scintillating

Another tutorial I‘ve made, about digital brushwork this time!

You can find more tutorials for a few bucks on my Ko-Fi Shop if you've found this helpful and would like to support me in making more resources like this🙏 ☀️🍃

I was asked by a friend yesterday if I could offer basic tips about comic paneling. As it turns out, I have a lot to say on the matter! I tried breaking down the art of paneling using the principles of art and design, and I hope it helps you out!

EDIT: uh uh there are a lot of people reblogging this, so i figure i may as well append this now while i can lol

This whole thing was very much cranked out in a few hours so I had a visual to talk about with a friend! If this gives you a base understanding of paneling, that's awesome! Continue to pull in studies from the comics you see and what other artists do well and don't do well! You can tell paneling is doing well when the action is flowing around in its intended reading format.

Here's the link to the globalcomix article from which I pulled the images about panel staggering! Someone sent in a reblog that it wasn't totally clear that the 7th slide mostly covers what NOT to do in regards to staggering, and that is my mistake!

I saw in a tag that someone was surprised I used MamaYuyu too, and I don't blame them lol. If I had given myself more than a couple hours maybe I would have added something else on, I just really admire MamaYuyu's paneling personally.

I think I've talked about it before but I'm happy to talk about it again! For learning, personally studying from other artists was the most helpful when learning colour theory and trying to get better with colour palettes/lighting! I also like doing studies based on photos, I have a pinterest board dedicated to photos with fun lighting for inspiration

The way I colour specifically is pretty loose and painterly, I did a lot of painting before I got into digital art so I use similar methods to how I worked as a traditional artist!

I made a little timelapse to show how I work, I start with filling everything in with one colour and work in sections to fill out and render skin, hair, clothes, etc! Then I set the sketch layer as a multiply layer, colour the lineart and add any final details.

The brush I use does a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to colour choice, I mainly use the tiger brush pack brushes from the csp asset store, they're soft and have a lot of hue variation which helps me add colours to my work I might've not thought to add otherwise!

Other little colouring notes:

I try to avoid purely white eyes! Nobody has entirely white sclera and I've found it can look scary in art especially if the rest is fairly well rendered lol

For shadows and highlights, I don't just change the value but also the hue! How I change it depends on the piece but because I like colouring warmer toned stuff, generally I go for warmer shadows. Lots of reds and oranges!

I also really like adding reflective light! Super easy way to do it is to take your drawing, draw some blue (or whatever colour you want) in it, colour pick from that, and then add it where it feels right! Maybe doesn't always make sense but I think it looks good and I like doing it lol

I'm in charge here!

"Drawn to Hidden Light". Read what this painting means below.

This work is about an unseen direction that leads you forward, even when it is not yet defined.

About moving toward something that doesn't fully reveal itself, but already shapes the way.

About light that doesn't appear directly, but exists as a presence, a quiet force that shifts the sense of movement without becoming obvious.

And about that state where you don't see the final point, but you keep moving, because something inside already knows the direction

Oil on canvas, 28x16"

75 free to use hand refs for you! Use them however you want.

Firstly, though only tangentially relevant, their textbook definitions refer to specific things: antique is used to describe the age of furniture and domestic items, while vintage specifically refers to the age of wine.

But for those of you shopping for old books, home decor, clothes, toys, etc., here are some glossary terms so you know whether a seller is informed, clueless, or just plain old lying.

Antique

At least one hundred years old, or close enough. The copy of Anne of Green Gables pictured above was published in 1935, making it nine years shy of being a "true" antique but to the savvy collector it still passes.

Vintage

At least twenty years old, and rarely any younger than that—if it wasn't at least twenty years ago, the nostalgia for it likely hasn't kicked in and it's probably still in circulation. The sewing magazines pictured above range from the 1960s to 1970s.

Vintage "Style"

A brand new item that either reproduces or mimicks an old-fashioned appearance. This is a fair business practice as long as the seller is open about the fact that their product is brand new. Two of the tins pictured above are recent* reproductions of discontinued product containers. The one is the center is a legitimate antique.

Antiqued (verb)

Similar to "vintage style" but with more effort in that an item has been made to look very old, rugged, and weathered, often including faked patina or purposely faded coloring. The above photo is of a 1970s decorative wall spoon that was painted to look a hundred years older—antique styles were a huge influence in the '70s.

Retro

Not a reliable indicator of age, but of current nostalgia. If you see this on a product it is likely referring to something unique to its time period, especially short-lived things like toys, jewelry, clothes, and graphic design styles. The fast food toys pictured above are from the late '90s to early '00s.

Other Labels

"Victorian" frequently, and inaccurately, used to label anything pre‐1920s and post-Medieval, rendering it absolutely meaningless in most cases.

"Y2K" gets tagged on anything from 1990–2009. This is inaccurate as y2K is literally in the name, "year 2000." Should only refer to the futuristic pop styles unique to 1999–2002.

"MCM" and "mid century" have also lost meaning. Both are derived from a specific late 1940s–1960s furniture and interior design style known as mid century modern, but are frequently misused to describe any item or style ranging from the 1930s–1980s.

"Art deco/nouveau" these are just style names, not indicators of age. Both styles have also had multiple comebacks, so be aware of that if you are looking for genuine antiques.

"Is any of this writing related?" Sure, if you want it to be. I just wanted to talk about words and history, and hopefully help some folk not get ripped off online. Also, don't blindly trust sellers just because you trust the site. Even sites with good reputations can't weed out every phony.

Entire post dedicated to the lady selling Smurf toys from 1980 as "antiques."

Thanks for reading!

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