WEBCOMICRY

1.)  Commaful – a friendly and supportive writing community, smaller but denser than Wattpad, and far more active and engaging.

2.)  FictionPress – original fiction’s answer to FanFiction.net.  If you’re familiar with that format, you’ll be familiar with this.  

3.)  Smashwords – an ebook publishing platform that also welcomes short stories, and collections thereof.

4.)  WritersCafe – old-school but solid, with an active community and plenty of contests/challenges to get the creative juices pumping.

5.)  Medium – a place where you can post, essentially, anything and everything.  Articles and non-fiction are its biggest market, but fiction is welcome as well.

6.)  Booksie – less community-based, with fewer interactions and comments.  However, it still attracts great talent, and can be great for authors who are shy and don’t want to get bombarded with interaction.

7.)  RoyalRoad – a rich community, with a strong emphasis on mutual support between authors.  Focuses on web novels, fanfiction, and original stories.

8.)  FanStory – an oldie but a goody.  Don’t be fooled by the name – it seems to be predominantly original fiction, and offers contests with cash prizes. 

9.)  Young Writers Society – as the name suggests, oriented towards writers in their teens and twenties, but is by no means exclusive to authors of this age bracket. 

10.)  Wattpad – Wattpad provides users with the opportunity to post original fiction and gain a loyal following.  It’s not for everyone, but some people swear by it.  

On that note, you can also post original fiction to AO3 and FanFiction, but as they are predominantly for fan works, I decided not to include them on this list.  What’s your favorite way to post original fiction?

I use a normal 0.5 mechanical pencil for the lines. Right now I’m using Pilot super grip 0.5 but it’s just beacuse that’s what I happened to find in my local art store, I’m not picky at all with pencils.

For the color I use Cotman Water Colours Sketchers’ Pocket Box It’s a small set of watercolors from winsor & newton. It’s has a limited aray of colors but it has most of the ones you need, they are really pigmented and they last forever (I’ve only ever had to buy one set)

and the brush I use Caran d'Ache Water Brush (the medium sized one) you can fill that sucker up with water so it convenientas fuck and I also like the size of it! (thats the only brush I ever use.)

I use a Moleskine Art Plus Sketchbook To draw in. It’s small so you can bring it anywhere and the paper takes both ink and watercolor really, really well (not sure about markers though, haven’t tried). It’s a bit pricey for the size and page count but it’s definitelyworth it!

Lastly I fuck up alot while drawing traditionally, so I pretty much abuse the Uni Ball Signo Broad (white) to cover up all the times I paint outside the lines or over the whites of the eyes and so on. My art would look way shitter without it.

hoomans

https://x6ud.github.io/pose-search/

Something I made while dealing with my own stuff and hoping drawing this would pick me up somehow. Maybe it worked.

Everyone says NEVER TRACE!! THAT'S ART THEFT! Ok but we can do a little crime in the name of Learning.

Trace to learn, not to earn.

I like to take my own photos, but you can study whatever you want. Link back to original photos, and don't post copied artwork unless the artist is dead, cool with it, or both.

As always with learning, start every sketch with the intent to throw it away (trash for paper, quitting without saving for digital) This takes the pressure off and lets you make Bad Art, which is very important.

So let's make Bad Art of a Deer because I happen to have one handy

Start with a photo of your subject in a nice/neutral pose with all four feet visible. (so not like me)

Freehand copy it. Try not to stylize, focusing instead of matching proportions and pose. Don't get too detailed!

It's ok if your art looks terrible and has broken legs. I've drawn LOTS of deer so I have a leg up. Everyone's art sucks in their own eyes and here's where mine went wrong:

Either lasso-distort (recommended for beginners) or redraw a copy of your first sketch with your reference behind it (scaled to match the main body of your sketch)

Put the original and modified sketches together and compare the differences. Write it down if you want. This shows you where your eyes saw things the wrong size, so you can correct for that next time.

After learning about both deer and yourself, try freehand copying again.

Marvel at your newfound knowledge and skill!

but there's always room for improvement

You can stop here and move on to your real drawing, Or do another freehand-fix-compare cycle. I actually overcorrected my "draws heads too big" and veered into "heads too small."

Another note on tracing: Learning HOW to trace is more important than anything you could learn By tracing. Draw the Anatomy, not the outline. In real life, things don't have outlines, they have bones.

These are from the same shoot which is extra useful for consistency. The lines are minimal and follow where the animals joints are, and only important parts are drawn.

You won't know what Important Parts means right off the bat, which is where in-depth study comes in. You need to do learn the hard parts to do the easy parts right.

"Study the anatomy study the anatomy" but they never tell you HOW. It's not "read a book," It's more like flailing around wildly and crashing your browser from too many tabs.

This is going to be about How to Make a bones and muscle chart. Because even if your art sucks, you learn so much more by doing than by seeing.

References I gathered: X X X X X X X X

Get Set up. Get a photo, like above, but it doesn't have to be the same photo. And now... gather reference.

We'll start with bones. Search up "[animal] skeleton" and get photos or super scientific illustration. Add in things like "top view" to spice it up.

Next, search "[animal] skeleton sketchfab." This pulls up 3D models that you can rotate in your browser. Remember that these are art and the anatomy is only as good as the artist, so pick a good one.

Time for bone!

The spine is the most important, and in a lot of animals it will surprise you. Draw it in over your photo and then add spikes because skeletons are punk. These are not scientific and I didn't count them because their number doesn't matter to art. So you better be referencing from scientists and not me!

The rest of the bones and some notes. These are my notes to myself about things I want to remember. My personal discoveries in anatomy that made my art better. You can make the same notes but also make sure you have your own thoughts on there as well. that's how you help yourself the best. Be as detailed or vague as you want.

Same deal with muscle. Here are my personal notes to myself. Label stuff that is important to you. I actually grouped a bunch of muscles together based on what is visible from the outside. Muscles are way more complicated than this, but Baby's First Anatomy Chart gets to be simple.

This is good enough for me because I have intimate knowledge of the other muscles working under and over these ones. Feel free to add as many or as few muscles as you like. You chart your own course.

This is very VERY much not an anatomical chart. I'm sure there's nerds out there pulling their hair out looking at this. But listen, it works for art!

And you know the wildest part about this?

I don't need to look at it to use it. The act of making your own anatomy chart puts that knowledge in your brain. Like how you can make "cheat sheets" even for tests that don't allow them - the act of making the sheet helps you remember what you struggle with most.

And after all that complexity? Your simplification will be based on Real Knowledge and you'll put those random circles in the right spots.

Look at all this hard work you've done. Eventually this will be second nature to you.

I put together some photo packs and uploaded them to my gumroad. You can use them and this guide to study! So far there's only a Doe and a Fawn pack, but if I get sales I will put in the effort to do more for deer, horses, cats, birds, and anything else I can point my camera at.

Doe Pack

Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth (Andrew Loomis, 1943)

Drawing Nature (Stanley Maltzman, 1995)

The Animator’s Survival Kit (Richard Williams, 2001)

Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers (Marcos Mateu-Mestre, 2010)

Imma make ya a lil tutorial ;)

Picking colours has a lot to do with ~Colour Relativity~ also known as Value.

It doesn’t matter what colours you end up picking, you’ll need to start with this kind of balance. Use the KISS method; Keep It Super Simple. Too many colours can make your image muddy and/or confusing. 

How to pick an awesome palette? Take a look at this cool shit.

Colour families can give your image a sense of unity. They’re also really handy for setting different moods. Warm colours are usually associated with high energy, big feelings like happiness and love! Cool colours are more subdued and carry heavier, slower connotations like sadness. Or just a KICK ASS AESTHETIC pic.

Bold colours are very fun to use but too many of them can hurt.

TL;DR:

Have dark, light, and midtones in your palette

Pick a colour & use colours similar to it

hoomans

Game Cartoon Characters Modeling Profession Hand-Painted Techniques Antique Style Article English translation

so i wanted to throw in some suggestions that, whenever I’m trying to find a character reference or otherwise draw very interesting-looking yet regular-looking people, which i usually have to do for bit characters in @ikroah​ or something, I tend to look for references in the following places. these are far from the only reliable way to get inspiration, this is just a non-exhaustive list of places i’ve looked before for visual inspiration when needing to create a character, whether starring characters or background ones:

pre-2000s television (The Sopranos and Twin Peaks especially having incredible character design)

extras in comedy sketch shows

esports players

real photos (not staged stock photos) of line cooks

70s baseball players

athletes from more obscure olympic sports like the javelin toss or greco-roman wrestling, especially if you’re looking for a specific body type

ska, jazz, and blues musicians

firefighters

improv troupes

for teenagers, searching “high school english class project” on youtube and sorting by Upload Date

state senators, small-town mayors, and generally obscure local government positions like comptroller or treasurer (yes i know politicians can be bad sometimes but smaller elections especially don’t really depend on looks)

people who walk by your window (if you live in a city like I do)