This board has a shitload of talent. If I have one piece of friendly advice, as someone who is not an artist but is a fanatic art consumer, it would be to play around with looser and more gestural drawing styles more. A lot of the art I see on here is a little stiff. Even when the anatomy and perspective and rendering are good, I'm often left wanting more motion and dynamism--more storytelling in the lines, more exuberance and freedom. Anyway, that's just my two cents. Keep up the good work.
thanks teach'
>>7709334My drawings are quite wooden-- especially finished drawings. I tend to lose the bits of thumbnails that spark.>more storytelling in the linesThis has a nice ring to it but I'm not really clear on what it means.>more storytelling in the lines
>>7709360Characters in the act of doing something.
Post art you consume
>>7709372I did in the OP.
>>7709334Rendering is for fags(but thats how you get the big bucks so Im the real fag in the end)
>>7709334Here is a small sketch for a larger piece, does it have motion
>>7710666About as stiff as the Nazi logo I think
>>7710687Man how do I get motion then
>>7710648Who did this?
>>7710690Incorporate curves and push the figure more. Like for comparison sake when I look at your art I think of the Onic Adventure pose but stiff as shit. I k ow you dontvwanna go that extreme but push it more towards that, even a little curvature would be nice
>>7710700Just me,Anon
>>7710704Mobile posting to confirm
>>7710707VERY NICE, I like it a lot! Good to see someone have some soul in their art and not be anime style.
>>7710703Is this better or just as stiff
sketching
>>7710666If you tilted him just like ten degrees clockwise, I think it would have a lot more. I would try to avoid vertical and horizontal lines when possible (dead lines, comic artists call them). Motion is all about diagonals and curves.
>>7710729Also maybe foreshorten him so it looks like he's leaping *into* the camera more. Another thing about motion: if you want extra dynamism, see if you can bend as many joints as possible. Todd McFarlane is very good at this, whatever you might think of his art as a whole.
>>7710648Fantastic stuff. In terms of expressions, I really like where you're going with them. I suggest pushing them *much* further; you can always dial them back. Character artists tend to underestimate how much audiences like extreme emoting.
>>7710707>>7710648Blog? PLEASE
>>7709334>>7710648Is there a way to render without going full academic? It seems most of the resources out there are for realism (heavy chiaroscuro, cast shadows, etc). I just want to create something like pic related though
>>7710988Then figure it out?I know that sounds dismissive, but you really can't expect there to be a guide on everything, you have to figure it out yourself.
>>7710988You’re looking at a late-Pre-Raphaelite / Arts-and-Crafts way of painting (think Burne-Jones): linear, decorative, and “enameled.” It’s not academic chiaroscuro; it’s drawn first, then gently modeled, then unified with thin color. Here’s how that look is built.# What’s going on in the image* **Line before light.** Clean, rhythmic contours do most of the work; interior modeling is restrained.* **Compressed values.** Few deep shadows or blinding highlights. Faces and fabric live in a narrow mid-tone range, giving a calm, stained-glass feel.* **Local color + glazes.** Flat local colors are laid in, then shifted with transparent layers (greens over blues, warms over skin) for that luminous, glassy surface.* **Decorative drapery.** Folds are *designed*—S-curves and repeated “families” of pleats—more calligraphy than physics.* **Hierarchical detail.** Faces/hands are smooth and finished; backgrounds are patterned and botanical but slightly flatter.* **Edge discipline.** Silhouettes are firm; inside the forms, edges melt. Very few crispy, specular accents.# A practical recipe (digital or traditional)## If you’re painting digitally (e.g., Clip Studio)1. **Tight drawing on a vector layer.** Commit to elegant, flowing outlines. Keep line weight varied but not scratchy.2. **Flat local colors (“dead-coloring”).** One layer per element (skin, dress, foliage). Keep values mid and close together.3. **Gentle form modeling.** On a clipped layer above each flat, use a soft round or smooth bristle with \~20–40% opacity. Think *milky porcelain*—no hard core shadows.4. **Glaze for hue unity.** Add **Multiply** or **Soft Light** layers: a cool green over blues, a warm peach over skin, a desaturated umber wash to sit everything in the same air.5. **Selective accents.** Tiny, matte highlights (not white sparks) on cheek planes, knuckles, lips. Use them sparingly so the surface stays satin, not glossy.
>>77112456. **Design the folds.** Block the big zig-zags, then echo them with smaller folds. Let folds *follow the gesture*, not random cloth noise.7. **Patterned nature.** Paint plants as repeating motifs with slight variation—botanical but graphic. Keep their values just lighter/darker than the dresses for separation.8. **Unifying veil.** One last very thin color layer (Soft Light at 5–10%) to key the whole piece warm or cool.Brush tips: smooth, low-texture brushes; low flow; minimal smudge. Avoid heavy photo-texture and hard airbrush lights.## If you’re painting traditionally (oil/tempera workflow)1. **Gessoed panel + precise drawing.**2. **Ink or thin umber line.**3. **Dead-coloring:** opaque but thin flats near mid-value.4. **Scumble & glaze:** build form with semi-opaque scumbles (lead/titanium white + a touch of local color), then transparent glazes (e.g., viridian, alizarin, ultramarine) to shift hue without breaking the enamel surface.5. **Matte finish:** keep mediums lean; aim for satin, not high gloss.# How to practice the look (short drills)* **Value strip portraits:** Paint a head with only three values (shadow, halftone, light). Add a fourth value only at the end.* **Fold families:** Fill a page with S-, zig-, and spiral folds, repeating rhythms until they feel calligraphic.* **Glaze studies:** Take a flatly painted swatch and change its hue/value only with transparent layers—learn how far you can push without chalkiness.* **Silhouette test:** Zoom out to thumbnail—do figures read by outline alone? If yes, you can keep interior modeling minimal.# Common pitfalls* Too much contrast (kills the enamel calm).* Photoreal specular highlights (break the period feel).* Over-textured brushes/cloth noise.* Unplanned folds that fight the gesture.* Background rendered with the same depth as faces (flattens the hierarchy).
