It do be like that sometimes

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

ogh idk how to explain it anon I've just simply been practicing it a lot until I got stuff I liked looking at ;u; but I'll try to explain if I can:

my professor back in uni always told me that when it comes to making quick concept illustrations to show to a client or audience you want to be able to make something that looks cohesive enough from 5ft away!

so I've always been trying to make it so that whenever I draw smth the level and scaling of details remain consistent.

Detail, as I look at it, come in a spectrum- for pieces where I emphasize details on certain areas while leaving the rest as gradients as you've mentioned I tend to do it in a way where both the less AND the more detailed parts fall within a certain threshold: again, I want them to look cohesive from a distance while still emphasizing what I want viewers to look at!

What I've noticed with my work is that, barring certain pieces where I did do this kind of stuff on purpose (I love doing designs where it's like! Solid black with gold filigree! The contrast is delicious to me), typically the farther the types of details are from each other on the spectrum the more likely one of them is to look unfinished especially when sitting next to each other.

Even then, when doing solid colors like black, you can still notice whether or not I've decided to make an effort in emphasizing or finishing the silhouette, and can change the feel of the piece depending on how I approach it!

OGH THIS IS GONNA BE A BIT HARD TO EXPLAIN BECAUSE it's a lot of accumulated studies but I'll try ;u;

FIRST OFF: I feel like I have to say that these are all just shortcuts- I've learned just enough about gold to be able to convey the illusion of gold on what I draw, in the fastest way I could do it, for quickly putting the ideas in my head on paper, but this is by no means a comprehensive guide!

If you really want to study the physics of it all, the way it would work with different materials and styles, then I highly suggest doing a lot of self-studies!

Even when painting smth new- if it's really something I want to work hard on, I tend to have gold references open on the side so I can look at them and figure out how they work!

Ok, so moving on:

OH I'm glad you see them that way! It took a lot of trial-and-error, but I take much and more of my inspiration from Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt and elements of Baroque Architecture. (just the mainstream stuff though, I'm not gonna pretend to be an expert lol)

Long post ahead!

1) The Little Mermaid pencil test by Glen Keane   via diehard-disney

2) Tangled pencil test by Glen Keane   via diehard-disney

3) Aladdin pencil test   via diehard-disney

4) Sleeping Beauty pencil test by Marc Davis   via diehard-disney

5) 101 Dalmatians pencil test   via diehard-disney

6) Xeroxes of Frank Thomas pencil animation for Pinocchio

(Via: Michael Sporn & The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation)  via the-disney-elite

7) Peter Pan pencil test by Milt Kahl   via diehard-disney

8) The Jungle Book pencil test   via diehard-disney

9) The Rescuers pencil test by Ollie Johnston   via diehard-disney