Mel Draws

We live in a pretty great digital age and we have access to a ton of amazing tools that artists in past generations couldn’t even dream of, but a lot of people look at a cool trick and only learn half of the process of using it.

Here’s the missing part of this tutorial:

How do you populate your backgrounds?

Well, here’s the answer:

If the focus is the environment, you must show a person in relation to that environment.

The examples above are great because they show how to use the software itself, but each one just kind of “plops” the character in front of their finished product with no regard of the person’s relation to their environment.

How do you fix this?

Well, here’s the simplest solution:

This is a popular trick used by professional storyboard and comic artists alike when they’re quickly planning compositions. It’s simple and it requires you to do some planning before you sit down to crank out that polished, final version of your work, but it will be the difference between a background and an environment.

From Blacksad (artist: Juanjo Guarnido)

From Hellboy (Mike Mignola)

Even if your draftsmanship isn’t that great (like mine), people can be more immersed in the story you tell if you just make it feel like there is a world that exists completely separate from the one in which they currently reside – not just making a backdrop the characters stand in front of.

I’m a 3d artist and have been exploring the possibilities of using 3d as reference for 2d poses. I want to add a couple of tips and things!

Sketchup is very useful for environment references, and I assume it’s reasonably easy to learn. If you’re interested in going above and beyond, I highly recommend learning a proper 3d modeling program to help with art, especially because you can very easily populate a scene or location with characters!

Using 3ds Max I can pretty quickly construct an environment for reference. But going beyond that, I can also pose a pretty simple ‘CAT’ armature (known in 3d as a rig) straight into the scene, which can be totally customized, from various limbs, tails, wings, whatever, to proportions, and also can be modeled onto and expanded upon (for an example, you could 3d sculpt a head reference for your character and then attach it to the CAT rig, so you have a reference for complex face angles!)

The armature can also be posed incredibly easily. I know programs exist for stuff like this - Manga Studio, Design Doll - but posing characters in these programs is always an exercise in frustration and very fiddly imo. A simple 3d rig is impossibly easy to pose.

By creating an environment and dropping my character rig into it, I have an excellent point of reference when it comes to drawing the scene!

Not only that, but I can also view the scene from whatever angle I could ever want or need, including the character and their pose/position relative to the environment.

We can even quickly and easily expand this scene to include more characters!

Last time I posted a masterpost it was about free images for commercial use. This time I’m going to list you a bunch of fonts that are 100% free - you can use for your personal projects, and for the commercial ones too! 

Da última vez que eu fiz um masterpot foi sobre imagens gratuitas para uso comercial. Desta vez farei uma lista com um monte de fontes (e, consequentemente, sites) que são 100% gratuitas, ou seja, você pode usar tanto para seus projetos pessoais quanto para os comerciais. Se você não sabe a diferença entre esses dois tipos, eu falei um pouco sobre isso aqui.

Eu fiz uma pesquisa bem grande de fontes que vocês possam usar em edições, banners, headers, etc e também para aqueles que fazem trabalhos gráficos profissionais, como cartão de visita, logotipo, flyer/folder, entre outros. Espero que gostem da seleção! ♥

SANS SERIF

Liquide - Amicale - Arciform - High Voltage - Little Creator - Day Drunk - Gadaj - Zaio - Familiar Pro - Orkney - Fester - Muro - Long Shot - Giorgio - Liquido - Peace Sans - Quango - Qontra - Brig - Amada - Gogoia - Kirvy - Arkhip - Maxwell - Bernier - Simplifica - Sequel - Galano Grotesque Fenton - Attentica - Shirota - Myra - Dewi - Bomb - Roboto - Aaargh - AUdimat - Capsuula - Caviar Dreams - Chivo - Courier Prime Code - Disco - Magna - Nexa - Ostrich - Sinkin - Phenomena - Blogger Sans 

SERIF

Choplin - Venice - Little Cutie - Little Wizzy - Nerea - Fonesia - Bariol Serif - Soria - Libre Baskerville - Foglihten - Chispa - Annabel - Jibril - Furgatorio - Ikra - Arctic - Euphorigenic - Old Style - Bodoni - Covington - Yeseva One - Allejo - Questa - ChunkFive - Elsie - Devroye - Garibaldi - Kameron - Kawoszeh - Luxi - Noto - Otama E.P. - Quattrocento Roman - Volkornn - Abril Fatface - Andada - Geotica 2012 - Arvo - Ansley - Moalang - Musket 

HANDWRITTEN / CURSIVE

Great Vibes - Angeline Vintage - Olesia - Boldy - Sandhya - Saldina - Cavorting - Fait Main - Neaments - Luna - Ruffle Beauty - Pacifico - Grand Hotel - Adefebia - Arkana - Bellico - Rissa - Andrea - Gardenia - Selima - Playlist - Airpena - Modesty - Chocolate Heart - Octomorf - Bemount - Solmet - Abys - Lumberman - Handletter - Cecilia - Bringshoot - Master of Break - Champignon - Exmouth - Nickainley - Alpha Mack - Goudy Bookletter - Kaushan - Yellowtale - WC Mano Negra - Balquis - Ludicrous - Hamster - Ambarella - Westchester - Bellaboo -  Nexa Script - Summer

OTHERS

Lumberjack - Fofer - Black Riders - Tragic Marker - Reckless - Carosello - Haze - Duwhoers - Neptern Harbour - Something Wild - Sweet Sorrow - Brizzush - Slabbo - Shumi - Marske - Measure - Slash - Sitka - Morracle - Badhead - Devious - Star - Belladona - Hamurz - Young Heart - Guerrillha - Metal Blackletter - Moabhoers - Nexa Rust - Monoxyl - TeX Gyre Cursor - Charming - Coder’s Crux 

woopwoop. emoji meme

LOOSE INKERS 3 Brushes for Manga Studio 5 + Clip Studio Paint

A new mini pack of digital inking tools is up on my download page!

These inkers are designed to be fluid and flexible. They each have a sensitive pressure curve to go from super thin to thick in the same stroke. The brushes are also tilt-enabled, if your tablet supports it, allowing for even thinner weights when your pen is angled.

Each brush has a different edge, giving an analog and slightly textured character to your inking:

The Loose Inker set is Pay-What-You-Want. Students rejoice! A suggested $1-2 contribution helps support the creation of future brush packs. Thanks!

Download at Gumroad.com/ArminNelsyn