A place to learn how to draw

I am painting an American Cockroach, but I'm having such a hard time getting a good look at their mouths :/

Even SEM pics are a little hard to decipher.

what are the most important bits of the cockroach mouth?

Thank you! 🪳❤

On top is the labrum, which is like the top of a beak. (Ignore the face plate (clypeus) above it, it's not important.)

On the bottom is the labium, which is the bottom of the mouth.

To the sides are the maxillae, which are kind of like cheeks, if your cheeks could open like a sideways beak. (Singular is maxilla.)

Finally, there are the mandibles, which are like big incisors that flip out when it's time to eat or bite something. Most of the time, they're tucked away under the labrum and the maxillae.

(Bonus: The hypopharynx inside the labium is basically a tongue! It even has a salivary gland at the base.)

In addition to the antennae, roaches have four palps, which are like little antennae on the mouth for tasting food. There's one on each maxilla, and two on the labium--maxillary and labial palps, respectively.

Now, here's a render I did of Sophodra's mouthparts flared open (mantises are even closer relatives of roaches than grasshoppers are):

You can see that the labium is split into two halves, called the prementa. Additionally, each prementum has two little fingers at the end, the glossa (inner) and paraglossa (outer), for four little fingers in total.

The maxillae also have their own fingers at the ends, called the galea (on top) and the lacinia (bottom). Overall, these eight fingers act like lips, letting the insect manipulate food better.

Sadly, I don't have many good gifs of roach mouthparts working, so here's a look at them in motion on a mantis (the mandibles have black tips, the insides of the maxillae are red):

A better look at the mandibles:

A better look at the maxillae:

And now for the best gifs of roach mouthparts I have!

Looks more like a guide rather than a tutorial, but I hope it’s still helpful

I knew it looked familiar, lol.

"Practical poses of the hands with side by side translations"

Presented by Moa

Revising some of my horse drawing tips pages, starting with necks!

Overview of some topics when it comes to drawing characters who are burn survivors.

DISCLAIMER. Please keep in mind that this is an introductory overview for drawing some burn scars and has a lot of generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. I'm calling this introductory because I hope to get people to actually do their own research before drawing disabled & visibly different characters rather than just making stuff up. Think of it as a starting point and take it with a grain of salt (especially if you have a very different art style from mine).

Talking about research and learning... don't make your burn survivor characters evil. Burn survivors are normal people and don't deserve to be constantly portrayed in such a way.

tutorial for drawing characters with Down syndrome!

DISCLAIMER... please keep in mind that this is an introductory drawing tutorial and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. it's more of an overview of features that are common in people with Down syndrome, not meaning to imply that every person with DS has all of them 👍👍 thanks

So you might be saying: Lion why a guide on drawing black people? Well young blood it’s because a lot of people cant…seem…to draw…black people..Amazing I know. 

Racist (caricatures) portrayals of black people have been around forever, and to this day people can’t seem to draw black people like they are human. If your artwork resembles any of the above even remotely your artwork is racist and offensive. If you try to excuse that as a stylistic choice you’re not only a terrible artist, but racist too!!! Congrats.

Whitewashing is also a problem. A lot of people refuse to draw black features on canonly black characters. While this example isn’t colored, lightening the skin-tone of a character is also considered whitewashing. So lets start with features!

Now all black people have different noses thats a no-brainer, but black noses tend to have flatter bridges, and wider nostrils. Please stay from triangular anime noses and small button noses. Your drawings should not depict black people with abnormally large noses. (Especially if you do not draw other characters this way)

If you feel like the way you draw lips on black characters is offensive or resembles a caricature,it probably does and you should change it. ABSOLUTELY AVOID PLACING LIPS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FACE. 

Hair is so diverse! Please get used to drawing braids, locs,kinks and coils! If you can learn to draw ringlets and long waves you can learn how to draw black hairstyles.

Add clips! Learn how to draw baby-hairs and never be afraid to add color Pinterest and Google are free my dudes! Also try using square brushes for blocking in coils.

OK THAT’S ALL YOU GUYS

While it’s good to avoid racial caricatures, there’s no one sort of face for a black person. While it’s good for people who only draw typical European features to move away from that, it’s a good idea for people to be aware of all the different people who would be considered black Africans:

Such as Ethiopians

Who look different to Ghanaians and Nigerians

And north Africans such as Tunisians

Who look different to those from the Congo

you get 3d model pose references with the option of having a male or female anatomy for each pose

they have a WIDE VARIETY of poses that you can search for using a TAG SYSTEM

(as you can see by the scroll bar in the second image there is Even More Tags)

you can select a pose you like for larger viewing and the convenience doesn’t stop!!!

you have full 360 viewing range of the pose plus zooming in and out

and what’s that? a TOOLBAR?? MENU?? THING??

Correct!

the eye button hold a very fun menu

negative space blacks out the background and fills the pose with a solid white silhouette

the “texture” refers to the skin situation of the model with the “color” and “grey” shown below

(i usually use color personally)

then there’s the option of different sized drawing grids(4 and 16 below)

idk wtf bounding box is about but it looks like this if it matters to you

“floor” toggles all shadows on the floor, “floor grid” you guessed it puts a like perspective guide grid on the floor that goes to forever, and “shadow” toggles ALL shading. there is NO lighting happening if you turn that off. NONE.

NEXT ITEM! that box thing with the line through it? flips the pose horizontally.

the little person symbol? lets you switch anatomies

camera icon? you can choose from a selection of preset camera angles PLUS an option for … idk what to call it but you can do this!

less flat right!! i’m sure there’s a word i just don’t know but this is maximum *that* so there is less *that* if you want it

the lightbulb gives you a menu like the camera one but it offers a selection of lighting styles with variable intensity

CHARMING!

and that’s not even everything this site provides!!!!!!! they have tutorials, instructional videos, lessons, all sorts of shit!!! (although they are vast majority if not all in japanese just a heads up)

AND ITS ALL FREE

DONT EVEN NEED TO SET UP AN ACCOUNT OR APPROVE OF COOKIES JUST GET IN DO YOUR THING GET OUT NO STRINGS ATTACHED

and if you don’t have ad blocker or are on mobile(like me) NOT TO WORRY

the ads are few and far between! ZERO video ads, NONE take over your screen or glitch you at all, they are of no concern i forget they’re there!

Note: Sleeves or a head appearing is okay IN CERTAIN SITUATIONS. Like working in a garden and rolling up your sleeves OR going to the hair salon OR checking up in a hospital. In other Mazhab or fiqh, it's much more lenient and it's okay to show ankles or neck. (depends on country or Mazhab)

Note: Camel Hump hijab in certain tafsir could mean a haughty attitude rather than the camel hump shaped hijab, but there are also others that take it literally too, so it depends on the person.

Excellent tutorial to drawing cubby body types

“Some chubby guide for y’all!”

(source)

Unsplash -  photography, illustration, & art

Pixabay - same as unsplash

Pexels - stock photos and videos

Getty Images - photography & illustration

Veceezy - vectors and clipart

Gumroad - photoshop brushes (and more)

StockSnap.io - stock photos

Canva - needs login but has lots of templates

Library of Congress - historical posters and photos

NASA - you guessed it

Creative Commons - all kinds of stuff, homie

Even Adobe has some free images

There are so many ways to make moodboards, bookcovers, and icons without plagiarizing! As artists, authors, and other creatives, we need to be especially careful not to use someone else’s work and pass it off as our own.