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. 

So hey guess what, you can just glue zippers into the seams of your foam pieces, it’s amazing.  Full tutorial here

Snarl by sandara

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.

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.

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. 

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. :)

AU prompts: masterlist of lists

Okay so if you’re anything like me you see those lists of au ideas floating around and you like them but when it comes time to write something and you need an idea you have no idea what you tagged them as or if they’re buried somewhere in your likes so….have a list of some of the ones I’ve come across! This is updated with new lists and fixed links fairly frequently so check back here if you’d like more! 

 (updated on december 29th, 2015)

themed:

super long list of college aus

more college aus

super super long list divided into different themes

even more college aus

autumn aus

it’s really cold outside aus

meet-ugly

art school aus

femslash aus

they know each other but don’t know that they know each other aus

awkward first meeting aus

MORE college aus

airport related aus

fake married/dating trope

really long, sectioned au list (some random some themed)

pub aus

royal aus

assassin aus

opposites attract

roommate aus

party meet-funny aus

rivalry to romance aus

really competitive otp aus

“we’re bad at dating” aus

hot mess aus

hot mess aus pt 2

hot mess aus pt 3

hot mess aus pt 4

art major aus

business aus

some more college aus

reincarnation aus

height difference aus

neighbor aus

theater aus

commuter aus

science aus

ridiculous sentence prompts

high school aus

single parent aus

established relationship aus

fantasy aus

apartment aus

mythological creatures au

reverse fairy tales

angsty otp aus

ot3 prompts

pretend to be NOT dating/married aus

hogwarts aus

“oh god i’m so sorry” aus

bookstore aus

disability aus

halloween aus

soulmate aus

weather/seasonal aus

road trip aus

bed sharing aus

sick!fic aus

not-so-fluffy roadtrip aus

aus for when your otp are both assholes

friendship to romance

more ot3 prompts

“things are going terribly” christmas aus

hidden relationship aus

arranged marriage au starter sentences

music major aus

shippy roommate aus

language aus

christmas aus

lots more under the cut, the post was getting unwieldy

Keep reading

some process. my first sketches are the best!