binderclipping - references!
references!

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Some Resources

Some resources

Please keep in mind I’m not an expert, I don’t draw/paint professionally, there are way too many things I don’t know about, so I can only tell you what I do, what I use etc. 

One of the first things I did, and something that actually made me want to get better at drawing, was subscribing to Stan Prokopenko’s channel. He’s absolutely hilarious and he illustrates in a simple way Andrew Loomis’ techniques, general anatomy, gesture drawing etc (I’ve already written about this but seriously, he’s the best).

Since you have to train your eye as well as your hand, gather and produce as many references and resources as possible. What you should avoid doing is using them mindlessly. Force yourself to break down the world in simple shapes, and always ask yourself why a certain thing looks that particular way (“the elbow looks like that because they’re bending their arm, otherwise it would look like that”, or “there’s a whole set of muscles that protrudes when they lift their arm” etc).

Anyway the topic is huge, I’m definitely forgetting tons of stuff, but I hope this will be helpful in some way. Here’s the links! And if I can be useful in any other way, my askbox is always open. 

Stan Propokenko’s channel x

Andrew Loomis’ books x x

Useful ways of using references x x x x

3D models x

FunkyMonkey1945 notes x

Griz and Norm’s Tuesday tips  x

Anatoref x 

Some of my favourite tutorials:

Full body breakdown x

Body types x

Gesture drawing x

Head and neck x 

Arms and hands x x x x x

Torso and legs x x x

Legs and feet x x 

Backgrounds and perspective x x

and lastly

Character Design References (aka neatly organized tutorials for literally ANYTHING) x

Note: these boards can be a bit overwhelming, so you’ll want to dip into them once you know exactly what you’re looking for. Otherwise you’ll just end up scrolling through them aimlessly. 

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More Posts from Binderclipping

9 years ago

Another album of prompts : 

You swore you’d never tell, you swore you’d never tell.

No one kills us anymore.

But you get scared when we’re alone, like I might suck your blood.

Here’s my dress to try on, baby, let me be your man.

Cross your heart and hope to die / White or black, it’s still a lie

Love me sweetly and completely / Come and sit beside me, ‘cause you know I need you near.

All that I want is for you to come to ruin.

Soon you’ll find that if you try to save her / It will renews her anger - you will never win.

You were walking faster than I could run / I was walking in the shade, and you, the sun.

Well, it’s a mystery to me how you keep on slippin’ in my mind / And it’s downright dirty that this ol’ wound won’t heal with time.

Well, maybe I am not what you thought / But don’t worry, you are not what I thought you were either.

I take home pretty things that I like, and, baby, you are so fine.

You are absurd / You say the cutest things I’ve ever heard / I don’t think I can take another word / Or my head might explode


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9 years ago

Tutorial: How (and Why!) to Sew a French Seam for Garb

I’m working on the eternally-promised French seam tunic tutorial. After literally YEARS of me tinkering with it, it’s almost ready, and I’m excited to help you finally sew your badass, bombproof tunics. Right as I was proofreading it, though, my husband turned to me and said, “wait, you did explain how to SEW a French seam, right?” Well… uh…

Yeah, let’s do that now.

What are French seams, anyway?

French seams are one kind of “seam finish.” Seam finishes are just sewing techniques we use to prevent your fabric’s edges from unraveling. A cut edge might fray or unravel in the wash, sometimes eating into the stitches at the seam and weakening the seam. That is bad news, so we always want to prevent it!

Some seam finishes also reinforce your seams, because they involve stitching the seam multiple times. This makes garments made with these finishes really sturdy. 

With a French seam, each seam is finished as you go. The “raw” (cut) edge of the fabric gets hidden inside a fold, which is stitched again to enclose it permanently. This makes the seams look very clean and professional, even on the inside of the garment. French seams take more time and human handling to sew than a basic serged/overlocked seam finish, so they often show up on more expensive garments. You could, theoretically, sew a shoddy garment with French seams, but when this seam finish is used, you know that the manufacturer was at least trying to make something high-quality.

But Ilsa, someone told me flat-felled seams are strongest!

Fair enough! They have a point: French seams are traditionally used on light, fray-prone fabrics, like with delicate silk tops. In comparison, flat-felled (sometimes “run and fell”) seams are the seams you see on the legs of jeans, stitched down with that contrasting yellow thread. They’re great for garments that get beat up, because they’re really strong.

But machine-sewn flat-felled seams are a bad choice for medieval costuming, because they put a lot more visible machine stitching on the outside of your garment. If you’re in a living history group with strict standards, or if you’re selling medieval garb for the reenactment market, you should minimize visible machine stitching. French seams are a great compromise: they reinforce the seam, but they’re only visible from the inside. 

Sew a French seam right, and the fabric will wear out before the seam rips. In eight years of using them, I’ve never torn a French seam open.

Let’s Sew Our First French Seam!

There are three basic steps to French seams. If you normally sew with a 5/8″ seam allowance, you shouldn’t have to alter your pattern to use French seams. The first “pass” is sewn using a 3/8″ seam allowance, which is trimmed down to 1/8.” This is folded over, then second pass is sewn with a 1/4″ (2/8″) allowance. This adds up to 5/8.”

Alternately, you may sew many of the “first passes” with a serger or overlocker, which will trim your seam allowance for you as you go. I use this method exclusively these days. Using the serger means you won’t be able to get into some corners, but it will speed up assembly. (Sergers stitch faster than most home sewing machines, and they will trim your seam allowances for you, which will save you a lengthy and laborious step.) If you’re looking for your first serger, I highly recommend the Brother 1034D. It’s incredibly sturdy for an affordable machine. 

Now, before we start sewing, a tip: don’t skimp on the ironing. If you don’t iron as you go, your French seams will be much harder to sew, and they’ll look worse when you’re done.

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Step #1 is to sew the first pass from the “right” side, trim, and press. You’ll first sew the seam with wrong sides together (ie, right side out) with 3/8” seam allowance. (This will feel weird, because the seam will be on the “outside” of the tunic, but this seam will get folded away and hidden during the next step.) 

If you can’t consistently sew a 3/8” seam, try placing a line of masking tape on your machine 3/8″ away from your needle, or get a magnetic seam guide to help you stay on target.

Trim this seam down to 1/8″, making sure to cut away any stray ‘whiskers’ of thread. Pinking shears are really useful, here, because they will keep this edge from unraveling before you get to the next step. I use these Fiskars pinking shears. You can often get them a little cheaper if you can buy them on sale at JoAnn Fabrics when you have a “20% off your total purchase” coupon to stack on top of the sale discount.

You don’t need to press the seam allowance open– it’s tiny, now, so that would be madness– but you should iron the “good” side of the seam. This makes folding in the next step easier.

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Step #2 is to fold over the first seam and press. From the wrong side, you’ll fold the seam over so the fold is encasing the first seam. Press this with your iron to make it lie flat. If you’re sewing with linen, you’ll want to use a high heat and a lot of steam. 

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Step #3 is to sew the second pass from the “wrong” side, press, and inspect. With right sides together (ie, still from the strong side), sew seam at at 1/4”, or maybe a hair more. This is probably about the width of your presser foot, so you can use that as a guide. You really don’t need to pin this seam before you sew it. I just iron it after folding it in step #2, and sew following my presser foot.

Press the finished seam open from the “right” side. It should look just like a normal seam from the outside. If you can see any whiskers or bits of raw edge poking out of the seam, trim the whisker and go back to the start of step #3 and sew with a slightly wider seam allowance to enclose that bit. From wrong side, press the finished seam to one side. Since the seam finishes on French seams can be a little stiff, try to make sure you always press your French seams so they’re “pointing” in the same direction– the “open” side should point the same way at the top and at the bottom of the seam.  And yay, you’re finished! Now you know how to sew a basic French seam. The tricky part is figuring out which order to sew things in when you’re building an entire garment out of French seams. But that, as they say, is a different story– and a different tutorial, coming soon. :)


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9 years ago

“Her face was like the night sky…you could almost trace out the constellations with her star-like freckles…”

12 minutes HD version

Instagram | deviantArt | FaceBook | Youtube 

Tools: Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook | Amazon.ca  Winsor & Newton Designer Gouache | Amazon.ca Holbein Acryla Gouache | Amazon.ca Toothbrush to flick on white paint with. I buy my brushes at local art stores. 

Music: Joe Hisaishi - Fragile Dream


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9 years ago

HELLO FELLOW SHORT COSPLAYER!!! Would it be too much trouble to ask what shoe lifts you use and/or expand on your hidden heel process? Thank you!

This is stuff I’ve posted to my FACEBOOK PAGE before, but I’ll share it on here for you!

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1. Use polyfill fiber to fill in the giant gap for heels, and hand sew on a bias-stripe of fabric to your boot cover so you can hide just how much extra height you’re packing.

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2. Buy shoe lifts! (Can be called ‘heightening inserts’ or ‘shoe lifts’ or ‘shoe inserts’) You can get them from Ebay for $10-$20. I LOVE THESE THINGS. I started using them in 2009 and they work wonders. Especially if you want the slimming and heightening effect of heels but you don’t want footwear with a spike or platform heel (i.e. for female->male cosplay). 

9 years ago

Get to know my character

Reblog this so your followers can spam your ask box. Have fun! ♥

01. What does your character’s name mean? Did you pick it for the symbolism, or did you just like the way it sounded? 02. What is one of your character’s biggest insecurities? Are they able to hide it easily or can others easily exploit this weakness? 03. What would be their favorite physical trait about themselves? 04. What are their favorite traits about their lover? (one psychological and one physical) 05. Are they sexually confident or more of the shy type? 06. Do they have any hobbies that their lover finds unusual, odd, or otherwise annoying? 07. Is there a catchphrase or sound that they tend to make a lot (likely without being aware of it)? 08. What is, perhaps, their biggest flaw? Are they aware of this or oblivious to it? 09. Do they have a favorite season? What about a favorite holiday? 10. Is your character more feminine or masculine? 11. What is something that would make your character fly into a rage? 12. Is there some particular talent, skill, or attribute that they simply could not give up? 13. What are your character’s sleeping habits? Heavy or light sleeper? Blanket stealer? One that always rolls onto the floor? Pushes their lover onto the floor? Sleep talker or walker? 14. Do they live alone or with family? How do they feel about their family/roommates? 15. Is there a certain person in this world that they cannot stand? The very mention of this person’s name makes them tremble with anger or fear. 16. Is your character the athletic type or more of a couch potato? What are some sports/games that they like? 17. Does your character have dreams of getting married and/or having children? 18. What kind of home would they want to live in? Where would they place this abode? 19. Would your character be the kind to get into fights? (physical or verbal) Would they be a good fighter or cave in rather easily? 20. Does your character like animals? What are some of their favorite animals? Would they want pets? What about mythological creatures? 21. What is one of your character’s biggest fears? How would they react when dealing with this fear? 22. What kind of tattoos, piercings, birthmarks, freckles, and other such unique physical features do they have? 23. What is your character like when it comes to school? What subjects are they good/bad at? Do they get in trouble a lot or are well behaved? 24. In their own words, how would your character describe what their lover is like? 25. Is there something traumatic from your character’s past that greatly affects them even to this day? 26. What is their lover like sexually? How do they feel about their lover’s quirks, needs, etc? 27. If your character was going to get arrested, what would be the most likely reason for it? 28. If your character became a celebrity, what would they be famous for? 29. What is one of the most courageous things your character has ever done for a loved one? 30. When it comes to the arts (music, film, theater, etc), what does your character like? 31. Would your character be the kind capable of killing? Would they enjoy killing or only use it when necessary or, perhaps, refuse to kill no matter what? 32. If your character’s lover offered to take them out on a dream date, what would they want to do? 33. If your character wanted to be alone, where would they go? 34. Does your character have favorite foods? (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snacks, etc) 35. Is your character afraid of death? If they got to choose how to die, how would they want to go? 36. Does your character have any medical conditions? Are they serious or minor? Do they affect their day to day life? 37. What are some of your character’s pet peeves? What are some things that annoy them or disgust them? 38. What kind of weather does your character like? Cloudy skies, rainy days, sunshine, etc? 39. When people look at your character, is there some assumption they might make about them just by appearance? Is that assumption correct? 40. Does your OC have any guilty pleasures they enjoy? Hobbies, past times, music, etc that they wouldn’t want known by others? 41. Does your character’s family affect your character in any way? 42. Is there anything in your character’s past that they regret, haunts them, or they wish they could change? 43. Does your character have a switch that changes aspects of their personality whether they are around friends, family, etc. Is there someone who gets to see their true self? 44. Is there a particular event that would emotionally devastate your character? 45. Is your character the kind to hide their true emotions or do they wear their heart on their sleeve?

46. What is some random affectionate thing that your character always does to their lover? 47. Is your character outgoing? Would they be the leader of the friend group, or the quiet one that gets dragged along? 48. Is there anything in particular that would ignite your character’s jealousy? Or does your character not get envious? 49. What is something that your character has nightmares about? Are these frequent? Do they heavily affect your character’s mood? 50. If your character confessed love to their crush, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc, what would they say?