Fourdragonstrash >>> FOURDRAGONBROTHERS

Being older now and having an art job it’s…kind of essential. 

So: a quick primer for those of you who are like ‘ok but how do i actually go about doing this warmup thing.’ 

1) you may be tempted to do ‘a warmup drawing’ which is just a drawing that will take longer than it needed to and probably be frustrating and kind of bad because you didn’t warm up first. It’s tempting but always a trick your brain is playing on you! Do not trust! 

2) warmups will vary based on what feels good to you/what task you’re about to do/what motor skills you want to practice. That being said, some good standbys:

a) circles. Just a whole page of circles on whatever drawing surface you’re going to be using, whether that’s your tablet or your sketchbook or a drawing pad on an easel. For these circles you should make sure that you’re drawing from your shoulder and not your wrist. In fact, you want to be drawing from your shoulder rather than your wrist most of the time! forever! your wrist is delicate please preserve it! 

In order to ensure that you’re drawing from your shoulder, when you’re holding your pencil or whatever drawing tool you’re using, the only part of your hand that should be touching the drawing surface is part of the last two fingers–some people prefer the finger tips, but I tend to favor the first knuckles. Either way, the fingers should really be ghosting over the surface, providing guidance rather than support. 

I usually start with big circles and then go to smaller circles and lines of ellipses, and then try to fit circles and ellipses inside other shapes i’ve already drawn as a precision exercise, but i don’t do that unless i’m feeling loose

b) spirals! i don’t always do spirals, but if i’m stiff and the circles just aren’t cutting it, spirals are a good fall back. I start from the center and work outward, going both clockwise and counterclockwise until i feel comfortable with the whole range of motion. Some people really care about getting perfect spirals but for me it’s all about making sure i’m comfortable with how i’m moving so who really even cares about how the spirals look. Not me! 

c) lines! straight lines! in parallel! i do a mix of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. These are often more from the elbow than the shoulder, especially if I’m working on a smaller surface. For this exercise, I recommend holding the drawing tool perpendicular with the surface

d) connect the dots. This is a precision and accuracy exercise and takes two forms. The first is to draw two dots and then draw a straight line between them. The second is to draw three dots and draw the curve that connects them. This sounds a lot simpler than it is in practice. Take time to ghost over the line you plan to draw before actually committing to your line. (I don’t always remember where I picked up my warm up exercises, but I’m pretty sure I got this one from Scott Robertson. His how to draw and how to render books are very technical but also accessible and worth checking out)

e) cubes, spheres, cones, and cylinders. These help get your brain into a more volumetric space. I draw multiples of each, rotating the forms around, and I’ll often take the time to do some rough shading on at least a few of them

f) spidermans! This one is really good if you’re going to be storyboarding or working on dynamic poses. Just fill a page full of spidermans doing all sorts of acrobatics. 

g) beans. I don’t do beans too much anymore, but I know a lot of people like it so I’m mentioning it here. Fill an area with different size bean shapes without lifting your pencil off the paper. 

h) short medium and long line repetition. draw a short, medium, and long line on your page, and then draw directly on top of them 8 to 12 times, doing your best to exactly trace what you’ve already drawing. Repeat with a wavy line. I’m bad at this one, which means I probably need to do it more. 

And there are lots more options too! Hit up youtube to see what other people recommend, put together your own go-to list, mix it up when you’re getting bored, etc. 

This is a long list, I know, but I usually don’t take more than 10 to 15 minutes to warm up, and I can warm up one handed while I’m drinking coffee, so, multitasking hurrah. 

Sometimes I’ll advance to a precision warmup and find that I haven’t loosened up enough yet; it’s totally ok to go back to an earlier exercise! Also, all of this has the added benefit of kind of ritualistically getting you into the drawing mode so even if I’m not feeling it before I start, by the time I’ve gotten to the end I’m usually Ready For Drawin’. Brain hacks. 

https://youtu.be/NBE-RTFkXDk

For context, we were fighting this evil man (M), who wanted the forestation of the whole world. We'd all die if he succeeded. My crush, (C), who promised to live with us after this fight was over, physically stopped him, but there's a limit to how much she can do by herself, which is why, she asked me to shoot him while she holds him down. That normally wouldn't be a problem if shooting him didn't also mean killing her in the process. The only weapon that could kill the guy was too destructive so I couldn't aim at him only and spare her.

Of course, I refused, but she kept insisting. My friends were upset and crying too, the only one who stayed calm was an old man (E) who happened to be a villain too, although he temporarily teamed with us to defeat that guy.

He talked me into going for it, telling me that I shouldn't let her sacrifice go to waste. I was in tears the whole time but I only decided to do it because if I shoot, this will allow my brother (S) to get close to him enough. This will give him the chance to save C and bring her back to us.

I look up to my brother a lot. He's my role model and everything that I want to be. He's a hero, he's never failed to save anyone. He'd saved me countless times, he never gives. You couldn't imagine the length he'd go to in order to save his friends and me too, even though we're not related by blood. That's why I shot. Because I knew he'd do everything to save her- and would succeed too. He's never failed me before.

I waited patiently for his return, meanwhile, I just sat in the corner crying, and I saw C come in, she was transparent looking all ghosty. She cupped my face and got closer, I though she was going to kiss me but she immediately disappeared. It made me sad, but I knew that was a sign she was alive. And that means, when my brother come, surely C would be with him.

But when he did, he was alone. I looked right and left behind him, but C was nowhere to be found. He also had a scary face that instinctively made me get a few steps back away from him. I though he was angry with me, understandably. I just shot a friend. I was about to explain when he just silently held my hand and placed a seed in it that I recognized it belonged to C then he said that was all what was left.

He stood there silently while I processed what had just happened. My hero, couldn't save a person I cared for much. She wasn't just a crush, she was a dear friend and I would react the same even I didn't fall for her. She makes My day. I had managed to protect her all this time from M, until I killed her myself.

Tears were streaming down my cheeks. I yelled at my brother. Told him that he was lying, C was alive and I had just seen her. I told him that I believed in him but he has failed me. I beat his chest several times to emphasize on the fact that I had put my trust in him.

My brother didn't respond. He just stood there in silence. He closed his eyes and didn't even try to look at me. As if he wasn't feeling bad already because a friend had just died, but I think me blaming him added insult to injury.

We get along just fine nowadays although we have never discussed this, it's an unspoken rule that it's taboo and we don't bring C up anymore but I wonder, AITA? He should have saved her.

I'm endlessly curious abt this bc i see people arguing abt this a lot but maybe this poll can see more results!

Level 2: character gets a redemption arc and the text just straight up refuses to specify what they actually did, but trust us, it was really bad. (AKA Schrödinger's war crime)

Level 3: character gets a redemption arc for something the writers clearly think is really bad, but it's... kind of not? (Bonus points if it's a weird gender role thing.)

I cannot stress this enough. That shit helps A LOT when it comes down to Paypal refunds/disputes. There’s a description box that let’s you put in what the product is/how long it’ll take/yadda yadda, and then there’s another little memo box that only you and paypal can see where you can say it’s a digital commission and doesn’t require shipping (So Donald Mcfuck can’t say that they never got their commission). And there’s also a box for your Terms & Conditions where you can say, if you have any conflicts/want a refund - email me, or you can actually tell the user that this is a digital commission and they won’t be getting a hard copy of it.

However! Totally manageable. Just go to your PayPal, scroll down to find Seller Preferences

>> Shipping Preferences

>> Display Ship Button. Make sure all the boxes are unchecked. Then you’re all set!

2. Don’t treat PayPal like a bank- use it as intended, to move money. Too many artists let their PayPal balance sit and then get locked out of it. Get that money in your bank!

3. If at all possible, do not immediately spend that money in the bank- hang on to it and budget for delays.