art squad

it allows you to resize artwork without it becoming pixellated. this is a MASSIVE help if you, for example, make lineart too small or something. it works best with things that 1. have no textures 2. have smooth lines 3. have cel shading, but it still works really damn well for things that don’t fit that profile

here’s an example:

normal size

2x in paint

2x in waifu2x

Photoshop scaled:

Waifu2x scaled:

Move the skills section up to the top!  You know what I give a fuck about the most when I’m reading a resume (at least for entry-level positions)?  WHAT YOU CAN DO.  I frankly don’t give a shit where you learned it.  Tell me what you’re capable of in concrete terms, organized in a bullet-points list or table that I can quickly scan to see if you even stand a chance of matching what we need, because that is all I’m doing in those critical first couple of seconds that decides whether I even bother looking at the rest of the resume.  (Which I get sounds kinda callous but when I have to get through a couple dozen resumes, meaning download, open, read, decide what to do, forward it to the appropriate person if it makes the cut with my comments/summary/recommendations, file it appropriately and go on to the next one, and get back to my other duties and responsibilities - which I don’t have enough hours in the day for as it is - I can’t afford to depth-read every single resume that hits my inbox.)

Include volunteer experience as work experience if you have any.  Running the concession stand at a high school club event of some kind counts as cash handling and customer service experience.  Making blog themes for your friends counts as web design experience.  Just because you weren’t getting paid doesn’t mean it wasn’t work experience you can potentially leverage to get actual paying work.

Rework that top statement - in its current form it’s looking like some odd hybrid of an executive summary (good!) and an objective statement (bad!), and I’m not sure how I feel about it tbh.  I think it’s the “leveraging…to positively contribute” bit that is pushing all my “ugh no fucking shit sherlock” buttons.  Like…what were you going to say, that you want to skate along doing the bare minimum amount of work and you don’t give a shit about the organization’s goals?  I see way too many regurgitated statements like that - “positively contribute” and “maximize success” and “utilize my skills to further goals” etc. - and they just make my eyes roll out of my head at this point because they’re so generically corporate.  I’d rather see a declarative statement about what you are and what you can do, than what you want.

The Historic and Haunted Ghost Town of Bodie

The old mining town of Bodie, California is America’s best preserved ghost town. Dating back to 1859, Bodie is literally frozen in time and looked after as an historic park. The town is both authentic and mysterious, with original fixtures, furniture, and personal items in the buildings left untouched since their residents abandoned them.

Bodie abounds with legends of the paranormal, but none more famous than the haunted Cain residence. The man of the house had an affair with their maid. After being publicly disgraced, the unfortunate maid took her own life and reportedly haunts the house.

The Cain house is open to the public and has provided accommodation for park rangers. People have reported ghostly apparitions and strange music. Staying overnight in the house, park rangers and their wives have experienced paranormal events such as hearing strange noises, being paralyzed in bed, and seeing items move by themselves.

The most frightening legend of Bodie is a mysterious curse that follows many visitors after they leave the town. Allegedly, Bodie’s ghosts serve as guardians to the town’s property, casting bad luck and misfortune to souvenir hunters who take anything with them.

Some quick animation smear guides I put together for a friend! not sure if it works as a tutorial without my in person commentary, also more intended as a guide to show examples of basic/common smear types :O

Anatomy:

Arms

Breasts

Body Types

Feet

Female

Hands

Heads -Ears -Expressions -Eyes -Facial -Hair -Mouths and Lips -Noses -Tears

Humans

Legs

Male

Muscles

Pelvis

Proportions

Shoulders

Torso

Animals:

Anatomy

Antlers

Beaks

Behaviour

Ears

Facial

Feathers

Fur

Hooves

Horns

Insects

Legs

Paws

Talons

Teeth

Wings

Backgrounds:

Cityscape

Indoors

Organic

Perspective

Quick BGs

Simplistic

Brushes:

Photoshop

Paint tool SAI

Design:

Buildings

Character Design

Clothing

Environments

Folds

Heights

Maps

Names

Sketching

Skin Tones

Drawing and Colouring:

Canvas Size

Colour Palettes

Colour Theory

Comics

Composition

Lighting

Lineart

Painting

Quick Tricks

Shading

Traditional

Fantasy:

Armor

Archery

Horns

Mythical Animals

Mythology

Power Ups

Weapons

Wings

For the Artist:

Copyright

File Types

Exercises

Portfolio

Reminders

Tablets

Tips and Advice

Tools

Languages:

ASL

Ancient

French

German

Grammar

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Morse

Spanish

Misc:

Animation

Commissions

Cosplay

Crafts

Life

Master Lists

Psychological

Resources

School

Writing

Nature:

Blood

Clouds

Fire

Flowers

Grass

Landscapes

Lightning

Metal

Plants

Rocks

Space

Trees

Water

Wood

Poses:

Angles

Animals

Draw Your X

Humans

Movement

Multiple Persons

Programs:

Clip Studio Paint

Krita

Paint Tool SAI

Photoshop

Etc

World Building:

Buildings

Culture

History

Historical Clothing

Video

hey yall its me the Art Mom™ to help you shade pretty

rule 1: DO NOT SHADE WITH BLACK. EVER. IT NEVER LOOKS GOOD. 

red- shade with a slightly darker shade of purple

orange- slightly darker and more saturated shade of red

yellow- i think like..a peach could work but make it a really light peach

green- shade with darker and less saturated shade of blue or teal

blue- shade with purple

purple- a shade thats darker than the purple you’re using and maybe a little pink (MAYBE blue)

pink- darker shade of red

white- a really light lavender or blue..or i guess any really light colour??

black- okay listen dont use pure black to colour anything unless you want to leave it with flat colours because you cant really shade black lol

grey- a slightly darker shade of purple or blue (less saturated)

brown- slightly darker and less saturated shade of purple or red

I made some Balls of Colour to go with Art Mom™’s post:

Hey hey! We just drew a cute sketch of one of the alters in our system (Ava) and, since we’re really happy with it, we’ll share some proportion and facial construction tips that will hopefully help you with drawing too. 

Picture for example above, explanation/details are below each picture. 

The center of the eye almost always lines up with the corners of the lips (approximately–some people have slightly smaller or larger lips). If you’re confused about the size of the mouth, but the eyes look great, just draw a line down from the center of each eye and you’ll have the exact size of the mouth you need!

It’s approximately five eyes that go across the face (depending on your style, play with this a little). The head wraps in a circle, so if the end eyes go over that’s cool, especially when drawing the face at an angle or in a semi-realistic style like this. 

The key part is that one eye width is in between both eyes. This helps remain as a guide for typical eye-to-eye distance. Then, if you have a character who has wider or closer together eyes, you can change that consciously! 

Enticing eyelashes have movement! They essentially work like arrows from the center of the eye. Upper eyelashes curve in the opposite direction of the lower eyelashes (directions are on the left side of the above picture). 

Just make sure they curve, no one has straight eye lashes (unless you’re deliberately using that for stylistic effect)!

Hair has lots of movement too! Drawing arrows to start getting a sense of direction can be a great place to start. Start the arrow where the hair is attached to the head or pinned (like with a clip or hair tie) and then fan out from there. 

Draw hair in sections/chunks that vary in size. See how some are thin sections and others are thicker? Typically on the edges of hair it’s thiner (like by the face, edges of the hair/outline) and in the center of sections it’s thicker. 

As always, don’t be afraid to use references so you can see how hair falls on the shape of a human head!

A little neck trick: There is a V of muscles that connects near the collarbones and all the way up to under the ear. Make sure this V is something you draw (even if you erase it because your character has a thicker neck). The thinnest part of the neck cannot be thinner than this V.

Also, shoulder muscles start pretty soon after the neck, so see that thick red line on the side? That’s where the V and the shoulder muscles (the ones that get really sore on all of us) coming around the back connect. This gentle V will add a much more realistic look to the necks you draw and help the head look properly supported! 

Best wishes with your drawing!