapes.
• Muscles!
• How do I drawed hair lol - Hardly complete or good, but decent as a quick guide.

PERSPECTIVE

• Why can’t I hold all these Conceptart.com threads - Great to test waters in the wonders of perspective.
• Perspective and Composition - dA tutorials, dA tutorials errywhere.
• Perspective by Sashas - THE TUTORIALS WILL NEVER STOP THE TUTORIALS WILL NEVER STOP

GENERAL REFERENCES

• /hr/@4chan - High resolution images. We’re all grownups here, so you shouldn’t worry about tits.
  
• Photo Reference for Comic Artists - Self-explanatory.
• Senshistock@dA - A deviantArt account just for the sake of uploading references for the glorious proletariat.
• Tasastock@dA - Pretty much the same as above.
• Metlys@dA - Ditto.
• Tursiart@dA - Ditto, more oriented at medieval stuff.
• /ic/’s reference collection - Recopilaception.
• Artsyposes - POSES POSES POSES
• Lackadaisy’s Expressions - Cats or no cats, this is extremely handy.
• Lockstock@dA - Nude references and shit.
• Nude pics errwhere

LOOSE BUNCH OF VARIOUS CRAP

• /ic/ Thread 1 - Collection of tutorial images.
• /ic/ Thread 2 - Humongous thread with a crapload of links. A must-see.
• Manga to Realistic (dA) - A Twelve-Part walkthrough that dips your toes into realistic illustrations aimed at people with a weeaboo background.

GENERAL ART WEBSITES AND TUTORIALS

• /ic/’s Resource Site - To be honest most of the stuff in here was taken from this place, but there’s also a pile full of more useful things there so check it out too.
• Iconnucrit’s Resources - Down at the time of this writing, but decent from what I remember.
• How to Draw 123 - Too much information doesn’t hurt I guess.
• Oh Conceptart you card - So many tutorials!
• Improvement Center @ dA - Gallery of things that will help you… well, improve.
• Tutorial House @ dA - Read above.
• Stanislav Prokopenko’s Tutorials - Guy’s an instructor or something. 

ILLUSTRATION TECHNIQUES

• The Penciling Tutorial - A quite famous tutorial on “how do I penciled lol”
• Lineart by Sashas - This guy is bloody famous or something.
• How to Speedpaint - I don’t quite agree with this but it seems to work for others.

TEXTURES, BRUSHES AND ALL THAT JAZZ

• CG Textures - Massive collection of free textures. Also tutorials.

IDEA GENERATORS

• /r/sketchdaily@Reddit - A new idea to draw everyday.
• Just go here and pick one of the links.

ART COMMUNITIES

• Conceptart.com - These guys are fucking sweet.
• DeviantArt - Well, think about it. It is an art community after all.

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If you want me to add something, please notify me through my /ask. Be sure to check back often as I’ll be adding more things.

(Source: sixmilliondeadinternets, via femmeboyant)

by Gregory Manchess

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(Source: mordecailearnstofly, via i-am-a-panda)